Open Road or Blind Alley? Welfare Reform, Mothers, and Children with Disabilities

Welfare reform was examined for 39 Michigan families whose children have significant health or intellectual and behavioral disabilities. As a group, these families received little specialized assistance or services to address their unique needs. Family-cited barriers to self-sufficiency included poorly trained welfare caseworkers, limited public transportation, and inadequate child care. Having an older child was the only discriminating variable between working and non-working mothers. However, working mothers only had temporary positions with no benefits and low pay. All families, whether employed or not, lived below the poverty line.     

Infusing Career Development to Strengthen Middle School English Language Arts Curricula

An approach is presented for strengthening middle school standards‐based English language arts (ELA) classroom instruction by infusing theory‐ and research‐supported career development constructs and practices. Over an 8‐week period, 90 urban 7th graders participated in an integrated ELA–career development curriculum. Career agency emerged as an important construct for students. It was related to key markers of ELA achievement (i.e., standardized test scores, grades, and positive change in 6th‐ to 7th‐grade test scores) and elaborated on in nuanced ways by students in their written narratives. Four themes related to career agency were identified in student writings: time perspective, challenges of self‐direction, career development, and social and emotional development. Advantages for students and schools related to synergy, scale, and sustainability are discussed.     

Exploring the Emergence of Side Biases and Familiarity–Novelty Preferences from the Real‐Time Dynamics of Infant Looking

This study examined how look dynamics contribute to infants’ emerging novelty preferences. Time‐series analyses were used to study the temporal nature of looking displayed by 3‐ to 5‐month‐old infants during a serial paired‐comparison task. Evidence was found only for short‐term stability: Novelty preferences and side biases were not stable from one visit to the next, but looking was consistent from one moment to the next producing stability within trials and temporarily across trials leading to the formation of behavioral runs. Persistence in looking left or right across multiple trials did not change from one visit to the next, but persistence in looking at familiar stimuli declined with age. By Visit 3, familiarity runs occurred less often than did novelty runs. Frequent but highly variable runs, including surprisingly late familiarity preferences, suggest that overall side biases and novelty preferences found during visual preference tasks are emergent phenomena affected by moment‐to‐moment changes in looking.     

Impact of Gender Binarism on Hijras’ Life Course and Their Access to Fundamental Human Rights in Pakistan

This study adds to the growing body of knowledge on gender nonconformity aspects of heteronormativity by examining its impact on the life course of hijras and their access to fundamental human rights in Pakistan. Drawing on 50 semistructured interviews conducted in two sites, the findings suggest that the participants’ lived experiences associated with gender nonconformity significantly influenced the direction of their life course and their ability to have access to human rights. These experiences spanned from childhood to elderhood across a wide range of settings, such as family, school, guru dera (residence headed by a hijra guru), workplace, and interactions with authorities. The participants’ human rights were not recognized, resulting in abuse, social stigma, discrimination against them, and their exclusion from mainstream society. Finally, implications are drawn for public policy and future research on third gender concerns in Pakistan and elsewhere.     

Problems With and Needs for Interdisciplinary Interactions in Vocational Guidance

This article summarizes 10 presentations in a discussion group of the 2007 joint international symposium of the International Association for Educational and Vocational Guidance, Society for Vocational Psychology, and National Career Development Association held in Padua, Italy. This discussion group focused on interdisciplinary interactions in vocational guidance. The group engaged in dialogue to address the changing needs of world workers in the dynamic global economy by considering interdisciplinary research and practice implications. This article summarizes the major discussion topics and offers propositions for a way for the vocational guidance profession to move forward on these issues.     

Well balanced: 8 steps to wellness for adults with mental illness and diabetes

Serious mental illness places a tremendous burden on clients, their families, and behavioral and medical health care providers. The co-occurrence of diabetes with mental illness may further compromise daily functioning. Psychiatric nurses can make a significant difference in improving the health and medical outcomes of this client population. A partnership was developed between the University of Rochester School of Nursing and the Western New York Care Coordination Program to evaluate a novel nursing model for adults with both serious mental illness and diabetes mellitus. The Well Balanced program incorporated health promotion, disease management, nursing care management, and evidence-based practice guidelines into 8 Steps to Wellness for a community-based mental health population. During a 16-visit intervention period, psychiatric nurses interacted with 74 clients. As a result of the program, clients experienced improvements in health risk status and in their hemoglobin A1C and reported high satisfaction with the Well Balanced program.     

Staying safe while consuming alcohol: a qualitative study of the protective strategies and informational needs of college freshmen

OBJECTIVE: In this qualitative study, the authors examined how students attempt to minimize harm to themselves and others when drinking. PARTICIPANTS: The authors recruited freshmen at a large, mid-Atlantic US public university during the fall semester of 2005 to participate in 8 focus groups. METHODS: The moderator's guide was developed through an iterative process that included input from experts and pilot testing. The researchers audiotaped focus group conversations, transcribed them, and subjected them to an interrater reliability check. Analysis was based on the framework of Information-Motivation-Behavioral Skills Model and a phenomenological approach. RESULTS: College students have a repertoire of coping strategies they use in an attempt to safeguard themselves and their friends from harm when drinking. Strategies encompass planning a safe context for drinking, using safety measures to minimize harm when drinking, and taking care of someone who has consumed too much alcohol. CONCLUSIONS: A harm-reduction focus that acknowledges and builds on existing protective strategies may be a promising avenue for alcohol interventions.     

The intersections of lesbian studies and postcolonial studies: one possible future for class

This position piece addresses the decline of class as a mode of inquiry in Lesbian Studies and Postcolonial Studies. It argues that in spite of this decline, class continues to forcibly pervade all areas of our lives and, therefore, should be fundamental to the research praxis of these fields of study. It goes on to suggest that the intersections of these two disciplines are able to open up a space where questions regarding class and its global dimension in the twenty-first century can be addressed. It concludes by reflecting on the possibility of an ethical methodological approach to research.