Communicative Correlates of Satisfaction,Family Identity,and Group Salience in Multiracial/Ethnic Families

Guided by the Common Ingroup Identity Model ( S. L. Gaertner & J. F. Dovidio, 2000 ) and Communication Accommodation Theory ( C. Shepard, H. Giles, & B. A. LePoire, 2001 ), we examined the role of identity accommodation, supportive communication, and self‐disclosure in predicting relational satisfaction, shared family identity, and group salience in multiracial/ethnic families. Additionally, we analyzed the association between group salience and relational outcomes as well as the moderating roles of multiracial/ethnic identity and marital status. Individuals who have parents from different racial/ethnic groups were invited to complete questionnaires on their family experiences. Participants (N = 139) answered questions about relationships with mothers, fathers, and grandparents. The results of the multilevel modeling analyses are discussed in terms of implications for understanding multiracial/ethnic families and family functioning.     

Fathering With Multiple Partners: Links to Children's Well‐Being in Early Childhood

The claim that multiple partner fertility may pose a risk of adverse outcomes for children has not been tested. We test this argument using a sample of 4,027 resident fathers and children from the Fragile Families and Child Well‐being Survey by examining the pathways through which fathers' multipartnered fertility is associated with children's externalizing behaviors and physical health status at 36 months. Path analyses indicate that multiple partner fertility exerted both a significant direct and indirect effect through paternal depression to influence children's externalizing behaviors. Fathers' multiple partner fertility also exerted a significant indirect effect through one mediator—father involvement—to influence children's physical health. This evidence suggests that the disruptions brought about by multipartnered fertility are important for understanding child well‐being.     

Communication in assisted living

This study of communication in an Assisted Living Facility (ALF) focuses on staff's interpretive frameworks and situational tactics for managing elderly residents. It is based on interviews with staff and residents in an ALF together with ethnographic fieldwork. As in other quasi-total institutions, staff members engage in control as well as care, monitoring residents for compliance with rules and directives. Residents, aware of the threat of being moved to a nursing home, also monitor their own behavior and cognition in comparison to other residents. Other communication issues include the infantilization of the elderly by staff, and the race, class, and ethnic prejudices of residents.     

Children’s Psychosocial Rehabilitation: Clinical Outcomes for Youth with Serious Emotional Disturbance Living in Foster Care

Children living in foster care are an especially vulnerable population who often come to the attention of Medicaid mental health providers. These children experience a high incidence of emotional and behavioral disorders and may have specialized treatment needs related to their living arrangement status. This study assessed whether Children’s Psychosocial Rehabilitation could effectively treat youth with severe emotional and behavioral disorders who live in foster care. Analysis of data from an open trial of 218 clinically-impaired youth, aged 3–18 years, revealed no reliable differences in treatment outcome between foster versus non-foster children, with a trend toward more favorable outcomes for foster youth. Findings justify further study of the effectiveness of this Medicaid-funded service for the treatment of youth in care.     

Barriers to Help-seeking for a Gambling Problem: The Experiences of Gamblers Who Have Sought Specialist Assistance and the Perceptions of Those Who Have Not

This paper presents barriers to help-seeking data as reported by users of a national gambling helpline (help-seekers, HS, N = 125) as well as data pertaining to perceived barriers to seeking help as reported by gamblers recruited from the general population (non-help-seekers, NHS, N = 104). All data were collected via a structured, multi-modal survey. When asked to identify actual or perceived barriers to seeking help, responses indicative of pride (78% of HS participants, 84% of NHS participants), shame (73% of HS participants, 84% of NHS participants) or denial (87% of NHS participants) were most frequently reported. These three factors were also most often identified as the real or perceived primary barrier to help-seeking (collectively accounting for 55% of HS, and 60% of NHS, responses to this question) and were the only barriers to be identified by more than 10% of either HS and NHS participants without prompting. It was of note, however, that participants in both groups identified multiple barriers to help-seeking (mean of 6.7 and 12.2, respectively) and that, when presented with a list of 21 possible barrier items, NHS participants endorsed 19 of the listed items significantly more often than their HS counterparts. The implications of these findings, with respect to promoting greater or earlier help-seeking activity amongst problem gamblers, are discussed.