Social Work Today E-Zine

There is no question that the recent economic crisis has wreaked havoc on companies and on families across the country. Now, a recent study of 300 married, working couples conducted by Wayne Hochwarter, PhD, the Jim Moran Professor of Management at Florida State University’s College of Business, is revealing just how deeply the crunch is being felt.

In the study, Hochwarter sought to find out how the financial crisis is affecting people both at work and in their personal lives. His results show that in the workplace, large numbers of people are feeling more stress, more pressure from management, and more concern about their job security and are witnessing more incivility.

The following are among Hochwarter’s findings:

*More than 70% of both men and women in the survey confirmed that the recession has significantly increased the stress levels of employees in recent months.

*More than 65% predicted significant job changes to occur within one year, causing employees to grow progressively more concerned about job status; 80% of employees reported being nervous about their long-term financial well-being.

*More than 40% of employees reported increased incivility (i.e., “backstabbing,” “sucking up,” and politicking) as a means to stay employed in the event of a layoff.

The study also explored the shifts in home life due to the financial crisis. More than 70% of both men and women admitted making significant spending changes, including a decision to limit or eliminate the purchase of items deemed nonessential. More than 80% of both men and women also admitted that it was unlikely they would be able to retire when they wanted and with the amount of money anticipated as recently as one year ago.

— Source: Florida State University

Ageism is still rampant in America, and many old people themselves trade in unflattering stereotypes of the elderly, including helplessness and incompetence. Such caricatures are not only false and cruel, they are also unhealthy. Research has shown that old people who believe in negative age stereotypes tend to fulfill them.

And it may not just be elders who are harmed by ageism. A new study in Psychological Science, suggests that young, healthy people who stereotype old people may themselves be at risk of heart disease many years down the road. Researchers examined data on hundreds of men and women who have been studied for almost four decades as part of the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging.

The researchers examined the health histories of all the volunteers, focusing on cardiovascular disease, and they discovered that there was a striking link between ageism early in life and poor heart health later on. That is, those who viewed old age in negative terms were much more likely to experience some kind of cardiovascular disorder over the next four decades. The scientists also looked at a subset of volunteers who didn’t have any heart problems until after they were 60—at least 21 years later—and found that these people were likely to have been negative about aging from early on. The episodes of heart disease could not be explained by smoking, depression, cholesterol, family history, or any of a myriad other possible risk factors.

What this suggests, the authors wrote, is that people are internalizing stereotypes of old age when they are still quite young—with far reaching consequences. This is the first scientific look at people maturing into the very people they have been unkindly caricaturing. It could be taken as a cautionary tale for those who think they’ll never grow old.

— Source: Association for Psychological Science

Children and teens of parents with bipolar disorder appear to have an increased risk of early-onset bipolar disorder, mood disorders and anxiety disorders, according to a report in the Archives of General Psychiatry.

Boris Birmaher, MD, of Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, and colleagues compared 388 offspring (aged 6 to 18) of 233 parents with bipolar disorder to 251 offspring of 143 demographically matched control parents. Parents were assessed for psychiatric disorders, family psychiatric history, family environment, and other variables, and were also interviewed about their children. Children were assessed directly for bipolar disorder and other psychiatric disorders by researchers who did not know their parents’ diagnoses.

Compared with the offspring of control parents, children of parents with bipolar disorder had an increased risk of having a bipolar spectrum disorder (10.6% vs. 0.8%) and having any mood or anxiety disorder. Children in families where both parents had bipolar disorders also were more likely than those in families containing one parent with bipolar disorder to develop the condition (28.6% vs. 9.9%); however, their risk for other psychiatric disorders was the same as offspring of one parent with bipolar disorder.

“Consistent with the literature, most parents with bipolar disorder recollected that their illness started before age 20 years and about 20% had illness that started before age 13 years,” the authors wrote. “In contrast, most of their children developed their first bipolar disorder episode before age 12 years, suggesting the possibility that parents were more perceptive of their children’s symptoms early in life or perhaps that bipolar disorder has more penetrance and manifests earlier in new generations.”

