Search

Recent empirical studies on mental health generally report racial/ethnic differences in depression rates but typically do not control for potential confounding by sample contextual variations in historical epoch, geographical location, and social demography. An empirical study of race/ethnicity differences in psychological distress is reported as an attempt to control these contexts by using a sample that is homogeneous in age, historical epoch, geography, and social demography (954 youth ages 18-19 living in a single, large urban community). No mean differences in psychological distress were observed among four racial/ethnic groups: Asians, African Americans, Latinos, and non-Hispanic Whites. A second analysis compared 17 different racial/ethnic groups defined in terms of family national origin. No differences in psychological distress were found among these groups. The findings are consistent with the view that race/ethnicity itself is not related to disparities in mental health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: In this empirical study, the authors examined (1) actual use of counseling for emotional problems and (2) the assumptions that ethnicity, sex, social class, and psychological distress are associated with disparities in use of counseling. Participants: Participants were 1,773 diverse undergraduate students at an urban university. Methods: The authors collected data via self-administered questionnaires between 1999 and 2005; they used a cross-sectional correlational research design, including analysis of variance statistical procedures. Results: Students' level of counseling use (10%) was similar to that estimated for a national college sample. Students reporting higher levels of distress were more likely to use counseling; however, more than three-fourths of students who reported clinically significant levels of distress had not received counseling. Conclusions: The authors observed no disparities in use of mental health services in terms of sex, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A study of 1,142 older adolescents living in the central city of a large urban area found a complex set of relationships among exposure to community violence, psychological distress, gender, ethnicity, and educational status. Although males and school dropouts had higher levels of exposure and females had higher levels of psychological distress, the relationship between exposure to community violence and psychological distress did not differ by gender, ethnicity or educational status. The findings are interpreted in terms of the theory of protective and vulnerability processes. The authors conclude that the relationship between exposure to community violence and psychological distress is robust. doi:10.1300/J146v15n01_06 [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article is concerned with the "size of the relationship" between exposure to chronic community violence and psychological symptoms among adolescents. It analyzes all relevant empirical studies in the published literature during the last 20 years; uses quantitative methods to summarize findings; and estimates the effect size using meta-analysis. The 37 independent samples (n = 17,322) were coded on 19 categories, including size and characteristics of sample, and characteristics of the independent and dependent variables. Findings indicate that there is a positive correlation between exposure to community violence and psychological distress; and that the effect size (r = .25) of this relationship is low-medium. The estimated effect size of the relationship points to new issues such as the characteristics of the psychosocial dynamics of resilience in the face of exposure to community violence and how exposure to community violence interacts with other potentially traumatic experiences in the producing of psychological distress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Describes the relations of psychological distress with objective individual, family, and neighborhood characteristics of urban adolescents in New York City. Explanation of the psychological distress variation; Relationship between neighborhood socioeconomic status and psychological distress; Correlation between family status and race.

Presents data testing the hypothesis that the relationship between exposure to recurring community violence during high school years and later experiencing of symptoms of psychological distress contains a quadratic component. Measurement of psychological distress; Conceptualization of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder.

