Family configuration and adolescent sexual attitudes and behavior

Several measures of family configuration, derived from the number, age, and sex of siblings and the number of parents, were related to adolescent sexual attitudes and behavior in a sample of 836 high school-aged teenagers from two Western states. Zero-order correlations showed that sexual intercourseexperience was less common among adolescents who lived with both parents and also among those who had younger siblings. Similarly, the zero-order correlations showed least permissiveattitudes among adolescents who had more siblings, especially younger siblings, and among those who lived with both parents. Controlling for adolescents' age, sex, race, religion, church attendance, and parents' educational attainment, however, essentially eliminated the relationships between family configuration variables and sexual attitudes and behavior. Only parents' marital structure, reflecting whether adolescents lived with both original parents or not, continued to be weakly related to adolescents' sexual attitudes and behvior.     

Applied Social and Community Interventions for Crisis in Times of National and International Conflict

This article discusses the social, community, national, and international psychological implications of the great energy and movement in our country after the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. To determine ways that applied psychologists can have a positive effect on the crisis, Kurt Lewin's (1948; 1951) concept of locomotion at community and national levels is used to discuss the need for interventions that will produce driving factors to continue movement toward positive helping behaviors, and restraining factors when this momentum leads to potentially dangerous responses to the conflict (e.g., group think, an overextended enthusiasm for war, a sense of psychological immediacy or nonimmediacy for victims, and prejudice against Muslim individuals). The author offers ten approaches that applied psychologists could use to drive, restrain, and guide locomotion in this and similar crises both in the United States and abroad.     

Time demands on families: Is there a bottom line?

As families continue to adapt to interpersonal and marketplace pressures, time available for household production is becoming scarce. The purpose of the study reported here is to explore the utility of regional economic analyses in determining minimal levels of household production as measured in terms of time. The results provide a minimum family time required in the long term of approximately 35 hours per week and a short term requirement of 2 hours per week. Theoretical frameworks used in family science are integrated in the discussion to explain these findings.Pamela N. Olson is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Counseling and Family Studies, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM 87131. Her current research interests are family member time-use and families in debt. She completed her Ph.D. at Oregon State University.James J. Ponzetti, Jr. received his Ph.D. from Oregon State University. He is currently an Assistant Professor in Family Studies in the Department of Home Economics, Central Washington University, Ellensburg, WA 98926. His current research interests include divorce, loneliness, and family planning.Geraldine I. Olson is Associate Professor and Graduate Program Director, Family Resource Management, College of Home Economics, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR 97131. She completed her Ph.D. at The Ohio State University and current research interests include family member time-use, assessing managerial activities, and factors which influence the substitution of marketplace goods with household production.     

Poems, patients, and psychosocial nursing

1. Holism can prove just as elusive in psychosocial nursing as in any other specialty area. 2. Students in an undergraduate psychosocial nursing course used poetry to express the fullness of the situations in which they found themselves. 3. The poems touched a deeper and more complete sense of humanity than had been possible in other, more traditional, assignments.     

Abstracts

Ahrons, C. R. Divorce: A crisis of family transition and change. Family Relations ,
Elmer, E. Child abuse and family stress. Journal of Social Issues .
McCubbin, H. I. Integrating coping behavior in family stress theory. Journal of Marriage and the Family ,
Reiss, D. & Oliveri, M. E. Family paradigm and family coping: A proposal for linking the family's intrinsic adaptive capacities to its responses to stress. Family Relations ,
Richman, J. The family therapy of attempted suicide. Family Process ,
Stanton, M. D. Family treatment approaches to drug abuse problems: A review. Family Process ,
Unger, D. G. and Powell, D. R. Supporting families under stress: The role of social networks. Family Relations ,
Wiseman, J. P. The "home treatment": The first steps in trying to cope with an alcoholic husband. Family Relations ,     