— Source: American Medical Association

The Council on Social Work Education (CSWE) joins its profession in celebrating March as Social Work Month, a month to reflect on the progress made in advancing social work education internationally and domestically and among both current and future leaders. The theme for 2009 is “Social Work: Purpose and Possibility.”

Internationally, the CSWE’s Katherine A. Kendall Institute (KAKI) is planning a disaster management seminar in China to build on the successes of programming held in Barbados and South Africa over the last 2 years. KAKI is co-organizing this seminar with the China Association of Social Work Education, China Journal of Social Work, the International Association of Schools of Social Work, the Joint PolyU-PekingU China Social Work Research Centre, and the department of applied social sciences at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University.

CSWE’s volunteer leadership bodies—CSWE’s Commissions on Curriculum and Educational Innovation, Diversity and Social and Economic Justice, Global Social Work Education, and Professional Development—are working to improve social work education as a profession. One of the most significant developments is the emerging CSWE Leadership Institute. Spearheaded by the Council on Leadership Development, the Leadership Institute will offer special sessions at the CSWE’s annual program meeting designed to develop leadership among its members.

— Source: The Council on Social Work Education

A new study shows that people who are socially active and not easily stressed may be less likely to develop dementia. The research is published in Neurology.

The study involves 506 older people who did not have dementia when first examined. The group was given questionnaires about their personality traits and lifestyle. The personality questions identified people with different degrees of neuroticism and measured extraversion. Those who were not easily distressed were calm and self-satisfied, whereas people who were easily distressed were emotionally unstable, negative, and nervous. Outgoing people scored high on the extraversion scale and were socially active and optimistic compared with people with low extraversion who were reserved and introspective.

The lifestyle questionnaire determined how often each person regularly participated in leisure or organizational activities and the richness of their social network. Participants were followed for six years. During that time, 144 developed dementia.

The study found that people who were not socially active but calm and relaxed had a 50% lower risk of developing dementia compared with people who were isolated and prone to distress. The dementia risk was also 50% lower for people who were outgoing and calm compared to those who were outgoing and prone to distress.

“In the past, studies have shown that chronic distress can affect parts of the brain, such as the hippocampus, possibly leading to dementia, but our findings suggest that having a calm and outgoing personality in combination with a socially active lifestyle may decrease the risk of developing dementia even further,” says study author Hui-Xin Wang, PhD, with the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden.

— Source: American Academy of Neurology

Spending time with a grandparent is linked with better social skills and fewer behavior problems among adolescents, especially those living in single-parent or stepfamily households, according to a new study.

The study, appearing in the Journal of Family Psychology, found that children and adolescents whose parents have separated or divorced see their grandparents as confidants and sources of comfort.

“Grandparents are a positive force for all families but play a significant role in families undergoing difficulties,” says lead author Shalhevet Attar-Schwartz, PhD, of The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. “They can reduce the negative influence of parents separating and be a resource for children who are going through these family changes.”

The researchers asked 1,515 English and Welsh 11 to 16 year olds from 1,010 schools who lived with two biological parents (66.3%), a single parent (18%), or within stepfamilies (15.7%) how much involvement they had with their closest grandparents to see if this relationship made a difference in the children’s emotional and behavioral adjustment.

Students reported that the more they talked to a grandparent about social and school activities, got advice, or felt they could ask for money, the less hyperactive and disruptive they were, says Attar-Schwartz. They were also more likely to get along with their peers. “This was found across all three family structures,” she says. “But adolescents in single-parent households and stepfamilies benefited the most. The effect of their grandparents’ involvement was stronger compared to children from two biological parent families.”

These findings can be generalized to the U.S. population, the authors said. “It is likely that those adolescents in the United States who have regular contact with their grandparents also reap the same benefits,” says Attar-Schwartz.

— Source: American Psychological Association

Family conflict, drug or alcohol use and pre-existing suicidal thoughts were the strongest predictors of suicidal events among adolescents whose depression treatment was changed after a lack of response to a previous medication.

The findings were reported today in the article "Predictors of Spontaneous and Systematically Assessed Suicidal Adverse Events in the Treatment of SSRI-Resistant Depression in Adolescents (TORDIA) Study," at AJP in Advance.

