Use of Professional and Informal Support by Black Men with Mental Disorders

This study utilized data from the National Survey of American Life to investigate the use of professional services and informal support among African American and Caribbean black men with a lifetime mood, anxiety, or substance use disorder. Thirty-three percent used both professional services and informal support, 14% relied on professional services only, 24% used informal support only, and 29% did not seek help. African American men were more likely than to rely on informal support alone. Having co-occurring mental and substance disorders, experiencing an episode in the past 12 months, and having more people in the informal network increased the likelihood of using professional services and informal supports. Marital status, age, and socioeconomic status were also significantly related to help-seeking. The results suggests potential unmet need. However, the reliance on informal support also suggests a strong protective role that informal networks play in the lives of black men.     

Morality and Nuclear Energy: Perceptions of Risks and Benefits,Personal Norms,and Willingness to Take Action Related to Nuclear Energy

We examined factors underlying people's willingness to take action in favor of or against nuclear energy from a moral perspective. We conducted a questionnaire study among a sample of the Dutch population (N = 123). As expected, perceptions of risks and benefits were related to personal norms (PN), that is, feelings of moral obligation toward taking action in favor of or against nuclear energy. In turn, PN predicted willingness to take action. Furthermore, PN mediated the relationships between perceptions of risk and benefits and willingness to take action. In line with our hypothesis, beliefs about the risks and benefits of nuclear energy were less powerful in explaining PN for supporters compared to PN of opponents. Also, beliefs on risks and benefits and PN explained significantly more variance in willingness to take action of opponents than of supporters. Our results suggest that a moral framework is useful to explain willingness to take action in favor of and against nuclear energy, and that people are more likely to protest in favor of or against nuclear energy when PN are strong.     

The self-image in the therapeutic dyad: A case example of mutual growth

The therapeutic relationship is seen as a mutual experiencing of self and other which is growth-promoting for the therapist as well as the patient. Work with a borderline woman during a period of two years evoked strong countertransference reactions in the therapist who, at times, experienced the patient as a mirror. A beginning sense of cohesion in the patient's highly fragmented sense of self found a parallel in this beginning therapist's developing professional identity.     

Staff & client perceptions of unit quality: a pilot study

This pilot study compared psychiatric health care team members' perceptions of unit quality with discharged clients' perceptions of quality of care received on the unit. The staff members were from four different service units in one acute care psychiatric facility. The study used the Perceptions of Unit Quality (PUQ) scale, a valid and reliable outcome measurement instrument, developed by Cronenwett. Most quality assurance instruments that exist have focused on individual caregivers' or service-specific views of quality, but the PUQ scale allows quality assurance data that represent team performance to be described through team perceptions of quality. Results of this pilot study suggest that use of the PUQ scale, in conjunction with clients' perceptions of unit quality, may be a legitimate approach in continuous quality improvement efforts in psychiatric-mental health care centers.     

Dying in jail: The phenomenon of adolescent suicide in correctional facilities

Adolescent suicide is increasing in the United States and the incidence of suicide gestures and attempts in juvenile correctional facilities is high. The attitudes of correctional staff toward adolescents and toward suicidal behavior may contribute to the increase. Suicide is often the outcome of a progression of problems that have isolated the adolescent from meaningful social relationships. Correctional staff must be aware of the phenomenon of adolescent suicide and be given training to deal with it effectively within the institution. Institutional staff have commonly seen suicide gestures or attempts as acting out behavior rather than a symptom of low self-esteem or inability to cope with institutional placement. This discussion examines the phenomenon of adolescent suicide and the impact the juvenile justice system has on its occurrence. It will also include an examination of interdisciplinary interventive strategies which can be used in an institutional setting.     

Health in household context: living arrangements and health in late middle age

People living in some arrangements show better health than persons in other living arrangements. Recent prospective studies document higher mortality among persons living in particular types of households. We extend this research by examining the influence of household structure on health using longitudinal data. We theorize that individuals experience role-based household relations as sets of resources and demands. In certain household structures, individuals are more likely to perceive that the demands made on them outweigh the resources available to them. This perceived imbalance poses a risk to individual health. We test our expectations by analyzing the relationship between living arrangements and health using data from waves 1 and 2 of the Health and Retirement Study. We focus on persons ages 51-61 and explore gender differences. We find prospective links between household structure and self-rated health, mobility limitation, and depressive symptoms. Married couples living alone or with children only are the most advantaged; single women living with children appear disadvantaged on all health outcomes. Men and women in other household types are disadvantaged on some health outcomes. Our results suggest that the social context formed by the household may be important to the social etiology of health. In addition, they qualify the well-known link between marital status and health: The effect of marital status on health depends on household context.     

Opportunity theory and adolescent school-based victimization

While school-based adolescent victimization has received a great deal of public attention, there exist relatively few theoretically driven studies aimed at explaining this phenomenon. We address this paucity by providing a test of a criminal-opportunity model of school-based victimization using data on over 3,000 students from 40 different Kentucky middle and high schools. The effects of opportunity-related concepts are estimated for both violent and property victimization, and comparisons are made for each victimization type across middle- and high-school student subsamples. Findings suggest that criminal opportunity theory is relevant to the understanding of school-based victimization. In particular, indicators of exposure to crime and target antagonism appear to be robust predictors. Further, there appears to be substantial generalizability in the effects of opportunity-related variables across violent versus property victimization as well as across middle-school versus high-school contexts.