The relationship between marriage and family therapists and complementary and alternative medicine approaches: a qualitative study

In this article, we delineate the qualitative phase of a mixed-method research study focused on understanding the relationship between Clinical Members of the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy (MFT) and complementary alternative medicine (CAM). Based on an analysis of the data derived from telephone interviews with 54 respondents, we describe four themes: definitional issues, depth of awareness of CAM, fit with MFT, and ethical considerations. Our discussion focuses on the findings of this phase, considerations from the quantitative phase, and reflections on the research study as a whole. While acknowledging the limitations of the study, we conclude that the growing awareness of and involvement with CAM approaches and practitioners among MFTs suggest a need for further education for both professionals and clients. We also note the importance of additional research support for the use of CAM practices.     

Influence of gender and experience on college students' stalking schemas

Although stalking has been increasingly recognized as a serious social problem, surprisingly few studies have investigated perceptions of the specific behaviors that comprise stalking. The focus of this article, therefore, was to further delineate college students' stalking schemas and to examine the influence of gender and personal knowledge of stalking on their schemas. Participants judged whether or not a variety of behaviors were examples of stalking. Behaviors were designed to range from mild, somewhat ambiguous, examples of stalking to more severe examples. Results revealed an interaction between gender and experience on ratings of mild stalking behaviors. Men who had personal knowledge of stalking (by having been stalked themselves or knowing someone who had been stalked) were significantly more likely to rate mild stalking behaviors as stalking than men who had no experience. In contrast, experience did not affect women's perceptions of mild stalking, as no differences were found between women as a function of experience. Results are discussed in terms of overall relationship schemas.     

Altruistic and Vicarious Fear of Crime: Fear for Others and Gendered Social Roles

Fear for others as distinct from personal fear is an understudied phenomenon. Relying on qualitative data, this paper explores gender differences in fear for others and identifies differences linked to social roles. For men, a paternal protector role characterized fears expressed mostly for their wives. For women, a maternal caretaker role characterized fears expressed for their children, elderly parents, and siblings. This paper offers a new way to conceptualize fear for others based on making distinctions between the object of fear and active or nonactive responses: kinship-based altruistic fear, kinship-based vicarious fear, general altruistic fear, and general vicarious fear.

Vicarious trauma: an exploratory study of the impact of providing sexual abuse treatment on clinicians' trust and intimacy

This study examined vicarious trauma effects in male and female clinicians who treat sexual abuse survivors (n = 111) and sexual offenders (n = 272). The national survey was conducted using a random sample of clinical members of two professional organizations. Analyses tested the relationships between demographic variables, maltreatment history, client population served, and cognitions about trust of and intimacy with others, using the Trauma Stress Institute Belief Scale (TSIBS-R-L, Pearlman 2003), the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ, Bernstein & Fink, 1998), and author-generated questions. Respondents reported high rates of multiple forms of childhood maltreatment; however there was no relationship between history of child sexual abuse and vicarious trauma effects. Scores for self-reported disruption in cognitions about intimacy with others exceeded norms for mental health professionals. Sequential regression analyses were used to examine theoretically-derived variables. Implications for practice and research are detailed.     

Overprotection and lowered expectations of persons with disabilities: the unforeseen consequences

Lowered expectations and overprotection of the individual with a disability can cause lowered self esteem which can result in a life time of underachievement and failure to reach their full potential. Both lowered expectations and overprotection are forms of discrimination. Internalization of discrimination causes the person with a disability to believe that they are less capable than a person without a disability. Parents and care providers of children with disabilities may overprotect the child to shield them from harm; however this can actually cause more damage. Successful parenting skills are required to help children and adolescents develop a positive self concept and high self esteem. Guidelines have been developed to assist parents, educators and other professionals regarding the effects of overprotection and lowered expectations.     

Between Ideology and Economy: The "Time Politics" of Child Care and Public Education in the Two Germanys

The article compares the discourses and policies of the "timepolitics" of public, that is, institutionalized, extra-familialcare and education of pre- and elementary school children inEast and West Germany. The FRG and the GDR represented two highlydistinct welfare and education systems, which referred to eachother in a complex relationship of "distancing and interconnection."Proceeding from the concept of the "path dependency" of societaland political developments, the article analyzes which factorsworked together when, how, and in which concrete historicalcontexts to form specific discourses and policies of the "timepolitics" in both German states.     

Race-Ethnic Differences in Sexual Health Knowledge

Despite extensive research examining the correlates of unintended fertility, it remains a puzzle as to why racial and ethnic minorities are more likely to experience an unintended birth than non-Hispanic whites. This paper focuses on sexual literacy, a potential precursor of unintended fertility. Analyses use a unique dataset of unmarried young adults aged 18?C29, the 2009 Survey of Unmarried Young Adults?? Contraceptive Knowledge and Practices, to examine beliefs regarding pregnancy risks, pregnancy fatalism, and contraceptive side effects. At the bivariate level, foreign-born Hispanics hold more erroneous beliefs about the risk of pregnancy than other groups, and non-Hispanic blacks are more likely to believe in contraceptive side effects than non-Hispanic whites. Both foreign-born Hispanics and non-Hispanic blacks are more likely than non-Hispanic whites to hold a fatalistic view toward pregnancy. Race-ethnic differences are attenuated for pregnancy misperceptions and fatalism in multivariate models controlling for sources of health information, sexual and fertility experiences, and sociodemographic characteristics. However, non-Hispanic blacks remain more likely than non-Hispanic whites to believe there is a high chance of reduced sexual desire and serious health consequences when using hormonal contraceptives. These differences may contribute to race-ethnic variation in contraceptive use and, ultimately, unintended fertility.     

Origins of the New Latino Underclass

Over the past four decades, the Latino population of the United States was transformed from a small, ethnically segmented population of Mexicans in the southwest, Puerto Ricans in New York, and Cubans in Miami into a large national population dominated by Mexicans, Central Americans, and South Americans. This transformation occurred through mass immigration, much of it undocumented, to the point where large fractions of non-Caribbean Hispanics lack legal protections and rights in the United States. Rising illegality is critical to understanding the disadvantaged status of Latinos today. The unauthorized population began to grow after avenues for legal entry were curtailed in 1965. The consequent rise in undocumented migration enabled political and bureaucratic entrepreneurs to frame Latino migration as a grave threat to the nation, leading to a rising frequency of negative framings in the media, a growing conservative reaction, and increasingly restrictive immigration and border policies that generated more apprehensions. Rising apprehensions, in turn, further enflamed the conservative reaction to produce even harsher enforcement and more still more apprehensions, yielding a self-feeding cycle in which apprehensions kept rising even though undocumented inflows had stabilized. The consequent militarization of the border had the perverse effect of reducing rates of out-migration rather than inhibiting in-migration, leading to a sharp rise in net undocumented population and rapid growth of the undocumented population. As a result, a majority of Mexican, Central American, and South American immigrants are presently undocumented at a time when unauthorized migrants are subject to increasing sanctions from authorities and the public, yielding downward pressure on the status and well-being of Latinos in the United States.     

A more generalized stirling distribution of the second kind

A more generalized stirling distribution of the second kind (MGSDSK) is introduced in this paper as the distribution of the sum of the independent but not identically distributed left truncated Poisson variables. Properties of MGSDSK are studied. The recursion relation and decomposition of MGSDSK are obtained. The rth moment is also found and a new recurrence relationship for them are given. A new incomplete exponential function is utilized in the derivations. A MVU estimate of the p, d, f. of MGSDSK is obtained.