Quality of Relationships Between Youth and Community Service Providers: Reliability and Validity of the Trusting Relationship Questionnaire

We examined the factor structure and psychometric properties of the Trusting Relationship Questionnaire, a brief measure of relationship quality between youth and community-based service providers involved in their care. Data on youth residing in Therapeutic Foster Care and in Group Homes (N = 296) were collected. We identified a one-factor solution for the child version of the measure and a two-factor structure for the adult version: child's perception of the relationship and adult's perception of the relationship. Both versions appear to be highly reliable and possess adequate levels of construct, criterion, and discriminative validity. While no statistically significant age differences were noted on the parent version, on the child version, older youth were more likely to report lower relationship scores. Gender differences were found on both versions: Female youth reported higher scores on the child version as did adults reporters of relationships with female youth, but only for the first factor—child's perception of the relationship. Overall, the TRQ appears to capture the quality of the relationship between service providers and youth in their care, thus bridging a gap in assessment measures.     

Using the Theory of Gender and Power to Examine Experiences of Partner Violence,Sexual Negotiation,and Risk of HIV/AIDS Among Economically Disadvantaged Women in Southern India

This article uses the Theory of Gender and Power to examine women's vulnerability to HIV/AIDS in order to: understand the vulnerability of female sex workers/poor women due to poverty and lack of educational resources; explore women's vulnerability in the context of client/partner violence, alcohol use, male partner's high-risk behaviors, and women's lack of control in their intimate relationships; and explore the role of traditional heterosexual gender norms in the outcomes of sexual negotiation. Ethnographic data were collected from 32 women and 38 men in India as part of an ongoing National Institute of Mental Health study. Results highlighted women's vulnerability to HIV/AIDS stemming from partner violence, alcohol use, poverty, dangers of sex work environments, and tacit acceptance of cultural/gender norms.