Addressing Privilege and Oppression in Counselor Training and Practice: A Qualitative Analysis

This qualitative study explored how 16 counselors conceptualize and address issues of privilege and oppression in the counseling session as well as how they perceive their training with respect to these constructs. In an effort to bridge multicultural training and counselor practice, implications for counselor training are provided based on the clinical and academic experiences counselors reported. Additionally, future research directions are included.     

Clamped Corticosterone (B) Reveals the Effect of Endogenous B on Both Facilitated Responsivity to Acute Restraint and Metabolic Responses to Chronic Stress

To determine the effects of both corticosterone (B) and chronic stressors on acute ACTH responses to restraint, young male rats were exposed to streptozotocin-induced diabetes, cold (5-7 degreesC) or intracerebroventricular (icv) neuropeptide Y (NPY) for 5 d and then exposed to restraint within 2 h after lights on. Two groups of rats were studied: intact and adrenalectomized replaced with B pellets that maintained plasma B in the normal mean 24-h range of intact rats. In addition to ACTH and B responses to restraint on d 5, body weight, food intake, fat depots, glucose and other hormones were measured to determine the role of stress-induced elevations in B on energy balance. ACTH responses to restraint were normal in intact rats subjected to diabetes or cold. By contrast, there was no ACTH or B response to restraint in NPY-infused intact rats. All 3 groups of chronically stimulated adrenalectomized rats with clamped B had facilitated ACTH responses to restraint compared to their treatment controls. Overall food intake increased in all groups of stressed rats; however, augmented intake occurred only during the light in intact rats and equally in the light and dark in B-clamped rats. White adipose depot weights were decreased by both diabetes and cold and increased by NPY in intact rats; the decreases with cold and increases with NPY were both blunted and changes in fat stores were not significant in adrenalectomized, B-clamped rats. We conclude that: 1. diabetes- and cold-induced facilitation of restraint-induced afferent input to hypothalamic control of the hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis is opposed in intact rats by the elevated feedback signal of B secretion; 2. NPY does not induce facilitation of afferent stress pathways; 3. chronic stimulation of the HPA axis induces acute hyperresponsiveness of hypothalamic neurons to restraint provided that the afferent input of this acute stimulus is not prevented by B feedback; 4. stimulus-induced elevations in B secretion result in day-time feeding; 5. insensitivity of both caloric efficiency and white fat stores to chronic stress in adrenalectomized, B-clamped rats results from loss of normally variable B levels.     

How Generalizable Are Adolescents' Beliefs About Pro-Drug Pressures and Resistance Self-Efficacy?1

Based on three waves of data from 1261 adolescents, this study examines the nature of resistance self-efficacy vis-a-vis different drugs and social situations, as well as its relationship to perceived pressure to use drugs. We found that both self-efficacy and perceived pressure to use drugs appear to be generalizable across substances (alcohol, cigarettes, and marijuana), but adolescents do tend to distinguish between their capacity to resist drugs in different social situations. Adolescents also discriminate between how much pressure they feel and their ability to resist that pressure, but the great majority report lower levels of self-efficacy in higher pressure situations. This relationship is strongest for alcohol and weakest for marijuana. These results suggest the following implications for prevention programs: (a) adolescents can be taught to resist one or more of the commonly used drugs with a reasonable expectation that the skills will generalize to other drugs; (b) resistance self-efficacy learned in one situation can be expected to have some generalizability to other situations, but it may be important to link resistance training with a range of situations to insure the greatest effectiveness; (c) to be maximally effective, prevention programs may need to help adolescents reduce the amount of pressure experienced as well as develop resistance skills; such efforts are likely to be particularly important for situations involving alcohol.     

A Review of Spiritual and Religious Measures in Nursing Research Journals: 1995--1999

Background: A series of systematic reviews has revealed relatively high levels of interest in religion and spirituality in different nursing specialties, but not in general nursing research journals. Purpose: To identify the extent to which spirituality and religiousness were measured in all quantitative and qualitative research articles published in Research in Nursing and Health, Nursing Research, Advances in Nursing Science (ANS), and Image: The Journal of Nursing Scholarship from 1995 to 1999. Methods: A full-text search was conducted of ANS and Image using the Ovid search system. Nursing Research and Research in Nursing and Health were hand searched for spiritual/religious measures. Characteristics of selected studies, the measures taken, and their uses were coded for data analysis. Results: A total of 564 research studies were identified, of which 67 (11.9%) included at least one measure of spirituality or religiousness. A significant difference was found between the percentage of qualitative and quantitative studies that contained measures of these concepts. Of the 119 qualitative studies, 23 (19.3%) contained a measure of religion or spirituality, compared to 44 of the 445 (9.9%) quantitative studies. Nominal indicators of religious affiliation were the most commonly used measures in the quantitative studies and measures of religion and spirituality were rarely used in the analyses. Although only a few quantitative or qualitative studies intended to focus on religion or spirituality, these themes often emerged spontaneously in the qualitative research. Conclusions: Research in Nursing and Health, Advances in Nursing Science, Nursing Research, and Image: The Journal of Nursing Scholarship all published research measuring spirituality and religiousness during the time-period studied. The rate at which spirituality and religion appeared in these nursing research articles is substantially higher than that found in most fields outside of nursing. Even more frequent inclusion of spiritual and religious variables and richer measures of spirituality and religiousness would help to increase the available scientific information on the role of spirituality and religion in nursing care.     

Smoking attenuates regular aerobic exercise benefits to episodic free recall immediately following strenuous physical activity

The present study was designed to evaluate the extent to which free recall performance is influenced by competing demands on physiological resources dependent on blood‐oxygen levels. Fifty‐six healthy young adults (mean age=20 years) were allocated to groups (n_1–4=14) according to their level of exercise (more than 6 h aerobic exercise per wk, or sedentary 1

1 Here sedentary refers to individuals with no regular exercise routines

.) and smoking (more than 10 cigarettes per day, or none) behaviour. Participants performed two free recall tasks, one under normal physically inactive conditions and the other immediately following strenuous physical exertion (a step‐up test for 2 min). We predicted that recall would suffer following strenuous physical activity among smoking aerobic exercisers. We reasoned this would be due to the oxygen‐carrying capacity of the blood being compromised in this group by higher levels of smoking‐related carbon monoxide in the blood stream. The results supported this prediction. We interpret our findings according to a resource model of cognitive function, mediated by physiological mechanisms. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

WASI profile variability in a sample of psychiatric inpatients

This study examined the variability of Wechsler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence profiles using the subtest range and profile variability index in a sample of 70 psychiatric inpatients. The subtest range and profile variability index were correlated .93 (p<.001), indicating that either measure may be used to assess profile variance. Comparison of profile variability on this abbreviated scale with other Wechsler intelligence scales in similar populations suggests that variability measures are not comparable across the tests.