Application of a CBPR Framework to Inform a Multi-level Tobacco Cessation Intervention in Public Housing Neighborhoods

African American women in urban, high poverty neighborhoods have high rates of smoking, difficulties with quitting, and disproportionate tobacco-related health disparities. Prior research utilizing conventional "outsider driven" interventions targeted to individuals has failed to show effective cessation outcomes. This paper describes the application of a community-based participatory research (CBPR) framework to inform a culturally situated, ecological based, multi-level tobacco cessation intervention in public housing neighborhoods. The CBPR framework encompasses problem identification, planning and feasibility/pilot testing, implementation, evaluation, and dissemination. There have been multiple partners in this process including public housing residents, housing authority administrators, community health workers, tenant associations, and academic investigators. The advisory process has evolved from an initial small steering group to our current institutional community advisory boards. Our decade-long CBPR journey produced design innovations, promising preliminary outcomes, and a full-scaled implementation study in two states. Challenges include sustaining engagement with evolving study partners, maintaining equity and power in the partnerships, and long-term sustainability of the intervention. Implications include applicability of the framework with other CBPR partnerships, especially scaling up evolutionary grassroots involvement to multi-regional partnerships.     

Lateralized reaching as dynamical symmetry breaking in the bushbaby (Otolemur garnettii): preliminary evidence

Eight bushbabies were subjected to an extensive series of hand preference trials in which they were required to reach for a raisin from a rotating platform approaching from the right- or left-hand side of their visual field. Three principal types of behavior were observed. Several individuals known to be stable in hand preference continued to show a strong preference for a single hand. Another group, including some previously categorized as stable, exhibited "ambidextrous" cross-body reaching behavior. One individual exhibited far more complex behavior, being ambidextrous at low and very high speeds but lateralized at intermediate speeds. A straightforward adaptation of the dynamical neural field theory of Sch?ner et al. (1997) provides a model allowing each type of behavior, except possibly the shift from lateralized behavior to ambidextrous behavior at high speed, which might nonetheless be accommodated with minor modification.     

The Heuristic Power Of Oppositionality In An Incidental-Memory Task: In Support Of The Construing Process

From a personal construct view, construing is a top-down process in which wider meanings predicate narrower, targeted meanings. Predicate contexts are invariably oppositional, as Kelly's (1955) theory reflects. Two memory experiments using college subjects are presented. Subjects were asked to focus on a series of 30 target words to determine if they were similar in meaning to a predicating word (e.g., friendly). Ten of these target words were relevant (e.g., congenial), 10 were opposite (e.g., impolite), and 10 were irrelevant (e.g., abstract) in meaning to the predicating word. Subjects were then (unexpectedly) asked to recall as many words as possible. In line with experimental instructions, the majority of these recalled words were relevant to the predicating word. However, as predicted, in both experiments significantly more opposite than irrelevant words were recalled (p < .001). The results are in support of a personal construct view of human cognition.     

Adding odor: Less distress and enhanced attention for 6-month-olds

The effect of odor on cognitive and emotional processes has been studied in adults and children, but less so in infants. In this study twenty-seven six-month-olds were presented with a video while in either an odor (pine or baby-powder) or a no odor control condition. The video was a 92-s audiovisual presentation of a woman expressing happiness and sadness, with the order of emotion counterbalanced. Infant attention (looking time) and emotional expression (smiling, crying, mouthing) were coded. Infants looked longer in the presence of odor and expressed less crying and mouthing but more smiling behavior. Presence of odor markedly reduced infant emotional distress and increased attention, suggesting that the olfactory sensory system provides cues to infants that support mood regulation and maintain attention. These results have implications for optimizing infant environments for emotional health and cognitive development.     

