Coping and Post-traumatic Stress after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita: Racial Disparities in Social Work Student-Practitioners

ABSTRACT

Recent hurricanes have focused on lives and properties lost, however, additional mental health concerns may emerge in these post-disaster settings. Post-traumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) are particularly problematic for minorities due to pre-disaster disparities. Scholars must thus examine the antecedents of PTSS to support these and other vulnerable individuals and communities. This study examined racial disparities regarding active and avoidant coping, prayer, and subsequent relative contribution of each to PTSS following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita among social work student-practitioners. Using secondary data, results revealed that minority students (n = 233) used coping via prayer more often than their non-minority peers (n = 124; t = 7.18, p < .000; d = 0.76). Moderate, positive relationships emerged between avoidant coping and PTSS for both groups (r = .58–.63, p<.01), though prayer did not emerge as inversely related to PTSS as anticipated. Avoidant coping accounted for the largest variation in PTSS for both groups (β = .35–.51, p<.001). Sampling, survey methods, and PTSS measures limit generalizability and temper findings. Directions for future research include use of PTSS measures that account for severity and cultural context and examination of coping measure psychometrics. Practice implications include enhanced publicity regarding social services available to student-practitioners on college campuses and within the community.     

Dose‐escalation strategies which use subgroup information

Dose‐escalation trials commonly assume a homogeneous trial population to identify a single recommended dose of the experimental treatment for use in future trials. Wrongly assuming a homogeneous population can lead to a diluted treatment effect. Equally, exclusion of a subgroup that could in fact benefit from the treatment can cause a beneficial treatment effect to be missed. Accounting for a potential subgroup effect (ie, difference in reaction to the treatment between subgroups) in dose‐escalation can increase the chance of finding the treatment to be efficacious in a larger patient population. A standard Bayesian model‐based method of dose‐escalation is extended to account for a subgroup effect by including covariates for subgroup membership in the dose‐toxicity model. A stratified design performs well but uses available data inefficiently and makes no inferences concerning presence of a subgroup effect. A hypothesis test could potentially rectify this problem but the small sample sizes result in a low‐powered test. As an alternative, the use of spike and slab priors for variable selection is proposed. This method continually assesses the presence of a subgroup effect, enabling efficient use of the available trial data throughout escalation and in identifying the recommended dose(s). A simulation study, based on real trial data, was conducted and this design was found to be both promising and feasible.     

"Then Let's Have a Dialogue": Interdependence and Negotiation in a Cohesive Regulatory System

Public and private organizations deal closely with each otheron regulatory issues. Newer forms of regulation rely on sharedenforcement and supervisory responsibilities, regulatory negotiation,and other methods that try to get beyond remote public commandswhile maintaining effective public involvement. This articleexamines how regulators and firms deal with each other, theinterdependence that forms between them in the course of theirwork, and the benefits and liabilities of the strong ties thatmay develop out of this interdependence. We use the securitiesindustry as a context for discussion but indicate that the pointsapply more generally. We pay special attention to the potentialbenefits and risks of cohesive regulatory networks. Regulardealings among regulators and firms outside of regular rulemakingor enforcement proceedings enhance cooperation, reduce informationdisparities, strengthen regulatory cultures, and arguably lowerthe threshold of external pressure required to effect changeswithin firms. The conditions enhancing these benefits, however,also will restrict the flow of information, perspectives, andcriticism from outsiders, potentially leading to erosion ofperformance standards and eventually serious problems. We describethe circumstances under which these tensions are more likelyto be managed without damage from these problems and the broaderimplications for research and teaching in public managementand policy.     

Does Telephone Audio Computer-Assisted Self-Interviewing Improve the Accuracy of Prevalence Estimates of Youth Smoking? Evidence from the UMass Tobacco Study

