bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Attitudes among a Group of College Students toward Drug Abuse and the Drug Abuser
Authors: Ferneau E. , Mueller S.
Published: May 2005

As a reflection of the belief that only professionals are involved in the treatment of the addictions, especially drug abuse, the attitudes toward drug abuse and the drug abuser of other than those involved in treatment have hardly, we have found, been assessed. Students, in particular, would seem to be a reasonable target population for such an investigation. One study found students to be as ambivalent as the general population regarding alcoholism. Others have found different responding groups as ambivalent toward drug abuse as toward alcoholism. Utilizing the alcoholism questionnaire, we found college students to view alcoholism and drug abuse in an equally conflicting fashion. Other findings also seem to lead to the suggestion that educational programs dealing with these pathologies would probably be more effective if combined rather than separate.
Gender Differences in Self-Efficacy and Attitudes toward Computers
Authors: Busch Tor
Published: May 2005

This study is aimed to investigate gender differences regarding computer attitudes and perceived self-efficacy in the use of computers among 147 college students. At the end of a computer course, the students completed a questionnaire designed to measure self-efficacy, computer anxiety, computer liking, and computer confidence. The results revealed gender differences in perceived self-efficacy regarding completion of complex tasks in both word processing and spreadsheet software. No gender differences were found in computer attitudes or self-efficacy regarding simple computer tasks. Male students had previously had more computer experience in programming and computer games and reported that they had previously had more encouragement from parents and friends.
Observations of Empathy of Nursing-Home Staff: A Predictive Study
Authors: Pennington R. Elden , Pierce W. Lee , Kalish Richard A.
Published: May 2005

This study examines the power of seven demographic variables to predict the extent to which nursing-home staff offer empathy in their interactions with nursing-home residents. Behavioral observations, found to have rater-to-rater reliability, were utilized. Of the seven predictor variables (sex, age, employment status, length of work experience, education, type of institution, and occupational level), only the multiple r and work experience were found significant, although age came close to significance. Younger staff members with moderate lengths of experience were found the most empathic.
Student Retention is More Complicated Than Merely Keeping the Students You Have Today: Toward a “Seamless Retention Theory”
Authors: Burr Pat Lemay , Burr Richard M. , Novak Lorena F.
Published: May 2005

While student retention is often thought of as little more than keeping the students an institution already has enrolled, the authors propose that a true seamless retention effort is one that begins before students are enrolled and anticipates and identifies the needs of students as they enter into the educational system. Demographic trends that are changing the profile of the college student and his/her needs are discussed, and solutions offered for consideration within the U.S. higher education environment.
Effects on Students of Teacher Training in Use of a Drug Education Curriculum
Authors: Allison Kenneth R. , Silverman Gloria , Dignam Carol
Published: May 2005

The study reported here examines the effects of differential teacher training in use of a drug education curriculum on students' knowledge levels, problem-solving and coping skills, attitudes towards planned decision making, behavioral intentions and tobacco and alcohol use. An experimental design was used to compare the effects of exposure to teachers who had either intensive staff development, in-service training or no training. The findings indicate a statistically significant difference between groups of students on the intention to drink alcohol. Students whose teachers had intensive staff development were less likely to intend to take a drink if offered than students whose teachers had in-service or no training. Possible reasons for a lack of significant results on other variables are the confounding influences of school, classroom and teacher effects.
Negative Consequences of Alcohol Use among College Students: Victims or Victimizers?
Authors: Yu Jiang
Published: May 2005

Focusing on reciprocity between primary and secondary consequences resulting from alcohol use among college students, this study hypothesizes that college students should not be dichotomously viewed as those who generate alcohol-related negative consequences and those who suffer from the consequences generated by fellow students; instead, since students usually live closely together and most of them use alcohol, they constantly affect one another with consequences of their alcohol use. Five colleges in New York State were randomly selected for the study. The telephone interview method was employed to survey college students during the spring semester of 1998. Within each participating college, students were randomly selected through the use of complete student telephone directories provided by the college administration. A total of 813 students were interviewed. Findings indicate that negative consequences of alcohol use among college students may be understood more in a form of group process than in separate individual circumstances. Through association and interaction with other alcohol users, students are frequently victimizing fellow students and being victimized by others in terms of alcohol-related consequences; the severity of alcohol-related hazard for students, thus, tends to be twice as severe as that for individuals who are not in a college environment.
Learning to Live in a Therapeutic Community: A Study of Elderly Inpatients
Authors: Smyer Michael A. , Siegler Ilene C. , Gatz Margaret
Published: May 2005

