Unholy Alliances: Religion, Science, and Environment

Christianity's relationship with the environment is considered. From the seventeenth century, Christianity contributed to the legitimization of scientific developments that had injurious consequences for the environment. These developments were secularizing; hence the ecological crisis participates in the broader problems of secularization. Under secular hegemony, the normative model of the person as atomistic individual is integral to the problem itself as well as bereft of the spiritual resources to challenge abusive attitudes that profane God's creation. This paper proposes that responses to the ecological situation should be sought in a richer understanding of the human being: an anthropology that is not only part of the Christian legacy but also offered by contemporary sociobiology.     

Substance Abuse in Middle Eastern Adolescents Living in Two Different Countries: Spiritual,Cultural, Family and Personal Factors

It is estimated that the percentage of students using illicit substances by sixth grade has tripled over the last decade not only in developed countries but in developing countries as well probably due to the transition to a more Western society. Although much has been done to understand the mechanisms underlying substance abuse, few studies have been conducted with minority ethnic and religious groups such as Middle Eastern Youth. The primary goal of this study was to determine whether there are differences in factors contributing to substance abuse in adolescents from Lebanon versus the USA and to decipher the role of spirituality, religion, and culture among other factors that may influence substance abuse. A correlational cross-sectional design was used with adolescents living in two different countries: Los Angeles, California and Beirut, Lebanon. Muslim adolescents had significantly less rates of alcohol and substance use than Christians in both Lebanon and Los Angeles. More years lived in the USA increases the likelihood of abuse for both Muslims and Christians. Attachment to God and family was negatively associated with substance abuse. These results among others facilitate a better understanding of the influence of culture, religion, family and personal factors on substance abuse. Culturally sensitive interventions could benefit from the findings of this pilot study.     

An Ethical Decision‐Making Model to Determine Authorship Credit in Published Faculty–Student Collaborations

Publishing research is imperative to both counselor educators and students in counseling programs. Furthermore, faculty–student publication collaborations can often be a mutually beneficial professional endeavor. However, determining order of authorship can be a complex ethical issue. The authors review prior research to illustrate the complexities of authorship and suggest a decision‐making model and considerations for preventing and resolving these ethical dilemmas. Implications for counselors include future research studies on complex issues regarding authorship of faculty–student collaborations, future incidence studies investigating occurrence of ethics violations, and incorporation of publication ethics into course work in counselor education programs.     

Service Coordination and Children’s Functioning in a School-Based Intensive Mental Health Program

Coordination of mental health services in children with serious emotional disturbance (SED) has shown a preliminary relationship to positive outcomes in children. Yet, research in this area is sparse. Therefore, the relation between service coordination activities and adaptive functioning was examined for 51 children SED who were treated in the school-based Intensive Mental Health Program for elementary school students (IMHP; average treatment length was 12?months; mean age 9.37 at intake). Systematic review of detailed case records identified 16,669 episodes of service coordination that could be coded reliably for frequency, quality, and purpose (planning, linking, monitoring) of the service coordination component. Adaptive functioning was measured by Child and Adolescent Functional Assessment Scale (CAFAS) ratings and daily points earned on the behavior management system of the IMHP at intake, 6, 12?months, and discharge. Findings indicated that the frequency, quality, and purpose of the service coordination component varied from case to case and by time in treatment. Although service coordination activities overall decreased as treatment progressed, concentrated high quality service coordination (measured by frequency, quality, and component of service coordination) consistently predicted improved functioning on both CAFAS ratings and daily points earned. Results have both practice and policy implications for training interagency teams and clinicians on when and how to optimally coordinate services.     

