Middle school teachers' intentions to refer eating disorder students for professional counseling

Eating disorders can lead to a negative impact on students' academic growth, nutrition and can cause death (Claude-Pierre, 1997; Manley, Rickson, & Standeven, 2000; Romeo, 1996). Early intervention by referring students to professional counseling might help counter these negative consequences. The teacher is in the position to assist students by providing health information, identifying those with problems, and intervening for a variety of dysfunctions that may include the eating disorders called anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa (Myers-Clark & Christopher, 2000). However teachers are in a difficult position to know when to address student concerns and judge what action to take (Ransley, 1999). Teachers' engagement seems crucial (Smolak, Harris, Levine, & Shisslak, 2001) since eating disorders are being identified in younger children. The purpose of this study was to examine (a) the relationships of the theoretical constructs, attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control of the theory of planned behavior as predictors of behavioral intention (Ajzen & Fishbein, 1980) of middle school teachers to identify and refer suspected anorexia nervosa (AN) and/or bulimia nervosa (BN) students for professional help; and (b) the actual behavior of middle school teachers who reported having ever referred a student suspected of having AN and BN and those teachers who reported not having made such a referral. One hundred fourteen middle school teachers in Broward County, Florida volunteered to participate in the ex post facto research. Data were collected from a questionnaire. Multiple regression analysis revealed that the constructs of subjective norm (perception of what others think about one's performance of behavior combined with motivation to comply) and perceived behavioral control (perception regarding the extent of the difficulty of performing the behavior) were predictive of teachers' intent (likelihood of engaging in a behavior) to refer. However, the analysis revealed that attitude (overall positive or negative feeling with respect to performing the behavior) was not predictive of teachers' intent. Discriminant function analysis revealed that both intent and perceived behavioral control were predictive of group membership, either having referred a student suspected of having an eating disorder for counseling or not having made such a referral. Attitude and subjective norm were not predictive of group membership.

Professional counseling workshop at NOW conference, Houston

General note: Title and date provided by Bettye Lane.

Women attend job counseling meeting

General note: Title and date provided by Bettye Lane.

Impact of Genetic Testing and Family Health History Based Risk Counseling on Behavior Change and Cognitive Precursors for Type 2 Diabetes.

Family health history (FHH) in the context of risk assessment has been shown to positively impact risk perception and behavior change. The added value of genetic risk testing is less certain. The aim of this study was to determine the impact of Type 2 Diabetes (T2D) FHH and genetic risk counseling on behavior and its cognitive precursors. Subjects were non-diabetic patients randomized to counseling that included FHH +/- T2D genetic testing. Measurements included weight, BMI, fasting glucose at baseline and 12 months and behavioral and cognitive precursor (T2D risk perception and control over disease development) surveys at baseline, 3, and 12 months. 391 subjects enrolled of which 312 completed the study. Behavioral and clinical outcomes did not differ across FHH or genetic risk but cognitive precursors did. Higher FHH risk was associated with a stronger perceived T2D risk (pKendall < 0.001) and with a perception of "serious" risk (pKendall < 0.001). Genetic risk did not influence risk perception, but was correlated with an increase in perception of "serious" risk for moderate (pKendall = 0.04) and average FHH risk subjects (pKendall = 0.01), though not for the high FHH risk group. Perceived control over T2D risk was high and not affected by FHH or genetic risk. FHH appears to have a strong impact on cognitive precursors of behavior change, suggesting it could be leveraged to enhance risk counseling, particularly when lifestyle change is desirable. Genetic risk was able to alter perceptions about the seriousness of T2D risk in those with moderate and average FHH risk, suggesting that FHH could be used to selectively identify individuals who may benefit from genetic risk testing.

The association of HIV counseling and testing with HIV risk behaviors in a random population-based survey in Kisumu, Kenya.

HIV testing has been promoted as a key HIV prevention strategy in low-resource settings, despite studies showing variable impact on risk behavior. We sought to examine rates of HIV testing and the association between testing and sexual risk behaviors in Kisumu, Kenya. Participants were interviewed about HIV testing and sexual risk behaviors. They then underwent HIV serologic testing. We found that 47% of women and 36% of men reported prior testing. Two-thirds of participants who tested HIV-positive in this study reported no prior HIV test. Women who had undergone recent testing were less likely to report high-risk behaviors than women who had never been tested; this was not seen among men. Although rates of HIV testing were higher than seen in previous studies, the majority of HIV-infected people were unaware of their status. Efforts should be made to increase HIV testing among this population.

