Family-of-origin and service-member resilience

ABSTRACT

Military research on family resilience has not examined the contribution of family-of-origin to resilience of service-members. In this study, researchers investigated the extent to which predeployed service-members’ perception of resilience was related to characteristics of family-of-origin. The sample consisted of 344 U.S. Army soldiers within 6 months of deployment to Afghanistan, contacted through their units and invited to participate. Soldiers completed a survey of perceived resilience, family-of-origin and immediate family variables, and social support. Data were also collected on age, income, ethnicity, number of deployments, and relationship status. Regression analyses were conducted to explain variation in service-member resilience scores. Sample demographics were compared with the active duty soldier population and correlations among the key family-of-origin and social support variables were reported. Family-of-origin satisfaction was moderately related to service-member resilience for the full sample (β = .176, p = .001) and married sample (β = .260, p = .000). It was weakly related in the unmarried sample (β = .147, p = .226). Family social support explained the most variation in resilience across all samples. Study limitations and guidelines and resources for social work practice, education, and research to strengthen family-of-origin and service-member resilience are provided.     

Assumptions and Evidence Behind Sex Offender Laws: Registration, Community Notification, and Residence Restrictions

Since the mid-1990s legislators have enacted a series of laws regulating convicted sex offenders who have returned to communities. Policymakers crafted these laws to appease a worried public, but they were based on assumptions about sex offenders' behaviors that were not well supported by research evidence. In this paper we examine the social context within which these laws were passed and the assumptions behind the three most common sex offender laws – mandatory registration, community notification, and residence restrictions. Next we review the research that has been conducted so far to evaluate the effectiveness of these laws and their unintended consequences. We conclude with a discussion of the lessons learned from these sex offender laws for both policymaking and future research.     

赛珍珠与其同辈作家于美国之会遇

本文以与赛珍珠同辈作家为背景,尝试考察赛珍珠在美国文学和国际关系中的作用和地位,并认为这是必要的。赛珍珠获得诺贝尔奖,可能不了解德莱塞,西奥多德莱塞因此奖而逊于赛珍珠,她的同时代作家伊迪丝沃顿,圣文森特.米蕾和英国作家弗吉尼亚.沃顿却处于不同的位置,具有各自的作品和文学作品。但是,他们创作之途有交叉,值得研究。此点将丰富赛珍珠在文学历史上的多样性,更有利于重新看待研究赛珍珠。     

Job stress in managers, professionals, and clerical workers

The intensity and frequency of occurrence of 30 job stressors as measured by the job stress survey (JSS) were examined in white-collar employees of a large manufacturing firm, consisting of 68 managers, 171 professional (mostly engineers), and 69 clerical personnel. The highest levels of stress intensity were attributed to 'lack of opportunity for advancement' and 'poor or inadequate supervision'. Individual stressors rated as occurring most often during the past six months were 'frequent interruptions', 'meeting deadlines', and 'dealing with crisis situations'. Factor analyses of the ratings of individual job stressors identified two job-stress factors, job pressure and lack of support, which were differentially related to age, gender, occupational level, locus of control, and job tenure and satisfaction. All three occupational groups attributed greater intensity to stressors that reflected lack of organizational support than to job pressures. Managers reported experiencing job pressures more often than professionals/engineers, but attributed less stress intensity to these pressures. 'Lack of opportunity for advancement' and 'inadequate salary' were the most salient stressors for the clerical workers. Implications of the findings for the design of stress management and organizational change programmes were discussed.     

KNOWING THE CHILD: AN ECOLOGICAL APPROACH TO THE TREATMENT OF CHILDREN IN FOSTER CARE

Social workers in agencies and school settings often deal with high risk, multi problem children such as those in foster care. Increasingly, there is widespread recognition that a coordinated, multifaceted approach is required to address the range of cognitive, social, and mental health problems with which they present. This article recommends utilization of an ecological treatment intervention that is specifically tailored to the needs of the child based on a formulation of the child’s experience and developmental deficits. A case example comprising the treatment of an eight-year-old boy in foster care with comorbid diagnoses of alcohol related neurodevelpomental disorder, failure to thrive, and attachment disorder, illustrates this approach. The article concludes with implications for social work practice.     

Seclusion & restraint: a historical perspective

(1) The use of restraints in the care of psychiatric patients has been a topic of ethical controversy since the beginning of psychiatric medicine. (2) Enlightenment physicians regarded psychiatric illness as the loss of reason, and many advocated the use of restraints to help violent patients regain the use of reason. (3) John Conolly, a British alienist (a term used for psychiatrists) of the mid 1800s, claimed it was possible to treat psychiatric patients without the use of mechanical restraints, but he made liberal use of seclusion and physical restraint by attendants to manage violent behavior. (4) American alienists expressed misgivings about the use of mechanical and chemical restraint but most were reluctant to relinquish any usable intervention.