eHealth recruitment challenges

Little is known about effective eHealth recruitment methods. This paper presents recruitment challenges associated with enrolling African-American girls aged 8–10 years in an eHealth obesity prevention program, their effect on the recruitment plan, and potential implications for eHealth research.Although the initial recruitment strategy was literature-informed, it failed to enroll the desired number of girls within a reasonable time period. Therefore, the recruitment strategy was reformulated to incorporate principles of social marketing and traditional marketing techniques. The resulting plan included both targeted, highly specific strategies (e.g., selected churches), and more broad-based approaches (e.g., media exposure, mass mailings, radio advertisements).The revised plan enabled recruitment goals to be attained. Media appeared to be particularly effective at reaching the intended audience. Future research should identify the most effective recruitment strategies for reaching potential eHealth audiences.     

Burnout among mental health professionals: special considerations for the marriage and family therapist

Burnout is a syndrome consisting of physical and emotional exhaustion resulting from negative self-concept, negative job attitudes, and loss of concern for clients. This research study explores potential predictors and prevalence of burnout among marriage and family therapists (MFTs). It evaluates the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) to establish its applicability to MFTs. Our sample of 116 Clinical Members of the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy responded to a mailed questionnaire including demographic information and the MBI. Overall, our sample reported low-to-moderate ranges of burnout. Differences were noted in degrees of burnout across job settings. Predictors of clinician burnout include hours worked per week and job setting. Factor analysis indicates that the MBI is an appropriate assessment tool for measuring burnout among MFTs. Implications for clinical practice are discussed.     

Adolescent Gambling: Understanding the Role of Stress and Coping

The central variables of stress, coping, and gambling severity were examined along three lines of inquiry. The first addressed whether adolescents with gambling problems reported a greater number of minor or major stressful (i.e., negative) life events relative to others. The second examined whether more with gambling problems employed less-effective coping styles, such as those characterized as less task- or solution-focused, and more emotion- or avoidance-focused coping. Finally, the third question explored whether adolescents’ coping styles mediated the association between stress and gambling severity. Ranging from 11 to 20 years of age, 2,156 high-school students completed instruments assessing gambling involvement, gambling severity, stressful life events, and coping styles. Results indicated that, overall, adolescents with gambling-related problems reported more negative life events relative to social gamblers and non-gamblers. When negative life events were further separated into major and minor events, results revealed that problem gamblers reported more major negative life events but not more minor negative life events relative to others. Results indicated that adolescents with gambling-related problems used less task-focused coping, and more avoidance-focused coping. Males, but not females, who experience gambling-related problems reported using more emotion-focused coping strategies. Finally, emotion-oriented coping was found to mediate the relationship between negative life events and gambling severity. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.

Treatment of Female Pathological Gambling: The Efficacy of a Cognitive-Behavioural Approach

Given that a substantial proportion of current pathological gamblers are female, it is evident that women are underrepresented in the treatment outcome literature. The current study was designed to redress the limited information on the treatment of female pathological gambling. Although the use of cognitive-behavioural therapy is the most highly recommended approach as ‘best practice’ for the treatment of pathological gambling, no attempt to date has been made to evaluate the efficacy of this approach for female pathological gambling. Nineteen female pathological gamblers with electronic gaming machine problems were treated with a cognitive-behavioural program. While pathological gamblers placed on a waiting list did not show significant improvement on gambling behaviour and psychological functioning measures, the female pathological gamblers showed significant improvement on these measures over the treatment period, and maintained this improvement at the 6-month follow-up evaluation. By the completion of the follow-up period, 89% of participants no longer met diagnostic criteria for pathological gambling. Although further scientific demonstration and replication are required, the outcomes of this study indicate that the therapy that is considered ‘best practice’ in the treatment of pathological gambling is effective for female pathological gambling.     

Increasing aging content in social work curriculum: perceptions of key constituents

This mixed methodology study examines the perceptions of key constituents regarding methods for effectively integrating aging content into the foundation curriculum of the BSW and MSW program at the University of Georgia School of Social Work. Students were asked to complete a survey to determine their perception of geriatric content that existed within the foundation coursework. Following an analysis of the survey results, eight semi-structured focus group discussions were conducted with a purposeful sample of students, faculty, field instructors, social work alumni, older adults from the community, and representatives from aging agencies. The intention of these focus groups was to find out what aging content should be infused within the curriculum. The focus group meetings were held in various locations throughout Northeast Georgia and in one remote location in South Georgia. Participants were interviewed about the necessary skills and knowledge for social workers practicing with an aging population in the areas of: essential intervention skills, program policies and regulations, critical information needed to develop client service plans, strategies for addressing service delivery fragmentation, and community collaboration to support intergenerational family needs. The results of this study will be discussed to provide suggestions on how existing foundation courses can integrate aging content.     

心理辅导走进“家长会”

5月21日下午,在广西柳州市柳南区革新二小多媒体教室,举多F『一场有特别意义的“家长会”,辖区学生家长、农民工子女的家长约四十余人听课。会上还邀请了柳州市心理咨询协会会长、柳州市铁路中心医院心理医生谢静参加。谢会长根据孩子们的心理特点,结合一些事例,讲述孩子们容易发生的心理问题,告诫家长们在现实生活中,要和孩子们多交流,以身作则,不要给孩子强加压力,让孩子们自由健康发展。谢会长的讲述,让与会家长们受益匪浅,许多家长都表示,今后要多注意和孩子们的交流方式,让孩子们有一个快乐健康的童年。     

德中外交关系40年述评

中德自1972年正式建立外交关系以来,联邦德国与中华人民共和国之间的关系经历了一个渐进的发展过程。中国大陆从昔日那个神秘的国度、敢于向苏联挑战的勇士和诱人的大市场,到今天已经成为德国全方位交流合作者,两国已经成为重要的经济合作伙伴。40年间,最成功的合作交往当属邓小平的改革开放以来的发展成果,尤其是科技和经济领域的合作。尽管两国在价值观上有区别,在人权问题上有不同的看法,但高层的定期对话改善了政府层面的理解。德国不仅成为中国的重要合作伙伴,也是欧盟与华对话的重要中介者。     

从甲骨文和系统论的角度看木石复合工具——斤、斧、王、士、戉、戊、戍、戌等皆为木石复合工具与兵器

本文研究的重点是“木-石复合工具”的新概念。两百年来“石器时代”这个片面的说法,容易导致人们忽视木制和木-石复合工具在人类进化史上的重要作用。甲骨文是具有特殊考古作用的“文字化石”,甲骨文反映的史前-系列劳动工具和武器及其进化过程,雄辩地证实了史前“木-石时代”的长期客观存在。本文运用现代系统论的观点,依据众多古文字学者对甲骨文、金文的释读,以及本文作者自己的研究成果,着重讨论、考释“斤、斧、王、士、戊、戊、戍、戌”等甲骨文字。