High Tech Counseling: Revisited

This article includes a discussion of technology's use in counseling. It contains reviews and implications of 4 articles that appeared in the Journal of Technology in Counseling (JTC) and provides a discussion of the future of technology in the counseling profession.     

Neuropsychological characteristics of children with the 22q11 Deletion Syndrome: a descriptive analysis.

Previous reports of cognitive functioning in children with the 22q11 Deletion Syndrome have reported marked variability in IQ and achievement subtest scores. Studies have begun to explore neuropsychological function in 22q11 DS however results are inconsistent and the profile incomplete. We assessed 40 children ages 5-12 with 22q11 DS. Consistent with past results, visual-spatial memory was significantly lower than verbal memory. Differentially lowered scores were found only in visual attention, working memory and motor function. Contrary with some past results quantitative, verbal ability, and visual spatial memory scores were within 1 SD from the standardization sample mean. Motor behavior, not typically discussed with regard to 22q11 DS school-age children, may be critical to incorporate in neurocognitive studies of children with 22q11 DS. Implications of these findings are considered with regard to past results.     

Dementia care‐giving in black and Asian populations: reviewing and refining the research agenda

Despite the increased prevalence of dementia little work has been done to explore the extent and nature of care‐giving in black or Asian‐UK populations. Evidence that does exist suggests that the consequences of care‐giving are significant but different from those experienced by white carers and are mediated by a number of culture‐related factors. These include: ethnically specific conceptualisations of dementia; expectations of family duty; religiosity; the adoption of positive re‐appraisal strategies, and beneficial outcomes. Present approaches to research are narrow, do not take account of cultural dimensions and employ terminology and care‐giving frameworks which are of limited relevance. That the evidence base is characterised by small‐scale studies, and weak methodology further undermines its validity. Research deficits are systemic and fundamental and are both conceptual and methodological. A key contribution would be the development of a multi‐dimensional theoretical model that takes account of the role played by culture, ethnicity and structural inequality in shaping care‐giving experiences and profiles. Incorporating the perspectives of black and Asian carers, and the influence of the life course of individuals and communities and employing qualitative methods would also influence the direction of research, improve its quality and generate knowledge in this underdeveloped field. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Widows, women, and the bioethics of care.

Widows, women, and the bioethics of care must be understood within an authentic Christian ontology of gender. Men are men and women are women, and their being is ontologically marked in difference. There is an ontology of gender with important implications for the role of women in the family and the Church. The Christian Church has traditionally recognized a role for widows, deaconesses, and female monastics, which is not that of the liturgical priesthood, but one with a special relationship to care and therefore with particular implications for health care and a Christian bioethics of care in the twenty-first century. In the shadow of early male mortality, women as wives should turn to support their husbands and as widows to support those in need. Widows, in becoming authentic Christian monastics, can bring into the world an icon of rightly ordered women providing rightly ordered Christian care for those in need. They can enter the moral vacuum created by misunderstandings of the place of women and the service vacuum created by a disappearance of religious nuns in Western health care facilities with a presence that is at one with the Church of the Fathers.     

Predicting Women's Intentions to Leave Abusive Relationships: An Application of the Theory of Planned Behavior1

A theoretically derived decision‐making model was applied to predict women's intentions to remain in or to terminate physically abusive relationships with male partners. Participants were 48 women residing in a shelter for battered women who responded to questionnaires assessing the components of the theory of planned behavior. Data provided support for the model. Specifically, women were found to have greater intentions to leave the relationships if they held positive attitudes toward leaving and believed they were in control of leaving the relationship. Normative beliefs were not predictive of intentions to leave. Empirically based suggestions for increasing the effectiveness of interventions are discussed.     

The mediating role of affective commitment in the relation of the feedback environment to work outcomes

The Feedback Environment, as opposed to the formal performance appraisal process, is comprised of the daily interactions between members of an organization (Steelman, Levy, & Snell, in press). Relations between the feedback environment and work outcome variables such as Organizational Citizenship Behavior (OCB) were examined through the mediating effects of affective commitment. Results indicate that affective commitment mediates the relation between the feedback environment and organizational citizenship behavior, and this mediated relation is stronger for OCBs directed at individuals than directed at the organization as a whole. Conclusions and implications are discussed.     

First‐time mothers in home visitation services utilizing child development specialists

Professionals in the field of child development were employed to provide home visitation services to 156 mothers and infants prenatally through the infants' first birthdays. Compared to a control group of mothers (n = 107), the intervention mothers utilized more community resources, had safer homes, had more appropriate developmental expectations, had better understanding of noncorporal punishment, and had behaviors that were more accepting and respectful to their infants. The home visitors were well educated, with experience in home visitation, and supervised. Program implementation procedures were documented and supervised. Program fidelity and the efficacy of using child development specialists as home visitors are discussed in regards to the positive findings. ©2004 Michigan Association for Infant Mental Health.     

State migrant-exporting schemes and their implications for the rise of Illicit migration: A comparison of Spain and the philippines

The purpose of this article is to explore the connection between state-sponsored exporting of labour and the rise in human smuggling and trafficking. The cases of Spain and the Phillippines are analysed. We delineate how and why each state engaged in labour export and what the corresponding ramifications have been. In the case of Spain, we examine the creation and operation of the Instituto Español de Emigración (Spanish Institute of Emigration) from 1956–1973. In the Philippine case we investigate the country’s “overseas employment program” instituted in 1974 under the Labour Code. This policy later evolved into the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA). In this study we use a historical comparative framework to demonstrate how state migrant exporting schemes can lead to the same outcome: illicit migration. Although we can make no definitive conclusions on the size and scope of state influence on illicit migration, we nonetheless find the conceptualization of states as possible agents for human smuggling or trafficking relevant in terms of theory generation and policy implications.