Predisposition to seek mental health care among Black males transitioning from foster care

This study examined the predisposition to seek mental health care in the future for personal and mental health problems among Black males transitioning from the foster care system (n=74). Results of simultaneous multiple regression analysis showed that custody status, diagnosis of a DSM-IV psychiatric disorder, and emotional control contributed significantly to the prediction of Black male's predisposition to seek mental health care. Specifically, Black males who were still in foster care were more predisposed to seek mental health care, whereas those diagnosed with a DSM-IV psychiatric disorder and who adhered more to the norm of emotional control were less predisposed to seek mental health care. Implications for mental health service delivery are discussed.     

Uncertain aspirations: Latino students and dropout in the United States

ABSTRACT

Latinos are one of the fastest growing and most racially diverse students in American schools. Driven by immigration, they account for more than 24% of the kindergarten to high school population. Despite their numbers, the achievement gap between Latinos and their non-Latino peers remains wide since they have the highest rate of dropout. Using data from the High School Longitudinal Study of 2009, we find that Latino students who attend more than one school during their academic career are more likely to dropout than those who do not. We also find lower rates of dropout among children of parents who stated that they did not have difficulties interacting with school administrators due to language barriers. With regards to migration, we do not find immigrant status to be significant in dropout – a noteworthy effect given the increases in raids and deportation by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement.     

Developing social work students' communication skills with children and young people: a model for the qualifying level curriculum

Currently, there is no explicit requirement for qualifying level social workers to be skilled in communicating with children. In a recent Knowledge Review, we argued that practitioners should have a basic level of competence in such skill at the point of qualification. If that argument is accepted then how this should be acquired within the qualifying social work curriculum needs consideration. The authors present a framework for understanding those components of skilled communication with children that should be included in the qualifying curriculum. A whole programme approach to curriculum development will be outlined which, we suggest, might enable students to develop the knowledge, capabilities and values required for skilled practice in this area.     

Integrating ICT and multicultural aspects within a classroom: the SAIL project

The implementation of technology in the primary school sector during the last few years has resulted in issues being raised relating to teachers’ knowledge of technology and their propensities for incorporating ICT into an already packed curriculum. Teachers in Malta were faced with challenges to their various teaching professional knowledge and to their prior and developing understanding of the conceptual and procedural aspects of technology. SAIL provided opportunities for teachers to develop their understandings of minorities in Europe within a community of teachers, while at the same time promoting technology both as a process and a product.     

An Evaluation of Progress Toward European Monetary Union Using Fuzzy Analysis

European Monetary Union (EMU) is scheduled to commence by the end of the century. Currently, Europeans are engaged in a grand debate over EMU. The controversy is not only over the timetable and stringency of criteria for macroeconomic convergence between member countries, but also over the desirability of the whole EMU enterprise. The European Union (EU) has three choices, to abandon the idea of EMU and opt for independent national monetary policy for each member, to venture the unknown by adopting the EMU regardless of the conditions of its members, or to measure and monitor the fulfillment of EMU preconditions carefully and take the final step when there is a consensus that convergence is reasonably attained. Our paper is a contribution to a systematic quantification and measurement of the fulfillment of the EMU preconditions. We provide a general framework for policy evaluation based on fuzzy logic. We use fuzzy analysis to assess the degree to which each goal is attained, to evaluate the performance of different countries, and to determine the overall progress of the EU in meeting the Maastricht criteria.     

SEXISM IN FAMILY THERAPY: DOES TRAINING IN GENDER MAKE A DIFFERENCE?

The purpose of this study was to investigate the clinical decision making of marriage and family therapists who had no training in gender compared to those who had such training, either through a separate course or by having gender issues integrated throughout the curriculum. Specifically, levels of feminism and sexism in the clinical assumptions and interventions of therapists were evaluated using clinical vignettes. Participants for this study included 150 beginning or entry-level therapists from marriage and family therapy training programs in academic settings. Of the 102 participants with some training in gender isues, 64% reported having received gender training from a faeminist perspective. contrary to expectations, a multivariate analyssis of variance revealed that training in gender issues alone did not significantly influence levels of feminism and sexism in clinical decision making. However, the levels of sexism in clinical interventions were significantly lower if therapists had received gender coursework from a feminist perspective, whether in a separate course or integrated throughout the curriculuim. These findings raise a question as to the wtility of teaching gender issues if what is taught and how it is taught are not also considered.     

Procedural priming effects on spontaneous inference formation

Procedural priming refers to how the frequent or recent use of certain cognitive procedures on one task can lead to a greater propensity to use the same procedures on a subsequent task. In this paper, we demonstrate how procedural priming may be used to assess spontaneous inference formation in situations where the inference involves a relationship or rule. We do so in the context of the advertising cost–product quality rule, i.e., that “higher advertising expense implies higher product quality.” Prior research suggests that underlying the advertising cost–quality rule is a basic human attribution (the effort investment rule) that says, if someone invests a lot of effort in a cause, it implies a true belief in that cause. We prime the effort investment rule in an interpersonal context and show that this affects spontaneous generation of the advertising cost–quality rule in an advertising context.