Parent bonding in clinically depressed deaf and hard-of-hearing adults

This study assessed the relationships between parent communication variables and the parent bonding factors of care and overprotection using a sample of 38 deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals connected with mental health services who had DSM-III-R or DSM-IV diagnoses of depression-related disorders. The 22 therapists working with these individuals also contributed to data collection. Results based on revised depression (BDI-R) and parent bonding (PBI-R) questionnaires, together with background data from both clients and therapists, indicate that higher ratings of depression are associated with less perceived care by mother and greater perceived overprotection by both mother and father. Paternal care and overprotection were negatively correlated, as were maternal care and overprotection. In comparison to hard-of-hearing counterparts, deaf participants were less depressed and had more positive ratings of communication with their parents. The BDI-R scores positively and significantly correlated with coded severity of diagnosis. Due to the small sample size, findings are suggestive. Further study is warranted.     

Where are learning communities now? National leaders take stock

A multiyear effort to understand and improve the practice of learning communities across North America has revealed encouraging trends and areas in which work should continue. The authors asked nearly sixty educators involved in the work to write and talk about the state of learning communities.     

“There’s More Than One Right Path to The Destination”: Does Degree Type Make a Difference in Police Recruiting?

Each year colleges and universities market criminology and criminal justice programs to potential applicants by suggesting these programs offer a uniquely tailored path for those seeking entry into a policing career. Despite such claims, little empirical research exists to suggest that degree content is a factor in influencing recruitment outcomes. In this paper, we present results from an ongoing, exploratory study into pre-recruitment education to show that program content—in this case, a criminology or criminal justice diploma or degree—has generally little influence on how police agencies evaluate a potential applicant. Drawing on interviews with thirty-two (n = 32) police recruiters and senior officers from police services across the province of Ontario in Canada, we show that, while many agencies prefer candidates with degrees, criminology and criminal justice degree holders are not privileged in the recruiting process over those applicants from other disciplines.     

Measuring social capital among youth: applications in environmental education

Although critiqued for circular reasoning and lack of definitional and analytic clarity, social capital has garnered widespread interest in two areas relevant to environmental education (EE): the impact of family and community-level social capital on positive youth development and of community-level social capital in fostering collective action to manage natural resources. Although EE is normally considered for its value relative to environmental outcomes or natural capital, intergenerational, community, and other approaches to EE may also foster social capital. Drawing on Putnam’s definition of social capital, which emphasizes civic engagement, we developed and tested for reliability a survey to measure cognitive and structural attributes of social capital among youth. We conclude that although several attributes of our instrument are useful for use with youth aged 10–18 years in EE contexts, much more work needs to be done on conceptualizing and developing measures of social capital that are relevant to EE. Further, we suggest that social capital presents a framework for how EE programs can bring youth and adults together to create the conditions that enable collective action, as a complement to ongoing work in EE focusing on individual behaviors.     

Toward greater understanding of depression in deaf individuals

We compared the prevalence of depressive symptoms among deaf and hearing college students and examined the relationships among depressive symptoms, personality characteristics, and perceived parental attitudes and behaviors in these two groups. Measures were revised to meet the language needs of the deaf subjects. Mild levels of depressive symptoms were more prevalent in the deaf than in the hearing students, but more severe depression was not. In both groups, depressive symptoms were associated with perceptions of lower maternal care and higher maternal over-protection. Deaf and hearing subjects did not differ on these perceived maternal characteristics. Depressive symptoms were associated with socially dependent personality characteristics in the hearing sample only. We discuss the implications of the findings for the role of personality development in depression in deaf individuals.