Fifty-two elderly mental patients in a state hospital were transferred to a new milieu ward. In order to evaluate patient success in the unit, three outcome categories were defined nine months after the unit opened: discharge to the community, adjustment to the setting, and return to the previous ward. Despite the unit's emphasis on performance criteria for success, staff evaluations of the patients' personality, rather than the patients' achievement of the behavioral criteria, accounted for success in the setting.
Dimensions of Self-Report about Everyday Memory in Young and Older Adults
Authors: Erber Joan T. , Szuchman Lenore T. , Rothberg Sharon T.
Published: May 2005

This study investigated the relationship between several aspects of memory self-report, objective memory, attitude toward intellectual aging, self-rated health, and self-rated depression in young and older adults. Participants completed a self-report depression scale, and then rated their discomfort with eight categories of everyday forgetting and their attitudes toward intellectual aging. One week later, they rated how frequently they experience the same categories of forgetting, and then completed a battery of objective memory tests analogous to those categories. Ten days later, they rated their willingness to participate in both memory improvement classes and nonmemory classes. Older adults reported significantly more frequent failures but less discomfort with the failures than the young adults. Frequency, discomfort, and self-reported depression were all positively correlated in the older group, but not the young group. Young and old adults were equally positive about participating in memory classes, which both age groups preferred to nonmemory classes; the correlation between willingness to participate in memory classes and objective memory approached significance in the young, but not in the old. Attitude toward intellectual aging was correlated with frequency of and discomfort with forgetting in the older group.
Is Globalization Undermining the Welfare State? The Evolution of the Welfare State in Developed Capitalist Countries during the 1990s
Authors: Navarro Vicente , Schmitt John , Astudillo Javier
Published: May 2005

The authors analyze the evolution of macro-indicators of social and economic well-being during the 1990s in the majority of developed capitalist countries, grouped according to their dominant political traditions since the end of World War II. Their analysis shows that, despite the economic globalization of commerce and finance, “politics still matters” in explaining the evolution of the welfare states and labor markets in these countries; the impact of the globalization of financial capital in forcing reductions in the financial resources available for welfare state purposes has been exaggerated.
Investigating Health and Subjective Well-Being: Methodological Challenges
Authors: Light Richard J.
Published: May 2005

When three different forms of research reviews all reach the same conclusion, that health and subjective well-being have a modest positive correlation, the finding is convincing. Despite the consistent findings, different methods of reviewing research have different strengths. A meta-analysis emphasizes measures of central tendency. A narrative review, in contrast, can focus upon details in deviant findings. Using these methods together provides good information when aggregating findings from many studies.
Navigational Aids and Learner Control in Hypermedia Instructional Programs
Authors: Burke Patricia A. , Etnier Jennifer L. , Sullivan Howard J.
Published: May 2005

This study examined the effects of learner control and navigational aids on performance in a hypermedia instructional program. Results indicated that students who were permitted to move freely within the program and had access to navigational aids, interacted more with the program and this was associated with higher performance on the posttest. The findings revealed that students who had control over the sequence of their instruction deviated from a linear path significantly more often when provided with navigational aids such as those used in this study. Navigational aids may provide a structure that promotes more explanatory behavior or interaction for students under learner control conditions.
An Approach toward Quality Control of Workshops
Authors: Kim Sehwan
Published: May 2005

This study introduces a practical approach toward the quality control of workshops given in the field of drug abuse prevention and in community mental health settings. The evaluation instrument used is the Workshop Evaluation Questionnaire (WEQ) which probes into the following three issues: 1) respondents' overall reaction to the workshop; 2) the effectiveness of the workshop in generating learnings; and 3) the degree of application of the techniques the participants have learned to their environments.
Conflicting Ideologies: Simulating Significant Historical Human Decision Processes
Authors: Gerson Charles W.
Published: May 2005

Some would suggest teaching history is more the process of teaching the thoughts and actions of individuals than the conceptualization of events. The understanding of major changes in man's thinking, reflected in subsequent events, create a good foundation for the additional acquisition of factual knowledge. The intended result of this research was for the simulation user to develop a better insight into the actual thinking of significant historical personages. Two simulations were developed, one being the antithesis of the other, in order to represent both sides of the ideologies in conflict. The study was a formative small group evaluation (12 subjects) performed during the evaluation phase of the simulation instructional design. It is a proof of concept evaluation for the potential effectiveness of the computer model concept and not a formal quantitative statistical evaluation. A pre-post semantic differential was used to assess the user's impression of the simulated role profile. A simple experimental design was comprised of a series of two one group, pretest, experimental method, posttest configurations, each treated as independent treatments. A statistical analysis for the global assessment and for individual composite variable assessment of the semantic differential was performed using a T-test: Paired two samples for means method. An additional factor analysis test, an orthogonal rotation method (SPSS Quartimax), was used to further quantify specific profile items assessment changes. Some of the results were significant and suggest additional applications of the simulations, however, because of the small subject population used, no generalizations can be made based on this study.
Children and the Aged: Attitudes, Contact, and Discriminative Ability
Authors: Miller Shirley M. , Blalock Jan , Ginsburg Harvey J.
Published: May 2005

