Family members' experiences with viewing in the wake of sudden death

Sudden deaths leave families in crisis and interacting with many professionals from notification through to burial. Whether to view the deceased is often central to discussion. Practice guidelines have evolved over time regarding where, when, how, and why viewing should or should not occur. Unfortunately, there is much contradiction in existing recommendations and a marked absence of a supporting evidence base for the practice of viewing itself, and the influence of this practice on the overall bereavement process. Using a qualitative approach, this study explored the perspectives and experiences of the suddenly bereaved with respect to: viewing or not having viewed; whether or not their viewing experiences have impacted on their bereavement process; and explored particular aspects of their experience such as interactions with various professionals. Results of this study are clustered and presented under three core themes: viewing specifics; intrapersonal responses; and professional interactions.     

Patterns of social affiliation as predictors of depressive symptoms among urban blacks.

This paper focuses on patterns of social affiliation viewed historically as sociocultural adaptations to stresses associated with minority group status. Data are from a community-based sample of 927 Black adults residing in a large metropolitan area. Specifically, this analysis assesses the extent to which patterns of social affiliation such as close family ties, religious involvement, and participation in voluntary associations diminish the detrimental impact of chronic economic strain on the level of depressive symptoms. The findings provide no support for a sociocultural adaptation explanation. Moreover, the results show an unexpected relationship among religious involvement, chronic economic strain, and depressive symptoms. At the most intense levels of religious involvement, a significantly higher level of depressive symptomatology was evident among those experiencing chronic economic strain. In contrast, those with less religious involvement had fewer depressive symptoms when experiencing chronic economic strain. Implications of findings are discussed relative to social changes affecting patterns of affiliation and sociocultural adaptation in Black communities.     

Indoor tanning and problem behavior

OBJECTIVE: The authors examined factors predicting college students' use of tanning beds. PARTICIPANTS AND METHODS: Undergraduate students (N = 745) at a large Northeastern university participated in the study by answering a survey measuring tanning behavior and other psychosocial variables, including sensation seeking, self-esteem, tanning image beliefs, and friends' tanning bed use. RESULTS: All 3 systems from problem behavior theory predicted past tanning bed use and intention to use tanning beds. The authors observed a positive association between sensation seeking and intention to use tanning beds. Tanning image beliefs were positively associated with both past tanning behavior and intention to use tanning beds. CONCLUSIONS: Interventions focusing on friend and acquaintance social network influences may be more effective than health-risk campaigns in reducing tanning bed use.     

The Abused and Neglected Foster Child: Determinants of Emotional Conflict and Oppositional Behavior

Behavioral and emotional problems have been observed in emotionally vulnerable children in foster care under certain circumstances. A common pattern involves the unpredictable appearance of a previously absent or unavailable natural parent. Such an occurrence precipitates the reawakening of the child’s ambivalent feelings toward both natural and foster parents as well as their fears of abandonment. This frequently leads to behavior that is oppositional and difficult to manage. If the foster parents find the child’s behavior unmanageable, and if they are not provided with appropriate professional support during this difficult period, a crisis often follows that precipitates the child’s removal from the foster home. Individual, familial, and systemic contributions to this dilemma are discussed" This article emphasizes the origins and nature of the intrapsychic dilemma faced by these children. Particular emphasis is placed on the manifestations of a conflict of loyalty, in the child, and its relationship to the oppositional behavior of these children in foster care. Additional considerations include the impact of inconsistent parenting, abuse and neglect by the natural parents, the assumption of a parental role by the child and a concomitant renunciation of the child’s dependency needs, as well as an examination of the role of the foster parent’s fantasy of what it will be like to parent a traumatized child.     

A qualitative data analysis: family victim advocates in child advocacy centers

ABSTRACT

Family victim advocates in child advocacy centers provide a valuable resource to children and parents involved in child abuse investigations. This work requires that family victim advocates be knowledgeable in such areas as child development, crisis intervention, community resources, family relationships, child welfare and criminal justice systems. Because family victim advocates provide essential services to parents and caregivers, the role requires ongoing training and education to remain current on the ever-changing complexities of working with not only the children and families but also the criminal and child protection systems responsible for investigating these cases. The current study reports the findings from a nationwide survey of family victim advocates employed in child advocacy centers related to their motivation for doing the work as well as their perceptions of their training and potential training needs. A group of doctoral students comprised the research team and worked collaboratively under the supervision of university faculty to conduct the qualitative data analysis. The findings describe the characteristics and motivations of family victim advocates working in child advocacy centers and emphasize the need for more advanced trainings that focus on skill-building and strengths-based practices utilized to support children and parents in child abuse cases.     

