Methods of Engagement in Family-Based Preventive Intervention

Family-based prevention programs have shown promise in preventing drug use and antisocial behavior in high-risk youth. Multidimensional family prevention (MDFP) is an intensive, family-based counseling program in which a family-specific prevention agenda is crafted with each family. This collaborative, individualized approach to intervention requires a high degree of engagement on the part of families. The main challenges of engagement are discussed, and the main features of an engagement strategy are described: capturing the interest of the family and assessing risk and protective factors within the specific ecological context of the family in order to create a working agenda for preventive intervention.     

Life with and without disease: women experience more of both

This paper examines gender differences in life with and without six major diseases, including both mortal and morbid conditions. Disease prevalence and health behavior data are from the 1993-1995 National Health Interview Surveys for the United States. Vital registration data are the source of mortality rates used in computing life expectancy. The Sullivan method is used to estimate life lived with and without disease and risky behavior for men and women at various ages. Women live more years with each of the diseases examined, and, for arthritis, the extended years with disease are greatest. Women also live more years than men free of each of these diseases with the exception of arthritis. Gender differences in life without two health-risk behaviors are also discussed. Men spend more years of their lives overweight and have fewer years during which they see a doctor.     

Patterns of Racial and Educational Assortative Mating in Brazil

Exchange of racial for educational status has been documented for black/white marriages in the United States. Exchange may be an idiosyncratic feature of U.S. society, resulting from unusually strong racial boundaries historically developed there. We examine status exchange across racial lines in Brazil. In contrast to the United States, Brazil features greater fluidity of racial boundaries and a middle tier of “brown” individuals. If exchange is contingent on strong racial boundaries, it should be weak or non-existent in Brazilian society. Contrary to this expectation, we find strong evidence of status exchange. However, this pattern results from a generalized penalty for darkness, which induces a negative association between higher education and marrying darker spouses (“market exchange”) rather than from a direct trading of resources by partners (“dyadic exchange”). The substantive and methodological distinction between market and dyadic exchange helps clarify and integrate prior findings in the status exchange literature.     

Profiles of Systems Involvement in a Sample of High-Risk Urban Adolescents with Unmet Treatment Needs

This study examined profiles of involvement in four systems (education, child welfare, legal, and treatment) in a sample of 253 high-risk urban adolescents with unmet behavioral health needs. Self-report data were collected on multiple dimensions of involvement within each system, demographics, and DSM-IV diagnoses. Latent class analysis revealed four profiles: Education System: Academic and Disciplinary, Education System: Academic Only, Legal/Juvenile Justice Involved, and Multiple Systems/Child Welfare. Profiles differed based on gender and psychiatric diagnoses. Boys were overrepresented in Education System: Academic and Disciplinary and Legal/Juvenile Justice Involved, and girls were overrepresented in Multiple Systems/Child Welfare. The two education system focused classes were characterized by depressive disorders and ADHD. Youth in Legal/Juvenile Justice Involved and Multiple Systems/Child Welfare were characterized by conduct disorder and substance abuse. Implications for assessment and treatment planning for high-risk youth and for the organization of community-based behavioral health services are discussed.     

Transgender Individuals' Perceptions of Maternal Support in Central Appalachia

The psychosocial experiences of transgender individuals are shaped by specific cultural beliefs and values that influence family and community interactions. Using a constant-comparative approach to thematic analysis, we analyzed in-depth interviews with 25 transgender-identified adults in Central Appalachia and discovered that their mothers play a crucial role in their social support experiences. Participants described supportive and unsupportive interactions with their mothers and how their mothers' attitudes and behaviors evolved in positive directions over time. They also perceived that their mothers played a key role in influencing how other family and community members behaved toward them. Participants gave meaning to their mothers' behaviors by placing them in the context of strong cultural values about distinct gender roles, family loyalty, religious conservatism, and pride of place. These findings serve as a reminder to family mental health practitioners and health service providers to directly assess family and community strengths and draw on these resources to facilitate the well-being of clients from stigmatized and under-resourced populations.     

