Suchergebnisse

Longitudinal research on street-recruited out-of-treatment drug users involves ethical issues concerning enrollment and retention of participants, remuneration and benefits. In contrast to practices of excluding such high-risk populations from research and assuming that they would not comply with a protocol requiring repeated measures over a 12-month period, this report presents examples from 15 years of community-based studies that have enrolled drug-using participants and achieved a 96% retention rate. We also examine ethical issues connected with cash remuneration, and describe methods to elucidate the kinds of benefits that are most meaningful to this population. Findings suggest that the research community must reconsider the ethics of blanket exclusions of such high-risk subjects, and make evidence-based decisions about recruitment, retention, remuneration, and benefits.

A growing body of research is exploring the association between religiosity and drug use. Thus, this analysis examines the association between religiosity and substance use patterns among females in the criminal justice system. Data derived from 318 women recruited from a Municipal Drug Court System in St. Louis, Missouri, were used to determine the association between religiosity and substance use patterns. Results indicate that religiosity decreased the odds of cocaine use, observed for both crack/cocaine (CC) use alone (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] = 0.41) and crack/cocaine + marijuana (CC + MJ) (AOR = 0.32). Interestingly, this association was not found for MJ use alone. Other variables that were significantly associated with CC + MJ use included being non-Black (CC + MJ: AOR = 0.46; MJ: AOR = 0.28), 4+ arrests (CC + MJ: AOR = 4.66; CC: AOR = 2.64), and <30 years of age (CC + MJ: AOR = 0.37; CC: AOR = 0.16; MJ: AOR = 2.84). Future drug prevention and interventions should consider the potential protective effects of religiosity on substance use.

We developed and psychometrically evaluated the Concise Scale of Individualism–Collectivism (CSIC) to support the growing need for cross-cultural research to better understand the relationship between culture and health. To construct the scale, we used the concept mapping technique.
The CSIC contains 18 paired items, 9 of which are used to assess respondents' level of individualism and 9 to assess collectivism, rated using a 5-point Likert scale. We evaluated the instrument using a diverse sample (N = 249, Mage = 29.64, SD = 7.81) consisting
of rural-to-urban migrants and nonmigrant rural and urban residents in the city of Wuhan, China. Cronbach's alpha coefficients were .91, .83, and .86 for the total CSIC scale, and for the collectivism and individualism subscales, respectively. A 2-factor model fit the data well, showing that
both individualism and collectivism scores significantly differed according to level of education and area of residence, and significantly predicted levels of social capital, social support, resilience, and stress of respondents. We determined that the CSIC has adequate reliability and validity
for use in research to quantify cultural beliefs about individualism and collectivism among Chinese adults.

Psychiatric disorders and symptoms are common worldwide. However, cultural differences in symptom manifestation and knowledge of psychiatric terms and concepts represent a challenge to accurate clinical assessment. Our previous youth surveys revealed higher rates of psychotic experiences in Kenya compared to several other countries, suggesting culture may influence psychosis risk assessment survey results. The goal of the present investigation is to evaluate understanding of general mental health related terms and concepts and specific items from the Structured Interview for Psychosis-Risk Symptoms (SIPS), a commonly used psychosis risk assessment instrument. Six focus groups were conducted in Nairobi, Kenya and surrounding areas with young adults from the community, university and secondary school students, and mental health professionals. Analysis of the information obtained from participants indicated that adolescents and young adults in Kenya were aware of mental illness in their communities, but had very limited knowledge of the meaning of specific psychiatric disorders and symptoms. Many believed that the cause of mental illness was spiritual in nature. These results suggest that in order to obtain accurate reported rates of psychiatric symptoms, assessment of Kenyan adolescents and young adults requires elaboration of assessment questions and use of simplified terms.