Motivação no trabalho voluntário: expectativas e motivos na Pastoral da Criança

The present study has proposed a structural model to identify the reasons why individuals become voluntary, keep and exit this type of work. The empirical space was the Pastoral da Criança - social action agency of the National Conference of Bishops of Brazil (CNBB) - community-based institution that has its work based on solidarity and the sharing of knowledge. The theoretical framework has the context in which are volunteering studies in Brazilian and world level. Then discuss the various concepts of volunteering and presented the theoretical models of volunteer motivation. Studies of Mostyn (1983) and studies conducted by the BEPEGE-Base for Studies and Research in Management Policies and Strategies - in their line of research GERQUAL - Human Resource Management and Organizational Quality - of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte as Carvalho e Souza(2006), Souza, Medeiros e Fernandes (2006), Souza et al (2009, 2010), Cavalcante et al (2011a, 2011b, 2011c, 2011d) were the main theoretical references for the construction of the model that was tested. Data collection was done through a survey with 71 indicators, in 2 visits to cities from the Diocese of Pesqueira, Pernambuco. The first data collection occurred in the period between May 30 and June 3, 2011, in Buique/PE and the second collection happened in Pesqueira/PE, in St. Joseph Seminary, in the period between July 6-8, 2011. 720 questionnaires were collected. The sample was divided into two parts. Exploratory Factor Analysis was applied in first part and Confirmatory Factor Analysis - structural equation modeling - in the second half. The examination of the results achieved by the expectations, reasons for entry, reasons for staying and exit reasons showed that all hypotheses were accepted. So the motivation of voluntary Pastoral da Criança can be explained by a set of interactions between these five constructs: Altruistic, Affectionate, Amiable, Adjusted and Astute

Percepções das relações entre trabalho remunerado e trabalho voluntário: um estudo com voluntários da pastoral da criança

O trabalho é uma atividade de fundamental importância na vida do homem porque é uma condição essencial para sua existência social. Ao longo do tempo o trabalho teve diversas definições e significados, mas na atualidade pode-se dizer que ele sintetiza e satisfaz três necessidades essenciais da natureza humana, a necessidade de subsistir (função econômica), a de criar (função psicológica) e a de colaborar (função social). Nesse contexto a presente pesquisa objetivou compreender as relações estabelecidas entre os trabalhos remunerado e voluntário, na perspectiva de identificar os aspectos convergentes e divergentes dessas atividades, que possam explicar a permanência dos sujeitos nas duas dimensões laborais e ao mesmo tempo entender qual a importância e reflexo que ambas as atividades têm na vida dos entrevistados. Como instrumento de coleta de dados foi utilizado a entrevista semi-estruturada do tipo focalizada. Foram entrevistados nove líderes da Pastoral da Criança no mês de dezembro de 2009 na cidade de Natal/RN. Os dados foram interpretados à luz da análise de conteúdo, proposta por Bardin. Os principais resultados encontrados quanto aos aspectos convergentes do trabalho remunerado foram a importância do salário para prover a sobrevivência, convivência com as pessoas e troca de experiência além do valor do trabalho para manter a dignidade do homem. Os pontos divergentes enquadraram: trabalho como obrigação, competitividade no ambiente laboral e baixa remuneração. Quanto ao trabalho voluntário, os aspectos convergentes emergidos foram a realização pessoal, a solidariedade, o envolvimento com a causa da Pastoral, valorização das coisas que possui diante de outras realidades mais difíceis, reconhecimento e prestígio dos voluntários pelas famílias assistidas, e por fim a visão do trabalho voluntário como complementação da vida. Com relação aos pontos divergentes foram citados a falta de comprometimento de alguns voluntários, bem como a necessidade de adesão de novas pessoas à este tipo de trabalho, limitação de querer fazer mais e não poder, exigências do público assistido e imagem distorcida da missão da Pastoral da Criança por parte das famílias, além da constatação dos níveis de pobreza e injustiça social que geram desigualdades as mais diversas. Sobre os aspectos marcantes para a permanência dos sujeitos nas duas esferas de trabalho, o amor, a dedicação, a realização pessoal foram os motivos mais apontados. Nas relações entre os dois trabalhos, as transferências de valores aparecem como recíprocas e naturais, sendo aproveitados para estabelecê-las o que cada atividade laboral apresenta de melhor. Conclui-se que o altruísmo, a solidariedade, a generosidade, o acolhimento, a paz espiritual, o bem-estar e sobretudo o amor, são sentimentos que sustentam e confortam o homem, cujas relações aparecem de forma expressiva nas falas dos entrevistados e permeando todo o decorrer da pesquisa.

