Attitudes about addiction: a national study of addiction educators

The following study, funded by the National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA), utilized the Addiction Belief Inventory (ABI; Luke, Ribisl, Walton, & Davidson, 2002) to examine addiction attitudes in a national sample of U.S. college/university faculty teaching addiction-specific courses (n=215). Results suggest that addiction educators view substance abuse as a coping mechanism rather than a moral failure, and are ambivalent about calling substance abuse or addiction a disease. Most do not support individual efficacy toward recovery, the ability to control use, or social use after treatment. Modifiers of addiction educator attitudes include level of college education; teaching experience; licensure/certification, and whether the educator is an addiction researcher. Study implications, limitations, and directions for future research are discussed.     

Couples,Money, and Expectations: Negotiating Financial Management Roles to Increase Relationship Satisfaction

How couples handle money has become a popular subject among scholars, practitioners, and the popular press. However, little is known about how finances should be treated within a clinical context. This study examined the financial management roles in which couples participate and their satisfaction level with these roles as well as couples' communication tactics surrounding money and their impact on relationship and financial satisfaction. Results suggested that having shared goals and values about money were a stronger predictor of relationship satisfaction than were communication strategies. In addition, satisfaction with one's financial management role participation may be more important than self-reported financial management roles each partner performs. In this study, financial management roles included 19 areas, including responsibilities such as bookkeeping, financial decision-making, and taxes.     

Chronic pain,pain severity and analgesia use in Australian women of reproductive age

Background

The increasing prevalence and adverse outcomes associated with opioid analgesia use in women of reproductive age have become a significant public health issue internationally, with use during pregnancy potentially affecting maternal and infant health outcomes.

The Social Construction of Reality in the Realm of Children's Mental Health Services

ABSTRACT

Across the United States, systems of care have emerged to provide mental health care to children and their families; fragmentation inhibiting the success of collaboration by stakeholders is common and compromises these systems of care. Survey data were collected from 1,428 respondents in a Midwestern state to examine problems that exist within systems of care from the perspective of the different stakeholder groups. Stakeholder group membership was based upon the respondent's employment or involvement within various child-serving systems and included those in child welfare, juvenile justice, and education, mental health providers, and consumers (i.e., caregivers/parents). Group differences revealed patterns of “finger pointing” by the stakeholder groups on where specific problems exist within systems of care. The findings provide insight into how the social construction of service delivery and practice emerges as stakeholder groups describe, understand, and evaluate problems within the system of care as a function of their own practice location within the system of care. Future research should consider exploring methods that might minimize the competitive nature of disparate child-serving systems and its potentially negative impact upon system performance and treatment outcomes.     

Infants' Understanding of Preferences When Agents Make Inconsistent Choices

This study showed that 8.5‐month‐old infants seemed to consider the consistency of an agent's choices in attributing preferences to her. When the agent consistently chose one object over another, three or four times consecutively, infants acted as if they had interpreted her actions as evidence for her preference. In contrast, when the agent inconsistently chose between the two objects, at the ratio of 1:3, infants did not seem to interpret her actions as suggesting her preference. Converging evidence was obtained from infants' responses across a looking‐time task and an action task. The results are discussed in terms of how infants might use frequencies of agents' actions directed toward different objects to understand agents' preferences.     

Shared Physical Custody: What Can We Learn From Australian Law Reform?

ABSTRACT

This article reviews the long battle to reform Australia’s custody and access laws between 1995 and 2011. The result is a law which strongly encourages courts to consider the option of shared physical custody, while also emphasizing the need to protect children from harm, not least from being exposed to family violence. The trench warfare over the text of the legislation between advocacy groups has now largely ceased. Good empirical research on the outcomes of reforms to the family law system assisted in clarifying the issues. However, the role of law in shaping parenting arrangements after separation should not be exaggerated. We can believe too much in law; and therefore, believe too much in law reform.     

Individual Differences in Infants’ Joint Attention Behaviors With Mother and a New Social Partner

Relations between infant–mother attachment security at 15 months and infants’ (N = 206) joint attention behaviors (a) with an experimenter at 8 and 15 months, and (b) with their mothers at 15 months were investigated. No concurrent or longitudinal relations were observed between attachment security and infants’ tendency to respond to an experimenter’s bids for joint attention. Higher levels of initiating joint attention with an experimenter at 15 months were associated with insecure‐avoidant attachment. Insecure‐avoidant attachment was also associated with lower scores for initiating high‐level joint attention behaviors (pointing, showing, and giving) with the mother at age 15 months. The fact that security‐related differences in initiating joint attention with an experimenter were observed only once the attachment relationship was consolidated suggests that (a) attachment security may influence infants’ active engagement with new social partners, and (b) insecure‐avoidant infants may compensate for reduced social contact with the caregiver by initiating more interaction with other social partners.     

Simplicity out of complexity in environmental modelling: Occam's razor revisited

While large models based on a deterministic-reductionist philosophy have an important part to play in environmental research, it is advantageous to consider alternative modelling methodologies which overtly acknowledge the poorly defined and uncertain nature of most environmental systems. The paper discusses this topic and presents an integrated statistical modelling procedure which involves three main methodological tools: uncertainty and sensitivity studies based on Monte Carlo simulation techniques; dominant mode analysis using a new method of combined linearization and model-order reduction; and data-based mechanistic modelling. This novel approach is illustrated by two practical examples: modelling the global carbon cycle in relation to possible climate change; and modelling a horticultural glasshouse for the purposes of automatic climate control system design.     

Simplicity out of complexity in environmental modelling: Occam's razor revisited

While large models based on a deterministic-reductionist philosophy have an important part to play in environmental research, it is advantageous to consider alternative modelling methodologies which overtly acknowledge the poorly defined and uncertain nature of most environmental systems. The paper discusses this topic and presents an integrated statistical modelling procedure which involves three main methodological tools: uncertainty and sensitivity studies based on Monte Carlo simulation techniques; dominant mode analysis using a new method of combined linearization and model-order reduction; and data-based mechanistic modelling. This novel approach is illustrated by two practical examples: modelling the global carbon cycle in relation to possible climate change; and modelling a horticultural glasshouse for the purposes of automatic climate control system design.