Children as carers: the impact of parental illness and disability on children's caring roles

The nature and extent of young caring in the UK continue to be a feature of a growing number of research programmes motivated by a children and carers' rights philosophy. However, the context in which young caring occurs as a result of parental ill-health or disability can only be fully understood by examining the findings and implications of medical research into parental impairment, and the social movements that have served to re-define the concept of 'disability' in society. This paper examines the arguments put forward by medical researchers, by those proposing a social model of disability and by those who have specifically investigated the conditions and experiences of young carers. It argues that children's caring roles within families where there is parental illness or disability need to be understood not only as a reflection of the nature of the medical condition itself, but as a consequence of complex family, social and economic processes. A 'whole family' approach is proposed, where the needs of children and parents are respected and responded to.     

Gender traits and identities in a "masculine" organization: the Israeli police force

Gender and occupational identities were examined within the Israeli police force, a stereotypically masculine organization. The principal hypothesis was that women in this organizational setting did not reject their gender identity. Rather, they self-attributed more traditionally masculine traits in addition to their feminine traits. This was especially so among women going through particularly intense occupational and organizational socialization needed for field jobs. The findings only partially confirmed the hypothesis. Most women in the sample considered themselves to be highly feminine, even though they self-attributed masculine traits. Although the women, like their male colleagues, ranked occupational identity higher than gender identity, their feminine identity (usually in contrast with the masculine organizational context) was not repressed and their gender identity was as strong as that of the men.     

Alcohol consumption, drinking patterns, and alcohol problems among managerial versus non-managerial women and men

In the present study, we examined alcohol consumption and alcohol problems between managerial and nonmanagerial men and women. We also examined alcohol problems as a function of drinking context (i.e., when they drink and with whom they drink) for each of these four groups. Survey data and data from company records were collected from a large sample of blue and white collar employees (n = 2279). Participants completed a detailed questionnaire aimed at assessing many work-related attitudes, general mental and physical health-related perceptions, motivations for alcohol use, alcohol consumption indices, and alcohol problems. We found that several of the demographic variables differentially predicted alcohol consumption and problems for the four groups. In addition, drinking alone and immediately after work were associated with alcohol problems for women managers at a significantly higher rate than for the other groups of employees. These results support the assertion that more complex models are needed to understand the linkages between work and alcohol use. The research reported in this paper was supported by Grant AA 10690-02, National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, National Institutes of Health.     

Neurocognitive Performance in Alcoholics: Is Polysubstance Abuse Important?

The neurocognitive effects of alcohol have been frequently examined. Studies reveal a wide array of cognitive deficits. Attempts to develop a parsimonious model for these effects have been difficult because of the intra- and intersubject variability. Complicating the development of a model of cognitive deficits in substance abusers is the common practice of polysubstance abuse. The use of theoretical models that focus on the underlying cognitive processes offers flexibility while maintaining sufficient theoretical precision. This article briefly reviews the literature on neurocognitive changes associated with substance abuse as well as the various theoretical models that have been studied. It also provides an overview of recovery of function. Its primary objective is to evaluate cognitive function among alcoholic subtypes, defined by patterns of other drug use. This analysis suggests there are significant differences in neurocognitive function among these subtypes.     

Career guidance in five English independent schools

English independent schools are not required to follow government statutory guidance in a number of aspects including career education and guidance, and yet many are actively engaged in careers work and this has caught the attention of policymakers. State schools are subject to statutory guidance but, according to Ofsted and other authorities, the majority fail to adequately support young people through their post-school transitions. Using evidence from five English independent schools, the type of provision they offer is analysed against benchmarks of good practice to identify where their support is focussed. The factors that shape the resourcing and design of career education and guidance in the five schools are also explored. The extent to which the practices observed in the case studies can be replicated in all, or a sub-set of state schools, is discussed in the light of policy influence of independent schools.     

Apathy in frontotemporal dementia: behavioral and neuroimaging correlates

We investigated the occurrence of goal-directed motivational change in the form of apathy in patients with frontotemporal dementia (FTD), particularly those with behavioral variant social and executive deficits (bvFTD). Standardized behavioral inventory was employed to survey and compare apathy ratings from patients and caregivers. In cases of bvFTD, apathy ratings were further related to measures of social cognition, executive function, and atrophy on brain MRI. Results indicated that caregivers rated bvFTD patients as having significantly elevated apathy scores though patient self-ratings were normal. Caregiver and self-ratings of FTD samples with progressive nonfluent aphasia and semantic dementia did not differ from healthy controls and their informants. In the bvFTD sample, caregiver apathy scores were not correlated with general cognitive screening or depression scores, but were significantly correlated with social cognition and executive function measures. Voxel-based morphometry revealed that apathy ratings in bvFTD were related to prominent atrophy in the right caudate (including the ventral striatum), the right temporo-parietal junction, right posterior inferior and middle temporal gyri, and left frontal operculum- anterior insula region. Findings suggest that bvFTD is associated with a significant breakdown in goal-directed motivated behavior involving disruption of cortical-basal ganglia circuits that is also related to social and executive function deficits.     

