Monthly Archives: July 2012

Abstract   Studies on homophobia among adolescents routinely depart from the assumption that this attitude will be continued into adulthood. However, little research has been conducted on how the transition toward adulthood actually affects homophobia. While earlier studies relied on cross-sectional observations, the present analysis makes use of the Belgian Political Panel Survey (2008–2011), tracking 2,815 respondents (52 % female, 48 % male) between the ages of 18 and 21. A conditional change model shows that while men had substantially higher levels of …

This article presents an empowerment model for working with Chinese divorced women through the reconstitution of meaning. Informed by feminist poststructuralism, the social worker facilitates the reconstitution of personal meanings of divorce held by Chinese divorced women by revealing the discursive roots of meanings and by interrogating with the women the meanings constituted by historical and social discourses on divorce in Hong Kong. The intervention process involves exploring positive meanings of divorce, challenging cultural oppression, exposing the discursive roots, and …

We collected daily diary data from 165 couples (N = 330) in romantic relationships to examine how working to change the relationship and relational uncertainty influence positive relationship quality (i.e., closeness, satisfaction, and commitment). We used concepts from the investment model and literature on relationship maintenance and relational uncertainty. As hypothesized, we found a positive association between working to change the relationship and relationship quality. Further, this association was stronger on days in which individuals reported lower relational uncertainty, but …

Tensions emanating from the Israeli/Palestinian conflict lead to misunderstanding, segregation, and conflict between Arab and Jewish students on U.S. college campuses. Teaching about this conflict presents particular challenges for faculty and student affairs staff. This study uses a participatory action research method that engages Arab and Jewish students in understanding and changing issues of concern to their own campus communities. A qualitative analysis of the final papers and interviews from the students in Arab/Jewish intergroup dialogue courses indicated that the …

Background: There is currently a gap in our knowledge of how eating disorder symptomatology is impacted by spirituality and religiosity. To date, studies examining the role of ethnicity in women’s self-reported levels of eating disorder symptomatology have neglected the roles of spirituality and religiosity. Aims: This study addresses this gap in the literature by investigating ethnicity, spirituality, religiosity, body shame, body mass index (BMI) and age in relation to eating disorder symptomatology in women. Methods: A representative non-clinical sample of …

Background: Studies about stress disorders following a disaster have mainly been based on single-event trauma with little emphasis on multiple traumas. Aims: This study investigated the prevalence and predictors of stress disorders following two earthquakes in China. Methods: Subjects were randomly sampled from 11 villages in rural China. A total of 624 subjects were administered with the 12-item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12), Symptom Checklist -90-R (SCL-90-R), Coping Style Scale and Social Support Rating Scale. This was followed by a structural …

Background: Research has seldom considered social capital at the individual, household and administrative area level simultaneously and examined its association with mental health. Aim: The main purpose of this study was to examine the association between social capital and mental health while controlling for various confounders at multiple levels using multi-level analysis and operationalizing social capital at the individual, household and administrative area level. Methods: This study used cross-sectional data from the 2010 Seoul Welfare Panel Study conducted by the …

Asia Pacific Journal of Counselling and Psychotherapy, Volume 0, Issue 0, Page 1-12, Ahead of Print.

Abstract   Research derived from terror management theory suggests that death cognition does not lead to death-anxiety because people respond to thoughts of death by turning to social and cultural structures that provide a sense of psychological security. However, recent research indicates that it is people high, but not low, in personal need for structure that turn to social and cultural structures in response to heightened death cognition. Such findings suggest that people low in PNS may be vulnerable to experiencing …

Early Child Development and Care, Volume 0, Issue 0, Page 1-24, Ahead of Print.

Emotional and Behavioural Difficulties, Volume 0, Issue 0, Page 1-17, Ahead of Print.

European Journal of Developmental Psychology, Volume 0, Issue 0, Page 1-9, Ahead of Print.

European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, Volume 0, Issue 0, Page 1-15, Ahead of Print.

European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, Volume 0, Issue 0, Page 1-14, Ahead of Print.

European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, Volume 0, Issue 0, Page 1-12, Ahead of Print.

European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, Volume 0, Issue 0, Page 1-13, Ahead of Print.

Counselling Psychology Quarterly, Volume 0, Issue 0, Page 1-10, Ahead of Print.

