Psychological stress in adoptive parents of special-needs children

This article focuses on the nature and extent of parental stress among adoptive parents of special-needs children. In-depth face-to-face interviews of adoptive parents of 35 children were conducted, on average, four months postplacement (but before adoption). One-year follow-up interviews were conducted with parents of 15 (43%) of these children. Qualitative and quantitative data were collected, including parenting stress scores. Results indicated higher than average levels of stress, particularly on subscales related to parent-child dysfunctional interactions and to raising a difficult child. Increased stress levels were associated with poorer family adjustment and with higher levels of child behavior problems. Stress levels remained mostly unchanged over the year. Responses to open-ended questions identified five stress categories: child characteristics, parent-child interactions, family cohesion, parental adjustment, and adoptions service issues. Practice and research implications are discussed.     

Conservation technology adoption decisions and the theory of planned behavior

This study of water saving technology adoption and technology investment behavior for Florida strawberry farmers represents an application of the Theory of Planned Behavior. It is compared with the Theory of Reasoned Action, and the Theory of Derived Demand. The focus is on perceived control in the decisions, first, to become an adopter of conservation technology, and, second, to invest more capital in the technology. The results lend credence to the Planned Behavior Theory but also support Derived Demand Theory, in that actual financial capability (actual control) is found important. To predict technology adoption we may need to account for both perceived and actual control. Unfettered government control of farmer technology decisions could be counterproductive, suggesting technology policy may need to include a mix of moral suasion and incentives with more modest controls.     

Gambling and Problem Gambling among Recently Sentenced Male Prisoners in Four New Zealand Prisons

Recently sentenced inmates in four New Zealand male prisons (N = 357) were interviewed to assess their gambling involvement, problem gambling and criminal offending. Frequent participation in and high expenditure on continuous forms of gambling prior to imprisonment were reported. Nineteen percent said they had been in prison for a gambling-related offence and most of this offending was property-related and non-violent. On the basis of their SOGS-R scores, 21% were lifetime probable pathological gamblers and 16% were probable pathological gamblers during the six months prior to imprisonment. Of the “current” problem gamblers, 51% reported gambling-related offending and 35% had been imprisoned for a crime of this type. Gambling-related offending increased with problem gambling severity. However, only five percent of problem gamblers said their early offending was gambling-related. The large majority reported other types of offending at this time. Few men had sought or received help for gambling problems prior to imprisonment or during their present incarceration. This highlights the potential for assessment and treatment programs in prison to reduce recidivism and adverse effects of problem gambling and gambling-related offending.     

“I’m in control: I’m not stumbling in the dark anymore”: Midlife women’s experiences of successfully negotiating safer sex with new partners

The rates of STIs in women over 45 years have been steadily increasing in Australia and other Western countries. Traditionally sexual health and STI prevention and research has positioned young people as the priority population; to date, insufficient attention has been paid to the sexual health of women over 45 years. Using a strengths-based approach, the objective of this study was to explore the factors and mechanisms that enable Australian women aged 45 to 64 years to successfully negotiate safer sex practices in new relationships. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) was employed for an in-depth exploratory study of a sample of eight women. Three broad themes emerged: being informed, being prepared, and being empowered. These findings provide a valuable insight into how we can initiate change and support safer sex practices for this target group.     

Children's Experience of Sport: What Do We Really Know?

Internationally, children's participation in leisure activities, including sport, is considered to be of such importance that it is enshrined as a human right. However, there is a growing awareness that children's experience of sport is not always benign; abuse and harm frequently occur within a broad range of organised sport contexts. This systematic literature review examines the international research evidence from both peer reviewed and grey literature on the abuse and harm of children that can occur in sport. Four areas of focus were apparent in this literature: first, types of abuse encountered by children in sport and the harm caused to them; second, persons responsible for the abuse and harm; third, circumstances under which children may be most vulnerable; and fourth, the role that culture plays in facilitating abuse in sport. The paper concludes identifying the need for further research in this domain.     

Modeling Family Economic Conditions and Young Children’s Development in Rural United States: Implications for Poverty Research

In this study we examined the additive and multiplicative relations between poverty status, material hardship, liquid assets, non-liquid assets, and children’s cognitive skills and social problems at 36?months. The data were from a representative sample of 1,292 children in six rural counties in the United States. Findings indicated that income, material hardship, and non-liquid assets explained unique variation in young children’s development. Material hardship was associated with more social problems for children. Poverty status was associated with lower cognitive skills, and non-liquid assets were associated with higher cognitive skills at 36?months. We concluded that models that estimate the relation between poverty and child outcomes without including measures of hardship and assets could be underspecified.     

Buffers of Racial Discrimination: Links With Depression Among Rural African American Mothers

The current study examines racial discrimination as a predictor of depression in a sample of 414 rural, low‐income African American mothers of young children. The potential moderating role of optimism and church‐based social support was also examined. Mothers completed questionnaires when their child was 24 months old. Hierarchical regression revealed that mothers' perception of racism was a significant predictor of depression even after controlling for a variety of distal demographic characteristics and environmental stressors. Significant interactions suggested the importance of psychological and social characteristics in understanding maternal depression. Specifically, high levels of optimism and church‐based social support buffered mothers from increased depressive symptomology attributable to perceived racism.     

Articulating a Role for Program Evaluation in Responsible Conduct of Research Programs

Since Integrity in Scientific Research: Creating an Environment That Promotes Responsible Conduct was released in 2001, there has been increased interest in evaluating programs designed to foster the responsible conduct of research (RCR). The field of program evaluation is designed to determine the worth or value of programs and can serve as a resource for institutions interested in evaluating their RCR programs. This article provides a very brief overview of program evaluation, demonstrates how it can be applied to RCR, and provides key reference information. Evaluating RCR programs can promote institutional accountability for the resources that are used in supporting those programs.