Examining Perceptions About Mental Health Care and Help-Seeking Among Rural African American Families of Adolescents

Rural African American children living in poverty have a higher prevalence rate of mental health disorders than their urban counterparts. While access to mental health services is lacking in resource scarce rural communities, African American rural residents may also be the most likely to confront significant barriers to care and help-seeking. Studies of mental health help-seeking behavior among rural families are rare, even rarer are studies of African Americans living in these areas. To address this gap, the current study examined perceptions about help-seeking for adolescents with mental health problems among rural African American families. Data were obtained from African American mothers in rural Georgia to assess their perceptions of the mental health service system, help-seeking processes, and service experiences. A mixed-method approach was implemented, integrating a quantitative survey (n = 163) with qualitative interviews (subsample n = 21). Most of the mothers expressed confidence in mental health care providers’ to help. Preferred sources of support, however, were family, church, and schools. Community stigma towards children with mental health problems and their families was a frequently endorsed perceived barrier to help-seeking. Although cultural mistrust was one of the two most frequently endorsed barriers in the survey, it did not emerge as a universal barrier to help-seeking for the mothers in this sample. Implications for research, policy, and practice include addressing family concerns about stigma, preferences for informal support and non-specialty services in addressing adolescents’ mental health problems, and building community resources to enable all youth to participate in community life.     

Traditional and Cyber Aggressors and Victims: A Comparison of Psychosocial Characteristics

To date, relatively little is known about differences between perpetrators and victims of cyber and traditional forms of aggression. Hence, this study investigated differences among traditional and cyber aggressors and victims on psychosocial characteristics typically examined in research on traditional aggression and victimization, specifically effortful control, manipulativeness, remorselessness, proactive and reactive aggression, and anxious/depressive symptoms. Participants (N = 300; 63.2% female; M age = 12.89, SD = .95; 52% Caucasian, 27% African American, 11% Latino, and 10% other) were categorized based on aggressor type (non/low aggressor, traditional-only, cyber-only, and combined traditional and cyber) and victim type (non-victim, traditional-only, cyber-only, and combined traditional and cyber). Cyber aggressors reported lower levels of reactive aggression compared to traditional-only and combined aggressors. Combined aggressors demonstrated the poorest psychosocial profile compared to all other aggressor groups. For victimization, cyber-only and combined victims reported higher levels of reactive aggression and were more likely to be cyber aggressors themselves compared to traditional-only victims and non-victims. Findings suggest that there may be unique aspects about cyber aggression and victimization that warrant further investigation.     

Analysis of hair after contamination with blood containing 6-acetylmorphine and blood containing morphine

The study was carried out to investigate external contamination of hair by blood in heroin-related post-mortem cases. Solutions were prepared containing 0.05, 0.1, 0.2, 0.5 and 3.0μg/mL of 6-monoacetylmorphine (6-AM) only or morphine only in human blood. Samples of approximately 3.2g of drug-free hair were contaminated by soaking in the blood solutions for 5min. They were then removed and left at room temperature. Approximately 0.5g of hair was collected from each of the blood soaked hair samples at 6h, 1, 2, 4 and 7 days after contamination. As each hair sample was collected it was shampoo-washed to prevent further drug absorption. Hair samples were analysed in triplicate using a fully validated method described previously. 6-AM broke down to morphine in all samples. In hair contaminated with blood containing 0.05, 0.1 and 0.2μg/mL 6-AM or morphine drug was either not detected or was detected below the limit of quantitation (0.2ng/mg hair) at all contamination times. In hair contaminated with blood spiked with 0.5μg/mL morphine, the concentration in hair ranged from 0.54 to 0.91ng/mg and in hair contaminated with blood spiked with 3.0μg/mL, from 3.25 to 5.77ng/mg. The concentrations of 6-AM ranged from 0.65 to 1.11ng/mg and morphine from 0.34 to 0.80ng/mg in hair contaminated with 0.5μg/mL 6-AM in blood. 6-AM ranged from 2.12 to 3.67ng/mg and morphine from 0.84 to 2.05ng/mg in hair contaminated with 3μg/mL 6-AM in blood. For 6-AM and morphine ANOVA statistical evaluation showed no significant difference among the concentrations over time.     

Methadone determination in puparia and its effect on the development of Lucilia sericata (Diptera, Calliphoridae)

This paper describes a sensitive UPLC-MS/MS method for quantification of methadone and 2-ethylidene-1,5-dimethyl-3,3-diphenylpyrrolidine (EDDP) in single empty puparial case of Lucilia sericata. Larvae were reared on substrates spiked with different concentrations of methadone (0-4 μg/g). Methadone was quantified in puparia reared on high concentrated substrates (0.8-4 μg/g). The major metabolite of methadone (EDDP) was not detected, confirming rapid elimination of metabolites by the larvae before pupation. The effects of methadone on the development of L. sericata were also investigated. No effect on sex ratio was detected. A significant difference was calculated for emerged adults but no trends could be observed. Concerning the developmental curve, a significant difference was observed between control and high methadone concentrations using the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test.     

