Centering culture in the treatment of opioid use disorder with American Indian and Alaska Native Communities: Contributions from a National Collaborative Board

American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) communities are disproportionally impacted by the opioid overdose epidemic. There remains a dearth of research evaluating methods for effectively implementing treatments for opioid use disorder (OUD) within these communities. We describe proceedings from a 2-day Collaborative Board (CB) meeting tasked with developing an implementation intervention for AI/AN clinical programs to improve the delivery of medications to treat OUD (MOUD). The CB was comprised of Elders, cultural leaders, providers, individuals with lived experience with OUD, and researchers from over 25 communities, organizations, and academic institutions. Conversations were audio-recorded, transcribed, and coded by two academic researchers with interpretation oversight provided by the CB. These proceedings provided a foundation for ongoing CB work and a frame for developing the program-level implementation intervention using a strength-based and holistic model of OUD recovery and wellbeing. Topics of discussion posed to the CB included engagement and recovery strategies, integration of extended family traditions, and addressing stigma and building trust with providers and clients. Integration of traditional healing practices, ceremonies, and other cultural practices was recommended. The importance of centering AI/AN culture and involving family were highlighted as priorities for the intervention.     

A comparative analysis of North American adolescent and adult mass murderers

Thirty adult mass murderers and 34 adolescent mass murderers in North America are compared on both offender and offense variables to delineate similarities and differences. Findings indicate a plethora of psychiatric disturbances and odd/reclusive and acting-out personality traits. Predisposing factors include a fascination with weapons and war among many of the adolescents and the development of a "warrior mentality" in most of the adults. Precipitating factors indicate a major rejection or loss in the hours or days preceding the mass murder. Results are interpreted through the lens of threat assessment for targeted violence (Borum, Fein, Vossekuil, & Bergland 1999), recognizing that a fact-based, dynamic behavioral approach is most useful for mitigating risk of such an extremely low-base-rate violent crime.     

Examining the Outcomes of Having a Calling: Does Context Matter?

Purpose

The purpose of this study was to examine the cognitive, affective, and behavioral outcomes of calling. Further, the study examined the conditions under which individuals with a calling thrive, specifically focusing on the moderating role of work discretion and participative decision making.

Design/Methodology/Approach

Data were collected using surveys from 298 teachers and aides working in 68 child care centers.

Implications

The study results demonstrate that having a strong work calling is beneficial for both individuals and organizations. Results show that individuals who have a strong work calling are more committed to their organizations, have less emotional exhaustion and exhibit higher levels of contextual performance. Thus, in order to reap positive outcomes from their work individuals should engage in work that enables them to pursue their calling. Also, organizations will have increased work outcomes by hiring individuals who have a strong work calling. Further, organizations will benefit greatly by creating conditions that enable individuals to pursue their calling. Findings indicate that individuals with a high calling thrive in organizations that have more participative decision-making practices and which offer high work discretion.

Originality/Value

The study significantly contributes to the scant literature on calling by examining the affective, cognitive, and behavioral outcomes of calling. The study also responds to calls for research on the conditions under which calling leads to positive individual and work outcomes and identifies the conditions under which workers with a strong calling thrive.

     

Distinctions among agency, communion, and unmitigated agency and communion according to the interpersonal circumplex, Five-factor model, and social-emotional correlates

In this study, we examined common measures of agency (AG), communion (CM), and unmitigated agency (UA) and unmitigated communion (UC) using the interpersonal circumplex and Five-factor models (FFM) as conceptual frameworks. AG aligned with interpersonal dominance in circumplex space and related positively to conscientiousness and inversely to neuroticism. CM corresponded with interpersonal affiliation and related positively to conscientiousness. UA was consistent with hostile-dominance and related to lower conscientiousness and higher neuroticism. UC related to friendly submission but was not strongly represented in the circumplex and did not relate to the FFM. Each construct showed distinct social-emotional correlates. These findings support the convergent and divergent properties of the constructs but suggest that additional attention to the conceptual definition and measurement of UC is warranted.     

