A review of national school-age pregnancy and prevention information clearinghouses

School-age pregnancy is a major social problem that affects youth, families and communities. The complexities of school-age pregnancy demand that social work practitioners have knowledge across diverse fields and keep abreast of changing sociopolitical trends. Information clearning-houses have been developed to assist practitioners in their efforts to keep abreast of a particular field of practice. This paper identifies major national information clearinghouses that provide resources for practitioners who work in the field of school-age pregnancy and prevention.     

Depression and conduct disorder among hospitalized adolescents

The characteristics of fifty hospitalized adolescents diagnosed with either depressionor depression with conduct disorder were examined. Youths diagnosed with depression had significantly greater anxiety and significantly less peer popularity than youths diagnosed with depression and conduct disorder. Depressed youths also experienced significantly fewer behavior problems than youths diagnosed with depression and conduct disorder. Implications for the diagnosis and treatment of adolescent depression and conduct disorder are discussed.     

Factors associated with hispamic teenagers' attitude toward the importance of birth control

Attitudes of 240 female Hispanic teenagers in 1984-85 in New York City toward the importance of birth control (ATIBC) are examined as a reflection of the following: demographic factors, educational aspirations, maternal characteristics, religiosity, clarity of longterm goals, and perception of friends' behavior, i.e., the degree, formation, and variation of these factors. The nonrandom sample was recruited from pregnancy prevention classes. The questionnaire was available in English or Spanish. 9 research questions were of interest including whether girls in female-headed households were more likely to be sexually active and have higher ATIBC scores, whether Catholics will have lower ATIBC scores, whether spanish preference speakers have lower ATIBC scores, whether working mothers' children, or more highly educated mothers' children were more sexually active and have higher scores, whether religiosity lowers scores, whether higher educational aspirations increases scores, whether childrens' beliefs that most of the friends use contraceptive is related to higher cores, and whether clearer longterm goals are related to higher scores. The attitude scale was based on Kirby's and Cvetkovich and Grote's work and focused on peer influence, parental attitudes, and strength of intention to use contraceptives. Other measures are identified by specific questions, i.e., clarity of longterm goals is measured by the question: I have a clear idea of where I'm headed in the future, and I know what I want out of life. The results indicated that 4 variables were significantly associated with ATIBC scores: 1) lower scores were associated with teenagers who had mothers with low education (2nd-9th grades), and 2) teenagers who spoke Spanish best; 3) perceived importance of religion was significantly related to lower ATIBC scores such that great importance was related to low scores and little importance was related to high scores; and 4) teenagers' belief about their friends' potential use of birth control was significantly related such that if 75% of friends were thought to use birth control. These 4 predictors (primary language, mother's education, importance of religion, and friends' perceived birth control use) yielded an R of .55 and and R2 = .31. The strongest single predictor is friends' perceived birth control use at 15% and mother's education at 14%.     

Elder Abuse and Barriers to Help Seeking in Chennai,India: A Qualitative Study

This qualitative study attempts to understand why older persons abused by their family members in India do not seek help. In-depth interviews over three visits were conducted with six adults aged 65 years and above who had been physically abused by their sons/daughters-in-law. The interviews were transcribed and themes identified using a thematic analysis method. The barriers preventing a person from seeking help were service-related (accessibility, lack of trust); religious (Karma); family (deleterious effects on family, family members’ responses to help seeking); and individual (socioeconomic dependency, self-blame). The unique findings that surfaced were fear of losing one's identity by losing one's family, attributing abuse to past sins, and concern over not attaining salvation if one's sons did not perform funeral rites. The authors propose a checklist to explore and assess the barriers to seeking help. Recommendations for geroprofessionals in overcoming barriers include implementing outreach programs and changing the misconceptions regarding Karma.     

An Examination of the Adult Day Services Industry Using the Resource Dependence Model within a Values Context

The adult day services (ADS) industry continues to grow and develop in providing care to larger numbers of older adults and their caregivers. Despite the growth in the number of programs and the changes in the way services are delivered, a systematic examination of the development of the ADS industry from a policy perspective has not been published since the mid-1990s. This article provides an analysis of the development of the ADS industry using the resource dependence model within a values-based context to determine whether public reimbursement opportunities are congruent with the needs of older adults and caregivers. Potential directions for the future development of the industry are presented through analysis of the collaborations of adult day providers with the providers of other services for older adults and the effort by public and private funders to connect quality outcomes and resources.     

Motives,Timing, and Targets of Corporate Philanthropy: A Tripartite Classification Scheme of Charitable Giving

Although corporate philanthropy has been an important part of American business for more than a century, the motives and consequences of corporate philanthropy are not well understood. This paper develops a richer classification scheme of philanthropic activity, to aid in theory development and management. Examining simultaneously the domains of why firms give (motive), when they give (timing) and to whom they give (target), a conceptual model identifying distinct categories of philanthropic activity is developed and its implications to present and future research discussed.