Risk and protective factors for residential foster care adolescents

Based on Jessor's (1998) Problem Behavior Theory, this study investigated the relationship between risk and protective factors and adolescent psychopathology and adjustment. For this purpose, adolescent girls (n = 69) and boys (n = 71) living in residential foster homes in the city of Tehran, responded to an adapted version of the Adolescent Health and Development Questionnaire, Jessor, 1998) and their foster home caregivers rated the adolescents' internalizing/externalizing problems and prosocial behavior with the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ, Goodman, 2001). This study identified several influential aspects at the levels of the individual, foster home, peers and community that serve as a direct risk and protective factors, and also documented indirect pathways of gender, individual, foster home, peers and community influence.Three main patterns, protective, protective and enhancing, and protective but reactive seemed to characterize most of the risk by protective factor interactions. The risk and protective factors associated with foster home adolescents' mental health are broadly in line with previous published findings. Based on the present findings, the extension of universal intervention programs designed within the framework of PBT and which address multiple targets seems justified to be used with foster care home adolescents.     

Understanding and knowledge of credit cost and duration: Effects on credit judgements and decisions

Financial capability requires understanding measures of consumer credit cost and using them appropriately in credit judgements and decisions. In three studies, UK adults’ understanding and use of credit cost and duration information were investigated from a bounded rationality perspective. Study 1, part of a representative survey of UK adults (N = 1000), found that when presented with annual percentage rate (APR) participants significantly overestimated the total cost (TC) of a 12-month loan. In Study 2, loan duration and APR were varied in an independent groups experiment (N = 242). Bank customers’ TC estimates were sensitive to both loan duration and APR but TC was again substantially overestimated. Study 3 was an independent groups experiment investigating the effect of APR and TC information on credit decisions (N = 241). APR often influenced decisions between loans varying in duration and monthly repayment, but this effect was moderated by TC information. It was concluded that: (1) people generally misunderstand the relation between APR and TC; and (2) although APR information can have a large effect on credit decisions, its effect is either attenuated or amplified by TC information. The findings are interpreted in terms of a ‘take the best APR’ heuristic and a dual mental account model of instalment credit. Recommendations for improving credit information provision and financial education are offered.     

‘Exercise is medicine’: Understanding the exercise beliefs and practices of older Chinese women immigrants in British Columbia, Canada

In this paper we examine how Western biomedical beliefs around exercise and related health practices compare and contrast with traditional Chinese medicine's (TCM) conceptions of health and exercise in a globalizing society, and how these narratives about health and physical activity are understood and taken up by 15 aging Chinese immigrant women (aged 65+) living in the multicultural city of Vancouver. Drawing upon theoretical work around the body and society to guide our analysis (including the ideas of Bourdieu and Foucault), we outline how the participants in our project take a pragmatic approach to their use of medicine, combining TCM with Western biomedicine in creative ways. However, understandings of the body are underpinned, we argue, by Eastern narratives of the ‘oneness’ of mind-body and the need for ‘balance’ in order to achieve health. Towards this end, we found that many of the participants view (and use) traditional Chinese body practices as an extension of TCM, a technique to help them achieve balance. We conclude that the neoliberal narrative of personal responsibility for health does not fuel the exercise practices of many of the participants, but rather that they perceive exercise as a pleasurable activity that improves their levels of happiness (and balance) and enhances their lives.     

Do youth in out-of-home care receive recommended mental health and educational services following screening evaluations?

For children in out-of-home care, a significant gap exists between those who need services and those who receive them. Screening all children in out-of-home care is recommended to reduce this gap. This study was designed to determine if recommendations from mental health and educational screening evaluations were related to service implementation for youth in out-of-home care. Screening evaluations were completed with 171 maltreated youth (ages 9 to 11) who had been placed in out-of-home care within the prior year. Written reports summarizing the findings were provided to children's caseworkers. Service utilization was assessed at baseline (T1; before screening reports were completed) and follow-up (T2; 9–12 months later) interviews. For children not already receiving services at T1, logistic regression analyses tested the association between T1 recommendations for services and new service implementation by T2. Mental health (youth-report) and educational (teacher-report) outcomes were analyzed separately. Screening evaluations identified 22% of children with unmet mental health needs and 36% with unmet educational needs at T1. Children who received a recommendation for new services (i.e., all of those with unmet needs) were more likely to receive mental health (OR = 2.50, p = .06) and/or educational (OR = 3.54, p = .04) services by T2 than children who did not receive recommendations for services. While recommendations increased the odds of receiving services, almost half of the children with unmet mental health needs did not receive services, and 84% of children with unmet educational needs did not receive services by T2. Much work remains to ensure youth receive needed services.     