Postmortem interval of skeletal remains through the detection of intraosseal hemin traces. A comparison of UV-fluorescence, luminol, Hexagon-OBTI®, and Combur® tests

With the goal of obtaining additional practically applicable methods for estimating the PMI of skeletal remains, 39 samples of human and 5 samples of domestic animal long bones with known PMI (PMI=1 to approximately 2000 years) were tested with two established methods (UV-fluorescence of a freshly sawn cross-section and the luminol test) and two screening tests (Hexagon-OBTI? test and Combur? test) that were being tried out in this context for the first time. The hypothesis underlying this experiment was the supposition that the PMI-related chemiluminescence of the luminol reaction for bone is based on the presence of persisting hemin from hemoglobin molecules in bone. Our results showed that lack of luminescence and reduced UV-fluorescence were more meaningful results for estimating PMI and excluding forensic relevance than a positive luminol reaction or strong UV-fluorescence, as both of the latter findings revealed the limitations of these methods in this particular context. Particularly for cases showing a positive luminol reaction, the use of additional absolute dating methods may be indicated. Against our expectations, both the Combur? test strips and the Hexagon-OBTI? test, which were both devised to demonstrate blood, delivered negative results for all samples. They are thus not suitable for estimating the PMI of skeletal remains. Future research will be necessary to elucidate whether the negative results obtained for these tests may be due to the poor solubility of potentially present hemoglobin or hemoglobin breakdown products in the Tris buffer used in this experiment.     

The Relationship Between Crime and Electronic Gaming Expenditure: Evidence from Victoria, Australia

Gambling in Australia is a significant economic activity. Expenditure on its many forms is sizeable and has undergone sustained periods of expansion. At the same time, the structure of the gambling industry has undergone substantial change, with the use of gaming facilities in local hotels and licensed clubs now representing one of the most predominant forms of gambling. Despite this, and the extensive international literature on the relationships between gambling and crime, there have been relatively few studies which examine the local area effects of gaming establishments on crime in Australia. This study uses a unique set of data from the Australian state of Victoria, a region in which local area expansion of gaming networks has been considerable since 1991, to investigate the relationship between gaming machine expenditure and various types of crime in 1996, 2001 and 2006. One particular focus is that of income-generating crime, defined here as theft, fraud, breaking and entering, forgery, false pretences, larceny and robbery. After controlling for a host of statistical issues, our results indicate a consistent positive and significant relationship between gaming and crime rates, especially income-generating crime rates, at the local level.     

Child Abuse in a Disciplinary Context: A Typology of Violent Family Environments

The objectives of this study were to identify and validate types of violent family environments based on child abuse in a disciplinary context. The study is original in that it simultaneously takes into account the cognitive and behavioral dimensions of the parental role as it relates to the degree of family violence in a child??s life. Cluster analyses were performed on a representative sample of 3,148 families. The Abusive profile applied to families who reported at least one severe assault on a child within the past year. This profile also had the highest levels of domestic violence, psychological aggression, and corporal punishment. The Harsh profile is nevertheless similar to the Abusive profile, despite the fact that these families reported no severe assault. The key difference is the lower score levels: the attributes are the same, but less intense. The Nonabusive profile accounted for the families with the lowest rates of domestic and parental violence, together with a negative attitude towards corporal punishment and a heightened awareness of the consequences of violence. Although the families who matched the Paradoxical profile reported very little violence, they are the least aware of the consequences of violence and the most in favor of corporal punishment. The four profiles were replicated with another cluster analysis performed on an independent representative sample of 2,465 families. Then the profiles were compared with regard to the variables used to create the clusters and other variables theoretically associated with the appearance of maltreatment. These validation methods enhance the credibility of the proposed typology.     

Expedited, chemically enhanced sperm cell recovery from cotton swabs for rape kit analysis

This report focuses on the development of a method for chemically induced enhancement of cell elution and recovery from cotton swabs. The method exploits the exclusive use of detergents for intact cell removal, and can be utilized in conjunction with, or to circumvent, conventional differential extraction (DE). Samples treated with Sarkosyl (54.4 +/- 1.8%) and sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) (78.5 +/- 0.7%) yielded higher sperm cell recoveries than a conventional DE buffer (39.4 +/- 2.1%). The results indicated that the choice of detergent affected sperm cell yield, with anionic detergents having the greatest effect. Storage time of samples affected the concentration of detergent required for optimal sperm cell recovery, longer times requiring increased detergent concentrations. In addition, the extent of sperm cell lysis by proteinase K digestion was evaluated. The results indicate that the exclusive use of SDS enhances the release of sperm and epithelial cells from a cotton swab as compared with DE buffer, providing for a more effective DNA analysis.