Children’s Mental Health Providers’ Perceptions of Mental Health Literacy Among Parents and Caregivers

Mental health disorders are prevalent among children, yet many do not receive treatment. Parents and caregivers play a vital role in recognizing mental health disorders in children and accessing treatment. But a substantial number of parents lack essential knowledge of children’s mental health disorders, including risk factors, symptom recognition, and treatment options. Little focus has been given to parents in the children’s mental health literacy literature. The purpose of this article is to begin filling that gap by using a survey to describe the perceptions of child and family mental health providers’ perceptions regarding the amount, accuracy, and origin of mental health literacy in the parents of the children they treat. The impact of those perceptions on the work of providers is also explored. Eighty-seven mental health providers completed a survey to assess their perceptions of parent mental health literacy in the area of children’s mental health. Providers perceived parent mental health literacy as low, inaccurate, and inconsistent. In addition, providers indicated that parents rely on informal sources of support, such as friends and family for information about children’s mental health. Implications for social work researchers, practitioners, and the children and families they serve are discussed.     

Service Patterns of Adult Survivors of Childhood Versus Adult Sexual Assault/Abuse

This analysis compared the characteristics and service patterns of adult survivors of childhood sexual assault/abuse and adult survivors of adult sexual assault/abuse. Utilizing data from sexual assault crisis centers serving survivors in a Midwestern state over a six year period and controlling for revictimization, we describe and compare the demographic characteristics, referral sources, and service patterns of the two groups. Results indicate that paths into service differ for the two groups. Furthermore, adult survivors of childhood sexual assault/abuse obtain significantly more hours of service and service contacts on average than adult survivors of adult sexual assault/abuse. Implications for policy and practice are discussed.     

Cross-Cultural Competency Through Service-Learning

ABSTRACT

This article addresses the development of cross-cultural competency within the context of service-learning. The need to integrate cross-cultural competency into the academic curriculum has risen dramatically with the sharp increase in resident Hispanics and their families. Service-learning addresses the demand for culturally competent graduates who can address the paradigms of inequality and invisibility as well as the language barrier. Service-learning develops cultural competency through weekly direct contact and journal writing exercises. By venturing into the community, students see beyond the cultural walls that often divide neighborhoods, and they also make connections between economics, anthropology, history, political science, and other disciplines. Through service-learning, many university students develop maturity and ingenuity that they would not acquire in the classroom. Community partners—the families, students, and teachers—discover how to complement and advocate for each other to help ensure well-being and academic success. This article analyzes and evaluates the service-learning experience through a community practicum course in which students spend 40 hours working with Hispanic migrant families. It includes the evolution in service-learning in a university program and the value in the shift from a focus on language acquisition to the development of cultural competency as an integral part of the program. Working with a population that is culturally different from themselves and the textbook knowledge they have received has become a cornerstone of university language and teacher-training programs.     

Feeding the Hand that Bit You: Lesbian Daughters at Mid-Life Negotiating Parental Caretaking

SUMMARY

Like other women in our culture, lesbians find parental caretaking is a gendered expectation that often falls to them. This article explores how we negotiate competing demands and integrate our parents' needs into our lives. The daughter/parent relationship may have been strained by parental homophobia, exclusion of our partner, “splitting” between our lesbian and birth family lives, and physical distance. We may recall feelings of metaphorical and physical caretaking not offered to us when we came out, when lack of parental support may have brought financial abandonment and emotional upset. Inversion of the relationship into the child as parental caretaker, fraught with mixed emotions, can bring resolution of long-held resentments and pain.     

The personal archive as historical record1

This paper is based on the project ‘Becoming citizens: Family life and the politics of disability’, a chronicle of the lives of 13 families in the Seattle area who raised children with developmental disabilities in the period 1940–1980. The project was a commission from the Office of Arts and Cultural Affairs in Seattle. The programme inserted an artist into a community to realize a collaborative project. The principle product is a book to be published by the University of Washington Press in the spring of 2005. This article will briefly outline the project, present its integration of images and interviews as a method of presentation and further discuss the ways the informal environment of the family home is both a rich source of ‘vernacular’ history, as well as a resource for constructing ‘official’ histories.     

Dating Relationships in Older Adulthood: A National Portrait

Dating in later life is likely common, especially as the proportion of older adults who are single continues to rise. Yet there are no recent national estimates of either the prevalence or factors associated with dating during older adulthood. Using data from the 2005–2006 National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project, a nationally representative sample of 3,005 individuals ages 57–85, the authors constructed a national portrait of older adult daters. Roughly 14% of singles were in a dating relationship. Dating was more common among men than women and declined with age. Compared to non‐daters, daters were more socially advantaged. Daters were more likely to be college educated and had more assets, were in better health, and reported more social connectedness. This study underscores the importance of new research on partnering in later life, particularly with the aging of the U.S. population and the swelling ranks of older singles.     

Perceptions of Sources of Sex Education and Targets of Sex Communication: Sociodemographic and Cohort Effects

As part of a larger survey study on young adult sexuality conducted over a 17-year period at a Midwest U.S. university, more than 6,000 college students completed questions on the sources of their sex education and the degree to which they have communicated about sex with various types of individuals. Participants reported receiving more sex education from peers and media than from parents (and mothers more than fathers). Respondents also reported communicating more about sex with peers than with parents or any other categories of individuals. Differences were found in the degree of sex education from various sources and in communication with various targets based on gender, ethnic background, and social class. Furthermore, changes were found over the 17-year period. More recent cohorts of students perceived that they received more sex education from media, peers, and professionals, and communicated more about sex with professionals, relative to earlier cohorts.     

Sex Differences in Post-Coital Behaviors in Long- and Short-Term Mating: An Evolutionary Perspective

Few empirical studies have been devoted to exploring behaviors occurring immediately following sexual intercourse. Therefore, this study conducts an exploratory investigation of various post-coital behaviors that the authors propose may reflect the divergent adaptive reproductive strategies of each sex as understood from an evolutionary perspective. An online questionnaire was administered to 170 individuals examining sex differences in post-coital compared to pre-coital activities related to pair-bonding with long-term mates, as well as a variety of common post-coital activities comparing short- and long-term mating contexts. It was found that females were more likely than males to initiate and place greater importance on several behaviors related to intimacy and bonding following sex with long-term partners. Males were more likely to initiate kissing before sex, and females after sex. Intimate talk and kissing were rated by both sexes as more important before intercourse with a long-term partner, whereas cuddling and professing one's love was rated more important after sex. In a second set of more specific post-coital behaviors, females were more likely to engage in post-coital behaviors related to bonding with both short- and long-term partners, whereas males were more likely to engage in ones that were extrinsically rewarding or increased the likelihood of further coital acts.