Keeping Your Eye on the Process: Body Image,Older Women,and Countertransference

Research on body image and older women has grown in the past decade. However, there is a gap in the literature regarding body image, older women, and countertransference. This article provides 7 case examples of racially and ethnically diverse women over 60, drawn from MSW student and agency staff supervision, and participant feedback from a national conference on aging workshop. Themes related to loss and grief, adult daughter and aging mother issues, incest, anger, disability, personality disorders, phobic reactions, and shame are discussed. Recommendations and implications for social work practice, education and research are provided.     

Community Foundations: A Growing Resource for Community Development

Like many nonprofit organizations, community development corporations (CDCs) rely on various sources of funding and support for their activities in poor and distressed neighborhoods. Funders often include the federal government, state and local government agencies, financial institutions, and philanthropic organizations. The author explains how community foundations are different from other philanthropic organizations and describes the various mechanisms that community foundations use to support community development. She suggests that there is a natural fit between the purpose of community foundations and the philosophy of community development, concluding that it is important for CDCs, as well as other nonprofit organizations, to understand how community foundations are different from other philanthropic organizations so that they may better position themselves to take advantage of the many resources that community foundations bring to their communities.     

Dirty money: Is there a wage premium for working in a pollution intensive industry?

Within a compensating wage differential framework we investigate whether there is a wage premium for working in a pollution intensive industry. Our results for the economy as a whole suggest a small wage premium of approximately one quarter of one percent associated with the risk of working in a dirty job. This premium rises to over fifteen percent for those individuals who work in one of the five dirtiest industries. We also find evidence of a fatal risk wage premium, providing estimates of the value of a statistical life of between ￡12 million and ￡19 million (2000 prices).     

Maternal Differential Treatment and Child Adjustment: A Multi-informant Approach

The study aimed to replicate previous links with children's adjustment as well as using children's reports of maternal differential treatment (MDT) to test whether difference scores or favouritism scores demonstrate stronger links with child outcome. Finally, it tested for a unique prediction of children's adjustment from distinct aspects and informants of MDT. The sample consisted of 173 working- and middle-class English families with two children aged four to eight years. Mothers provided reports of the mother–child relationship, and both mothers and fathers provided reports of the children's problematic behaviour. The children also provided reports of parent–child relationships and perceived favouritism via a puppet interview. Results confirmed moderate links between MDT and children's adjustment and showed that difference scores provided a better prediction of adjustment than did the favouritism scores. Finally, the results showed that mothers' reports of differential positive feelings were the most salient aspect of MDT for older siblings whereas mothers' reports of negative feelings and positive discipline were the most salient aspects of MDT for younger siblings.     

Working for God and Sustainability: The Activities of Faith-Based Organizations in Kenya

Faith-based organizations (FBOs) have long played a role in international development, and are increasingly involved in environmental sustainability initiatives. Despite these contributions they have, until recently, been largely ignored in scholarship and by secular agencies. This article adds to the growing recognition of FBOs, exploring the identity and function of FBOs doing environmental and development work in Kenya through document review, qualitative questionnaires and participant observation. A diverse group of FBOs with varied identities and engaged in a broad range of activities revealed several strengths and challenges of faith-based environmental and development work. Of particular note is the key role churches and faith-based agencies can play in effecting sustainable and holistic change in Global South countries, due to their rootedness in the community, the social capital they help to produce, and the respect they receive from the people.     

Traumatic Bereavement and Mindfulness: A Preliminary Study of Mental Health Outcomes Using the ATTEND Model

This article presents a quasi-experimental study of a mindfulness-based intervention for traumatically bereaved individuals using a single group with pre-test and post-test design. The intervention consists of the ATTEND model, which is comprised of the following elements practiced by the clinician: attunement, trust, therapeutic touch, egalitarianism, nuance, and death education. The study is based on the charts of 42 clients seeking grief counseling at a mental health agency viewed retrospectively. Participants’ intake scores on the Impact of Event Scale-Revised (IES-R), which measures trauma symptoms, and 25-item Hopkins Symptom Checklist (HSCL-25), which measures depressive and anxious symptoms, were compared to their scores after an average of 14.64 hours of counseling. Paired samples t tests showed a statistically significant decline in trauma symptoms on the IES-R, and in anxious and depressive symptoms on the HSCL-25. These results provide preliminary support for the use of this mindfulness-based approach for difficulties associated with traumatic bereavement, though more extensive research is needed to determine the effectiveness of this approach.     

Chlamydia Trachomatis Infection in a Female College Student Population

Abstract

“Physical Dependence on Nicotine in Gum: A Placebo Substitution Trial,” JOHN R. HUGHES, et al. To test whether ex-smokers become physically dependent on nicotine in gum, we entered eight ex-smokers who were using nicotine gum into a randomized, double-blind, placebo-substitution trial. When placebo was substituted, seven of the eight subjects were observed to have withdrawal symptoms and two relapsed to smoking or nicotine gum. This result suggests that physical dependence (i.e., withdrawal) may be a cause of behavioral dependence on nicotine gum (i.e., use of gum beyond the recommended period) and physicians should emphasize the need for gradual reduction of nicotine gum. (Journal of the American Medical Association 1986;255:3277–3279.)

“Absence of Therapeutic Benefit From Antacids or Cimetidine in Non-Ulcer Dyspepsia,” OLOF NYREN, et al. We randomly assigned 159 patients with non-ulcer dyspepsia, defined as chronic or recurrent epigastric pain without concomitant symptoms of the irritable bowel syndrome and with no evidence of organic disease, to treatment for three weeks with an antacid suspension one and three hours after meals, 400 mg of cimetidine twice a day, or placebo, according to a double-blind, double-dummy model. The intensity and duration of epigastric pain were recorded by the patients four times daily during a one-week period without therapy and during the three weeks of treatment. The mean reduction in pain intensity after three weeks in the placebo group was 25 percent. Neither antacid nor cimetidine treatment resulted in more than a 4 percent better effect. The reduction of pain was statistically significant (P < 0.01) in all three groups. The time course of the pain scores in the groups receiving active drugs followed closely those in the placebo group, and there were no significant differences between the groups at any stage of the treatment. We conclude that the neutralization or suppression of gastric acid is of no clinical value in patients with this syndrome. (New England Journal of Medicine 1986;314:339–43.)     

Hypermedia Computer-Based Education in Social Work Education

Abstract

Hypermedia computer-based education (CBE) is an emerging information technology that makes possible user-directed, nonsequential exploration of, and interaction with, information presented through a variety of media including text, animation, graphics, sound, and video. This article describes hypermedia CBE and briefly reviews the research on its instructional efficacy. A synopsis of the theoretical foundation covers cognitive theory concepts of information networks and associative learning, web teaching principles, andragogical theory as it relates to social work education, and hypermedia CBE structure. Examples of current and potential applications in social work education demonstrate that hypermedia CBE can emulate the dynamic, iterative learning process of knowledge acquisition, knowledge testing, and content integration through practice simulation.