Religiosity and the expansion of caregiver stress.

We present a stress process framework as a model for understanding how religiosity may influence the expansion of stress. Survey data from informal caregivers to a spouse with Alzheimer's disease or a related dementia (n = 200) were analyzed to observe the relationships among three variables: (1) care-related stress, (2) religiosity, and (3) depression. This sample, which has a mean age of 73 years, demonstrates high rates of self-described religiosity, church attendance and frequency of prayer. Using these criteria, women and racial/ethnic minority caregivers are the most religious. In a series of multivariate analyses, we found strong evidence to suggest that there is an expansion of care-related stressors leading to depression in this sample. Religiosity, as measured here, appears to be largely unrelated to stress and stress expansion. We found no evidence to suggest that it moderates stress expansion. However, these data do suggest that one stressor--feelings of role overload--is correlated with greater levels of self-perceived religiosity, which among caregivers who have health problems of their own is associated with greater depressive symptomatology. Thus, for a sub-sample of these caregivers, we find weak evidence of a mediation effect wherein one subjective, non-organizational dimension of religiosity is a conduit of the harmful effects of stress (rather than a suppressor). Results and data limitations are discussed in relation to better assessing the role of religiosity and spirituality in the experience of the stress process.

Same-sex romantic attraction and experiences of violence in adolescence.

OBJECTIVES: Recent national attention to hate crimes committed against lesbian, gay, and bisexual youths has highlighted the need to understand this group's experiences of violence. Using nationally representative data, we examine the associations between romantic attraction and experiences of violence, as well as the risk of witnessing violence and perpetrating violence against others. METHODS: Data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health were examined. Youths reporting same-sex and both-sex romantic attractions were compared with those reporting other-sex attractions. Survey logistic regression was used to control for sample design effects. RESULTS: Youths who report same-sex or both-sex romantic attraction are more likely to experience extreme forms of violence than youths who report other-sex attraction. Youths reporting same-sex and both-sex romantic attractions are also more likely to witness violence. The higher incidence of violence perpetrated by youths attracted to the same sex is explained by their experiences of violence. CONCLUSIONS: These findings provide strong evidence that youths reporting same-sex or both-sex romantic attraction are at greater risk for experiencing, witnessing, and perpetrating violence.

Correlates of HIV/AIDS knowledge among U.S.-born and foreign-born Hispanics in the United States.

No national study of Hispanics has examined variation in HIV/AIDS-related knowledge by ethnicity, place of birth, and duration in the United States (for the foreign born) at least in part because of data constraints. Data from the 1991 and 1992 National Health Interview AIDS Supplements were used to examine the influence of these factors, and other sociodemographic and HIV/AIDS-related variables, on a 25-item HIV/AIDS knowledge scale. Descriptive and multivariate analyses indicate that foreign-born Hispanics with shorter durations in the United States have significantly lower levels of HIV/AIDS knowledge, as do those of Mexican and Cuban ethnicity. Numerous other factors, most of which are known to be associated with HIV/AIDS knowledge in the general population, were found to be significantly associated with HIV/AIDS knowledge among Hispanics in multivariate analyses; these include age, education, gender, rural residence, residence in the West, knowing a person with HIV/AIDS, personal risk for HIV/AIDS, and having been tested for HIV outside of the blood donation system. Results suggest that HIV/AIDS information campaigns targeted to Hispanics may not be equally effective in reaching foreign-born and U.S.-born subgroups or persons of differing ethnicities. Future studies should examine sources of HIV/AIDS information and the mechanisms of knowledge acquisition and transmission within specific subgroups of the Hispanic population.

Low-wage maternal employment and outcomes for children: a study.

Despite the importance of anticipating how children may be affected by policies that move mothers off welfare and into employment, as the article by Zaslow and Emig in this journal issue points out, few research studies have addressed this critical policy question. To help fill that gap, this article presents the results of a new study using national survey data to examine child outcomes among families that had previously received welfare. About half the families studied had mothers who remained at home, the others were working at varying wage levels. The findings reported here echo themes discussed in the two preceding articles. Maternal employment does not appear to undermine children's social or cognitive development from ages 5 to 14, and it may yield advantages. Children whose mothers earned more than $5.00 per hour, particularly, had somewhat better outcomes than others. The authors emphasize, however, that background characteristics specific to the mothers who chose employment contributed to these positive outcomes. The authors add that it would be risky to apply these generalizations based on these findings to families forced into employment by welfare reform.