Development Guidelines from a Study of Suicide Prevention Mobile Applications (Apps)

Every day, Americans are inundated with advertisements and appeals to purchase the latest mobile technology in the form of smart phones, tablets, and their accompanying applications (apps). Human service organizations (HSOs) across the United States have begun to recognize that apps can provide a valuable resource for individuals and communities by addressing social issues. Additionally, forward-thinking HSOs are aware that apps are a fresh and important way of reaching a rapidly changing, tech-savvy population. But just like the marketplace at large yields a variety of apps that range from useful and engaging to poorly contrived and ineffective, HSOs' foray into app development has achieved mixed results. This report analyzes existing mobile applications available for one specific field of HSO service delivery—suicide prevention—in order to describe what is currently available and to generate beginning guidelines for the development, implementation, and evaluation of new suicide prevention apps for underserved populations. Twenty-seven apps were analyzed and recommendations for HSOs and future research are presented.     

Immigrant Settlement Work in Canada: Limits and Possibilities for Professionalization

Cet article dépeint l’émergence du travail d’établissement auprès des immigrants au Canada et explore les perspectives d'avenir de celui‐ci en tant que profession. À l'heure actuelle, le travail d'établissement comprend trois formes de pratique : (1) un travail aux contours flous; (2) une spécialité du travail social; et (3) une profession en émergence. Cet article soutient que le travail d'établissement aura probablement un avenir professionnel. Cependant, la question de savoir s'il devient une profession indépendante dépend en grande partie du régime de financement du secteur des services d'établissement. Si le régime de financement fédéral et à court terme continue d'exister, le travail d'établissement cherchera encore sa définition au sein du domaine général du travail de service social. S'il émerge un régime de financement provincial et à long terme, les perspectives d'un travail d'établissement professionnel et indépendant s'amélioreront. This paper portrays the emergence of Canadian settlement work with immigrants and explores its prospects as an occupation. Currently, settlement work includes three forms of practice: (1) a loose occupation; (2) a specialty of social work; and (3) an emerging profession. The paper argues that settlement work is likely to have a professional future. However, whether or not it will become an independent profession depends largely on the funding regime of the settlement service sector. If the existing federal and short‐term funding regime continues, settlement work will still be trying to define itself in the broader field of social service work. If a provincial and long‐term funding regime emerges, prospects for an independent professional settlement work will improve.     

Racial Discrimination, Post Traumatic Stress, and Gambling Problems among Urban Aboriginal Adults in Canada

Little is known about risk factors for problem gambling (PG) within the rapidly growing urban Aboriginal population in North America. Racial discrimination may be an important risk factor for PG given documented associations between racism and other forms of addictive behaviour. This study examined associations between racial discrimination and problem gambling among urban Aboriginal adults, and the extent to which this link was mediated by post traumatic stress. Data were collected via in-person surveys with a community-based sample of Aboriginal adults living in a mid-sized city in western Canada (N = 381) in 2010. Results indicate more than 80 % of respondents experienced discrimination due to Aboriginal race in the past year, with the majority reporting high levels of racism in that time period. Past year racial discrimination was a risk factor for 12-month problem gambling, gambling to escape, and post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms in bootstrapped regression models adjusted for confounders and other forms of social trauma. Elevated PTSD symptoms among those experiencing high levels of racism partially explained the association between racism and the use of gambling to escape in statistical models. These findings are the first to suggest racial discrimination may be an important social determinant of problem gambling for Aboriginal peoples. Gambling may be a coping response that some Aboriginal adults use to escape the negative emotions associated with racist experiences. Results support the development of policies to reduce racism directed at Aboriginal peoples in urban areas, and enhanced services to help Aboriginal peoples cope with racist events.     

Generations Linked: A Case Example of Māori Grandparents

This article offers an analysis of the significance of intergenerational living patterns and relationships as the mechanisms by which Pacific grandparents preserve and transmit indigenous cultural values, beliefs, and practices. A case example from a study conducted among Māori grandparents in Aotearoa, New Zealand, serves as the core focus of discussion. Seventeen grandparents were interviewed about their lived experiences in their multiple generation homes. Findings indicate that intergenerational life is a means for linking generations and transmission of indigenous culture to the next generation. Participants discussed their intergenerational relationship with much affection and love for their grandchildren and family. Discussion and implications for future research and practice are provided.     

What’s a Parent to Do? How Parents Respond to Notification of a Child’s Police Detention

The current qualitative study involved in-depth semistructured interviews with parents whose children had been taken into custody. Their initial emotional reactions, cognitive processing, and behavioral responses to their child’s detention were examined. Five themes emerged from the data: (1) Parents try to defer immediate interactions with the child rather than react out of emotion; (2) Parents feel anger toward their child, but disappointment and shock are more strongly expressed emotional responses; (3) Parents do not accept the behavior but do not reject their child; (4) Police behaviors communicate the seriousness of the act; and (5) The entire family suffers consequences from the child’s act. Findings highlight the experiences of the parents as they interacted with the juvenile justice system.     

