Typologies of substance use and illegal behaviors: A comparison of emerging adults with histories of foster care and the general population

This study used latent class analysis (LCA) to explore whether patterns of substance use and illegal behaviors among emerging adults, 18 to 28 years old, differ depending on whether they have a prior history in foster care. The study sample, consisting of 316 respondents who had previously been in foster care and 14,301 respondents without a foster care history, was drawn from the third wave of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. A multiple-group LCA compared former foster youth to their peers in the general population. The following four classes were identified: illegal behaviors, substance use, illegal behaviors with problematic substance use and normative behaviors. Most of the differences between the groups were not statistically significant. However, within the illegal behavior class former foster youth were less likely to have bought, sold, or held stolen goods; injured someone in a fight so that she or he needed medical attention; to have sold drugs; and to have been drunk at school or work. Additionally, in the illegal behaviors with problematic substance use class emerging adults in the general population were more likely to have used cocaine. Within the normative behaviors class, former foster youth were more likely to be current smokers, and to have injured someone in a fight so that he or she required medical attention. Within the substance use class, emerging adults from the general population were more likely to have taken place in a fight where one group fought another. Additional statistically significant, but very small differences were also identified.     

Residential Differences in Cohabitors' Union Transitions*

Abstract Using data from the 1995 National Survey of Family Growth, we examine residential variation in cohabiting women's union outcomes. Prior work has shown that although there are no residential differences in cohabitation, nonmetro women are more likely than others to marry directly and hold more favorable attitudes toward marriage. Building on this work, we examined residential differences in cohabiting women's union outcomes (i.e., marriage, separation, or remaining intact) to test whether nonmetro cohabiting women's unions are more likely to “end” through marriage, and whether pregnancy has a larger positive effect on marriage entry among this group. We find that nonmetro women are less likely to remain in cohabiting unions and are more likely to either marry or separate during the first 24 months of the cohabiting union. Pregnancy during cohabitation encourages marriage and discourages separation, but these effects are not significantly larger for nonmetro women.     

Hope Therapy in a Community Sample: A Pilot Investigation

We report findings from an initial empirical test of a hope-based, group therapy protocol. In this context, hope is defined as a cognitive process through which individuals pursue their goals [Snyder, C. R.: 1994, Free Press, New York]. As such, the eight-session group treatment emphasized building goal-pursuit skills. Findings from a randomized, wait-list control trial using a community sample (n=32 completers) are reported. Participants underwent structured diagnostic interviews (SCID-I) and completed assessment packets. Post-participation assessment results indicate the intervention was associated with statistically significant (p<0.05) improvements in the agency component of hope, life meaning, and self-esteem as well as reductions in symptoms of depression and anxiety. These results suggest that a brief hope intervention can increase some psychological strengths and reduce some symptoms of psychopathology.     

Household Composition and Poverty among Female‐Headed Households with Children: Differences by Race and Residence*

Abstract We examine race and residential variation in the prevalence of female‐headed households with children and how household composition is associated with several key economic well‐being outcomes using data from the 2000 5% Public Use Microdata Sample of the U.S. Census. Special attention is paid to cohabiting female‐headed households with children and those that are headed by a single grandmother caring for at least one grandchild, because these are becoming more common living arrangements among female‐headed households with children. We find that in 2000: (1) cohabiting and grandmother female‐headed households with children comprised over one‐fourth of all female‐headed households with children, (2) household poverty is highest for female‐headed households with children that do not have other adult household earners, (3) earned income from other household members lifts many cohabiting and grandparental female‐headed households out of poverty, as does retirement and Social Security income for grandmother headed households, and (4) poverty is highest among racial/ethnic minorities and for female‐headed households with children in nonmetro compared to central cities and suburban areas.     

Theorising Disability as Political Subjectivity: work by the UIC Disability Collective on political subjectivities

Disability studies has shown how therapeutic professionals and people with disabilities occupy opposite sides of a deep cultural divide, one that artificially bisects normalcy from 'abnormalcy'. The philosophy of political subjectivity provides an opportunity to analyse the fraught nexus that exists between institutions and those who navigate them as professionals and 'clients'. Our essay seeks to theorise the subject positions that emerge as a result of this often volatile intersection by offering up four critical vignettes: (1) an analysis of the systems and networks that characterise disabled transport within the Chicago Transit Authority; (2) speech therapy training and clinical practices designed for those whose articulation is diagnosed as inferior; (3) an African American clinician's analysis of disability taxonomies applied to minority wards of the state of Illinois; and (4) an analysis of scapegoating at the national level in a class-action law suit regarding the 'missed' diagnosis of disability prior to birth. These overlapping cross-disability accounts seek to enact boundary crossings as the foundation for a new Chicago Model of interdisciplinary disability studies. The essay concludes with a discussion of the need to broaden disability coalitions as the terrain of political struggle becomes increasingly diverse and complex.     

The Eugenic Atlantic: race, disability, and the making of an international Eugenic science, 1800-1945

In this analysis the authors fold disability into a cross-national equation by including disabled people as part of a trans-Atlantic discussion of otherness. In naming this new cultural space the 'Eugenic Atlantic', we take up Paul Gilroy's analysis of cultural crossings in order to recognise the social construction of marginalised populations designated by virtue of their presumed biologically-based inferiorities. The analysis of a 'Eugenic Atlantic' seeks to analyse disability and race as mutual projects of human exclusion, based upon scientific management systems, successively developed within modernity. From the end of the eighteenth century to the conclusion of World War II, bodies designated as defective became the focal point of violent European and American efforts to engineer a 'healthy' body politic. While fears of racial, sexual and gender-based 'contamination' served as the spokes of this belief system, disability, used as a synonym for biological (or in-built) inferiority, functioned as the hub that gave the entire edifice its cross-national utility.     

Adaptation and Validation of a Positive Health Scale for Adolescents

There is a demonstrated need to develop alternative approaches to measuring health from a positive health perspective in order to support systematic planning and evaluation of health promotion in schools. The Salutogenic Health Indicator Scale (SHIS) aims to measure health from a positive perspective. However, it has not been developed, or previously been tested, for use with adolescents between the ages of 12 and 16, at which age youth often exhibit a need for extra support in order to be successful in school and life. Inspired by the SHIS, we generated a Positive Health Scale (PHS) appropriate for 12–16-year-olds and determined its validity and reliability using principal component analysis (PCA). In the study, the scale was tested in a sample of 1,527 Grade 6–9 students, using PCA. The findings indicated the need to reduce the scale to nine items, which was then shown to be valid and reliable for use with both adolescent boys and adolescent girls. We conclude that the PHS can be used in systematic health promotion planning and evaluation. Communities and schools can use this scale to examine and improve health determinants in different adolescent settings.     

The library web: Case studies in web site creation and implementation

Abstract

In May 2003, the National Information Standards Organization (NISO) held a strategy meeting to look at issues surrounding standardization of metasearch systems. The goal of the workshop was to examine the state of the art in metasearch and ways of building consensus to move forward. This article describes the work that has been going on with NISO metasearch activity since that initial meeting.     

Ethical Considerations in Sex Therapy

The most ethical sex therapy is that which cures the symptom and improves the marital relationship in the briefest time at the least cost. Neither insight therapy, nor direct sexual interaction with the client satisfy these criteria. Examples are given of effective ethical therapies, useful in male and female sexual dysfunctions.