Caregiver burden, dementia, and elder abuse in South Korea

The purpose of this study is to identify characteristics that would increase the likelihood that a Korean older adult with dementia being cared for by a family caregiver is at risk of being abused. This analysis was based on a sample of 481 primary family caregivers from the data of Comprehensive Study for the Elderly Welfare Policy in Seoul (2003). Multiple regression analysis was used to examine predictors among the demographic characteristics of caregivers and care recipients, the severity of cognitive impairment, functional ability, caregiver burden, and social support for the degree of elder abuse. The degree of elder abuse was significantly associated with caregiver burden, mental impairment, dependency of daily living of care recipient, and use of formal services.     

The Relationship among Negative Affect,Distress Tolerance,and Length of Gambling Abstinence Attempt

The present study tested the theory that negative affect and one’s ability to tolerate distress is associated with failure to quit gambling during an abstinence attempt. Specifically, 16 current pathological gamblers who had at least one sustained period of gambling abstinence lasting a minimum of 3 months (i.e., delayed relapsers) and 16 current pathological gamblers who had never remained abstinent for a period longer than 2 weeks (i.e., immediate relapsers), were assessed for baseline levels of negative affect and stress reactivity, as well as faced with a psychological (mental arithmetic) and physical (breath holding) stressor. Compared to the delayed relapsers, the immediate relapsers displayed higher levels of negative affect and stress reactivity. Immediate relapsers also were less likely to persist on the psychological stressor, suggesting that one’s ability to tolerate the initial discomfort of an abstinence attempt may play an important role in gambling treatment outcome. The current project was completed in partial completion of the degree of Master of Arts in Psychology by the first author under the direction of the second author.     

Tobacco use and quit behaviors among delinquent youth: a pilot study

With rates of adolescent tobacco use steadily increasing over the past 20 years, assisting youth to quit, particularly those youth most susceptible to tobacco use, has become a national focus. The purpose of this pilot study was to examine and profile the smoking patterns of a small sample (n = 37) of juvenile offenders in Texas. In contrast to anecdotal reports, the sample group from this study did not differ clinically from the general population of adolescent tobacco users. Importantly, the study participants indicated previous attempts to stop smoking. The authors conclude that delinquent youth may be responsive to cognitive behavioral smoking cessation programs that also address the management of peer networks.     

The stress of progression from school to work for adolescents with learning disabilities em leader What about life progress?

Four students with learning disabilities were interviewed about their experiences at work. Two students, one male and one female, were high school seniors and two students, one male and female, were freshmen at a community college. Individual student interviews ranged from 2 to 4 hours. Informal interviews were conducted with students' teachers and parents. At the time of the interview, students had part-time, unskilled jobs in which they had worked for at least 6 months prior to participation in the study. Themes that emerged from analysis of the data included students' reactions to entering the workforce, stress in learning the job tasks, overcoming difficulties by developing coping strategies, learning work values and parental influences. Student interviews underscored the importance of practice runs and real life learning to reduce stress prior to entering the work force.     

Corporate competition: A self-organized network

A substantial number of studies have extended the work on universal properties in physical systems to complex networks in social, biological, and technological systems. In this paper, we present a complex networks perspective on interfirm organizational networks by mapping, analyzing and modeling the spatial structure of a large interfirm competition network across a variety of sectors and industries within the United States. We propose two micro-dynamic models that are able to reproduce empirically observed characteristics of competition networks as a natural outcome of a minimal set of general mechanisms governing the formation of competition networks. Both models, which utilize different approaches yet apply common principles to network formation give comparable results. There is an asymmetry between companies that are considered competitors, and companies that consider others as their competitors. All companies only consider a small number of other companies as competitors; however, there are a few companies that are considered as competitors by many others. Geographically, the density of corporate headquarters strongly correlates with local population density, and the probability two firms are competitors declines with geographic distance. We construct these properties by growing a corporate network with competitive links using random incorporations modulated by population density and geographic distance. Our new analysis, methodology and empirical results are relevant to various phenomena of social and market behavior, and have implications to research fields such as economic geography, economic sociology, and regional economic development.     

Drinking and Driving: Alcohol Association with Traffic Accidents

An analysis of drink-driving research methods and findings with reference to traffic accidents is presented. This analysis is used to challenge some of the conclusions about drinking and driving that have gained wide currency in Australia and New Zealand. The growing acceptance of Scandinavian-type laws is critically evaluated. The demand to ‘criminalize’ drink-driving offences is rejected. The reduction of deat and damage from traffic accidents is presented as the real problem, not the drinking and driving of the population at large.     

THE PROXIMATE CONTEXTS OF WORKFARE AND WORK:

This article provides a framework for examining how the conditions of urban, low-income, single motherhood and the resources available through personal networks shape mothers' conduct in work-welfare programs. It suggests how research on welfare programs ignores work-family linkages and misses the ways economic action is embedded in social structures and communal constraints. Three rubrics of proximate context, referring to personal networks, urban environments, and moral economies, organize material indicating how patterns of personal life shape work efforts. Data from a qualitative study of mothers in AFDC work-welfare programs provide illustrations.     

Measuring changes in interagency collaboration: an examination of the Bridgeport Safe Start Initiative

This paper describes the evaluation of interagency collaboration in a network of child-serving providers as part of the evaluation of the Bridgeport Safe Start Initiative (BSSI). In line with the system of care approach, the objectives of BSSI included reducing fragmentation of efforts and delivering integrated services to families of young children exposed to or at risk of exposure to family violence. Interagency collaboration was examined via social network and focus group data collected at three time points starting at baseline. Network analysis findings suggest that over time the network structure became consistent with BSSI's vision of an ideal collaborative network structure. Focus group findings, however, present a more complex picture of the status of collaboration. This paper sheds light on approaches and challenges to measuring interagency collaboration in a service delivery system and communicating social network analysis findings to stakeholders in a way that is accessible and useful.