Negative Feelings and Help Seeking Among Older Adults With Chronic Conditions

Older adults with chronic conditions are at greater risk of negative affect, though few studies have focused on older adults’ perspectives on how chronic conditions affect their mental well-being. This study involved in-depth interviews that explored how older adults describe their feelings about chronic conditions, the context within which they experience these feelings, and their experiences with help-seeking for negative feelings. Participants reported that older adults experience a range of negative feelings related to their conditions and are only comfortable talking to people who understand their everyday experiences with managing chronic conditions. The findings have implications for health self-management.     

Path packing and a related optimization problem

Let G be a supply graph, with the node set N and edge set E, and (T,S) be a demand graph, with T?N, S∩E=?. Observe paths whose end-vertices form pairs in S (called S-paths). The following path packing problem for graphs is fundamental: what is the maximal number of S-paths in G? In this paper this problem is studied under two assumptions: (a) the node degrees in N?T are even, and (b) any three distinct pairwise intersecting maximal stable sets A,B,C of (T,S) satisfy A∩B=B∩C=A∩C (this condition was defined by A. Karzanov in Linear Algebra Appl. 114–115:293–328, 1989). For any demand graph violating (b) the problem is known to be NP-hard even under (a), and only a few cases satisfying (a) and (b) have been solved. In each of the solved cases, a solution and an optimal dual object were defined by a certain auxiliary “weak” multiflow optimization problem whose solutions supply constructive elements for S-paths and concatenate them into an S-path packing by a kind of matching. In this paper the above approach is extended to all demand graphs satisfying (a) and (b), by proving existence of a common solution of the S-path packing and its weak counterpart. The weak problem is very interesting for its own sake, and has connections with such topics as Mader’s edge-disjoint path packing theorem and b-factors in graphs.     

Multifamily therapy in the community mental health network: A pragmatic randomized and controlled study

Multifamily therapy (MFT) is a psychotherapeutic group intervention for patients with severe mental disorders (SMDs) and their families. The present study is a multicenter, randomized, and controlled trial that analyzes the benefit of MFT during outpatient treatment. The recruited patients were randomly assigned to the experimental group (n = 26), which received 24 MFT sessions in addition to their treatment as usual (TAU), or to the control group (n = 29), which received only TAU (individual and family sessions). Six months after the inclusion in the MFT, the experimental group showed a significant decrease in number of visits to the psychiatric emergency services, number of psychiatric admissions, and the days of admission. The need for hospital care 6 months after recruitment was also lower in the experimental group compared to the control group. These results suggest that the implementation of MFT during outpatient treatment facilitates community management of people diagnosed with mental health problems.     

Are women less career centric than men? Structure,culture, and identity investments

Some work/family scholars assume that gender differences in career centrality (i.e. the importance of career to one's identity) are a result of differential job characteristics and family demands; others trace these differences to pre-existing cultural orientations. Using the 2010 Generations of Talent data from 9210 employees working in 11 countries for 7 multinational companies, this study verifies the existence of gender differences in career centrality and explores structural and cultural explanations. Gender disparities in career centrality are modest, indicating that women's and men's identification with careers is more similar than is commonly asserted; the most pronounced (but still relatively small) disparities are observed in Japan and China. A large portion of the gender gap is explained by job characteristics, supporting structural explanations. Family demands contribute to explaining the gap as well, but the findings are unexpected: having minor children is associated with higher career centrality for both women and men. In support of cultural explanations, however, traditional gender beliefs are associated with lower career centrality, especially for women, while two job characteristics (job variety and peer relations) have distinct links to career centrality for women and men. Findings challenge the common assumption that family identities compete against work identities.     

“She foreswore her womanhood”: Psychoanalytic views of female homosexuality

Just as in early psychoanalytic views of female sexual development women's sexual anatomy, psychic development, and object relations were seen relative to male norms and found wanting, in much of psychoanalytic thinking the sexual and psychic development of women in lesbian relationships are seen relative to heterosexual women and found lacking. Various etiological explanations of female homosexuality attempt to isolate a particular developmental arrest or disorder characteristic of female homosexual relations. This paper reviews the major psychoanalytic formulations of female homosexuality and discusses them in terms of two phallocentric assumptions: 1.) A woman who loves a woman must be a man, or be like a man, or must want to be a man; and 2.) A relationship between two women must always remain incomplete compared to the complementarity assumed in a heterosexual relationship. Increased understanding of the sexual desires and experience of women in lesbian relationships would contribute to expanded perspectives about female sexuality and development. The paper offers two paradigms for thinking about homosexual object choice which are not based on analogies to pathological conditions.If you don't know the kind of person I am and I don't know the kind of person you are a pattern that others made may prevail in the world and following the wrong god home we may miss our star. from A Ritual to Read to Each Other, William Stafford     

Naive Monarchism and Rural Resistance in Contemporary Russia

This article applies the concept of “naive monarchism” (i.e., the traditional peasant expressions of reverence for the tsar as their benefactor) to study contemporary rural politics in authoritarian Russia. While Russia is not a monarchy, and its rural dwellers are not traditional illiterate peasants, the veneration of its leader manifests itself in many rural grievances. I analyze three types of rural politics that have traits of naive monarchism: written petitions to the president, rural pickets and delegations to the Kremlin, and geographical renaming in honor of Vladimir Putin. Grievances, voiced in this way, are rarely subjects of repression from above, as they reinforce presidential authority and the existing order. This raises the question of whether rural dwellers faithfully believe in a benevolent president or intentionally exploit their subordinate position and Putin's image as the present‐day tsar. Whether sincere or strategic, these rural politics aim to enforce the existing state commitments. Although they are unable to challenge the status quo, they provide rural dwellers with a means to remedy occasional local injustices.     

Till Marriage Do Us Part: Adult Children’s Relationships With Their Parents

Although some emphasize the integrative character of marriage, others argue that marriage undermines relations with extended kin, including aging parents. Utilizing NSFH data (N= 6,108), we find that married women and men have less intense intergenerational ties than the never married and the divorced: The married are less likely to live with parents, stay in touch, and give or receive emotional, financial, and practical help. These differences hold even when we control for structural characteristics, including time demands, needs and resources, and demographic and extended family characteristics. We conclude that marriage is a greedy institution for both women and men. Given the inadequacy of structural explanations, we suggest that cultural explanations for this greediness should be explored.     

College Health Service and the Fast-Food Value System

Abstract

Objective: To estimate and compare the prevalence of overweight and obesity among self-identified lesbian, bisexual, and heterosexual college age women. Methods: A secondary analysis of the Spring 2006 National College Health Assessment was conducted with 31,500 female college students (aged 18 to 25 years) to compare body mass index (calculated from self-reported height and weight) among lesbian, bisexual and heterosexual college women. Results: Compared to heterosexuals female college students, lesbians and bisexual women were both significantly more likely to be overweight or obese. Lesbians were also less likely to be underweight compared to heterosexual college women. Conclusions: Self-identified lesbian and bisexual college women were more likely to be overweight or obese than their heterosexual counterparts. Health care professionals and educators should target these high-risk populations for obesity prevention programs. This study highlights the need for additional research examining the potential risk factors for overweight and obesity among young sexual minority women.