Multilevel Perspectives on Community Intervention: An Example from an Indo-US HIV Prevention Project in Mumbai, India

This paper explores the meaning and applicability of multilevel interventions and the role of ethnography in identifying intervention opportunities and accounting for research design limitations. It utilizes as a case example the data and experiences from a 6-year, NIMH-funded, intervention to prevent HIV/STI among married men in urban poor communities in Mumbai, India. The experiences generated by this project illustrate the need for multilevel interventions to include: (1) ethnographically driven formative research to delineate appropriate levels, stakeholders and collaborators; (2) identification of ways to link interventions to the local culture and community context; (3) the development of a model of intervention that is sufficiently flexible to be consistently applied to different intervention levels using comparable culturally congruent concepts and approaches; (4) mechanisms to involve community residents, community based organizations and community-based institutions; and (5) approaches to data collection that can evaluate the impact of the project on multiple intersecting levels.     

Job Satisfaction of Child Welfare Workers in an Urban Setting: Status and Predictors

Large urban areas present many challenges to those children and adults who reside in those settings. The social service workers in urban areas have clients with complex, multiple needs. Reliable and consistent workers are essential to successfully working with these families. In the current study, the job satisfaction of 29 social service workers in an urban child welfare agency was assessed using the Job Satisfaction Scale (JSS). The JSS measures satisfaction in 7 areas of one's job (i.e., work, supervision, coworkers, pay and promotion, work environment, training, and position). Data indicated that the staff were relatively satisfied, that satisfaction did not vary by staff position (family worker vs. social worker/supervisor), and that neither demographic factors nor prior experiences were predictors of job satisfaction. Implications for agency management and the provision of social services to urban families are discussed.     

Developmental Timing of Onsets of Disruptive Behaviors and Later Delinquency of Inner-City Youth

A longitudinal sample of 306 males were followed with annual interviews over 4 years to evaluate the role of the timing of onset of different types of disruptive behaviors in predicting later arrest rates. In particular, we applied the Developmental Pathways model to explain progressions from less serious to more serious behaviors and progression along three types of disruptive pathways defined as Overt, Covert, and Authority Conflict behaviors. Results indicated that the sequences and the prognostic properties hypothesized for the model were supported. Most youth showed a progression from behaviors expected to occur earlier to those expected to come later according to the model. In addition, these results showed that onset timing of most types of behavior as well as rapidity of reaching more serious behavior related to arrest rate. This cross-validation extends the model to a high risk inner-city population and to Latino youth. One notable exception to the general trend found was that violence did not always follow earlier involvement in less serious offenses and did not seem to show the same onset timing relation to risk for arrests. Social-ecological differences in the precipitants of violence in the inner-city compared to other developmental settings, as well as the possibility that multiple forms of violence have differing underlying causes, may explain this exception. The model's generality suggests it has utility for guiding and discriminating risk better than simply noting the frequency, seriousness, or onset timing of delinquency.     

Rural-urban differences in generation of Chinese and Western exemplary persons: The case of China

Chinese adolescents in urban cities (Beijing, Chengdu) and rural towns (Wei Shan Zhuang, Zheng Xing) generated Chinese and Western exemplary persons and rated the values these exemplary persons represent. The results showed that the tendency to differentiate Chinese culture from Western culture was greater among urban ( vs rural) Chinese. Specifically, only urban Chinese consistently attributed Chinese moral values (more than other types of values) to self-generated Chinese exemplary persons and Western moral values (more than other types of values) to self-generated Western exemplary persons. Because urban Chinese have more frequent exposure to foreign cultures, our results suggest that frequent exposure to foreign cultures can lead to enhanced perceptions of cultural differences.     

