Phobic anxiety in 11 nations. Part I: Dimensional constancy of the five-factor model.

The Fear Survey Schedule-III (FSS-III) was administered to a total of 5491 students in Australia, East Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Guatemala, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Spain, Sweden, and Venezuela, and submitted to the multiple group method of confirmatory analysis (MGM) in order to determine the cross-national dimensional constancy of the five-factor model of self-assessed fears originally established in Dutch, British, and Canadian samples. The model comprises fears of bodily injury-illness-death, agoraphobic fears, social fears, fears of sexual and aggressive scenes, and harmless animals fears. Close correspondence between the factors was demonstrated across national samples. In each country, the corresponding scales were internally consistent, were intercorrelated at magnitudes comparable to those yielded in the original samples, and yielded (in 93% of the total number of 55 comparisons) sex differences in line with the usual finding (higher scores for females). In each country, the relatively largest sex differences were obtained on harmless animals fears. The organization of self-assessed fears is sufficiently similar across nations to warrant the use of the same weight matrix (scoring key) for the FSS-III in the different countries and to make cross-national comparisons feasible. This opens the way to further studies that attempt to predict (on an a priori basis) cross-national variations in fear levels with dimensions of national cultures.

Decisions and justifications by community mental health providers about hypothetical ethical dilemmas.

OBJECTIVE: Community-based treatment of persons with serious mental illness requires providers to become involved in clients' personal lives to a greater degree than does hospital-based treatment. The study examined attendant ethical dilemmas, especially for staff who lack professional training or work in rural communities. METHODS: A total of 95 staff members from five community mental health centers read 14 vignettes describing ambiguous ethical dilemmas involving professional role boundaries or client confidentiality. Twenty-seven staff members were from rural agencies, and 68 from urban-suburban agencies; 60 were direct care staff, and 35 were supervisory. Participants were asked to make and justify a more conservative or a less conservative decision in response to each dilemma. RESULTS: Years of experience as a mental health provider and previous ethics training correlated positively with staff having experienced more situations similar to those in the vignettes; however, these variables were not related to the decision made or the type of ethical justification for it. When the analysis controlled for experience and previous ethics training, staff made fewer conservative decisions in boundary dilemmas than in confidentiality dilemmas. Compared with nonrural providers, rural providers had experienced more boundary dilemmas and made fewer conservative decisions in response to them. CONCLUSIONS: Boundary problems occur frequently in community-based services, especially in rural settings, and may or may not be handled conservatively. With the expansion of case management and other in vivo services, better understanding of ethical risks and informal practices will help improve services and provide appropriate training and supervision of staff.

Drug Information Center network: need, effectiveness, and cost justification.

During the past 15 years, the pharmacy profession has experienced much change. Certain pharmacy roles are being challenged and others are coming into existence. Today, health-care practitioners and health-care providers are seeking services not sought before from pharmacists in the area of rational therapeutics. This need for information extends to all pharmacy practice settings: institutional, independent pharmacies, chain stores, governmental agencies, and the pharmaceutical industry. In order to meet this demand for drug and toxicology information, however, the pharmacist must use resources outside the immediate area of his practice. The Drug Information Center (DIC) can be used as such a resource by pharmacists in their daily practice to provide the best possible care with regard to the rational use of drugs for their patients/clients. Specifically, our data indicate that in Tennessee, there is a need for providing drug and toxicology information; pharmacists perceive their role to be providers of drug information as well as drugs; the DIC plays an integral and necessary role as a back-up information resource and in teaching, service, research, and continuing education programs; and the programs provided by the DIC are cost effective and cost justifiable.

Isonymic relationships in the parish of Fylingdales, North Yorkshire, in 1851.

Lasker 's coefficient of relationship by isonymy was used to analyse surname data taken from the 1851 Census returns for Fylingdales parish, North Yorkshire. At this time the population had a thriving maritime economy based on the coastal town of Robin Hood's Bay, as well as agricultural and some industrial activity inland at Thorpe , Raw and Stoupe Brow. There is a marked heterogeneity in the distribution of surnames within the parish, with both place and profession constraining isonymic relationships. Within-group kinship is high among the mariners , fishermen and shipowners of Robin Hood's Bay and Thorpe , and the relationship between these different maritime groups is also very high. Kinship is generally far lower both within and between the land-based occupational groups, and between these and the seafarers .

Basic data on visits to family planning services sites: United States, 1980.

PIP: Cross tabulations of data from the National Reporting System for Family Planning Services are presented. Information was collected on the sociodemographic characteristics of patients as well as family planning service utilization. A sample of private facilities as well as those supported by Public Health Services family planning grants were selected to participate in the survey. The family planning visit is the basic sampling unit and the proportion of visits selected from each site varies with geographic location and annual visit volume. Only visits made by women were included. The Clinic Visit Record (i.e., the data collection form) contains 14 items: identifying information (2 items), date, sex, determination of hispanic origin, race, birthdate or age if unknown, prior utilization of family planning services, educational attainment, family income and family size, pregnancy history, contraceptive history, medical services received, and contraceptive method chosen at conclusion of visit. The results are presented in 12 tables. The data estimate 9,261,000 family planning visits were made in 1980, only 19% were 1st visits. 89% of the visits were made by women under the age of 30; teenagers comprise 1/3 of this group. Women of hispanic origin made 12.6% of the total visits. 80% of all visits were made by women with 12 years of education or less and 14% by women from families receiving public assistance. 54% of the women were nulliparous. In 89% of the visits, some method of contraception was adopted or continued (68% chose oral contraceptives, 7.2% IUDs and 6.5% diaphragms). Prior contraception use was reported by women comprising 82% of the visits. 40.3 million medical services, including blood pressure checks, pelvic examinations, breast examinations and Pap smears, were provided.^ieng