The long-term sustainability of after-school programs: the After-School Corporation's strategy

The challenges that The After-School Corporation has faced in building and sustaining quality after-school programs that are accessible to every public school student in New York are discussed.     

What do we really teach in introductory sociology textbooks? three underlying messages and their instructional implications

In considering mainstream introductory-sociology textbooks published between 1975–1989, three underlying messages and their instructional implications/remedies are identified and treated. First, society was portrayed as overstructured, organized, and impersonal. The need, therefore, is to stress instructionally its more individual/interactional, unorganized, and personal/emotional aspects. Second, society was overinterpreted primarily in ideologically liberal ways and also in a more radical fashion. The resulting instructional need introduces more conservative analyses. Third, sociological knowledge was overpresented as the most authoritative “highest knowledge” about society. Thus, the teaching imperative is to show the inadequacies and weaknesses of sociological knowledge thereby encouraging more student discussion and expression of contrary views.     

Economic socialization in children in a midwestern American community

This study is part of an international program of research involving fifteen countries. The goal of the research program is to advance international understanding of economic socialization in children. This study attempts to describe and understand this process in American children aged 8, 11 and 14. In-depth interviews were used to learn about economic understanding, economic reasoning and economic attitudes in 87 children living in a midwestern town. Analysis of the interview data indicated that economic socialization is indeed a reality in that sophistication increased with age.     

Exploration of Racial Enactments in an Interracial Therapeutic Dyad to Foster the Strengthening of Voice and Identity in African American Male Adolescents

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of systemic racism on an interracial therapeutic dyad between a white therapist and an African American adolescent male. Leary (2000 Leary, K. (2000). Racial enactments in dynamic treatment. Psychoanalytic Dialogues, 10(4), 639–653. doi:10.1080/10481881009348573[Taylor &; Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) operationalized the term “racial enactments” and made the important point that its “most common” manifestation “has been our relative silence about racial issues” (p. 647). It is the premise of this paper that the youth of color’s subjective experience of racial microaggressions and assaults experienced on a daily basis must be validated and explored prior to a meaningful intersubjective exploration in the clinical encounter. The emphasis in this paper is on the racial enactment that precedes the clinical encounter. A treatment vignette is used to highlight the intersection of social and psychic spheres of human experience and how an awareness of unconscious bias in the therapist can facilitate a more meaningful dialogue in which priority is given to the emergence of a powerful client narrative voice.     

Do Disabled Elderly Medicare Beneficiaries with Major Depression Make Less Use of a Consumer-Directed Home Care Voucher Benefit?

Older adults with major depression may underutilize consumer-directed long-term care. Systematic underutilization would create disparities in outcomes, undermining program effectiveness. The Medicare Primary and Consumer-Directed Care Demonstration included a consumer-directed indemnity benefit that paid for goods and services not financed by traditional Medicare. Overall and for most categories of goods and services there was little difference in use and expenditures between those with and without major depression. However, among those using the benefit to hire in-home workers, arguably the most important consumer-directed purchase, average spending for workers was about 30% lower for depressed persons. While our findings are generally reassuring for public policy, future research is needed to verify that major depression is associated with less spending on in-home workers.     

The reflection of desire for revenge and revenge fantasies in drawings and narratives of sexually abused children

Whereas the desire for revenge for an unjust deed is considered natural, its use within the therapeutic setting is scarce, specifically in sexually victimized children. The study aimed to find how experiencing sexual molestation during childhood and the revenge fantasy is reflected in drawings and narratives of sexually victimized children. Following ethical approval and signing a consent form, 14 children who experienced sexual abuse and were psychologically treated (ages 11–18) were recruited. They were asked to draw two drawings: “draw an unjust event that had happened to you” and “draw what you would have liked to happen to the person that unjustly treated you.” At completion, participants were asked to give a narrative to each drawing. Phenomenological analysis of the drawings and narratives indicated that most participants refrained from using more than two colours, did not draw the perpetrator and drew schematic figures. The main themes that emerged in the drawings and the narratives were feeling of loneliness, aloneness, and the desire for role reversal.