The Impact of Religiosity on Health Behaviors and Obesity among African Americans

Religion has been associated with good physical health and may represent a protective factor against overweight and obesity. This study explored dimensions of religiosity associated with health behaviors—eating habits and physical activity—and obesity in the African American population. Data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health were analyzed for 3,620 African American adults ages 28 to 34. A structural equation model (path model) revealed that high levels of church attendance combined with religious practice encouraged healthy eating habits. However, increasing time spent in prayer while making religion more important in life was associated with poor eating habits. More frequent church attendance and prayer were implicated in heightened levels of obesity, suggesting that various dimensions of religiosity were constructed differently with health behaviors and obesity.     

The clinical social worker as a member of the health team in a coronary care unit

In the course of developing a pattern of assistance to the patient about to be discharged from a coronary care unit, the professional health team at the University of California at Los Angeles Hospital anticipates and treats in advance the medical, social, and emotional problems of the patient which might tend to create a crisis at the time of his re-entry into his former world, possibly a new and much-changed world dictated by the nature of his illness. The professional appraisals at UCLA are continually reinforced by the practical and social approaches of the clinical social worker who, by the nature of her training, is able to see the patient's illness in its full social and psychological framework, rather than as an isolated phenomenon.     

The growth of psychoanalytic developmental psychology and the application of technique

The growth of ego psychology theory from Freud to the present has stimulated interest in the development of special techniques of a psychotherapy based on that theory—techniques that have evolved from but are different than those of psychoanalysis proper. Modifications in technical procedures address themselves to developmental failures rather than the resolution of the oedipal conflict. The newer concept of the borderline diagnostic category is understood in terms of the contributions of Kernberg and the Blancks, particularly as it is integrated with Mahler's developmental theory. Clinical examples are presented of some specific techniques of what is now called psychoanalytic developmental psychology.     

From nuclear to stepfamily ideology

The stepfamily, an alternative family form, has its genesis in today's divorce and remarriage rates. The absence of an institutionalized stepfamily ideology, which would prescribe rules for behavior and the interpretation of behavior, results in stress. Stress diminishes as stepfamily members adapt their behavior to fit their new extended structure. Some families attempt to maintain old behavior, which results in an anomalous nuclear family form, with its more private and autonomous expectations. This article is based on a qualitative study of sixteen white, middle-class stepfamilies. Each remarried partner maintains some ongoing care of children from a prior union within the new stepfamily household. All families in this study accommodated to stepfamily structure, at least to some degree, by shifting conjugal, parental, and kin relationships.     

THE "PSYCHOSOMATIC FAMILY" RECONSIDERED: DIABETES IN CONTEXT–A REPLY

Minuchin, Rosman and Baker's (1978) Psychosomatic Families: Anorexia Nervosa in Context, is a work that does demonstrate that physiological disturbance of some, very specifically defined, diabetic patients serves a function in their families. Statistical analyses of the original data are reported which strongly support the original conclusions; Coyne and Anderson's (1988) presentation of the methodology and findings of the original study is shown to substantially misrepresent information actually presented in the book. Review of the literature they cite was informative about some aspects of poorly controlled diabetes for a variety of populations but not relevant for psychosomatic patients; however, some of it supported our findings. Responsibility for "constraining" and/or "providing momentum" for the field is rejected and precise and rigorous thinking encouraged in developing both studies and critiques .     

Treated and untreated alcohol-use disorders: course and predictors of remission and relapse

The research described here focused on personal, life context, and help-related factors to trace the long-term course of treated and untreated alcohol-use disorders. A group of 461 individuals who sought help for alcohol problems was surveyed at baseline and 1, 3, 8, and 16 years later. Compared with individuals who remained untreated, individuals who entered treatment and/or Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), and participated in these modalities for a longer interval, were more likely to attain remission. Personal resources associated with social learning, stress and coping, behavior economic, and social control theories predicted the maintenance of remission.     

Black Ethnographic Activists: Exploring Robert Park,Scientific Racism,The Chicago School,and FBI Files Through the Black Sociological Experience of Charles S. Johnson and E. Franklin Frazier

Charles S. Johnson and E. Franklin Frazier were successful Black sociologists from the 1920s to 1960s, working in an age of scientific racism and eugenics, who battled racial oppression, racist discrimination, and surveillance under the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Both struggled within and against the assimilationist paradigm, yet their ethnographic and critical insights speak out today with continuing relevance in the fight against practical and institutional racial injustice. This study selectively examines Johnson and Frazier's academic careers as forgotten ethnographer activists who have been largely excluded from the dominant narrative of the Chicago School of Sociology. This article argues Robert Park offered opportunities to these Black scholars although the white university system exclusively directed their work towards race studies. Furthermore, the white discipline of sociology failed to recognize Johnson and Frazier's critical ethnographic studies as part of interactionism.