Evaluation of a date rape prevention program for new students in a university setting

The purpose of this study was to design, implement and evaluate the effectiveness of a date rape prevention program among new students at Rice University. Six-hundred and fifteen new students were randomly assigned to one of eight residential colleges or dormitories. The distribution of students to each of the dormitories was carried out in accordance with a stratified random sampling procedure. The study population was divided into strata based on ethnicity, gender, geographical region, and academic major. The number of students randomly assigned to each of the eight dormitories was approximately 75. After this procedure was completed, each of the colleges was randomly selected to either the intervention or control group. A randomized pretest and posttest control group design was used to assess changes in attitudes, self-efficacy, and behavior with regard to date rape. All participants were given an anonymous pretest and posttest measuring attitudes, self-efficacy, and behavior immediately prior to and following the intervention. The intervention group attended the play Scruples, designed to promote date rape prevention, after which they were immediately posttested. After this initial posttest the intervention group also participated in an interactive group role-playing activity led by trained peer instructors. The control group was pretested and subject to the placebo intervention of a multiculturalism play and was posttested immediately afterwards. Later in the week this group saw the Scruples play only. Both control and intervention groups were sent a two month follow-up survey questionnaire, to measure any changes in attitudes, self-efficacy, and behavior over time. As hypothesized students who saw the play Scruples showed a change in attitudes immediately posttest but no difference in self-efficacy or behavior. The two month follow-up survey showed no change in attitudes, self-efficacy, or behavior. There was a difference at pretest in males and females attitudes, with males showing significantly more rape tolerant attitudes than females. Thus, the proposed research findings will provide a better understanding of the attitudes that perpetuate date rape, and will inform strategies for prevention programs. ^

Toxic Stress and Child Hunger Over the Life Course: Three Case Studies

The causes and contexts of food insecurity among children in the U.S. are poorly understood because the prevalence of food insecurity at the child level is low compared to the prevalence of household food insecurity. In addition, caregivers may be reluctant to admit their children may not be getting enough food due to shame or fear they might lose custody of their children. Based on our ongoing qualitative research with mothers of young children, we suggest that food security among children is related to adverse childhood experiences of caregivers. This translates into poor mental and physical health in adolescence and adulthood, which can lead to inability to secure and maintain meaningful employment that pays a living wage. In this paper we propose that researchers shift the framework for understanding food insecurity in the United States to adopt a life course approach. This demands we pay greater attention to the lifelong consequences of exposure to trauma or toxic stress—exposure to violence, rape, abuse and neglect, and housing, food, and other forms of deprivation—during childhood. We then describe three case studies of women from our ongoing study to describe a variety of toxic stress exposures and how they have an impact on a woman’s earning potential, her mental health, and attitudes toward raising children. Each woman describes her exposure to violence and deprivation as a child and adolescent, describes experiences with child hunger, and explains how her experiences have shaped her ability to nourish her children. We describe ways in which we can shift the nature of research investigations on food insecurity, and provide recommendations for policy-oriented solutions regarding income support programs, early intervention programs, child and adult mental health services, and violence prevention programs.

Assessing the impact of leadership on nurse job satisfaction and the desire for unionization in health care settings

This dissertation focuses on the leadership styles of managers, the impact these leadership styles have on the job satisfaction of staff nurses, and the proclivity of nurses to consider unionization. The aims of the dissertation include conducting a literature review on topics of leadership style, job satisfaction, and unionization; identifying and elucidating pertinent constructs with respect to shared interrelationships and how they could be measured; and developing a means of assessing if and to what extent transformational and transactional leadership styles affect nurse proclivity to unionize.^ The instrumentation selected includes the Multifactor Leadership Survey, Job Satisfaction Survey, and a newly created Union Preference Survey. Each survey instrument was evaluated as to its appropriateness to administer at a non-consultant level within a health care facility. Options other than self-administering the survey instruments include online access for participants, which provides confidentiality and encourages more responses. ^ The next part of the dissertation is a plan for health care facilities to use the survey tool by administering it themselves. The plan provides a general description of the survey tool, administering the instrument, rating the instrument, and leadership development. Integration of the three surveys is presented in a non-statistical format by coordinating the results of the three survey instrument responses. Recommendations are presented on how to improve leadership development warranted for improvement.^ The conclusions reached are that nurses’ preference for unions is influenced by the leadership style of direct report managers, as rated by staff nurses, and the nurses’ job satisfaction, which is in turn in part dependent on their managers’ leadership style. Thus, changes in leadership style can have a profound impact on nurse job satisfaction and on nurses’ preference for unionization.^