Transforming the Way We Live Together: A Model to Move Communities From Policy to Implementation

Most cities, counties, and neighborhoods are not designed for an aging population. By providing a range of services to all residents, Lifelong Communities allow individuals to age in place. Although the Lifelong Communities Initiative is based on established guiding principles, little information exists regarding the realities of moving from policy to implementation. The Atlanta Regional Commission conducted a case study in Mableton, Georgia, and found successful implementation requires a combination of support from local citizen groups and government. The Atlanta Regional Commission is replicating these best practices in other communities and providing support to those aspiring to launch or expand Lifelong Communities.     

Enclosed versus open nursing stations in adult acute care psychiatric settings: does the design affect the therapeutic milieu?

Specific efforts by hospital accreditation organizations encourage renovation of nursing stations, so nurses can better see, attend, and care for their patients. The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of nursing station design on the therapeutic milieu in an adult acute care psychiatric unit. A repeated cross-sectional, pretest-posttest design was used. Data were collected from a convenience sample of 81 patients and 25 nursing staff members who completed the Ward Atmosphere Scale. Pretest data were collected when the unit had an enclosed nursing station, and posttest data were collected after renovations to the unit created an open nursing station. No statistically significant differences were found in patient or staff perceptions of the therapeutic milieu. No increase in aggression toward staff was found, given patients' ease of access to the nursing station. More research is needed about the impact of unit design in acute care psychiatric settings.     

Evaluation of a Training to Reduce Provider Bias Toward Pregnant Patients With Substance Abuse

The objective of this article is not to present a scientific or systematic study, but to provide an initial framework for designing a training workshop to enhance health practitioners’ (nurses, social workers, physicians, etc.) knowledge regarding substance abuse treatment and to decrease their bias toward substance-abusing women, particularly pregnant women in rural communities. We incorporated the 4 Transdisciplinary Foundations from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration Competencies Model, with specific competencies targeted that related to provider bias. After the conference, 52 of the 70 participants completed a questionnaire to self-assess knowledge level and confidence in skill related to substance abuse management. Participant mean scores were statistically significantly higher following the conference than 1 week prior (p < .001) in the area of “gender difference with substance abuse,” moving from an average of 2.6 to 4.5 on a 5-point Likert scale. Our conference was successful in increasing attendees’ knowledge about gender difference and substance abuse among pregnant patients.     

Nationwide Newspaper Coverage of Posttraumatic Stress: A Community Structure Approach

This study utilized the community structure approach to analyze newspaper coverage of posttraumatic stress (PTS) in veterans in 26 U.S. cities. The study examined whether media placed responsibility for PTS treatment on government or society through a review of 353 articles from March 20, 2003, to March 20, 2013. Researchers coded articles for “prominence” and “direction” to produce a “Media Vector” for each paper, ranging from 0.8403 to ?0.3592. Results showed that 25 of 26 Media Vectors (96%) supported government responsibility. Pearson correlations yielded nine significant findings. Results disconfirmed buffer hypotheses linking privilege with support for government responsibility (privilege defined by percentage of college educated, percentage of family income $100,000 or more, and percentage of professional/technical occupational status; r = ?.486, ?.524, ?.553, respectively, significant at the .006 level). Stakeholder hypotheses were also disconfirmed; greater percentages of age 65 and older correlated with more emphasis on government responsibility (r = .340, p = .048), whereas greater percentages of age 25 to 44 correlated with less emphasis (r = ?.342, p = .047). The only confirmed hypothesis linked percentage of age 45 to 64 with less emphasis on government responsibility (r = ?.559, p = .002). A regional finding was noteworthy: Media in the Midwest supported government responsibility more than other regions. Regression analysis revealed three variables influencing coverage most significantly: Family Income $100K+ (26% of variance), Percentage of Hispanic (8%), and Professional/Technical Occupational status (5%). It must be noted that nearly all newspapers yielded positive Media Vectors. This indicates that coverage in major cities generally favors government responsibility for veterans' PTS treatment, and Pearson correlation results may represent differences in the degree of support and demographic characteristics influencing this support.     

Whither the virtuous cycle? Past and future trends in black-white inequality in educational attainment

The inequality in the relative years of education between blacks and whites has diminished dramatically over the 20th century. One possible explanation for this convergence is a virtuous cycle of parents passing on educational advantage, from one generation to the next, leading to an overall educational upgrading. In this paper we test the virtuous cycle hypothesis by estimating the three way interaction of cohort, race, and family background. We find that the convergence in educational attainment between blacks and whites over the past century was driven by processes unrelated to family background.     

The typification of Hispanics as criminals and support for punitive crime control policies

The Hispanic population is now the largest and fastest growing minority in the United States, so it is not surprising that ethnic threat linked to Hispanics has been associated with harsher crime control. While minority threat research has found that individuals who associate blacks with crime are more likely to support harsh criminal policies, the possibility that this relationship exists for those who typify Hispanics as criminal has yet to be examined. Using a national random sample, this study is the first to use HLM to find that perceptions of Hispanics as criminals do increase support for punitive crime control measures, controlling for various individual and state influences. Moderated and contextual analyses indicate this relationship is most applicable for individuals who are less apt to typify criminals as black, less prejudiced, less fearful of victimization, politically liberal or moderate, not parents, and living in states with relatively fewer Latin American immigrants.     

Fertility patterns of college graduates by field of study,US women born 1960–79

Building on recent European studies, we used the Survey of Income and Program Participation to provide the first analysis of fertility differences between groups of US college graduates by their undergraduate field of study. We used multilevel event-history models to investigate possible institutional and selection mechanisms linking field of study to delayed fertility and childlessness. The results are consistent with those found for Europe in showing an overall difference of 10 percentage points between levels of childlessness across fields, with the lowest levels occurring for women in health and education, intermediate levels for women in science and technology, and the highest levels for women in arts and social sciences. The mediating roles of the following field characteristics were assessed: motherhood employment penalties; percentage of men; family attitudes; and marriage patterns. Childlessness was higher among women in fields with a moderate representation of men, less traditional family attitudes, and late age at first marriage.