Counselling Psychology Quarterly, Volume 0, Issue 0, Page 1-8, Ahead of Print.

Abstract   Focused on 113 U.S. mothers of college-aged daughters, we extend the existent role-based identity literature to address role- and morality-based identities and their ties to women’s fulfillment. Specifically, women’s identities as mothers, feminists, and generative individuals were assessed for their associations with each other, as well as their unique and combined associations with women’s self satisfaction and life satisfaction. Across the results, generativity yielded the greatest significance. Women with higher generativity identity report having higher self satisfaction and life …

Contemporary Social Science, Volume 0, Issue 0, Page 1-16, Ahead of Print.

Past research regarding feminist identity has revealed that a significant number of women endorse feminist attitudes yet reject a feminist identity. In the current study, the authors sought to examine whether these nonlabeling women fall into two distinct groups: (a) one that falls on the same ideological continuum of their feminist peers and (b) the other that represents an attitudinally unique group of women characterized by their neoliberal beliefs that prioritize individual merit as the sole determinant of success. Two …

The design of outdoor public play spaces such that disabled children can make use of them is set in the three constructs of play, childhood and disability, drawing upon academic learning, international policy and national policy in England. The suggestion is made that one of the main barriers to the adequate provision of such spaces is that providers and designers do not know how to design such spaces. The paper explores the knowledge which is available to overcome this barrier …

Practice, Volume 0, Issue 0, Page 1-12, Ahead of Print.

Practice, Volume 0, Issue 0, Page 1-13, Ahead of Print.

Victims & Offenders, Volume 7, Issue 3, Page 312-326, July-September 2012.

This study examines the extent to which Goodnow’s ideas about public administration were informed by Hegelian political philosophy. Hegel’s reflections on the characteristics of the state and public administration came to Goodnow’s attention from such scholars as John Burgess, Francis Lieber, Lorenz von Stein, Johann C. Bluntschli, and Rudolph von Gneist. Hegelian philosophy helped Goodnow to deal with the intellectual challenges of the progressive era. The article concludes with a discussion of Hegelian political philosophy as a source of inspiration …

Abstract: Objective: Item 9 of the Patient Health Questionnaire—9 (PHQ-9), which inquires about both passive thoughts of death and active ideas of self-harm, has been used to assess suicide risk. The objectives of this study were (1) to determine the proportion of patients who responded “yes” to Item 9 who endorsed active suicidal ideation in response to more direct questions from a structured clinical interview and (2) to compare the sensitivity and specificity for detecting cases of depression of the …

Eyewitness identification decisions from 1,039 real lineups in England were analysed. Identification procedures have undergone dramatic change in the United Kingdom over recent years. Video lineups are now standard procedure, in which each lineup member is seen sequentially. The whole lineup is seen twice before the witness can make a decision, and the witness can request additional viewings of the lineup. A key aim of this paper was to investigate the association between repeated viewing and eyewitness decisions. Repeated viewing …

Inconsistencies in eyewitness accounts are perceived as indicative of inaccuracy and reduce the witnesses’ credibility. Reminiscence, the delayed recall of previously not recalled information, is generally interpreted as a type of inconsistency. Even though it does not necessarily involve the falsity of the statements, reminiscence presents a counterintuitive instance with mostly unknown reliability. Two studies empirically assessed the accuracy of reminiscent items after retention intervals of up to 1 week and contrasted them with peoples’ beliefs regarding their accuracy. In …

Miranda v. Arizona (384 U.S. 436, 1966) required that suspects be explicitly warned of the right to avoid self-incrimination and the right to legal representation. This research was designed to examine whether stress, induced via an accusation of wrong-doing, undermined or enhanced suspects’ ability to comprehend their Miranda rights. Participants were randomly assigned to either be accused (n = 15) or not accused (n = 15) of having cheated on an experimental task in a two-cell between-subjects experimental design. Results …

The purpose of the current study was to examine the effect of a motivational intervention on conduct problem youth with psychopathic features. Specifically, the current study examined conduct problem youths’ mental set (or theory) regarding intelligence (entity vs. incremental) upon task performance. We assessed 36 juvenile offenders with psychopathic features and tested whether providing them with two different messages regarding intelligence would affect their functioning on a task related to academic performance. The study employed a MANOVA design with two …

