A Participant Evaluation of the U.S. Navy Parent Support Program

This study reports on the results of a program evaluation of the U.S. Navy New Parent Support Program (NPSP). NPSP is composed of two components: center-based parenting classes and home-based visits. Data are presented on: (a) satisfaction with program quality, (b) how well the program met its primary objectives (e.g., helps reduce parenting stress), (c) how well the NPSP met its Reasons for Being (RFBs; e.g., Helps service members concentrate on their job), and (d) program impact on mission-related outcomes (i.e., quality of life (QOL), readiness, and program impact on their decision to remain in the military). Results indicate that parents who take part in both the parenting classes and home-based visits report that the program exceeded their expectations, the program improved their perceptions of their parenting and coping skills, they perceived that the program demonstrated the Navy's concern for Sailors and their families, and the program enhanced the family's quality of life. Implications of study findings are discussed.

Reviews

Herbert J. Ellison, (ed.), Soviet Policy Toward Western Europe, Seattle and London: University of Washington Press. 1983. xvii + 322 pp. £25.00.

Edwina Moreton and Gerald Segal, (eds.), Soviet Strategy Toward Western Europe, London: George Allen & Unwin. 1984. 296 pp. £17.50.

Lawrence L. Whetten (ed.), The Present State of Communist Internationalism, Lexington & Toronto: Lexington Books, 1983, xi + 254 pp. £25.00.

Neil Harding (ed.), The State in Socialist Society, London: MacMillan, 1984, 316 pp. h/b £20.00. p/b £7.95.

Stephen White, John Gardner and George Schopflin, Communist Political Systems: an Introduction, Macmillan, 1982, viii + 293 pp. £15.00.

John Erickson, The Road to Berlin. Volume 2 of Stalin's War with Germany, London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1983. xiii + 877 pp. £20.00.

John B. Dunlop, The Faces of Contemporary Russian Nationalism, Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1983, 363 pp. £28.20.

Aryeh L. Unger, Constitutional Development in the USSR. A Guide to the Soviet Constitutions, London: Methuen, 1981. viii + 310 pp. £12.50.

Stefan Hedlund, Crisis in Soviet Agriculture, London and Sydney: Croom Helm and New York: St. Martin's Press, 1984, 228 pp. £17.95.

Vladimir Sobell, The Red Market: Industrial Co‐operation and Specialisation in Comecon, Gower Publishing Company, 1984, 265 pp. £16.50.

Raymond Hutchings, The Structural Origins of Soviet Industrial Expansion, London and Basingstoke, Macmillan: 1984, x + 242 pp. Index, £25.00.

Peter Blandon, Soviet Forest Industries, Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press. Distributed by Bowker Publishing Co., Erasmus House, Epping, Essex, UK 290 pp. £19.75.

Ronald Grigor Suny, Transcaucasia: Nationalism and Social Change. Essays in the history of Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia, University of Michigan: Ann Arbor, 1983, 349 pp. + xiv.

Sidney Bloch and Peter Reddaway, Soviet Psychiatric Abuse: The Shadow over World Psychiatry, London: Victor Gollancz Ltd. 1984, 288 pp. £10.95.

Thomas T. Hammond, Red Flag Over Afghanistan. The Communist Coup, the Soviet Invasion, and the Consequences, Boulder, Colorado; Westview Press, 1984, xvii + 261 pp. £9.75 pb., £23.00 hb.

Martin Crouch and Robert Porter (eds.), Understanding Soviet Politics through Literature. A book of readings, London: George Allen and Unwin, 1984, xi + 211 pp. h/b £15.00. p/b £6.95.

Bernard Chavance, Le système économique soviétique, Paris: Editions le Sycomore, 1983, 114pp. Price: 33F.

S. Brucan, The post‐Brezhnev era, New York: Praeger, 1983 126 pp. xiii + $21.95.     

Clinical assessment and the detention, disposition, and treatment of emotionally disturbed delinquent youths

This study examines the relationship bbetween the traditional psychodiagnostic assessment-and-treatment recommendation process and the subsequent disposition, detention, and treatment of “emotionally disturbed” delinquent youths.Results revealed that a specially funded crisis unit was significantly faster than the regular clinic in completing the diagnostic-recommendation process. However, for youngsters in both groups, the mean time between the completed recommendation and final case disposition by the court was over fifty days! Compared with the regular clinic, the crisis unit made significantly more treatment recommendations favoring institutionalization and fewer recommendations for community-based treatment strategies. Contrary to the predicted outcome, however, fewer crisis unit recommendations were approved by the court. The trend was for the court to reject recommendations for institutionalization and to support requests for community-based approaches. Furthermore, and again opposite to the outcome predicted, crisis unit clients spent significantly more days in secure detention.Results of a follow-up study on the actual treatment of crisis unit clients revealed that only nineteen percent could be documented as having received part or all of recommended treatment plans. Furthermore, there was no evidence of improved client adjustment as a result of treatment efforts. It is concluded that a tremendous need exists for effective service accountability models and heuristic management strategies within our juvenile court-corrections systems lest we continue to do $5,000 worth of diagnosis for every $5.00 worth of successful treatment.     

Comparing inmate perceptions of two residential substance abuse treatment programs

Drug and alcohol abuse by criminal offenders remains at an all time high. Residential substance abuse and treatment (RSAT) programs were developed to address the drug and alcohol treatment needs of inmates in prisons. Typically, such programs range in length from 6 to 12 months, have an Alcoholics Anonymous and/or Narcotics Anonymous component, and occur in a therapeutic community environment. Some programs also include a cognitive self-change component. Inmate participation in their programming is crucial to the success of a therapeutic community treatment environment, yet there is little research on the perceptions of RSAT inmates regarding their programming. In this research, the authors describe, compare, and contrast the perceptions of inmate clients of two RSAT programs in a rural mountain state.