Using community-based participatory research to address Chinese older women’s health needs: Toward sustainability

ABSTRACT

Although community-based participatory research (CBPR) has been recognized as a useful approach for eliminating health disparities, less attention is given to how CBPR projects may address gender inequalities in health for immigrant older women. The goal of this article is to share culturally sensitive strategies and lessons learned from the PINE study—a population-based study of U.S. Chinese older adults that was strictly guided by the CBPR approach. Working with Chinese older women requires trust, respect, and understanding of their unique historical, social, and cultural positions. We also discuss implications for developing impact-driven research partnerships that meet the needs of this vulnerable population.     

Survey of International Field Education Placements of Accredited Social Work Education Programs

Abstract

During the last 2 decades, social work education programs have sought to incorporate cross-cultural and international content into their curriculum, including the establishment of international field placements. This study reports the results of a full survey (N=446) of all accredited social work education programs. Findings include the number of programs placing students internationally, the number of students placed, the countries into which they are placed, whether these students are graduates or undergraduates, and whether these international placements represent an ongoing commitment by the programs. Several factors are examined which are hypothesized to affect a program's willingness to place students internationally.     

Is Parental Alienation Disorder a Valid Concept? Not According to Scientific Evidence. A Review of Parental Alienation,DSM-5 and ICD-11 by William Bernet

This article reviews a recent book arguing how a concept known as parental alienation syndrome—now parental alienation disorder—should be included in official psychiatric/psychological and medical classification diagnostic manuals. Anecdotal cases and opinion are presented as research and scientific evidence, and stories are presented as research studies. In addition, the book often contradicts itself in different sections. The author is not familiar with scientific methodology, confuses various statistical and research procedures and terminology, and thus misleads the reader in trying to promote this theory. This book's claim that it is the most comprehensive compilation of the evidence supporting parental alienation disorder/parental alienation syndrome is false, and it is not recommended by the reviewers.     

Healing from Childhood Sexual Abuse: A Theoretical Model

Childhood sexual abuse is a prevalent social and health care problem. The processes by which individuals heal from childhood sexual abuse are not clearly understood. The purpose of this study was to develop a theoretical model to describe how adults heal from childhood sexual abuse. Community recruitment for an ongoing broader project on sexual violence throughout the lifespan, referred to as the Sexual Violence Study, yielded a subsample of 48 women and 47 men who had experienced childhood sexual abuse. During semistructured, open-ended interviews, they were asked to describe their experiences with healing from childhood sexual abuse and other victimization throughout their lives. Constructivist grounded theory methods were used with these data to develop constructs and hypotheses about healing. For the Sexual Violence Study, frameworks were developed to describe the participants' life patterns, parenting experiences, disclosures about sexual violence, spirituality, and altruism. Several analytic techniques were used to synthesize the findings of these frameworks to develop an overarching theoretical model that describes healing from childhood sexual abuse. The model includes four stages of healing, five domains of functioning, and six enabling factors that facilitate movement from one stage to the next. The findings indicate that healing is a complex and dynamic trajectory. The model can be used to alert clinicians to a variety of processes and enabling factors that facilitate healing in several domains and to guide discussions on important issues related to healing from childhood sexual abuse.     

Investor Relations: Two-Way Symmetrical Practice

Although public relations claims investor relations as one of its specializations, scholars have paid little attention to it and practitioners historically have been divided between finance and public relations. A national survey of 145 members of the National Investor Relations Institute and the Public Relations Society of America's Financial Communications Section tested models and dimensions of practice to build theory. Results show that such investor relations officers predominantly practice the two-way symmetrical model and their work is characterized by the dimensions of symmetrical effects and—to some degree—two-way communication. Practitioners do not differ by their orientation to either finance or corporate communication/public relations. This study is the first to find the predominant practice of the normative model across its sample, thereby refuting long-standing criticism that the symmetrical model is a utopian ideal. The two-way symmetrical model does exist in the real world, and it can be found in the bastion of capitalism—publicly owned corporations in the United States.     

National Symbols and National Identity: Currency and Constructing Cosmopolitans in Tunisia

This article examines the imagery on Tunisian banknotes and its role in constructing a state-sponsored vision of Tunisian national identity. In addition to analyzing the currency itself, the article embeds the symbols used on the money in a social and historical context by looking at other public uses of the historical figures pictured and drawing on ethnographic work conducted in Tunisia. The article suggests that the banknotes must be seen as part of a larger discourse about the nature of Tunisian identity. In particular, this discourse focuses on Tunisia as a cosmopolitan nation that is open to the modern world and posits that this openness is rooted in its history. Although the currency suggests the co-presence of modernity and tradition, tradition is relegated to the rural margins while the urban centers are celebrated as the modern future. Beyond looking at the historical figures represented, the article examines historical absences. Most notably, there are no pre-modern Arab figures on the banknotes, which reflects an ambivalent relationship with an Arab identity. This ambivalence is also reflected in the usages of French and Arabic, which tend to naturalize French in a manner not found in other North African currency.     

Explaining the High False Positive Rate of the South Oaks Gambling Screen

The South Oaks Gambling Screen (SOGS) has been used extensively in estimating the prevalence of pathological gambling but produces a large number of false positive classifications. Ladouceur et al. (, Journal of Gambling Studies, 16, pp. 1–24) claim that misunderstanding of SOGS items is responsible for the high false positive rate. However, their study is open to a number of methodological criticisms. The current study, where clinical and non-clinical gamblers complete the SOGS with and without clarification, overcomes these problems. Results suggest that clarification does not have a significant overall effect on SOGS scores. This implies that item misunderstanding is not responsible for the false positive rate of the SOGS.     

Managing the science in the presence of financial conflict of interest

ABSTRACT

We consider the question of why (primarily) and how (secondarily) to perform scientific oversight of research performed by investigators with a financial conflict of interest (COI). One way to frame the trade-off of having investigators with financial COI participate in research is through a decision rule: “Our institution is willing for financially conflicted investigators to participate in research around their intellectual property if (a) the science is likely to be significantly better with their participation (or if other significant benefits accrue); and (b) the COI can be adequately managed”.

A key component of COI management is the demonstration that the underlying science is sufficiently rigorous and transparent, and in turn, a scientific oversight plan is a key element of that demonstration. Scientific oversight plans should be proactively generated, by individuals (i.e., scientific reviewers) who are independent and expert, and they should assess the rigor and transparency of the research, in a fashion which is fair and efficient.

Abbreviations: COI: conflict of interest; SOP: scientific oversight plan