Child Victims' Attributions about Being Physically Abused: An Examination of Factors Associated with Symptom Severity

The goal of the present study was to examine a conceptual attributional model for the development of psychopathology after child physical abuse. Physically abused or maltreated children referred for treatment completed a series of measures to assess parent-to-child violence, abuse-specific attributions and general attributional style, other potential predictors, and children's psychopathology. Results revealed that the severity of current parent-to-child violence was associated with children's internalizing and externalizing symptoms. Attributions predicted the level of children's psychopathology beyond the variance accounted for by the severity of parent-to-child violence. The severity of parent-to-child violence, attributions about the abuse, general attributional style, and level of family functioning accounted for 28%–63% of the variance in children's abuse-specific, internalizing, and externalizing symptoms. Implications of the findings and research recommendations are discussed.     

Effect of Favorable Employment Change on Alcohol Abuse: One- and Five-Year Follow-Ups in the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth

Job loss has been linked to adverse outcomes such as alcohol abuse, but improved employment, usually assumed to be beneficial, has seldom been evaluated and may not help with addictive disorders. Using the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, young adults who were unemployed or underemployed (low income or involuntary part-time) in 1984 were followed up in 1985 and 1989. Controlling for 1984 alcohol abuse, there were no effects of positive employment change on 1985 symptoms, but there were significant restorative effects on 1985 binge drinking among those who were heavy drinkers in 1984. There also appeared to be an indirect link of favorable 1984–1985 employment change to heavy drinking in 1989 via 1989 employment status. Because the effects of underemployment partially resembled those of unemployment, the discussion cautions against the conventional wisdom of promoting any work, including underemployment, as curative for the ills of unemployment.     

Comorbidity of drug abuse treatment

Research has suggested that comorbidity, the concurrence of substance abuse disorders with other psychiatric disorders, may have prognostic value and important implications for the treatment of substance abuse. Knowledge of the prevalence of comorbid disorder is important because it will enable treatment services to be appropriately configured and designed for clinical drug treatment populations. The form and duration of comorbidity may be influenced by a variety of factors, which include the class of drug being abused, the duration of drug use, the individual sensitivity to drug effects, and whether the drug effects are acute or due to withdrawal or residual conditions. This paper addresses three important scientific questions: (1) What is the prevalence of comorbid disorders in a drug abuser population? (2) What is the stability of psychiatric diagnoses in a drug abuser population? (3) Does the existence of a comorbid disorder influence the outcome of drug abuse treatment?     

AN EFFECTIVENESS TRIAL OF CONTINGENCY MANAGEMENT IN A FELONY PREADJUDICATION DRUG COURT

This study evaluated a contingency management (CM) program in a drug court. Gift certificates for compliance were delivered at 4‐ to 6‐week intervals (total value = $390.00). Participants in one condition earned gift certificates that escalated by $5.00 increments. Participants in a second condition began earning higher magnitude gift certificates, and the density of reinforcement was gradually decreased. No main effects of CM were detected, which appears to be attributable to a ceiling effect from the intensive contingencies already delivered in the drug court and the low density of reinforcement. Preplanned interaction analyses suggested that participants with more serious criminal backgrounds might have performed better in the CM conditions. This suggests that CM programs may be best suited for more incorrigible drug offenders.     

Integrating traditional and non‐traditional approaches to treat a client with a co‐occurring addictive and mental disorder: A case study

This paper presents a case study of a male client with co‐occurring addictive and psychological problems. The aim is to describe this client's treatment within an inpatient facility that provided integrated care for those diagnosed with both mental illness and substance abuse. The course of treatment from admission to discharge and follow‐up are discussed in an effort to provide a detailed account of the treatment modalities used to best help this client. Implications for counselling clients with similar issues and concerns are discussed.     

