Young adolescents' identification of difficult life events.

As part of a larger study of parent-child communication, young adolescents (n = 847), aged 11 to 14 years, responded with brief written answers to the question: "Using your own words, list any happenings that occurred in the family that you feel may have been difficult and have long-lasting effects." The sample was chiefly seventh- and eighth-grade students from two-parent, White, middle-class, urban homes. Content analyses of their responses resulted in the following themes: feelings of loss due to death, divorce, relocation, or a sibling leaving the family; feelings of threat toward family relationships or integrity, personal or family health, personal or family safety and well-being, and violence; feelings of being hassled due to parents' expectations and limits and siblings' disagreements and conflicts; and testing maturity. The data provide significant examples of the life events of families. Recommendations to identify and care for families and young adolescents experiencing these events are proposed.

Parent-adolescent communication in nondistressed families.

The focus of this chapter is parent and adolescent communication in nondistressed families. Communication is the assertive and unoffensive expression and accurate and attentive receipt of opinions, feelings, and ideas. Aspects of adolescent and adult development have been shown to influence as well as be influenced by perceptions of family communication. Though recently subject to extensive scrutiny and criticism, the paradigm of parent and adolescent conflict dominates this research area. Nurses and other have demonstrated strategies to enhance communication between parent and adolescents, with promising results. Issues of subject participation are reviewed and recommendations for future directions in research and practice are made.

Symposium on nursing centers: past, present and future.

A call for articles related to nursing centers was generated (Tanner, 1994), based on the fact that many existing nursing centers operate out of schools of nursing. Proceedings of a symposium on nursing centers presented at the Midwest Nursing Research Society (MNRS) meeting in April 1994 are shared as a way of advancing the development, implementation, and evaluation of nursing centers. The four contributions represent a review of the historical, empirical, and anecdotal literature, key elements in creating and maintaining a research laboratory, data sets useful for practice and research, and policy issues germane to nursing centers, which are a cornerstone of health care reform.

Nursing centers: an analysis of the anecdotal literature.

The anecdotal literature is reviewed to analyze the development and implementation of nursing centers and to make recommendations for the future. Definitions, historical developments, and services provided are reviewed and a conceptual categorization is suggested. To realize the potential of nursing centers as viable service delivery models, their leaders are urged to develop objective outcomes, test the scientific adequacy of the nursing care delivered, develop affiliations with traditional health care delivery systems, and require nursing students to rotate through these centers as part of their undergraduate and selected graduate experience.

Night life: nocturnal behavior patterns among hospitalized elderly.

1. In contrast to previous studies where elderly living in an institution were found to demonstrate a consistent, predictable pattern of nocturnal activity, hospitalized elderly were found to be asleep less and awake more over a period of 3 consecutive nights. 2. Medication, treatments, and assessment were scheduled with little regard for the hospitalized elderly's need for restorative sleep. 3. Each time an elderly patient was awakened, it took him or her at least 30 minutes to return to sleep. 4. Nurses are advised to determine and maintain as much as possible the patient's usual bedtime routine, keep interruptions during the night to a minimum, schedule medications and treatments efficiently, decrease noise, and medicate for pain as appropriate.

A model for research implementation.

How can critical care nurses develop a research-based practice? These authors describe an emerging research implementation model to conduct and utilize research in the critical care setting.

A survey of 636 staff nurses: perceptions and factors influencing the CNS role.

The specific aim of this investigation was to document the perceptions of the CNS role and the factors influencing the role. The Clifford Clinical Specialist Functions Inventory was used to survey staff nurses at two affiliated medical centers. A 38% response rate was obtained. A total of 636 surveys were returned. Analysis of the data indicated: the CNS was perceived as valuable; physical presence of the CNS on the nursing unit enhanced role enactment; and a list of CNS role expectations could be developed based on perceptions of staff nurses. The results indicated that perceptions of the CNS role did not vary among staff nurses at the two medical centers.

The Strengthening Families Program 10-14: influence on parent and youth problem-solving skill.

