Seven years of the Journal: a review

This article reviews the contents of volumes 41 to 47 (1962 through 1969) of the Personnel and Guidance Journal, focusing on its composition, its authors, and several aspects of its articles such as methodology, setting, and contents. Relative emphases and trends are also identified and discussed.     

Toward a Better Understanding of Psychological Well‐Being in Dementia Caregivers: The Link Between Marital Communication and Depression

To read this article's abstract in both Spanish and Mandarin Chinese, please visit the article's full‐text page on Wiley InterScience ( http://interscience.wiley.com/journal/famp ). Dementia research has frequently documented high rates of caregiver depression and distress in spouses providing care for a partner suffering from dementia. However, the role of marital communication in understanding caregiver distress has not been examined sufficiently. Studies with healthy couples demonstrated an association between marital communication and the partners' psychological well‐being, depressiveness, respectively (e.g., Heene, Buysee, & Van Oost, 2005 ). The current study investigates the relationship between caregiver depression and communication in 37 couples in which the wives care for their partners with dementia. Nonsequential and sequential analyses revealed significant correlations between caregiver depression and marital communication quality. Caregivers whose husbands used more positive communication reported less depression and distress. Additionally, caregiver depression was negatively correlated with rates of positive reciprocal communication indicating dependence between the couples' interaction patterns. This study is one of the first to illustrate the relevance of spousal communication in understanding caregiver distress and depression.     

The Integral Place of Religion in the Lives of Rural African–American Women Who Use Cocaine

To understand the culture of rural African–American women who use cocaine, ethnographic research was conducted in rural North Central Florida using in-depth interviews and participant observations with 30 respondents. Fourteen major themes emerged from the data; however, this paper focuses on one theme, that of religion. Nine sub-themes about religion and spirituality emerged. Religion was viewed as a personal relationship with God, which is not dependent on socializing with other church members, but was helpful in sustaining the respondents. While religiosity was a stable and consistent place in the respondents’ lives and some relied on their faith in God to replace their addiction, faith was not uniformly utilized by all respondents in this manner. Religiosity among African–American women who use cocaine cannot solely overcome the lack of drug treatment or treatment options and the stigma associated with drug use although it maybe a resiliency factor, which warrant promoting.Dr. Emma J. Brown, Ph.D., A.P.R.N., B.C., F.A.A.N., is an associate professor at the University of Central Florida in the School of Nursing. Dr. Brown’s primary area of research is STD/HIV prevention intervention among rural adolescents, women of color, and individuals who ab(use) illegal drugs. Dr. Brown’s secondary area of research is drug ab(use) prevention interventions among rural populations.