Urban Poverty,Ethnicity, and Personality Development

There are multiple factors which contribute to the development of the individual’s personality. Many of these factors have been amply discussed in traditional theories of personality Jonnation. An area that has been neglected in these discussions has been the role that poverty and ethnic and cultural factors may have in this regard. This paper offers a discussion of these issues with special emphasis on cultural, ethnic, and socioeconomic factors which tend to characterize the lives of Latino and Black individuals. Recommendations are made for a re-evaluation of the traditional theories of personality when applied to poor and minority individuals.     

Childhood Sexual Abuse Severity Reconsidered: A Factor Structure of CSA Characteristics

To address the lack of empirically grounded measures of childhood sexual abuse severity, a survey of self-report items was developed following a thorough review of the childhood sexual abuse literature. An exploratory factor analysis was conducted using data collected from a convenience sample of college students that included 275 females and males with a history of childhood sexual abuse. The solution produced seven factors interpreted as the following: (a) less intrusive forms of childhood sexual abuse (e.g., sexual invitations, kissing), (b) more intrusive forms of childhood sexual abuse (e.g., oral sex, intercourse), (c) humiliation/fear, (d) childhood sexual abuse involving photography, (e) familiarity with the perpetrator, (f) physical force/rape, and (g) active digital penetration. Correlations among these factors further suggested the existence of two relatively independent second-order factors, one based on the levels of physical intrusiveness and the other composed of the psychological/emotional factors. While arguably the most common measurement of severity, physical intrusiveness had little association with critical factors such as humiliation, fear, and association with the perpetrator. Consequently, physical intrusiveness appears to be an inadequate stand-alone measure of childhood sexual abuse severity. These results are proposed to lay the groundwork for an improved, more comprehensive measure of childhood sexual abuse severity.     

Finding Primary Publics: A Test of the Third-Person Perception in Corporate Crisis Situations

Exaggerated projections of the 3rd-person effect of crisis news on target groups may play a key role in escalating corporate crises. A 2 (locus of control: internal vs. external) × 2 (product category of crisis: food vs. laptop) experiment found that the 3rd-person perception varies as a function of product category. Our results indicated that in a laptop product category crisis, participants perceived target audiences to be more influenced than themselves when locus of control was internal rather than when it was external. This study delved into the potential effect on target groups and the corporation resulting from possible exaggerated perceptions of the impact of the crisis on the target groups. This perception may prompt or even pressure target audiences to react more strongly in keeping with the perceived impact, not their actual concern with the crisis. In turn, corporations may respond to a target audience based on the reaction the target audience feels obligated to portray in response to perceived impact, not actual impact measured independently in various ways.     

Using experiential knowledge to understand urban rat ecology: A survey of Canadian pest control professionals

Rats (Rattus rattus and Rattus norvegicus) are among the most prolific and widespread urban pest species in the world. However, there is relatively little contemporary data regarding the ecology of rats in urban centers, preventing the development of effective strategies for urban rat management. Practical constraints associated with field studies suggest the need for more efficient methods of data collection, one of which could involve pest control professionals, who have considerable experiential knowledge of urban rats. The objective of this study was to gather data regarding urban rat ecology through a survey of Canadian pest control professionals and to determine whether such a survey could be useful for the collection of ecological data regarding pest species. Survey results suggested that rat infestations fluctuate seasonally and that there are a variety of environmental factors that may attract rats, particularly exposed garbage, abandoned buildings, and compost. Respondents suggested that rat infestations are most frequent and/or severe in residential areas, commercial areas dealing with food, as well as in neighborhoods of low socioeconomic status. The majority of respondents believed that rats pose at least a moderate health risk to the general public and to themselves, and they also believed that although poison baiting is the cheapest and easiest method of rat control, environmental modification is the most effective way to control rat infestations in the long term. Despite issues with low response rates, these results suggest that pest control professionals may be a valuable source of data regarding urban pest species.     

Creating the park cool island in an inner-city neighborhood: heat mitigation strategy for Phoenix, AZ

We conducted microclimate simulations in ENVI-Met 3.1 to evaluate the impact of vegetation in lowering temperatures during an extreme heat event in an urban core neighborhood park in Phoenix, Arizona. We predicted air and surface temperatures under two different vegetation regimes: existing conditions representative of Phoenix urban core neighborhoods, and a proposed scenario informed by principles of landscape design and architecture and Urban Heat Island mitigation strategies. We found significant potential air and surface temperature reductions between representative and proposed vegetation scenarios: 1) a Park Cool Island effect that extended to non-vegetated surfaces; 2) a net cooling of air underneath or around canopied vegetation ranging from 0.9 °C to 1.9 °C during the warmest time of the day; and 3) potential reductions in surface temperatures from 0.8 °C to 8.4 °C in areas underneath or around vegetation.