Despite their advantage for obtaining representative samplesof adolescents, telephone surveys have been regarded as an inferiormethod for collecting data on youth tobacco use because theyyield lower estimates than school-based, self-administered surveys.Although no gold standard for smoking estimates exists, thelower estimates in telephone surveys have been attributed tounderreporting due to youths’ concern that parents orothers may overhear their responses. Telephone audio computer-assistedself-interviewing (T-ACASI) is a cost-effective method for obtaininga representative sample of youths and provides increased privacyfor the respondent. We hypothesize that using T-ACASI wouldencourage youths to report more fully smoking behavior comparedto traditional interviewer-administered telephone methods. Ouranalysis further assesses whether respondent age, gender, race/ethnicity,and parental attitude toward smoking moderated the relationshipbetween survey mode and smoking reports. Using data from a statewidetobacco use survey that randomly assigned youth respondentsto either T-ACASI or interviewer-administered modes, we findthat youths were more likely to report smoking behaviors inT-ACASI mode and that this was especially true for girls, particularlythose who believed their parents would disapprove strongly oftheir smoking. The findings suggest that traditional telephonesurveys may underestimate smoking prevalence in most girls bya factor of two, and that a technique for ensuring privacy forthese respondents is an important component of effective telephonesurvey methodology.     

Community availability of contraceptives and family limitation

This study examines the impact of contraceptive service availability on contraceptive use in Korea, Mexico, and Bangladesh. Using World Fertility Survey Data on once-married females and their communities of residence, the mutivariate analysis finds that the community level of contraceptive availability directly affects the likelihood of current use, net of the effects of community development, education, parity, and marital duration. The results are supportive of the recent policy emphasis on maximizing the geographic availability of contraceptive services.     

Changing living arrangements: A hazard model of transitions among household types

This paper analyzes movements among household types. Persons in one household may join another type. Correspondingly, a household’s structure may change when someone joins it. Data are from the Panel Survey of Income Dynamics, spanning 1968–1980. The individuals followed in the survey generated spells analyzed with a multivariate competing risk hazard model. We develop a map of the flow among household types and of the economic and demographic profiles of individuals making the transitions. We find wide variability in the stability of household types and marked racial differences in the relative stability and pattern of destination choices.     

The practice of clinical research in accredited marriage and family therapy programs

This study aims to explore the prevalence of clinic-based research among accredited marriage and family therapy (MFT) programs and reveal rationales explaining why academic settings may or may not be conducting clinical research. Findings of this project are the result of electronic-mail surveys completed by 26 accredited MFT programs. Approximately one-half of the respondents reported currently conducting clinic-based research. Open-ended responses reveal factors that lead to research success and failure, as well as reasons research was not being conducted at training programs.     

Situated Knowledge and Learning in Dispersed Teams

This qualitative field study explores how geographically dispersed teams learn and accomplish challenging work by drawing on knowledge situated in the multiple physical locales they span. We propose the construct of situated knowledge as important for understanding the learning process in dispersed teams. Data collected on seven development projects, each spanning multiple sites, reveal that situated knowledge is at the same time a valuable resource and a source of communication difficulty for dispersed teams. We find that, because their members understand and participate in locale–specific practices, dispersed teams can easily access and use unique locale–specific knowledge resources to resolve problems that arise in those same locales. However, when dispersed teams need knowledge situated at a site other than where the problem occurred, they must first recognize and adjust for locale–specific practices within which that knowledge is embedded before they can use it. The paper reports on analyses of 44 learning episodes that involved identifying and engaging situated knowledge, and draws from these data to identify implications for research and practice.     

Only English by the third generation? Loss and preservation of the mother tongue among the grandchildren of contemporary immigrants

We investigate whether a three-generation model of linguistic assimilation, known from previous waves of immigration, can be applied to the descendants of contemporary immigrant groups. Using the 5% Integrated Public Use Microdata Sample 1990 file, we examine the home languages of second- and third-generation children and compare the degree of their language shift against that among the descendants of European immigrants, as evidenced in the 1940 and 1970 censuses. Overall, the rates of speaking only English for a number of contemporary groups suggest that Anglicization is occurring at roughly the same pace for Asians as it did for Europeans, but is slower among the descendants of Spanish speakers. Multivariate models for three critical groups--Chinese, Cubans, and Mexicans--indicate that the home languages of third-generation children are most affected by factors, such as intermarriage, that determine the languages spoken by adults and by the communal context.     

Regionalizing Healthcare in Alberta: Legislated Change, Uncertainty and Loose Coupling

In this paper,we examine the re-organizing attempts of the Alberta government in healthcare from the viewpoint of uncertainty,loose coupling and the frequently unrecognized consequences of such change.We suggest that our understanding of change processes can be enhanced by conceptualizing the impact of task and environmental uncertainty through the nature of coupling between organizational elements.Based on our .ndings,we propose that the greater the degree of loose coupling in an organization,the more di .cult change is likely to be,and the more likely the occurrence of unanticipated consequences.