Attitudes toward older versus younger persons, age discrimination performance, and seriation ability were assessed in sixty-eight three- to six-year-old children. Children's contact with people over seventy was also examined. Children preferred young people over old people in all situations in the attitudinal portion of the study. A significant relationship was found between children's ability to discriminate old people from young people and their ability to order objects from tallest to shortest. Accuracy on these two tasks improved with age. Frequency of contact was not found to significantly affect attitudes toward the elderly or ability to discriminate older from younger people.
Seventeen Ways to Get Parents Involved in Substance Abuse Education
Authors: Laudeman Kent A.
Published: May 2005

Parents are encouraged to take a larger role in the prevention of chemical dependency in their children. Parent participation in support groups has been described as the new frontier and was encouraged in the recent national program entitled “Chemical People.” Those who are involved in education and group work need to be aware that there are four types of parents who may use resistance and denial before becoming involved in parent support groups. These parents are described as the “apathetic,” “burned-out,” “intimidated,” and the “resigned.” Seventeen strategies to involve these parents are offered for group leaders, trainers, and educators who work with parents and chemical dependency.
Evaluation of Infantilizing Intonation and Content of Speech Directed at the Aged
Authors: Whitbourne Susan Krauss , Culgin Sarah , Cassidy Erin
Published: May 2005

Infantilization was investigated in a sample of thirty-five elderly adults, both community residents ( N = 18) and residents of institutions ( N = 17). Respondents were presented with materials designed to elicit ratings of adult and infantilized speech content and intonation on the dimensions of “likeability,” “equality of treatment,” and “degree of respect.” Community and institutionalized elders rated adult speech in an equivalent fashion. However, community residents were more negative in their ratings of infantilizing speech content and intonation compared to their ratings of adult speech than were institutionalized elders. The negative regard that community elders had for infantilizing speech was particularly pronounced for intonation. Furthermore, community elders appeared particularly resentful of infantilizing speech intonation on the dimension of respect. There was no evidence to support the contention that infantilizing speech is high in nurturance. Adding to the findings of Ryan and co-workers, it appeared important to differentiate between infantilizing content and intonation, as the infantilizing intonation produced a more pronounced negative reaction than did infantilizing content among community elders.
Effect of Nursing Home Staff Training on Quality of Patient Survival
Authors: Linn Margaret W. , Linn Bernard S. , Stein Shayna , Stein Elliott M.
Published: May 2005

This study tests the effects of nursing home staff training in care for the dying on the quality of life of terminally ill patients. Ten matched community nursing homes were assigned randomly to experimental (training) or control (no training) conditions. Patients ( N = 306) admitted to the homes were assessed at admission, one month, and three months concerning quality of life as measured by depression, alienation, self-esteem, and locus of control. Satisfaction with care was also measured at one and three months. Patients in trained homes had less depression and greater satisfaction with care than patients in control homes at one and three months. Training effects were similar in all of the five homes. The study shows that a favorable impact on patient care can be achieved when staff in nursing homes are trained to work with dying patients.
Age Differences in Processing: Assessments of Depth, Elaboration and Encoding-Retrieval Compatibility with Multidimensional Scaling
Authors: Anooshian Linda J. , Samuelson Julie A.
Published: May 2005

Young, middle-age, and old adults ranked similarities of word pairs in a conditional rank-ordering task. Multidimensional scaling analyses of those similarity judgments provided measures of depth of processing (the kind of attribute dimensions considered in ranking similarities) and elaboration (the number of dimensions considered). Analyses of variance revealed an age-related decline in semantic processing but no such decline for elaboration. In recalling the words after the rank-ordering task, old adults' retrieval was less compatible with initial processing than was the case for younger adults, i.e., there was less correspondence between inter-word distances in recall and in the scaling solutions. The results confirmed the feasibility of multidimensional scaling methods for evaluating levels-of-processing issues.
Age Differences in the Nature and Origin of Individual Differences in Memory: A Behavior Genetic Analysis
Authors: Finkel Deborah , McGue Matt
Published: May 2005