The aim of this paper is to report the results of a preliminary examination of the efficacy of the Strengthening Families Program (SFP) 10-14 in improving parent and youth problem-solving skill. The Hypotheses in this paper include: (1) youth and parents who participated in SFP would have lower mean scores immediately (T2) and 6 months (T3) post intervention on indicators of hostile and negative problem-solving strategies; (2) higher mean scores on positive problem-solving strategies; and (3) youth who participated in SFP would have higher mean scores at T2 and at T3 on indicators of individual problem solving and problem-solving efficacy than youth in the comparison group. The dyads were recruited from elementary schools that had been stratified for race and assigned randomly to intervention or comparison conditions. Mean age of youth was 11 years (SD = 1.04). Fifty-seven dyads (34-intervention&23-control) were videotaped discussing a frequently occurring problem. The videotapes were analysed using the Iowa Family Interaction Rating Scale (IFIRS) and data were analysed using Dyadic Assessment Intervention Model. Most mean scores on the IFIRS did not change. One score changed as predicted: youth hostility decreased at T3. Two scores changed contrary to prediction: parent hostility increased T3 and parent positive problem solving decreased at T2. SFP demonstrated questionable efficacy for problem-solving skill in this study.

Suicide ideation among later elementary school-aged youth.

Suicide is extremely rare among persons under age 15 years old. Nationwide, it has been reported that 18% of students in grade 6 had thoughts of killing themselves. The Social Disintegration Model (SDM) summarizes intra-personal, interpersonal, peer network, physical and heath risk behaviour characteristics that may influence suicide ideation. As part of a larger study to test a family strengthening programme, 179 later elementary school children from two cities responded to 20 items about their participation in health risk behaviour. Sixteen youth indicated they had thought of killing themselves. Based on the SDM, these 16 youth were compared with the larger sample on measures of ways of coping; family communication, functioning and caring; school connectedness, pubertal development; and alcohol use and weapon carrying. Youth who responded positively to the 'thought of killing self' screening question, felt less connected to their school, used more internalizing behaviours and reported less cohesion, open communication, supervision and family caring than youth who answered no. Youth who thought of killing themselves may benefit from additional school support to feel more comfortable and connected at school. Community resources may help parents modify child-rearing behaviours. Building communication among parents and youth may prevent suicidal behaviour among young adolescents.

Occupational commitment and the quality of maternal infant interaction.

A positive and statistically significant relationship was found between a woman's degree of occupational commitment measured at 34 weeks gestation and the quality of interaction with her infant measured soon after delivery in a sample of 50 married, white, college-educated women and their healthy term infants. This finding did not occur at 6-weeks postpartum, however. Specific characteristics which influenced the quality of the interaction between mother and infant included mothers' of the subjects work histories, infant gender, attendance at prenatal classes, intention of returning to work, and method of infant feeding. With respect to occupational commitment, influencing characteristics included income and subjects' mothers' work histories. The findings are discussed within the perspective of current literature.

Promoting awareness: the mother and her baby.

This study considered the problem of how to increase a mother's awareness of her infant's behavior and her own behavior as a beginning step toward the promotion of quality interaction between mother and infant. The impact of informing 108 mothers of term infants and 32 mothers of preterm infants about: (a) neonatal interactive, motoric, state control, and response to stress behavior patterns; and (b) maternal behaviors to enhance and support infant behavior was tested with four groups. In describing the behavior that occurred during a feeding session, mothers in two treatment groups reported significantly more of their own behavior than that of their neonate. They more closely resembled the trained observers' report of the behavior than did mothers in two control groups. Recommendations include incorporating an educative treatment in plans of nursing care for mothers and infants and further research to determine the optimal timing and long-term effects of such an intervention.

Preparing to parent the adolescent: a theoretical overview.

Early adolescence (ages 11-14 years) occurs at the time most parents are in middle adulthood. The tasks of both early adolescent and middle adulthood stages are numerous and complex. As a societal unit, the family is challenged to meet one another's needs for cohesion, adaptability, and satisfaction. Family communication and the family's ability to resolve conflicts are proposed as facilitating factors to meet these challenges.

The exercise of self-care agency: an analysis of construct and discriminant validity.

