Sudanese refugee youth in foster care: the "lost boys" in America

This study examined the resettlement experiences of unaccompanied Sudanese refugee youth placed in foster care from the perspectives of the youth, foster parents, and agency caseworkers. Youth experienced considerable success. The challenges of adjusting to school and family life, however, suggest a need for funding to support more intensive educational services, more cultural training and support for foster parents and school personnel, and flexibility to provide services in more culturally appropriate modalities.     

The co-occurrence of depression and alcohol dependence symptoms in a community sample of lesbians

Numerous studies have found an association between depression and alcohol use disorders in women. Little is known, however, about the relationship between depression and alcohol use among lesbians. We examined the prevalence of depression and alcohol dependence symptoms as well as the co-occurrence of these two health problems in a large community-based sample of women who self-identified as lesbian. Past year alcohol dependence symptoms were significantly associated with both past year and lifetime depression. Lifetime depression was higher among White and Latina lesbians than among African American lesbians. Younger women and those not currently in a committed relationship more commonly reported past year depression. Younger age was the strongest predictor of the co-occurrence of depression and alcohol dependence symptoms.     

Comparing drug use between welfare-receiving arrestees and non-welfare-receiving arrestees

The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (PRWORA) symbolized a comprehensive change to the nation's welfare system. Despite several provisions within PRWORA that focus on the use of illegal drugs, few studies have attempted to identify the prevalence of illegal drug use among welfare recipients. Moreover, no scholarly works have compared rates of drug use in welfare-receiving populations to those of non-welfare-receiving populations with an objective measure of drug use. In the current study, urine specimens were collected from 1,572 arrestees interviewed through Houston's Arrestee Drug Abuse Monitoring (ADAM) Program in 1999. Drug positive rates are compared between welfare-receiving arrestees (n = 116), non-welfare receiving arrestees living below the poverty level (n = 539), and non-welfare receiving arrestees living above the poverty level (n = 917). Welfare-receiving arrestees were more likely to be female, older, less educated, and to test positive for opiates and benzodiazepines than the other subgroups. Implications for welfare reform policy are discussed in light of the current findings.     

Wheelchair coasting downhill is a reliable work task

OBJECTIVE: To measure test-retest reliability of physiological responses during submaximal wheelchair downhill and horizontal treadmill ergometry. DESIGN: A test-retest design was used on a convenience sample. Four male and three female non-wheelchair users, (22-43 years of age) propelled or coasted in a wheelchair under steady-state conditions. Four minute work bouts were performed at 1, 2, 3, and 4 km/hr. (0.62, 1.24, 1.86 and 2.5 mph, respectively) at 0 degrees, -2 degrees, and -4 degrees. Subjects were studied twice under each of the 12 conditions. Six tests were performed daily, with testing occurring over four days. Dependent variables included oxygen consumption, minute ventilation and heart. Intraclass correlation coefficients were determined for each set of paired tests. RESULTS: Intraclass correlation coefficients were high for absolute VO_{2}(R=0.84-0.99), V_{E} (R=0.86-0.98) and HR (R=0.95-1.0) over the range of 4 speeds and 3 inclinations studied. On average, % differences from test 1 to test 2 were less than 3%. CONCLUSION: At the treadmill speeds and inclinations (positive and negative) studied in this investigation, untrained wheelchair users responded in a physiologically reliable manner.     

Adolescent cigarette smoking in U.S. racial/ethnic subgroups: findings from the National Education Longitudinal Study

Using nationally representative data for 16,454 8th graders and 13,840 10th graders, we explore racial/ethnic differences in "daily cigarette initiation," beginning to smoke on a daily basis between baseline interviews and reinterviews conducted two years later. In both samples, the initiation rate among whites is more than double the rate among blacks and higher than rates among Asian/Pacific Islanders and Hispanics. Risk factors at the individual, family, and peer-group levels of analysis do not explain most racial/ethnic differences. We develop alternative hypotheses by extending theories of cigarette use to the school level, and we test them using multilevel models: Consistent with social learning theory, cigarette risk among blacks and Hispanics decreases as the percentage of racial/ethnic minority students in the school increases. Consistent with strain theory, cigarette risk increases with the academic competitiveness of the school--especially among females--after controlling for the adolescent's academic performance.     

Impact of Japanese investment in U.S. automobile production

The transfer of automobile production by Japanese firms to the United States represents a giant direct foreign investment. Using the disaggregated NIRA U.S.-Japan model in the framework of Project LINK, this article evaluates the impact of these investments on the U.S. and Japanese economies. The benefit in terms of auto production, capacity, employment, activity in supplier industries, and aggregate GNP in the United States is readily apparent. Japanese industry has incentives to move production into the United States to avoid protectionism and to guard against adverse movements of the exchange rate and production costs, but there is some loss in output and related variables in Japan.     

Further Notes on Public Response to Uncertainty in Risks and Science

Given the prevalence of uncertainty and variability in estimates of environmental health risks, it is important to know how citizens interpret information representing uncertainty in risk estimates. Ranges of risk estimates from a hypothetical industry source elicited divergent evaluations of risk assessors' honesty and competence among New Jersey residents within one mile of one or more factories. A plurality saw ranges of risk estimates as both honest and competent, but with most judging such ranges as deficient on one or both dimensions. They wanted definitive conclusions about safety, tended to believe the high end of the range was more likely to be an accurate estimate of the risk, and believed that institutions only discuss risks when they are "high." Acknowledgment of scientific, as opposed to self-interested, reasons for uncertainty and disputes among experts was low. Attitude toward local industry seemed associated with, if not a cause of, attitudes about ranges of risk estimates. These reactions by industry neighbors appear to replicate the findings of Johnson and Slovic (1995, 1998), despite the hypothetical producer of risk estimates being industry instead of government. Respondents were older and less educated on average than were the earlier samples, but more diverse. Regression analyses suggested attitude toward industry was a major factor in these reactions, although other explanations (e.g., level of scientific understanding independent of general education) were not tested in this study.     

Vocational rehabilitation in multiple sclerosis (MS): a profile of clients seeking services

Although a number of innovative vocational rehabilitation (VR) demonstration projects have been completed with MS populations, there remains a lack of clarity as to a profile of these VR participants. An effort is made in this article to carefully describe the demographic and occupational characteristics of people with MS seeking vocational services at intake, as well as their self-perceived psychosocial functioning across a range of pertinent measures. The issue of "program dropouts" in VR services for people with MS is also addressed. Implications for better understanding participants with MS within the VR process and improved nuances in service delivery are then discussed.