Social resources and Arab women’s perinatal mental health: A systematic review

Background

Women’s mental health in the perinatal period is understudied worldwide and in Arab countries especially.

Adult youth workers’ conceptions of their work in an under-resourced community in the United States

This study examined adult workers’ conceptions of their work with youth in a large, underserved, urban region in the northeastern United States. Drawing on qualitative interviews with 18 youth workers from various organizations, affiliated with a community coalition focused on substance abuse prevention, we explored how adults viewed their role of working with youth. We were particularly interested in whether these workers saw youth empowerment and collaboration with youth for community change as part of their role. Our data suggested that while workers in this study were very supportive of youth, the support and actions they provided were on behalf of rather than with them and that, in general, partnering with youth for community change was not a part of what they envisioned their work to be. While a few of the adults attempted to work more collaboratively with youth, they were clearly in the minority.     

Gambling disorder and suicidality within the UK: an analysis investigating mental health and gambling severity as risk factors to suicidality

Greater severities of gambling behaviour and poorer mental health have been identified in the literature as risk factors for suicidality within gambling disorder (GD) populations. This is the first known study within the UK to use empirical data, taken from a UK treatment clinic for GD (National Problem Gambling Clinic, UK) to explore the associations between current suicidality (thoughts and plans) and measures assessing gambling severity and mental health. Self-report data from 122 participants were collected during the intake process at the clinic through a variety of methods including the use of questionnaires and a standardized 90-minute interview with a psychologist. Reported suicidality was high (current suicidal thoughts [28.7%] and plans [6.6%]), yet only one measure of gambling severity (estimated total losses) was found to be inversely associated with suicidality. Indices of poorer mental health were found to have a greater association with suicidality than measures of gambling severity, and a logistic regression analysis identified depressive symptomology and a history of psychiatric disorder in the participants’ family as significant factors associated with suicidality. Overall, within GD populations, factors associated with poorer mental health rather than gambling severity are seemingly a greater risk factor in patients with suicidality.     

Impact of client suicide on social workers and counselors

Recent studies on the impact of client suicide on mental health professionals focus on psychiatrists and psychologists, while,in the current mental health system in our country, most clients receive services from other clinicians. This research focuses on the impact of client suicide on social workers and counselors as well as organizational responses to client suicide/attempt. Data were collected via interviews and survey of 121 clinicians. Client suicide impacts clinicians adversely in many ways. Many participants felt their agency/practice could have done more to support them during post-suicide management. Data presented in this report have the potential to aid in the creation of needed workforce development initiatives.     

Child care subsidy and child maltreatment

This study examined the relationship between receipt of child care subsidies and child maltreatment investigations in a sample of low‐income mothers in Illinois. We expected that receiving child care subsidies would have a protective effect on child maltreatment risk and therefore decrease the likelihood of child protective services investigations. Using structural equation modelling, we tested the direct and indirect paths of the receipt of child care subsidies to physical abuse or neglect. We found only direct effects of receiving child care subsidies on both physical abuse and neglect investigations. The findings suggest an important protective role of child care subsidies in the lives of low‐income families.     

Human Development Over Time: An Empirical Comparison of a Dynamic Index and the Standard HDI

Social Indicators Research - This research uses panel data to explore inferences about human development associated with two different formulations of the Human Development Index (HDI). The first...     

The veil of professionalism: An autoethnographic critique of white positional identities in the figured worlds of white research performance

Two white researchers critique the professional veil of silence they created as they reflected on a qualitative study they performed 12 years earlier. Autoethnography and performance ethnography are utilized to examine the ways in which whiteness can remain unexamined throughout the research process due to the construction of white positional identities within the figured world of research. White privilege and white talk, specifically white silence and hyperpoliteness as they relate to white researchers conducting research, are used critique the research purpose and process. The researchers conclude that white researchers should attend to questions of privilege and white racial identity as they plan, conduct, and disseminate their research.     

A General Theory for Perceptual Indicators of Family Life Quality

The paper presents Foa and Foa's Resource Theory (1974) that was used to develop a self-report, multidimensional measure of family well-being, an indicator of family life quality. Facet theory methods of sentence mapping provided an explicit way to explain how theoretical constructs were translated to operational measures, and a rationale for the use of multidimensional scaling analysis to verify the circular structure of resource classes proposed by the theory. Results of the analyses confirmed the theoretical propositions for a sample of 560 adults and indicated a better fit of the data for women's, compared to the men's model.