The credibility of shock advocacy: Animal rights attack messages

This study examined the impact of a graphic animal rights campaign launched by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) against alleged abuses on a corporate farm. It considered the impact of the campaign upon the credibility of the target of the campaign as well as the producer of the campaign. Results indicated that PETA's attack message against abuses at corporate pig farms was effective in eroding the credibility of the corporate food-industry raising animals for consumption. At the same time, PETA's credibility rose overall after participants viewed the PETA attack message.     

Trends in smoking cessation: a Markov model approach

Intervention trials such as studies on smoking cessation may observe multiple, discrete outcomes over time. When the outcome is binary, participant observations may alternate between two states over the course of the study. The generalized estimating equation (GEE) approach is commonly used to analyze binary, longitudinal data in the context of independent variables. However, the sequence of observations may be assumed to follow a Markov chain with stationary transition probabilities when observations are made at fixed time points. Participants favoring the transition to one particular state over the other would be evidence of a trend in the observations. Using a log-transformed trend parameter, the determinants of a trend in a binary, longitudinal study may be evaluated by maximizing the likelihood function. A new methodology is presented here to test for the presence and determinants of a trend in binary, longitudinal observations. Empirical studies are evaluated and comparisons are made with the GEE approach. Practical application of the proposed method is made to the data available from an intervention study on smoking cessation.     

DSM-5 substance use disorders among college-age young adults in the United States: Prevalence,remission and treatment

Abstract

Objective: To determine the prevalence, remission, and treatment associated with DSM-5 substance use disorders (SUDs) among young adults based on college attendance. Participants: The population-based sample included 2,057 young adults aged 19–23 in college/school and 1,213 not currently attending college/school who participated from April 2012 through June 2013. Methods: Face-to-face interviews were conducted as part of a cross-sectional national survey. Results: The prevalence of any past-year DSM-5 SUD was 39.6% among young adults in college and 44.5% among those not attending college. Past-year tobacco use disorder and multiple DSM-5 SUDs were more prevalent among those not attending college. Among those with prior-to-past-year SUDs, abstinent remission was low among college (1.0%) and noncollege (1.9%) young adults. Conclusions: Approximately two in five U.S. college students had at least one past-year DSM-5 SUD. Sustained abstinent remission from SUDs is extremely rare (1–2%) and the majority of those with SUDs do not receive treatment.     

Mental health and wellbeing of care leavers: Making sense of their perspectives

Despite considerable quantifiable data about the circumstances of care leavers in the United Kingdom, there is less qualitative data about how these circumstances are experienced. This article is underpinned by positioning theory, with a particular focus on the unfolding personal narratives of young care leavers in relation to their mental health and wellbeing and the role of a life‐skills programme in supporting them in this respect. The research illustrates that leaving care projects, such as the one in the current study, are more focused on employment and housing issues than on addressing the mental health and wellbeing needs of young people. Our analysis of interviews with young people illustrates the ambiguity of understandings of concepts such as “mental health” and “wellbeing,” and the complexity of responses to questioning around this area. This illustrates one of the major problems in evaluating the outputs and outcomes of such projects in terms of simplistic targets, where mental health and wellbeing are not clearly defined or understood by young people themselves. The current research provides a more complex picture. More research is needed that involves in‐depth and longitudinal assessment of specific mental health needs of care leavers and how they can be addressed successfully.     

How I Work,Then and Now: My Response to the Commentaries

This response to the commentaries on Becoming Visible: The Case of Colette considers how creative reading of clinical material allows us to enter a text from multiple perspectives and examines how meaning is produced through personal and theoretical lenses of the commentators and becomes a form of supervision. The author reflects on how she would work with the patient today and how she views the supervisory process.