Hazards of neoliberalism: delayed electric power restoration after Hurricane Ike

This case study explores how neoliberal policies shape the impacts of a natural disaster. We investigate the reactions to major damages to the electric power system and the restoration of power in the wake of Hurricane Ike, which devastated the Houston, Texas, metropolitan area in September 2008. We argue that the neoliberal policy agenda insured a minimalist approach to the crisis and generated dissatisfaction among many residents. The short-term profitability imperative shifted reconstruction costs to consumers, and prevented efforts to upgrade the electric power infrastructure to prepare for future disasters. We illustrate the serious obstacles for disaster mitigation and recovery posed by neoliberal policies that privatize public goods and socialize private costs. Neoliberalism neither addresses the needs of a highly stratified public nor their long-term interests and safety.     

Social organization, population, and land use

A new approach to investigation of human influences on the environment identifies social organization as an influence independent of population size, affluence, and technology. The framework also identifies population events, such as births, that influence the environment. The authors use longitudinal, multilevel, mixed-method measures of local land use changes, population dynamics, and social organization to test this framework. These tests reveal that changes in social organization are strongly associated with changes in land use independent of measures of population size, affluence, and technology. Also, local birth events shape local land use changes and key proximate determinants of land use change.     

Moving teenagers out of high-risk neighborhoods: how girls fare better than boys

Moving to Opportunity (MTO) offered public housing residents the opportunity to move to low-poverty neighborhoods. Several years later, boys in the experimental group fared no better on measures of risk behavior than their control group counterparts, whereas girls in the experimental group engaged in lower-risk behavior than control group girls. The authors explore these differences by analyzing data from in-depth interviews conducted with 86 teens in Baltimore and Chicago. They find that daily routines, fitting in with neighborhood norms, neighborhood navigation strategies, interactions with peers, friendship making, and distance from father figures may contribute to how girls who moved via MTO benefited more than boys.     

Fostering families' and children's rights to family connections

Recent federal legislation strengthens children's and families' rights to family-centered practice by increasing the responsibility of child welfare agencies to identify and engage extended family members in providing care and support to children placed out of the home. Preliminary results from an experimental study of a federally funded family finding project found greater involvement of family, kin, and informal supports and a higher likelihood of reunification or relative placement compared with standard child welfare services.     

Examining the relationship between psychotropic medication use and testing positive for Chlamydia and Gonorrhea among detained adolescents

Objective

We examined whether psychotropic medication (PTM) use was related to testing positive for Chlamydia and Gonorrhea among detained adolescents.

Methods

A convenience sample of 550 detained adolescents ages 14-18 years were recruited from eight youth detention centers in Georgia. Using A-CASI technology, data was collected on demographic factors, use of PTM, and sexual risk behaviors. Chlamydia and Gonorrhea diagnoses were assessed by laboratory testing.

Results

Thirteen percent (13.1%) of adolescents not using PTMs tested positive for STIs compared to only 4.9% of those reporting PTM use. PTM users had a 62% smaller odds ratio for testing positive for Chlamydia or Gonorrhea.

Conclusion

Findings suggest that use of psychotropic medication, if deemed useful by detained youth, may be a protective factor against engaging in behaviors which may culminate in contracting some STDs. The practice implications are discussed within the context of these findings.     

Maltreatment prevention through early childhood intervention: A confirmatory evaluation of the Chicago Child-Parent Center preschool program

Increased recognition of the consequences associated with child maltreatment has led to greater emphasis on its prevention. Promising maltreatment prevention strategies have been identified, but research continues to suffer from methodological limitations and a narrow focus on select prevention models. This investigation uses data from the Chicago Longitudinal Study to examine mediating mechanisms that link the Chicago Child-Parent Center preschool program to a reduction in overall child maltreatment and, more specifically, child neglect. We use structural equation modeling to test child, family, and school measures hypothesized to mediate the effects of CPC participation on maltreatment and neglect. Results indicate that a substantial proportion of the program's impacts can be accounted for by family support processes, including increased parent involvement in school and maternal educational attainment as well as decreased family problems. The CPC program's association with reduced school mobility and increased attendance in higher-quality schools also significantly mediated its effects on maltreatment and neglect. Further, a decrease in troublemaking behavior contributed modestly to mediating the program's association with maltreatment but not neglect. We discuss the implications of these results for the field of maltreatment prevention.     