Measures of memory performance and cognitive and lifestyle variables were obtained from 147 younger twin pairs (27 to 60 years) and 194 older twin pairs (60 to 94 years) as part of the Minnesota Twin Study of Adult Development and Aging. Correlational and behavior genetic analyses were combined to investigate age differences in 1) the relationship between memory performance and cognitive and lifestyle variables, 2) genetic and environmental influences on memory performance, and 3) genetic and environmental mediation of the relationship between memory and predictor variables. No age differences in heritability were found. Qualitative age differences in memory processes were suggested by age group differences in the correlations between memory and cognitive factors. Even though age differences in phenotypic correlations had been demonstrated, no age differences in the genetic and environmental mediation of the correlations were found. In other words, the magnitude of the correlation between memory and cognitive factors varied across age groups but the nature of the relationship did not.
Well-Being and Control in Older Persons: The Prediction of Well-Being from Control Measures
Authors: Smits Carolien H. M. , Deeg Dorly J. H. , Bosscher Ruud J.
Published: May 2005

The interrelation of six facets of control and their ability to predict well-being in older persons were studied in an age and gender stratified community sample aged fifty-five to eighty-nine. An extended conceptual framework of control facets is introduced including “established” facets, such as mastery, self-efficacy and internal health locus of control and “new” control facets such as neuroticism, social inadequacy, and sense of coherence. An interview and a postal questionnaire included measures of the control facets and the Affect Balance Scale. Correlations between control measures were mostly modest. Negative affect was predicted by neuroticism and sense of coherence. Tendencies of independent association of mastery with global well-being and of social inadequacy with positive affect were established.
Implementation and Evaluation of a Drug Education Program for a Pharmacy School Curriculum
Authors: Moore Steven R. , Hollandsworth James G.
Published: May 2005

As the result of a perceived need for some type of classroom attempt at approaching the subject of drug use in society, an interdisciplinary class was begun at the School of Pharmacy at the University of North Carolina. Using funding from Project SPEED, a NIDA contract with the Student American Pharmaceutical Association, and continuing then for a three year period, the program was able to substantiate both a significant change in the cognitive levels of knowledge about drugs and its effect in society, as well as significant changes in attitudes of students to that of a more accepting attitude toward drug users as well as greater desire for social change related to stereotypes and current social policy.
Drugs, Delinquency and “Nerds”: Are Loners Deviant?
Authors: Tolone William L. , Tieman Cheryl R.
Published: May 2005

Many studies have focused on the influence of peers on delinquency and drug use. But what about adolescents who are not part of the peer culture—the loners, or nerds? This study focuses on drug use, delinquency and lifestyle correlates of LONERS and SOCIALS. Data for a nine-year period (1976 through 1984) from the Monitoring the Future data set of high school seniors across the United States are analyzed. The lack of peer influence on the LONERS seems to contribute to less delinquency and drug use and more conventional lifestyle activities than is found among SOCIALS.
A Comparative Study of the Attitudes of Alcoholic Veterans and Nonalcoholic Veterans toward Child Rearing Practices and Family Life
Authors: Pease Barbara B. , Hurlbert David F.
Published: May 2005

To compare parental attitudes of alcoholics and nonalcoholics a parental attitude questionnaire (PARI-Q4) was administered to a stratified sample of alcoholic veterans in a VA alcohol treatment program and to nonalcoholic male veterans employed at the VAMC. The f-test was used to test equality between samples. Pearson's r was used to correlate for age on all scales. ANOVA methods were used to correlate race, social class, and fatherhood variables. Significant differences between the groups appeared on six scales, “Encouraging Verbalization,” “Avoiding Harsh Punishment,” “Encouraging Emotional Expression,” “Irresponsibility of Father,” “Inconsiderate-ness of Wife,” and “Tolerating Aggression.” No significant differences regarding fatherhood, race, age or social class were found. Since alcoholism was the only significant variable found in this study it points to the need for intervention through teaching parental skills to alcoholics to decrease the risk of their children becoming alcoholics.
Aging Opinion Survey: A Report on Instrument Development
Authors: Kafer Rudolph A. , Rakowskl William , Lachman Marjorie , Hickey Tom
Published: May 2005

Attitude instrument development remains a necessary task in aging research, for the eventual explication of attitude-behavior relationships. The present report describes initial development of the Aging Opinion Survey, an instrument based upon a multidimensional view of attitudes towards aging and the elderly. After identifying substantive attitudinal content areas, an initial 120—item pool was constructed, balanced across referent groups and direction of wording. Pilot analysis eliminated sixty items with minimal variances. Administration of the reduced item set to a subsequent sample of 200 gerontological practitioners and students produced four meaningful factors. Poor items were again eliminated and replacements constructed. Another administration (n=226) again produced four meaningful factors, three of which met the criterion of reliability: (1) Stereotypic age decrement, (2) Personal anxiety toward aging, and (3) Social value of the elderly. These scales appeared to reflect peer, personal, and generalized-elderly referents, respectively. Development and refinements of attitudes scales such as the Aging Opinion Survey are necessary elements for proceeding beyond the current theoretical and empirical difficulties in gerontological attitude literature.
Local Estimates of the Functionally Disabled Elderly: Toward a Planning Tool for Housing and Support Service Programs
Authors: Heumann Leonard F. , Lareau Leslie S.
Published: May 2005

