The last mile of the way: understanding caregiving in African American families at the end-of-life

This research is based on in-depth ethnographic interviews and focus groups with 88 African American family caregivers from various regions of the United States during a stressful time in their family development--caregiving at the end-of-life--and the grieving during the aftermath. The study employed a stratified purposeful sampling strategy. Subjects were African Americans from the Northern, Southern, and Midwestern United States. Formal care is complicated by the distrust that many African Americans hold toward the health care system, which has resulted from years of exclusion, racism and discrimination. The findings highlight the importance of hearing from African American families to gain an understanding of what services, including family therapy and other psychotherapy, they will need during this process.     

Demographic and situational factors affecting injury, resistance, completion, and charges brought in sexual assault cases: what is best for arrest?

This study examines demographic and situational factors in an effort to predict whether or not a complainant was injured, used resistance, experienced a completed assault, and whether charges were brought against the offender. If the accused had consumed alcohol or drugs, he was almost seven times more likely to be arrested. The complainant was six times more likely to report rape completion if she had consumed alcohol or drugs and if the complainant fell unconscious at any time during the attack she was significantly less likely to use a resistance strategy. The complainant's use of a compliance strategy at any time during the assault positively predicted not using a physical resistance strategy and sexual assault completion. The reporting of injury positively predicted use a physical resistance strategy and sexual assault completion. If the assault was completed, it was less likely that charges were pressed. Implications of these findings are discussed, and directions for future research are offered.     

The potential of the SSI program to reduce poverty among the elderly

Is it more effective to reduce poverty among the elderly by increasing the benefits paid by the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program or by increasing eligibility for the program? This paper answers that question from a policymaker's perspective. At given program cost levels, we compare the potential reduction in poverty from increasing benefit levels to the potential reduction associated with a variety of policy proposals that would increase eligibility for the program. This paper employs a microsimulation model containing an eligibility and benefits calculator, a participation model, and an optimization algorithm. The data are from the Survey of Income and Program Participation supplemented by the administrative records of the SSI program. The results show that increasing eligibility by relaxing the restrictions of the means tests can be more effective in reducing poverty than raising benefit levels.     

Colleges respond to student binge drinking: reducing student demand or limiting access

Administrators at 68% of 4-year colleges nationwide (N = 747) responded to a survey concerning the types of programs and policies they used in response to students' heavy drinking. Most schools conducted targeted alcohol education and invested in institutional prevention efforts; half conducted social norms campaigns; a sizeable minority restricted alcohol on campus. Schools that focused on demand reduction were less likely to ban alcohol use. One in 3 schools received funding for these programs from governmental agencies, and 1 in 5 from the alcohol industry. Such schools were more likely to conduct targeted alcohol education and social norms programs and were less likely to restrict alcohol use on campus or at college events. Colleges may want to reconsider prevention initiatives that focus exclusively on demand or supply. They may also want to examine the extent to which funding is the driving force shaping the direction of their alcohol initiatives.     

Ticking fast or ticking slow, through Shc must you go?

Circumstantial evidence places the p66 isoform of the adapter protein Shc in a position to mediate the accelerated aging phenotype displayed by mice expressing shortened forms of the tumor suppressor protein p53. We present a model in which p66(shc) may be responsible for integrating signals from the p53 pathway with signals from the insulin-like growth factor-1/Daf pathway in mammals. A full understanding of how interactions between p53 and p66(shc) affect longevity will require the production of animals with mutations in the genes encoding both proteins.     

Parent-child connections: the essential component for positive youth development and mental health, safe communities, and academic achievement

A continuing parent-youth bond throughout adolescence and young adulthood is the foundation for genuine emotional health, academic achievement, and healthy developmental trajectories and the antidote to youth violence.     

Processes of adjustment in organized out-of-school activities: opportunities and risks

Participation in organized out-of-school activities leads to long-term psychosocial and educational benefits for young people. Now we're learning which features of these activities best support individual children.     

When spacing out brings clarity. Mental lapses serve as diagnostic clue for type of dementia

NEW YORK CITY--Everyone has slow-witted moments: entering a room only to forget why, putting ice cream into the fridge, or blanking out on how to use the microwave. Some clinicians think that periodic mental lapses might help diagnose dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB), a scourge that kills brain cells (see DLB Case Study), although not all experts agree. Now, scientists have found that some cognitive blunders crop up more frequently in patients with DLB than in those with Alzheimer's disease (AD) or in healthy elderly individuals, according to work presented here on 15 January 2004 at an American Medical Association briefing for media.     

LEGISLATING LOVE: The Effect of Child Support and Welfare Policies on Father–child Contact

Reducing non-marital childbearing and making nonresidential fathers take greater responsibility for their children were identified as goals of numerous policy changes since the 1980s. Child-support award rates for children born to unmarried parents have been quite low historically, leading lawmakers to focus on increasing both award and payment rates for this group. Nonmarital fathers are also much less likely to have contact with their children. Although evidence suggests that policy efforts increase child support awards and receipt, the link between child support policies, child support outcomes, and father-child contact has received less attention. This paper uses data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation on children born between 1985–1997 to investigate the relationship between child-support award and receipt and the amount of contact that fathers have with their non-residential children. Since it is likely that both of these behaviors are, in part, determined by unobservable characteristics of the father, we estimate an instrumental variables Tobit model. The model is identified by our assumption that child support policy variables can impact child support awards and payments, but father-child contact cannot be directly legislated. Our results suggest that there are unintended, but desirable effects of child support establishment and collection. Policies to collect child support not only increase financial resources to families, but through their impact on payments increase visitation and contact between these children and their fathers. The estimated impact of receiving child support on contact is more than 27 days per year.An earlier version of this paper was presented at the Annual Meetings of the American Economic Association, Washington DC, January 2003 and the Annual Meetings of the Association of Public Policy and Management, November 2003. Support from NICHD Grant # HD30944 is gratefully acknowledged. We would like to thank Suzann Eshleman for excellent computer programming and James Scully for providing us with data on genetic testing laws.