The epidemiology of schizophrenia among Caribbean-born and first- and second-generation migrants in Britain

The study of migrants in their new environments is often a useful means of investigating environmental influences on health. Migrants have been found to develop higher rates of mental illness compared to their counterparts who remain at home. These deleterious effects of migration have been attributed to selection factors and stressful life experiences. Migration from an agricultural and traditional society to an urban industrial society where value systems can be demanding, often leads to role strain and role conflict. These kinds of incongruities are the beginning of a series of stressful experiences that contribute to poor health/mental health status. The extent to which one experiences stress is dependent on a number of factors. First, it depends on the perceived difference between home and the new environment. Second, it depends on the cultural homogeneity of the new environment, that is, the extent to which the migrant is readily assimilated into the new culture or is able to maintain a traditional lifestyle by living in an ethnic enclave, and the psychological resources available to successfully access services in the new environment. This paper examines the rates, incidence, and prevalence of schizophrenia found in Caribbean-born immigrants to Britain, and first- and second-generation people of Caribbean background born in Britain. It is argued that Afro-Caribbean people in England are overrepresented in the diagnosis of schizophrenia. Factors that may contribute to this finding range from unemployment, social disadvantage status, social adversity, racism in the health and criminal justice systems, and misdiagnosis.This paper was completed when the author served as Distinguished Visiting Professor-William Patterson College, Wayne, New Jersey.     

Circuits of schooling: A sociological exploration of parental choice of school in social class contexts

Parental choice of school is one of the main platforms of government education policy and is the centre piece of the Parents Charter. But sociological understanding of choice and choice-making is woefully underdeveloped. This paper draws on an ESRC study of market forces in education to explore social class variations in choice of school in one specific locality. The complexity of choice-making is portrayed using data from interviews with parents and it is argued that middle-class parents are taking full advantage of ‘the market’ to sustain or re-assert their class advantages.     

Beyond recruitment: Predictors of differential participation in a national antihunger organization

Surprisingly little research has sought to explain differential participation after recruitment into social movement organizations (SMOs). This study examines the influence of several sets of predictors on participation by members of a national organization in the antihunger movement. The findings highlight the importance of incentive, ideological, and microstructural factors for differential participation and suggest that favorable perceptions of SMOs also promote participation. Final remarks address the implications of the findings for the social movement and voluntary organization literatures.     

A case of suspected child abuse by an adolescent mother: The use of short-term psychotherapy

The incidence of pregnancy during adolescence has escalated dramatically in recent years, with an estimated half a million infants born to teenagers each year in the United States. A disproportionately high amount of child abuse and/or neglect is encountered among adolescent parents, underscoring the need for an effective intervention strategy. Short-term psychotherapy may be beneficial in these cases for forging a therapeutic alliance expeditiously and rigorously challenging the patient's resistance. The case described involves alleged abuse by a 16-year-old mother. An intervention was designed to clarify the allegations surrounding the abusive incident, help the mother confront episodes of loss in her own life and overcome feelings of hopelessness engendered by separation from her infant.     

log-logistic survival estimation based on failure-censored data

Approximations of the Bayesian estimators of the survival function based on the censored data of the log-logistic distribution are obtained under squared-error and log-odds squared-error loss functions. A numerical example is presented. Through a Monte Carlo simulation study, the behavior of the approximations found by Tierney & Kadane and Lindley are compared with a method suggested by Weiss & Howlader.     

THE SOLUTION-ORIENTED GENOGRAM: A COLLABORATIVE APPROACH

Developed primarily by Bowenian intergenerational therapists, genograms have evolved into largely atheoretical tools used by many therapists. Given that constructivist-based therapies have become the most popular genre of contemporary family therapies (Sprenkle & Piercy, 1992), the author examines how genograms can be used to augment a solution-oriented approach. Specific interventions, case examples, and potential problems associated with such an approach are discussed, along with potential implications for family-of-origin work.