Adults with cystic fibrosis and barriers to employment

Existing research on cystic fibrosis (CF) tends to view CF as a long‐term medical condition of childhood, thus reinforcing the mistaken view that few children with CF survive into adulthood. Despite the fact that people with CF are increasingly living into older age there has been little research into the employment of adults with CF. Those studies which have been undertaken portray CF as a ‘serious illness’ which causes employment problems. In contrast, this paper discusses findings from a study which explored the employment experiences of adults with CF from a social model perspective. The findings reveal barriers to employment which are similar to those experienced by other disabled people, as well as barriers related to the ‘impairment effects’ of CF. The authors conclude that adults with CF have valuable perspectives to contribute to social model analysis and the development of employment‐related policy solutions.     

Birth parents’ perceptions of professional practice in child care and adoption proceedings: implications for practice

This paper explores non‐relinquishing birth parents’ experiences of contested child care and adoption proceedings. It highlights the perceptions and voices of birth parents which are rarely prioritized in dominant discourses of professional practice in this area. The paper reviews previous related research and also discusses a small‐scale empirical study which elicited the perspectives of three birth parents whose children had been made subject to care proceedings and placed for adoption in England. Drawing on previous research and this study, the paper makes range of practice recommendations for sensitive professional practice with birth parents during contested child care and adoption proceedings.     

Heart disease risk perception in college men and women

The authors sought to assess the perception of risks for coronary heart disease (CHD) in college men and women. They surveyed 470 undergraduates from 2 major 4-year institutions who completed a questionnaire that measured perceived risks for heart disease. Sixty-eight percent of the respondents rated their risks as lower or much lower than those of their peers, indicating a clear optimistic bias. The research also revealed that the students who exercised regularly rated their risk of coronary disease lower than those who did not do so. In addition, women perceived a number of risk markers to be more potent or causative factors than men did. A significant number of participants did not comprehend commonly understood causal relationships associated with heart disease risk. The findings in this preliminary investigation suggest that college men and women do not accurately perceive their risks for developing heart disease.     

Krafting the obesity message: A case study in framing and issues management

This study examined the application of framing theory in issues management. Using case study methodology, the researchers analyzed message frames used by Kraft Foods in its public response to the obesity crisis, how the Kraft frames were reported by the media and whether Kraft's approach might help define effective framing and issues management practices in public relations. The study suggested that framing was indeed useful in Kraft's attempt to manage the issue of obesity.     

Teaching about near-death experiences: the effectiveness of using The Day I Died

In this article, we reviewed results of research on near-death experiences (NDEs) over the past 3 decades and examined the effect of viewing the hour-long 2002 BBC documentary The Day I Died: The Mind, the Brain, and Near-Death Experiences on accurate knowledge about near-death experiences among advanced undergraduates at a southwestern university. In a quasi-experimental research design, the experimental group completed a 20-item questionnaire before and after viewing the documentary (n = 66; 45 females, 21 males), and the waitlist control group completed the questionnaire as pre- and posttest before viewing the documentary (n = 39; 36 female, 3 male). The two groups' scores at pretest were not significantly different (p > .05). Group by occasion repeated measures ANOVA revealed the experimental group's posttest scores moved significantly in the direction of correctness with a large effect size (p < .001; eta2 = .56), whereas waitlist control group posttest scores remained similar to pretest scores. We discuss two exceptions to the effectiveness of the documentary and recommendations for educators using it as well as for future research.