Across two studies we aimed to measure empirically the extent of non-readership of click-through agreements (CTAs), identify the dominant beliefs about CTAs contributing to non-readership, and experimentally manipulate these beliefs to decrease automatic non-reading behavior and enhance contract efficiency. In our initial questionnaire study (Study 1), as predicted, the vast majority of participants reported not reading CTAs and the most prevalent beliefs about CTAs contributing to nonreadership included: they are too long and time-consuming, they are all the same, they …

In the landmark case Barefoot v. Estelle (1983), the United States Supreme Court held that behavioral scientists are not “incompetent to predict with an acceptable degree of reliability that a particular criminal will commit other crimes in the future, and so represent a danger to the community.” The Court held to this opinion, even in light of evidence that mental health practitioners were incorrect in their violence predictions two out of three times. Although Barefoot focused on a death penalty …

Despite concerns being routinely raised about psychological consequences for child victims of participation in criminal proceedings, empirical research remains limited, and findings have not been integrated within a well-established set of theoretical principles. In the current review, we describe extant research concerning the links between child victims’ involvement in criminal prosecutions and subsequent outcomes, particularly in the domains of mental health and legal attitudes. Findings reveal that, although some facets of children’s legal experiences, such as testifying repeatedly, are associated …

Research with both the general public and members of the criminal justice system reports a pervasive rape myth of a violent offender and a physically resistant victim. Despite research being conducted on victims’ postrape behavior, few studies have examined victim behavior during sexual assaults, and many of those which have been conducted have tended to focus on physical resistance. This article reports two studies that examined qualitatively the behavior of female rape victims during sexual assaults. The first study is …

Although 20 states have passed statutes enabling rehabilitative detention of sex offenders subsequent to a their release from their prison sentences, so far data from only six states’ civilly committed sex offender populations have been made available through publication. To augment the scant literature about this small yet high-risk population, the current article presents offense, risk, and diagnostic characteristics for 134 civilly committed male sex offenders in Nebraska. Committed individuals exhibited medium-to-moderate recidivism risk levels. Paraphilias were, by far, the …

A critical issue in large-scale employment discrimination litigation is whether the challenged practices have a systematic adverse impact on protected groups of applicants or employees. The methods that are currently used to detect adverse impact are seriously flawed, but these flaws could be addressed by putting more emphasis on commonly used research statistics that measure effect size, such as standardized difference ( d) or the percentage of variance (PV) explained. We recommend incorporating these indices as a baseline for detecting …

In this paper I extend the conceptual space in which analytic clinicians may think about racialized experience in order to enhance our capacity to work with racialized subjectivity in the consulting room. I suggest that race in America may be usefully understood to be an “adaptive challenge” (Heifetz, 1998), indicating that a meaningful gap exists between aspirations and the realities of everyday experience. This means when race gets enacted in the psychoanalytic consulting room, the problem or opportunity that is …

Over the last few decades, the importance of clinically and conceptually appreciating and being sensitive to racial and cultural diversity in psychodynamic psychotherapy has been increasingly recognized and accentuated. But how has that practical recognition and appreciation been translated into empirical reality? How have race/ethnicity been incorporated into or impacted short-term and long-term psychodynamic treatment research? To consider those questions, I (a) obtained and examined 104 studies (including over 9,000 subjects), January 1960–April 2010, drawn from 8 separate reviews/meta-analyses of …

Drawing on my work in human rights abuse, I reflect on the process of dehumanization in torture, and make the links between the life-negating denial of death in trauma victims and the ethical responsibility of society vis-à-vis these victims. In examining how my own past helps me enter into my patients’ posttraumatic narrative, I seek to show that the psychoanalytic activist brings to the work her own history—that the political is personal and that the activist is neurotic. This examination …

In this response to Leanh Nguyen’s paper, I ask whether psychoanalytic witnessing is a professional obligation or a moral imperative. Describing the increasing number of psychodynamic clinicians who take their psychoanalytic knowledge out of the traditional setting and apply it to a variety of situations that call for an active commitment to social justice and human rights, of which Dr. Nguyen is a prime example, I argue that as clinicians we are morally obligated to bear witness when an external …