In the study, 334 adolescent patients who had not responded to a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor were switched to a different SSRI or to venlafaxine, with or without cognitive-behavioral therapy. Forty-eight patients experienced a suicidal event-suicidal ideation (new or worsening), a suicidal threat or a suicide attempt. The median time from a suicidal threat to a suicidal event was three weeks. In the article, lead author David Brent, MD, and colleagues recommend careful monitoring of more severely depressed adolescent patients who have high levels of suicidal thoughts or family conflict.

Treatments that target family conflict and emotion regulation early may help reduce suicidal events. Likewise, since the predictors of suicidal events also predict poor treatment response, targeting family conflict, suicidal ideation and drug use may hasten response and help to reduce the incidence of these events.

— Source: American Psychiatric Association

Women in strained marriages are more likely to feel depressed and suffer high blood pressure, obesity, and other signs of metabolic syndrome, a group of risk factors for heart disease, stroke, and diabetes, University of Utah psychologists found. The same study found men in strained marriages also are more likely to feel depressed, yet do not face an increased risk of metabolic syndrome.

“We hypothesized that negative aspects of marriages like arguing and being angry would be associated with higher levels of metabolic syndrome,” says the study’s first author, Nancy Henry, a doctoral student in psychology. “We further anticipated that this relationship would be at least partly due to depressive symptoms. … We found this was true for wives in this study, but not for husbands.”

For their wider study, the researchers used the Dan Jones & Associates polling firm and newspaper ads during 2001-2005 to recruit 276 couples, who were married an average of 20 years and aged 40 to 70. Each couple filled out several questionnaires for both the encompassing study and for Henry’s study.

The questionnaires included 10 scales: three to assess positive aspects of marriage quality; three scales to measure negative aspects of marital quality; and four scales to gauge symptoms of depression (not necessarily full-blown clinical depression). Each couple also went to a university clinic, where their waists and blood pressure were measured and they were given lab tests for “good” cholesterol, fasting glucose and triglycerides. Together, those data determined if a study participant had metabolic syndrome. They also underwent a screening test designed to exclude any couple that already had cardiovascular disease.

“We know from previous research that women are more sensitive and responsive to relationship problems than men,” Henry says. “The results of this study suggest those problems could harm their health. Understanding the emotional and relationship health of couples can be an important overall factor in understanding physical health.”

— Source: University of Utah

Americans expressed serious concerns regarding healthcare in a new report by the Department of Health and Human Services. The report, “Americans Speak on Health Reform: Report on Health Care Community Discussions,” summarizes comments from the thousands of Americans who hosted and participated in Health Care Community Discussions across the country and highlights the need for immediate action to reform healthcare. It can be found at the Web site www.healthreform.gov.

Over 9,000 people signed up in all 50 states and the District of Columbia to host a Health Care Community Discussion, and thousands more participated in these gatherings. After each discussion, guests and hosts were asked to fill out a survey and submit a group report summarizing the group's concerns and suggestions. Group reports from 3,276 Health Care Community Discussions as well as Participant Surveys from 30,603 participants were collected, analyzed, and are summarized in the report.

The cost of healthcare services and health insurance was the top concern about the healthcare system for 55% of discussion participants. Participants also cited lack of emphasis on prevention, preexisting conditions limiting insurance access, and the quality of care as key concerns. A qualitative analysis found that the Health Care Community Discussions focused on concerns about a "broken" health system, access to health insurance and services, rising premiums and drug costs, medical mistakes, and the system not being "for them."

Health Care Community Discussion group participants agreed on the values and direction that should guide reform. They called for a system that is fair, patient centered and choice oriented, simple and efficient, and comprehensive. Participants also offered a wide range of specific solutions, including making health insurance more accessible through an insurance "exchange" or a public plan option, creating scorecards on quality and cost, improving the nutritional content of school lunches, implementing electronic medical records, and creating an AmeriCorps for health workers.

— Source: Health and Human Services

In the year following Hurricane Katrina, the health of survivors aged 65 and over declined nearly four times that of a national sample of older adults not affected by the disaster, according to a study led by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Researchers monitored enrollees of a New Orleans-area managed care organization and found morbidity rates increased 12.6% compared with 3.4% nationwide. The results are published in The American Journal of Managed Care.

