On the Integration of Science and Practice in College Health

Abstract

College health professionals want to assure the unique healthcare and health education needs of college students will continue to be met under national and state healthcare reform. This may be an “all or nothing” proposition. Either colleges and universities will have exclusive control of healthcare delivery for the college student population or else college health will not be a major force in healthcare reform. If college health is to play a meaningful role in future government-controlled health insurance programs, it must first demonstrate that current health services and insurance financing programs meet minimum quality standards. This proposal calls for expanding existing federal laws to create qualified student health plans and integrating the college health model into a reform package based on employer-sponsored health insurance. The concept of qualified student health plans allows for a high degree of flexibility that can be integrated into the majority of state and federal healthcare reform proposals, including the plan proposed by President Clinton, that are not based on a single-payer system. Ultimately, the authors suggest, their proposed plan would eliminate the current situation, in which large numbers of college students are uninsured or underinsured.     

Promoting Self-Efficacy and Self-Esteem for Multiethnic Sexual Minority Youth: An Evidence-Informed Intervention

ABSTRACT

Sexual minority youth face multiple challenges, yet research regarding evidence-informed practice strategies for this population is limited. This study describes the pilot efforts of Strengths First, the first strengths-based intervention created specifically to promote self-esteem and self-efficacy among multiethnic sexual minority youth. A pretest–posttest design was used to gather preliminary data from program participants (n = 162) about the potential effectiveness of the program during a 2-year period that ranged from the inception of the program in June 2008 to September 2010. Significant increases in self-esteem and self-efficacy were found. Implications for social service research and practice are discussed.     

Reports of Conferences,Institutes, and Seminars

Abstract

This column covers several conference sessions from the 14th annual Electronic Resources & Libraries Conference, providing guidance on how to navigate ebook duplication, improving documentation and workflows, implementing OpenAthens, and experiences with Project SILLVR (Streaming Interlibrary Loan Video Resources)and knowledge bases and related tools (KBART) automation. There is also a report from IFLA’s SIG Library Publishing Mid-Term meeting, which was an ideological meeting in nature, discussing community building, resource sharing, and status updates. A report from the 2018 Charleston Conference is also included.     

Building a stable workforce: recruitment and retention in the child care and early years sector

The paper presents findings from research aimed at identifying effective approaches to the recruitment and retention of child care workers, conducted to assist the UK Government's Childcare Strategy. The paper explores the practices and views of child care employers, Early Years Development and Childcare Partnerships (EYDCPs) and child care workers in a range of settings (including day nurseries, playgroups and out‐of‐school care). Two key issues explored in the paper are the need for greater employer responsibility for increasing diversity in the child care workforce; and for a stronger emphasis on staff retention, through improved human resource practices in parts of the child care sector.     

Leukemia Risk Associated with Benzene Exposure in the Pliofilm Cohort: I. Mortality Update and Exposure Distribution

The National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) recently completed a vital status update adding 6 years of observation on the rubber workers known as the Pliofilm cohort. Using traditional standardized mortality ratio (SMR) analysis, we investigate the impact of the additional information gathered in the NIOSH update. We also compare the effect of using three sets of job-, plant-, and year-specific exposure estimates on the evaluation of benzene's leukemogenicity. The lack of any additional cases of multiple myeloma does not support trends toward elevated risks for this endpoint (as had been observed earlier), and there is no indication of increased incidences of solid tumors (as predicted by animal studies). Qualitatively, which exposure estimates are used does not alter the conclusions. The data added in the update did not greatly modify the estimated relative risk of leukemia associated with benzene exposure, but did confirm previous findings that occupational exposure to high concentrations had leukemogenic potential. The fact that leukemia has not been observed in any individual who started employment in Pliofilm production after 1950 suggests that the observed leukemia cases could be a response to very high levels of benzene exposure that occurred during the early years of this manufacturing process.     

Narrative analysis in aging studies: A typology for consideration

This article seeks to expand our understanding on narrative and the analysis of stories researchers invite and collect in the domain of aging studies. To do so, we first offer an understanding of what narrative inquiry can be by laying out a theoretical basis for this kind of research, and making a case for the relevance of narrative as an alternative methodology. Painting with broad strokes, narrative analysis as a method is then considered before a typology of different ways in which stories can be analyzed is introduced. Illuminated by the typology are two contrasting standpoints toward narrative analysis—storyteller and story analyst—and three specific methods—structural, performative, and autoethnograpic creative analytic practices—that each standpoint might use to analyse the whats and hows of storytelling. The article closes by suggesting that in order to assist us to understand the complexities of aging researchers might consider using a variety of analyses.     

Does Educational Similarity Drive Parental Support?

This article tests competing mechanisms explaining linkages between parent–child educational similarity and parental advice and interest to adult children, asking whether mechanisms differ for mothers and fathers. Educational similarities might provide common ground whereas educational dissimilarity affects parents' authority to dispense advice. Using ordered logistic regression with data from the Netherlands Kinship Panel Study (N = 2,444) parental advice and interest are modeled separately for mothers and fathers. Seemingly unrelated estimation is used to test for gender differences across models, revealing that mechanisms driving parental support differ by parents' gender. Fathers show more interest in adult children when they are educationally similar (consistent with the homophily hypothesis), but only among the highly educated, whereas mothers show more interest to highly educated children, regardless of their own level of educational attainment. Fathers' advice is conditioned on their own educational attainment whereas mothers give advice unconditionally (consistent with the gender hypothesis).