Workplace Perceptions of Veterans and Nonveterans in the Department of Veterans Affairs

Much has been written about veterans and their reintegration into civilian society, but little or no information is available about veterans’ workplace perceptions and how these might differ from those of nonveterans. The authors compared veterans’ and nonveterans’ attitudes about work (including job satisfaction aspects, perceptions of coworker interactions, supervisory support, and others) in the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) based on responses to the organizational census, VA All Employee Survey (AES; N = 179,271). Based on differences in crude (unadjusted, but controlling for location) item odds ratios (range 0.65–1.08), compared to nonveterans, veterans scored modestly lower on most AES items. The authors show how controlling for demographics changes the relative size and, in some cases, the direction of the differences. This current study is 1 of only 2, to our knowledge, large-scale assessments of veterans’ workplace perceptions and the only 1 which controlled the results for demographic characteristics.     

Family Influences on the Long Term Post-Disaster Recovery of Puerto Rican Youth

This study focused on characteristics of the family environment that may mediate the relationship between disaster exposure and the presence of symptoms that met DSM-IV diagnostic criteria for symptom count and duration for an internalizing disorder in children and youth. We also explored how parental history of mental health problems may moderate this mediational model. Approximately 18 months after Hurricane Georges hit Puerto Rico in 1998, participants were randomly selected based on a probability household sample using 1990 US Census block groups. Caregivers and children (N?=?1,886 dyads) were interviewed with the Diagnostic Interview Schedule for Children and other questionnaires in Spanish. Areas of the family environment assessed include parent-child relationship quality, parent-child involvement, parental monitoring, discipline, parents’ relationship quality and parental mental health. SEM models were estimated for parents and children, and by age group. For children (4–10 years old), parenting variables were related to internalizing psychopathology, but did not mediate the exposure-psychopathology relationship. Exposure had a direct relationship to internalizing psychopathology. For youth (11–17 years old), some parenting variables attenuated the relation between exposure and internalizing psychopathology. Family environment factors may play a mediational role in psychopathology post-disaster among youth, compared to an additive role for children. Hurricane exposure had a significant relation to family environment for families without parental history of mental health problems, but no influence for families with a parental history of mental health problems.     

Play Therapy in Elementary Schools: A Best Practice for Improving Academic Achievement

This pilot study of 1st graders who are academically at risk examined the effectiveness of child‐centered play therapy (CCPT). The experimental group received biweekly, 30‐minute play therapy sessions for 8 weeks. Findings indicated that these 1st graders participating in CCPT (n = 21) demonstrated a statistically significant increase on the Early Achievement Composite of the Young Children's Achievement Test (Hresko, Peak, Herron, & Bridges, 2000) when compared with children in the control group (n = 20). Results support using CCPT as an intervention for academic achievement.     

Research in Counseling: A 10‐Year Review to Inform Practice

This study reviewed 4,457 articles from 1998 to 2007 in American Counseling Association division‐affiliated journals to identify research articles published in counseling; 1,139 articles (25.6%) were quantitatively research based. The authors provide details related to quantitative research publications, including individual journal contribution to the research base, focus areas for research, and independent and dependent variables highlighted by researchers. One summary finding was that only 6% of counseling research articles explored effectiveness of counseling interventions.     

Impact of play therapy on parent-child relationship stress at a mental health training setting

This study investigated the impact of Child-Centred Play Therapy (CCPT)/Non-Directive Play Therapy on parent-child relationship stress using archival data from 202 child clients divided into clinical behavioural groups over 3-74 sessions in a mental health training setting. Results demonstrated significant differences between pre and post testing on the Parenting Stress Index. CCPT appeared to be especially effective with children identified with clinical externalising behavioural problems, combined externalising and internalising behavioural problems, and children who were not categorised with clinical problem behaviours but whose parents sought counselling services for them. There were also significant differences determined by length of therapy. Results are discussed concerning implications for clinical practice and further research.     

Outcomes and Findings of Program Evaluation for the Intensive Mental Health Program

We describe changes in adaptive functioning for children enrolled in the Intensive Mental Health Program (IMHP), an innovative model for serving children with the most severe forms of SED. Most children show marked improvements in multiple indicators of role performance and symptomatology. Although a high risk, high need group, most children attended school regularly and lived with a stable caregiver at discharge.