Volunteers in Disaster Response

Abstract

Terrorism directed against the United States abroad and at home during the 1990s, in conjunction with the ongoing terrorist threat and use of weapons of mass destruction, and mass casualty disasters demanded a reexamination of national security and disaster response. Strategies to confront current threats and meet population needs include increasing collaboration and cooperation among federal, state, and county agencies and voluntary organizations. The American Red Cross has implemented training to familiarize participants with terrorist threats and the characteristics of chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, and explosive weapons and has introduced technological changes to speed up service delivery at disasters.     

Childhood Maltreatment and PTSD: Spiritual Well-Being and Intimate Partner Violence as Mediators

Childhood maltreatment places individuals, including African American women who are undereducated and economically disadvantaged, at risk for developing posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms. Participants were 192 African American women with a history in the prior year of both a suicide attempt and intimate partner violence (IPV) exposure. They were recruited from a public hospital that provides medical and mental health treatment to mostly low-income patients. A simple mediator model was used to examine if (a) existential well-being (sense of purpose) or religious well-being (relationship with God) mediated the link between childhood maltreatment and adult PTSD symptoms. Sequential multiple mediator models determined if physical and nonphysical IPV enhanced our understanding of the mediational association among the aforementioned variables. Findings suggest that existential well-being mediated the association between childhood maltreatment and adult PTSD symptoms in a simple mediator model, and existential well-being and recent nonphysical IPV served as sequential multiple mediators of this link. However, religious well-being and physical IPV were not significant mediators. Findings underscore the importance of enhancing existential well-being in the treatment of suicidal African American women with a history of childhood maltreatment and IPV.     

Who is David and who is Goliath? The Eddie Long scandal and the black mega-church

The recent scandal involving Bishop Eddie Long of New Birth Missionary Baptist Church has led millions of individuals to evaluate the guilt or innocence of Bishop Long as well the significance of the black mega-church. This study examined the possible effects of a well-publicised scandal involving a black mega-church pastor on the mental health of African Americans within and outside of the church. To address this paucity in the research, over 3000 comments made by anonymous contributors on CNN's public website were analysed using a grounded theory methodology. The following five themes were identified: (1) Keep an Open Mind: “Most People Thrive on Negativity;” (2) Hypocrisy as Part of Religion: “They aren’t real Christians;” (3) Greed as Part of Religion: “Just in it for the money;” (4) Religion and/or Christianity as Problematic: “Christians scare the Jesus out of me;” and (5) Religious Leaders Actions are separate from Individuals’ Personal Faith and Their Relationship with God: “You don’t put your faith in a man.” Narratives will be offered to support and illustrate each of these themes, and the implications for the mental health of African Americans will be discussed.     

Religious coping,stigma, and psychological functioning among HIV-positive African American women

The present study examined the role of religious coping in psychological distress and adjustment both cross-sectionally and longitudinally among 141 HIV-positive African American women. Cross-sectional analyses showed that negative religious coping was associated with poorer mental health and functioning, and greater perceptions of stigma and discrimination. Longitudinal analyses revealed that greater negative religious coping at baseline significantly predicted greater changes in mental health in a negative direction 12 months later. Positive religious coping was not associated with any measures of psychological well-being, nor did it predict any mental health outcomes at 12 months. However, participants who experienced high levels of HIV-related stigma and reported high levels of positive religious coping were less depressed than those who reported lower levels of positive religious coping. These results suggest that for this population, negative religious coping was a more salient determinant of psychological distress than positive religious coping was of psychological health.     

Predictors of Satisfaction Among College-Educated African American Women in Midlife

There has been little theorizing or empirical research on satisfaction among African American women at midlife. This study addresses this gap by examining predictors of satisfaction in 3 cohorts (N = 202) of midlife college-educated African American women. Specifically, 3 domains of satisfaction were examined: overall life satisfaction, personal satisfaction, and work satisfaction. Results revealed that the women were highly satisfied with their work situation, their personal life, and generally with how their life had turned out so far. Overall life satisfaction was predicted by the women's perceptions of personal control, role quality, household burden, and their cohort status. Work satisfaction was best predicted by the women's sense of personal control and role quality. Lastly, household burden and physical well-being emerged as significant predictors of personal satisfaction. Implications of the findings and recommendations for future research are offered.     

