The dilemma of primary prevention in mental health services: Rationalize the status quo or bite the hand that feeds you

That primary prevention has been ‘inappropriately marginalised’ is seen to be an inevitable outcome of reliance on government support. Policy makers and service providers can never be expected to give prevention a higher priority than direct service. Preventionists have developed two strategies for doing their work. One, based on the logical positivist ideal, seeks specific causal models for specific disorders. This sort of prevention research, while it will always remain less well funded than direct services, tends not to challenge the status quo belief in individual responsibility, or the acceptable methods of mainstream science, and thus will tend to be more acceptable than other forms of prevention research and services. An alternative, based on a social constructivist paradigm engages in social action research through collaboration with a variety of grass roots organizations and people outside the mainstream of power. This latter approach, brings to preventionists ideas from feminists, ethnic minority leaders, neighborhood organizers, and self and mutual help group leaders. It is a sensible way to use the resources available to those professionals interested in social change oriented prevention.     

The meaning of before and after for preschool children

Preschool children's understanding of temporal relationships was examined in terms of their comprehension of sentences containing clauses linked by before and after. The relative importance of order of mention and main-subordinate relations strategies in children's interpretation of temporal order information was also evaluated.Divergent error patterns emerged on the tasks; omissions prevailed on the two tasks involving response to commands, reversals prevailed on the other. Further examination revealed that omissions reflected ambiguity in the linguistic structure of commands. Thus the effect of main-subordinate relations was confounded with directness of command. On all comprehension tasks, however, performance was superior on sentence forms in which order of mention and order of occurrence correspond.     

The actual and retrospective-occupational self-concept dimensions of retired educators

A 20-item adjective checklist was used by 118 retired educators to describe their actual and retrospective-occupational self-concepts. The men made their retrospective ratings for middle-aged and preretired occupational roles. The intercorrelations among the self-concept ratings were multiple-set factor analyzed, and seven common dimensions were identified: (1) stability, (2) conventionality, (3) independence, (4) practicality, (5) status, (6) confidence, and (7) cleverness. The results suggested that the retired educators had used the same dimensions in describing their actual and retrospective-occupational self-concepts. The percentages of variance contributed by the dimensions within the self-concept structures were also reported and discussed within the framework of career development.     

The component awareness and accuracy of dual- and single-jointed actions

The accuracy with which people execute wrist and elbow movements were measured using three main conditions: (i) single-jointed (wrist or elbow) movements to targets, (ii) dual-jointed (wrist and elbow) movements to targets, and (iii) components of dual-jointed movements to targets, when the task for the subject was to perform the elbow or wrist constituent of the action in isolation, without displacing the second joint. Elbow precision was significantly worse under component than dual conditions, which is compatible with the notion that wrist and elbow activity are conjugately, rather than independently, programmed when a dual-jointed action is performed. The pattern of wrist accuracy was divergent, but possible reasons for this were discussed. In all cases, error was measured in terms of deviation from perfect posture; using this index, the hypothesis that incorporating more moving joints into an action serves to increase movement complexity and jeopardise precision was tested, but the results were ambiguous. Discussion also centered on the problems of using performance data to infer changes in motor programming, and the need for rigorous conceptualisation and research in this area.     

Sociopolitical Control for Immigrants: The Role of Receiving Local Contexts

This study examines the individual and contextual factors associated with sociopolitical control expressed by immigrants in southern Spain. We used hierarchical linear modeling to evaluate the relations between individual (community participation, social connectedness, and perceived cultural competence of receiving community services) and municipality characteristics (city community participation, city social connectedness, and city community services’ cultural competence) and immigrants’ feelings of sociopolitical control. Data were analyzed using a two‐level model based on 707 Moroccan immigrants in 25 municipalities. After adjusting for gender, educational level, and psychosocial confounding factors, we observed a positive association between social connectedness and sociopolitical control at the individual level. At the contextual level, we observed a positive association between (a) city community participation, (b) city social connectedness, and (c) city community services’ cultural competence, and sociopolitical control. Indeed, living in a municipality where there are community services with high levels of cultural competence and where, on average, many people participate in organizations and neighbors are connected, was associated with higher levels of perceived control in the sociopolitical domain for immigrants. We also discuss implications for community‐based research and practice.     

