Toward Mutual Support: A Task Analysis of the Relational Justice Approach to Infidelity

Gender, culture, and power issues are intrinsic to the etiology of infidelity, but the clinical literature offers little guidance on how to work with these concerns. The Relational Justice Approach (RJA) to infidelity (Williams, Family Process, 2011, 50, 516) uniquely places gender and power issues at the heart of clinical change; however, this approach has not been systematically studied. Therefore a qualitative task analysis was utilized to understand how change occurs in RJA. The findings indicated four necessary tasks: (a) creating an equitable foundation for healing, (b) creating space for alternate gender discourse, (c) pursuing relational responsibility of powerful partner, and (d) new experience of mutual support. Therapists' attention to power dynamics that organize couple relationships, leadership in intervening in power processes, and socio‐cultural attunement to gender discourses were foundational to this work. These findings help clarify the processes by which mutual healing from the trauma of infidelity may occur and offer empirically based actions that therapists can take to facilitate mutual support.     

Characterizing Dose-Response Relationships in Multiple Cancer Bioassays

In the evaluation of chemical compounds for carcinogenic risk, regulatory agencies such as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and National Toxicology Program (NTP) have traditionally fit a dose-response model to data from rodent bioassays, and then used the fitted model to estimate a Virtually Safe Dose or the dose corresponding to a very small increase (usually 10(-6)) in risk over background. Much recent interest has been directed at incorporating additional scientific information regarding the properties of the specific chemical under investigation into the risk assessment process, including biological mechanisms of cancer induction, metabolic pathways, and chemical structure and activity. Despite the fact that regulatory agencies are currently poised to allow use of nonlinear dose-response models based on the concept of an underlying threshold for nongenotoxic chemicals, there have been few attempts to investigate the overall relationship between the shape of dose-response curves and mutagenicity. Using data from an historical database of NTP cancer bioassays, the authors conducted a repeated-measures Analysis of the estimated shape from fitting extended Weibull dose-response curves. It was concluded that genotoxic chemicals have dose-response curves that are closer to linear than those for nongenotoxic chemicals, though on average, both types of compounds have dose-response curves that are convex and the effect of genotoxicity is small.     

Exploring the barriers of quitting smoking during pregnancy: A systematic review of qualitative studies

Smoking during pregnancy is widely known to increase health risks to the foetus, and understanding the quitting process during pregnancy is essential in order to realise national government targets. Qualitative studies have been used in order to gain a greater understanding of the quitting process and the objective of this systematic review was to examine and evaluate qualitative studies that have investigated the psychological and social factors around women attempting to quit smoking during pregnancy. Electronic databases and journals were searched with seven articles included in this review. The findings demonstrated that women were aware of the health risks to the foetus associated with smoking; however knowledge of potential health risks was not sufficient to motivate them to quit. Several barriers to quitting were identified which included willpower, role, and meaning of smoking, issues with cessation provision, changes in relationship interactions, understanding of facts, changes in smell and taste and influence of family and friends. A further interesting finding was that cessation service provision by health professionals was viewed negatively by women. It was concluded that there is a shortage of qualitative studies that concentrate on the specific difficulties that pregnant women face when trying to quit smoking.     

Centre Stage Diagramming: Late-stage Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease

Using the method of centre stage diagramming, this 3-year [2007–2009] longitudinal study reports a single case study of Ben and Mary that maps the onset of Alzheimer's disease within Ben's late-stage Parkinson's disease and the impact, adjustment and meaning that this had for the couple. It is believed that that this is the first time that such a transition has been documented within a qualitative research design. The importance of Ben and Mary obtaining a diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease is reported as the diagnosis helped to locate the meaning of Ben's memory and behavioural changes within a ‘dementia’ context, rather than as an extension of late-onset Parkinson's disease as was originally considered by the couple. Ben and Mary's search for stability within their life once the diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease was made is also shared. The couple was recruited from the caseload of a Parkinson's disease nurse specialist in North Wales and the couple was visited five times over the duration of the study. All interviews were conducted in Ben and Mary's own home and with their full involvement in the development and reporting of each centre stage diagram. Policy and practice implications are also considered.     

Does the Andersen Behavioral Model of Health Services Use predict college students’ use of on-campus mental health services?

Abstract

Objective: 10–50% of college students meet the diagnostic criteria for one or more mental illnesses; unfortunately, less than half seek treatment. This study assessed the predictive power of specific variables on students’ use of on-campus mental health resources using the American College Health Association’s National College Health Assessment (ACHA-NCHA) II. Participants: Respondents included undergraduate and graduate students ages 18–35?years (n?=?96,121). Methods: We analyzed data from the ACHA-NCHA II Fall 2014 and Spring 2015. Andersen’s Behavioral Model of Health Services Use enabled selection of predisposing, enabling, and need predictor variables; these were analyzed individually and collectively. Results: Predisposing, enabling, and need variables accounted for 9%, 2.3%, and 17% of the overall variance. Significant variables associated with a student’s decision to access on-campus mental health services accounted for 23% of variance total. Conclusions: This insight could allow universities to better recognize students at-risk for needing but not accessing mental health services.     

Assembling the "Empire of Morality": State Building Strategies in Catholic Ecuador, 1861–1875

This article studies the efforts of the Ecuadorian government between 1861 and 1875 to construct a "truly catholic nation". It examines the implementation and engagement of centralized initiatives of morality and religiosity, and reflects on its implications for the repositioning of state-society boundaries. Specifically, it considers the government's efforts after 1869 to centrally coordinate the institutions of municipal government and Church, and to redeploy them for national moralizing ends. It assesses the substantial achievements and limits of this model for strengthening state power and for disseminating "national" meanings of citizenship and progress.     

Perceived Risks of Conventional and Organic Produce: Pesticides, Pathogens, and Natural Toxins

Public risk perceptions and demand for safer food are important factors shaping agricultural production practices in the United States. Despite documented food safety concerns, little attempt has been made to elicit consumers' subjective risk judgments for a range of food safety hazards or to identify factors most predictive of perceived food safety risks. In this study, over 700 conventional and organic fresh produce buyers in the Boston area were surveyed for their perceived food safety risks. Survey results showed that consumers perceived relatively high risks associated with the consumption and production of conventionally grown produce compared with other public health hazards. For example, conventional and organic food buyers estimated the median annual fatality rate due to pesticide residues on conventionally grown food to be about 50 per million and 200 per million, respectively, which is similar in magnitude to the annual mortality risk from motor vehicle accidents in the United States. Over 90% of survey respondents also perceived a reduction in pesticide residue risk associated with substituting organically grown produce for conventionally grown produce, and nearly 50% perceived a risk reduction due to natural toxins and microbial pathogens. Multiple regression analyses indicate that only a few factors are consistently predictive of higher risk perceptions, including feelings of distrust toward regulatory agencies and the safety of the food supply. A variety of factors were found to be significant predictors of specific categories of food hazards, suggesting that consumers may view food safety risks as dissimilar from one another. Based on study findings, it is recommended that future agricultural policies and risk communication efforts utilize a comparative risk approach that targets a range of food safety hazards.