Elsevier's Strategic Partners Forum: A Climate of Change and Challenge

Abstract

Elsevier's Strategic Partners Program (SPP) convened a forum prior to the American Library Association's 2003 midwinter conference in Philadelphia, PA. Two presentations from that forum are published here to indicate the enormous challenges, initiatives, and changes that face all of us in the serials, publishing, and information environments.     

Integrating Children into Families Separated by Migration: A Caribbean-American Case Study

Caribbean peoples have been migrating to the United States for over one hundred years. Since the liberation ofimmigration policy in 1965, migrationfrom the Caribbean has increased considerably and has presented with an interesting permutation. Many single mothers have migrated leaving young children behind until the mother’s situation is stable in the United States. Upon reunification of child and parent, there are reports ofmarked adjustment difficulties. This paper examines one such case, which was presented for mandated treatment. Issues around intention strategy and implementation are explored in detail with references to case history and clinical theory.     

Doctor/politician. Physicians often shocked by political reality

What motivates doctors to get into politics? Some say it's a broader sense of accomplishment--helping not only patients, but society as a whole. Learn how some doctor/politicians got into the game, and what they're learning as they play it.     

The Imagination and Social Life

Sociology gives almost no consideration to the imagination. Yet, as this study seeks to demonstrate, the imagination plays an important role in social life. This article examines the question of how the imagination enters into ongoing interpersonal relations, taking as a case study cross-national couples and their discussions about where to live. Findings from semi-structured interviews with thirty-seven individuals in cross-national relationships suggest that the imagination enters into the lives of couples in four ways: imaginings suggest to partners where they would like to live; partners use the imagination as a tool to access and advance a preference, either together or individually; partners frame the desires of the other as fantasy as a way of countering these desires; and lastly, spouses tolerate an undesirable situation by engaging in escapist fantasies. Finally, this study suggests that the imagination permeates our decision-making, routinely enters our thoughts, is a domain in which individuals immerse themselves regularly, and, in the form of collective imaginings, can inspire social change.     

The Gambling Self-Efficacy Questionnaire: An Initial Psychometric Evaluation

Instruments to assess individuals' self-efficacy for the control of addictive behaviors have been useful for monitoring behavior change, predicting maintenance of treatment gains, and identifying potential relapse situations. The Gambling Self-Efficacy Questionnaire (GSEQ) was developed to assess perceived self-efficacy to control gambling behavior. A demographically diverse sample of 309 adult gamblers completed an initial set of 42 items, of which 16 were selected to form the final version of the GSEQ. The GSEQ showed high internal consistency ( = .96) and good test-retest reliability (r = .86). A factor analysis provided some support for a unitary factor structure. As expected, GSEQ scores were negatively correlated with reports of problematic gambling behavior. Participants experiencing problems related to their gambling behavior scored significantly lower on the GSEQ than those who were not experiencing gambling problems. This psychometric examination of the GSEQ supported its potential utility for treatment planning and outcome evaluation with problem gamblers.