Educational and employment outcomes of adults formerly placed in foster care: Results from the Northwest Foster Care Alumni Study

This study evaluated the intermediate and long-term effects of family foster care on adult functioning using a sample of 659 young adults from two public and one private child welfare agencies, case record reviews, structured interviews, and a survey response rate of 76%. Foster care alumni completed high school at a rate comparable to the general population, but a disproportionately high number of them completed high school via a GED. Alumni completion rates for postsecondary education were low. Consequently, many alumni were in fragile economic situations: one-third of the alumni had household incomes at or below the poverty level, one-third had no health insurance, and more than one in five experienced homelessness after leaving foster care. Two foster care experience areas were estimated to significantly reduce the number of undesirable outcomes in the Education outcome domain: positive placement history (e.g., high placement stability, few failed reunifications), and having broad independent living preparation (as exemplified by having concrete resources upon leaving care). For the Employment and Finances outcome domain, receiving broad independent living preparation (as exemplified by having concrete resources upon leaving care) was estimated to significantly reduce the number of undesirable outcomes.     

Small-fiber neuropathy: answering the burning questions

Small-fiber neuropathy is a peripheral nerve disease that most commonly presents in middle-aged and older people, who develop burning pain in their feet. Although it can be caused by disorders of metabolism such as diabetes, chronic infections (such as with human immunodeficiency virus), genetic abnormalities, toxicity from various drugs, and autoimmune diseases, the cause often remains a mystery because standard electrophysiologic tests for nerve injury do not detect small-fiber function. Inadequate ability to test for and diagnose small-fiber neuropathies has impeded patient care and research, but new tools offer promise. Infrequently, the underlying cause of small-fiber dysfunction is identified and disease-modifying therapy can be instituted. More commonly, the treatments for small-fiber neuropathy involve symptomatic treatment of neuropathic pain.     

Birth spacing and child mortality in bangladesh and the Philippines

This analysis uses data from Bangladesh and the Philippines to demonstrate that children who are born within 15 months of a preceding birth are 60 to 80% more likely than other children to die in the first two years of life, once the confounding effects of prematurity are removed. The risks associated with short conception intervals are confined to children who are also high birth order; they persist in the presence of controls for prior familial child mortality, breast-feeding, mother's age, and socioeconomic status. In Bangladesh but not in the Philippines, these effects are confined to the neonatal period.     

Gerontological research on the quality of life: The Guelph satellite method

This paper describes an interdisciplinary research strategy designed to address gaps in research on the quality of life of older people. We propose that such gaps be addressed through small intensive studies, and that the limitations of such studies be addressed by combining them in phases with a panel approach in the form of “satellite” studies. The emphasis is on the intensive studies as an integral rather than a subsidiary part of the strategy, and on the panel as a vehicle for the satellite studies. As an illustration of the strategy, we describe a project in which the satellite studies focus on intensive examination of specific topics such as family relationships and the panel method employs interviews and questionnaires to collect baseline information and quality of life ratings. We then focus on methodological issues, such as participant selection and the sequencing of phases, and briefly compare the present strategy to other longitudinal approaches. The paper concludes with a discussion of some of the methodological and substantive advantages of the strategy.     

The impact of family policies on fertility in industrialized countries: a review of the literature

This paper examines the theoretical propositions and empirical evidence linking policies and fertility. More specifically, the analysis presented in this paper draws attention to the complex mechanisms that theoretically link policies and demographic outcomes: mechanisms that involve imperfect information and decisions that are rationally bound by very specific circumstances. As to the empirical evidence, studies provide mixed conclusions as to the effect of policies on fertility. While a small positive effect of policies on fertility is found in numerous studies, no statistically significant effect is found in others. Moreover, some studies suggest that the effect of policies tends to be on the timing of births rather than on completed fertility.

Genes Spell Danger: mental health service users/survivors, bioethics and control

The focus of this discussion is disability, culture and identities in relation to bioethics and mental health service users/survivors. Taking account of the inclusion of mental health service users/survivors within the administrative categories of disability, this article argues for debates about bioethics and disabled people to address and include the perspectives of psychiatric system survivors, and their concerns about psychiatry and bioethics. There is currently an increasing emphasis in both the media and government policy on the danger, threat and 'otherness' of mental health service users, and increasing provisions to restrict their civil and human rights. This development is international and has also tended to be racialised in its public presentation. While genetic approaches to physical and sensory impairment can be seen to be concerned with physical and bodily conformity, genetic approaches to madness and mental distress that are gaining increasing power and official legitimacy, are also closely associated with regulating diversity, divergence and dissent in thinking and perceptions. The aim of this article is raise and explore these issues, and highlight the common and different concerns for us as survivors and disabled people as a basis for encouraging alliances, shared understanding and common resistance.