Racial differences in end-of-life planning: why don't Blacks and Latinos prepare for the inevitable?

I evaluate the extent to which ethnic disparities in advance care planning reflect cultural and religious attitudes and experience with the painful deaths of loved ones. Data are from a sample of 293 chronically ill older adults who are seeking care at one of two large medical centers in urban New Jersey. Blacks and Hispanics are significantly less likely than Whites to have a living will, a durable power of attorney for health care (DPAHC), and to have discussed their end of life treatment preferences. Multivariate analyses reveal that the Black-White gap in advance care planning is largely accounted for by Blacks' belief that God controls the timing and nature of death. The Hispanic-White gap is partially accounted for by the belief that one's illness negatively affects one's family. Ethnic disparities are starkest for living will and DPAHC use, and less pronounced for discussions. Implications for policy and practice are discussed.     

Ilya Neustadt, Norbert Elias, and the Leicester Department: personal correspondence and the history of sociology in Britain

The central aims of this paper are: (1) to explore the utility of using personal correspondence as a source of data for sociological investigations into the history of sociology in the UK; (2) in relation to this undertaking, to advance the beginnings of a figurational analysis of epistolary forms; and (3), to provide an empirically-grounded discussion of the historical significance of the Department of Sociology at the University of Leicester (a University largely ignored in 'standard histories' of the subject) at a formative phase in the development of the discipline within the UK. The correspondence drawn upon in the paper is between Norbert Elias and Ilya Neustadt between 1962 and 1964 when Elias was Professor of Sociology at the University of Ghana and Ilya Neustadt was Professor of Sociology and Head of the Sociology Department at the University of Leicester. From an analysis of this correspondence, we elucidate an emergent dynamic to the relationship between Neustadt and Elias, one which, we argue, undergirds the development of sociology at Leicester and the distinctive character of the intellectual climate that prevailed there during the 1960s. The paper concludes with a consideration of whether it was a collapse of this dynamic that led to a total breakdown in the relationship between Neustadt and Elias, and by extension, an important phase in the expansion of sociology at Leicester.     

“They're not my favourite people”: What mothers who have experienced intimate partner violence say about involvement in the child protection system

Although the primary aim of child protection services (CPS) is to ensure the well-being and safety of children, policy decision-makers and service providers are increasingly concerned about the potential harm children encounter when they witness the abuse of their caregivers. Researchers who have conducted reviews of child protection files in both Canada and the United States report that few cases in which intimate partner violence (IPV) is substantiated are referred for additional services. In this article, we question whether this response is appropriate. Through examining the results of a qualitative study with sixty-four women who experienced IPV and were thus involved in the child protection system, we have been able to analyze the impact of CPS practices on those women who received services and those who did not. Our findings suggest that CPS can be an important resource for women who experience IPV, but changes to current practices are necessary to ensure that services offered are beneficial.     

Youth development and the camp experience

The organized camp experience has been an important part of the lives of children, youth, and adults for over 150 years. The camp experience is a way for young people to explore and search for an authenticity often missing in other parts of their lives that contributes to their healthy transition into adulthood. Over the past decade, tremendous growth in the volume and rigor of camp-related research has occurred, facilitated by a targeted research agenda conducted by the American Camp Association. This agenda was founded on three national research projects conducted between 2003 and 2007: a study to identify the developmental outcomes of the camp experience, a benchmarking study of the youth development supports and opportunities provided through camp experiences, and a program improvement project directed toward enhancing supports and opportunities provided by camps. The findings from these research projects suggest that camp experiences promote developmental outcomes in both campers and staff and that camps provide the supports and opportunities needed for positive youth development. This article explores the developmental outcomes of the camp experience and the characteristics of the supports and opportunities afforded by camp experiences, including settings, structures, and programs and activities, as a way to provide a clearer understanding of camp as a positive youth development setting. Innovations and opportunities in research related to the provision of quality camp experiences are also considered.     

Defining risk drinking

Many efforts to prevent alcohol-related harm are aimed at reducing risk drinking. This article outlines the many conceptual and methodological challenges to defining risk drinking. It summarizes recent evidence regarding associations of various aspects of alcohol consumption with chronic and acute alcohol-related harms, including mortality, morbidity, injury, and alcohol use disorders, and summarizes the study designs most appropriate to defining risk thresholds for these types of harm. In addition, it presents an international overview of low-risk drinking guidelines from more than 20 countries, illustrating the wide range of interpretations of the scientific evidence related to risk drinking. This article also explores the impact of drink size on defining risk drinking and describes variation in what is considered to be a standard drink across populations. Actual and standard drink sizes differ in the United States, and this discrepancy affects definitions of risk drinking and prevention efforts.     

Setting and maintaining standards in menopause care: audit of current practice in a specialist clinic

Standards are an important way of demonstrating quality of care in any given setting. The British Menopause Society (BMS) has produced guidelines as to what should be recorded at the initial menopause consultation. A retrospective audit of case-notes of women attending Poole Menopause Centre was undertaken using these criteria as audit standards. Although areas of good practice were highlighted, the published criteria were met for only five of the 23 standards. An action plan to improve the documentation to achieve these standards has been formulated.     

Action e-learning: An exploratory case study of action learning applied online

Abstract

Web-based instruction, also called e-learning, is currently one of the most talked-about education and training media. To prepare courses for online delivery and to maintain their effectiveness, the designer must have an understanding of e-learning instructional design principles. Action learning is a proven, effective management development process that has not been implemented to date as an e-learning instructional methodology. The purpose of this exploratory case study was to examine the impact of the action learning process on the effectiveness of management level web-based instruction (WBI). A leader-led, management-level course using face-to-face delivery was converted to web-based instruction where action learning was the delivery methodology. Kirkpatrick's Four Levels of Evaluation served as the evaluation tool to determine effectiveness of the intervention. It was found that, though challenging to facilitate, the action learning online method is effective and yields changes in participants' knowledge. However, contrary to expectations, online learning communities did not form.     

Children changing spaces,changing schools

Children's participation remains controversial in United Kingdom schools where children and their communities rarely have opportunity to change what happens. This paper considers an original approach that developed cooperative intergenerational inquiry with a class of 10–11-year-olds in the north of England as part of complexity-informed participatory action research to consider children's participation in schools. Children and adults considered together, what schools are for, at the same time enabling children to shape spaces for participation in lesson time. The importance of recognising these spaces as dynamic intra-subjective meeting points and of intergenerational relationships for change in schools is revealed.     

No Compelling Evidence That Newborns Imitate Oral Gestures

Newborns (N = 83) were presented with 3 conditions, each for 160 sec: tongue protrusion (TP), mouth opening (MO), and control (CO). In TP and MO, a female model alternated between demonstrating the gesture for 20 sec and presenting a passive, motionless face for 20 sec. In CO, she presented a passive face in both the “demonstration” and “passive” intervals. The participants' eyes were more widely open in the demonstration intervals of TP and MO than in the passive intervals, indicating that they were attending to the gestures. In TP, the participants produced more TP responses than MO responses, but in MO there was no effect, undermining the neonatal imitation hypothesis.