Differences in Relationship Quality Measurement and Covariate Influence Between Individuals in First and Second Marriages: A Propensity Score Analysis

Few studies have examined relationship quality construct measurement and covariate influence differences between first married and remarried individuals. We used multiple-sample confirmatory factor analysis and structural regression invariance testing to assess relationship quality measurement and covariate influence differences between these two groups. We account for selection bias on 11 observed selection variables by comparing outcomes before and after propensity score greedy matching procedures. Using a sample of 2,030 first married and 488 remarried individuals from the Relationship Evaluation Survey, prematching results indicate some significant differences between groups. Postmatching results, however, indicate that all measurement and structural parameters can be constrained to be equal between groups without worsening model fit. Implications, limitations, and future directions for research are discussed.     

Practicing in the Uncertain: Reworking Standardized Clients as Improv Theatre

In this paper, I rework standardized client activities using improvisational methods. While standardized client approaches to teaching/learning interviewing skills have been proven to be effective in increasing students' competence, I suggest that enhancing these practices with the ideas and approaches of improvisational theatre provides opportunities for the creativity that characterizes advanced practice. Improvisational theatre's focus on spontaneity and intuition foregrounds three elements of practice. These include unconscious and emotional knowledge, the relational nature of practice, and the variability and unpredictability of the interview. Reframing standardized client activities through improvisational theory and practice offers students an explicit framework for making sense of simulations as creative, spontaneous spaces for learning.     

Teacher Engagement with Bullying: Managing an Identity within a School

Bullying is a social problem that is detrimental to a student's education. Teacher response is an important factor to reducing bullying, which is especially important at the elementary school level. While teachers show a greater understanding of the definition of bullying than students, they struggle to recognize and respond to bullying. Using 12 grade-specific focus groups of K–5th grade teachers, this study analyzed the disconnect between teachers' understanding of what bullying is and their perception of the experiences of bullying around them. Using a modified Ecological Model, examining the teacher experience, it was found that a whole-school response to bullying is needed to help teachers stem the academic definition of bullying into their workplace engagements, taking responsibility for changing the culture of bullying. Without school support, teachers sustained a more stereotypical perspective of bullying as they managed their teacher identities, struggling to avoid them being “spoiled.”     

A Unique Costly Contemplation Representation

We study preferences over menus which can be represented as if the individual is uncertain of her tastes, but is able to engage in costly contemplation before selecting an alternative from a menu. Since contemplation is costly, our key axiom, aversion to contingent planning, reflects the individual's preference to learn the menu from which she will be choosing prior to engaging in contemplation about her tastes for the alternatives. Our representation models contemplation strategies as subjective signals over a subjective state space. The subjectivity of the state space and the information structure in our representation makes it difficult to identify them from the preference. To overcome this issue, we show that each signal can be modeled in reduced form as a measure over ex post utility functions without reference to a state space. We show that in this reduced‐form representation, the set of measures and their costs are uniquely identified. Finally, we provide a measure of comparative contemplation costs and characterize the special case of our representation where contemplation is costless.     

Out of Sight,Out of Mind: Including Group Quarters Residents With Household Residents Can Change What We Know About Working-Age People With Disabilities

Information about residents of institutional and noninstitutional group quarters (GQ), particularly those with disabilities, has been limited by gaps in survey data, and statistics based on data that exclude some or all GQ residents are biased as estimates of total population statistics. We used the 2006 and 2007 American Community Survey (ACS) to identify the distribution of working-age populations with and without disabilities by major residence type and to assess the sensitivity of disability statistics to GQ residence. Our findings show that (1) of those with disabilities, about 1 in 13 males and 1 in 33 females live in GQ; (2) GQ rates are higher for individuals reporting mental, self-care, or go-outside-the-home disabilities than for those reporting sensory, physical, or employment disabilities; (3) younger males with disabilities are more likely to reside there, particularly at institutional GQ, reflecting their relatively high incarceration rate; (4) individuals with and without disabilities who are black, American Indian, were never married, or have less than a high school education have higher GQ residence rates; (5) 40% of male and 62% of female GQ residents have a disability; (6) adding GQ residents to household residents increases estimated disability prevalence for males by 6%, and the estimated difference between disability prevalence rates by gender nearly disappears; and (7) inclusion of the GQ population substantially lowers employment rate estimates for young males, blacks, and American Indians.     

Alcohol and other drug abuse counselors' attitudes and resources for integrating research and practice

The state of Wisconsin recently launched a Research-to-Practice Initiative. One aspect of the Wisconsin initiative was to survey Wisconsin-Certified Alcohol and other Drug Abuse Counselors (CADCs) to assess their attitudes, reported practices, and resources in regard to the integration of research and practice. The sample for the present study included 366 CADCs. Of the 366 respondents, 62 percent (n = 226) were female and 38 percent (n = 140) were male. The respondents were primarily Caucasian (90 percent) with the remaining respondents identifying as African American (4 percent), Native American (2 percent), Hispanic (1 percent), and Asian American (0.5 percent). The results from the survey indicated that the majority of respondents have access to computers, e-mail, and the Internet at their workplace; report being "satisfied" or "very satisfied" with their education and training; and tend to approve of the efforts to integrate research and practice. Incentives, barriers and strategies to integrate research and practice are discussed.     

Development of a screen for ongoing intimate partner violence

A five-question Ongoing Abuse Screen (OAS) was developed to evaluate ongoing intimate partner violence. Our hypothesis was that the OAS was more accurate and more likely to reflect ongoing intimate partner violence than the AAS when compared to the Index of Spouse Abuse (ISA). The survey included the ISA, the OAS, and the AAS. During the busiest emergency department hours, a sampling of 856 patients completed all aspects of the survey tool. Comparisons were made between the two scales and the ISA. The accuracy, positive predictive value, and positive likelihood ratio were 84%, 58%, and 6.0 for the OAS and 59%, 33%, and 2.0 for the AAS. The OAS was more accurate, had a better positive predictive value, and was three times more likely to detect victims of ongoing intimate partner violence than the AAS. Because the OAS was still not accurate enough, we developed a new screen, based on the ISA, titled the Ongoing Violence Assessment Tool (OVAT).     

Observing the Delivery of a Domiciliary Support Service

This paper describes a study of the work of domiciliary support services which have been developed under the All-Wales Strategy for services to people with learning difficulties. The study employed direct observation methodology to describe the pattern of activities of domiciliary support workers and their clients. Twenty-eight sessions were observed, with the work of the domiciliary support worker with each client being observed twice. The pattern of work observed broadly fell into four categories: physical care in the family home, sitting-in, support for skill development and support in community activities. The results revealed that while support workers worked with skill and sensitivity in the family home they require further guidance and support if they are to assist successfully in skill development and community integration activities.     

Treatment issues with sexually abused young children

Sexual abuse of very young children confronts therapists with special difficulties in regard to the children, their parents, and possible legal consequences. This California treatment program involves parents and children in parallel groups, along with individual therapy. Factors with which therapists must deal are also presented.