Using Student Paraprofessionals in the Treatment of Eating Disorders

A rationale for adjunctive treatment in responding to eating disorder clients at a university counseling center is presented. The program described provides a highly structured internship experience for paraprofessional psychology trainees who serve as therapeutic aides and peer counselors to eating disorder clients. This collaborative Counseling Center and Psychology Department model emphasizes intern training, close supervision, and professional-paraprofessional cotreatment of anorexic and bulimic clients. Program evaluation methods and therapy outcome data are presented. Advantages of this treatment-training program for all participants are discussed.     

How Many Americans Attend Worship Each Week? An Alternative Approach to Measurement

Opinion polls indicate that over 40 percent of Americans attend worship services each week. However, attendance counts in several North American counties and Roman Catholic dioceses suggest that worship attendance may be much lower. In this article a new measurement strategy is used to estimate total weekly worship attendance. First, using a variety of resources we develop an estimate of the total number of religious congregations in the United States by religious family. Contrary to many published sources, the total number of congregations is estimated at just over 330,000. Second, using known population values and sample-based attendance counts we develop estimates of average weekly worship attendance for religious congregations by religious family. The resulting totals suggest that fewer than 22 percent of Americans attend worship services each week. This lower level of attendance provides further evidence that Americans tend to overreport worship participation and are less religiously active than the polls show.     

Clergy and Counselors—Collaborating Toward New Perspectives

This article describes a workshop and exploratory study done by counselors for a clergy group that requested assistance in working with families. The counselors focused on 4 family dynamic concepts: communication, distance, hierarchy, and adaptability to change. Data were collected from the same pre- and postworkshop questionnaire that included a Semantic Differential Scale, Likert questions, and an open-ended response technique. Changes occurred in distance and adaptability to change concept perceptions among clergy as a result of the workshop. Nearly 1/2 of the respondents reported feeling more confident regarding family counseling on each of the concepts after the workshop.     

Religion and Substance Abuse Treatment: Individual and Program Effects

The relationship between personal religiousness and substance abuse treatment outcomes has emerged as an important issue in the public health arena. Using the “moral community” perspective, a conceptual framework developed by Stark, Kent, and Doyle (1982) to analyze the contextual effects of religion, we explore the degree to which religion influences two drug treatment outcome measures—critical retention and commitment to treatment. The data are derived from the Drug Abuse Treatment Outcome Studies (DATOS), a national study of 10,010 clients enrolled in 70 drug treatment programs. Three research questions were addressed: (1) What is the relationship between an individual's level of religiosity and retention in treatment and commitment to treatment? (2) How does the ecological context of treatment programs shape the individual‐level relationships? (3) To what extent are program practices and characteristics directly linked to outcome level? The findings are supportive of the literature that shows a weak to moderate relationship between religiosity and treatment outcomes. However, the findings did not show strong support for the “moral community” hypothesis. Although there was a wide variation in the size of the individual‐level religiosity–treatment correlations, the variation could not be conclusively attributed to the overall religious emphasis of the programs. The findings suggest that further research is needed in order to understand fully the role of religion in substance abuse treatment.     

PREDICTING JOB PERFORMANCE OF YOUTH TRAINEES UNDER A JOB TRAINING PARTNERSHIP ACT PROGRAM (JTPA): CRITERION VALIDATION OF A BEHAVIOR-BASED MEASURE OF WORK MATURITY

Current concepts of the construct of work maturity have focused on a cognitive developmental perspective. This study demonstrates the criterion-related validity of a behavior-based measure of work maturity. The work-maturity levels of 142 youth enrollees in a job training program sponsored by the Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA) were measured using a locally relevant, behavior-based instrument. Through factor and linear regression analyses, the construct of work maturity was defined and related to later job performance. Two work-maturity factors (Time Consciousness and Sociability) were found to predict a weighted composite criterion composed of ten job performance dimensions. In addition, the ability of individual dimensions to predict job performance was also examined. Future studies of work maturity that combine cognitive and behavioral measures are suggested.