The aim of this investigation was to delineate the concepts contributing to the Exercise of Self-Care Agency (ESCA) scale developed by Kearney and Fleischer (1979) and to test its construct and discriminant validity. Using factor analytic techniques upon data generated by 506 subjects, the concepts of Self-Concept, Initiative and Responsibility, Knowledge and Information Seeking, and Passivity emerged. These findings are congruent with the theoretical work of the Nursing Conference Development Group (1973) and Kearney and Fleischer. The factors were found to discriminate these concepts among 3 different samples. Recommendations are made for revision, further research, and use of the instrument in practice.

Accessing young adolescents and their families for research.

PURPOSE: To describe the strategies used to obtain and retain a sample of young adolescents and their families. METHODS: The sample was 847 families with young adolescents aged 11 to 14 years who resided in a large urban Midwestern community of the U.S. The first design strategy was becoming credible within the community. For 5 years before conducting the intervention research in the community, surveys were conducted of the needs of middle-school students as they entered adolescence, and programs were delivered to meet the assessed needs. The second design strategy was instituting developmentally appropriate recruitment and retention strategies based upon direct consultation with groups of young adolescents. The consultants recommended referring to young adolescents as young adults and holding the training sessions in sites not associated with schools. The third design strategy was setting up participation methods that were nonburdensome to schools and families. CONCLUSIONS: The successful recruitment of over 800 families and the retention of 80% of them for survey participation and 77% of them for the intervention protocol can be attributed to three major strategies: (a) community involvement; (b) adherence to principles of adolescent development; and (c) ease of participation for school personnel and families.

Understanding mothers' perceptions of what is important about themselves and parenting.

The purpose of this article is to report what mothers of young adolescents perceive as important about themselves and parenting. Their perceptions were identified from brief written statements from a sample of 538 mothers of young adolescents. The women's statements were analyzed using content analysis techniques. Six themes emerged. Mothers described the challenges of putting their ideals about parenting into practice, including incorporating or discarding the influence of their own upbringing and the seeking of knowledge and skills to improve their parenting. Mothers described their values and goals. Feelings of self-doubt were made apparent through self-critical comments. Expressions of frustration were evident as were the serious life stressors managed by the sample. Repeated comments identified mothers' emphases on the importance of open family communication. Mothers had developed styles of parenting based on decision-making methods and understanding the child's perspective. We suggest community health nurses use the themes as guidelines for anticipatory guidance with families during adolescence.

Fathers' perceptions of how they were parented.

The purpose of this article is to report how a group of 391 well-educated, White, midwestern American married fathers of young adolescents (11 to 14 years) described their perceptions of how they were raised. The question "Describe how your parents parented you" was asked as part of a larger quasi-experimental study to test the outcomes of communication skills training among a sample of families in a community. The fathers' short-answer descriptions were succinct yet substantive. Using content analysis procedures, 6 themes were identified. Four reflected the men's perceptions of specific strategies used by their parents. The themes were labeled establishing boundaries, parental presence, adhering to guidelines, and communication techniques. A 5th theme, labeled family size, indicated that some men perceived that the structure influenced how they were parented. The 6th theme, evaluation of their parents' parenting, encompassed the men's opinions of how successful they perceived their parents were at raising them. The men's perceptions are discussed within the context of fathering roles. The themes are offered as a framework to define parenting, and implications for nursing practice and research are proposed.

Self-image among early adolescents: revisited.

Early adolescence is the developmental period during which children make the physical, psychological, cognitive, and social transitions to adolescence. Because the development of a healthy conceptualization of the self is foundational to adequate functioning later in life, self-image is a concept of interest to clinicians and researchers. Offer, Ostrov, and Howard (1981) conducted considerable research in the area and demonstrated that early adolescents have the capacity for self-reflection and are willing to share their reflections with others. Most early adolescents tend to be self-conscious due, chiefly, to the numerous physical and emotional changes occurring during this time period (M. P. Strommen & A. L. Strommen, 1985). Behavior is characterized by moodiness, impulsiveness, peer influence (Robin, 1985), and a growing resistance to authority. These factors usually result in an awkward child attempting to exert independence in an unprecedented fashion about a variety of topics (Manning, 1983). The purpose of this study was to investigate the self-image of early adolescents, aged 11 to 14 years, in order to plan for the health and developmental needs of middle school children and their families. Survey data were collected to answer the questions: (a) What is the self-image of a representative sample of middle school students in the community?; and (b) Are there differences in self-image based on gender, race, and parental occupation?