In order to allocate housing and support service funds, local planners need to know the number of elderly at various levels of functional disability. When the levels of disability are sufficiently specific, the need for specialized housing and support services can be identified, the proper funding priorities can be established, and new support programs developed. Locally administered surveys to determine functional disabilities are cost prohibitive, so estimates using secondary data are often used. This paper describes research to improve the accuracy of synthetic estimates of elderly with functional disabilities while expanding the number of functional ability levels used to describe the, population.
Effects of Linking Structure and Cognitive Style on Students' Performance and Attitude in a Computer-Based Hypertext Environment
Authors: Lin Chi-Hui , Davidson-Shivers Gayle V.
Published: May 2005

The purpose of this study was to determine the implications of content organization and cognitive style with regard to the design of hypertext. Specifically, the study examined the effects of linking structure type and field-dependence and -independence on recall of verbal information, as well as attitudes toward instructional materials. Subjects were 139 undergraduate college students. Five hypertext-based instructional treatments using different linking strategies (linear, hierarchical, hierarchical-associative, associative, and random) with the same content (Chinese Politics) were created for five groups of subjects. Overall, the results of the study indicate that students with higher scores on the Group Embedded Figures Test (GEFT) test outperformed students with lower scores on the GEFT test on the performance posttest. Students tended to like hierarchical linking structures and hierarchical-associative linking structures more than linear structures and those who were more field independent had more positive attitudes than did students with lower scores on the GEFT test. In addition, students with lower field-dependency would have more positive attitudes when using less structured instruction, while students who are more field independent would prefer more structured instruction. Implication of these findings for hypertext design and directions for future research are discussed.
Conflicts between Commercial and Scientific Interests in Pharmaceutical Advertising for Medical Journals
Authors: Tsai Alexander C.
Published: May 2005

In 1992, researchers from the University of California, Los Angeles, published a study on the scientific merit and validity of pharmaceutical advertisements in medical journals. Their results led them to conclude, provocatively, that many pharmaceutical advertisements contained deficiencies in areas in which the U.S. Food and Drug Administration had established explicit standards of quality. This article provides a detailed account of third-party reactions to the study following its publication in the Annals of Internal Medicine, as well as the implications for those involved, including the authors, editors, and publisher. The increasingly diverging interests between medical journal editors and publishers are also discussed and highlighted by two recent cases of editors' departures from prominent general-interest medical journals.
Characteristics of Female College Student Drug Use
Authors: Traub Stuart H.
Published: May 2005

The purpose of this study was to focus attention on distinctive features of female college student drug use in general and marijuana use in particular. A basic assumption underlying this research was that with recent depolarization of many sex-typed role conceptions we can expect that many women will engage in behavior which previously was predominantly associated with males. The use of marijuana, as well as various other drugs, by women is one such area where this change may be occurring. The results indicate that the gap in marijuana useage patterns between females and males has substantially narrowed. Female marijuana users were also found to use other drugs quite extensively, to have a significant number of friends who use marijuana, and to increase thier use of other drugs after having first used marijuana. The findings also elaborate on factors perceived as influential among both users and nonusers in the decision to use, continue using, and discontinuing the use of marijuana.
Only the Bad Died Young in the Ancient Middle East
Authors: Arnett William S.
Published: May 2005

Biblical writers generally viewed old age as a reward for righteousness and piety. Consequently, they stressed the belief that the elderly were blessed and that they should be venerated. While life expectancy was usually below forty years, there are exceptional cases on record of individuals - men and women - living to advanced old ages. An analysis of these special few cases and a discussion of extra-Biblical texts shows that other ancient Middle Eastern societies held attitudes toward aging and the aged comparable to those expressed in the Hebrew Bible.
Evaluation of a Self-Development Approach to Drug Education: Some Mixed Results
Authors: Jackson Javon , Calsyn Robert J.
Published: May 2005

A fifty hour self-development approach to drug education which included values clarification, empathy training, drug information, with considerable peer interaction was evaluated by means of a true experiment. No differences were found between treatment and no-treatment groups in terms of drug usage, drug knowledge, and self-esteem. However, the treated group did develop more empathy skills. The results are used to emphasize the importance of clearly stating objectives and designing specific interventions for each objective.
Elderly Adults' Perception of Their Own Cognitive Development during the Adult Years
Authors: Williams Sharon A. , Denney Nancy Wadsworth , Schadler Margaret
Published: May 2005

