An Introduction to the Research Process

Abstract

College health professionals are often intimidated by the research process and thus miss opportunities to develop and communicate their ideas. The present article, the first in a series on college health research, describes the basics of the research process, including the purpose and nature of research and the ways in which ideas are developed into research hypotheses. The process of reviewing research literature is described in detail, including methods for computerized searching.     

Individual and Familial Correlates of Body Satisfaction in Male and Female College Students

Abstract

Objective: This study investigates the relative contributions of global self-esteem, body mass index (BMI), dieting behaviors, and perceived parental control and care on body satisfaction among a nonclinical sample of college students. Participants and Methods: Participants (49 males and 299 females) reported weight and height (to calculate BMI) and completed the EAT 26 test. Perceived parental care and control, global self-esteem, and body satisfaction were measured and examined in relation to BMI and dieting behavior. Results: High BMIs were associated with lower body satisfaction for both genders; dieting behavior, self-esteem, and perceived parental care and control demonstrated a unique gender-specific association among variables in prediction of body satisfaction and dieting behavior for each gender. Conclusions: Body satisfaction as a part of global self-esteem is constructed differently by males and females. Various aspects of parenting (care and control) are associated with self-esteem and body satisfaction for each gender, influencing dieting behavior.     

One Hundred Years of College Mental Health

Abstract

Although the first student health service is credited to Amherst College in 1861, almost 50 years passed before Princeton University established the first mental health service in 1910. At that time, a psychiatrist was hired to help with student personality development. Although other schools subsequently established such services, the first 50 years of college mental health were marked by a series of national conferences. At the American Student Health Association's annual meeting in 1920, “mental hygiene” was identified as critical for college campuses to assist students to reach their highest potential. However, it took another 40 years before mental health and psychological counseling services became common on college and university campuses. The American College Health Association formed a Mental Health Section to serve mental health professionals in 1957, and most colleges and universities have now developed mental health and counseling programs commensurate with the size of their student bodies.     

Urban and Rural Variations in the Characteristics Associated With Elder Mistreatment in a Community-Dwelling Chinese Population

This study compares the urban and rural differences in characteristics associated with elder mistreatment (EM) in a Chinese population. A cross-sectional study of 269 urban and 135 rural participants aged 60 years or greater was performed. Among those with EM, rural participants were more likely to be women, have lower levels of education and income, have lower levels of health status and quality of life, have worse change in recent health, and have lower levels of psychosocial well-being. Both higher levels of depressive symptoms and lower levels of social support were associated with increased risk of EM.     

Mapping the Elder Mistreatment Iceberg: U.S. Hospitalizations With Elder Abuse and Neglect Diagnoses

Purpose: This study describes U.S. hospitalizations with diagnostic codes indicating elder mistreatment (EM). Method: Using the 2003 Nationwide Inpatient Sample (NIS) of the Healthcare Costs and Utilization Project (HCUP), inpatient stays coded with diagnoses of adult abuse and/or neglect are compared with stays of other hospitalized adults age 60 and older. Results: Few hospitalizations (< 0.02%) were coded with EM diagnoses in 2003. Compared to other hospitalizations of older adults, patients with EM codes were twice as likely to be women (OR = 2.12, 95% CI = 1.63–2.75), significantly more likely to be emergency department admissions (78.0% vs. 56.8%, p < .0001), and, on average, more likely to have longer stays (7.0 vs. 5.6 days, p = 0.01). Patients with EM codes were also three to four times more likely to be discharged to a facility such as a nursing home rather than “routinely” discharged (i.e., to home or self-care) (OR = 3.66, 95% CI = 2.92–4.59). Elder mistreatment–coded hospitalizations compared to all other hospitalizations had on average lower total charges ($21,479 vs. $25,127, p < .001), with neglect cases having the highest charges in 2003 ($29,389). Implications: Knowledge about EM is often likened to the “tip of the iceberg.” Our study contributes to “mapping the EM iceberg”; however, findings based on diagnostic codes are limited and should not be used to minimize the problem of EM. With the so-called graying of America, training is needed in recognizing EM along with research to improve our nation's response to the mistreatment of our elderly population.     

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.     

“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     

Estimating free-roaming cat populations and the effects of one year Trap-Neuter-Return management effort in a highly urban area

Free-roaming cat populations are increasing in urban areas around the world. Management strategies remain controversial, as attempts to rapidly minimize the impact of cats may conflict with finding an ethical means of population reduction in this domesticated species. Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR) is a non-lethal strategy which can theoretically lead to population decline with an ethical approach. The present study aimed to estimate free-roaming cat populations and also to measure the efficacy of a one-year TNR campaign in a highly urban area. Using a sight/resight methodology, we examined free-roaming cat populations in four sites across two neighbourhoods (Harlem and Bedford-Stuyvesant) in New York City. Sampling was repeated after 1 year, during which an intensive TNR effort occurred in each of those areas. Results from this study found population estimates range from 2.6-4.1 cats/km. Additionally, we found between 78-98% turnover in each study area. After one year of TNR, the proportion of sterilised individuals in our treatment sites increased to 50%. Model results suggest there is no evidence that sterilised individuals are more likely to be encountered, indicating that sterilisation may not affect movement patterns of cats. Free-roaming cats occur at high densities at all study sites, though populations varied, even within the same neighbourhood. We found evidence of considerable migration within study sites, which further complicates the application of a sterilisation management strategy. Management strategies directed toward free-roaming cats, such as TNR, may require a broad-scale approach, involving different facets of the community and should occur over multiple years.