The unique effects of environmental strategies in health promotion campaigns: a review

Various strategies are used as tools in health promotion campaigns to increase health-related outcomes among target populations. Evaluations of these campaigns examine effects on changing people's knowledge, attitudes, and/or behaviors. Most evaluations examine the combined impact of multiple strategies. Less is known about the unique effects of particular strategies. To address this gap, we used highly systematic methods to identify and review scientifically rigorous evaluations of 18 campaigns that examined the unique effects of three sets of intervention strategies (entertainment education, law enforcement, and mass media) on changes in knowledge, attitudes, and practice with regard to various health behaviors. Results showed differences in evaluation processes based on the type of strategy used to promote campaign messages. For instance, evaluations of mass-media based campaigns were more likely to examine changes in knowledge, relative to evaluations of campaigns that used law enforcement strategies. In addition, campaign effects varied by particular strategies. Mass media-based campaigns were more likely to affect knowledge, relative to behaviors. Law enforcement and entertainment education-based campaigns showed positive effects on behaviors. The implications for planning and evaluating health promotion campaigns are described.     

Couple and family interventions in health problems

Intervention research for couples and families managing chronic health problems is in an early developmental stage. We reviewed randomized clinical trials of family interventions for common neurological diseases, cardiovascular diseases, cancer, and diabetes, which is similar to the content of previous reviews discussed later. One overriding theme of these studies is that patients with chronic illnesses and their families face a variety of challenges to which researchers have responded with an array of treatment modalities. Very few of the interventions reviewed, with the exception of treatment for adolescents with diabetes, tested family psychotherapy models. Most interventions were time-limited therapeutic interventions that trained families to improve their communication and problem-solving skills, individual and family coping skills, and medical management. Researchers more clearly described mechanisms of change in intervention studies with cancer and diabetes than with other diseases, and not surprisingly, they found greater empirical support for their interventions. Family interventions show promise to help patients and family members manage chronic illnesses. To develop an empirical base for family approaches to managing chronic illnesses, interventions must be based on theories that delineate mechanisms of change in family processes and skills in medical management necessary to maintain patients' and family members' health.     

Patronizing Speech to Older Adults

We measured the use of patronizing speech among young adults who were instructed to provide directions (via an internet connection) to a newcomer to campus described as 21 or 65?years old. As predicted, the acoustic properties used with older adults were moderated by the speakers?? history with older unrelated adults (no comparable effects were found for speakers?? history with grandparents). Participants with relatively low contact with unrelated older adults were more likely than those with high contact to be judged as sounding ??patronizing?? and to display acoustical properties associated with patronization (high vocal intensity, high pitch) with older newcomers. However, participants showed a shared tendency to speak more slowly to older than young adults. Findings inform our understanding of the circumstances under which ageist speech is amplified or attenuated.     

Readiness for college engagement among students who have aged out of foster care

This study compares self-reported readiness to engage in college between a sample of 81 college freshmen who aged out of foster care prior to or while attending a large four-year public university and the national freshman population. Results indicate that students from foster care are significantly different from their non-foster-care peers in their readiness to engage in college. The results also show that foster youth are less well prepared academically upon entering college and this performance gap persists through the first semester of college. These findings are examined in the context of the current literature on foster youth. Limitations of the study and implications for future research and practice are discussed.     

Enclosed versus open nursing stations in adult acute care psychiatric settings: does the design affect the therapeutic milieu?

Specific efforts by hospital accreditation organizations encourage renovation of nursing stations, so nurses can better see, attend, and care for their patients. The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of nursing station design on the therapeutic milieu in an adult acute care psychiatric unit. A repeated cross-sectional, pretest-posttest design was used. Data were collected from a convenience sample of 81 patients and 25 nursing staff members who completed the Ward Atmosphere Scale. Pretest data were collected when the unit had an enclosed nursing station, and posttest data were collected after renovations to the unit created an open nursing station. No statistically significant differences were found in patient or staff perceptions of the therapeutic milieu. No increase in aggression toward staff was found, given patients' ease of access to the nursing station. More research is needed about the impact of unit design in acute care psychiatric settings.     

Univariate and multivariate models of positive and negative networks: Liking,disliking, and bully–victim relationships

Three relations between elementary school children were investigated: networks of general dislike and bullying were related to networks of general like. These were modeled using multivariate cross-sectional (statistical) network models. Exponential random graph models for a sample of 18 classrooms, numbering 393 students, were summarized using meta-analyses. Results showed (balanced) network structures with positive ties between those who were structurally equivalent in the negative network. Moreover, essential structural parameters for the univariate network structure of positive (general like) and negative (general dislike and bullying) tie networks were identified. Different structures emerged in positive and negative networks. The results provide a starting point for further theoretical and (multiplex) empirical research about negative ties and their interplay with positive ties.     

Dating violence: mental health consequences based on type of abuse

This study aims to determine the relationship between psychological, physical, and sexual abuse, and mental health symptoms. Female college students (N = 499) completed anonymous online surveys to report experiences of abuse, as well as symptoms of depression, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and physical injuries. Five groups of participants were found: no abuse; psychological abuse; physical abuse; psychological and physical abuse; and psychological, physical, and sexual abuse. The multiple abuse groups showed the highest rate of mental health symptoms. In addition, increased frequency of abuse was related to more mental health symptoms and more physical injuries.     

Multidimensional self-esteem as a mediator of the relationship between sports participation and victimization: a study of African American girls

The purpose of this study that focused on African American high school girls was threefold. First, the relationship of sports participation and victimization was explored. Second, the impact of sports participation on self-esteem was assessed. Third, the role of self-esteem and its disaggregated components (social acceptance, competence, and self-confidence) as mediators of the relationship between sports participation and victimization was examined. In accordance with the sport protection hypothesis, it was hypothesized that sports participation would be related to enhanced self-esteem and reduce victimization. Results suggest that sports participation appears to have some relationship to lower rates of victimization. There was also support for our assertion that sports participation was related to enhanced self-esteem. Finally, overall self-esteem and, specifically, the individual component competence mediated the relationship between sports participation and victimization.