Mental health and behavioral problems of youth in the child welfare system: residential treatment centers compared to therapeutic foster care in the Odyssey Project population

This is the first multisite, prospective study of behavioral and mental health disorders of youth in residential treatment centers (RTC) and therapeutic foster care (TFC), and the first study to compare the two. This study addressed two questions in a sample of 22 agencies in 13 states: (1) how prevalent were emotional and behavioral disorders in the youth admitted to RTCs and TFC?, and (2) were the youth in RTCs significantly more likely to be disturbed than youth served in TFCs? Data were drawn from the Time 1 phase of the longitudinal national "Odyssey Project" developed by the Child Welfare League of America (1995). Measures included an extensive child and family characteristics form (CFC) and the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL). The results revealed extremely high levels of behavioral and mental health disorders in the sample as a whole, well above the norms for a non-child welfare population. The prevalence of disorder in the RTC population was substantially greater than in the TFC population.     

Actual versus perceived risk of cervical cancer among college women smokers

Cervical cancer is a well-established smoking-related illness, but many at-risk women are unaware of this link. OBJECTIVE: The authors designed this study to (1) investigate the relationship of smoking behavior with the history of abnormal Pap test results, sexual history, and perceived risk of cervical cancer and (2) determine whether self-classified smoking status (and hence perceived risk) corresponds with actual smoking behavior in a college student population. PARTICIPANTS AND METHOD SUMMARY: College women students (N = 135) completed a survey assessing smoking history, health history, sexual risk behavior, and risk awareness. RESULTS: Relative to those who had not smoked in the past month, current smokers (n = 36, or 27% of the total sample) perceived themselves to be at higher risk for developing cervical cancer, but did not demonstrate increased awareness of specific cervical cancer risk factors, including smoking. Twenty-eight percent (10 of 36) of past-month smokers did not define themselves as current smokers. CONCLUSION: The authors conclude that anti-smoking and health-related messages targeting smokers may misfire for individuals who do not define themselves as smokers but are nonetheless at risk for smoking-related consequences and escalating use.     

Exercise behavior in older adults: a test of the transtheoretical model

The transtheoretical model (TTM) was developed as a guide for understanding behavior change. Little attention has been given, however, to the appropriateness of the TTM for explaining the adoption of exercise behavior in older adults. The purposes of this study were to determine the reliability of the TTM instruments and validate TTM predictions in 86 community-dwelling older adults (mean age 75.1 +/- 7.0 years, 87% women) who were participants in a 16-week walking program. TTM construct scales--self-efficacy, decisional balance (pros and cons), and processes of change (behavioral and cognitive)--were generally reliable (all>.78). Behavioral processes of change increased from baseline to follow-up, but pros, cons, and cognitive processes did not change among participants who became regular exercisers. Stage of change did not predict exercise adoption, but baseline self-efficacy predicted walking behavior. These results lend partial support to the TTM in predicting exercise behavior.     

Population planning and change in Singapore

Population planning in Singapore has always been linked to economic planning. Lacking natural resources on an island 536 sq. kms. in size, the physical carrying capacity was not large so that the government had to resort to careful economic planning to overcome this constraint. The “stop at 2” population policy of 1965–87 was designed to support the economic plans to improve the quality of life of the people. Restraint of population growth was promoted as a necessary move serving the common good of Singaporeans as the country struggled in her early years of independence to build a nation. By 1983, however, Singapore switched from being antinatal to being pronatal. The environmental determinism school that influenced population planning gave way to environmental possibilism in which man is the main agent determining his own actions in the population-environment relationship. Technology has allowed the leadership of Singapore to make use of the global economy as its hinterland. By concentrating on the high-end service sector, such as mercantile banking or currency markets, Singapore has used the new information age of computers to take advantage of the changing world market. The “quality” population required to do this job is missing, thus the “have 3 or more if you can afford it” policy.     

Modeling IS Planning Benefits Using ACE

This paper addresses the dearth of research on the determinants of IS planning benefits. Data were collected using a questionnaire survey of top IS executives from 450 companies in Singapore. Of the 103 responses (representing a response rate of 23%), 65 companies undertook IS planning. To test the hypothesis that the determinant-benefit relationships are likely to be nonlinear, the Alternating Conditional Expectations (ACE) algorithm was used. This appears to be the first use of ACE in IS planning research. IS sophistication, communications culture, technology forecasting, top management support, and firm size were found to be nonlinearly related to IS planning benefits (e.g., improved competitiveness, operations, and resource management). For example, IS sophistication affects improved competitiveness positively, and improved resource management negatively. It seems that IS sophistication is directed more at improving competitiveness, even though this may result in less efficient resource management due to bureaucratic procedures. However, at higher levels of IS sophistication, competitiveness stagnates and may even decrease, possibly due to bureaucratic bottlenecks. Implications of our results are discussed.