A Note on Logistic Regression and Odds Ratios

Abstract

Observed seat belt use on a private university campus was compared with use by the general population of the state in which the university is located. It was expected, given the higher educational level and socioeconomic status of the university population, that seat belt use would be higher than it is for the general population. The results of the study indicated that seat belt use by members of the university community was actually significantly lower than that reported statewide. The statistically significant difference was even greater for front-seat passengers than for drivers on campus.     

Forcible,Drug-Facilitated,and Incapacitated Rape and Sexual Assault Among Undergraduate Women

Abstract

Objective: To examine the prevalence of drug-related sexual assaults, identify the frequency of assaults that occur following voluntary versus involuntary drug or alcohol consumption, and identify contextual correlates of drug-related assaults. Participants: College-student females (n = 314). Methods: Volunteers reported experiences with forcible and drug-related sexual assaults in the spring semester of 2004. Follow-up queries regarding the most severe drug-related assaults determined whether the assaults followed voluntary or involuntary alcohol or drug consumption. Results: 29.6% (n = 93) of the respondents reported a drug-related sexual assault or rape; 5.4% (n = 17) reported a forcible sexual assault or rape. Voluntary incapacitation preceded 84.6% of drug-related assaults and involuntary incapacitation preceded 15.4% of drug-related assaults. The majority of drug-related assaults (96.1%) involved alcohol consumption prior to assault. Conclusions: Drug-related sexual assaults on college campuses are more frequent than are forcible assaults and are most frequently preceded by voluntary alcohol consumption.     

The Impact of Experiential Exercises on Communication and Relational Skills in a Suicide Prevention Gatekeeper-Training Program for College Resident Advisors

Abstract

Objective: In an effort to identify students at risk for suicide, many colleges are implementing suicide prevention training for campus gatekeepers. This study evaluated the efficacy of a 3-hour, experiential-based gatekeeper training that included an emphasis on enhancing communication skills and relational connection in addition to the didactic foci of standard gatekeeper training. Participants: Sixty-five college student resident advisors (RAs) were trained with Campus Connect. Methods: The training was dismantled to examine the specific contribution of experiential exercises on training outcomes. Results: Compared to didactic training alone, following participation in experiential exercises RAs’ training outcome scores exhibited additional improvement on the Suicide Intervention Response Inventory–2 and a 14-item self-report measure of self-efficacy for specific suicide- and crisis-related knowledge and skills. Conclusions: In gatekeeper training, experiential exercises emphasizing awareness and empathic responding and practice of these skills contribute to an improvement in crisis response skills above and beyond that of didactic training alone.     

Exploring Definitions of Financial Abuse in Elderly Korean Immigrants: The Contribution of Traditional Cultural Values

The purpose of this study is to explore the cultural definitions of financial abuse from the perspective of 124 elderly Korean immigrants and to examine the role of traditional cultural values in their definitions by using a mixed methods approach. The qualitative analysis generated four themes relevant to definition of financial abuse. A binary logistic regression indicated that those with stronger cultural adherence to traditional values had higher odds of providing culture-based definitions of financial abuse. Education is needed for health professionals, social service providers, and adult protective workers to increase their understanding of culture-specific experiences of financial abuse among ethnic minority elders.     

Emotional Labor and Health Care

We examine the literature on emotional labor and health care to demonstrate the potential for emotional labor research to inform how social and medical scientists think about health care and how examining healthcare contexts has contributed to the scientific understanding of emotional labor processes. In doing so, we first review the key terms and definitions that are used within the emotion management perspective and evaluate the ways in which power differences have remained largely implicit features of research on emotional labor in healthcare settings. Finally, we explore how the increasing economic rationalization of health care may be influencing the emotional experiences of today's healthcare professionals and the implications of this trend for future research on emotional labor and the health and well-being of care providers and their patients.     

Crime,antisocial personality and pathological gambling

To investigate the hypothesized causal relationship between pathological gambling and gambling-related illegal behaviors, 77 patients seeking behavioral treatment for excessive gambling and 32 members of Gamblers Anonymous were administered a structured interview schedule. Data on the incidence, nature and extent of both gambling and non-gambling related illegal behaviors was obtained and DSM-III (A.P.A., 1980) criteria for Antisocial personality were used as the measure of sociopathy.Of the sample, 54.1% admitted to a gambling related offense and 21.1% were charged. Results showed that 14.6% met DSM-III criteria for Antisocial Personality, Four subgroups were subsequently identified; gamblers who committed no offense (36.7%), gambling only offenses (40.4%), non-gambling only offenses (9.2%) or both gambling and non-gambling offenses (13.7%). Significantly more subjects from the gambling plus non-gambling related offenses subgroup were classified as antisocial personalities.Of pathological gamblers who committed offenses, two thirds reportedly did so as a direct consequence of gambling induced problems. Subjects reporting gambling-only related offenses showed a significant increase in antisocial features after adolescence suggesting that antisocial features emerge as a secondary phenomenon to pathological gambling behavior patterns.Acknowledgments: This study was made possible by a grant from the Criminology Research Council, Australian Institute of Criminology.     

Lindesmith on Addiction: A Critical History of a Classic Theory

The evolution of Alfred Lindesmith's classic theory of addiction is analyzed as a product of the particular intellectual currents and controversies in and for which it was developed. These include the conflicts that pitted qualitative against quantitative sociology; the fledgling discipline of sociology against medicine, psychiatry, and psychology; and advocates of therapy for addicts against those who would simply punish them. By casting the meaningful experience of drug effects exclusively in terms of symbolically mediated mental representations of brute physiological sensations, Lindesmith's theory posits an epistemologically untenable dualism between mental and bodily perception that unnecessarily limits the explanatory scope of sociological research. As an alternative to this dualism, a praxiological approach to the meaning of drug-induced behavior and experience is proposed.     

Group therapists' countertransference reactions to multiple deaths from aids

Group therapists for those with HIV Related Diseases are becoming the “professional” survivors of this world-wide epidemic. From their experiences we may learn a great deal more about the effects of multiple deaths on mental health care professionals. As therapists they are constantly eliciting and listening to the fears, hopes, agonies and terrors of those with this disease. They become the bereaved. Witnesses to the deaths of many of their group members, they struggle with a wide range of emotional responses while at the same time assisting surviving group members in their struggle to live with these deaths. Mourning reactions and countertransference phenomena are in abundance as these therapists grapple with these group processes. This article identifies and examines these therapists' responses by focusing on clinical illustrations drawn from their bi-weekly supervision sessions.