Data regarding belief in freedom of speech and press collected in early 1970 in face-to-face interviews with 2486 respondents in a national probability sample of adults test several hypotheses derived from previous empirical research. The general findings were: (a) a minority of adults in the U.S. fully accept the principle of free speech and press; (b) belief in free speech and press is related to a variety of demographic variables; (c) people who label themselves as liberal, who are high consumers of written mass media, and who are more active in the political process are more likely to endorse freedom of speech and press; and (d) patterns of relationship between belief in freedom of speech and press and other social psychological and demographic variables are rather stable over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A review of the literature indicates that little empirical knowledge exists about what influences learning in master of social work (MSW) research courses. The current study presents data on selected student characteristics and course performance collected from 162 students in several sections of an MSW foundation research course in a single university. The sections had the same curricular content but were taught by four instructors with quite different professional backgrounds and teaching styles. Student performance did not differ across the different instructors. Undergraduate grade point average was positively correlated with performance, and having an undergraduate major in social service was negatively correlated, but other student characteristics were unrelated to performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article describes the distribution of selected sexual attitudes and behaviors in the United States based on responses of a national probability sample of adults in the contiguous states. Research on sexual attitudes and behaviors have been conducted almost exclusively in the past with selected non-representative samples. Several factors undoubtedly contribute to this almost universal use of selected, non-representative samples, but two are perhaps central: the high cost of acquiring representative samples, especially representative national samples of the general population; and anticipatory anxiety about asking sexual questions of a representative unselected sample of people. The first of these is indeed a fact of life, representative samples are costly. The extent of comparability between the "selected' and the national "representative samples on the overlap variables would provide useful information regarding the extent of the generalizability of the additional results of the research on the selected sample. This paper is presented as a modest move in the direction outlined above. It provides a description of the responses of a national probability sample of adults to a quite limited set of questions regarding sexual attitudes and behaviors.

Data from 162 MSW students were analyzed to test the propositions that social work students have high levels of anxiety about research and statistics and that this anxiety has a detrimental effect on students' performance in a required research and statistics course. Levels of anxiety about research and statistics were very varied and only 12% of the stuents bad "very high" levels of anxiety. The relationships between such anxiety and performance in the course was not statistically significant. Anxiety reduction activities may be appropriate for humane reasons but the activities are not likely to increase students' learning of research and statistics. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Data are presented from a questionnaire mailed to a random sample of District Attorneys stratified by state and by population of county, achieving a 69% response. Prosecuting attorneys, as a group, vary greatly among themselves in their perceptions of the degree to which obscenity and pornography constitute a problem in their communities. Concern about pornography is very highly correlated with size of community and with changes in the availability of pornography: concern is found in large urban situations and when the availability of pornography seems to be increasing (but not when it is stable). Behavioral indices of concern, such as effort expended in law enforcement and numbers of prosecutions, do not indicate as serious concern as do verbal indices. Those aspects of the distribution of pornography that are verbally reported to be the source of concern are not the aspects of distribution that are prosecuted. The citizenry in general is perceived as somewhat apathetic about pornography. A post hoc analysis attempts to make conceptual sense of these empirical data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The data reported in this paper come from a national probability sample survey designed to provide an empirical description of the national experience with explicit sexual materials, the public's attitudes toward these types of material, and social-psychological correlates of both experience and attitudes. An overwhelming majority of adults report having been exposed at some time in their life to very explicit sexual materials that are often labeled pornography. Nevertheless, considerable variation in experience does exist. Differential exposure is related to the content of depictions, mode of depiction, and characteristics of the viewer. The data do not support a concept of a "contemporary community standard" relating to the representation of sexual matters: There does not exist anything approaching consensus in attitudes regarding the availability of sexual materials; attitudes toward availability vary greatly according to the circumstances of availability; and attitudes vary considerably among groups formed on the basis of demographic characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pornography has not always been a social issue. Indeed societal concern about it has waxed and waned several times in the past 200 years, and this concern seems to have been a function of accessibility, religious influences, and social manners. The emergence of pornography as a current social issue is associated with a series of Supreme Court cases beginning in the late 1950s, posing the question as to whether or not legal prohibition of obscenity violates the First Amendment guarantees of freedom of speech and freedom of the press. The ensuing discussion was based primarily on fear and speculation because there were few empirical facts to inform the discussion. In 1967 Congress declared that obscenity and pornography were matters of national concern, raised questions about the effects of. these materials, called for a thorough study, and authorized the use of funds for the collection of relevant scientific data. Thus the beginning of extensive ‘scientific’ analysis of the social issue of pornography. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents an introductory statement to the September 1973 issue of "Journal of Social Issues."

Examines the development of ethnic attitudes in adolescence. Processes involved in the development of attitudes; Subjects in the study; Scales used to measure the level of subjects' ethnic attitudes; Techniques used in the statistical analysis; Explanations of the differential rates of development.