Understanding Anorexia Nervosa and Bulimia Nervosa from an Attachment Perspective

Using the Attachment History Questionnaire (AHQ), 30 female anorectic and bulimic inpatients were compared to a control group of 31 primarily female social work students to determine the connection between anorexia and bulimia and early childhood attachment relationships. As predicted, the results indicated that the anorectics and bulimics differed significantly from the controls on all four subfactors of the AHQ: secure attachment base (Factor 1), parental discipline (Factor 2), threats of separation (Factor 3), and peer affectional support (Factor 4). Post hoc comparisons between the eating-disordered group and the controls on the fifty-one individual items of the AHQ showed that within Factor 1, the items involving feelings of being unwanted, alone, helpless, and of shame and guilt, clearly and significantly discriminated between groups. Within Factor 3, the item addressing the child feeling responsible for parental happiness produced significance. The results of this study are interpreted in relation to John Bowlby's attachment theory and the clinical implications are discussed.     

Population projections: states, 1995 - 2025

All states will have more people in the future, especially in the south and west, while population aging occurs as the baby boomers age. This report identifies population changes projected to affect the US's 50 states and District of Columbia during 1995-2015. Basic assumptions for state population projections are presented with regard to population, births, deaths, net international migration, and net internal migration. The methodology used to produce the report is also described. Total population and net change is presented in tabular format for each state over the period. These data are used as the basic input to many federal, state, and local projection models which produce detailed statistics on education, economic factors, labor force, health care, voting, and other subjects. State differentials in fertility and mortality are also projected to widen, reflecting the concentration of race and ethnic groups with high fertility in some states and differential migration patterns.     

How consumers/survivors are evaluating the quality of psychiatric care

In the past decade, mental health consumers have increasingly become involved in evaluating the quality of psychiatric care and applying sophisticated data strategies to affect system reform. Through multistakeholder partnerships, they have identified outcome indicators, collaborated in the development of a mental health report card, and designed and conducted consumer self report surveys on satisfaction and needs and preferences for housing and supports. The formation of multistakeholder assessment teams; the definition of the consumer perspective through focus groups and concept-mapping pilots; and research on coercion, personhood, recovery, and empowerment are key activities of consumers/survivors in the field of evaluation.     

Re-Figuring Marked Bodies on the Borders: Breast Cancer and “Femininity”

The author discusses writings by Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, Kathleen Martindale, Audre Lorde, and Barbara Rosenblum on their experiences with breast cancer, and explores their articulations of the impact mastectomy has had on their sense of femininity in relation to their own identities and body images, and in relation to cultural expectations, and how others perceive them. Their identification of the body as socially produced, and as a site of contestation and multiple struggles, offers a strategic site from which to engage with the violent gender-inflected notion of the ideal female body. Themes addressed include: the process of writing embodied experience to make it real, the body's role in the process of identity formation, the culturally constructed significance of appearance to the individual's sense of femininity, the value of the female body in a capitalistic society, and heterosexism in society and in the health care system.     

Inhospitable workplaces? International students and paid work in food services

Most international students in Australia take up paid work during their studies, generally as part‐time employees in low‐wage, low‐skill labour markets. Though little is known about the detail of their work experiences, scattered reports suggest that wages and working conditions are often poor and pose significant issues of social justice. This article examines the characteristics of jobs held by one group of international students, drawing on in‐depth qualitative interviews that form part of a case study of Melbourne's café, restaurant and takeaway food services sector. The evidence indicates that precariousness in employment is widespread in this sector and that it centres on underpayment and non‐payment of wages, in breach of labour regulation. The article suggests that such illegal employer practices are facilitated by use of undeclared casual work. Underpayments are most severe in what are typically regarded as ethnic cafes and restaurants, which concentrate on employment of international students, but they are also widespread in mainstream cafes and restaurants, where international students share precarious work conditions with other workers. The findings underline the case for more concerted research and new policy initiatives.