Crisis-counselor perceptions of job training, stress, and satisfaction during disaster recovery.

OBJECTIVE: The United States Crisis Counseling Assistance and Training Program (CCP; authorized by the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act, 1974/2013) aims to provide disaster-recovery support to communities following natural or human-caused disasters through outreach. Job satisfaction among the crisis counselors the CCP employs may affect the delivery of outreach services to survivors and their communities. The present study was conducted to gain insight into CCP crisis counselors' experiences with job training and work-related stress as predictors of job satisfaction. METHOD: Data was collected from 47 CCP service-provider agencies, including 532 completed service-provider feedback surveys to examine the usefulness of the CCP training they had received, the support and supervision provided by program management, the workload and its duration, resources provided, and the stress experienced. Quantitative and qualitative data were examined, and a multiple linear regression was calculated to predict job satisfaction based on training usefulness, job stress, gender, age, race, full- or part-time status, highest level of education achieved, and supervisory position. RESULTS: The overall regression equation was significant, F(8, 341) = 8.428, p < .000. The regression coefficients indicated that the higher the job training was rated as useful (p < .001), the lower the job stress (p < .01), and the older the age of the respondents (p < .05), the greater the level of job satisfaction. CONCLUSION: Findings suggest that proper training and management of stress among crisis counselors are necessary for influencing levels of staff job satisfaction. Where self-care and stress management were not adequately emphasized, more stress was reported. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

Psychometric Properties of Disaster Event Reaction Items From the Crisis Counseling Individual/Family Encounter Log.

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this article was to examine the psychometric properties of the Crisis Counseling Assistance and Training Program (CCP) data collection instrument, the Individual/Family Encounter Log (IFEL). Data collected from disaster survivors included how they reacted to events in emotional, behavioral, physical, and cognitive domains. These domains are based on conceptual categorization of event reactions and allow CCP staff to provide survivors with referrals to appropriate behavioral health support resources, if warranted. METHODS: This study explored the factor structure of these survey items to determine how best to use the available information as a screen of disaster-related behavioral health indicators. Specifically, our first research question explored and confirmed the optimal factor structure of the event reaction items, and our second question examined whether the new factor structure was similar across disaster types: hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, and wildfires. Using a factor analytic technique, we tested whether our event reaction outcomes achieved consistent and reliable measurement across different disaster situations. Finally, we assessed how the new subscales were correlated with the type of risk to which CCP disaster survivors were exposed. RESULTS: Our analyses revealed 3 factors: (1) depressive-like, (2) anxiety-like, and (3) somatic. In addition, we found that these factors were coherent for hurricanes, floods, and wildfires, although the basic factor structure was not equivalent for tornadoes. CONCLUSION: Implications for use of the IFEL in disaster preparedness, response, and recovery are discussed. (Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2016;10:822-831).

Evaluation of a national effort to reach Hurricane Katrina survivors and evacuees: the crisis counseling assistance and training program.

Hurricane Katrina created the largest population of internally displaced persons in the history of the United States. Exceptions to Federal Emergency Management Agency's (FEMA's) usual eligibility requirements allowed states from across the nation to apply for Crisis Counseling Assistance and Training Program (CCP) grants to provide services to evacuees. Over a 16-month period, crisis counselors documented 1.2 million individual and group encounters across 19 CCPs. Most encounters (936,000, 80%) occurred in Presidential disaster-declared areas of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama, but many (237,000, 20%) occurred in 16 smaller "undeclared" programs across the country. Programs showed excellent reach relative to external benchmarks provided by FEMA registrations for individual assistance and population characteristics. Programs varied widely in service mix and intensity. The declared programs reached more people, but the undeclared programs provided more intensive services to fewer people with higher needs.

Structural model analysis of HIV risk behaviors among sexually active minority adolescents.

UNLABELLED: Contents of this article are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions, official policy or position of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration or Centers for Mental Health Services and Substance Abuse Prevention. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate an HIV risk profile in sexually active black and Hispanic adolescents using a structural equation model (SEM). METHOD: Grantees from 15 states and Washington, DC, were selected to participate in the study. Black and Hispanic adolescents (N = 2,371) who completed the baseline instrument were required to have experienced vaginal, oral or anal sex in order to be included in this study. Total minority youths who self-reported as black but not Hispanic were n = 1,455 and for Hispanic n = 916. RESULTS: The hypothesized model fit moderately well (CFI = 0.940, TLI = 0.928, RMSEA = 0.039). The key significant direct effect was found (P < 0.05) for higher alcohol, tobacco and other drug use related to nonuse of condoms, more sex partners and use of substances before sex. CONCLUSION: Current findings underscore the need to incorporate culturally sensitive strategies in developing programs for minority youth. However, given that minority group members often report greater experiences of discrimination than whites, future research in this area should also include an examination of the role of other stressors such as racial disparities and their potential cumulative impact on minority youth and their risks for alcohol, tobacco and other drug use and HIV.

