Health Promotion using Tablet Technology with Older Adult African American Methadone Clients: A Case Study

This exploratory study examined three single case studies to investigate the feasibility of handheld tablet computers for older adult methadone clients. The intervention targeted African American adults (N = 3) over the age of 50 who were in substance abuse treatment. Subjects participated, via a face-to-face video program, in 12 educational sessions focused on healthy living. Both the feasibility of teaching older adult subjects to use tablet computers and their levels of engagement in the intervention were assessed. In addition, completion of participants’ goals and their ability to remember those goals were tracked weekly. Findings revealed that participants were able to learn how to operate the tablets and enjoyed using the technology. Frequent interactions between the counselors and the participants, using face-to-face video, facilitated success in achieving program goals.     

Understanding the Roles and Contributions of Neighborhood Organizations in Civic Governance

VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations - An area of ongoing debate is whether neighborhood organizations contribute to civic governance by enabling citizen...     

Family Time and the Psychosocial Adjustment of Adolescent Siblings and Their Parents

This study examined the implications of family time for firstborn and secondborn adolescent offspring, mothers, and fathers in 192 dual‐earner families, defining family time as time shared by the foursome in activities across 7 days. Data were gathered in daily telephone interviews. For firstborns, higher levels of family time at Time 1 predicted less involvement in risky behavior 2 years later, controlling for Time 1 risky behavior. Longitudinal analyses predicting depressive symptoms revealed family time X parent education interactions for firstborns, fathers, and mothers, suggesting that the implications of family time depended on social class. The pattern of results suggests that family time is protective when chosen by family members but not when it represents a default use of time.     

Religion, Religiosity, and Nonmarital Sexual Conduct: An Application of Reference Group Theory

Using the framing process of "partial-birth" abortion (PBA) as an exemplifying case, this paper proposes a dialogic model of framing in which meaning is created and recreated through an iterative, discursive process. Materials developed by six social movement organizations that lead the PBA framing process were analyzed to chronicle the evolution of the PBA frame, as well as factors that influenced this evolution. Movement and countermovement actors attempted to imbue PBA with meaning in such a manner as to motivate and direct action to support their overarching political goals. Rather than two distinct parallel frames battling against each other, this process is better conceptualized as the evolution of a single frame, created in interaction with the framing of one's opponents. A dialectic model of framing provides a framework for examining the process by which cultural meanings are contested and how these meanings are transformed through collective action. Such a model also potentially expands the definition of successful frame and better illuminates the symbiotic relationship between movements and countermovements actors.     

Maternal Employment in Childhood and Adults’ Retrospective Reports of Parenting Practices

Do adults’ perceptions of their mothers’ and fathers’ parenting practices in childhood vary by their mothers’ employment status? Among adults in the Survey of Midlife Development in United States who lived with 2 biological parents until the age of 16 years (N = 2,246), those who had employed mothers during most or all of their childhood reported less support and less discipline from both parents than those who had stay‐at‐home mothers. Sons but not daughters who had employed mothers reported more verbal or physical assaults by both parents than their counterparts who had homemaker mothers. Despite greater social acceptance of maternal employment among younger Americans, cohort differences were not evident. These findings underscore the significance of mothers’ economic roles in influencing offspring’s perceptions of family dynamics.     

Youth Sexual Exploitation on the Internet: DSM-IV Diagnoses and Gender Differences in Co-occurring Mental Health Issues

This paper explores conventional (non-Internet-related) mental health issues and DSM-IV diagnoses seen among a sample of 512 youth receiving mental health services for an Internet-related problem, with particular attention to victims of online sexual exploitation. Youth victims of online sexual exploitation were more likely to have a post-traumatic stress disorder than youth with other Internet-related problems. Specific attention was given to differences among subgroups of female and male youth victims of online sexual exploitation as compared with same-gender youth with other Internet-related problems. Findings suggest the importance of including Internet use and victimization as part of a standard clinical assessment.     

Women’s Reproductive Choices in Australia: Mapping Federal and State/Territory Policy Instruments Governing Choice

The reproductive choices available to women, and the consequences of those choices, exist within the broader policy context whereby policy is influenced by pervasive ideologies of women’s roles in society and the family. Women’s reproductive rights and their resulting consequences are governed by policy at the federal and state/territory levels within Australia yet little is known about the number or scope of these policies. This study aimed to systematically search and map Australian policy to identify the number and scope of policies governing women’s reproductive choices and their consequences, including how policy interprets the role of women in society through their reproductive choices. The systematic search identified 147 Australian policies in 2013. The mapping of the policies identified common themes that drive policy agenda impacting women’s reproductive choices, including those where the focus is promoting motherhood and/or children, providing economic incentives, regulating reproduction, or a broader health focus. These policy agendas simultaneously construct and are shaped by the context in which women’s reproductive choices and impacts occur. Women’s reproductive choices are highly politicised and regulated, impacting women’s position within society.     

Sibling kinnections: a clinical visitation program

The growing literature on sibling relationships throughout their lifespans is of great importance to those working in the child welfare system, and in adoption services in particular. Sibling bonds are important to all of us, but they are particularly vital to children from disorganized or dysfunctional families. These relationships assume even greater importance when children from these families enter the care system. Supporting and sustaining these sibling bonds should be, and most often is, a priority throughout the child welfare system, with practice literature providing guidelines for arranging and sustaining sibling contact. However, children in the care system may also have dysfunctional sibling relationships as a result of their early experiences, and sibling visitation alone may not be enough to ensure a healthy, long-lasting relationship among siblings. Some form of sibling therapy, or 'clinically supervised visitation,' may be required to help children remove the barriers to form mutually satisfying relationships and to reinforce life-long relationships with each other.     

Elder abuse and neglect in an urban chinese population

This study aims to investigate the prevalence of elder abuse and neglect in an urban Chinese population. A cross-sectional study was performed in a major urban medical center in NanJing, China. A total of 412 participants completed the survey and 145 (35%) participants screened positive for elder abuse and neglect. The mean age of the victims was 69 years and 59% were male. Caregiver neglect was the most common form of abuse, followed by financial exploitation, psychological abuse, physical abuse, sexual abuse, and abandonment. Thirty-six percent of the victims suffered multiple forms of abuse and neglect. In the logistical regression analyses of the data, female gender, lower education and lower income were demographic risk factors associated with elder abuse and neglect. A better understanding of these and additional risk factors associated with elder abuse and neglect in older Chinese people is needed.