“In the year following Hurricane Katrina, morbidity rates increased substantially,” says Lynda Burton, ScD, lead author of the study and an adjunct associate professor with the Bloomberg School’s department of health policy and management.

Researchers examined the managed care organization claims of 20,612 white and nonwhite residents of New Orleans, Jefferson, St. Tammany, and Plaquemines parishes who were over the age of 65 and enrolled in Peoples Health, a provider-owned managed care organization. Burton, along with colleagues, conducted an observational study to compare mortality, morbidity, and services used for one year before and after Hurricane Katrina.

The researchers found that emergency department visits increased 100% in the month following Katrina, and by 21% over the next year compared with the pre-Katrina year. Hospitalization rates increased 66% in the first month after Katrina and maintained an increase of 23% over the ensuing year.

“The enormous health burden experienced by older individuals and the disruptions in service utilization reveal the long-term effects of Hurricane Katrina on this vulnerable population,” says Jonathan Weiner, DrPH, senior author of the study and director of the Bloomberg School’s PhD Program in Health Services Research and Policy. “Although quick rebuilding of the provider network may have attenuated more severe health outcomes for this managed care population, new policies must be introduced to deal with the health consequences of a major disaster.”

— Source: Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

The day that robot playmates help children with autism learn the social skills that they naturally lack has come a step closer with the development of a system that allows a robot to monitor a child's emotional state.

Over the last five years, Nilanjan Sarkar, PhD, an associate professor of mechanical engineering at Vanderbilt University has developed a method that uses physiological measurements to monitor an individual’s emotional state. He worked with Wendy Stone, PhD, a professor of pediatrics and investigator at Vanderbilt's Kennedy Center, to develop this new approach.

In the first set of experiments, Sarkar and Stone conducted with six children ranging in age from 13 to 16 years who had been diagnosed with ASD. A battery of physiological sensors were attached to the participants and they were asked to play two games.

One of the most encouraging results of their preliminary research was discovering that the affective model works accurately in different settings. The model was based on the readings they took as the children played the first game. The game was then changed in several ways, which allowed the researchers to induce emotions of interest, boredom, anxiety, and engagement in each participant. The model was then used to predict how each child would react to changes in the computer game. When they switched to the second game, they found that the model's predictions were equally accurate.

The researchers report that the physiological data they gathered can be used to develop an affective model for each individual that can predict his or her emotional states of liking, anxiety, and engagement with an accuracy of better than 80%. Furthermore, they showed that this information can be used in real time to alter the game configuration in ways that significantly increase the children's degree of engagement.

A robot's ability to provide consistent and predictable responses should be particularly useful for treating ASD. Each child has individual triggers. Once a particular trigger is identified, a robot could be programmed to increase the stimulus at such a gradual rate that the child doesn't notice it. The robot could also be programmed to back off when it senses that its responses are beginning to bother the child. In this fashion, it could build up the child's tolerance to the problem stimulus.

— Source: Vanderbilt University

A new Web site (http://rethinkingdrinking.niaaa.nih.gov) and booklet from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) could help many people reduce their risk for alcohol problems. Called Rethinking Drinking, the new materials present evidence-based information about risky drinking patterns, the alcohol content of drinks, and the signs of an alcohol problem, along with information about medications and other resources to help people who choose to cut back or quit drinking. The Web site also features interactive tools, such as calculators for measuring alcohol calories and drink sizes.

Based on results of a NIAAA survey of 43,000 U.S. adults, Rethinking Drinking presents single-day and weekly low-risk limits for men and women. For men, these limits are no more than four drinks on any single day and 14 drinks per week, and for women, no more than three drinks on any day and seven per week. Among people who exceed these limits, about one in four already has alcoholism or alcohol abuse, and the rest are at increased risk for these and other problems.

"People can still have trouble drinking within these limits, especially if they drink too quickly, have certain medical conditions, or are older," says NIAAA Acting Director Kenneth Warren, PhD. He adds that Rethinking Drinking presents information previously released in the NIAAA Clinician's Guide in a comprehensive, user-friendly way for the general public, so that anyone who chooses to drink alcohol can evaluate their individual risk.

