Preparing Community Health Workers for Their Role as Agents of Social Change: Experience of the Community Capacitation Center

Current efforts to better integrate Community Health Workers (CHWs) into the health and social service systems are promising, but may be less effective if they fail to support the role of CHWs as social change agents. The way CHWs are trained influences the roles they play. In this article, we review the literature on CHW training and summarize lessons learned to date. We describe how the Community Capacitation Center in Oregon uses a combination of content, methodology, and values to prepare CHWs to make an optimal contribution to health. Recommendations for CHW training programs and policy makers are provided.     

Abortion,Partial-Birth Abortion,and Adolescent Access to Abortion: An Overview for Social Workers

Although the U.S Supreme Court Roe v. Wade decision legalized abortion in 1973, intense controversy over access, legality, and morality has persisted ever since that landmark decision. National opinion data collected from 1975 to 2007 show that a majority of Americans support a woman's right to an abortion, but this right is increasingly under attack, and recent proposed changes to abortion access are not in line with how most Americans feel. This paper considers public opinion trends in the sharply divided arenas of abortion, partial-birth abortion, and adolescents' rights to access abortion with a critical eye to social work practice. We explore several opportunities for social workers to advocate for clients, including legislative advocacy, reform through litigation, social action, and social policy analysis.     

Generational Patterns in Home Ownership and Housing Quality among Racial/Ethnic Groups in New York City, 1999

We use survey data for 1999 to evaluate how well the spatial assimilation model characterizes the generational patterns in housing conditions for racial/ethnic groups in New York City. Focusing on home ownership, crowding, and housing quality, bivariate analyses reveal that housing conditions improve across generations, but mainly for whites and other Hispanics. Among blacks, we find patterns of generational decline in housing conditions and socioeconomic status. Multivariate models reveal significant generational improvements among whites and Puerto Ricans with respect to home ownership and among whites, blacks, and other Hispanics, with respect to crowding. However, notable generational declines are evident for blacks in home ownership and housing quality. Broad support for spatial assimilation theory is evident in the associations of socioeconomic status with housing conditions, but the results for blacks raise questions about the overall primacy of the spatial assimilation model.     

Correlates of Oral Sex and Vaginal Intercourse in Early and Middle Adolescence

This study examined whether a comprehensive set of psychosocial factors was equally predictive of both adolescent vaginal intercourse and oral sex among 1,105 adolescents aged 12–16. Logistic regressions were used to examine the relationships between parental communication, religiosity, bonding to school, heavy drinking, sex expectancies, normative beliefs, and both oral sex and vaginal intercourse. Age, gender, bonding to school, heavy drinking, and negative health expectancies predicted both oral sex and vaginal intercourse. Parental communication was associated with vaginal intercourse but not oral sex. Behavior‐specific normative beliefs were differentially associated with oral and vaginal sex.     

The employment situation of people with disabilities in Lebanon: challenges and opportunities

This article presents the findings of a study on the employment situation of people with disabilities in a rural region in Lebanon. The study was conducted as one of the activities of a community development project that saw the establishment of a job centre for people with disabilities. The majority of the study's 200 paricipants were unemployed, and many had never been employed. Other participants were mostly self-employed, with many of them working from home. The article discusses obstacles to finding and keeping a job and ends with recommendations for change at the level of community intervention, policy and research.     

THE IMPACT OF DECEPTION AND SUSPICION ON DIFFERENT HAND MOVEMENTS

The present experiment examined the relationship between different types of discourse linked hand movements and deception. Hand gestures were experimentally studied during truth telling and deception, and in situations with either weak or strong suspicion. Participants (128 Italian psychology students) were interviewed twice about the possession of an object. In one interview they were asked to lie and in the other asked to tell the truth (veracity factor). In both conditions, suspicion was raised after the interview: Participants were accused of lying by the interviewer and asked to repeat their account a second time (suspicion factor). Results indicate that lying was associated with a decrease in deictic gestures, and an increase in metaphoric gestures (main effect of veracity). Also a decrease in self-adaptor gestures was found. Strong suspicion was associated with an increase in metaphoric, rhythmic, and deictic gestures and a decrease in self-adaptor, emblematic, and cohesive gestures (main effect of suspicion). No interaction effect was found. Letizia Caso is affiliated with the Department of Human Sciences, University of Bergamo, Sede di S. Agostino, Piazzale della Fara 2, Bergamo, Italy. Fridanna Maricchiolo and Marino Bonaiuto are affiliated with the Department of Socialization and Developmental Psychology, University of Rome “La Sapienza”, via dei Marsi, 78, Rome, Italy. Aldert Vrij and Samantha Mann are affiliated with the Department of Psychology, University of Portsmouth, King Henry Building, Portsmouth, United Kingdom. Address correspondence to Letizia Caso Department of Human Sciences, University of Bergamo, Sede di S. Agostino, piazzale della Fara 2, Bergamo, Italy, e-mail: letizia.caso@uniroma1.it.     

Competence in the face of adversity: the influence of early family environment and long‐term consequences

This paper investigates family characteristics that enable children to achieve competence despite being exposed to socio‐economic adversity, and analyses the long‐term outcomes of this positive adaptation. The main finding is that the protective factors that modify the impact of adversity are context specific, and show age as well as period effects. Positive adaptation during early childhood has long‐term consequences, yet resilient young people cannot completely overcome the experience of early socio‐economic disadvantage. The results indicate that future research must identify specific rather than general protective factors that provide protection against specific risks for young people in specific life contexts. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Puberty and the Evolution of Developmental Science

In recent decades, theoretical and methodological advances have operated synergistically to advance understanding of puberty and prompt increasingly comprehensive models that engage with the temporal, psychosocial, and biological dimensions of this maturational milepost. This integrative overview discusses these theoretical and methodological advances and their implications for research and intervention to promote human development in the context of changing maturational schedules and massive ongoing social transformations.     

A CGE Framework for Modeling the Economics of Flooding and Recovery in a Major Urban Area

Coastal cities around the world have experienced large costs from major flooding events in recent years. Climate change is predicted to bring an increased likelihood of flooding due to sea level rise and more frequent severe storms. In order to plan future development and adaptation, cities must know the magnitude of losses associated with these events, and how they can be reduced. Often losses are calculated from insurance claims or surveying flood victims. However, this largely neglects the loss due to the disruption of economic activity. We use a forward‐looking dynamic computable general equilibrium model to study how a local economy responds to a flood, focusing on the subsequent recovery/reconstruction. Initial damage is modeled as a shock to the capital stock and recovery requires rebuilding that stock. We apply the model to Vancouver, British Columbia by considering a flood scenario causing total capital damage of $14.6 billion spread across five municipalities. GDP loss relative to a no‐flood scenario is relatively long‐lasting. It is 2.0% ($2.2 billion) in the first year after the flood, 1.7% ($1.9 billion) in the second year, and 1.2% ($1.4 billion) in the fifth year.