Individuals between the ages of sixty-five and seventy-five were asked a number of questions regarding which of their cognitive abilities they think have changed with age and, further, what factors they think are responsible for such age changes. Questions were asked in two areas of cognitive functioning—memory and problem solving. With respect to memory, the reports of the elderly adults corresponded well with the results of memory research, which indicates that most memory abilities tend to decrease with increasing age. The elderly adults suggested that activity level, amount of contact with the information to be remembered, practice remembering, the perceived importance of the information to be remembered, and expectations regarding changes in memory are all factors that may contribute to age changes in memory. With respect to problem solving, on the other hand, the reports of the elderly did not correspond with the results of research. Research indicates that such abilities probably decline with increasing age while the elderly reported that they think that their problem-solving abilities have actually increased with age. Factors that were mentioned as possible causes of the reported increases in problem-solving ability were experience, good health, and taking more time to solve a problem.
Examining the Assumptive World Views of Parents Bereaved by Accident, Murder, and Illness
Authors: Matthews Laura T. , Marwit Samuel J.
Published: May 2005

The present study examines the impact of various types of loss on the assumptive world views of bereaved parents. The World Assumptions Scale (WAS) and the Revised Grief Experience Inventory were administered to 135 parents bereaved by homicide ( N = 64), accident ( N = 37), and illness ( N = 34), and to non-bereaved control parents ( N = 30). Bereaved parents held more negative views of the benevolence of the world and reported lower self-worth. No differences were found on the meaningfulness of the world dimension. Parents bereaved by unexpected deaths (homicides and accidents) demonstrated more negative views on benevolence than parents bereaved by expected deaths (illnesses). Parents bereaved by homicide demonstrated the lowest sense of self-worth. Parents bereaved by fatal illness demonstrated the most negative meaningfulness scores. WAS scores were highly predictive of grief intensity; the gender of the deceased child and amount of time elapsed since death were not. Results were compared to earlier findings, and clinical implications are discussed herein.
Are Aged Blacks Who Manifest Differences in Community Security Also Different in Coping Reactions?
Authors: Stretch John J.
Published: May 2005

Seventy-two aged Blacks, equally divided between those residing in a high-rise public housing project and those living in the community awaiting admission were interviewed to test the theory that differences in community security would predict differences in coping reactions. Data on perceived community security and reported medical, social and mental coping reactions were collected, using a simply and directly worded, precoded, stimulus-response instrument developed by the author. Respondents were assigned to either a high or to a low community security group by two methods: first, they were assigned a place of residence; next, they were assigned according to their obtained community security score.

Results in general supported the theory. Of the two empirical indicators of community security, however, larger differences in coping reaction scores were found in the high scoring and low scoring community security groups than in the high-rise and community groups.
Emergency Room Drug Abuse Treatment
Authors: Jacobs Phillip E.
Published: May 2005

The Long Island Jewish Hillside Medical Center recently received a National Institute on Drug Abuse grant to better serve addicts/abusers in the emergency room. After six months addicts/abusers appear to be receiving better care.

To understand the treatment of addicts/abusers in the emergency room it is necessary to understand that many emergency rooms are used as outpatient clinics and/or family doctors, and that overall many emergency rooms have seen their number of patient visits double in the past fifteen years.

As a consequence of this rapid rise emergency room staff make judgements concerning patients' social worth and appropriateness for treatment and vary their delivery of service accordingly. Triage category and source of referral are two ways emergency room staff operationally define appropriateness. “Contract referrals” are more likely to be seen as appropriate in the emergency room, holding triage category and social worth constant. Contract referrals may even be seen as appropriate when clearly non-emergency triage categories are involved.

Most addicts/abusers present at emergency rooms have non-emergent problems and are ranked low in terms of social worth. The improving care they received in this project may be related to the legitimacy bestowed upon them as a result of their contract status. As part of a governmentally funded project these patients may have in effect been defined as a new contract group. An important serendipitous outcome of governmentally funded emergency room drug abuse programs may be the change in perceived referral source for addicts/abusers presenting to the emergency room.
The Association of Positive and Negative Events with Depressive Symptomatology among Caregivers
Authors: Macera Caroline A. , Eaker Elaine D. , Jannarone Robert J. , Davis Dorothy R. , Stoskopf Carleen H.
Published: May 2005