Abstract: Objective: We conducted this study to detect the prevalence, incidence, and risk factors of hypertension in Taiwanese patients with major depressive disorder (MDD).Methods: The National Health Research Institute provided a database of 1,000,000 random subjects for study. We obtained a random sample of 766,427 subjects, aged ≥18years in 2005. Study subjects had at least one service claim during 2005 for either outpatient or inpatient care with a primary diagnosis of MDD or with a primary or secondary diagnosis of …

Abstract Psychosocial factors influencing behaviour play a central role in health research but seem under-explored in migration research. This is unfortunate because these factors, which include knowledge, attitudes, beliefs, intentions and personality traits, provide essential and potentially effective handles for linking migration and migrant-integration policies. We demonstrate that the health belief model (HBM) conceptualization of behavioural intentions contributes constructs that can further our understanding of migration intentions, thereby broadening the foundations for migration policies. We adapt the HBM to migration …

Two sets of concerns were expressed in commentary about Liu & Sibley’s (2012) article on self-sacrifice in the face of global warming. Statistical issues can be addressed with a better understanding of Multilevel Random Coefficient Models. We hold that in accord with the theory of planned behavior, it is more likely that beliefs about the importance of global warming predict intentions for willingness to make sacrifices rather than the reverse, and that given this presumed causal direction, the strength of …

Objective Theory of Mind (ToM) refers to the ability to understand the subjectivity of people’s intentions, desires, and beliefs. Research shows that ToM in deaf children is delayed, yet the few studies that examined ToM in deaf children with a cochlear implant (CI) report contradictory results. This study examined multiple aspects of ToM in early-implanted children. Methods 3 intention tasks were administered to 72 children with CI and 69 normal-hearing children (age, 12–60 months). Furthermore, 3 desire and belief tasks were administered to …

Abstract   Because women at single-sex colleges are constantly surrounded by other women with whom they can visually compare themselves, and because we believed that physical appearance-based social comparison would impact body ideals and self-objectification, we predicted that students at a women’s college would endorse thinner body ideals and display more self-objectification as compared to female students at a mixed-sex college, and that these differences would be especially prominent between upper grade level students. Surveys were completed by 175 undergraduate female …

Abstract   This study examined the relationship between clinically significant symptom change (rated by youth and parents), severity of client-defined primary presenting problems (i.e., Target Complaints), and perceived change in therapy. Participants were 117 adolescents receiving outpatient therapy and their parents. Participants completed the following measures at intake and 3 months into treatment: Ohio Scales, Target Complaints, and Perceived Change. Results indicate significant correspondence between clinically significant symptom change and other outcomes, offering preliminary evidence that global symptom measures represent change that …

In 2003 the New Opportunities Fund (NOF, now known as The Big Lottery) awarded £48 million to 70 home-based care teams to enable them to provide a range of services to allow children with non-malignant life-limiting conditions to be cared for at home. Four grants were made available in Bristol, North Somerset, South Gloucestershire and Bath and North East Somerset to enhance existing children’s palliative care services. As there is limited evidence about the impact of palliative care services on …

Abstract   The objective of this study was to compare mental health at 5 years in children born extremely preterm with a reference group, and assess associations between functional abilities and mental health within the preterm group. In a national Norwegian cohort with gestational age 22–27 weeks or birthweight 500–999 g, mental health was assessed with the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ), cognitive function with the Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence-Revised (WPPSI-R), motor function with the Movement Assessment Battery for children (ABC-test) …

Abstract Purpose – This article seeks to consider the links between emerging concepts of citizenship in the twenty-first century and the legitimization of this agenda by providing an overview of UK policy as it relates to adult protection as well as consideration of concepts of citizenship and the links between the two areas. Design/methodology/approach – The paper provides an overview of adult protection in the UK and then takes the reader through concepts of vulnerability and citizenship and considers the …

Abstract Purpose – This paper aims to describe the development and evaluation of a resource for use by practitioners to self-evaluate their policy and practice in relation to the Adult Support and Protection (Scotland) Act 2007. Design/methodology/approach – The self-evaluation resource was developed in the context of multi-agency adult protection policy and legislation to reflect key quality indicators relevant to stakeholders, the community, practitioners and their agencies. Findings – The quality indicators were selectively piloted by 15 of the 28 …

