Health value, perceived social support, and health self-efficacy as factors in a health-promoting lifestyle

During their college years, students may adopt healthpromoting lifestyles that bring about long-term benefits. OBJECTIVE AND PARTICIPANTS: The purpose of this study was to explore the roles of health value, family/friend social support, and health self-efficacy in the health-promoting lifestyles of a diverse sample of 162 college students. METHODS: Participants completed an Assessment Battery consisting of the following instruments: (1) a demographic questionnaire, (2) the Multi-Dimensional Support, (3) the Value on Health Scale, (4) the Self-Rated Abilities for Health Practices, (5) the Health-Promoting Lifestyle Profile II, and (6) the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale. RESULTS: Correlational analyses indicated that health value, perceived family/friend social support, and health self-efficacy were significantly associated with engagement in a health-promoting lifestyle. An analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) revealed that health value and health self-efficacy significantly predicted the level of engagement in a health-promoting lifestyle. Perceived family/friend social support was not significant in the model. As age increased, level of perceived family/friend social support decreased. CONCLUSION: Present findings suggest that health interventions programs focus on assessing and increasing health self-efficacy and health value of these youth. College health professionals can design and evaluate the effectiveness of such health-promoting interventions.     

Object exploration during the transition to sitting: A study of infants at heightened risk for autism spectrum disorder

Learning to sit promotes infants' object exploration because it offers increased access to objects and an improved position for exploration (e.g., ). Infants at heightened risk (HR) for autism spectrum disorder (ASD) exhibit delays in sitting and differences in object exploration. However, little is known about the association between sitting and object exploration among HR infants. We examined changes in object exploration as HR infants (N = 19) and comparison infants with no family history of ASD (Low Risk; LR; N = 23) gained experience sitting independently. Infants were observed monthly from 2.5 months until 1 month after the onset of independent sitting. At 12, 18, 24, and 36 months, infants completed standardized developmental assessments, and HR infants were assessed for ASD symptoms at 36 months. Although HR infants began sitting later than LR infants, both groups increased time spent grasping, shaking, banging, and mouthing objects as they gained sitting experience. Groups only differed in time spent actively mouthing objects, with LR infants showing a greater increase in active mouthing than HR infants. Findings suggest that HR infants experience a similar progression of object exploration across sitting development, but on a delayed time scale.     

Strategies for Success: Early-Stage Collaborating Biostatistics Faculty in an Academic Health Center

Collaborative biostatistics faculty (CBF) are increasingly valued by academic health centers (AHCs) for their role in increasing success rates of grants and publications, and educating medical students and clinical researchers. Some AHCs have a biostatistics department that consists of only biostatisticians focused on methodological research, collaborative research, and education. Others may have a biostatistics unit within an interdisciplinary department, or statisticians recruited into clinical departments. Within each model, there is also variability in environment, influenced by the chair's background, research focus of colleagues, type of students taught, funding sources, and whether the department is in a medical school or school of public health. CBF appointments may be tenure track or nontenure, and expectations for promotion may vary greatly depending on the type of department, track, and the AHC. In this article, the authors identify strategies for developing early-stage CBFs in four domains: (1) Influence of department/environment, (2) Skills to develop, (3) Ways to increase productivity, and (4) Ways to document accomplishments. Graduating students and postdoctoral fellows should consider the first domain when choosing a faculty position. Early-stage CBFs will benefit by understanding the requirements of their environment early in their appointment and by modifying the provided progression grid with their chair and mentoring team as needed. Following this personalized grid will increase the chances of a satisfying career with appropriate recognition for academic accomplishments.     

Partners’ overwork and individuals’ wellbeing and experienced relationship quality

In this paper, using high quality data from the Work, Family, and Health Network in a sample of IT workers in the US (N?=?590), we examine whether partners’ long work hours are associated with individuals’ perceived stress, time adequacy with partner, and relationship quality, and whether these relationships vary by gender. In addition, following the marital stress model, we investigate whether any negative correlation between partners’ long work hours and relationship quality is mediated by time adequacy or perceived stress. We find that women partnered to men who work long hours (50 or more hours per week) have significantly higher perceived stress and significantly lower time adequacy and relationship quality compared to women partnered to men who work a standard full-time work week (35–49 hours). Further, the increased stress associated with being partnered to a man who overworks, not lower time adequacy, mediates the negative relationship between overwork and relationship quality. Conversely, we find that men partnered to women who work long hours report no differences in stress, time adequacy, or relationship quality than men who are partnered to women who work a standard full-time work week.     

