Changing Directions in HIV Prevention: The Move Toward a Psychosocial Model

ABSTRACT

Although some HIV prevention programs have been successful in helping gay and bisexual men change their sexual behaviors, rates of HIV infection continue to increase. In an attempt to address this problem, social workers need to move beyond traditional HIV prevention approaches to a psychosocial model of HIV prevention. Based on the work of previous researchers, this approach assumes that a combination of individual, psychological, and social factors contribute to risky sex in gay and bisexual men. Because social workers are trained to view problems from a psychosocial framework, they are already in a position to develop programs incorporating the psychosocial model. This article examines the psychosocial model of HIV prevention and the various psychosocial factors that may contribute to high-risk sexual behavior and concludes with examples of prevention research that have already incorporated the model.     

Training Students as Facilitators in the Youth Empowerment Strategies (YES!) Project

SUMMARY

This article describes the training of students as facilitators for the Youth Empowerment Strategies (YES!) project designed to promote problem-solving, social action and civic participation among underserved elementary school youth in West Contra Costa County, California. This project involved 160 fifth grade students in after-school activities which identified their capacities and strengths in ways which aimed to decrease rates of alcohol, tobacco and other drug use and other risky behaviors. The article describes the recruitment and training of high school students and their graduate student counterparts as facilitators in this university-community partnership, and discusses the implications for other youth-focused community-based projects.     

A Commentary on the Triadic Theory of Influence as a Guide for Adapting HIV Prevention Programs for New Contexts and Populations

Summary

The purpose of this paper is to illustrate how the Collaborative HIV Prevention and Adolescent Mental Health Project-South Africa (CHAMPSA) began and to present some of the results from this South African version of CHAMP. This paper informs readers of a number of lessons about international program translation. The first important lesson is that there are universal principles of health behavior change that seem to be useful across cultures. The implementation of these principles, however, needs to be informed by an in-depth understanding of local cultural contexts. The second important lesson is that it is possible to undertake large-scale, scientifically sophisticated community-based prevention research in developing countries through international collaborative research projects. It is the authors' hope that this mixture of science, service, and business will inspire other public health, community mental health, research, and business professionals to develop international prevention interventions that can be shown to be effective, and disseminated on a wide scale.     

Environmental Tobacco Smoke: Exposure-Response Relationships in Epidemiologic Studies

Demonstration of a dose-response relationship for environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) is an important indication of causality. Central to the analysis and interpretation of dose-response relations as described in epidemiological studies is the relationship between dose and exposure. It must be recognized that in studies of ETS we have only surrogate measures of dose, and these surrogate measures (based on exposure) are imperfect. The question-based measures of ETS exposure generally have not been standardized, may have limited validity and reliability, and cannot comprehensively describe total ETS exposure, exposure to individual ETS components, nor doses of biologically relevant agents at target sites. Nevertheless, useful data have been yielded in epidemiologic studies linking ETS exposure to increased respiratory infection and symptoms, reduced lung growth in children, and increased lung cancer in nonsmoking adults. The more consistent exposure-response data for studies on acute health in children may reflect the greater difficulty in measuring exposure in studies of chronic health in adults.     

论青年腐败的心理成因及有效防范

青年腐败是我国特定社会历史条件下的产物。它的产生有着深刻的社会政治、经济、文化、心理等方面的原因。文章从心理学的角度分析了“自我意识”的畸形发展、个性心理发展的有待成熟 ,以及法律、道德观念相对淡薄、“原我”的缺乏制约的释放、变形的心理预期、朝夕相随的消极心理环境等青年腐败的心理成因。并以此分析为基础 ,提出了强化法制和道德教育、建构社会预警机制、改革现行的监督机制、进一步完善人事管理制度、优化社会环境等有效防范青年腐败的措施。     

