Moment Inequalities and Their Application

This paper provides conditions under which the inequality constraints generated by either single agent optimizing behavior or the best response condition of multiple agent problems can be used as a basis for estimation and inference. An application illustrates how the use of these inequality constraints can simplify the analysis of complex behavioral models.     

The construction of a model of the process of couples' forgiveness in emotion-focused therapy for couples

This study explored how forgiveness unfolds in the context of emotion-focused couples therapy (EFT-C) in eight cases of women betrayed by their partners. Forgiveness was defined as a process involving the reduction in negative feelings and the giving out of undeserved compassion. This was measured by changes in the pre- and posttreatment scores on the Enright Forgiveness Inventory, the Unfinished Business Resolution Scale, and a single item directly asking respondents to indicate their degree of forgiveness. A task analysis was performed to rigorously track the steps leading to forgiveness using videotapes of therapy sessions for eight couples. The performance of the four couples who forgave were compared with each other and then contrasted with the performance of another four couples who did not reach forgiveness at the end of therapy. Based on these observations, a model of the process of forgiveness in EFT-C and a process rating system were developed.     

Adult protective services clients confirmed for self-neglect: characteristics and service use

Self-neglect is a complex and inadequately understood phenomenon that accounts for the majority of Adult Protective Services cases. This retrospective, record-based study of the characteristics of 210 older adults who were reported to Adult Protective Services and confirmed for self-neglect revealed that common health problems included nutritional frailty, arthritis, and incontinence. Comparisons based upon length of service showed differences in worker-rated social environment risk, client capacity, and activities of daily living performance. Comparisons of findings with those of other studies of self-neglect underscore the need for systematic research on this population.     

Functional Assessment and Intervention for Organizational Behavior Change: Improving the Timeliness of Staff Meetings at a Human Services Organization

We implemented functional behavioral assessment (FBA) at a human services organization to reduce the tardiness of scheduled staff meetings. Following baseline, FBA focused on antecedent and consequence conditions that affected staff arriving on time to scheduled meetings. These data were subsequently presented at a staff meeting in which staff planned an intervention to improve the timeliness of meetings. The intervention, composed of premeeting reminders, positive reinforcement for arriving on time, and meeting termination criteria (to facilitate meeting-to-meeting transitions), was implemented in a multiple baseline design across 3 types of meetings. As a result of the intervention, the number of minutes late that meetings started decreased. We discuss FBA within organizational behavior management that targets performance improvement objectives.     

Ageing Lesbians: Marginalising Discourses and Social Exclusion in the Aged Care Industry

The provision of services for ageing lesbians in Victoria, Australia, appears, at an initial reading, to be equitable and inclusive. Government polities suggest recognition and respect for diversity, with a focus on equitable provision of all social services. The reality, however, turns out to be both problematic and exclusionary. The researchers explored how dominant discourses around aged care facilities fail to take into account the identities and needs of ageing lesbians. The advertising brochures of aged care facilities were subjected to a critical and feminist discourse analysis, which was then compared with the perceived needs of a group of ageing lesbians from the same region as the aged care facilities. The data revealed marginalizing of non-heterosexual identities through the absence of representation in the brochures and their exclusion in the construction of aged care space. Further, a review of aged care policies that underpin the provision of services found that lesbian needs and identities were not included or mentioned in the special need groups. This limits the potential of the aged care industry to provide services that are culturally sensitive, safe, and inclusive.     

Discovering parental drug dependence: silence and disclosure1

Children of drug dependent parents form a large and growing population at elevated risk of adverse developmental and social outcomes. In this study 36 children and young people described growing up in such families. Parents tried to shield children from exposure, however the majority of young people demonstrated a detailed awareness of their parents' problem with drugs whilst living with the parentally imposed fiction that drugs were not at the heart of their family dynamic. Children and young people are locked into a silence they find difficult to unburden to anyone. The policy imperative is recognition of the impact on children of living daily with parental drug dependence and means of ameliorating their living circumstances in ways that do not label them further.     

Personality and community prevention teams: Dimensions of team leader and member personality predicting team functioning

The predictors and correlates of positive functioning among community prevention teams have been examined in a number of research studies; however, the role of personality has been neglected. In this study, we examined whether team member and leader personality dimensions assessed at the time of team formation predicted local prevention team functioning 2.5–3.5 years later. Participants were 159 prevention team members in 14 communities participating in the PROSPER study of prevention program dissemination. Three aspects of personality, aggregated at the team level, were examined as predictors: Openness to Experience, Conscientiousness, and Agreeableness. A series of multivariate regression analyses were performed that accounted for the interdependency of five categories of team functioning. Results showed that average team member Openness was negatively, and Conscientiousness was positively linked to team functioning. The findings have implications for decisions about the level and nature of technical assistance support provided to community prevention teams.     

Age and gender differences in the well-being of midlife and aging parents with children with mental health or developmental problems: report of a national study

Using data from the Study of Midlife in the United States (MIDUS), this article examines: (1) the effect of having children with developmental or mental health problems on parents' mental and physical health, (2) the extent to which this effect varies by parental age and gender and (3) the effects of disability-related factors on the well-being of parents of children with disabilities. Compared to parents of non-disabled children, parents of disabled children experienced significantly higher levels of negative affect, marginally poorer psychological well-being, and significantly more somatic symptoms, controlling for sociodemographic variables. Mothers did not differ from fathers in their well-being. Older parents were significantly less likely to experience the negative effect of having a disabled child than younger parents, suggesting an age-related attenuation of the stress of non-normative parenting.     

Dan O'Meara's Afrikaner nationalism

Volkskapitalisme: Class, Capital and Ideology in the Development of Afrikaner Nationalism, 1934–1948 by Dan O'Meara, Johannesburg, Ravan Press, 1983 xvi+ 281 pp, bibliography.