Femininity and Masculinity in City-Form: Philosophical Urbanism as a History of Consciousness

Mutual feedback between human-made environments and facets of thought throughout history has yielded two myths: the Garden and the Citadel. Both myths correspond to Jung’s feminine and masculine collective subconscious, as well as to Nietzsche’s premise of Apollonian and Dionysian impulses in art. Nietzsche’s premise suggests, furthermore, that the feminine myth of the Garden is time-bound whereas the masculine myth of the Citadel, or the Ideal City, constitutes a spatial deportment. Throughout history the two myths have continually molded the built environment and thought, but the myth of the Ideal City – from Plato to Descartes to modernity – came to dominate city-form and ensuing aspects of contemplation. This relationship seems to have shifted during the twentieth century. Intellectual dispositions have begun to be largely nurtured by an incongruous city-form emerging from the gap between the incessant promise for an automated, well-functioning city, on the one hand, and looming alienation, coupled with the factual, malfunctioning city, on the other hand. Urban decay, a persisting and time-bound urban event that is a byproduct of this configuration, suggests the ascent of the Garden myth in post-modern city-form.     

健康投资与政府宏观卫生政策取向的经济学分析

在整体方面,经济学认为健康是劳动力与资本,是社会经济体系中最主要的生产要素;在个体方面,经济学认为健康是人力资本,是能提高消费者满足程度的耐久资本品。健康人力资本通过改善个体在劳动市场的表现,提高个人收入,并作为一种投资促进了经济增长。对我国健康投资的重点领域及政府职责作了相关政策建议。     

城市失业工人心理压力探析

城市失业工人存在生活不安定、角色扮演失败、社会比较的不平衡等一些客观潜在的压力源。心理压力又是一种主观感受,因而城市失业工人体验到的压力还受制于以下因素的影响：个体的角色意识和性格类型;家庭主要成员的主观期望和支持程度。探讨其心理压力的影响因素能为相关部门有的放矢地的制定应对措施提供依据。     

中国城市妇女赋予丈夫吸烟行为的象征意义研究

对不同社会背景的城市妇女进行深入访谈发现,其赋予丈夫吸烟行为的人类学意义为:成瘾,坏毛病,缺乏责任感,减压,小事情,男人社交方式和男性特征.由此得出结论,就女性而言,开展预防来自于其丈夫的二手烟的健康教育,应在传播吸烟和被动吸烟危害知识的基础上,设法改变其对丈夫吸烟行为的价值判断.     

流动儿童的亲子依恋与其城市适应的关系:心理韧性的中介作用

本研究旨在探讨流动儿童的亲子依恋与城市适应的关系,并探讨心理韧性在其中是否起到了中介作用。采用城市适应问卷、亲子依恋问卷、心理韧性量表,对北京市3所小学三到六年级的665名流动儿童进行了调查。经分析发现：（1）女生、低年级、父母教育水平高、公立学校、未转学的流动儿童能更好地城市适应;（2）亲子依恋、城市适应和心理韧性各维度两两相关;（3）亲子依恋中的自我模型和父母模型对城市适应均有直接预测效应。亲子依恋中的自我模型通过心理韧性进而间接影响城市适应;亲子依恋中的父母模型通过心理韧性进而间接影响城市适应;亲子依恋中的自我模型和父母模型可以共同通过心理韧性进而间接影响城市适应;心理韧性在其中均起到显著的部分中介作用。总的来说,亲子依恋可以直接影响城市适应,也可以通过心理韧性的中介作用间接影响城市适应。     

同伴侵害与人际关系取向人格特质的交叉滞后分析:城市原住儿童与农村随迁儿童的比较

研究采用间隔两年的追踪设计,分析了477名农村随迁儿童（男生57.10%;2014年时平均年龄为11.54±0.64岁）与245名城市原住儿童（男生50.60%;2014年时平均年龄为11.36±0.51岁）的同伴侵害与和谐性、人际触觉两个人际关系取向人格维度的相互影响。这些儿童分别来自上海市采取融合教育的四所公立初中。他们首次参加本研究时为初中预备年级。交叉滞后分析表明,（1）在原住儿童组,时间1的同伴侵害可以负向预测时间2的和谐性与人际触觉;（2）在随迁儿童组,和谐性与同伴侵害有负向循环作用关系,且时间1的同伴侵害可以负向预测时间2的人际触觉。研究一定程度上揭示了人际人格发展与所处环境（特别是同伴侵害的不利环境）的动态相互作用模式。文章最后讨论了原住儿童与随迁儿童混合编班的融合教育模式对所有城市儿童适应社会转型的现实意义。