Work-family conflict among IT specialty workers in the US

Specialty workers are a source of critical, locally scarce technical skills. This study aimed to understand the experience of work-family conflict among specialty workers in the US by exploring the process of transitioning from working in their home countries to working in the US. While participants perceived initial difficulties in adapting to the new environment, over time, they experienced lower work-family conflict in the US compared to working in their own home countries. In their home countries, where work and family domains were considered separate and culturally defined boundaries separating these domains are rigidly maintained; these participants relied heavily on family support to manage work-family conflict. Moving to the US, where greater integration of work and family domains is prevalent, these participants managed work-family conflict by revisiting altered demands, accessing alternate organizational resources and learning new skills to create and maintain work-family boundaries. This study contributes to the nascent body of literature on work-family relations in the context of international migration by highlighting a specific case of Indian specialty workers who adopt different boundary-spanning strategies to manage work-family conflict in changed social and working conditions. In essence, participants managed work-family conflict by using enhanced autonomy to increase flexible working and accessing other resources such as supervisory support and organizational flexible working policies.     

Exposure to Psychological Aggression at Work and Job Performance: The Mediating Role of Job Attitudes and Personal Health

Despite the growing literature on workplace aggression and the importance of employee performance at work, few studies have examined the relation between workplace aggression and job performance. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relations between psychological aggression at work and two forms of job performance (task performance and contextual performance) and potential mediators of these relations. Based on Conservation of Resources theory and prior research, a model was developed and tested in which overall job attitudes (i.e., job satisfaction and organizational commitment) and overall personal health (i.e., physical and psychological health) fully mediate the relations between exposure to psychological aggression at work and both task performance and contextual performance. Data were obtained from a national probability sample of US workers (N = 2376) and the model was tested using structural equation modelling. The results supported the hypothesized model, demonstrating that exposure to psychological aggression at work negatively predicted both task performance and contextual performance, and that these relations were explained by decrements in job attitudes and health associated with exposure to psychological aggression at work.     

A CGE Framework for Modeling the Economics of Flooding and Recovery in a Major Urban Area

Coastal cities around the world have experienced large costs from major flooding events in recent years. Climate change is predicted to bring an increased likelihood of flooding due to sea level rise and more frequent severe storms. In order to plan future development and adaptation, cities must know the magnitude of losses associated with these events, and how they can be reduced. Often losses are calculated from insurance claims or surveying flood victims. However, this largely neglects the loss due to the disruption of economic activity. We use a forward‐looking dynamic computable general equilibrium model to study how a local economy responds to a flood, focusing on the subsequent recovery/reconstruction. Initial damage is modeled as a shock to the capital stock and recovery requires rebuilding that stock. We apply the model to Vancouver, British Columbia by considering a flood scenario causing total capital damage of $14.6 billion spread across five municipalities. GDP loss relative to a no‐flood scenario is relatively long‐lasting. It is 2.0% ($2.2 billion) in the first year after the flood, 1.7% ($1.9 billion) in the second year, and 1.2% ($1.4 billion) in the fifth year.     

Maternal enhancing responses to adolescents’ positive affect: Associations with adolescents’ positive affect regulation and depression

Mounting evidence indicates that deficits in positive affect (PA) regulation are implicated in youth depression. Although parental responses to youths’ PA expressions have been linked to youth regulation of negative affect, no study has directly examined whether parental responses are linked with youth PA regulation strategies. The present study utilized a novel observational measure to test whether maternal active‐constructive responses to youths’ PA were uniquely associated with youth effective PA regulation strategies and, subsequently, depressive symptoms. Ninety‐two adolescents between the ages of 11 and 18 (M_age = 14.22, Girls = 62%) and their primary female caregivers (M_age = 41.40, 88% biological mothers) completed a series of questionnaires and engaged in a Plan a Day Trip interaction task. Results revealed that observed maternal active‐constructive responses to adolescents’ PA were uniquely associated with adolescents’ effective PA regulation strategies which, in turn, were related to lower depressive symptoms. These findings underscore the importance of parental responses to PA when sharing positive experiences for specifically targeting adolescents’ responses that generate and sustain PA.