Middle School Children's Perceptions on Welfare and Poverty: An Exploratory, Qualitative Study

This study was undertaken to determine how middle school children assess the effects of welfare reform on their daily lives. The study consisted of thirty interviews with children and their mothers recruited from a middle school in a large, metropolitan area. From the children's perspective, multiple jobs and evening/night hours interfered with the child-parent relationship. Other consequences included grades going down and not getting to school on time. All the children stated that mothers should work, but most children felt mothers should only work when their children are in school. Welfare and poverty were issues about which children were teased at school.     

Living Arrangements, Employment Status, and the Economic Well-Being of Mothers: Evidence from Brazil, Chile, and the U.S

Using data from Brazil, Chile, and the U.S., we estimate country specific models of household income that characterize mothers according to their marital status, living arrangement, and employment status. We assess the predicted economic well-being of each type of mother relative to a benchmark of married mothers in the same country, and at various points in the income distribution. We find dramatic cross-country differences in the distribution of mothers across categories, but few differences in each type's relative economic status. In all three countries and at all points in the income distribution, mothers who are the only adults in their households have the lowest levels of predicted income, while married mothers—followed closely by cohabitors—have the highest levels.     

African American Children's Adjustment: The Roles of Maternal and Teacher Depressive Symptoms

This study examined the unique and interactive roles of mother and teacher depressive symptoms in child adjustment in 277 African American single mother‐headed families, as well as whether the associations differed depending on the age and gender of the child. Findings revealed a significant association between maternal depressive symptoms and child depressive symptoms in girls, but not boys. Moreover, the combination of higher levels of both mother and teacher depressive symptoms was associated with the highest level of child depressive symptoms and, for younger children, externalizing symptoms. The importance of considering the multiple social contexts in which children interact is discussed.     

The influence of risk and protective factors on burnout experienced by those who work with maltreated children

The aim of the study was to explore the degree (and type) of burnout and trauma symptoms, personal histories and coping strategies retrospectively reported by those who work with maltreated children and their families. A self‐selected sample of workers (N = 44) completed a self‐report questionnaire assessing childhood maltreatment, family background characteristics, current adjustment, coping strategies and burnout. Workers reported high levels of emotional exhaustion and depersonalization, and a low to moderate sense of personal accomplishment. Family background characteristics predicted the occurrence of maltreatment and current adjustment, and a personal history of maltreatment predicted current trauma symptoms, but not burnout. Workers most frequently used problem‐focused coping strategies and sought social support; however, coping strategies were not associated with the level of either trauma symptoms or burnout. Despite employing positive coping strategies, their efficacy may be affected by other interpersonal, intra‐individual and job resource issues. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Who Gets What From Government? Distributional Consequences of Child‐Care Assistance Policies

Given the fragmented structure of child‐care assistance in the United States, it has been difficult to obtain accurate estimates of which families are assisted, through which mechanisms, and at what level. Making use of survey data from New York City, we analyze the distribution of several forms of public child‐care assistance. Results suggest that about 40% of all families with young children receive some form of child‐care assistance. Considering all forms of assistance, the distribution of child‐care help is targeted in both expected and some unexpected ways. Implications of these results are discussed in the context of U.S. child‐care policies governing access and benefit levels.     

Symptoms of Eating Disorders Among Females in Drug Addiction Treatment

The aim of this study is to measure and describe symptoms of eating disorders among females in treatment for drug addiction in Norway. Previous clinical and epidemiological studies have revealed coprevalence between eating disorders and substance use or abuse. However, few studies have measured eating disorders in drug-using samples and even fewer within the context of drug treatment. In this study, 29 females with drug use disorder in residential treatment were tested with the Eating Disorder Inventory–2. A subgroup of 9 females (31%) with significant symptoms of eating disorders was identified. The characteristics of this group and possible clinical consequences are discussed.     

Spanish migrants to European Union countries: predictors of psychological adjustment / Españoles que emigran a países de la Unión Europea: predictores de su ajuste psicológico

In recent years, the migration of Spanish people to other countries in Europe has increased; however, there are hardly any studies on this phenomenon. The aim of this study is to identify the predictive sociodemographic and psychosocial factors of psychological adjustment (life satisfaction and absence of internalizing symptoms) of emigrants and to determine the indirect effects of these factors through perceived stress. This study also seeks to examine whether the psychological adjustment of Spanish emigrants was similar to Spanish non-emigrants. The sample was made up of a group of Spanish emigrants to Germany and England (n = 858) and an equivalent control group of Spanish non-emigrants (n = 328). The results show that fulfilment of expectations, emotional support and job quality are the best predictors of perceived stress and psychological adjustment. These factors are confirmed to have indirect effects on psychological adjustment through perceived stress. Finally, the mental health of emigrants and non-emigrants was similar, and the implications of these findings are discussed.     