Evaluating the efficiency of community-based HIV testing and counseling strategies in sub-Saharan Africa

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Washington, 2016-08

Assessing the resilience of a real-world social-ecological system: lessons from a multidisciplinary evaluation of a South African pastoral system

In the past decades, social-ecological systems (SESs) worldwide have undergone dramatic transformations with often detrimental consequences for livelihoods. Although resilience thinking offers promising conceptual frameworks to understand SES transformations, empirical resilience assessments of real-world SESs are still rare because SES complexity requires integrating knowledge, theories, and approaches from different disciplines. Taking up this challenge, we empirically assess the resilience of a South African pastoral SES to drought using various methods from natural and social sciences. In the ecological subsystem, we analyze rangelands’ ability to buffer drought effects on forage provision, using soil and vegetation indicators. In the social subsystem, we assess households’ and communities’ capacities to mitigate drought effects, applying agronomic and institutional indicators and benchmarking against practices and institutions in traditional pastoral SESs. Our results indicate that a decoupling of livelihoods from livestock-generated income was initiated by government interventions in the 1930s. In the post-apartheid phase, minimum-input strategies of herd management were adopted, leading to a recovery of rangeland vegetation due to unintentionally reduced stocking densities. Because current livelihood security is mainly based on external monetary resources (pensions, child grants, and disability grants), household resilience to drought is higher than in historical phases. Our study is one of the first to use a truly multidisciplinary resilience assessment. Conflicting results from partial assessments underline that measuring narrow indicator sets may impede a deeper understanding of SES transformations. The results also imply that the resilience of contemporary, open SESs cannot be explained by an inward-looking approach because essential connections and drivers at other scales have become relevant in the globalized world. Our study thus has helped to identify pitfalls in empirical resilience assessment and to improve the conceptualization of SES dynamics.

Foreclosure Counseling with Latino Households: Policy Assumptions in a Changing Demographic Landscape

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Washington, 2016-08

Planeación estratégica del servicio pastoral Hermanas Dominicas de la Caridad de la Presentación del barrio Villa Israel

Bogotá (Colombia): Universidad de La Salle. Facultad de Ciencias Administrativas y Contables. Programa de Administración de Empresas

Integrating life design counseling and psychotherapy: Possibilities and practices.

The debate on the relation between career counseling and psychotherapy revealed the close relation between psychosocial and career issues. The connection between these two approaches paves the way for the integration of career counseling into psychotherapy. One of the key challenges of integrating career counseling into psychotherapy is to avoid discontinuities and inconsistencies in the psychotherapeutic intervention. The aim of this article is, therefore, to present the Systematic Treatment Selection perspective as a framework for an effective integration of psychotherapy and career counseling. Then, Life Design Counseling is described, highlighting its possibilities to fit the psychotherapeutic approach. Finally, an illustrative case is presented and discussed.

NUTRITIONAL COUNSELING OFFERED TO CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS WITH DISABILITIES

Objective: To evaluate the nutritional counseling offered to children and adolescents with disabilities in the municipality of Santa Cruz, RN, Brazil. Methods: Observational, crosssectional, population-based study, developed from May to December 2013, with 102 children and adolescents attending a Children’s Rehabilitation Center. We conducted socioeconomic, demographic, health and lifestyle assessments, and evaluated the received nutritional assistance (whether they had received nutritional counseling from any health professional in relation to food and nutrition, how often it occurred and which professional conducted such counseling). Results: Only 37% (n=37) of parents had received some nutritional guidance. Regarding the frequency of counseling, only 11.8% (n=4) of the youngsters received it 7 or more times/year; 23.5% (n=8) received it 2 to 6 times/year; and most (64.7 %, n=22) received it 1 time/year or less. The length of the nutritional counseling was short: the majority (64.7%, n=22) received only one guidance session throughout the whole period attending the institution, and less than 15% (n=5) received counseling for more than six consecutive months. For the majority (73.5%, n=25), the amount of time receiving nutritional guidance has not reached half of the monitoring period. Nutritional counseling was carried out mainly by nutritionists (89.2%, n=33). Conclusion: There was a low frequency of nutritional counseling directed specifically to the disabilities presented by the participants. When such activity was conducted, it occurred irregularly during the participant´s follow-up, only during a short period of time, and lacking connection with the monitoring by the multidisciplinary team.