Feeding violence: A reply

Genetic Screening: Ethical Issues, Nuffield Council on Bioethics, 1993, 115 pages, pb £6.00 from Nuffield Foundation, 28 Bedford Sq. London W1.

Draft Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and the Dignity of the Human Being with Regard to the Application of Biology and Medicine: Bioethics Convention and Explanatory Report, DIR/JUR (94) 2, Strasbourg: Council of Europe, July 1994.

UNESCO International Bioethics Committee: Report of the subcommittee on genetic screening and testing, Paris; November 1994.     

The invisible barrier: Neighbourhood poverty and integration of immigrants in Canada

The rise of poverty among industrial nations including Canada since the late 1980s has resulted in a higher number of neighbourhoods with a high poverty rate, which in turn has led to an increase in the occurrence of other social ills such as poor educational and health care services, high crime, and high unemployment rates. The combination of these social ills and the social isolation experienced by those in extremely poor neighbourhoods has given rise to a particular lifestyle and subculture, closely related to Lewis’ (1971) notion of the culture of poverty. An examination of 1996 census tract data in Canada shows that immigrants are more likely than non-immigrants to live in neighbourhoods with high rates of poverty. We argue that such an overrepresentation can have serious consequences for the process of integration of immigrants, as it acts as an invisible barrier to their economic success, and can hamper their children’s ambitions.     

Structural and behavioural determinants of immigrant and non-immigrant health status: Results from the Canadian community health survey

The purpose of this paper, which utilizes data from the Canadian Community Health Survey (CCHS-Cycle 1.1), is threefold. The first is to examine the health of Canadian immigrants in relation to non-immigrants, focusing on the relationship between key health determinants and health status. Second, it tests whether these data support the well-documented ‘healthy immigrant effect’. The third is to evaluate the usefulness of using a large national database to study ‘special populations’ such as immigrants. Through a comparison of findings from previous studies, the authors highlight the strengths and weaknesses of different datasets for investigating immigrant health and, by extension, the health of other unique populations in Canada. The present study found that recent arrivals to Canada tended to be substantially healthier than the Canadian-born population. However, this advantage was lost over time, as immigrants with longer residence histories (10 years of residence or longer) tended to have inferior health statuses relative to the Canadian-born. These results indicate that the ‘healthy immigrant effect’ continues to manifest itself in Canada. The findings also suggest that the large sample of immigrants in the CCHS facilitated statistically significant associations between health determinants and health status. This is in contrast to the results of previous studies on immigrant health-such as those using the National Population Health Survey (NPHS)—which reported a number of non-significant and counter-intuitive relationships. We suggest that the CCHS, a comparatively much larger dataset with a diverse sample of immigrants, is a useful survey instrument to evaluate the health and well-being of special populations.     

The serotonin transporter promoter polymorphism and childhood positive and negative emotionality

Association studies of the serotonin transporter promoter polymorphism (5-HTTLPR) and negative emotionality (NE) are inconclusive. However, emerging evidence suggests that the association between this polymorphism and NE may be influenced by levels of another temperament trait, positive emotionality (PE). Therefore, this study examined whether the association between the 5-HTTLPR and NE was moderated by PE. A community sample of 413 three-year-old children completed a standardized battery of laboratory tasks designed to tap temperamental emotionality. Children were also genotyped for the 5-HTTLPR. No direct association between 5-HTTLPR genotype and NE was found. However, the interaction of child PE and NE predicted 5-HTTLPR genotype. Furthermore, children with a short allele who were also low in PE had significantly greater NE than children without a short allele or children with high PE. Our findings suggest that the short allele of the 5-HTTLPR is associated with NE only in the context of low PE. Inconsistent links between NE and this gene in previous research may stem from the failure to consider other temperament traits that moderate associations.     

Chomskyan Theory of Language: A Phenomenological Re-evaluation

Journal of Indian Council of Philosophical Research - The field of enquiry into the phenomenon of language has long been dominated by the Computational-Representational (C-R) theories of language....