Effects of testosterone replacement therapy withdrawal and re-treatment in hypogonadal elderly men upon obesity,voiding function and prostate safety parameters

Whether testosterone replacement therapy (TRT) is a lifelong treatment for men with hypogonadism remains unknown. We investigated long-term TRT and TRT withdrawal on obesity and prostate-related parameters. Two hundred and sixty-two hypogonadal patients (mean age 59.5) received testosterone undecanoate in 12-week intervals for a maximum of 11 years. One hundred and forty-seven men had TRT interrupted for a mean of 16.9 months and resumed thereafter (Group A). The remaining 115 patients were treated continuously (Group B). Prostate volume, prostate-specific antigen (PSA), residual voiding volume, bladder wall thickness, C-reactive protein (CRP), aging male symptoms (AMS), International Index of erectile function – erectile function (IIEF-EF) and International Prostate Symptoms Scores (IPSS) were measured over the study period with anthropometric parameters of obesity, including weight, body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference. Prior to interruption, TRT resulted in improvements in residual voiding volume, bladder wall thickness, CRP, AMS, IIEF-EF, IPSS and obesity parameters while PSA and prostate volume increased. TRT interruption reduced total testosterone to hypogonadal levels in Group A and resulted in worsening of obesity parameters, AMS, IPSS, residual voiding volume and bladder wall thickness, IIEF-EF and PSA while CRP and prostate volume were unchanged until treatment resumed whereby these effects were reversed. TRT interruption results in worsening of symptoms. Hypogonadism may require lifelong TRT.     

Role of Temperament,Parenting Behaviors,and Stress on Turkish Preschoolers’ Internalizing Symptoms

Child‐ and family‐related factors that predict internalizing symptoms are understudied in preschool years and have a negative influence on children's functioning. We examined observational assessments of preschoolers' temperamental fearfulness and exuberance, mother reports of negative control, warmth, and parenting stress in a sample of 109 Turkish preschoolers. High temperamental fearfulness and low joyful/exuberant positive affectivity in addition to low warmth and high parenting stress had significant effects on internalizing symptoms. Parenting stress had both direct and indirect relations to internalizing symptoms via lower maternal warmth. When comorbid elevations in externalizing symptoms were controlled, the results were consistent with the interpretation that poor parenting practices and stress associated with the parenting role predict maladaptation in general but that the specific form of maladaptation may be best predicted by individual differences in children's temperamental characteristics. This study contributes to our understanding of risk and protective factors that predict preschoolers' internalizing symptoms with a sample from a non‐Western population. These findings can guide early prevention and intervention programs to address internalizing problems in a culturally‐sensitive way.     

Can art-based reflection help us cope with organisational change in the public sector?

Never before have public sector jobs been so threatened. Fear and anxiety have shifted their focus, from performance to survival. With reference to immediately contemporary works on the NHS in particular, such as Mandelstam (2011) and Leys and Player (2011), the paper establishes the factual validity of the crisis.

The authors conducted a series of workshops for public sector staff to enable them to explore their reactions to the current situation.

It is possible to identify increasing levels of denial and other forms of resistance to change similar to those first identified by Menzies' (1959). Drawing on the work of Bion (cited Obholzer & Roberts, 1994) the paper considers the dangers of a retreat to the paranoid schizoid position, and identifies a theoretical clue in Halton (2004) for turning the trauma of change into a creative opportunity.

Art has access to emotional, spiritual and creative facets of the human mind that science cannot explore. Klein's (1975) consideration of the infantile and regressive aspect of art is acknowledged. The paper then considers what is revealed by a study of specific works of art which were presented in the workshops; including paintings by Bosch, Rousseau, Breughel and Goya. The work of Zagier-Roberts (1998) and Winnicott (1971) is called upon to endorse the usefulness of such a playful collage of responses.

Art can be used to help people move through Kubler Ross' stages of bereavement (1997); not to acceptance but out of the paranoid schizoid position into the depressive position (Klein 1975). Revisiting the work of Halton (2004) and the concept of evolutionary creativity, a move on from the depressive position can begin. Collective validation can be affirmed through a rebooting of the essential public sector values while a radical turning away from organisational priorities, to face the service user, provides a more far reaching optimism than any envisaged by an essentially limited demand for modernisation.

In conclusion the paper considers the recent contributions of Dienst (2011) and Dumenil and Levy (2011) to advocate tactical resistance to the denigration of the public sphere.