Case work treatment of adult patients of a psychiatric clinic 1

Social work instructors need to understand racism and promote racial justice to help social work students become skillful at addressing racism in practice and policy. Reflective practices, such as journal writing, can help instructors explore the impact of their racial socialization and identity on their teaching and guide their professional development in this area. This article presents a shared journaling project between peers within a social work doctoral program. Participants used this medium to increase their self-awareness and promote racial dialogue within a relational context. Relational-cultural theory is used as a lens for understanding how the relationships between journaling partners deepened over time and facilitated antiracist practice. Implications for social work practice, education, and research are discussed.     

Predicting ecstasy use among young people at risk: a prospective study of initially ecstasy-naive subjects

Our aim is to identify predictors of first-time ecstasy use in a prospective study among young people at risk. As part of the multidisciplinary Netherlands XTC Toxicity Study (NeXT), we monitored 188 subjects aged > or = 18 who were ecstasy-naive at baseline but seemed likely to start taking ecstasy in the near future. After an 11- to 26-month follow-up period, 160 respondents remained (85.1%; mean age 21.0 years, 58.1% females): 65 who took ecstasy at least once (ecstasy users) and 95 non-users. At baseline and four times during follow-up, respondents completed self-report questionnaires. Cox regression analysis was used to examine the effects of baseline respondent characteristics on incident ecstasy use. Development of peer group ecstasy use was analyzed by logistic regression. Intention to use ecstasy, low education, and current weekly cannabis use independently increased the hazard rate for first ecstasy use. Although ecstasy use among peers at baseline was not a predictor, the proportion of ecstasy users with ecstasy-using peers increased markedly during the study. Our results suggest that targeted prevention activities should focus in particular on young people who have strong intentions to take ecstasy, especially if they are also regular smokers of cannabis.     

Life-Satisfaction and Preference Drift

In this paper an empirical model is presented thataccounts for adaptation behavior in self-reports onlife-satisfaction. The model is used to determinepreference drift – adaptation to income levels – inlife-satisfaction. With preference drift, the effectof income on life satisfaction varies with the levelof life satisfaction. It is found that preferencedrift mainly occurs among individuals with a highlevel of life-satisfaction.     

Changing Industrial Metabolism: Methods for Analysis

Research in the field of industrial metabolism traditionally has been focused on measuring and describing physical flows of economic systems. The metabolism of economic systems, however, changes over time, and measuring material flows is insufficient to understand this process. Understanding the relation between economic activities and material flows can help to unravel the socio-economic causes of these physical flows. Three issues are addressed: The importance of spatial scales and trade flows, empirical analysis of relations between economic development and material flows, and treatment of behaviour of and interactions between stakeholders. For each of these issues, methods for analysis are suggested.     

Sympathy and the Value of Health: The Spill-over Effects of Migraine on Household Well-being

In this paper a model of life satisfactionmeasurement is formulated to calculatehappiness interdependencies. The model isapplied to estimate the spill-over effects ofmigraine headache on well-being. It is foundthat women are more compassionate thanmen. The results also show that ignoringhappiness interdependencies of migraineheadache underestimates the effects of migraineheadache on well-being.     

Black Mayors/White Mayors: Explaining Their Approval

Performance models have been the norm in research on nationaland state executives, but oddly this model has rarely been extendedto the next level of executive office, mayors. The increasingnumber of African American mayors suggests that race may complicatethe performance model of approval at the local level. This researchtests a performance model of mayoral approval that takes racialfactors into account. The model is tested in two white citieswith white mayors and two black cities with black mayors. Performanceis measured by citizen evaluations of a variety of urban conditions,some of which citizens can observe firsthand. Findings indicatethat (1) performance matters in evaluating black and white mayors,and its influence does not seem to be related to the race ofthe mayor; (2) performance has more explanatory power over mayoralapproval than race, a pattern that holds for both black andwhite mayors; (3) race has more impact on the approval of blackmayors than on white mayors; and (4) blacks in black citieshave lower evaluations of local government performance in theircities than blacks in white cities. We conclude that the performancemodel is generalizable to the local level, even with the complicationsof race.     

A longitudinal study of the effects of charismatic leadership and organizational culture on objective and perceived corporate performance

We investigated the combined effects of charismatic leadership and organizational culture on perceived and objective company performance using a longitudinal design. Employees (N = 1214) in 46 branches of a large Dutch bank rated branch management on charismatic leadership, organizational culture in terms of work practices, as well as perceived organizational performance. Objective performance data were collected twice, two years apart. The split sample technique attenuated common source bias. Results of structural equation modeling, in which Time 1 financial performance measures were controlled, revealed that charisma increased financial performance; however culture did not do so. Culture and charisma were significantly related to perceived performance, and culture and charisma were interrelated. A longer time interval may be necessary before the effects of culture on financial performance become apparent. The findings are discussed against the backdrop of the value of intangible resources.     

The VL control measure for symmetric networks

In this paper we measure “control” of nodes in a network by solving an associated optimisation problem. We motivate this so-called VL control measure by giving an interpretation in terms of allocating resources optimally to the nodes in order to maximise some search probability. We determine the VL control measure for various classes of networks. Furthermore, we provide two game theoretic interpretations of this measure. First it turns out that the VL control measure is a particular proper Shapley value of the associated cooperative network game. Secondly, we relate the measure to optimal strategies in an associated matrix search game.