Psychosocial Correlates of Methamphetamine Use

Methamphetamine (MA) abuse is a devastating problem that has been sweeping the United States from west to east and has reached epidemic proportion in many areas. Literature on the drug itself, its history, and its effects are reviewed. The current project aimed to examine the psychosocial correlates of MA use using Hudson's Multi-Problem Screening Inventory (MPSI). The MPSI was given to a control group consisting of undergraduate social work students (n = 17) and a group of past-year MA users (n = 15). Differences between users and non-users were examined across the 27 domains of the MPSI, and subscales for which MA users exceeded the clinical cutting score were noted. In addition, the correlation between severity of craving for MA and MPSI scores was examined. MA users differed significantly from non-users on the depression, partner, child and neighbor problems, aggression, fearfulness, ideas of reference, phobias, guilt, disturbed thinking, memory loss, and drug abuse subscales. MA users exceeded clinical cutting scores on all of these scales except child problems; fearfulness; ideas of reference; self-esteem; sexual discord; personal stress; friend, school and coworker problems; and confused thinking. Severity of craving was correlated with MPSI score on all MPSI scales except self-esteem; sexual discord; mother, father, friend, coworker, school and family problems; suicide; non-physical abuse; and alcohol abuse. Interesting findings regarding the control group are also discussed.     

Taro Goh 1958–1988

Drawing is a fundamentally dialogic activity and yet it remains largely absent from anthropology's own accounts of its field practices and its history. The early Russian anthropologist of Oceania, Nikolai Miklouho-Maclay, employed drawing as a strategy to initiate dialogue with new interlocutors, often in the absence of a common language. My research on the history of Lelepa Island, Vanuatu, has built a series of conversations around Miklouho-Maclay's 1879 sketches of the community, mimicking the strategy of drawing-as-dialogue to develop a collaborative or dialogic account of the past.     

Motivating the Unemployed? Attitudes at the Front Line

Abstract

Underlying employment services policy in many countries is the assumption that the unemployed exhibit a range of deficits. The goal of employment activation programs is to develop self-efficacy. Noting the determinants of self-efficacy, we illustrate how case managers and social workers think about the unemployed and suggest that negative attitudes held by case managers are not conducive to the promotion of self-efficacy, unlike the orientation displayed by social workers. We suggest that employment services, wherever provided, would be significantly improved if social work frameworks informed policy and practices.     

A Survey of Wellness/Healthy Lifestyling on College and University Campuses

Abstract

Mental health providers at university counseling and health centers should be alert to the possibility that college students with previously unrecognized attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) may present for initial evaluation at their centers. This study was a systematic chart review of 42 students at an Upper Midwest university who were diagnosed with ADHD during calendar year 1993. Diagnoses were made by the treating psychiatrist, who reviewed records for presenting problems; recent associated problems; previous evaluations as a child, adolescent, or adult; and associated problems in childhood. Presenting problems included ADHD symptoms, mood symptoms, nonspecific learning disability, and academic underachievement. Associated problems were depressive disorders, anxiety disorders, drug and alcohol abuse or both, dependency, legal problems, learning disabilities, and eating disorders. Thirty-three percent had been evaluated for academic or behavior problems as children, and 36% had sought previous psychological care for non-ADHD symptoms as adults. Thirty-one percent were presenting at the university health center for their first evaluation. Childhood histories showed educational underachievement, learning disabilities, and behavior problems.     

Tensions and contradictions in Australian social policy reform: compulsory Income Management and the National Disability Insurance Scheme

This paper explores contemporary contradictions and tensions in Australian social policy principles and governmental practices that are being used to drive behavioural change, such as compulsory income management. By means of compulsory income management the Australian Government determines how certain categories of income support recipients can spend their payments through the practice of quarantining a proportion of that payment. In this process some groups in the community, particularly young unemployed people and Indigenous Australians, are being portrayed as requiring a paternalistic push in order to make responsible choices. The poverty experienced by some groups of income support recipients appears to be seen as a consequence of poor spending patterns rather than economic and social inequalities. By contrast, Australia's National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) has been constructed as a person centred system of support that recognises the importance of both human agency and structural investment to expand personal choices and control. Here we look at the rationale guiding these developments to explore the tensions and contradictions in social policy more broadly, identifying what would be required if governments sought to promote greater autonomy, dignity and respect for people receiving income support payments in Australia.     

