Homeless Youths’ Interests in Social Action via Photovoice

Engaging homeless youth in services is challenging. Novel methods are needed to better retain and empower this population. Photovoice, an innovative form of community-based participatory research, facilitates participants’ use of photography to document their everyday lives and struggles, while advocating for social change. This study examines, among 22 homeless youth, whether and why youth would be interested in participating in Photovoice activities, the types of social issues youth would be motivated to explore, and homeless youths’ opinions about committing to a longer-term, group-oriented project. Photovoice may represent promise in engaging marginalized and difficult-to-retain populations.     

Do Associations Between Pleasure Ratings and Condom Use During Penile–Vaginal Intercourse Vary by Relationship Type?: A Study of Canadian University Students

Research suggests the relationship between pleasure and condom use during penile–vaginal intercourse (PVI) is associated with relationship status. This online study examined pleasure ratings and condom use at last PVI, stratifying by partner type, among a national sample of Canadian university students. Participants were 715 undergraduates (60.7% women, 39.3% men) who reported on their most recent sexual experience. Condom use decreased with level of relationship commitment, whereas ratings of pleasure increased. Overall, participants were more likely to rate their most recent PVI as Very pleasurable when condoms were not used compared to when condoms were used. However, when stratified by partner type, these differences largely disappeared. For women, with one exception, there were no differences in pleasure between PVI with and without condoms across most partner-type categories. Women in committed dating relationships were more likely to report their last PVI as very pleasurable if condoms were not used than women in these same relationships who had used condoms. Across relationship categories, men who did and did not use condoms did not differ in terms of their pleasure ratings. The results of this study suggest relationship context should be taken into account when assessing condom use experiences.     

Mothers’ ideals and experiences of raising children in inner and outer suburban Melbourne,Australia

Parents’ perceptions of their neighbourhoods are important for child health outcomes. This study compared views among mothers in inner versus outer suburbs of Melbourne, Australia using a mixed methods approach. Mothers of preschool-aged children were recruited via playgroups, mother’s groups and preschools and interviewed face-to-face regarding their local area as a good place to raise a family, with a second open-ended interview focussing on mothers’ ideals and experiences of raising children in their current location. Findings demonstrated that mothers had different ideals for, and experiences of, raising their children in their neighbourhoods. Inner suburban mothers valued a manageable work/family balance and access to public transport over the size of their homes. However, access to childcare, secondary schooling and heavy traffic were issues, with the latter two being reasons for moving from the municipality. In contrast, outer suburban mothers preferred a larger home in neighbourhoods that they perceived as low crime, over accessibility to work. Access to a car and activities for their children were also important. Findings suggest no ‘one size fits all’ in respect to what features mothers expect from a good place to raise a family, or how they experience these features. This has implications for service delivery and social planning of suburbs.     

Using sibling data to understand the impact of family group decision-making on child welfare outcomes

Few studies have examined the impact of family group decision-making (FGDM) on child welfare outcomes. Studies in this area have often suffered from small sample sizes and lack of adequate comparison groups. Since FGDM is administered at the family level, sibling data provides an ideal way to compensate for small sample sizes and low enrollment rates in research evaluating FGDM. This study utilized sibling data from California's Title IV-E Waiver Demonstration Project Evaluation in Fresno and Riverside Counties to compare child welfare outcomes for children of families randomly assigned to receive FGDM (Fresno County, n = 110; Riverside County, n = 87) to children of families assigned to receive traditional child welfare services (Fresno County, n = 74; Riverside County, n = 52). After controlling for clustering effects using general estimating equations (GEE), group differences in child maltreatment, placement stability, and permanence were modeled using linear and logistic regression. Outcomes from both counties suggested no group differences. Though neutral outcomes on child welfare indicators may bring into question FGDM's efficacy for changing child welfare outcomes, this study confirms previous findings with smaller sample sizes on the impact of FGDM and demonstrates a methodological improvement over individual or family-case analyses.     

Brief Family Therapy: A Critique of Kinston and Bentovim

There has been a growing interest in the use of brief family therapy with children. Despite this increased interest, research into the effectiveness of this approach appears to have lagged behind clinical practice. The present paper critically reviews a study by Kinston and Bentovim (1978) which could be viewed as typical in the area of brief family therapy. Analysis of Kinston and Bentovim's investigation revealed serious methodological deficiencies and raised some important clinical issues in brief family therapy studies. These include the importance of training in family therapy, the use of a consistent theoretical framework, and flexibility in the application of techniques. On the basis of this review, recommendations are made that future investigations of brief family therapy follow the guidelines necessary for valid psychotherapy research.     

Teacher-Based Racial Discrimination: The Role of Racial Pride and Religiosity Among African American and Caribbean Black Adolescents

This study explored the extent to which private regard and religiosity beliefs serve as protective factors for school bonding among African American and Caribbean black adolescents who experience racial discrimination in school. Findings are drawn from a nationally representative sample of (n = 810) African American and (n = 360) Caribbean black adolescents (52% girls) aged 13–17 (M_age = 15, SD = 1.42) years. Results suggest that perceiving racial discrimination from teachers was associated with lower levels of school bonding for African American and Caribbean black adolescents. For African American adolescents, perceiving more racial discrimination from teachers and reporting lower private regard beliefs was associated with less school bonding. The findings for Caribbean black adolescents revealed that endorsing moderate levels of religiosity and perceiving higher rates of teacher discrimination was associated with less school bonding. The developmental significance and implications for future research are discussed.     

Statistics in Management Education

Results of two surveys are presented and indicate the statistical knowledge of past students from Master of Business Administration programmes, their usage of statistics together with their opinions about the statistical content of Master of Business Administration degree courses. These views are contrasted with the results of a second survey of academic staff who teach statistics on such programmes. We find that past students recommend a greater statistical content than is currently taught but, paradoxically, most of the academic staff associated with teaching the subject believe that the statistical content of their programme will decrease in future years.     

Utilization of Advice from Face-to-Face and Internet-Mediated Advisors

Advice is increasingly sought and shared online, but advisory professionals debate the utility of such methods. Variations in recipients' perceptions of elements of traditional face-to-face (FTF) advice and Internet-mediated (IM) advice may influence its utilization. The present research investigated whether communication format (FTF vs. IM) and an advisor's level of expertise influence perceptions and utilization of advice. Participants played 30 rounds of a prisoner's dilemma game after receiving advice about the best strategy. There was a significant tendency for advice to be followed, but the advice format and advisor expertise had no significant influence on advice utilization and only minor influences on self-reported perceptions of the advice and the advisor. This has worrying implications, and could indicate a lack of critical awareness of advisors' expertise when deciding whether to follow advice or not. Implications for the professional advice field and further research possibilities are discussed.     

THE CONCEPT OF NEIGHBORHOOD IN HEALTH AND MORTALITY RESEARCH

Neo-liberal economic principles are viewed positively by many people in government, the media, and academia, as they are thought to increase rates of economic growth and thereby produce outcomes beneficial to society as a whole. This project endeavors to test the second part of that notion, hypothesizing that excessive reliance on open markets is positively associated with social “costs,” which may be interpreted as a quantitatively diminished standard of living. Specifically, by limiting our focus to the relatively small sample of advanced capitalist democracies, it is expected that among these wealthy countries those with relatively low levels of adherence to market principles perform better on a number of important social indicators than those which favor minimal governmental activism. Regression analysis is employed to test the relationship between laissez-faire economic policy and 6 social maladies in 18 countries. Results show that a neo-liberal economic orientation does indeed lead to suboptimal social outcomes among advanced capitalist democracies.