Mothers’ physical interventions in toddler play in a low-income,African American sample

This mixed method study examined 28 low-income African American mothers’ physical interventions in their 14-month-old toddlers’ play. Inductive methods were used to identify six physical intervention behaviors, the affect accompanying physical interventions, and apparent reasons for intervening. Nonparametric statistical analyses determined that toddlers experienced physical intervention largely in the context of positive maternal affect. Mothers of boys expressed highly positive affect while physically intervening more than mothers of girls. Most physically intervening acts seemed to be motivated by maternal intent to show or tell children how to play or to correct play deemed incorrect. Neutral affect was the most common toddler affect type following physical intervention, but boys were more likely than girls to be upset immediately after physical interventions. Physical interventions intended to protect health and safety seemed the least likely to elicit toddler upset.     

Reviews

Thomas Ryba, The Essence of Phenomenology and Its Meaning for the Scientific Study of Religion
Daniel C. Dennett, Darwin's Dangerous Idea: Evolution and the Meaning of Life
Edited by Clifford N. Matthews and Roy A. Varghese, Cosmic Beginnings and Human Ends: Where Science and Religion Meet     

“We're Fighting Two Different Battles Here”: An Exploration of African American Women's Definitions of Self at Predominately White Schools

Using Black feminist thought and the sociocultural model of the self, this paper explores the relationship between race and gender in the self-definitions of African American women attending predominately white colleges and universities. The African American women who participated in the study, suggest that knowledge generated about the self pushes us beyond the categorical thinking that limits our ability to understand the complexity of the self. Data from 13 interviews conducted at two predominately white schools is presented and analyzed. Using this data, I present a way of thinking about the identity of African American women that demonstrates the complexity of defining self within the narrow confines of race and gender.     

Scientific limitations and ethical ramifications of a non-representative Human Genome Project: African American response

The Human Genome Project (HGP) represents a massive merging of science and technology in the name of all humanity. While the disease aspects of HGP-generated data have received the greatest publicity and are the strongest rationale for the project, it should be remembered that the HGP has, as its goal the sequencing of all 100,000 human genes and the accurate depiction of the ancestral and functional relationships among these genes. The HGP will thus be constructing the molecular taxonomic norm for humanity. Currently the HGP genomic baseline is almost exclusively skewed toward North Atlantic European lineages through the extensive use of the Centre d’études du Polymorphisme Humaine (CEPH) data set. More recently, the HGP has shifted to the use of volunteer donors since adequate informed consent had not been secured from the CEPH families. No evidence exists that either the CEPH families or the current volunteers are the most appropriate demographic or evolutionary lineages for the functional genomic studies that will guide production of new DNA based drugs, targeted therapeutics and gene-based diagnostics. The lack of scientific representativeness of the HGP is a serious impediment to its broad applicability. Yet this can be remedied, and five alternative sampling strategies are presented. In response to the current exclusionary design of the HGP, there is noteworthy caution and skepticism in the African American community concerning genetic studies. The Manifesto on Genomic Studies Among African Americans reflects both a desire to be systematically included in federally funded genomic studies and a desire to maintain some control over the interpretation and application of research results. Representative sampling in the HGP is seen as an international human rights issue with domestic ethical implications.     

The American Girl: Playing with the Wrong Dollie?

This essay explores the American Girl Just Like You doll through a variety of feminist lenses. It was inspired by my experiences chaperoning my friend Grace (aged eleven) to the American Girl Store in New York City, and returning to the store to shop for my own doll. I returned to the store because I was not sure why I was so extremely disturbed by this doll. The doll is not emaciated, not overtly sexy, and marketed along with outfits that supposedly send girls the message that they can achieve their goals. She comes in a variety of skin, eye, and hair colors, and the line is therefore marketed as racially and ethnically sensitive. I argue that although the Just Like You line appears to be empowering and racially sensitive on a superficial level, an in‐depth feminist analysis indicates that it is not. In fact, the Just Like You line is highly problematic from a feminist perspective.