Welfare and adolescent sex: The effects of family history,benefit levels,and community context

To examine whether welfare serves as an incentive to early childbearing, this article explores the first steps in the process of becoming a teenage parent: risk of first voluntary sexual intercourse at an early age and, among teens having sex, contraceptive use at first intercourse. Alternative operationalizations of welfare include the AFDC benefit level in the state of residence, the ratio of the benefit level to family income, community-level welfare receipt, and family history of welfare receipt. Results do not support the hypothesis that higher welfare benefits provide an incentive that hastens sex or reduces contraceptive use. Analyses provide moderate support for a culture of poverty perspective among girls. Intergenerational welfare receipt has a borderline significant effect on the timing of first sex, and maternal welfare receipt predicts nonuse of contraception at first sex for girls. Strong support is found for a stressful life experiences perspective, in which both parental marital disruption and nonvoluntary sex predict earlier voluntary sex. Analyses were supported by a grant from the Office of Population Affairs, Department of Health and Human Services, under Grant # APR 00000959. Her research interests include teenage childbearing, family processes, public policy, and survey methodology. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Michigan. Donna Ruane Morrison is a Senior Research Associate, and her research interests include the effects of family structure and processes on the well-being of children. She received her Ph.D. in sociology from Johns Hopkins University. Dana A. Glei is a Research Analyst, and her research interests include employment, gender, and teen pregnancy and childbearing. She received her M.A. from the University of Virginia.     

Attitudes of street kids toward foster care

Forty-seven kids who frequented drop-in centers in three Western cities were interviewed to determine their attitudes toward statements related to foster care. While the teams indicated that they believed foster parents care about children and want to help them, many did not want to risk foster care. The major reason for remaining on the street is their perceptions that conflict within their family cannot be resolved. These teens have chosen to develop their own family from other street people rather than risk further rejection. The need for early family intervention is stressed.     

NONCONFRONTIVE USE OF VIDEO PLAYBACK TO PROMOTE CHANGE IN BRIEF FAMILY THERAPY*

This paper describes a nonconfrontive use of video playback in brief family therapy. Replaying critical transactions from previous sessions, while maintaining a neutral and nonconfrontive therapeutic stance, encourages an atmosphere which is conducive to change. The technique allows family members to reexperience their own interactional patterns in a nonthreatening manner, enabling them to consider the meanings they attach to their family experience in different and productive ways.     

Chronic osteoarthritis and adherence to exercise: a review of the literature

Osteoarthritis (OA) is a chronic disease that disables many aging adults. People with OA are often asked to adhere to prescribed exercise regimens that must be undertaken in the presence of pain and other disease-related symptoms. We conducted a review of literature that focused on what is known about exercise adherence and the factors that influence exercise adherence among people with OA. Results revealed multiple determinants of exercise adherence; however, these determinants have not been carefully studied in the context of exercise adherence and OA. Almost all studies of exercise adherence among people with OA are short-term and do not use validated measures of adherence. Moreover, poor adherence is the most compelling explanation for the declining impact of the benefits of exercise over time. We conclude that interventions to enhance self-efficacy, social support, and skills in long-term monitoring of progress are necessary to foster exercise adherence among people with OA.     

Performing transformation: reflections of a lesbian academic couple

We experience queer literacy as a kind of collision between the traditional and the transformative. Queer literacy is an acquired literacy of transformation, where the established rules of behavior and discourse are both challenged and transcended. As a lesbian academic couple in a privileged intellectual, political, and social location, we can move out of the traditional realm (through the closet) into an otherworldly queer space where knowledge and identity are destabilized. Moving in and out of queer transformative space requires a kind of blind faith-faith that believes in what the mind can neither see nor prove.     

Detecting Deceit via Analysis of Verbal and Nonverbal Behavior

We examined the hypotheses that (1) a systematic analysis of nonverbal behavior could be useful in the detection of deceit and (2) that lie detection would be most accurate if both verbal and nonverbal indicators of deception are taken into account. Seventy-three nursing students participated in a study about telling lies and either told the truth or lied about a film they had just seen. The interviews were videotaped and audiotaped, and the nonverbal behavior (NVB) and speech content of the liars and truth tellers were analyzed, the latter with the Criteria-Based Content Analysis technique (CBCA) and the Reality Monitoring technique (RM). Results revealed several nonverbal and verbal indicators of deception. On the basis of nonverbal behavior alone, 78% of the lies and truths could be correctly classified. An even higher percentage could be correctly classified when all three detection techniques (i.e., NVB, CBCA, RM) were taken into account.