Duke University's Program on Religion,Aging, and Health

ABSTRACT

Assisted living facilities (ALFs) offer a level of care between independent living and nursing homes. Recently researchers have begun to explore quality-of-life issues concerning residents of ALFs. Considerable research suggests that religion is positively associated with both emotional and physical health. This study examines how residents use religious practices to cope with the challenges of life in ALFs. Qualitative analysis of in-person interview data from 55 residents of ALFs revealed a variety of religious practices, such as prayer, church attendance, and Bible reading. Most residents deemed religion important and reported that religious practices provided a framework for coping with problems. Coping ranged from the mundane (e.g., attending a gospel concert to offset the otherwise dull routine of the home) to the transcendent (e.g., enlisting the support of an omnipotent ally in the face of adversity). Six ways residents utilized religion as a coping mechanism emerged. Residents used religion to maintain continuity with their previous lives; to obtain relief from physical or emotional pain; to provide a framework for socialization; to develop courage; to maintain a purpose for their lives; and to prepare for death. Suggestions for enhancing the quality and variety of religious activities within ALFs are offered.     

Collaboration of Churches and Service Providers: Meeting the Needs of Older African Americans

ABSTRACT

This article describes a community outreach volunteer project designed to reach frail community-based older adults. The project is an example of church and secular agency collaboration in which the church provides leadership in volunteer recruitment and the agency provides training and outreach activity monitoring. The church's role in this project illustrates that small and medium-size African American churches can play an important role in mobilizing volunteer resources and can perform a linking role in helping secular agencies to gain access to frail, hard-to-reach, low-income older adults.     

Chapter 2: Sex and the Elderly: No Laughing Matter in Religion

SUMMARY

This article provides a brief background for the study of sex and older persons. It examines the prevailing attitudes among older persons and society in general. A number of critical issues regarding sexuality in the latter years of life is addressed.     

Violence against Women in Contemporary Ghanaian Society

Abstract

Overcoming violence against women requires critical reflective questioning both by individuals and human societies. At stake are not just questions of whether we respond to situations of violence but more importantly, where, when and how we respond. This paper examines the problem with respect to new dimensions arising from existing interventions on violence against women in the Ghanaian context. It calls for well-planned and sustained strategies to help break the cycle of violence being created.

The paper also calls upon the Church to look within its own resources for strategies that are life transforming to help break the vicious cycle. It notes that the Church is not only well placed to respond appropriately but it has been commissioned and given the requisite tools to do so. The call is therefore for the Church to enlist these foundational resources available to it and to put them to good use as it is demanded by its calling.     

Touching the Taboo in Sacred Space: Reading Sherley Anne Williams's Dessa Rose as a ‘Catalyst for a Sexual Discourse of Resistance’ in the Black Church

Abstract

Sex-talk is often differentiated or eradicated from God-talk within the Black church in America; as a result, many pertinent issues like androcentrism, heterosexism, homophobia, and violence against women continue to flourish because of the lack of dialogue regarding sexuality. Because of this womanist theologians like Kelly Brown Douglas have convincingly argued that people of African descent must engage in a ‘sexual discourse of resistance’, particularly the Black church in America, if true wholeness is to be achieved. This paper will explore themes present with Sherley Anne Williams's novel, Dessa Rose, which may be useful as catalysts for such a discourse.     

Towards a new method for bridging the gap between “smart” infants and “dumb” preschoolers

Based on violation-of-expectation (VoE) paradigms, amazing cognitive competencies have been demonstrated in young infants, which could not be shown in toddlers or even preschoolers. This divergence might as much be caused by different research methods as by discontinuities in development. As looking-time measures are not readily applicable to older children, we suggest a new method that is suitable for children from two years of age onwards. In an empirical examination of this method, 26 children aged 2–7 years learned by trial and error to always find a target picture among a pair of pictures. Each target picture was an impossible version of the non-target picture. After reaching a learning criterion, children had to generalize the learned concept to pictures belonging to a different category. Results showed that even the youngest participants reached the learning criterion and were able to apply what they had learned to another category.     

Identity-based inhibitory processing during focused attention

Recent data suggest that the operating principles governing inhibition of distractor-related activity may deviate from dominant models describing inhibitory processing during selective attention. Here we aimed to gain a better understanding of these data in order to determine whether they actually defy premises of current models. In addition to providing evidence against noninhibitory accounts of the data (see especially Experiment 6), the results support three main novel findings that challenge current theories. First, the data provide evidence that inhibition overpowered excitation from ongoing external input (Experiments 1–4), which suggests that inhibitory control processes are more powerful than current models indicate. Second, negative effects emerged even when targets appeared alone (Experiment 5), which suggests that selection does not play an essential role in triggering inhibitory processing. Third, relatively early distractor-related activity was affected, which supports a role for inhibition prior to action control (Experiment 3). These findings suggest a need to revise current models describing inhibition of distracting information during selective attention.     

Perceptions of Self and Relationship with Parents in Aggressive and Nonaggressive Rejected Children

This study examined the perceptions of self and the attachment relationship to parents in aggressive and nonaggressive rejected children, as compared to children with an average or popular sociometric status. Participants were 216 children from grades 3 and 4. They completed peer nomination measures, the Self-Perception Profile for Children (SPPC), and the Security Scale (mother and father form). Results generally confirmed the assumption that only the nonaggressive rejected children perceive themselves as less competent and worthy as a person than the more popular children. Aggressive rejected children did not report lower feelings of global self-worth or competence, although they did report lower levels of social acceptance. Furthermore, rejected-nonaggressive children perceived the relationship with their father (but not with their mother) as less secure than did the more popular children. Logistic regression analyses suggested that the linkage between felt security with father and rejected-nonaggressive status was mediated by children's self-worth. Implications for attachment theory and for the hypothesized heterogeneity among rejected children are discussed.     

The Prevention of Reading Difficulties

The purpose of this article is to provide practical advice about methods to prevent reading failure that is grounded in the new knowledge we have acquired about reading and learning to read over the past 2 decades. Recent research on reading is used to establish a set of facts about reading and reading growth that is relevant to establishing instructional objectives and methods for the prevention of reading difficulties. Within the context of our current understanding of the reasons many children find it difficult to learn to read, the article also identifies the instructional conditions that need to be in place to prevent the development of reading difficulties in all but a very small proportion of children. The article concludes with a discussion of issues and procedures for the early identification of children who are likely to experience difficulties learning to read.     

Recognizing Anxiety Disorders in the Aftermath of the World Trade Center Crisis

This article seeks to educate the reader on how to recognize the presence of anxiety disorders as they occur in the church community. The author uses medical information, Scriptural wisdom and a case illustration to help concerned Christians to assist sufferers in getting appropriate care. Anxiety disorders in the aftermath of the World Trade Center trajedy will be on the rise and the paper addresses this matter particularly for clergy, caregivers and professional counselors.