TERRITORY, VILLAGE IDENTITY, AND THE MODERN ESKIMO REINDEER MANAGER

Depuis le dCbut du xx sikcle, les Esquimaux de 1'Alaska occidental font Yelevage du renne domestiqu6. En d6pit de cette tradition bien ktablie, Ctre propriktaire d'un troupeau n'est pas encore c o n p comme une categorie professionnelle spCcialiske. L'origine territoriale des habitants, en tant que facteurtraditionnel orientant les relations sociales, continue d'Ctre le facteur pripondkrant. De la mCme manikre, la gkrance de l'entreprise d'ilevage du renne asuivi une ligne d'kvolution propre. Les produits du renne sont souvent transform& et distribuks B partir de critkres qui sont dict6s au propriktaire par ses
responsabilites communautaires.
Les planificateurs de l'Etat de l'Alaska veulent promouvoir l'industrie de 1'Clevage du renne. L'ensemble de ces facteurs converge pour placer le gCrant esquimau B l'avant-plan, car il doit reconcilier les exigences conflictuelles deson milieu culture1 en voie de transition.
Since the turn of this century, domesticated reindeer have been raised and marketed by western Alaskan Eskimo. In spite of its rather long history, native reindeer ownership has not become a specialized occupational category. The traditional criteria defining social relations - territorial origins - continues to enter these relations as a determinant force. Similarly, reindeer enterprise management has evolved uniquely. Reindeer products are often processed and distributed according to criteria imposed upon the owner by his village responsibilities.
State of Alaska planners are now hoping to develop domesticated reindeer as a local resource. These forces combine to place the Eskimo manager in the spotlight, as he seeks to reconcile conflicting demands from his changing cultural environment.     

Mortality in late nineteenth-century Montreal: geographic pathways of contagion

In the City of Montreal, 1881, the presence of three cultural communities with different profiles of economic status makes it possible to observe the way social settings affected survival over a lifetime. Regression models show culturally determined maternal factors dominant for infants, and persistent throughout childhood. For post-neonates, children aged 1-4, and adults aged 15-59 household poverty has a comparable effect. Among adults, a gender penalty differs among the three communities. Models are improved when differentiated by cause of death. Locating households using a GIS reveals high levels of residential segregation by ethnicity and income, spatial correlation of environmental hazards, and constraints on exit from zones of risk, which together produce neighbourhood effects as large as household effects. Attention to groups excluded (foundlings and inmates of institutions) confirms that models limited to full household-level information significantly underestimate the impacts of poverty and exclusion.     

Are we keeping the people who used to stay? Changes in correlates of panel survey attrition over time

As survey response rates decline, correlates of survey participation may also be changing. Panel studies provide an opportunity to study a rich set of correlates of panel attrition over time. We look at changes in attrition rates in the American National Election Studies from 1964 to 2004, a repeated panel survey with a two-wave pre-post election design implemented over multiple decades. We examine changes in attrition rates by three groups of variables: sociodemographic and ecological characteristics of the respondent and household, party affiliation and political and social attitudes recorded at the first interview, and paradata about the first wave interview. We find relatively little overall change in the pre-post election panel attrition rates, but important changes in demographic correlates of panel attrition over time. We also examine contact and cooperation rates from 1988 to 2004.     

Effects of Religiosity,Forgiveness, and Spousal Empathy on Marital Adjustment

This study focused on married couples in a region of the United States that previous research has identified as having high rates of both religiosity and divorce. As a result, this study was designed to examine the effects of religiosity, forgiveness, and spousal empathy on marital adjustment. To investigate these constructs, married couples in this region were recruited (n?=?829) to participate in a cross-sectional, self-report telephone survey. Results indicate that religious service attendance and spousal empathy have direct positive effects on marital adjustment in European American married men; while religious service attendance, forgiveness, and spousal empathy have direct positive effects on marital adjustment in European American married women. Among African-American participants, only spousal empathy had a direct effect on marital adjustment for both men and women. Finally, spousal empathy moderated the association between previous marriage and current marital adjustment among European American married women.