Bridging refugee youth and children's services: a case study of cross-service training

Bridging Refugee Youth and Children's Services(BRYCS), a public-private partnership between the federal Office of Refugee Resettlement, Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, and the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, provides national technical assistance to public child welfare. After a series of "community conversations," BRYCS identified a lack of knowledge among child welfare staff about newcomer refugees, negative stereotypes, and a fear of child protective services among refugees. BRYCS initiated a number of technical assistance initiatives, including a pilot cross-service training project in St. Louis to strengthen collaboration between child welfare and refugee-serving agencies. This article details the lessons learned from this training and recommends changes in policy and practice.     

Sudanese refugee youth in foster care: the "lost boys" in America

This study examined the resettlement experiences of unaccompanied Sudanese refugee youth placed in foster care from the perspectives of the youth, foster parents, and agency caseworkers. Youth experienced considerable success. The challenges of adjusting to school and family life, however, suggest a need for funding to support more intensive educational services, more cultural training and support for foster parents and school personnel, and flexibility to provide services in more culturally appropriate modalities.     

Correlates of women's sexual assault disclosure to informal and formal support sources

Deciding which people to tell about sexual assault is an important and potentially consequential decision for sexual assault survivors. Women typically receive many different positive and negative reactions when they disclose sexual assault to social support sources. A diverse sample of adult sexual assault survivors in the Chicago area was surveyed about sexual assault experiences, social reactions received when disclosing assault to others, attributions of blame, coping strategies, and PTSD. Analyses were run to identify demographic, assault, and postassault factors differentiating women disclosing to informal support sources only from those disclosing to both informal and formal support sources. Women disclosing to both formal and informal support sources experienced more stereotypical assaults, had more PTSD symptoms, engaged in less behavioral self-blame, and received more negative social reactions than those disclosing to informal support sources only. Implications for future research and intervention are discussed.     

Parental Borrowing for Dependent Children’s Higher Education

Using the 1992–1993 Baccalaureate and Beyond Longitudinal Study, with the 1997 follow-up, the parental decision to borrow and, for borrowers, the level of borrowing for dependent children’s college education was analyzed. Parents with smaller household size and those being college graduates borrowed greater amounts. White parents borrowed greater amounts than their non-White counterparts. The age of the student, dependent students’ income and parents’ cash and savings each had a significant negative impact on the amount parents borrowed, while home equity was a significant positive factor. Greater college costs significantly increased parents’ decision to borrow, as well as the borrowed amount. Greater amounts of grants significantly reduced the amount borrowed.     

Impact of smoke-free residence hall policies: the views of administrators at 3 state universities

Nationwide efforts to protect the public against the health effects of secondhand smoke have prompted college and university administrators to adopt more restrictive smoking policies. Some campus officials are concerned that new policies will lead to student backlash, increased staff workloads, and an increased economic burden. To understand the impact of smoke-free residence hall policies, we conducted key informant interviews and gathered archival data at 3 large state universities. The implementation of smoke-free residence hall policies imposed little economic burden. We noted positive impacts in several key areas, including decreased damage to residence hall buildings, increased student retention, and improved enforcement of marijuana policies. Increased costs, such as the purchase of outdoor cigarette receptacles, were outweighed by the benefits. Findings from this study should encourage college and university administrators to enact smoke-free residence hall policies.     

Digitization,the Internet,and the Arts: eBay,Napster, SAG,and e-Books

Via four case studies we explore the extent to which digitization is transforming how people access and engage with the arts. The first case study is the online auction house eBay. We focus on a unique system whereby millions of users rate each other's integrity and reputations in a digital venue via a transparent system open to all users and visitors alike. The second case study examines the Screen Actors Guild strike against the advertising industry, which drew attention to the potential for and limitation of the replacement of human actors by digitized replicas. Third, we focus on e-books in the context of the prediction that most books, music and film entertainment will eventually be distributed electronically to the average household. The fourth case study analyzes the Napster debate over file sharing and duplication of online music. We focus on the ability of Napster to create a huge community of users sharing their own copies of digital music. From this point of view Napster represented a uniquely efficient and large-scale dream, a modern form of the cooperation and sharing of property envisaged by classical anarchist philosophers of the nineteenth century. On the other hand, and as always in anarchistic uprisings, another class claimed proprietary ownership in the material being shared and saw in Napster mostly collective theft on the part of ordinary citizens. Three of these four case studies centrally involve ordinary people using the digital media in creative and innovative ways. We conclude by arguing, against those who are skeptical about the transforming power of digitization, that even in the short time that it has been widely available digitization has so increased people's ability to interact creatively with products that this amounts to a qualitative change which, over the next few decades, is likely to develop so far as to justify the label revolution.     

Hospitalizations for fall-related injuries among active-duty Army soldiers, 1980-1998

Data from the Total Army Injury and Health Outcomes Database (TAIHOD) were used to describe 28,352 fall-related hospitalizations among active-duty Army soldiers between 1980 and 1998. Soldiers who were younger than age 26, single, and had a high school education or less were at greatest risk. Falls from a height were more likely to be fatal than other types of falls, accounting for 88% of all fatalities. In cases where duty status was known, 64% of the falls took place while the soldier was on duty and half of these occurred during training. The most common type of fall during training was fall from a height (37%). Falls on stairs and ladders accounted for 49% of all off-duty falls. Future research should include identification of specific behavioral and occupational risk factors for falls, particularly those occurring during training activities, and falls occurring off duty.     

Difficult Cases in Career Counseling: IV— Floundering and Occupational Moratorium

This paper is the fourth in a series of articles dealing with difficult counseling problems encountered by career counselors. Clinicians need to understand the underlying causes of floundering behavior and the reasons that propel some people to retreat to a career and psychological moratorium. This article focuses on young adults in career transition and underscores their needs for greater self-understanding. Resources for career counseling suggestions are noted within the context of a traditional five-stage career counseling model.     

Adolescent and adult alcohol attitudes in a high alcohol consumption community

The study examines alcohol-related attitudes among adolescents and adults in a high consumption community, exploring whether adolescents and adults hold similar or different views regarding adolescent drinking. Data were gathered from adults in a Midwestern city via random telephone survey of 487 adults (30% with children under the age of 21). Students in grades 6-12 (n = 558) also completed a youth version of the survey in classrooms. Results indicated that becoming a parent was associated with more restrictive attitudes about adolescent alcohol use, regardless of the age of their children. Adolescents aged 14 to 17 had the least restrictive attitudes. Adults aged 18 to 24 (who were not parents) reported values similar to older adolescents. Younger adolescents, while similar to older adolescents in perception of community alcohol problems, were more like parents and older adults in attitudes about adolescent drinking. Both adolescents and adults greatly overestimated actual amounts of community adolescent binge drinking.