Addressing social determinants of health: Supporting ex-offenders’ employment through use of the Systems Theory Framework

There remains a need for counselors well-prepared to work with ex-offenders. As counselors aim to meet ethical obligations toward advocacy, they often seek to address social determinants of health (SDOH) challenges. Those working with ex-offenders should be aware of unique employment challenges ex-offenders may face and possess a baseline knowledge of the justice system for pertinent collaboration. This paper provides an explanation of how the Systems Theory Framework may be used to address ex-offenders’ employment-related needs through addressing SDOH challenges and collaborating with the justice system. Implications for employment counselors, counselor educators, and supervisors and steps for future research conclude.     

Adolescents' family obligation and activities in rural and urban Vietnam: Implications for social change

This study examined how urbanisation may modify adolescents' values and activities concerning family obligation by surveying 572 adolescents (M_age = 15.75, SD = .73) in rural and urban Vietnam. Compared with their rural peers, urban adolescents reported a stronger sense of family obligation but spent less time actually engaging in family assistance, findings that were partly explained by urban households' less financial hardship and higher parental education levels. As expected, stronger family obligation values were associated with greater family assistance activities across rural and urban Vietnam. However, stronger family obligation values were associated with more study hours only in urban Vietnam, indicating that urbanisation may broaden the meaning of family obligation to encompass the academic domain. Additionally, weaker family obligation values were associated with more employment hours only in rural Vietnam, suggesting that rural adolescents with little attachment to the traditional value of family obligation may pursue autonomy through employment outside the home. In traditionally familistic societies undergoing urbanisation, family obligation may take on different meaning depending on adolescents' ecological settings that construct cultural values and behavioural norms.     

Differential validity of the Defense Mechanism Manual for the TAT between Asian Americans and Whites. Thematic Apperception Test

Thematic Apperception Test (Murray, 1943) responses of 69 Asian American (hereafter, Asian) and 83 White students were coded for defenses according to the Defense Mechanism Manual (Cramer, 1991b) and studied for differential validity in predicting paper-and-pencil measures of relevant constructs. Three tests for differential validity were used: (a) differences between validity coefficients, (b) interactions between predictor and ethnicity in criterion prediction, and (c) differences between groups in mean prediction errors using a common regression equation. Modest differential validity was found. It was surprising that the DMM scales were slightly stronger predictors of their criteria among Asians than among Whites and when a common predictor was used, desirable criteria were overpredicted for Asians, whereas undesirable ones were overpredicted for Whites. The results were not affected by acculturation level or English vocabulary among the Asians.     

How do generic statements impact performance? Evidence for entity beliefs

Generic statements about the abilities of children's social groups (e.g. ‘Girls/Boys are good at this game’) negatively impact children's performance – even if the statements are favorable towards children's own social groups. We explored the mechanism by which generic language impairs children's performance. Across three studies, our findings suggest that generic statements influence children's performance by creating an entity belief (i.e. a belief that a fixed ability determines performance). Children who were exposed to a generic statement about their social group's ability performed worse than children in control conditions. This effect hurt children's performance even when the person who made the generic statement was no longer present and a new person not privy to the statement replaced them. However, when children heard a generic statement paired with an effort explanation (i.e. ‘Girls/Boys are good at this game because they try really hard when they draw’) they performed better than children who heard the generic statement with no explanation (i.e. just ‘Girls/Boys are good at this game’) and children who heard the generic statement paired with a trait explanation (i.e. ‘Girls/Boys are good at this game because they are smart and really good at drawing’). This work uncovers when and how generic statements that refer to the ability of one's social group hinder performance, informing the development of practices to improve student motivation and learning.     

Aging and medical adherence: the use of automatic processes to achieve effortful things

This research examined whether forming detailed implementation plans for achieving a goal improved older adults' adherence to a health behavior. Nondiabetic participants (N = 31) rehearsed, deliberated, or formed implementation intentions to perform home blood glucose monitoring, 4 times daily for 3 weeks. The implementation group performed tests nearly 50% more often than the 2 comparison groups. Results were not attributable to a priori differences in intentions to perform testing. Findings indicate that implementation intentions can facilitate older adults' performance of important medical self-care tasks in naturalistic settings over sustained periods of time and concur with previous research that implicates automatic cognitive processes that do not show age-related decline. These results support the utility of this technique for improving adherence to health behaviors in clinical populations.     

Implicit Attitudes Toward Arab-Muslims and the Moderating Effects of Social Information

Three studies examined the relative valence and strength of implicit attitudes toward Arab-Muslims using the Implicit Association Test (IAT) while exploring the moderation of such implicit effects. Studies have suggested that repeated exposure to information associating members of a social group (e.g., Arab-Muslims) with evaluative attributes (e.g., terrorism) might create automatic attitudes toward them. Consistent with this notion, the IAT results indicated strong implicit preference for White over Arab-Muslim, whereas the magnitude of such a bias was substantially diminished when assessed by explicit measures (Study 1). It is also interesting to note that participants exhibited implicit preference for Black over Arab-Muslim when measured by the IAT, whereas no difference was found between the 2 groups in stimulus familiarity and in explicit attitudes (Studies 2 and 3). However, such implicit effects were moderated when participants were exposed to positive information about Arab-Muslims (Study 3). Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are further discussed.     

Seclusion rates and patient census in a maximum security hospital

Seclusion incidents were studied irr an undercrowded maximum security hospital where seclusion is used in response to episodes of violent or disruptive behavior. Population-based seclusion rates for days with an above-mean census were compared with those for days with a below-mean census. Contrary to expectations derived from studies of overcrowded prisons, the total seclusion rate was higher under low census conditions. Although the seclusion rate for parasuicide incidents was higher under high census conditions, seclusion rates for battery, assault, and disorderly conduct incidents were each higher under low census conditions. These findings are interpreted as indicating that correctional officers observe a smaller proportion of battery, assault, and disorderly conduct incidents under high census conditions. Such underdetection must be taken into account, along with underreporting, in studies of intrainstitutional incidents.