Use of a Parent Management Training Intervention with Urban Foster Parents: A Pilot Study

The development of effective interventions for foster children with behavior problems is essential given the consequences of behavior problems for children's placement stability and permanency outcomes. This article presents findings from a pilot study of an intervention providing parent management training (PMT) and support to foster parents in groups and home visits. The intervention was an adaptation of the KEEP (Keeping Foster Parents Trained and Supported) group intervention, provided in a large urban child welfare agency serving predominantly African American foster parents. The study used an intent-to-treat design, with 25 foster parents of 31 children (ages 4-12) in specialized foster care assigned to either an intervention or treatment as usual control group. Longitudinal outcomes were analyzed using random effect regression models. Over time, children's behavior problems were significantly lower in the intervention group relative to the control group, and the effect of the intervention was partially mediated by parents' understanding of how to appropriately use the intervention parenting skills. These results provide support for the effectiveness of KEEP with urban foster children with significant behavior problems.     

Availability of treatment to youth offenders: Comparison of public versus private programs from a national census

Across the United States, the availability of mental health, substance abuse, and recidivism reduction programs in the juvenile justice system (JJS) varies from none or few to a rich variety of programs. Within the last decade, prison privatization in the adult correctional system has influenced the onset of privatization in the JJS. The differences between public and private sectors in their availability of mental health services and treatment programs to juvenile offenders are understudied. In this article, a secondary analysis of a national census of 3163 juvenile facilities was conducted to determine differences in treatment availability as well as the impact of treatment accessibility on the event of a suicide. Results indicate private facilities more likely to offer treatment services and schedule mental health personnel more frequently. Those facilities reporting family counseling treatment programs were less likely to have reported a suicide event. Policy implications and a review of progress towards improvement in the JJS are presented.     

浅析学习目标偏差对大学生心理健康产生的作用

大学生作为承载历史使命,全社会尽心尽力培养的,能够促进未来社会发展的主体。却在不小范围内发生了心理健康问题。对现阶段心理健康问题教育的研究成果,和在临床上对心理疾病治疗过程中的心得,及对山西师范大学在学生教育现象上观察,进行综合分析得出：心理健康问题的诱发原因虽然多种多样,但根源应该是学生学习目标的偏差。想要改变现状,心理健康教育及心理咨询等手段虽然有效,但从投入与效果比上来分析,认为学校应该选择优秀的班主任和优秀的中医师,让他们进行有机的配合来应对大学生的心理健康问题,这样效果更为明显,方法更为实用。     

Executive catalysts: Predicting sustainable organizational performance amid complex demands

We propose a conceptual model to better understand core capacities that equip some executives to be effective catalysts of organizational performance over time. Drawing on constructivist theory of ego development, we suggest that the combined effects of self differentiation/complexity and self-integration are individual level predictors of being an effective catalyst. We assert that capacity for meaning making at the individual level is a prerequisite for the type of sense giving that coordinates stakeholder actions. From coordinated action outstanding leadership performance becomes possible. We link our contribution with leadership theory on the importance of vision and complexity. We offer measures and propositions to support empirical testing. We also address directions and implications for further research with emphasis on how executives may develop these capacities.     

已婚流动育龄妇女计生公共服务现状与需求满意度——基于在江苏部分城市进行的问卷调查

通过对苏州等城市部分已婚流动育龄妇女进行的问卷调查,考察了江苏已婚流动育龄妇女群体接受计划生育公共服务的现状、需求及其满意度。调查发现,已婚流动育龄妇女对人口计生部门的工作认可程度较高,但为其提供的计生公共服务中还存在着管理机构建设滞后、经费投入不足、计生服务供给不能满足需要、管理客体缺乏生殖健康意识等问题,据此提出构建以政府为主、多元参与的流动人口计生公共服务供给模式,增加财政投入,提高流动人口计生公共服务质量等政策建议。     

波德莱尔与鲁迅笔下“猫头鹰”意象的跨文化解读

猫头鹰是中西文化谱系中凝定着特定审美经验与象征喻义的文化意象。文章通过对猫头鹰意象的原型解读,跨文化地探勘了波德莱尔与鲁迅笔下"猫头鹰"意象所蕴藉的知识分子从叛逆到批判的精神谱系;深度阐释了波德莱尔与鲁迅笔下猫头鹰意象的象征意蕴、文化差异以及两者的心灵契合和话语共鸣。