Abstract Purpose – This paper’s aim is to evaluate understanding and knowledge of the Adult Support and Protection (Scotland) Act 2007 in a sample of community nurses working in learning disability services in Scotland. Design/methodology/approach – Ten community nurses who worked in learning disability services in one NHS area were tested at two time points, four months apart using a questionnaire designed for this study by researchers and practitioners. Level of previous national training in the Adult Support and Protection …

Abstract Purpose – This article seeks to explore the difference that adult support and protection legislation may have made to work with adults at risk of harm in Scotland. Design/methodology/approach – The article is based upon findings of a joint academic and practitioner qualitative research project that interviewed 29 social service practitioners across three local authorities. Findings – The legislation was seen as positive, giving greater attention to adults at risk. Views about the actual difference it made to the …

Objective: This study investigated the relationship between motor performance and social-communicative impairment in children with ADHD-combined type (ADHD-CT). Method: An upper limb Fitts’ aiming task was used as a measure of motor performance and the Social Responsiveness Scale as a measure of social-communicative/autistic impairment in the following groups: ADHD-CT (n = 11) and typically developing (TD) controls (n = 10). Results: Children with ADHD-CT displayed greater variability in their movements, reflected in increased error variance over repeated aiming trials compared …

Objective: The nature of time-processing alterations in ADHD was assessed by means of duration judgments and temporal set-shifting tasks lasting several seconds and milliseconds. Method: After training with visual sample stimuli for long and short durations, 31 children with ADHD and 29 controls estimated the durations of test stimuli. During testing, the temporal context was systematically varied by shifting the duration of stimulus sets to longer or shorter intervals. Results: Children with ADHD generally overestimated the durations of stimuli on …

Objective: To investigate elementary school teachers’ baseline knowledge about ADHD and learning disorders (LD) and the impact of a strategy to increase awareness of these disorders. Method: A total of 37 teachers were selected from four elementary schools in the catchment area of the University Hospital, in Porto Alegre, Brazil. To evaluate teachers’ knowledge, two self-report questionnaires about ADHD and LD were applied before and after an awareness program on these disorders. Results: The intervention significantly increased teachers’ knowledge of …

International Journal of Social Research Methodology, Volume 0, Issue 0, Page 1-5, Ahead of Print.

Journal of Social Work Practice, Volume 0, Issue 0, Page 1-14, Ahead of Print.

Journal of Mental Health Research in Intellectual Disabilities, Volume 5, Issue 3-4, Page 236-245, July-December 2012.

Abstract   The abilities to form new concepts from scratch (conceptualisation), and to flexibly switch from one concept to another (re-conceptualisation), were investigated in adults with Asperger’s Syndrome and in typically-developed adults with low and high autism spectrum quotients. In consecutively presented morphs, containing increasing percentages of animate or inanimate objects, the emerging objects had to be identified. The abilities to conceptualise and reconceptualise became increasingly impaired with increasing autistic(-like) traits. Across both tasks, all groups recognised animate objects quicker than …

This study investigated the validity of the Post-School Outcomes Transition Survey (PSOTS). The PSOTS was designed to ascertain whether individuals who received special education services in secondary school have obtained postschool employment or have enrolled in postsecondary education or training within 1 to 2 years of exiting high school. The PSOTS also attempts to obtain continuous scores for transition program services provided to students while they were enrolled in secondary school. Two representative data sets of PSOTS respondents (Year 2004, …

The Council of Accreditation in Counseling and Related Educational Programs (2009) Standards emphasize the assessment of student learning outcomes (SLOs) regarding program-specific knowledge, skills, and practice. The skills and practice dimensions for each program’s standards may prove challenging for online and hybrid programs to assess, given that the ability to observe students’ counseling skills can be limited within a distance learning environment. Using one hybrid-based mental health counseling program’s as a case example, the authors provide recommendations for distance learning …

This study examines how probation officers’ (POs) knowledge of juveniles’ trauma influences probation practices. The study was conducted with POs who responded to a Web-based survey (n = 308). The POs were directed to randomly select one juvenile from their caseload and to complete the Probation Practices Assessment Survey to assess their knowledge of the youth’s lifetime trauma and past-year stressful life experience and their practice approaches. Nineteen percent of youths were reported as having had lifetime exposure to at least one …

