Sexual‐Minority and Heterosexual Youths' Peer Relationships: Experiences,Expectations, and Implications for Well‐Being

The current study compared the peer relationships and well‐being of 60 sexual‐minority (i.e., nonheterosexual) and 65 heterosexual youths between the ages of 15 and 23. Sexual‐minority youths had comparable self‐esteem, mastery, and perceived stress as did heterosexuals, but greater negative affect. Younger sexual‐minority male adolescents had smaller overall peer networks than did young male heterosexuals, whereas older male and female sexual minorities had larger numbers of extremely close friends within their networks than did heterosexuals. Younger sexual‐minority adolescents had lost or drifted away from more friends than did heterosexuals. Regardless of age, sexual‐minority youths reported disproportionately high worries about losing friends, low feelings of control in their romantic relationships, and fears of never finding the type of romantic relationship they wanted. Sexual‐minority youths that were “out” to more heterosexual peers had larger peer networks but more friendship loss and friendship worries. Youths' relationship experiences and concerns mediated sexual identity differences in negative affect.     

A multicollinearity diagnostic for models fit to censored data

A multicollinearity diagnostic is discussed for parametric models fit to censored data. The models considered include the Weibull, exponential and lognormal models as well as the Cox proportional hazards model. This diagnostic is an extension of the diagnostic proposed by Belsley, Kuh, and Welsch (1980). The diagnostic is based on the condition indicies and variance proportions of the variance covariance matrix. Its use and properties are studied through a series of examples. The effect of centering variables included in model is also discussed.     

Policy Analysis of Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act of 2008

Youth “age out” of the child welfare when they are no longer eligible for services due to their age. These youth often face hardships across multiple domains of their lives. Recent evidence shows youth remaining in care beyond age 18 fare better than those who exit care at age 18. With the passage of recent federal legislation, states have more opportunities for federal funding to extend services to youths “aging out.” This article explores the issue of youths aging out of the child welfare system and analyzes the Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act of 2008.     

Scheduling Problems in a Practical Allocation Model

A parallel computational model is defined which addresses I/O contention,latency, and pipe-lined message passing between tasks allocated to differentprocessors. The model can be used for parallel task-allocation on either anetwork of workstations or on a multi-stage inter-connected parallel machine.To study performance bounds more closely, basic properties are developed forwhen the precedence constraints form a directed tree. It is shown that theproblem of optimally scheduling a directed one-level precedence tree on anunlimited number of identical processors in this model is NP-hard. Theproblem of scheduling a directed two-level precedence tree is also shown tobe NP-hard even when the system latency is zero. An approximation algorithm is then presented for scheduling directedone-level task trees on an unlimited number of processors with anapproximation ratio of 3. Simulation results show that this algorithm is, infact, much faster than its worst-case performance bound. Better simulationresults are obtained by improving our approximation algorithm usingheusistics. Restricting the problem to the case of equal task executiontimes, a linear-time algorithm is presented to find an optimal schedule.     

The tense tightrope: How patients and their therapists balance hope and hopelessness

This paper provides an intersubjective viewpoint on the challenging and disturbing clinical phenomenon of hopelessness, and suggests that therapists' careful balancing of accurate empathy for patients' profound despair with a belief in their ability to overcome it can help such patients develop and maintain a more hopeful state of mind. Clinical literature on hope and hopelessness is reviewed, as are pertinent countertransference issues related to working with this population so often erroneously viewed as treatment resistant. The author presents two case examples to highlight her ideas.     

SELF ISSUES FOR FAMILY THERAPY EDUCATORS

Family therapy educators frequently encourage self-reflection in their students and clients. However, little attention has been paid to the challanges and processes of the eudcators themselves. In this piece, four faculty members reflect individually and collectively on their lives and roles as educators. the describe family-of-origin influences, the intersections of their personal and academic lives, systemic factors in the professional setting, balancing work and family, hierarchy, gender, and coping strategies ot increase support and reduce competition. They recommend a deliberate process of self-reflection to other family therapy educators and offer suggestions for improving the organizational dynamic of family therapy training programs.     

HIV Risk and the Freedom to Act Without Thinking: Alcohol Use and Sexual Behavior Among Adolescents on Probation

Through in-depth phenomenological interviews, 18 adolescents currently on probation describe how they make decisions about using alcohol and engaging in sexual behaviors. Two main threads emerge: they value spontaneity in sex and believe that they act spontaneously in regard to both sex and alcohol. At the same time, they describe being highly influenced by parents and peers. The researchers discuss the potential implications of these and other findings for HIV prevention and intervention.     

Father's Blessing: Ethnographic Drama,Poetry, and Prose

This article consists of ethnographic drama, poetry, and prose. Following interpretivist traditions focusing on how individuals make sense of and make meaning from their lived experience, the author, a heterosexual woman, travels with a gay male friend/participant to visit his estranged father, a retired Air Force pilot and elder in the Mormon Church. The work attempts to show the dialogic construction, negotiation, and transformation of identities and relationships.     

Intervening with At-risk Mothers: Supporting Infant Language Development

At-risk young mothers and their infants (4–7 months of age) participated in an evaluation of a parenting intervention that focused largely on language stimulation. Participants assigned to the intervention group were matched with a volunteer mentor and were encouraged to attend eleven parenting sessions (five to seven participants per group) across approximately 8 months. Participants in the control group received referrals as needed and were followed across time. Results indicated that babies of the participants in the intervention group experienced more improvement in expressive language from pretest to posttest than did babies of the mothers in the control group.