The role of self-esteem in the misinformation effect

Previous research using the Gudjonnson suggestibility scale has suggested a role for self-esteem in suggestibility, with participants low in self-esteem being more suggestible than participants high in self-esteem. Four experiments are presented examining the role of self-esteem in the misinformation effect and whether enhanced suggestibility effects in participants low in self-esteem reflect genuine memory impairment. In Experiments 1 and 4 participants completed a standard recognition test. In Experiment 2 participants completed the modified recognition test. In Experiment 3 participants completed a free recall test. In Experiments 1 and 4 participants low in self-esteem demonstrated greater misinformation effects than participants high in self-esteem. In Experiment 3 a 3-day retention interval was employed with the modified test and no differences were found between the two groups on the reporting of the new item. The findings suggest that participants low in self-esteem are particularly sensitive to demand characteristics and post-event suggestion but do not suffer from genuine memory impairment.     

A neural predictor of cultural popularity

We use neuroimaging to predict cultural popularity — something that is popular in the broadest sense and appeals to a large number of individuals. Neuroeconomic research suggests that activity in reward-related regions of the brain, notably the orbitofrontal cortex and ventral striatum, is predictive of future purchasing decisions, but it is unknown whether the neural signals of a small group of individuals are predictive of the purchasing decisions of the population at large. For neuroimaging to be useful as a measure of widespread popularity, these neural responses would have to generalize to a much larger population that is not the direct subject of the brain imaging itself. Here, we test the possibility of using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to predict the relative popularity of a common good: music. We used fMRI to measure the brain responses of a relatively small group of adolescents while listening to songs of largely unknown artists. As a measure of popularity, the sales of these songs were totaled for the three years following scanning, and brain responses were then correlated with these “future” earnings. Although subjective likability of the songs was not predictive of sales, activity within the ventral striatum was significantly correlated with the number of units sold. These results suggest that the neural responses to goods are not only predictive of purchase decisions for those individuals actually scanned, but such responses generalize to the population at large and may be used to predict cultural popularity.     

Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Identity Scale (LGBIS): construct validation, sensitivity analyses and other psychometric properties

According to Mohr and Fassinger (2006), identity is seen as both self-identification and collective identification with values, beliefs, traits or behaviours and attachments. Their Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual (LGB) multidimensional identity model accounts for important variables regarding the constitution of identities. This model not only accesses numerous dimensions of the lives of LGB individuals, but is also based on a body of research that recognizes how LGB difficulties are caused by societal intolerance and marginalization (Mohr & Fassinger, 2000). The Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Identity Scale (LGBIS; Kendra & Mohr, 2008) constitutes an operationalization of this multidimensional model, and the aim of this article is to present its construct validity by analysing its factor structure using a sample of Portuguese lesbian, gay and bisexual participants. Results from exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, as well as from factor invariance analysis across sub-samples are presented. In a general way, the factor structure obtained in this study follows the original proposal of Kendra and Mohr's (2008) LGBIS. Moreover, scale sensitivity analyses are presented in order to check for eventual differences in the factor structure and/or factor intercorrelations regarding participant gender and sexual orientation. These results are then discussed in the light of LGB identity models.     

Psychological morbidity, illness representations, and quality of life in female and male patients with obstructive sleep apnea syndrome

Obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS) is a sleep-related breathing disorder that affects both women and men. The aim of this study was to characterize and investigate the differences in terms of anxiety, depression, illness perception, and quality of life between female and male OSAS patients from a total of 111 patients (33 women and 78 men) who were recently diagnosed with OSAS in an outpatient clinic of a University Hospital in Portugal. They underwent a standardized protocol that included evaluation to assess of psychological morbidity (anxiety and depression - Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale), illness representations (Brief Illness Perception Questionnaire), and quality of life (Sleep Apnea Quality of Life Index). The most significant differences between female and male OSAS patients result of apnea/hypopnea index (AHI), after controlling for body mass index (p?相似文献