The influence of family environment on mental health need and service use among vulnerable children

Children in child welfare are especially likely to have unmet mental health needs. The role of family factors in children's use of mental health services was examined in a longitudinal sample of 1075 maltreated or at-risk children. Vulnerable family environment (poor family functioning, low social support, and caregiver psychological distress) is an important predictor of children's mental health needs. It also predicts them not having these needs met.     

Anticipating relocation: concerns about moving among NORC residents

Most older adults prefer to live at home as long as possible, requiring supports and services to help them age in place. This study examines the relocation concerns of a group of older adults in a suburban naturally-occurring retirement community (NORC). Twenty-six percent of the 324 residents interviewed expressed concern about having to move in the next few years. Residents who were worried differed from those who did not worry on a number of demographic and biopsychosocial characteristics. Overall, residents present a profile of vulnerability that calls for preemptive action to help them stay in their homes. A NORC is an ideal setting in which to provide supportive services.     

Advanced Standing and Two-Year Program MSW Students: An Empirical Investigation of Foundation Interviewing Skills

Abstract

Fifteen advanced standing and 23 two-year program Master of Social Work (MSW) students interviewed a simulated client. Blind raters working from videotapes of these interviews reliably evaluated the students' use of three core interviewing skills: Facilitation, Questioning/Clarification, and Support/Empathy. No statistically significant differences were found between the two groups of students on these skills. These results support the Council on Social Work Education policy of offering advanced standing to graduates of accredited Bachelor of Social Work programs.     

Family Factors,Theft, Vandalism,and Major Deviance Among a Multiracial/Multiethnic Sample of Adolescent Girls

This article reports on a study of 503 African-American, Hispanic, and White non-Hispanic adolescent girls attending public schools in Miami, Florida. The primary objectives of the study were to determine the prevalence of 13 self-reported delinquent behaviors in the sample, to compare these rates among the three groups of students, and to explore the predictive influences of several family factors that correlate with delinquency. It was found that 37.5% of the sample engaged in one or more acts of serious delinquency, with African-Americans reporting they had engaged in significantly more of these behaviors. The best predictors of theft/vandalism were low family pride and family substance abuse for Hispanics, low family communication for African-Americans, and low family pride for White non-Hispanics. The findings indicate that traditional family factors that have been used repeatedly to understand delinquency by male adolescents were not strong predictors of delinquency among the adolescent girls in the sample.     

‘Mungo Everywhere’: How Anglophones Heard Chattel Slavery

This article re-engages with the performance history of the character of Mungo, an enslaved servant from Isaac Bickerstaff and Charles Dibdin's comic opera The Padlock (1768), which premiered at London's Drury Lane Theatre during David Garrick's tenure there. In dialogue with nearly a century of criticism that has misread Mungo as solely a caricature prefiguring the codified racism of the American minstrel show, this article examines contemporary periodicals, libretti, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau's writings on music to posit that the opera's musical representation offered a more nuanced alternative to print's black and white representations of racial and status difference.     

The Prevalence of Stalking Among College Students: The Disparity Between Researcher- and Self-identified Victimization

Abstract

Objective: Researchers examined the prevalence of self-identified and researcher-identified stalking victimization among college students. Participants and Methods: A representative sample of 1,573 (70.1% female; 29.9% male) student respondents completed an online stalking questionnaire. Results: Overall, 12% self-identified as having been stalked. Additionally, 42.5% (45.4% female; 35.7% male) of students reported experiencing at least 1 behavioral indicator of stalking victimization; however, only 24.7% of those self-identified as being stalked (25.6% female; 22.0% male). Conclusions: Stalking is a serious problem in the college community. A concern that needs to be addressed is the disparity between the number of those who met the behavioral criteria for stalking victimization, but who did not self-identify as a victim. The consequences of stalking victimization are highlighted. Recommendations for addressing this issue on campus are detailed in a plan that may help improve the retention, progression, and graduation rates for stalking victims.     

International Statistical Activities

The growth of the health care industry places increasing strain on available resources. As in other areas of social policy, health statisticians and health data are increasingly expected to provide keys to rational decision making. To accomplish this goal, the statistician and decision-maker need to interact to an increasing degree. The current issues in health policy and the statistician's contribution to policy analysis are discussed in the context of the National Center for Health Statistics experience. While the article focuses on health, it has implications for statisticians and policy formation in other fields.     

HIDING CRIMES IN CYBERSPACE

Criminals have at their disposal a variety of technologies for hiding communications and evidence stored on computers from law enforcement. These include encryption, passwords, digital compression, steganography, remote storage, and audit disabling. They can also hide crimes through anonymity tools and techniques such as anonymous remailers, anonymous digital cash, looping, cloned cellular phones, and cellular phone cards. This paper discusses use of these technologies by criminals and terrorists, and how that use has affected investigations and prosecutions. Options available to law enforcement for dealing with the technologies, especially encryption, are also discussed. Numerous case studies are presented for illustration.