Quête de sens professionnelle : l'intégration de l'identité narrative à une démarche de counseling de carrière

Le parcours professionnel de la travailleuse et du travailleur du marché du travail postindustriel se caractérise par de l’instabilité et une intensification des emplois occupés. La notion traditionnelle de la carrière comme entité continue et prévisible est révolue. Les valeurs de compétitivité et de rationalisation des coûts empreignent les environnements de travail. L’effet de ces nouvelles réalités sur la travailleuse et le travailleur réside dans le fait que ceux-ci risquent d’éprouver une perte de sens relativement à leur carrière. Perte de sens, d’abord, à l’égard de l’incohérence des différents emplois occupés à travers le temps et ensuite, perte de sens à l’égard de la dégradation des conditions de travail. Par conséquent, le parcours professionnel de la travailleuse et du travailleur d’aujourd’hui risque d’être sujet à une quête de sens double : 1) la recherche d’un fil conducteur, ou d’une cohérence, reliant ses expériences d’emploi passées, présente et anticipées; 2) la recherche d’un but, ou d’une finalité, susceptible de favoriser l’émergence d’un sentiment de plénitude existentielle et pouvant stimuler l’engagement de la personne. La conseillère ou le conseiller d’orientation qui accompagne la personne dans sa quête de sens professionnelle, peut s’appuyer sur la notion de l’identité narrative. L’identité narrative est le récit de vie que se raconte la personne afin d’intégrer un passé reconstruit, la perception du présent et l’avenir anticipé et qui lui permet de donner cohérence, but et sens à sa vie. L’entrevue de l’histoire de vie permet la construction de l’identité narrative. Elle consiste à demander à la personne de considérer sa vie comme un livre avec un titre, des chapitres et des résumés de l’intrigue. Toutefois, cette méthode a été utilisée en contexte de recherche en psychologie, mais non pas en tant que processus de counseling, et encore moins en counseling de carrière. Cet essai explore la possibilité d’adapter l’entrevue de l’histoire de vie à la pratique du counseling de carrière. Pour ce faire, la méthode de recherche spéculative (une analyse inférentielle de type extension externe) est appliquée. L’entrevue de l’histoire de vie est comparée à une démarche de counseling de carrière, celle de Bilan de compétences. Les rapports de similitude et de divergence sont dégagés entre les 2 domaines. Les éléments spécifiques à Bilan de compétences sont identifiés, puis intégrés dans l’entrevue de l’histoire de vie. Un tel transfert d’éléments implique nécessairement des modifications notables au modèle originel; il en résulte la proposition d’une démarche de counseling de carrière axée sur l’identité narrative, qui est décrite dans ses grandes lignes. En permettant à la personne de conceptualiser son parcours professionnel et personnel comme un récit avec une intrigue, il est argumenté que la démarche de counseling de carrière axée sur l’identité narrative pourrait aider la personne à trouver un fil conducteur à son parcours professionnel et à en déterminer une suite qui favorise son engagement. La pratique du counseling de carrière qui en résulte serait davantage exercée en termes de sens qu’en termes d’appariement personne-environnement. Enfin, comme la présente recherche a été réalisée à partir d’une méthode spéculative, il serait intéressant, lors d’une prochaine recherche, d’appliquer concrètement la démarche de counseling de carrière axée sur l’identité narrative à des processus d’orientation. D’une perspective théorique, il serait intéressant de poursuivre la réflexion amorcée ici en comparant le construit d’identité narrative à celui d’archétype, d’étudier leurs similitudes et leurs différences et enfin de spéculer sur les effets du construit d’archétype dans les décisions professionnelles et le comportement au travail de la personne.

Motivação no trabalho voluntário: expectativas e motivos na Pastoral da Criança

The present study has proposed a structural model to identify the reasons why individuals become voluntary, keep and exit this type of work. The empirical space was the Pastoral da Criança - social action agency of the National Conference of Bishops of Brazil (CNBB) - community-based institution that has its work based on solidarity and the sharing of knowledge. The theoretical framework has the context in which are volunteering studies in Brazilian and world level. Then discuss the various concepts of volunteering and presented the theoretical models of volunteer motivation. Studies of Mostyn (1983) and studies conducted by the BEPEGE-Base for Studies and Research in Management Policies and Strategies - in their line of research GERQUAL - Human Resource Management and Organizational Quality - of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte as Carvalho e Souza(2006), Souza, Medeiros e Fernandes (2006), Souza et al (2009, 2010), Cavalcante et al (2011a, 2011b, 2011c, 2011d) were the main theoretical references for the construction of the model that was tested. Data collection was done through a survey with 71 indicators, in 2 visits to cities from the Diocese of Pesqueira, Pernambuco. The first data collection occurred in the period between May 30 and June 3, 2011, in Buique/PE and the second collection happened in Pesqueira/PE, in St. Joseph Seminary, in the period between July 6-8, 2011. 720 questionnaires were collected. The sample was divided into two parts. Exploratory Factor Analysis was applied in first part and Confirmatory Factor Analysis - structural equation modeling - in the second half. The examination of the results achieved by the expectations, reasons for entry, reasons for staying and exit reasons showed that all hypotheses were accepted. So the motivation of voluntary Pastoral da Criança can be explained by a set of interactions between these five constructs: Altruistic, Affectionate, Amiable, Adjusted and Astute