Sexual functioning and practices in a multi-ethnic study of midlife women: baseline results from SWAN

This study examined the sexual practices and function of midlife women by ethnicity (African American, Caucasian, Chinese, Hispanic, Japanese) and menopausal status. Sexual behavior was compared in 3,262 women in the baseline cohort of SWAN. Participants were 42 to 52 years old, premenopausal or early perimenopausal, and not hysterectomized or using hormones. Analysis used multivariate proportional odds regression. In our sample, 79% had engaged in sex with a partner in the last 6 months, and a third considered sex to be very important. Common reasons for no sex (n = 676) were lack of partner (67%), lack of interest (33%), and fatigue (16%). Compared with Caucasians, Japanese and Chinese women were less likely, and African Americans more likely, to report sex as very important (p < 0.005). Significant ethnic differences were found for frequency of all practices. Perimenopause status was associated only with higher frequencies of masturbation and pain during intercourse.     

Tandem treatment: A model for work with parents of troubled children

The complexity of individual work with parents whose children are in treatment because of their difficulties is explicated. An exploratory study of 15 mothers' experiences with such treatment is reported. The focus of the study was on parents' expectations, their relationships with their own and their child's clinician, the process of treatment and termination. The findings are integrated with relevant literature and clinical experience to provide a tandem treatment model in which emphasis is placed on clarifying parents' expectations, working with parents' individual issues as well as their role as parents, and focusing first on their children's problems, then gradually moving to the parents' concerns about their own problems.Ms. Staver is a retired Chief Psychiatric Social Worker, Judge Baker Guidance Center     

Institutional Theory: Employing the Other Side of Rationality in Non-profit Organizations1

The non-profit sector has become increasingly important in diverse economic, political and social environments. It is not clear that we have effectively communicated, to colleagues, students and decision makers, theoretical developments useful for understanding and managing non-profit organizations. This paper discusses the potential implications of institutional theory to the management of one type of non-profit organization, the publicly supported non-profit organization with input-output relationships that are not well understood. We review institutional theory and discuss the implications of institutional theory to the management and evaluation of publicly supported non-profit organizations.     

Fertility of immigrant women in California

Conclusion In California there has been much discussion of immigration and its longterm effects on the State. This paper has explored the question of differential fertility between immigrants and native-born Californians. We know from the decennial censuses that the proportion of immigrants to total Californians has increased significantly over the past 20 years. In addition, the characteristics of the immigrants have changed over time. The CEB ratios developed from the census enumeration and compared to other measures of fertility do show that immigrant women have higher fertility than native-born. A more detailed look shows that the country of birth composition, as measured by race/ethnicity, explains most of this difference.     

Time- and Loading-Dependence in the McKone Model for Dermal Uptake of Organic Chemicals from a Soil Matrix

McKone has recently proposed an innovative two-layer model for dermal uptake of organic chemicals from a soil matrix that explicitly includes variables for properties of the chemical, the soil, the skin, and the exposure. In this note, we investigate the joint time- and loading-dependencies implicit in the model by using MATHEMATICA to find and plot a closed-form function for the uptake fraction for six aromatic hydrocarbons.