Lighthouse Independent Living Program: Predictors of client outcomes at discharge

This study examined clinical risk factors and their association with client outcomes at discharge among 385 emancipating foster youth in Cincinnati, Ohio, who entered the Lighthouse Independent Living Program during the period 2001-2005. These youth averaged 18 years of age and remained in the program an average of 10 months. At the time of discharge at age 19, 58% of these young adults had completed high school, 32% were employed, and 38% were living independently; 11% had achieved all three aforementioned outcomes. An exploratory principal components factor analysis of nineteen dichotomous risk factor items assessed by clinical staff at the time of admission yielded four types of risk: mental health problems, delinquency issues, teen parenting, and cognitive impairment. Logistic regression analysis revealed a number of significant relationships between each of these four clinical risk factors and client outcomes after adjusting for demographic and program characteristics. Those with mental health problems were only half as likely as others to have attained all three outcomes. Parenting youth were only half as likely to have completed high school or to be employed as others. Those with delinquency issues were only one-fourth as likely than others to be independently housed at discharge. Finally, older youth and those remaining in the program longer showed more favorable outcomes than others. Implications for child welfare policy and practice pertaining to independent living are discussed.     

A preliminary evaluation: Demographic and clinical profiles and changes in functioning in children receiving psychosocial rehabilitation

The present study is the first to examine the demographic and clinical profiles at intake of children, ages 4 to 18 years, who received Child Psychosocial Rehabilitation (CSPR), a relatively new community-based treatment model for children with emotional disturbance. In addition, the relationship between the relative change in psychosocial, emotional, and behavioral functioning as measured by CAFAS (Hodges, 1989, 1994, 2000) and PECFAS (1994, 2000) scores and the children's age, gender, ethnicity, current living arrangement, internalizing and externalizing behaviors, and severity of impairment at intake were evaluated. Fifty-three children received CPSR for a minimum of six months from a for-profit outpatient child and adolescent mental health clinic located in southwestern Idaho. Significant improvement in the children's overall functioning was found after six months of treatment. Middle or high school age children demonstrated significantly more impairment at intake compared with their younger counterparts. No significant differences in overall functioning were revealed considering the characteristic of gender, living arrangement and clinical profiles at intake.     

"The necessity for better bodies to perpetuate our institutions, insure a higher development of the individual, and advance the conditions of the race." Physical culture and the formation of the self in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century USA

This article explores the significance of sports and physical exercise in the turn-of-the-century culture and society of the U.S. It depicts how physical fitness became a decisive feature of collective and individual self-perception and was understood as being at the core of a successful shaping of both the self and of the American body politic. I concentrate in particular on paradigms and strategies of human resources management to exemplify the overarching significance of physical fitness as it established itself at the heart of the USA's enterprise culture that began to emerge in the later nineteenth century. American peculiarities will be considered, alongside ties and allusions to European, and particularly British, developments.     

The Canadian Problem Gambling Index: An Evaluation of the Scale and Its Accompanying Profiler Software in a Clinical Setting

Across two studies we assessed the clinical utility of the Canadian Problem Gambling Index (CPGI). In Study 1, the scored items on the CPGI significantly correlated with those of the South Oaks Gambling Screen (SOGS), yet their shared variance was low. Importantly, clinician evaluation of the client’s level of pathology was more strongly associated with that revealed by the CPGI than the SOGS. In terms of utility, clinicians found the non-scored items on the CPGI more useful in treatment than those included with the SOGS. In Study 2, the effectiveness of the CPGI profiler (CPGI-P) software, which graphically depicts problematic gambling-relevant attitudes and behaviours, was assessed. Although clients had difficulties using the CPGI-P interface, they overwhelmingly indicated that the output prompted action to address their gambling. The clinicians were less enthusiastic as they felt the output did not help clients truly understand their gambling problems. Such sentiments were reiterated by the clinicians at a 6 months follow-up. The use of the SOGS and possible adoption of the CPGI (as well as the CPGI-P) in a clinical setting are discussed.