— Source: The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism

Diagnosing and treating college students with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) presents several challenges, a University of Alabama expert says. Dr. Mark Thomas, staff physician at the university’s Student Health Center and the University Medical Center, says doctors prescribing drugs to control ADHD in college students need to make sure the drugs control students' ADHD throughout the day. The drugs need to cover students' active lifestyles.

"After all, a college student's day is typically much longer than most persons and ADHD affects so much more than class and studying," Thomas says.

Doctors can use at least two methods of medicating for extending ADHD mediation coverage throughout the day: Students can take multiple doses of the same medication or combine long- and short-acting medication. There are two limitations, according to Thomas. First, ADHD medication tends to be short-acting unless it is delivered via a specialized, controlled-release product. Also, too much medication at night may keep students awake. Thomas says students may think staying awake is a symptom of the medication and avoid taking it; however, it also can be a symptom of ADHD itself. Students need to keep taking their ADHD medications every day including weekends and holidays to help them succeed in college and life.

Thomas also notes that skipping medication as prescribed by a physician makes any side effects from the medication stronger than they would be if a student's body was accustomed to taking the drug. He says he hears of students worrying about becoming addicted to the medication, but the prescribed levels are safe and are nonaddictive. Students are more likely to have an addiction to the medication or have other substance abuse problems if they do not take medication as prescribed.

Students with ADHD also face challenges beyond regulating medication. Negotiating the campus environment and managing their time wisely without the day to day assistance of their parents can be daunting.

— Source: University of Alabama

Urban single mothers nearing the end of their welfare eligibility appear more likely to have substance use and psychiatric disorders than women in the general population, and often do not receive treatment, according to a report in the Archives of General Psychiatry.

Judith A. Cook, PhD, of the University of Illinois at Chicago, and colleagues surveyed 333 urban single mothers in the final 24 months of their Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program eligibility, part of a random sample of 1,000 women. Participants were all “work eligible,” and in-person interviews were conducted to detect psychiatric and substance use disorders and assess whether women with these conditions received treatment.

A total of 61% of the women had a psychiatric or substance use disorder during their lifetime and 46.8% had at least one disorder in the 12 months preceding the interview. Psychiatric disorders affected 53.2% of the women over their lifetime and 44.1% within the previous 12-months. A total of 29.1% had lifetime substance use disorders and 9% had substance use disorders within the previous 12 months.

These rates are significantly higher than those of U.S. women in the general population, the authors note. For example, depression in the previous 12 months was more than twice as common in the study sample as in a recent national study of women in the general population (17.4% vs. 8.6%), prevalence of anxiety disorders was 60% higher (39% vs. 23.4%), drug abuse estimates were five times higher (5.4% vs. 0.7%) and alcohol abuse and dependence estimates were almost three times higher (5.1% vs. 1.8%). In addition, 21.3% of the participants on TANF had both substance use and other mental health disorders over their lifetime, including 6.3% in the previous 12 months.

“Despite the high prevalence of psychiatric and substance use disorders in this population, many remain untreated,” they wrote. Only 21.7% of those with psychiatric disorders in the previous 12 months received treatment, whereas 41.4% of those with 12-month substance abuse disorders received treatment.

— Source: American Medical Association

A statistical modeling study suggests that problems with alcohol abuse may lead to an increased risk of depression, as opposed to the reverse model in which individuals with depression self-medicate with alcohol, according to a report in the Archives of General Psychiatry.

Using data gathered from a 25-year study of health and development in New Zealand, David M. Fergusson, PhD, and colleagues at the Christchurch School of Medicine and Health Sciences of the University of Otago in New Zealand, examined the associations between alcohol abuse and depression. A sample of 1,055 participants born in 1977 were assessed for both conditions at ages 17 to 18, 20 to 21 and 24 to 25 and also asked questions about lifestyle and demographic factors.

Aged 17 to 18, 19.4% of the participants met criteria for alcohol problems and 18.2% for major depression; aged 20 to 21, 22.4% had alcohol disorders and 18.2% major depression; and aged 24 to 25, 13.6% met alcohol disorder criteria and 13.8% had major depression. At all ages, alcohol abuse or dependence was associated with an increased risk of major depression—those who fulfilled criteria for alcohol abuse or dependence were 1.9 times more likely to also fulfill criteria for major depression.

