Resolution of depression among victims of intimate partner violence: is cessation of violence enough?

The objective of this article is to assess the effect of abuse cessation on depressive symptoms among women abused by a male intimate partner. This prospective cohort study of Seattle women with a history of intimate partner violence (IPV) who were classified by history of abuse and abuse status at 3 month, 9 month, and 2 year follow-up interviews. Relative risks (RR) were calculated using generalized estimating equations. Among subjects with a history of psychological abuse only, cessation of abuse was associated with a nonsignificant reduction in the likelihood of depression compared to subjects whose abuse continued (aRR = 0.88; 95%CI: 0.75,1.03). Among subjects with a history of physical/sexual abuse and psychological abuse, cessation of physical/sexual abuse only was associated with a 27% decline, and cessation of both types of abuse was associated with a 35% decline in the likelihood of depression (aRR = 0.73, 95%CI: 0.63,0.86; and aRR = 0.65; 95%CI: 0.55,0.76; respectively). Cessation of abuse among victims of IPV is associated with a decreased prevalence of depression.     

Deconstructing the pipeline: using efficacy, effectiveness, and cost-benefit data to reduce minority youth incarceration

Investing in effective prevention and early intervention programs will reduce human costs of victimization and also save tax dollars in the short and long terms.     

Borderline personality disorder: Psychosocial considerations and rehabilitation implications

The article describes the medical and psychosocial aspects of borderline personality disorder, a common and sometimes severe psychiatric condition marked by emotional instability and problems with interpersonal relationships. Medication, psychosocial and other treatment issues are discussed within the context of the rehabilitation counselor's role in providing vocational services for people with borderline personality disorder.     

Reliability of the Demand-Control Questionnaire for sewing machine operators

The Demand-Control Questionnaire (DCQ), a 20-item scale that measures psychological work demands, job control and workplace social support, has frequently been used to assess occupational stress. The purpose of this study was to determine the test-retest reliability and internal consistency of the DCQ with sewing machine operators. Forty-six sewing machine operators completed the DCQ on two occasions with an 11-week time interval. A repeated measures analysis of variance model and subsequent application of generalizability theory were used to calculate the test-retest reliability of the subjects' ratings on the DCQ. Cronbach's alpha was used to determine the internal consistency of the scale. The test-retest reliability was 0.33 (95% confidence interval = 0.05-0.61), indicating fair reliability. Good internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha = 0.70) was found. The DCQ appears to be a reliable measure for assessing occupational stress in sewing machine operators. Workplaces need to place greater emphasis on the role of occupational stress in the prevention and treatment of musculoskeletal injuries among sewing machine operators.     

Empowering Community-Based Programs for Youth Development

This article discusses the need for community-based programs for youth and their families and urges the social work profession to resume its historical leadership in such programs while incorporating recent theory and practice. The authors describe the reasons why social workers abandoned neighborhood-based youth development services, the intended outcomes of such services, and current societal and professional trends that support a revival of social work’s involvement in youth development. They discuss one school of social work’s current participation in a youth agency partnership and examine implications of the suggested revival for social work education. Collaboration among families, schools, diverse community services, agencies, and educators is emphasized.     

Engaging Intercollegiate Athletes in Preventing and Intervening in Sexual and Intimate Partner Violence

Abstract

Objective: The object of this exploratory evaluation was to evaluate the “Bringing in the Bystander” sexual and intimate partner violence prevention program with a new sample of intercollegiate athletes. Participants and Methods: Fifty-three male and female athletes participated in the program (experimental group), and 86 were in the control group. All completed pretest, posttest, and 2-month follow-up surveys, including assessment of rape myth acceptance, intent to engage in bystander behaviors, bystander confidence, and bystander behaviors. Results: The program worked overall and for both women and men, improved bystander confidence and intent to engage in bystander behaviors, and did not create significant backlash effects (ie, worsening of attitudes as a result of program). Conclusions: The program fits with the intent of the National Collegiate Athletic Association CHAMPS/Life Skills program regarding its focus on the overall development of student-athletes and demonstrates the promising bystander approach compatible with the 2007 American College Health Association toolkit, Shifting the Paradigm: Primary Prevention of Sexual Violence.     

Using Nursing Students to Enhance One College's Immunization Program

Abstract

In New York State, all college students who were born on or after January 1, 1957, are required to show proof of immunity against measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) before the 1st day of classes. Colleges have established immunization programs so that those students who do not have the required proof can be given the necessary injections. Often, our health service office does not have enough staff to administer the MMR shots during the registration period, resulting in long lines of students waiting to be immunized. In this article, the authors describe how one college used nursing students to assist with and enhance its immunization program. The 45 nursing students who participated in this project administered 694 injections over a 5-day period, They received credit from the nursing department for clinical time and all of the participants agree that the project was a success.     

BECOMING HONG KONG,RAZING BAOAN,PRESERVING XIN'AN: AN ETHNOGRAPHIC ACCOUNT OF URBANIZATION IN THE SHENZHEN SPECIAL ECONOMIC ZONE

Located just north of Hong Kong, Shenzhen, the largest and oldest of China's Special Economic Zone (SEZ) has been both a project and symbol of post-Mao modernization. In this paper, I trace how the Shenzhen built environment mediates images and experiences of ‘Hong Kong’, arguing that transnationality in the SEZ is an everyday practice where tradition, colonialism, and the Cold War provide raw materials for the local reworking of the changing relationship between the Chinese state apparatus and finance capital. My story has a double focus: the ideology of urbanization as modernization and historic preservation. On the one hand, the ideology of urbanization-as-modernization legitimates a spatial order in which the rural is always posed to be superseded by the urban. Both the rural and the urban are empty signifiers that are created through comparison and deployed to guide action. In this important sense,‘Hong Kong’ has been urban with respect to rural ‘Shenzhen’ (formerly Baoan County), even as ‘Shenzhen’ has been urban with respect to the Chinese hinterland (neidi). On the other hand, historic preservation domesticates ‘Hong Kong’ as Shenzhen's past through the figure of Xin'an County, the geographic predecessor of both Shenzhen and Hong Kong. These complimentary displacements produce a nostalgia peculiar to the SEZ: a desire for a past that entitles contemporary Shenzhen residents to Hong Kong's prosperity. This nostalgia is structured with reference to a shared origin - Xin'an County - where Hong Kong's postwar history (1950–1979) becomes the past that Shenzhen (rural Baoan) would have had, if not for a cruel twist of socialist fate.     

Aging with HIV: Historical and Intra-Community Differences in Experience of Aging with HIV

Gay men living with HIV/AIDS face a complex of health issues, including those associated with the aging process, long-term HIV infection (25 years or more), and side effects from Highly Active Anti-Retroviral Therapy (HAART). If aging can increase marginalization, this is more likely for the aging HIV positive gay man, who is already marginalized for being queer and living with a stigmatizing disease. This article presents findings from a study of a long-running HIV support group. It locates the members, all gay men living with HIV, in a specific historical and political context to explore how feelings of loss and the struggle to sustain community affect long-term survivors and other older HIV+ gay men. We identify specific challenges presented by aging for men who contracted HIV early in the epidemic, contrasting them with those faced by men infected with the virus later in life. While both groups appear to struggle with a vision of what life could have been, had AIDS not forced loss and change, they also celebrate the community their shared plight has enabled.