Teenage Drug and Alcohol Use: Comparing Individual and Contextual Effects

While both macro- and micro-level studies have identified important correlates of substance use, multi-level models may explain more than each level alone. Drawing on extant research and Akers' (1998 Akers , Ronald L. 1998 . Social Learning and Social Structure: A General Theory of Crime and Deviance . Boston : Northeastern University Press . [Google Scholar]) Social Structure-Social Learning model, we offer hypotheses about the relationship between contextual- and individual-level explanatory variables and substance use. The sample included 85,000 students in 202 school districts. Hierarchical linear modeling revealed low socioeconomic status, percent rural, and racial composition directly affected use of some substances net individuals' characteristics. Further, the effects of gender, age, and class were substantially mediated by differential association and school bonds, which significantly influenced alcohol, marijuana, ecstasy, and methamphetamine use.     

Understanding the Mental Health Travails of Custodial Grandparents

Grandcarers are at-risk of poor mental health outcomes. Current knowledge of the support needs of grandcarers is fragmented. To help fill this knowledge gap qualitative analysis was undertaken on 49 interviews conducted with custodial grandparents. The findings reveal that conflicted occupational roles coupled with the complexity of the stressors facing grandcarers both contribute to their social isolation and to their self-doubts about their ability to adequately attend to their grandchildren’s needs. Greater awareness among occupational therapists (OTs) of custodial grandparents’ mental health travails and an increased understanding of key occupational therapy (OT) practice initiatives are central to addressing grandcarers’ mental health travails.     

The Effect of Expectations on Intention to Persist in Therapy

ABSTRACT

Little is known about the impact of expectations on persistence in couple and family therapy. A better understanding of the factors that contribute to persistence in therapy is key to understanding therapeutic dropout. We report results of a secondary grounded theory analysis of individual, couple, and family therapy clients' therapy expectations and their intention to persist in therapy. Participants were 19 clients of MFTs. Results indicate that clients carry expectations about the therapist, therapy process, duration, and outcome. Positive disconfirmation (Tambling & Johnson, 2010) of negative expectations contributed to therapy persistence.     

Compliance Dynamics Within a Friendship Network II: Structural Positions Used to Garner Social Support

Social networks play a critical role in people's responses to influence attempts, determining whether a person seeks the support of others as an alternative to compliance or as a way to cope with being the target of an influence attempt. In 2 experiments (N = 458 and N = 105), sociograms were used to represent social relationships and to investigate the social network member who would be sought for social support after an influence attempt. Results showed that targets were seen as likely to seek social support in more threatening situations and from more useful (e.g., powerful, connected) network members. Differences found in the 2 experiments appear to represent differences between intergroup and intragroup networks.     

Mechanisms underlying accent accommodation in early word learning: evidence for general expansion

Previous work reveals that toddlers can accommodate a novel accent after hearing it for only a brief period of time. A common assumption is that children, like adults, cope with nonstandard pronunciations by relying on words they know (e.g. ‘this person pronounces sock as sack, therefore by black she meant block’). In this paper, we assess whether toddlers might additionally use a general expansion strategy, whereby they simply accept non‐standard pronunciations when variability is expected. We exposed a group of 24‐month‐old English‐learning toddlers to variability in indexical cues (very diverse voices from native English talkers), and another to variability in social cues (very diverse‐looking silent actors); neither group was familiarized with the target novel accent. At test, both groups succeeded in recognizing a novel word when spoken in the novel accent. Thus, even when no lexical cues are available, variability can prepare young children for non‐standard pronunciations.