The mediating role of maternal responsiveness in some longer term effects of postnatal depression on infant development

We hypothesized a mediating role for low maternal responsiveness in certain child developmental deficits found previously to be associated with postnatal depression. Forty depressed inpatients and 48 control (non-depressed) mothers and their infants were followed until 42 months postpartum. Mother–infant interactions were impaired at 6 months postpartum in the depressed group. Subsequent cognitive deficits were found in children's Full Scale IQ on the Wechsler Preschool Primary Scale of Intelligence (Revised) at 42 months of age. Statistical modeling of the mediation hypothesis confirmed that these effects were overwhelmingly explained by lowered maternal responsiveness at 6 months. Similarly, increased temperamental difficulties were apparent in children of depressed mothers but were not correlated with maternal responsiveness. Male infants of depressed mothers were disproportionately vulnerable (compared to females) to impaired cognitive abilities associated with maternal depression. The data concur with previous work and provide empirical support for the theoretical prediction that early disturbances of the mother–infant interaction will mediate some developmental deficits in the children of depressed mothers.     

Interests and institutions in skilled migration: Comparing flows in the IT and nursing sectors in the U.S.

Jeannette Money and Dana Zartner Falstrom argue that U.S. immigration policy reflects more an efficient political process than an efficient economic competition for skills. In furtherance of this position, Money and Falstrom examine the flows of imported IT and nursing industry labor. The politics of visa categories in the U.S. are a remarkable site of competition between business and societal interests as well as the different scales of local and national interest. The strongly regionalized differences pointed to by Money and Falstrom suggest, too, that politics clearly matter. They declare that the Byzantine U.S. immigration system has created a plenitude of peculiar migration channels sustained by vested client interests, and a veritable alphabet soup of visa categories.     

RELATIONSHIP VIOLENCE AMONG ADOLESCENT MOTHERS: FREQUENCY, DYADIC NATURE, AND IMPLICATIONS FOR RELATIONSHIP DISSOLUTION AND MENTAL HEALTH

This article examines whether the frequency, dyadic nature, and potential implications of relationship violence differ in parenting ( n = 163) and nulliparous (i.e., never given birth; n = 165) adolescent females from low-income, urban communities. We found the frequency and dyadic nature of violence did not differ between parental status groups. Over half of the adolescents in both groups reported relationship violence in the past year, with female-enacted violence more common than male-enacted violence. However, significant group differences emerged in the relationship between violence and subsequent relationship dissolution and mental health. Higher levels of female-enacted violence predicted relationship dissolution among nulliparous adolescents but predicted increases in depression in parenting adolescents. Findings highlight the need for violence prevention programs tailored specifically to the developmental and contextual needs of adolescent mothers.     

The Impact of Physical Maltreatment History on the Adolescent Mother–Infant Relationship: Mediating and Moderating Effects During the Transition to Early Parenthood

Using attachment theory as a framework, this paper examines how pregnant adolescents' experiences of physical maltreatment during childhood influence the subsequent mother-infant relationship in 203 low-income adolescents followed from the 3rd trimester of pregnancy through the 1st year of parenthood. The relation between physical maltreatment history and early difficulty in the mother-infant relationship was mediated by adolescents' evaluations of the relationship with their primary caretaker and the feelings they associated with motherhood measured prior to childbirth. In addition, a supportive romantic relationship during pregnancy acted as a protective factor by moderating the impact of maltreatment history on the quality of the subsequent mother-infant relationship. Findings support the importance of assessments and interventions that consider the social context and relational history of pregnant and parenting adolescents.     

Toward a Science of Transdisciplinary Action Research

This paper offers a conceptual framework for establishing a science of transdisciplinary action research. Lewin's (1951) concept of action research highlights the scientific and societal value of translating psychological research into community problem-solving strategies. Implicit in Lewin's formulation is the importance of achieving effective collaboration among behavioral researchers, community members and policy makers. The present analysis builds on Lewin's analysis by outlining programmatic directions for the scientific study of transdisciplinary research and community action. Three types of collaboration, and the contextual circumstances that facilitate or hinder them, are examined: (1) collaboration among scholars representing different disciplines; (2) collaboration among researchers from multiple fields and community practitioners representing diverse professional and lay perspectives; and (3) collaboration among community organizations across local, state, national, and international levels. In the present analysis, transdisciplinary action research is viewed as a topic of scientific study in its own right to achieve a more complete understanding of prior collaborations and to identify strategies for refining and sustaining future collaborations (and their intended outcomes) among researchers, community members and organizations.