Measuring public perceptions of sex offenders: reimagining the Community Attitudes Toward Sex Offenders (CATSO) scale

The Community Attitudes Toward Sex Offenders (CATSO) scale is an 18-item self-report questionnaire designed to measure respondents’ attitudes toward sex offenders. Its original factor structure has been questioned by a number of previous studies, and so this paper sought to reimagine the scale as an outcome measure, as opposed to a scale of attitudes. A face validity analysis produced a provisional three-factor structure underlying the CATSO: ‘punitiveness,’ ‘stereotype endorsement,’ and ‘risk perception.’ A sample of 400 British members of the public completed a modified version of the CATSO, the Attitudes Toward Sex Offenders scale, the General Punitiveness Scale, and the Rational-Experiential Inventory. A three-factor structure of a 22-item modified CATSO was supported using half of the sample, with factors being labeled ‘sentencing and management,’ ‘stereotype endorsement,’ and ‘risk perception.’ Confirmatory factor analysis on data from the other half of the sample endorsed the three-factor structure; however, two items were removed in order to improve ratings of model fit. This new 20-item ‘Perceptions of Sex Offenders scale’ has practical utility beyond the measurement of attitudes, and suggestions for its future use are provided

Development of the health and economic consequences of smoking interactive model

Objective-To describe the health and economic consequences of smoking model, a user friendly, web based tool, designed to estimate the health and economic outcomes associated with smoking and the benefits of smoking cessation. Results-An overview of the development of the model equations and user interface is given, and data from the UK are presented as an example of the model outputs. These results show that a typical smoking cessation strategy costs approximately pound 1200 per life year saved and pound 22 000 per death averted. Conclusions-The model successfully captures the complexity required to model smoking behaviour and associated mortality, morbidity, and health care costs. Furthermore, the interface provides the results in a simple and flexible way so as to be useful to a variety of audiences and to simulate a variety of smoking cessation methods

Autonomy and Relatedness in Inner-City Families of Substance Abusing Adolescents

This study examined parent-adolescent autonomous-relatedness functioning in inner-city, ethnic minority families of adolescents exhibiting drug abuse and related problem behaviors. Seventy-four parent-adolescent dyads completed a structured interaction task prior to the start of treatment that was coded using an established autonomous-relatedness measure. Adolescent drug use, externalizing, and internalizing behaviors were assessed. Parents and adolescents completed assessment instruments measuring parenting style and family conflict. Confirmatory factor analysis found significant differences in the underlying dimensions of parent and adolescent autonomous-relatedness in this sample versus previous samples. It was also found that autonomous-relatedness was associated with worse adolescent symptomatology and family impairment. Results based on both self-report and observational measures contribute to the understanding of key family constructs in this population and provide insight for both researchers and the treatment community

Linking Session Focus to Treatment Outcome in Evidence-Based Treatments for Adolescent Substance Abuse

The relation between specific therapy techniques and treatment outcome was examined for 2 empirically supported treatments for adolescent substance abuse: individual cognitive–behavioral therapy and multidimensional family therapy. Participants were 51 inner-city, substance-abusing adolescents receiving outpatient psychotherapy within a larger randomized trial. One session per case was evaluated using a 17-item observational measure of model-specific techniques and therapeutic foci. Exploratory factor analysis identified 2 subscales, Adolescent Focus and Family Focus, with strong interrater reliability and internal consistency. Process–outcome analyses revealed that family focus, but not adolescent focus, predicted posttreatment improvement in drug use, externalizing symptoms, and internalizing symptoms within both study conditions. Implications for the implementation and dissemination of individual-based and family-based approaches for adolescent drug use are discussed

Parents\u27 Perceptions of Life Skills Development in the 4-H Cloverbud Program

Life skills are an important component of 4-H Youth Development programs. The study reported addresses life skill development of 4-H members who are 5 to 8 years old (also known as 4-H Cloverbuds). The focus was to explore parents\u27 perceptions of their child\u27s life skills development, program benefits, and activities. Parents interviewed in this study viewed the 4-H Cloverbud program as influential in life skill development, particularly in the areas of social skills, learning to learn, and personal development (self-confidence, self-care, and self-direction). Parents also identified health and diversity as important areas. Implications for practice and future research are discussed

The influence of rifle carriage on the kinetics of human gait

The influence that rifle carriage has on human gait has received little attention in the published literature. Rifle carriage has two main effects, to add load to the anterior of the body and to restrict natural arm swing patterns. Kinetic data were collected from 15 male participants, with 10 trials in each of four experimental conditions. The conditions were: walking without a load (used as a control condition); carrying a lightweight rifle simulator, which restricted arm movements but applied no additional load; wearing a 4.4 kg diving belt, which allowed arms to move freely; carrying a weighted (4.4 kg) replica SA80 rifle. Walking speed was fixed at 1.5 m/s (+5%) and data were sampled at 400 Hz. Results showed that rifle carriage significantly alters the ground reaction forces produced during walking, the most important effects being an increase in the impact peak and mediolateral forces. This study suggests that these effects are due to the increased range of motion of the body’s centre of mass caused by the impeding of natural arm swing patterns. The subsequent effect on the potential development of injuries in rifle carriers is unknown