Life Stressors, Social Support, and Depressive Symptoms Among First-Time Welfare Recipients

This paper examines the associations among stressful life events, social support, and depressive symptoms in a sample of 580 first-time welfare recipients. Self-reported number of depressive symptoms was greater than in corresponding community samples. Stressors and social supports made independent main effect contributions to depressive symptoms in a multiple regression analysis. Women with transportation barriers to employment, those experiencing greater numbers of stressful life events, and those who were less satisfied with their housing situation reported greater numbers of depressive symptoms. In contrast, women who were more satisfied with their social support and those with higher attendance at religious services reported fewer depressive symptoms. Implications for welfare reform policy and programs are discussed.     

Implications of Transnational Adoption Status for Adult Korean Adoptees

This study used a consensual qualitative research method to explore the implications of transnational adoption in the lives of 12 adult Korean adoptees. From the analysis, 6 domains emerged: (a) adoption history and preadoptive memories, (b) meaning of adoption, (c) adoptive family dynamics, (d) racism, (e) identity formation, and (f) counseling experiences. Results highlight the need for more awareness surrounding transnational adoption throughout the life span. Additional suggestions concerning research and practice are discussed. Este estudio usó un método de investigación cualitativa consensual para explorar las implicaciones de la adopción transnacional en las vidas de 12 adultos coreanos adoptados. A partir del análisis, surgieron 6 parámetros: (a) la historia de adopción y las memorias preadoptivas, (b) el significado de la adopción, (c) la dinámica de la familia adoptiva, (d) racismo, (e) formación de la identidad, y (f) experiencias en consejería. Los resultados destacan la necesidad de prestar mayor atención a la adopción transnacional a lo largo de toda la vida. Se discuten sugerencias adicionales relacionadas con la investigación y la práctica.     

Depression for college students in a traditional Christian culture context: the role of attachment,spirituality and social support

The role of attachment, perceived social support, and perceived discrepancy from spiritual ideal were assessed in their association with depression in college students in a Christian culture environment. Participants (N?=?155) at a small Christian university completed the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale, the Experiences in Close Relationships questionnaire, and questions about satisfaction with social support and discrepancy of their spiritual well-being to an ideal spiritual well-being. Results showed that social support, insecure attachment and discrepancy from spiritual ideal were all significant predictors of depression. Attachment was found to moderate the association between perceived spiritual well-being and depression, with insecurely attached individuals more at risk for depression if they evaluate their spiritual development as lacking. Implications are discussed.     

MODELING INFLUENCES ON ALCOHOLICS' RATES OF ALCOHOL CONSUMPTION

Two experiments were designed to examine modeling influences on alcoholics' alcohol consumption. Three male alcoholics were paired with confederates, posing as alcoholics. In Experiment 1, alcoholic-confederate pairs participated in a 1-hour taste-rating task, which involved rating different wines on a list of adjectives. Experiment 2 consisted of 1-hour ad lib access to wine in a naturalistic bar setting. In both experiments, confederates alternated 15-minute periods of heavy and light consumption, drinking fluids resembling wine. The amount of wine consumed by alcoholics in each period was secretly recorded and the data examined on a single subject basis. In Experiment 1, two subjects increased and decreased consumption along with their confederate. The third subject followed the confederate's pattern only after the confederate demonstrated heavy consumption. All three subjects varied consumption with the confederate during Experiment 2, performed later on the same day. These results suggest that alcoholics' alcohol consumption can be modified by the social influences of modeling. The implications of this finding for the loss of control hypothesis and alcoholism treatment maintenance were discussed.     

Operant conditioning of licking in vampire bats,Desmodus rotundus

Four adult female vampire bats (Desmodus rotundus), weighing 28–35 g, were autoshaped to keypress to obtain 0.5-ml quantities of defibrinated cattle blood reinforcer. Keypressing required 7 g of force, and response rates were moderately low (500–600 presses/h). Because of the force requirements, the apparatus was then modified so that licking from a tube would deliver the blood reinforcer. Bats were trained on variable-ratio, fixed-ratio, variable-interval, and fixed-interval schedules. Some of the schedules produced lick-response rates averaging 60/min. With conditioned suppression (light stimulus paired with brief electric footshock), bats learned within 15 sessions to completely suppress operant licking while the light was on.     

From Victim to Perpetrator of Trauma: Lived Experiences of Gang-Involved Urban Refugee Youth in Kenya

Somali children and youth in displacement are exposed to prolonged trauma and chronic violence. In spite of a striking link among trauma, gang activities, victimization, and perpetration of violence, however, few studies have been conducted with Somali refugee youth in low-resource urban settings. This qualitative study demonstrates how prolonged trauma shapes ecological conditions of refugee life that induce vulnerable youth to forge support systems through gang membership and violence. The accession of the challenges, from loss of family, to discrimination and police brutality, and to chronic impoverishment, forces the high-risk refugee youth to replicate the various forms of violence to which they have been exposed to survive. Undergoing such chronic and cumulated trauma, these youth continue to normalize and become further desensitized to violence. The systems perspective of this study expands understanding of the intersection of trauma and gang membership and implies the need for an expanded approach to trauma and understanding of the complexities of gang involvement, beyond posttraumatic stress disorder treatment and clinical intervention.