FACTORS RELATED TO FAMILY THERAPISTS' BREAKING CONFIDENCE WHEN CLIENTS DISCLOSE HIGH-RISKS-TO-HIV/AIDS SEXUAL BEHAVIORS

This national survey of 309 marriage and family therapists examined what therapists do when their HIV-positive clients disclose that they are engaging in high-risk sexual behavior. The participants were given vignettes in which a fictitious client told the therapist about engaging in unprotected sex. Although the basic situations were the same, the client variables of age, gender, race, sexual orientation, and HIV status were systematically varied. The participants were more likely to break confidence regarding unsafe sex practices when their clients were male, young, gay, or African American. Moreover, therapists who were more likely to disclose were older, female, had less experience with gay/lesbian populations, were Catholic, were very religious, and were more likely to practice in urban areas. The authors discuss the implications of these and other findings.     

Census data on non-profit organisations

This paper describes how the Bureau of the Census collects and publishes data on non-profit organisations in its economic censuses programme. The paper provides a brief history of the economic censuses and describes in more detail the census of service industries component. The progressive expansion of the industry coverage of the census is explained and related to the non-profit sector. The paper further describes concepts and methodologies that are used in collecting and publishing data for non-profit organisations. Definitions, methods of enumeration, and basic data measures are explained and contrasted to concepts used in covering the for-profit sector. Finally, the paper describes how census data can be used to better understand the non-profit sector and identifies some possibilities for improving information from the economic censuses and other statistical programmes which cover non-profit organisations.     

Gender and diversity topics taught in Commission on Accreditation for Marriage and Family Therapy Education programs

This article explores how the topics of gender and diversity are being taught and defined in accredited marriage and family therapy programs through syllabi content analysis and interviews with selected faculty. We examined findings by program (master's and doctoral) and type of training (those that taught specific gender and culture courses and those that attempted to infuse gender and culture throughout the curriculum). We examined 39 syllabi from 21 master's and 18 doctoral training programs. In addition, we conducted 20 interviews with faculty members. (Eighteen were White/Caucasian, one was African American and one was Asian Indian.) Some variation in topic areas was found between master's and doctoral programs and between those programs that offered specific course content and those that offered infused course content. However, qualitative interview data reflected many similarities. Particularly apparent was the level of commitment, transparency, and experiential learning methods professors used, regardless of program level or type.     

Remembering the imperial context of emancipation commemoration in the former British slave-port cities of Bristol and Liverpool, 1933–1934

This article considers the marking of the centenary of British emancipation in 1933 and 1934 in two former slave-trading provincial port cities, Bristol and Liverpool. Nationally, this centenary was used by the Anti-Slavery and Aborigines Protection Society to celebrate white abolition heroes and promote contemporary campaigns against ‘modern-day slavery’. However, in Bristol and Liverpool this picture was complicated by both cities’ particular historic involvements in transatlantic slavery and contemporary imperial and demographic contexts. Looking at ‘local’ dimensions to this ‘national’ commemorative occasion brings to the fore variations which emphasise the influence of civic identities, racial contestations and the distinctly imperial context of this memorial discourse seen through these interwar ports of empire.     

A three-city comparison of drug use and drug use before sex among young men who have sex with men in the United States

High rates of drug use have been documented among young men who have sex with men (YMSM). However, updated prevalence data are needed to understand current trends, especially for drug use before sex. We used baseline data from an HIV prevention trial to examine demographic differences in drug use and drug use before sex among YMSM in Atlanta, Chicago, and New York City. Marijuana was the most commonly used drug, but alkyl nitrites (“poppers”), cocaine, and Ecstasy were also commonly used. Drug use was more prevalent among older and White YMSM, and it was similar across cities, although use of poppers and polydrug use were more common in New York City. Our data generally support national prevention efforts.     

A Model of the Antecedents of Perceived Ease of Use: Development and Test*

The Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) has been widely used to predict user acceptance and use based on perceived ease of use and usefulness. However, in order to design effective training interventions to improve user acceptance, it is necessary to better understand the antecedents and determinants of key acceptance constructs. In this research, we focus on understanding the determinants of perceived ease of use. Data from three experiments spanning 108 subjects and six different systems supported our hypothesis that an individual's perception of a particular system's ease of use is anchored to her or his general computer self-efficacy at all times, and objective usability has an impact on ease of use perceptions about a specific system only after direct experience with the system. In addition to being an important research issue in user acceptance research, understanding antecedents of perceived ease of use is also important from a practical standpoint since several systems in which millions of dollars are invested are rejected because of poor user interfaces. Moreover, the actual underlying problem might be low computer self-efficacy of the target user group. In such cases, training interventions aimed at improving computer self-efficacy of users may be more effective than improved interface design for increasing user acceptance.     

User Perceptions of Decision Support Effectiveness: Two Production Planning Experiments*

Decision support systems continue to be very popular in business, despite mixed research evidence as to their effectiveness. We hypothesize that what-if analysis, a prominent feature of most decision support systems, creates an “illusion of control” causing users to overestimate its effectiveness. Two experiments involving a production planning task are reported which examine decision makers' perceptions of the effectiveness of what-if analysis relative to the alternatives of unaided decision making, and quantitative decision rules. Experiment 1 found that almost all subjects believed what-if analysis was superior to unaided decision making, although using what-if analysis had no significant effect on performance. Experiment 2 found that decision makers were indifferent between what-if analysis and a quantitative decision rule which, if used, would have led to significant cost savings. Thus, what-if analysis did create an illusion of control: decision makers perceived performance differences where none existed, and did not detect large differences when they were present. In both experiments, decision makers exhibited difficulty realizing that their positive beliefs about what-if analysis were exaggerated. Such misjudgments could lead people to continue using what-if analysis even when it is not beneficial and to avoid potentially superior decision support technologies.     

THE INTEGRATION OF EMOTION IN SOLUTION- FOCUSED THEAPY

The authors believe that solution-focused therapy can be enhanced by more overtly incorporating emotions into its theoretical framework and therapeutic strategies. They discuss the role of emotions in solution-focused therapy and offer several solution-focused interventions that utlize client affect.     

Slepian's inequality via the central limit theorem

We define a partial ordering of distributions which is preserved under convolutions and scale transformations. Some properties of this partial ordering are developed and then used to give a new argument for Slepian's inequality (1962).