African American Oxford House residents: sources of abstinent social networks

The current study found that African American residents of Oxford House (OH) used Narcotics Anonymous (NA) at high rates, and that both OH and NA strongly contributed to abstinent social networks. Having siblings and other family members in one's network predicted substance use among network members, whereas spouses, parents, and children did not have an effect on the rate of substance use. These findings suggest that OH and NA may be effective sources of abstinent social support for African Americans recovering from substance abuse. However, family members are well represented in the support networks of African Americans in OH.     

Stress and coping: the roles of ethnicity and gender in substance abuse recovery

This study investigated ethnic and gender differences in reported resource losses and gains for recovering substance abusers living in Oxford Houses (OH). Participants (n = 829) completed a version of Hobfoll's (1998) Conservation of Resources (COR) Evaluation. Results indicated significant individual differences in resources, based on gender, ethnicity, and the length of OH residential stay. Men reported fewer resource gains and losses than women. With respect to ethnicity, African-Americans reported greater gains and losses in resources than European-Americans. Individuals with less time in an OH also reported having experienced more losses in the past 3 months.     

Attitudes of a community members as a function of participatory research with Oxford Houses

Citizen participation in research may include involvement in generating original ideas, planning appropriate designs, collecting data, and helping to implement interventions. Unfortunately, little is known about the attitudes of the community members who participate in such research processes. In the present exploratory study, a team of community members (4 men, 3 women; age > 30 years old) who were employed as investigator research associates to evaluate an innovative substance abuse recovery home were asked for their perspectives about their involvement in the research effort. Findings indicated that these community members felt their participation was a positive experience. Moreover, while their understanding and sense of participation in the research process increased, their identification and affiliation with their support organization was not reduced. Results imply that there is a need to better understand how citizen members of community organizations are affected by their involvement in the research process.     

Creating a home to promote recovery: the physical environments of Oxford House

The interior and exterior physical characteristics of substance abuse recovery program dwellings (11 woman, 44 men) from three geographic sections of the United States were assessed at creating a "house-as-home" for residents. Although each house was independently governed and operated by residents, results indicated vast similarities among the interior characteristics, amenities, and structural aspects. These rented dwellings also had similar well-maintained exterior characteristics, despite their geographic locations. Follow-up interviews of former residents indicated that these house characteristics and amenities helped create a sense of home not found in traditional institutional facilities. Results suggested that residents of self-governed independently operated recovery houses may create and maintain safe and sober settings that elicit a sense of home among residents.     

Explaining Sexual Harassment Judgments: Looking Beyond Gender of the Rater

Law and Human Behavior - In two decades of research on sexual harassment, one finding that appears repeatedly is that gender of the rater influences judgments about sexual harassment such that...     

Lay persons' versus psychologists' judgments of psychologically aggressive actions by a husband and wife

Literature assessing knowledge of and attitudes toward social issues has demonstrated that mental health professionals and lay persons often differ greatly. To add to the normative information in the field of psychological abuse and to determine whether the differences previously found between mental health professionals and lay persons extend to this field, a sample from each group rated psychologically aggressive items by a husband toward his wife. For the 102 items, psychologists were more likely to label the behaviors as "psychological abuse," but this tendency was due to psychologists considering the behaviors as either "always" or "possibly" abusive, whereas lay persons demonstrated a bimodal response pattern of rating the behaviors as "always" or "never" psychological abuse. Lay persons were much more likely than psychologists to rate items high in terms of severity level, however. The two groups used different contextual factors for determining that a behavior was psychological abuse when they initially were uncertain that it was abusive.     

The Effects of British and American Trial Procedures on the Quality of Juror Decision-Making

Compared to American trial procedures, British procedures provide a less distracting environment in which jurors can process trial evidence. Relying on theories of persuasion, it was predicted that jurors viewing British procedures would be less affected by extra-evidentiary cues and would be more sensitive to evidence strength variations than jurors in American trials. Participants (N = 245) viewed a mock trial in which trial procedure, judge's nonverbal behavior, and evidence strength were varied. Participants judged the British procedures to be more civil and fair than American procedures but were less likely to find for the plaintiff. Although jurors recalled more trial facts when they viewed British procedures, they were not more sensitive to variations in evidence strength. There was some evidence that British procedures may increase the influence of judge's nonverbal behavior on juror judgments. The relative benefits of different trial procedures are discussed.     

The law and practice associated with advance directives in Canada and Australia: similarities, differences and debates

This article is a summary of research that investigated the Canadian and Australian legislative framework associated with advance directives in health care. The research focused on the context in which older people are encouraged to use advance directives. These are directions about refusal of medical treatment given in advance of incompetence. An advance directive may be given in a written document (living will) expressing one's wishes, by appointing another person (proxy) to make the decisions, or as a combination of the two. A lack of consistency and clarity about the terminology was found in both countries. This could be a barrier for older people to express their wishes in advance. Several confusing issues were also identified with the legislation related to advance directives. There appears to be a move towards appointing a substitute decision-maker, but with significant differences across the Australian States and in Canadian Provinces. The "conversation" about future decisions emerged as an important theme, together with an emphasis on the process of "advance care planning" replacing the focus on advance directive forms.     

Using resolution calculations to assess changes in capillary electrophoresis run parameters

Capillary electrophoresis is widely used in the forensic community for the analysis of Short Tandem Repeat DNA. The CE system used in most forensic laboratories allows the user to modify standard operational protocols to accommodate some samples that fall outside of interpretational guidelines. We have made operational changes and monitored system resolution and the ability of the software to identify alleles as a result of these modifications. Increased amount of amplified product in the injection preparation, lengthened injection times or repeated injections of the same sample were all investigated along with variations in run voltages. Certain protocol modifications offer some advantages to the analysis of STRs and may allow the analyst to avoid extraction of additional portions of crime scene samples to achieve interpretable results.