Young children returning home from care: the birth parents' perspective

While a wide range of literature exists on the experiences of children in foster care or adoption, much less is known about children who return home from care to their birth parents. This paper focuses on the perspectives of a small sample of birth parents of young children who returned home from care. It draws on findings from the Northern Ireland Care Pathways and Outcomes Study that has been following a population ( n  = 374) of children who were under 5 years and in care in Northern Ireland on the 31st of March 2000. As part of this study, interviews were conducted with the foster parents of 55 children, the adoptive parents of 51 children and the birth parents of nine children who had returned home from care. The paper explores the birth parents' views on how they coped while their child was in care, how they were coping after the child had returned home and how their child was faring at home. Results revealed that these parents, and their children, were experiencing multiple difficulties and struggled to cope after the children had returned home.     

Tests for a simple tree order restriction with application to dose–response studies

Summary.  We propose 'Dunnett-type' test procedures to test for simple tree order restrictions on the means of p independent normal populations. The new tests are based on the estimation procedures that were introduced by Hwang and Peddada and later by Dunbar, Conaway and Peddada. The procedures proposed are also extended to test for 'two-sided' simple tree order restrictions. For non-normal data, nonparametric versions based on ranked data are also suggested. Using computer simulations, we compare the proposed test procedures with some existing test procedures in terms of size and power. Our simulation study suggests that the procedures compete well with the existing procedures for both one-sided and two-sided simple tree alternatives. In some instances, especially in the case of two-sided alternatives or for non-normally distributed data, the gains in power due to the procedures proposed can be substantial.     

A nonparametric confidence interval for slope based on spearman's rho

An algorithm is presented for computing an exact nonparametric interval estimate of the slope parameter in a simple linear regression model. The confidence interval is obtained by inverting the hypothesis test for slope that uses Spearman's rho. This method is compared to an exact procedure based on Kendall's tau. The Spearman rho procedure will generally give exact levels of confidence closer to desired levels, especially in small samples. Monte carlo results comparing these two methods with the parametric procedure are given     

A test of the characteristic function and the Harsanyi function in N-person normal form sidepayment games

This paper reports the results of a laboratory experiment investigating sidepayment games represented in normal form. Attempts to predict payoff allocations via the application of solution concepts (such as the Shapley value or the nucleolus) encounter a problem in games of this form, because the game must first be transformed into some other form. Commonly, this other form is a set function defined over coalitions, such as the von Neumann-Morgenstern characteristic function. Because there are numerous possible transformations, the question arises as to which one provides the most accurate basis for prediction of payoffs.The laboratory experiment tested three such transformations - the mixed strategy characteristic function, the pure strategy characteristic function, and the Harsanyi threat function. Payoff predictions from two solution concepts (Shapley value, nucleolus) were computed on the basis of each of these transformations, making a total of six theories under test.Results of the study show, in general, that payoff predictions based on the Harsanyi threat function and on the mixed strategy characteristic function were more accurate than those based on the pure strategy characteristic function. The most accurate theories were the Shapley value computed from the Harsanyi function, the nucleolus computed from the Harsanyi function, and the Shapley value computed from the mixed strategy characteristic function. Less accurate were the nucleolus computed from the mixed strategy characteristic function and both the nucleolus and the Shapley value computed from the pure strategy characteristic function.This research was supported by grants SOC-7726932 and SES-8319322 from the National Science Foundation. The authors express appreciation to Yat-Tuck See, Jyh-Jen Horng Shiau, and Raymond Wong for assistance in computer programming, and to Jennifer Brandt, Young C. Choi, David C. Dettman, Laurel Dettman, Stephen B. Geisheker, Irving J. Ginsberg, Mike P. Griffin, Kimberly Ihm, Todd Isaacson, Christy Kinney, Mary Kohl, Sue Pope, Tammy Schmieden, Jill Schwarze, Susan Winter, and Kenneth Yuen for assistance in data collection and analysis.