Use of the Internet by Informal Caregivers Assisting People with Multiple Sclerosis

The Internet is used to help informal caregivers provide assistance to people with chronic illness and disability. We identified factors associated with Internet use by informal caregivers assisting people with multiple sclerosis (MS) using a logistic regression model. Duration of MS in the person receiving care and caregiver age predicted lower Internet use. More hours per week providing care and higher caregiver educational level increased odds of Internet use. The Internet can be a low-cost service delivery option to provide education and support to caregivers assisting people with MS.     

Preliminary Validation of an Online DSM-Based Mental Health Referral Inventory

A brief online inventory was developed as a much needed corrective for the hundreds of unscientific tests that are used now by millions of people to self-diagnose mental health problems. The primary purpose of the new inventory is to refer people to mental health professionals for further evaluation when they are experiencing problems that might be diagnosable under DSM guidelines; it is not designed to diagnose, however. The inventory was found to be a valid and reliable measuring instrument based on analysis of data obtained from 3,403 subjects. The 54-item checklist looks for 18 common problems identified in the DSM-IV and takes from 5 to 10 min to complete. Test scores proved to be good predictors of a variety of self-reported criterion measures, including happiness, personal and professional success, history of hospitalization, history of therapy, current participation in therapy, employment, and level of education. Females were found to have slightly more mental health problems than males, but no differences in scores were found by race or ethnicity.     

College Students and HIV/AIDS: A Comparison of Nontraditional and Traditional Student Perspectives

Objective and Participants The authors compared nontraditional college students' knowledge and perceptions of HIV/AIDS and sexual practices with previously reported results about traditional students. Methods Nontraditional students completed an online survey with questions based on national HIV/AIDS surveys. Traditional students completed the same survey with paper and pencil. Results Overall, the authors found more similarities than differences between the 2 groups. The findings support previous research that suggests that although college students are knowledgeable about HIV and its risks, they express little personal concern about becoming infected. The authors also discuss how apparent differences between nontraditional and traditional students regarding personal concern about becoming infected, relationship status, and information sources may influence the development of effective prevention strategies geared toward nontraditional college students. Conclusions Institutional leaders need to adapt to these differences, and researchers should undertake additional studies to clarify these differences so that college students may be more effectively educated about HIV/AIDS and encouraged to get tested.     

“Is This Something You Want?”: Genetic Counselors’ Accounts of Their Role in Prenatal Decision Making

With the widespread availability of prenatal genetic diagnosis, bioethical concerns have emerged about why women make use of these technologies, and the potential eugenic implications. Research on women's experience with genetic screening often suggests that genetic counselors encourage women to undergo prenatal testing and to terminate pregnancies with abnormalities. Yet, this key professional remains relatively understudied. To fill this lacuna, this article examines genetic counselors’ accounts of their role in the decision‐making process, drawing on 26 qualitative interviews with master's‐trained genetic counselors and illustrative observations of a prenatal counselor. In the context of debates about reproductive politics and genomic medicine, I identify the ways in which genetic counselors view their work and position themselves. I find that contrary to assumptions, genetic counselors provide accounts of being just as likely to discourage as to encourage invasive testing, and persuade against instead of promote termination of affected pregnancies. These findings suggest that genetic counselors may play a more nuanced and less coercive role than their critics contend, challenge assumptions about genetic counselors’ roles in prenatal genetic testing uptake and abortion, and shed light on how this specific professional may curb rather than promote eugenic tendencies feared with the normalization of prenatal screening.     

A Dynamic Model of Welfare Reform

A dynamic structural model of labor supply, welfare participation, and food stamp participation is estimated using the 1992, 1993, and 1996 panels of the Survey of Income and Program Participation. Details of various policies including welfare time limits, work requirements, and Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) are incorporated formally in the budget constraint. Policy simulations reveal that the economy accounts for half of the increase in the labor supply of female heads of family between 1992 and 1999. A time limit results in a larger efficiency gain than a work requirement or a direct reduction in welfare benefits. A reform package can lead to both a reduction in the government expenditure and an improvement in utility. The EITC expansion results in a substantial efficiency gain among individuals with the lowest expected wage. These individuals are almost unaffected by the economic expansion, but their income and utility increase significantly under the reform package.     

The Lucas Orchard

This paper investigates the behavior of asset prices in an endowment economy in which a representative agent with power utility consumes the dividends of multiple assets. The assets are Lucas trees; a collection of Lucas trees is a Lucas orchard. The model generates return correlations that vary endogenously, spiking at times of disaster. Since disasters spread across assets, the model generates large risk premia even for assets with stable cashflows. Very small assets may comove endogenously and hence earn positive risk premia even if their cashflows are independent of the rest of the economy. I provide conditions under which the variation in a small asset's price‐dividend ratio can be attributed almost entirely to variation in its risk premium.     

A social identity framework of American hip-hop cultural performance

The sociocognitive processes of marginalized-group social identity negotiation within a wider hegemonic sociocultural context can appear counterintuitive. Employing social identity theory to extend our understanding of the tension between racial and economic group-based identities, the mutations of three notable hip-hop referents serve as case studies that illuminate a framework of the intra- and intergroup relations facilitated by hip-hop's cultural performance within a racialized society.     

Use of Data in Identifying and Resolving Group Problems in Goal Oriented Treatment Groups

In this paper a data based approach for identifying and modifying group problems in goal oriented groups is presented. Types of post session questionnaires, observational systems, and other data collection methods for ascertaining group process are presented. A step by step paradigm is proposed to guide group workers in the assessment and modification process. Case materials in children and adult groups are discussed in which specific strategies are exemplified. A program aimed at preventing a high frequency of group problems is also briefly described.