Three models were tested to fit the data—one in which major depression and alcohol abuse disorders had a reciprocal association within time, a second in which alcohol disorders caused major depression, and a third in which major depression caused alcohol disorders. “This analysis suggested that the best-fitting model was one in which there was a unidirectional association from alcohol abuse or dependence to major depression but no reverse effect from major depression to alcohol abuse or dependence,” the authors wrote.

— Source: American Medical Association

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD)—but not exposure to traumatic events without the development of PTSD—may be associated with subsequent attempted suicide in young adults, according to a report in Archives of General Psychiatry.

Approximately 421,200 to 842,400 Americans aged 15 to 24 attempt suicide every year, according to background information in the article. Holly C. Wilcox, PhD, of Johns Hopkins Children’s Center, Baltimore, and colleagues studied 1,698 young adults of a group of 2,311 who had been tracked since entering the first grade in Baltimore public schools. Fifteen years later, 90-minute interviews were conducted with the participants (average age of 21) to assess the occurrence of traumatic experiences, suicide attempts, and the development of PTSD.

Of the participants interviewed, 1,273 (81%) had been exposed to a traumatic event and 100 (6%, or 8% of those exposed to trauma) developed PTSD. Suicide had been attempted by 10% of those with PTSD, compared with 2% of those who were exposed to trauma but did not develop PTSD and 5% of those who had never been exposed to traumatic events.

“The mechanisms involved in the association between PTSD and suicide attempts are not known,” the authors wrote. “There could be a common pre-existing predisposition to PTSD and suicide attempts that was present before the trauma occurred. Studies of early trauma and suicidal behaviors have implicated depression and impulsivity as possible mediators or possible pre-existing susceptibility traits.”

— Source: American Medical Association

Doctors who become addicted to alcohol and other drugs can be treated successfully and returned to medical practice with the help of special programs that couple referral to treatment and monitoring with rapid responses to noncompliance, University of Florida researchers report.

The study is the first national-level analysis of such Physician Health Programs, and confirms they are effective alternatives to simply punishing drug-addicted doctors. The findings are published in the Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment.

More than three quarters of doctors enrolled in state programs stayed drug-free over a five-year monitoring period. The results were the same regardless of whether the doctor’s drug of choice was alcohol, crack cocaine, prescription drugs, or other substances. Physician Health Programs are not addiction treatment programs, however. Instead, they provide intensive, long-term case management and monitoring.

The research evaluated 904 physicians admitted to 16 state-run Physician Health Programs from 1995 to 2001. Doctors in the programs had to abstain from alcohol or other drugs, and were tested frequently at random for five or more years. If tests revealed they had returned to substance abuse, swift action was taken: doctors were reported to the medical board, which could lead to loss of their licenses.

One fifth of doctors were reported to their board during treatment and monitoring—some more than once with multiple disciplinary actions taken.
But 78% of doctors in the programs had no positive drug tests during five years of intensive monitoring. And five to seven years after starting treatment, 72% were actively practicing medicine without drug abuse or malpractice.

Eighteen percent left medical practice, while others relapsed into drug use. Three percent of those who didn’t complete their programs had substance-related deaths or committed suicide. Although the programs employed various approaches, the researchers found that success was not related to specific therapists or modes of therapy, but rather to the long-term nature of the treatment.

— Source: University of Florida News

A series of six studies conducted by University of Washington and Michigan State University psychologists shows that whites react more negatively to racial minority individuals who strongly identify with their racial group than to racial minority individuals who weakly identify with their group.

The research, published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, provides an explanation for why some blacks report personally experiencing more prejudice than others.

“Research has shown that the more minorities identify with their group, the more prejudice they report experiencing,” says Cheryl Kaiser, a University of Washington assistant psychology professor and lead author of the paper. “Most research has explained this finding by focusing on factors within minorities that make some individuals more susceptible to perceiving prejudice than others. Our studies provide an alternative explanation by showing that whites react more negatively toward strongly identified minorities than weakly identified ones.”

