The Importance of Sibling Relationships in Separated Families

There is emerging substantial evidence that sibling relationships exert a powerful facilitating influence on the development of children. Siblings can provide mutual support and nurturance, role models and family structure. Children from divorcing families have to deal with a major restructuring of the family and multiple losses, but their parents are often unable to provide the support and structure the children need. Sibling bonds may meet some of these needs and reassure children of the ultimate survival of a family life. The literature is briefly reviewed and two sibships are described.     

Depressive symptoms and cigarette smoking in a college sample

OBJECTIVE AND PARTICIPANTS: The authors examined (1) the relationship between depressive symptoms and cigarette smoking in a college sample and (2) the role of smoking self-efficacy (one's perceived ability to abstain from smoking) in explaining the relationship between depressive symptoms and cigarette smoking. METHODS: Predominantly first-year college students at a large public university completed a self-report inventory indexing depressive symptoms, cigarette smoking, and smoking self-efficacy. RESULTS: Findings indicated that students high in depressive symptoms smoked significantly more cigarettes per day than did those with low depressive symptoms. Further, among current smokers, smoking self-efficacy explained the relationship between depressive symptoms and cigarette smoking. CONCLUSIONS: These findings add to accumulating evidence that depressive symptoms are a risk factor for increased cigarette smoking in college students. The authors discuss implications for university-based smoking cessation and prevention programs.     

Who Wants to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions?

Objective . We examine cognitive, economic, and partisan heuristic theories of why some people express support for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Methods . Data come from a mail survey of 623 residents of central Pennsylvania, a region in which mitigation costs exceed potential benefits from slowing the rate of global warming. Results . Ordinary least squares analysis shows that people who can accurately identify the causes of climate change and who expect bad consequences from climate change are likely to support both government anti-fossil fuel initiatives and voluntary actions. Economic circumstances and anxieties are not important predictors, but the belief that environmental protection efforts do not threaten jobs for people like the respondent, limit personal freedoms, and hurt the economy is a strong predictor. Democrats are more likely than Republicans to support government efforts to reduce emissions. Conclusions . Cognitive explanations of support for reducing greenhouse gas emissions are more powerful than economic or partisan heuristic ones. People want to reduce emissions if they understand the causes of climate change, if they perceive substantial risks from climate change if average surface temperatures increase, and if they think climate change mitigation policies will not cost them their jobs.     

A Smoking and Health Fair: Implementation and Evaluation

Abstract

A two-day health fair that focused entirely on the tobacco smoking habit was organized. Participating agencies offered information on smoking effects, cessation programs, and health screening to fair visitors. A visitor questionnaire indicated that the fair was successful in attracting both smokers and nonsmokers and that each group found information that was perceived as helpful. Issues involved in coordinating the project are discussed and suggestions for future smoking and health fairs are offered.     

Homelessness and the High Performance Cycle: A New Lens for Studying Exit Strategies

ABSTRACT

Although social work scholarship has recognized the presence and utility of goals and goal setting among the homeless, the literature remains underdeveloped. This study evaluates the extent to which the work motivation literature, mostly applied in formal business settings, can improve current understandings of how persons successfully escape homelessness. Specifically, this study focuses on the high performance cycle, a model in organizational behavior research that outlines the specific processes involved in setting and achieving goals and that provides a robust framework for analyzing goal setting among homeless persons. The article compares those who have successfully exited homelessness to those who remain chronically homeless using 40 in-depth, semistructured interviews with homeless center clients in a multicity area in the Intermountain West. Interviews addressed the employment and housing histories of research participants, their views about living unhoused, and their attempts to exit homelessness. The participants' narratives matched themes described in goal-setting research, which suggests the utility of adopting processes outlined by the high performance cycle when assisting clients in exiting homelessness. Social service professionals can benefit by incorporating the goal-setting scholarship in their work with homeless populations. Future research might use quantitative surveys and experiments to determine the generalizability of this exploratory analysis.     

Stochastic modeling of particle movement with application to marine biology and oceanography

We consider some stochastic models that have been proposed for the trajectories of moving objects, including Brownian motion. This leads to the development of a general approach for dealing with paths including the use of functional stochastic differential equations. We then present an empirical example based on the surface drifting movements of a small satellite-linked radio transmitter tag after it detached from a whale shark in the western Indian Ocean. The daily estimates of the tag’s locations were determined from transmissions received at irregular times by polar-orbiting satellites of the Argos Data Collection and Location Service system.