Associations Between Friendship,Sympathy, and Prosocial Behavior Toward Friends

The current study examined the associations between multiple aspects of the friend relationship (connection, companionship, psychological control) and global prosocial behavior toward friends. Participants included 467 early adolescents (M age of child = 13.32, SD = 1.05, 49% female, 69% European American), and data were collected at two time points, roughly 1 year apart. Structural equation modeling suggested that friend psychological control was negatively associated with prosocial behavior toward friends, while friend connection was positively associated (via adolescent sympathy). Discussion focuses on the friend relationship as an important influence on adolescent sympathy and prosocial behavior toward friends.     

Developing an aging prepared community: collaboration among counties, consumers, professionals and organizations

This paper reports on a collaborative process to create an "aging prepared community" in a four county region. The process benefited from a generous grant from the John A. Hartford Foundation that supported an 18 month planning period which included input from service providers and a vast array of aging persons and their families, including particular efforts to reach underserved populations from multicultural, inner- city and rural communities. Under the umbrella of the Elder Network of the Capital Region, the process is now beginning its implementation period with foci on the following: linking health, social service and faith communities; developing accessible health education and wellness programs; creating and implementing a regional system of information and assistance; and mounting a media campaign.     

The costs of pursuing accreditation for methadone treatment sites: results from a national study

The use of accreditation has been widespread among medical care providers, but accreditation is relatively new to the drug abuse treatment field. This study presents estimates of the costs of pursuing accreditation for methadone treatment sites. Data are from 102 methadone treatment sites that underwent accreditation as part of the Center for Substance Abuse Treatment's evaluation of the Opioid Treatment Program Accreditation Project. The analysis represents the most comprehensive analysis of the costs of pursuing accreditation by a health care provider. Importantly, it is the first analysis of the costs of pursuing accreditation by drug treatment providers. Policy makers and drug treatment providers can use this analysis to plan the labor requirements and costs of future accreditation initiatives.     

Counselor confounds in evaluations of vocational rehabilitation methods in substance dependency treatment

Evaluation research on vocational counseling in substance dependency treatment should distinguish between the effects of counselors and counseling methods on clients' employment outcomes. Three experimental designs permit investigation of possible confounds between these types of effects: (a) nested designs (each counselor delivers one counseling method so counselors are nested under methods), (b) crossed designs (each counselor delivers all counseling methods so counselors are crossed with methods), and (c) no-treatment control group designs (experimental group's counselors all deliver the same method). Each design is optimal for one stage of evaluation research. No-treatment control group designs are best for exploratory evaluations of new types of vocational counseling. Nested designs are best for outcome evaluations of different types of interventions. Crossed designs are best for (causal) process evaluations of counseling methods of demonstrated efficacy. Despite the importance of methodological issues and problems, vocational rehabilitation in substance dependency treatment has a greater need for stronger interventions than better evaluation designs.     

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.     

Disrupting global disability frameworks: settler-colonialism and the geopolitics of disability in Palestine/Israel

In recent years, Israel has seen an increase in disability studies scholarship and disability rights activism. At the same time, critical disability studies scholars have begun calling attention to the role of colonization and neocolonial powers, too often obscured in disability studies work, in disabling oppressed nations. This article brings these critiques in conversation with disability studies scholarship regarding Occupied Palestine to argue that disability is inextricably intertwined with the settler-colonial project of the Israeli state. By highlighting the geopolitical production of disablement, this work suggests that social approaches to disability have largely effaced disability injustice rooted in geopolitical power imbalances.     

Exploring the Domestic Homes of Sikhs in Finland as a “Cosmos of Senses”

The domestic home plays an important role in the process of socialization. In the context of migration, home becomes even more meaningful as a site for socialization, since it provides—next to the Internet, cultural events and places of religious worship—one of the few sites where young children can learn about their parent’s cultural and religious traditions in their new homelands. Grounded in data gathered through ethnographic fieldwork, this article seeks to gain a deeper understanding of the ways in which the domestic space of home is involved in the process through which young Sikhs who are growing up in Finland are made familiar with their parents’ religion. To reach this objective, I will examine home as a “cosmos of senses” that has been created by its inhabitants and the practices they perform in the course of everyday life. Applying the ethnographic lens in the study of the domestic home of Sikhs will also help us to gain a more profound understanding of Sikhism as a lived religion, as the findings presented in this article show.