Emerging adulthood among former system youth: The ideal versus the real

Recent research has indicated that emerging adulthood, the late teen years and early twenties, is a distinct developmental period, which occurs gradually and is often filled with exploration, stress, uncertainty and a lack of a distinct role in life. Few studies, however, have examined how emerging adulthood tenets are experienced by young people involved with social service systems. With this in mind, fifty-nine young adults, ages 18 to 25, participated in in-depth interviews regarding their perspectives on transitioning to adulthood and adulthood. Participants were struggling with emotional difficulties, and shared a childhood history, which included a mood disorder diagnosis and utilization of public mental health and social services (e.g., child welfare, juvenile justice, and/or public welfare). The study sought to understand whether or not young adults with mental health and social service histories experience similar (or different) dimensions of mainstream emerging adulthood developmental theory during the late teens and early twenties. Theoretical thematic analysis indicated support not only for the theory of emerging adulthood, but also aspects unique to this sub-population. Implications for practice, policy and research are discussed.     

Response Agreement Rates Between Child Welfare–Involved Youth and Their Caregivers

ABSTRACT

Data were collected from 40 youth and 37 caregivers, which represented 57 distinct youth and 20 youth–caregiver dyads to measure the level of agreement between youth self-report and their caregivers on a variety of topics. Topics included: the youth's past placements, service use and needs, experiences in the child welfare system, and the youth's emotional problems and social behaviors. Results indicated high agreement between youth and caregiver proxy related to placement history, service use, the restrictiveness of the current environment, and community safety; results indicated low levels of agreement for youth emotional difficulties and prosocial behaviors. Qualitative data were used to further identify some of the differences noted. Overall, the findings support prior research that shows higher agreement within youth–caregiver dyads for objective measures as opposed to subjective and private ones. Implications for future research are discussed, and methodological challenges related to this study are identified.     

A study of the correlation bias of unrecorded events by two independent enumeration systems

In this paper the allegation that, when using the Chandrasekar-Deming technique with two independent enumeration systems to record the incidence of vital events and migrations, each individual system misses the same type of event is investigated. If this correlation bias were to occur frequently enough, it could result in a serious underestimation of a given type of event. Using vital events and migrations data derived from a longitudinal survey conducted in Liberia between 1969 and 1973, the estimated number of recorded events is tabulated into homogeneous groups that are demonstrated to affect omission rates. The proportion of missed eyents is computed separately for each enumeration system, and the presence or absence of a significant correlation mathematically determined. The results of this study suggest that no significant correlation could be demonstrated in the type of birth, death or infant death that was commonly missed by each individual enumeration system. This indicates that the omission of a birth, death or infant death was apparently a random occurrence as far as the individual casefinding systems were concerned. The authors conclude that any underestimation of vital events from this type of correlation bias may not be as serious as originally imagined.

In contrast to this observation, the omission of particular types of migrations by each enumeration system was apparently not a random occurrence, but was associated with the direction of migration. This implies that selected migration rates in the liberian survey were probably understated and this could happen in other longitudinal surveys, unless specific precautions are taken to avoid it.     

The Nonlinear Relationship Between Education and Mortality: An Examination of Cohort, Race/Ethnic, and Gender Differences

Researchers investigating the relationship between education and mortality in industrialized countries have consistently shown that higher levels of education are associated with decreased mortality risk. The shape of the education–mortality relationship and how it varies by demographic group have been examined less frequently. Using the U.S. National Health Interview Survey-Linked Mortality Files, which link the 1986 through 2004 NHIS to the National Death Index through 2006, we examine the shape of the education–mortality curve by cohort, race/ethnicity, and gender. Whereas traditional regression models assume a constrained functional form for the dependence of education and mortality, in most cases semiparametric models allow us to more accurately describe how the association varies by cohort, both between and within race/ethnic and gender subpopulations. Notably, we find significant changes over time in both the shape and the magnitude of the education–mortality gradient across cohorts of women and white men, but little change among younger cohorts of black men. Such insights into demographic patterns in education and mortality can ultimately help increase life expectancies.