Concurrent validity of the DSM-IV scales Affective Problems and Anxiety Problems of the Youth Self-Report

This study investigated the concurrent validity of the DSM-IV scales Anxiety Problems and Affective Problems of the Youth Self-Report (YSR) in a community sample of Dutch young adolescents aged 10-12 years. We first examined the extent to which the YSR/DSM-IV scales reflect symptoms of DSM-IV anxiety disorders and DSM-IV Major Depressive Disorder, assessed with the Revised Child Anxiety and Depression Scale (RCADS). Second, we examined whether the association between the YSR/DSM-IV scales and the RCADS scales was stronger than the association between the empirically derived YSR narrow-band scales Anxious/Depressed and Withdrawn and the same RCADS scales. Results showed that the YSR/DSM-IV scale Affective Problems had a stronger association with symptoms of DSM-IV Major Depressive Disorder than the YSR narrow-band scales Withdrawn and Anxious/Depressed. However, the YSR/DSM-IV scale Anxiety Problems had a weaker association with symptoms of DSM-IV anxiety disorders, compared to the YSR narrow-band scale Anxious/Depressed. It was concluded that the construction of the DSM-IV scales improved the correspondence with DSM-IV Major Depressive Disorder, but not with DSM-IV anxiety disorders.     

Les pratiques professionnelles au cœur de la crise dans la gestion de l’urgent : l’exemple de la crise du COVID-19

Our organisations have been severely shaken by the COVID-19 pandemic and the world of work has not been spared. Only essential activities continued in order to maintain a minimum level of functioning, just like in hospitals or in local authorities. During the first five months of the crisis in 2020 (from March to July), 34 interviews were conducted in these two public service entities in order to examine the management of urgent matters in the light of “activity” and at the heart of the crisis. The results show that while the emergency is mainly managed by an improvisation activity based on the intuition of the actors in the field, the crisis is managed by governance in a rational manner leading to the drafting of procedures after the event. This crisis situation pushed organisations to reconfigure themselves in an emergency, allowing the development of new professional practices. The strategies of damage control and proceduralization will be discussed. Perspectives are opened on the questions of training for these crisis situations against a background of developing presumption of ignorance.     

The educational pyramid: A model for community intervention

Urban adolescents represent a group who are at special risk for a variety of psychological and behavioral problems. A life skills program was implemented with middle and high school students, using an educational pyramid approach to maximize the ecological appropriateness of the intervention and to increase the likelihood that the program will be continued with progressively lessened university facilitation. Additionally, the educational pyramid offers the opportunity for all participants—university faculty, graduate students, collaborating professionals in the community, and high school leaders—to be both teachers and learners.     

Integrating Social Science and Design Inquiry Through Interdisciplinary Design Charrettes: An Approach to Participatory Community Problem Solving

Interdisciplinary collaborations that aim to facilitate meaningful community outcomes require both the right mix of disciplinary knowledge and effective community participation, which together can deepen collective knowledge and the capacity to take action. This article explores three interdisciplinary design charrettes, intensive participatory workshops that addressed specific community problems and provided a context for integrating design and social science inquiry with local community knowledge. Evaluation data from the charrettes shed light on how students from the design and social science disciplines experienced the charrettes, and on their interactions with community members. Key advantages to this interdisciplinary, community-based collaboration included expanded knowledge derived from the use of multiple modes of inquiry, particularly the resulting visualization tools that helped community members understand local issues and envision novel solutions. Key drawbacks included difficulties in balancing the two disciplines, the tendency for social scientists to feel out of place on designers' turf, and the increased disciplinary and interpersonal conflicts arising from a more diverse pool of participants.