EEG Biofeedback for Addictive Disorders—The State of the Art in 2004

This paper reviews studies of brainwave biofeedback as a therapeutic technique for substance use disorder. This modality is attractive as a medication free, neurophysiologic, and self actualizing treatment for a substance based, brain impaired and self-defeating disorder. Three approaches are described and the literature for each reviewed. Alpha–theta occipital feedback was originally employed to facilitate autosuggestion in hypnagogic states to augment standard therapy approaches in substance abuse treatment programs and appears most suited for chronic treatment resistant alcoholics. Beta augmentation feedback in conjunction with alpha/theta feedback has been employed in mixed substance abuse and stimulant abuse with good results. Individualized brainwave biofeedback based on correcting EEG abnormalities, or based on addressing comorbid conditions is a third approach that has been described, and may be most appropriate where confounding comorbid conditions are present. Although effectiveness in certain hard to treat populations (conventional treatment resistant alcoholics, crack cocaine addicts, cognitively impaired substance abusers) is promising, better-designed controlled studies are needed.     

Contingency Management for Attendance to Group Substance Abuse Treatment Administered by Clinicians in Community Clinics

Contingency management (CM) is effective in enhancing retention in therapy. After an 8-week baseline, four community-based substance abuse treatment clinics were exposed in random order to 16 weeks of standard care with CM followed by 16 weeks of standard care without CM or vice versa. In total, 75 outpatients participated. Patients who were enrolled in the clinics when the CM treatment phase was in effect attended a significantly greater percentage of therapy sessions than patients who were enrolled in treatment when CM was not in effect. This study is one of the first to investigate CM in community settings implemented entirely by community clinicians, and results suggest that CM is effective in improving therapy attendance.     

Binge drinking and violence against intimate partners in Russia

This study is the first to provide information on the association between intimate partner violence (IPV) and binge drinking among Russian university students. Using data from 500 (58% female) university students from the four Russian sites of the International Dating Violence Study, we found gender differences in rates of IPV perpetration and in the association between binge drinking and IPV. Specifically, more females than males perpetrated IPV, and the associations between binge drinking and IPV were stronger for the female students than for the male students. In addition, antisocial traits and behavior (ATSB) were significantly related to both binge drinking and IPV perpetration for males and females. For males, the relatively weak associations between binge drinking and IPV perpetration disappeared once ASTB was accounted for. For females, the relationship decreased but remained significant when ATSB was statistically controlled. Path analyses confirmed that this pattern of relationships would be consistent with ATSB serving as a partial mediator between binge drinking and IPV perpetration. However, other alternative mediation and moderation models for the relationships between binge drinking, IPV perpetration, and ATSB could not be ruled out with this one-wave correlational study.     

“Shepherd My Sheep”: Clerical Readiness to Meet Psychological and Existential Needs from Victims of Sexual Abuse

Consequences of sexual abuse are highly associated with psychological suffering. The minister can be the first person a victim, belonging to a Christian congregation, turns to for support. This study investigated the reported readiness among ministers of the Church of Sweden to disclose ongoing sexual abuse and meet psychological as well as existential needs of victims. Questionnaires were administered to ministers in all dioceses. A majority, 77%, reported that they as professionals had met victims of sexual abuse and they estimated their readiness for this task as high. However, there is still a need to promote further an accepting attitude and to establish cooperation with social authorities and non-confessional professionals.     

Social learning,sexual and physical abuse,and adult crime

This research examines the relationship between childhood physical and sexual abuse and the types of crimes committed by male adult offenders. We use the method of discriminant prediction to determine whether independent and dependent variables are related in ways that theories predict. Our analyses of data from the Survey of Inmates in State and Federal Correctional Facilities suggest that offenders model specific behaviors to which they have been exposed. Male offenders who were sexually abused as a child are more likely to commit sexual offenses, particularly sexual offenses against children, than nonsexual offenses. Offenders who were physically abused are more likely to engage in violent offenses than nonviolent offenses. Further analyses show that sexual offenders, and to a lesser extent violent offenders, are likely to specialize in those offenses. Our results are consistent with a social learning approach. They address a heretofore neglected issue: what exactly do children model when they are mistreated. Aggr. Behav. 35:489–501, 2009. © 2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.