Prison Experiences and Psychological Distress among Older Inmates

This study investigates relationships between older prisoners’ social experiences and their levels of distress. One hundred and seventy-three older prisoners (aged ≥ 50 years) from 8 Australian prisons were administered the Kessler Psychological Distress (K10) Scale, with additional information collected via individual interviews. Psychological distress scores were significantly associated with measures of self-reported safety (p < .001), prison victimization (p < .05), perceived social support from staff (p < .01) and inmates (p < .001), current employment (p < .05), and level of exercise (p < .001) among older inmates. Findings suggest that strategies for improving sense of safety, social support and level of exercise may ameliorate distress among older prisoners.     

学科与学位点建设与发展的思考

通过对学科建设过程中几个关键问题的思考,提出了我校学科建设应以研究生学位点建设为中心的学科建设思路,并建议通过建立明晰的学科建设指标体系和管理机制,促进学科有目的的发展。     

对我校本科生考研意向的调查与分析

随着就业形势的日趋严峻,越来越多的本科生选择了考研来谋求个人的发展.文章采用调查问卷的方式,对地方工科院校本科生的考研意向进行了详细的了解,并在此基础上进行了多项目的详尽分析.     

Childhood Abuse and Welfare Use

Policies aimed at reducing welfare use focus solely on adults, yet welfare users very often report experiences of childhood abuse. Such abuse is known to have long-term psychological effects and may set the stage for later welfare use. This study uses a random sample of poor women to determine how a history of childhood abuse relates to the probability of receiving cash and in-kind assistance over a five-year period. It also investigate whether childhood abuse correlates with the length of receipt among program users. Women experiencing both physical and sexual abuse during childhood were 16–25 percentage points more likely than others to use both cash and in-kind programs as adults. Conditional on program use, there was no relation of childhood abuse to the extent of program use during the study period.     

Intimate Partner Violence Perpetrator Subtypes and their Developmental Origins: Implications for Prevention and Intervention

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a major issue for many Australian families and yet progress towards the development of effective prevention and behaviour change programs has been relatively slow. In this paper, it is proposed that the tendency to treat perpetrators as a homogenous group has hampered progress, and that treatment outcomes can be improved by tailoring treatment responses to a small set of personal and offence‐related characteristics. It explores the developmental origins and trajectories of these presentations and identifies some new directions for further research in this area.     

Senior Centers

Abstract

This article explores the degree of influence of the racial and linguistic characteristics of staff and the availability of culturally diverse programs on the level of minority elder participation in senior centers. Two hundred twenty senior centers, recreation clubs, nutrition sites, and local Area Agencies of Aging in New York State were surveyed and comprise the study population. The impact of factors such as the racial/ethnic backgrounds of the senior center staff, linguistic abilities of the staff/administrators, and the availability of culturally specific programs on the level of participation among non-Caucasian elderly were evaluated. The study found that increasing the representation of minority staff and diverse programming, increases the level of participation of minority elders in senior centers. These findings provide the framework for recommendations to increase the representation of non-Caucasian staff in senior centers. Doing so will lead to a greater diversity of senior center consumers and allow senior centers to reach out to traditionally under-served populations.     

The Impact of a Mandatory Employment Program on Welfare Terminations

ABSTRACT

This longitudinal study analyzes the impact of one of the most ambitious employment and training programs in the nation, California's Greater Avenue for Independence (GAIN), on welfare terminations. The study isolates the effects of GAIN from other effects by controlling for AFDC program characteristics and labor market conditions. The findings suggest that, all else constant, GAIN increased terminations in a modest fashion. The paper discusses the difficulties future welfare-to-work programs are likely to have in substantially increasing terminations even with stringent mandatory work requirements.     

美国统计高等教育的现状及其发展趋势

统计学专业已经成为当今美国最热门的专业之一。美国统计学会的最新报告详细介绍了统计学和生物统计学专业的科研经费、学生就业及薪金水平等情况。美国国家卫生研究院于2001年和2003年先后两次召开专题会议,研讨生物统计学专业人才的培养、美国学界呼吁：加强下一代统计和生物统计专业人才的培养,特别要重视多重背景高层次统计学专业人才的培养。     

Managing the Trauma of Community Violence and Workplace Accidents in South Africa

Summary

Community violence that spills over to the workplace is substantially impacting the quality of work/life in South Africa. Gold mining is one of the country's leading industries and also one of the most dangerous. Internal and external employee assistance programs are well represented in South Africa and are helping employees deal with the economic and psychological fall-out of community violence and work related accidents.     

Faith-Based Programs and the Role of Empirical Research

Abstract

After some decades of being subject to neglect or contempt, faith-based social care programs are receiving increased attention and resources enabling them to undertake a greater role in the national network of human services. Faith-based programs receiving public support can expect to be rightly scrutinized by the public, in terms of their ability to attain professed program goals. The tools of conventional empirically-oriented program evaluation research have tremendous potential to help demonstrate the effectiveness of faith-based programs, which will justify their receipt of ongoing support from public funds. Negative research findings can be properly scrutinized by the faith-based community of service providers to help make tough, data-based, decisions on funding priorities. Several examples are described, illustrating how various types of faith-based programs have profitably participated in program evaluation studies.