Kaiser and her colleague recruited nearly 400 college students for the six studies that measured whites’ attitudes toward blacks and Latinos. They also were surveyed on their general attitudes about blacks or Latinos, depending on the study. In the studies, minorities were either described as being strongly identified (where their group was very important and a central aspect of their self) or weakly identified (where their group was less important and not at the core of their self).

She says individuals typically want to be around others who share their values and exclude people who don’t share those values or world views. The research indicated that whites perceived strongly identified minorities as less likely to share similar worldviews with them relative to weakly identified minorities. “We are not arguing that minorities should not identify with their group,” says Kaiser. “Such identification can be important and provides meaning, self worth, and identity.

— Source: University of Washington

A quick survey of cases demonstrates that U.S. trial courts impose identical and harsh sentences on juvenile murder accomplices, regardless of the circumstances of the homicide or their degree of participation in it. In a new study, a University of Arkansas law professor argues that this occurs because the U.S. Supreme Court and the Eighth Amendment—the section of the U.S. Constitution that addresses “cruel and unusual punishment”—do not provide direction to lower courts on sentencing juvenile accomplices in murder cases.

“Courts still impose identical sentences on juvenile offenders who have drastically different roles in the crimes for which they were convicted,” says Brian Gallini, an assistant professor of law. “This is because current Eighth Amendment standards, as interpreted by the Supreme Court, do not provide sentencing courts with the analytical tools necessary to account for stark differences in fact scenarios. In other words, the Court’s Eighth Amendment jurisprudence does not resolve a juvenile nonkiller’s constitutional challenge to a life-without-parole sentence.”

The deficiency, Gallini argues, leads to a further erosion of the ideals underlying punishment of juveniles in the United States. It subverts the conventional ideology that they deserve a shot at rehabilitation. The lack of guidance from the highest court also reflects a growing trend over the past 25 years of trying and sentencing juveniles as adults.

“The determinate sentencing of juvenile accomplice nonkillers is inconsistent with what is left of the rehabilitation-based approach to juvenile criminal justice,” Gallini says. “The trend of punishing more minors like adults for a growing number of crimes reflects a philosophical shift in juvenile punishment ideology from rehabilitative to punitive. And I think this shift has inappropriately exposed less-culpable juvenile nonkillers to mandatory life without parole sentences.”

— Source: University of Arkansas, Fayetteville

Approximately 80% of HIV-infected Texas prison inmates did not fill an initial prescription for antiretroviral therapy (ART) within 30 days of their release from prison, potentially increasing their risk for harmful health consequences because of an interruption of treatment, according to a study in The Journal of the American Medical Association.

Because the majority of former inmates are without private or public health insurance for the first several months after release, accessing ART in a timely manner represents a challenge. “Those who discontinue ART at this time are at increased risk of developing a higher viral burden, resulting in greater infectiousness and higher levels of drug resistance, potentially creating reservoirs of drug-resistant HIV in the general community,” the authors wrote.

Researchers conducted a study in the nation’s largest state prison system to determine the proportion of HIV-infected inmates who filled a prescription for ART medication within 60 days following their release from prison. The study included all 2,115 HIV-infected inmates released from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice prison system between January 2004 and December 2007 who were receiving ART before release.

Among the entire study group, an initial prescription for ART medication was filled by 115 (5.4%) of the former inmates within 10 days of release, by 375 (17.7%) within 30 days, and by 634 (30%) within 60 days. The authors found that Hispanic and black inmates were less likely to fill a prescription within 10 days and 30 days compared with non-Hispanic whites. Inmates released on parole were more likely to fill a prescription within 30 days and 60 days than inmates with a standard, unsupervised release. Inmates who received formal assistance in completing an AIDS Drug Assistance Program application were more likely to fill a prescription than inmates who received no such assistance.

“In this 4-year study of HIV-infected inmates released from the nation’s largest state prison system, we found that only 5% of released inmates filled a prescription for ART medications soon enough (ie, within 10 days after release) to avoid treatment interruption,” the authors wrote. In all of the subgroups examined, at least 90% of the former inmates experienced a treatment interruption; more than 70% had a treatment interruption that lasted at least 30 days, and more than 60% had a treatment interruption that lasted at least 60 days.

— Source: American Medical Association