A pilot study of eighty-two caregivers was conducted in South Carolina in 1991 to identify positive and negative factors associated with caregiving. Through home visits, interviewers obtained data on a variety of physical and mental health measures, including two new scales designed to measure perceived “positive” and “negative” events that had occurred in the previous month. The Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression scale was used as a measure of depressive symptomatology. For the new scales, only items that were significantly correlated with depressive symptomatology ( p < 0.01) were retained. The new “positive” event scale (8 items) and the new “negative” event scale (16 items) had alpha coefficients of 0.79 and 0.86, respectively. These scales may be useful to researchers in sorting out mediating factors related to the burden of caregiving and in providing points for intervention.
A History of Drug and Alcohol Block Grant Funding and its Effects on Pennsylvania's Prevention Services System
Authors: Brown Philip M.
Published: May 2005

The impact of the U.S. Government's block grant fiscal policy on the funding policies and program services in drug and alcohol abuse prevention are examined. A case history of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania's experience with block grant funding mandates is used to document the administrative and programmatic considerations affecting policy implementation at the state level. The conclusion is drawn that a strong, decentralized system with adequate management capability and regulatory structure was able to respond to the mandated changes and demonstrate increased prevention services delivery.
Multivariate Prediction of Cigarette Smoking among Children in Grades Six, Seven and Eight
Authors: Pederson Linda L. , Baskerville Jon C. , Lefcoe Neville M.
Published: May 2005

Cigarette smoking among the young has not declined in a manner similar to that in adults and is a cause for concern. While several studies have been carried out that demonstrate short-term effects of educational programs on the prevalence of youthful cigarette smoking, no longitudinal studies have been conducted with the goal of identifying characteristics associated with high-risk for smoking. The purpose of this study was to relate variables measured in 1975 to smoking status in 1978 using multivariate statistical procedures. Sociodemographic characteristics, smoking environment, school performance, attitude toward smoking and knowledge about the effects of smoking were included. Results were available for 1,082 children who were tested in 1975 in grades four through six and again in 1978 when they were in grades six through eight. Cross-sectional analysis of variables measured in 1978 revealed that six variables accounted for 37 per cent of the variance in smoking status using a multiple regression model. Five variables that were measured in 1975 in the longitudinal analysis accounted for 32 per cent of the variance in 1978 smoking status. The utility of these results for prediction and for development of educational programs is discussed.
Age Related Decline in Postural Control Mechanisms
Authors: Stelmach George E. , Teasdale Normand , Di Fabio Richard P. , Phillips Jim
Published: May 2005

In order to study voluntary and reflexive mechanisms of postural control, young and elderly persons were given large-fast and small-slow ankle-rotation postural disturbances while standing on a movable platform capable of measuring ground reaction forces. Large-fast rotations were employed to activate long-loop reflexes, and small-slow rotations were employed to tap the higher level sensory integration aspects of postural control. Overall, the elderly persons exhibited more perturbation induced sway and showed a slowing in voluntary, as opposed to reflexive mechanisms of correcting postural disturbance. For both age groups, reflexive mechanisms were found to be relatively intact. When small perturbations were given, the elderly persons swayed more than young participants and produced sporadic reflexive activity. Moreover, elderly persons did not adapt to the small perturbations and exhibited increased postural sway to repetitive presentation of the perturbation, whereas young participants substantially decreased their postural sway. These data demonstrate that elderly persons are at some disadvantage when posture is under the control of slower, higher level sensory integrative mechanisms.
Evaluating Skill Acquisition in Motivational Interviewing: The Development of an Instrument to Measure Practice Skills
Authors: Barsky Allan , Coleman Heather
Published: May 2005

Social work education has long emphasized the need to provide competence-based education. However, little work has been done to identify, validate and evaluate competencies in specific fields such as addictions. The purpose of this study was to isolate a set of substance abuse intervention competencies using Motivational Interviewing that could be used to teach and evaluate students. The research proceeded in three stages. First, a modified Delphi approach involving social work practitioners was used to discern a set of positive and dysfunctional skills related to Motivational Interviewing. The primary researcher taught a graduate social work class aimed at teaching students theory and skills related to this model. Students demonstrated these skills with simulated clients through videotaped interviews. Finally, three observers rated the student interviews using this developed instrument. While inter-observer agreement was lower than anticipated, this study does provide early support for the development of competencies related to specific theoretical frameworks.
Drug Abuse: A Problem of Socialization
Authors: Simmonds Robert M.
Published: May 2005

The sixties found drugs promulgated throughout our social structure and institutions, e.g., school systems. The alarming awareness of drugs infiltrating our elementary schools and affecting the lives of eight and nine year old juveniles has resulted in public rage and condemnation. Society cannot rid itself of drugs by ignoring the problem, nor will public hysteria or haphazard programs provide a panacea for the problem of drugs. If society is to deal effectively with drug abuse among juveniles and young adults, we must understand underlying causal factors (i.e., learned behavior) and construct viable alternatives which are antithetical to drug attitudes.
Analyses of Raters Judgement of Drug Items Communicated by Teenaged Interviewees to Teenaged and Adult Interviewers
Authors: Bell Edward V.
Published: May 2005