社会法调控创新论(上)--以"非典"防治对传统公私法调控机制所带来的挑战和机遇为视角

"非典"及其防治引发了对传统公私法调控机制的挑战,同时,更提出了相应法律调控机制创新的理论和实践要求.立足于"非典"防治具体制度措施及其对传统公、私法调控机制所带来的挑战和机遇,结合(西方)现代社会结构变迁的基本特点及其与新的法律调控机制间的互动关系,将"非典"防治及其相关制度建设,嵌入中国社会自1970年代末开启的市场化取向改革与民主法制化进程,进行了细致的分析.在充分理解和认识问题复杂性的基础上,对"非典"防治及其引发的对传统公私法调控机制的挑战,以及新兴社会法调控机制创新的可能对策选择及其基本方向进行思考.并最终论证了这样一个命题即中国社会的转型背景和"共时性"发展特征,决定了目前主流公、私法调控机制具有两面性和矛盾契合性;而且这一特性及其全面准确的把握,将深刻地影响和决定中国未来社会法调控机制的实际效果.     

Awareness Promotion About Excessive Gambling Among Video Lottery Retailers

This paper describes and evaluates “As luck would have it,” an awareness program completed by retailers in Quebec Province. This program, which is presented as a two-hour awareness promotion workshop, aimed to inform retailers about excessive gambling. More specifically, it provided answers to the following questions: (1) What is chance and randomness? (2) Is there a link between misunderstanding the concept of chance and excessive gambling? (3) How does one recognise the symptoms of this disorder? (4) How should retailers intervene if they decide to do so? Results showed that retailers developed a better understanding of problem gambling, could recognise its main symptoms, felt more capable of coping with excessive gamblers, and of choosing the most appropriate moment to do so. In the follow-up phase, retailers who had attended the workshop reported that they approached a problem gambler significantly more often than the retailers who had not attended the workshop, and had discussed how to help problem gamblers significantly more often. The practical implications of these results are briefly discussed.     

江泽民关于卫生预防的思想探讨

江泽民同志非常重视卫生预防工作,对此作过详细阐述,学习和研究江泽民同志的卫生预防思想,有利于促进我国卫生事业的发展。从"预防为主"是我国卫生工作的基本方针之一、预防工作的重点、预防工作的举措等方面对江泽民的卫生预防思想进行了初步探讨。     

Why Do They Start It? Explaining Reported Early-Teen Sexual Activity

This paper seeks an account of why young teens initiate consensual sexual activity. It does so by constructing statistical models aimed at distinguishing those who report having initiated sexual activity from those who have not in four samples of eighth graders from an Upstate New York county. Theoretical selection of the model variables is guided by insights from problem syndrome, control and differential association theories. From our findings we conclude the following: (1) Risk behaviors foreseen by the problem syndrome approach, including having used marijuana and having been drunk, are significant, powerful predictors of early-teen sexual activity. (2) The social setting of consensual sexual activity differs by sex at the eighth grade level. For example, having a boyfriend is a more consistent, powerful predictor variable for girls than is having a girlfriend for boys and there is evidence to support the hypothesis that boys initiate sexual activity in the context of status-seeking while girls are more likely to do so as a way of attaining approval. (3) Our findings do not give clear primacy to parents or peers as an influence on early-teen consensual sexual activity. Both control theory, usually associated with parental-influence variables, and differential association theory, usually associated with peer-influence variables, receive support. (4) The results of the research spanning a 2-year period of intensive community antiteen-pregnancy efforts by a Zero Adolescent Pregnancy (ZAP) campaign are consistent with the conclusion that such a multifaceted approach might help lower early-teen initiation of sexual activity.     

Social Work and the Treatment of Substance Abuse in Israel

SUMMARY

This paper examines the role of the social worker within the field of substance abuse in Israel at the start of the 21st century, its implications for the profession, and the training of its practitioners. Addiction to psychoactive substances is viewed as a bio-psycho-social phenomenon caused by a wide variety of factors and the respective interactions between them, placing it within the realm of the expertise of the social worker. The social worker plays a central role in providing both administrative and clinical interventions with this population. Additional ways in which the education and training of social workers can prepare them to deal more efficiently and comprehensively with the problem of substance abuse in both practical and academic terms is discussed.