The authors investigated the impact of organizational justice on social workers’ intention to leave Korean social service agencies. Specifically, this study concentrated on the moderating effect of organizational justice on the relationship between burnout and intention to leave. The authors surveyed 218 front-line social workers from 51 social welfare service centers in Korea. Data were collected from a sample of social workers indentified through a multistage cluster sampling process. The authors used a linear mixed model to analyze the multilevel …

Racial disparities in mental health outcomes have been widely documented in noninstitutionalized community psychiatric samples, but few studies have specifically examined the effects of race among individuals with the most severe mental illnesses. A sample of 925 individuals hospitalized for severe mental illness was followed for a year after hospital discharge to examine the presence of disparities in mental health outcomes between African American and white individuals diagnosed with a severe psychiatric condition. Results from a series of individual growth …

The purpose of this study was to investigate the frequency with which child protection workers (CPWs) in Ontario, Canada, seek information about animal cruelty during investigations of child maltreatment and the extent to which they consider information about animal cruelty when making decisions about whether intervention is required. The CPWs (N = 78) responded to an online survey about their experiences with animal cruelty during child protection investigations in the previous year. Few CPWs routinely asked questions about animal cruelty during investigations, …

Social work researchers often use variable-centered approaches such as regression and factor analysis. However, these methods do not capture important aspects of relationships that are often imbedded in the heterogeneity of samples. Latent class analysis (LCA) is one of several person-centered approaches that can capture heterogeneity within and between groups. This method is illustrated in the present study, in which LCA is used to explicate differences in symptomatology in a nonclinical, national representative sample of youths. Data (N = 14,738) from the …

This study examined the effects of organizational culture on staff members’ use of management information systems (N = 142) within homeless service organizations (N = 24), using a multilevel model. The Organizational Social Context Questionnaire was used to measure organizational culture, defined by three sub-constructs: (1) proficiency, (2) rigidity, and (3) resistance. Results showed that organizational effects were moderated by gender, with male staff members reporting increased use of the technology in organizations with higher proficiency levels. Female staff members’ use was not affected …

Background: Substance abuse among American Indians/Alaska Natives (AI/ANs) is a significant and long-standing health problem in the U.S. Two-thirds of American AIs/ANs reside in the urban setting. However, studies analyzing substance use characteristics among urban AI/ANs are very limited.  Methods:Substance use patterns among a sample of AI/ANs (n = 77) and other ethnic/racial groups in Los Angeles County at high risk of substance abuse were analyzed utilizing three datasets from programs targeting individuals at high risk for substance abuse and …

Previous research on gender effects in robots has largely ignored the role of facial cues. We fill this gap in the literature by experimentally investigating the effects of facial gender cues on stereotypical trait and application ascriptions to robots. As predicted, the short-haired male robot was perceived as more agentic than was the long-haired female robot, whereas the female robot was perceived as more communal than was the male counterpart. Analogously, stereotypically male tasks were perceived more suitable for the …

The study analyzed associations between actual weight status and weight perceptions with personal resources, physical and psychological health, as well as physical performance among adolescents (N = 5,518; age: 11–17 years). Analyses are based on data from the German Health Interview and Examination Survey for Children and Adolescents (KiGGS). Self-report measures, parental reports, as well as objective test data were considered. Results indicate that weight perceptions, rather than actual weight status, were associated with personal resources, health, and perceived physical performance. Comparing …

This paper reviews the history of the transition from the belief that gastrointestinal ulcers are caused primarily by psychological factors to the current state of belief that they are caused primarily by infection and argues that neither is fully accurate. We argue that psychological factors play a significant role as predisposing to vulnerability, modulating of precipitation, and sustaining of gastric ulceration. We review data that challenge the assumption of a simple infectious disease model and adduce recent preclinical data that …

Notes from the Editor-in-Chief

A consistent feature of effective healthcare delivery systems is a strong and well-integrated primary care sector. This paper presents a framework that describes the key elements of high-performing primary care and the supports required to attain it. The framework was developed by the Quality Improvement and Innovation Partnership in Ontario (now part of Health Quality Ontario) to guide the process of primary care transformation. The first section of this paper presents and describes the framework, the second proposes implementation strategies …