Multidimensional Resilience: Predictive and Construct Validity of the Individual,Family, and Community Resilience Profile

Few measures parallel the robust depth offered in the existing multidimensional and ecologically informed theories of resilience. This study sought to evaluate the test–retest reliability, construct, and predictive validity of the individual, family, and community resilience resource profile (IFCR-R). The IFCR-R measures a family’s access to resilience resources and protective factors across multiple ecological levels. Confirmatory factor analysis was used with a sample of n?=?810 low-income families. And 159 families completed multiple time point measures for test–retest reliability and predictive validity evaluation. Results of this study support the proposed multidimensional ecological structure of the IFCR-R and found that the IFCR-R offers an acceptable test–retest reliability and predictive validity for outcomes of mental and physical health.     

A Phenomenological Study of Postdivorce Adjustment in Midlife

Today, 50% of all U.S. marriages are expected to end in divorce, with the majority of the divorces being granted to individuals between the ages of 45 and 54. Gaining an understanding of the lived experience of postdivorce adjustment as seen in midlife was the aim of this study. A phenomenological research design was used. The themes that emerged from the data included time, emotional pain, changes in postdivorce parenting, and a sense of starting over. The clinical implications of this study suggest that obtaining an understanding of the postdivorce adjustment experience might help mental health practitioners enhance care for divorced individuals, divorcing couples, and their family members.     

Supplementary child health services. Part III. Infant welfare centres

The findings of the Maternity Survey on the use of infant welfare centres were confirmed in the Follow-up Survey carried out two years later. 68.7% of all the survey mothers used centres, and the children of manual workers (72.0%) and of the black-coated workers (71.4%) were taken more than those of the professional and salaried (59.7 %).

Attendance at centres was more common in the towns than in the rural areas, where mothers often had to travel considerable distances to centres.

The more experienced mothers with several children used centres less than the primiparae. Even so, 61.8% of the wives of manual workers with four or more children had taken their babies at some time before the second birthday.

The average date of first attendance was about 7 weeks after confinement, except for the agricultural workers' wives who made their first attendance at 12.6 weeks. The mothers who intended to use the centres usually made an early start in the first two or three months. Those who made their initial visit later probably came for advice on specific disorders or else for diphtheria immunisation.

Those who made frequent and regular attendances usually started at an early date. There was a general falling off in attendance as the children grew older; over one-third of urban working class mothers with less than four children who used centres at all, did not attend once in the second year, and the attendances of the remainder were less frequent. This lapsing represents a failure of the child health services which needs to be remedied.

The group of working class women who made frequent and regular use of centres even after the first birthday appeared to be among the most conscientious and careful mothers, according to the health visitors' estimates of the bodily care of their babies, and their records on post-natal care and diphtheria immunisation. More detailed studies are required to discover whether other factors have any appreciable influence on continued attendance at centres.

When more adequate premises and more staff become available the problem of persuading a larger proportion of mothers to continue making regular attendances at centres will have to be faced.     

Quantifying urban forest structure,function, and value: the Chicago Urban Forest Climate Project

This paper is a review of research in Chicago that linked analyses of vegetation structure with forest functions and values. During 1991, the regions trees removed an estimated 5575 metric tons of air pollutants, providing air cleansing worth 9.2 million. Each year they sequester an estimated 315 800 metric tons of carbon. Increasing tree cover 10% or planting about three trees per building lot saves annual heating and cooling costs by an estimated 50 to 90 per dwelling unit because of increased shade, lower summertime air temperatures, and reduced neighborhood wind speeds once the trees mature. The net present value of the services trees provide is estimated as 402 per planted tree. The present value of long-term benefits is more than twice the present value of costs.     

Early childhood in broken families

In the course of a national questionnaire inquiry concerning child health and development, the growth and behaviour of young children living in broken families was compared with those of a matched sample of children living in stable households. It was found that while home circumstances differed considerably, the children of broken homes were not excessively retarded, nor on the whole were they more prone to suffer from childhood ailments or behaviour disturbances than those in stable families. These findings relate only to children in the pre-school years.     

‘I Don't Just Want to Do It for Myself’: Diverse Pespectives on Being Successful at University by Social Work Students Who Speak English as an Additional Language

This article gives attention to furthering understandings about what being successful at university means to social work students, focusing on the perspectives of students who speak English as an additional language (EAL). It departs from approaches in the literature that focus on problematic aspects of teaching and learning. The article is informed by data from a small-scale focus group study of nine students from an undergraduate and a postgraduate social work programme in a South Australian university. Drawing on a methodological approach known as ‘Appreciative Inquiry’, students were asked how they conceptualise, experience and imagine success at university. The study found that students’ understandings of success are inextricably intertwined with their individual, family and community aspirations. These findings are discussed in the light of current dominant assumptions about the notion of success and possible directions for future research and implications for social work education.     

A conceptual framework for the study of human ecosystems in urban areas

The need for integrated concepts, capable of satisfying natural and social scientists and supporting integrated research, motivates a conceptual framework for understanding the role of humans in ecosystems. The question is how to add humans to the ecological models used to understand urban ecosystems. The ecosystem concept can serve as the basis, but specific social attributes of humans and their institutions must be added. Learning and feedback between the human and natural components of urban ecosystems are key attributes of the integrated model. Parallels with familiar ecological approaches can help in understanding the ecology of urban ecosystems. These include the role of spatial heterogeneity and organizational hierarchies in both the social and natural components of urban ecosystems. Although urban watersheds are commonly highly altered, the watershed approach can serve as a spatial basis for organizing comparative studies of ecosystems exhibiting differing degrees of urbanization. The watershed concept can also spatially organize the hierarchically scaled linkages by which the integrated human ecosystem model can be applied. The study of urban ecosystems is a relatively new field, and the questions suggested by the integrated framework can be used to frame ecosystem research in and associated with urban and metropolitan areas.     

Participatory ergonomics intervention in a sterile processing center: a case study

The following case study describes an ergonomics intervention program, designed and implemented by an occupational therapist (OT), which included principles of participatory ergonomics, had full support of management and administration, and addressed the work, worker, and environment. The ergonomics program took place in the Sterile Processing Center (SPC) of a 398 bed, mid-western hospital. The SPC was responsible for the collection, sterilization, and reassembling of hospital surgical equipment. The 30 employees of the SPC were vulnerable to injury, having experienced 19 in only two years (of the 19 injuries, 9 were WMSD or ergonomics-related injuries). Over a two and a half year period, the OT and SPC manager conducted ergonomic evaluations, implemented employee training, designed a new SPC department, and modified work processes and equipment. In the year following the training and changes, the SPC staff experienced no injuries. Because of it's success, the program is continuing on a quarterly basis to ensure new problems are addressed quickly, new processes or equipment are evaluated, and new staff are properly trained.