Challenges and Strategies of Sexual Minority Youth Research in Southwest Virginia

A research team that works on scholarship related to sexual minority issues has been conducting research and recruiting participants since the fall of 2012. In the years since the team was formed, there has been a variety of challenges with recruitment, approval for research through the Institutional Review Board, gaining access to the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and queer (LGBQ) community, and general mistrust of researchers. Using concepts from feminist-informed qualitative research methodology—including reflexivity, positionality, and engaging in research with individuals from marginalized communities—we present reflections on some of the methodological challenges the research team has encountered while trying to conduct LGBQ research in southwest Virginia. This article encompasses the viewpoints of multiple members of the research team, including those who are faculty, graduate students, and undergraduate students with identities across the sexual orientation spectrum.     

The Development and Implementation of a Multi‐Couple Therapy Model with Torture Survivors in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

In this article, we present development and feasibility of implementation of a multi‐couple group for use with torture‐surviving couples. The model was developed in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in a community that experienced widespread torture during the wars from 1998 to 2004. The Torture‐Surviving Couple Group model is a short‐term intervention designed to use few human resources to address relational difficulties resulting from exposure to traumatic stressors. The model was guided by critical and feminist epistemologies and employed an ecological lens to incorporate neurobiology and attachment processes along with narrative therapy techniques. An existing multi‐couple group model for addressing violence (Stith, Rosen, McCollum, & Thomsen, 2004 ), and a stage model for healing trauma (Herman, 1992 ) also informed the structural development of the Torture‐Surviving Couple Group model. Couple groups were conducted using a 10‐session program with 13 couples who met weekly. Session themes were incorporated into four phases emphasizing: (a) preparation; (b) safety and stabilization; (c) processing the relationship effects of trauma and grief; and (d) reintegration and rebuilding couple and family life. Couples reported and showed remarkable progress in their relationships after participating in the groups. Clinical and research implications and discussed along with the feasibility of developing and testing the model in a post‐conflict low income setting.     

Ratio profiling: the discursive construction of the continuum of alternative placements

This study highlights how the continuum of alternative placements, a requirement of U.S. federal legislation to ensure that students with disabilities are educated in the least restrictive environment, becomes a discursive tool to exert power. Using institutional ethnography, the researcher investigates the experiences of one set of parents who are experiencing conflict with their school district’s special education administrator over the placement of their child with autism. The use of Critical Discourse Analysis to examine the discussion shows how the continuum of alternative placements is used to create problematic, one-dimensional profiles of students with disabilities.     

Transitioning to stepfamily life: the influence of closeness with biological parents and stepparents on children's stress

Family transitions, such as stepfamily formation, can be a source of stress for adults and children. Yet, the stepfamily literature lacks a focus on factors that influence child stress levels while transitioning to stepfamily life. Using a social support perspective, the purpose of this study was to assess the independent and additive influence of closeness with three common parental figures on retrospective reports of stress experienced by children during stepfamily formation. A sample of 1139 emerging adults from a retrospective, US‐based national quota sample, the Stepfamily Experiences Project, was analysed. Results indicated that parental relationships have independent, not combined, effects on stress. More specifically, we found that greater closeness with resident stepparents and resident biological parents was associated with less stress in children, whereas greater closeness with non‐resident biological parents was associated with slightly greater levels of stress. These findings reflect (i) the primacy of residential relationships in children's stress reduction; (ii) the benefit of parental relationships to children as sources of social support during stressful family transitions; and (iii) the potential for children to experience stressful loyalty binds during stepfamily formation. Implications for social work practice, limitations and future directions for research are discussed.     

Meeting the Needs of the Mentally Ill Homeless in Massachusetts-Based Emergency Shelters

A statewide survey (response rate = 79.5%) of the emergency shelters designed for homeless individuals was conducted in Massachusetts to determine the prevalence of serious mental illness among residents and extent to which they received psychiatric services. An average prevalence rate of 22%, ranging from 1% to 70%, was reported despite the fact that 87% of the shelters restricted admission of those exhibiting severe behavioral problems. Nearly three-quarters of the shelters reported providing some mental health services as part of their program, and 80% had established ties with professional mental health agencies. Linkages with these mental health agencies greatly enhanced placement options for mentally ill persons. When queried on the most pressing community-based service needed for the homeless mentally ill, nearly two-thirds of the shelters reported a need for additional housing alternatives.     

Me and My Shadow: Observation,Documentation, and Analysis of Serials and Electronic Resources Workflow

Librarians in the Metadata & Cataloging Department at the North Carolina State University (NCSU) Libraries embarked on a comprehensive project to document and review the Libraries' serials and electronic resources workflow with the goals of introducing greater efficiency, clarity, and simplicity into processes across the serials unit and of increasing training opportunities for department-wide understanding of the serials lifecycle. This paper examines the method used to observe and collect information about serials and electronic resources work, the process of synthesizing that information into a graphical representation of the serials lifecycle, and the workflow analysis undertaken to introduce improved serials processes. The value of the project is demonstrated through a discussion of efforts for workflow education, analysis, and improvement at the NCSU Libraries directly instigated by review of the process documentation by technical services staff members.