Quality of provider-participant relationships and enhancement of adolescent social skills.

This study adds to the limited research on the potential importance of the quality of the relationship between adult prevention service providers and youth participants in enhancing social skills and strengthening prevention outcomes. Study subjects were drawn from seven prevention programs funded under a Youth Mentoring Initiative by the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention in the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. These programs maintain a relationship-based service focus but use a variety of one-on-one, group, volunteer, and paid staff service formats. Study results showed that youth who perceived a higher level of trust, mutuality and empathy in their relationship with providers experienced significantly greater improvements in social skills (i.e., cooperation, self-control, assertiveness, and empathy) than program participants who perceived a lower quality relationship with adult providers. These findings underscore the importance of recruitment, training and supervisory practices that promote staff and volunteer skills in achieving high quality relationships with youth participants regardless of the specific intervention strategy. Editors' Strategic Implications: Practitioners and policymakers should review the authors' findings about the importance of individual adult skills in building protective mentoring relationships. The impact of relationship quality, rather than setting, suggests that the scope of effective prevention practice can be broadened beyond the confines of formal prevention programming to any place in which caring and skilled adults interact with youth.

Factor analysis to examine psychometric properties of family functioning measures.

To assess the relationship of family functioning to problem behaviors and alcohol and drug use among youth, researchers must test the effects of interventions using suitably constructed and psychometrically sound scales. This study evaluated whether originally calculated coefficients alpha underestimate the reliability of the family functioning measures given. Through exploratory factor analysis, estimates of alternative internal consistency reliability which might improve the estimate of reliability were examined. Responses of 755 adults from Strengthening Multi-ethnic Families and Communities were analyzed. Coefficients alpha for two scales were modest (alpha = .68 and alpha = .75), and factor analysis indicated that the scales were multidimensional. After exploratory factor analysis, the reassessment of reliability based on the extracted factors indicated an overall increase in the coefficients alpha.

A structural model of the substance use pathways among minority youth.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the substance use pathways of minority adolescents with a structural equation modeling (SEM) based on the social ecological model. METHOD: Seven hundred ninety adolescents completed the baseline survey questionnaire for the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention's Mentoring and Family Strengthening Initiative. The exogenous variables were family supervision, family involvement, and social support, whereas self-control, school connectedness, and substance use served as the endogenous variables. RESULTS: The following significant direct effects were found: family involvement to self-control; self-control and social support to school connectedness; school connectedness to substance use. CONCLUSIONS: These findings provide empirical evidence that family protective factors can significantly influence adolescents' substance use and should be adopted into substance use prevention interventions.

Structuring a multi-site evaluation for youth mentoring programs to prevent teen alcohol and drug use.

Despite mentoring's rapidly increasing popularity as an intervention for the prevention of teen alcohol and drug abuse and associated problems, there is little research consensus on its overall effectiveness or on the core principles and components that define effective mentoring. To advance knowledge concerning this important prevention intervention, the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention has designed and funded a multi-site cooperative agreement involving seven mentoring programs. The programs are designed to provide a rigorous outcome evaluation that allows comparisons of differing approaches to organizing and delivering mentoring services to adolescents at high risk for substance abuse. The cooperative agreement guidelines set service parameters and options that focus on issues that are grounded in past research on mentoring prevention interventions. The cooperative agreement includes a quasi-experimental, longitudinal multi-site evaluation that provides evidence-based recommendations to advance the effective use of mentoring as a prevention strategy.

Cultural sensitivity and adaptation in family-based prevention interventions.

Because of the substantial impact of families on the developmental trajectories of children, family interventions should be a critical ingredient in comprehensive prevention programs. Very few family interventions have been adapted to be culturally sensitive for different ethnic groups. This paper examines the research literature on whether culturally adapting family interventions improves retention and outcome effectiveness. Because of limited research on the topic, the prevention research field is divided on the issue. Factors to consider for cultural adaptations of family-focused prevention are presented. Five research studies testing the effectiveness of the generic version of the Strengthening Families Program (SFP) compared to culturally-adapted versions for African Americans, Hispanic, Asian/Pacific Islander, and American Indian families suggest that cultural adaptations made by practitioners that reduce dosage or eliminate critical core content can increase retention by up to 40%, but reduce positive outcomes. Recommendations include the need for additional research on culturally-sensitive family interventions.