Facilitating support groups for professionals working with people with AIDS.

Social workers, nurses, and other health care professionals who work with people with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) or acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) are experiencing burnout from the excessive demands on their energy, strength, and resources. Support groups, with their focus on awareness, shared experiences, supportive and helping relationships, and the emotional consequences of working with people with AIDS, help health care professionals manage stress and enhance their capacity and effectiveness to work with these clients. In addition, support groups help participants feel less isolated and share feelings regarding such difficult issues as death, anger, helplessness, and loss. The use of this type of group work is identified, including its administration, effective intervention techniques, and issues of health care professionals who work with the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Problems related to group membership and dropout rates are explored as unresolved issues.

The borderline personality disorder and gay people.

This paper examines the diagnostic category called Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) and its relationship to gay people. It discusses the psychoanalytic definition of borderline personalities, and to it adds a cultural definition. In the light of these cultural variables, the diagnosis is defined as a metaphor for the complexities and confusions of modern life. These confusions are important in the lives of gay people, who, it is suggested, are currently more prone to be diagnosed as BPD. Through the life study of a gay man, both the psychoanalytic and cultural variables are identified, then generalized to the problems of gay people in our transitional society.

Parental preferences regarding sex education topics for sixth graders.

The purpose of this study was to ascertain which sex education topics parents of preadolescents regarded as appropriate for their children. The sample was comprised of 146 respondents randomly selected from a class list of sixth graders in a suburban school district. A mailed, self-administered questionnaire listing 48 possible topics was used to elicit parental response. Pretesting found the questionnaire to be highly reliable (Cronbach's alpha = .95). Overall, parents strongly supported the inclusion of a broad range of sex education topics regardless of parental age, sex, marital status, income, education, or child's sex. Moreover, parents were largely in agreement with the inclusion of sensitive topics in addition to those which were more physiological or behavioral. Catholics more often than Protestants agreed with the inclusion of birth control, abortion, and sterilization even after controlling for income and education. Thus, the findings suggest that parents of sixth graders find a broad sex education program in the school appropriate. To this end, school officials and sex educators should not overlook the needs of preadolescents for sex education solely on the basis of perceived parental opposition.

PIP: The purpose of this study was to ascertain which sex education topics parents of preadolescents regarded as appropriate for their children. The sample was comprised of 146 respondents randomly selected from a class list of 6th graders in a suburban US school district. A mailed, self-administered questionnaire listing 48 possible topics was used to elicit parental response. Pretesting found the questionnaire to be highly reliable (Cronbach's alpha = .95). Overall, parents strongly supported the inclusion of a broad range of sex education topics regardless of parental age, sex, marital status, income, education, or child's sex. Moreover, parents were largely in agreement with the inclusion of sensitive topics in addition to those which were physiological or behavioral. Catholics more often than Protestants agreed with the inclusion of birth control, abortion, and sterilization even after controlling for income and education. The findings suggest parents of 6th graders find a broad sex education program in the school appropriate. To this end, school officials and sex educators should not overlook the needs of preadolescents for sex education solely on the basis of perceived parental opposition.

Thyroid and vitamin-mineral supplement fail to improve IQ of mentally retarded adults.

Institutionalized profoundly mentally retarded adults (N = 37) were studied to determine whether thyroid medication is an essential component of a recently introduced nutritional supplementation treatment. Biochemical assessments confirmed that compliance with the treatments was adequate; however, no significant IQ improvements were observed.

Vitamin-mineral supplement fails to improve IQ of mentally retarded young adults.

Twenty mentally retarded persons participated in a study to determine the effect of large doses of vitamin-mineral supplements on IQ, educability, electrophysiological responsiveness, and pyridoxine metabolism. Using a double-blind matched group experimental design, we administered supplements and placebos for 6 months. Pre- and postmeasurements showed no significant effects on any of the measured variables.

The ethical and moral implications of sexual classification: a commentary.

This paper reviews the relationship between psychiatric diagnosis and morality, suggesting that moral reasoning has been the primary determinant in the diagnosis of sexual disorders. It suggests two hypotheses to explain why homosexuality was eliminated from DSM. One, that homosexuality is now viable as a lifestyle and therefore has become socially regulated; and two, that the normal is the intractible. It further suggests that there is no scientific reason to keep the paraphilias in DSM.