Personal and Aggregate Unemployment and Psychological Symptoms

Four different types of individual-level unemployment experiences were studied in relation to psychological symptoms: (1) current unemployment following a recent involuntary job loss, (2) unemployment among students or homemakers, (3) reemployment after recent job loss, and (4) either voluntary or long-term (greater than 6 months) unemployment. Aggregate unemployment (the prevailing rate in the surveyed community) was also studied, both alone and in interaction with each of the four individual-level unemployment conditions. These five variables were each related positively to psychological symptoms, whether measured as a continuous variable or as a dichotomous variable simulating a case/non- case split, and controlling for the usual demographic variables and various other stressful life events. Little evidence was found for interactions of the unemployment conditions with aggregate unemployment or with potential moderators. A small panel study provided a partial longitudinal check for several of these cross-sectional findings. The findings are discussed in terms of public policy options.     

Specifics in a Positive Approach to Peace

An approach to peace is called "positive" here if, in addition to appearing as a realistic means toward peace, it is inherently attractive and morally unobjectionable. Positive approaches include drastic reduction of nuclear weapons (bilateral if possible, but unilateral if necessary), total elimination of first-strike nuclear weapons, a wholehearted no-first-use policy in actions as well as in words, humanization of our own diabolical image of the U.S.S.R., cultivation of realistic empathy and global consciousness, drastic reduction of fear appeals by the peace movement, and cultivation of realistic hope. However, some "negative" actions are also well worth considering as paths to peace: retention of approximately 5% of our present nuclear strength, retention of "adequate" conventional strength, realistic criticism of the U.S.S.R., occasional use of fear appeals, and guarding against unrealistic hope. As a model of positive reasoning and a source of useful references, an imaginary dialogue is presented in which a peace activist answers, in a factual and two-sided way, a number of highly skeptical hawkish questions. Learning to answer such questions effectively may add to both immediate effectiveness and long-term hope within the peace movement.     

Upper Confidence Limits on Excess Risk for Quantitative Responses

The definition and observation of clear-cut adverse health effects for continuous (quantitative) responses, such as altered body weights or organ weights, are difficult propositions. Thus, methods of risk assessment commonly used for binary (quantal) toxic responses such as cancer are not directly applicable. In this paper, two methods for calculating upper confidence limits on excess risk for quantitative toxic effects are proposed, based on a particular definition of an adverse quantitative response. The methods are illustrated with data from a dose-response study, and their performance is evaluated with a Monte Carlo simulation study.     

On the Use of Hierarchical Probabilistic Models for Characterizing and Managing Uncertainty in Risk/Safety Assessment

A general probabilistically-based approach is proposed for both cancer and noncancer risk/safety assessments. The familiar framework of the original ADI/RfD formulation is used, substituting in the numerator a benchmark dose derived from a hierarchical pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic model and in the denominator a unitary uncertainty factor derived from a hierarchical animal/average human/sensitive human model. The empirical probability distributions of the numerator and denominator can be combined to produce an empirical human-equivalent distribution for an animal-derived benchmark dose in external-exposure units.     

Meeting the Needs of the Social Care and Health Care Workforce: Can a Duck Sleep with a Hippopotamus?

In a period when recruitment and retention are crucial issues in health and social care the focus of this paper is:

? Who are the workforce of health and social care?

? What are the needs of that workforce?

? How safe is it for the much smaller partner, social care, to work together with the much larger health care?

The latter point heads us back to the sub‐title of the paper: can a duck sleep with a hippopotamus?

This question comes from an advert used in the UK for a bed manufacturer, where our British sensitivities and fear of sex prevents us from showing a man and a woman in a double bed, what the Spanish charmingly call a ‘cama de matrimonio’, a marriage bed, and instead we show a hippopotamus and a duck sleeping, safely, in the same bed.

To follow this analogy, we have to show:

? that health and social care are in the same bed;

? that one is as large as a hippopotamus, and the other as small as a duck;

? what the dangers are of this;

and ask the question:

? What is there in the place of ‘spring technology’ which would permit both to sleep together, and for the duck not to end up flat?

In doing so, I hope to answer the first three questions I posed.     

An Introduction to the Research Process

Abstract

College health professionals are often intimidated by the research process and thus miss opportunities to develop and communicate their ideas. The present article, the first in a series on college health research, describes the basics of the research process, including the purpose and nature of research and the ways in which ideas are developed into research hypotheses. The process of reviewing research literature is described in detail, including methods for computerized searching.     

Examining Parental Monitoring as a Pathway From Community Violence Exposure to Drug Use,Risky Sex,and Recidivism Among Detained Youth

ABSTRACT

This study examined whether parental monitoring mediated the relationship between community violence exposure and a spectrum of behaviors such as recidivism, risky sex, and drug use among youth with a history of being detained. It also explored whether risk pathways differed by gender. Adolescents (n = 550) who were detained or previously detained were recruited from eight regional detention facilities in Georgia. Audio computer-assisted self-interviewing technology was used to assess demographic factors (i.e., age, race, and socioeconomic status), risky sex, drug use, and recidivism prior to being detained. Major findings indicated direct relationships between community violence exposures and risky sex and drug use in the 2 months prior to being detained. Findings also indicated that parental monitoring mediated these relationships for both adolescent males and females. These findings document that parental monitoring is an important element even for troubled youth across a broad spectrum of risk factors. Consequently, it is recommended that intervention programs examine the differential effects of monitoring behaviors by a variety of groups such as parental figures, teachers, and peer mentors.