This paper discusses the analyses of raters judgement of drug items communicated by teenaged interviewees to teenaged and adult interviewers. The subjects were teenagers residing in East, Central and West Harlem, New York. A pool of 298 tapes of interviews was gathered from which sixty tapes were randomly selected using a table of random numbers. Thirty tapes were from the teenaged interviewers and thirty tapes were from the adult interviewers. The types of explanations used by teenagers for drug use or non-use included ten categories established by the investigator. A panel of two raters and the researcher analyzed the tapes. The raters and the researcher's judgement in establishing the reliability of the value of judgement were calculated by the statistical analyses, coefficient of reproducibility and the standard error of difference to determine the extent of agreement or disagreement.
Upper Primary Students Constructing and Exploring Three Dimensional Shapes: A Comparison of Virtual Reality with Card Nets
Authors: Ainge David J.
Published: May 2005

A grade six/seven class which constructed and explored 3D shapes worlds with the VREAM program was compared with a grade five/six/seven control group which constructed and examined shapes from card nets. Students were tested on visualizing appearance of shapes from alternative viewpoints, recognition of shapes in the environment, and writing shape names, before and after the learning phase. Ease of using Virtual Reality (VR), and student engagement with VR were observed informally. VR had little impact on shape visualization and name writing, but strongly enhanced recognition. Students had no major difficulty in using the VREAM program, and enthusiasm for VR was unanimous and sustained.
Relationships between Sleep and Retirement—Nonretirement Status
Authors: Webb Wilse B. , Aber W. Robert
Published: May 2005

Two-week sleep diaries and four consecutive nights of laboratory recordings were obtained from a sample of forty (17 males, 23 females) fifty- to seventy-year-old people. Participants were drawn from the same work pool and were divided into age matched retired-employed subsamples. Twenty-nine measures of EEG sleep structure were analyzed using two-way (sex-by-employment status) ANOVA. There were no significant main effects associated with employment status. Sleep pattern measures derived from two-week diaries were analyzed using two-way ANOVA. The two significant work status main effects indicated that retirees spend more time sleeping on weekday nights than employed peers, and that employed participants had later bed times on weekend nights than retirees. The one significant interaction indicated that employed males slept for significantly less time on weekend nights than retired males. There were indications that retirement status decreased the frequency of napping, which may result from their more extended night time sleep period.
Making a Connection between Computational Modeling and Educational Research
Authors: Carbonaro Michael
Published: May 2005

Bruner, Goodnow, and Austin's (1956) research on concept development is re-examined from a connectionist perspective. A neural network was constructed which associates positive and negative instances of a concept with their corresponding attribute values. Two methods were used to help preserve the ecological validity of the input: 1) closely mapping the input to the actual visual stimuli; and 2) structuring the output layer based on Gagne's (1962, 1985) work on human concept learning. This resulted in the addition of output units referred to as attribute context constraints. These units required the network to demonstrate the identification of attributes both relevant and irrelevant to the task of classification. Results suggest that the simultaneous learning of attributes guided the network in constructing a faster and more generalizable representation than when attribute constraints were absent. Results are discussed with respect to the advantages of computational approaches to studying learning.
Widowhood in Elderly Women: Exploring its Relationship to Community Integration, Hassles, Stress, Social Support, and Social Support Seeking
Authors: Pellman Julie
Published: May 2005

This study examined the degree to which widows were integrated in their community, the daily hassles and stress they may have experienced, and their social networks and support-seeking behavior. A sample of 160 women, sixty years of age or older, eighty widows and eighty non-widows were interviewed. Half the sample participated in senior centers in Kansas City, Missouri, while the other half belonged to other organizations or were obtained through a truncated snowball technique. The findings indicated that widowhood in and of itself does not appear to be a predictor either of community integration or the lack of it or the experience of stress and hassles. Those who experienced hassles were not the same persons as those who experienced stress. It was surprising to find that those who sought social support did not seem most in need of it. Age and education, along with community integration, were better predictors of the variables studied than was widowhood.
Lessons Learned: The Evaluation of a Drug Education Program
Authors: Royse David , Keller Stephen , Schwartz James L.
Published: May 2005

In an evaluation of a mass drug education program involving over 1,000 students, a mental health funding body in southwestern Ohio learned a number of lessons which should prove useful to anyone engaging in, or planning to engage in, evaluations of drug education programs. Problems such as instrument selection, logistical constraints and data analysis are discussed. Suggestions are given as to how the present study could have been improved and recommendations for future evaluations are made.