Communion, defined as a shared journey of honoring each other’s being in and with the world, becomes a scared relational space for Professional Self-Hood. Professional Self-Hood has been defined as an internal embodiment and an external expression of nursing, the compilation of influences of being in and being with the world. Entering into communion to stretch in uncomfortableness begins the movement to unlearn, relearn, reaffirm, and recommit to the ongoing evolution of a just and caring version of ourselves as professionals, embodied and made visible as our Professional Self-Hood.

In this study, survival analysis is used to examine time to rearrest for both domestic violence and nondomestic violence crimes among a cohort of domestic violence offenders (N = 286) over a 10-year period. In addition, risk factors for rearrest such as demographic, offending history, and batterer treatment variables are examined to determine their influence on domestic and nondomestic violence recidivism. Overall, the results suggest that approximately half of domestic violence offenders are rearrested. Furthermore, among those who are rearrested, they are rearrested fairly quickly and for generalized (both domestic and nondomestic violence offenses) versus specialized offending. Risk factors associated with both types of rearrest included age, marriage, and domestic violence offense history. Several additional risk factors were unique to rearrest type. Study limitations are explicitly stated and policy implications are discussed.

The firearm mortality rate in West Virginia (WV) increased over the past four years and is currently 50% higher than the national rate. These alarming statistics, combined with the urban-to-rural shift in firearm injuries, prompted this 10-year epidemiologic overview. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the current study stands alone as the only report of its kind on firearm injuries in the rural setting of southern WV. Firearm injuries were common in White males within the age range of 20–49 years. Assault, which is typically identified as an urban problem, was found to be the most common injury in the study population. In our data series, injury severity score was the strongest predictor of mortality, followed by self-inflicted cause of injury and trauma to the neck/head region.

The purpose of the study was to develop an institutional care model that reflected staff nurses’ perceptions of what nursing means to them. Swanson’s (1991) care theory concepts were compared to the nurses’ responses to evaluate if this middle-range theory could support a theoretically based institutional care model. It was discovered that the theoretical concepts of knowing, being with, enabling, doing for, and maintaining belief found in Swanson’s (1991) care theory were expressed by the nurses. A care model was created that provided a visual display and guided nursing practice at this institution.

Aaron T. Beck developed a rudimentary theory of dreams in the early years of cognitive therapy (1969-1971) that he presented to both psychoanalysts and behavior therapists. This article will examine the historical conditions that fostered Beck’s cognitive dream theory. Beck’s early psychoanalytic dream research taught him the virtues of social science research and catalyzed his shift towards the cognitive model. Once the cognitive model was in place he returned to dreams to help position himself politically in the national therapeutic scene. The 1971 article reprinted in this special issue is evidence of his effort to reach out to psychoanalysts with his new cognitive model. Beck’s dream work, once he allied with behavior therapists, fell out of public view, but the current interest in psychotherapy integration has brought renewed attention to dreams in cognitive therapy.

Although negative life events are a risk factor for developing depression, cognitive control can help maintain one's mental health. However, whether thought-control ability (TCA) can alleviate the adverse effects of negative life events on depression is unclear. Therefore, two studies were conducted to test if it does, by having participant's complete measures of negative life events, TCA, and depression. Study 1, which included 140 healthy young adults, showed TCA mediated the relationship between negative life events and depressive symptoms, and that TCA also moderated the relationship between negative life events and depressive symptoms. Study 2 recruited patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) to test whether the findings could be generalized to individuals with MDD. Study 2 found TCA also mediated the relationship between negative life events and symptoms of MDD. Suggesting that improving the ability to control negative thoughts in daily life help maintain mental health and prevent depressive symptoms.

It is argued that an examination of various abnormal psychology textbooks reveals that they read more like political propaganda than fair, valid science. All of the examined texts conformed closely to the psychiatric medical model as represented by the latest version Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM). Occasional critiques were levied at the DSM, but they were invariably dismissed and not debated in any serious manner. All of the texts involved in this study invoked the name of psychiatric critic Thomas Szasz and either dismissed his ideas without adequate representation or stated that he need not be taken seriously because he is too radical or possibly disturbed. All manner of assertions were present in these tomes as to the validity of the biogenic etiology of the disorders discussed without either presenting valid empirical evidence to support the assertions or discussing the rich and varied literature that refutes the biogenic hypotheses. It is concluded that students are not being served by these expensive textbooks and should be exposed to a variety of primary source material representing the many sides of conflict within the mental health field.

Does the public abortion debate in the United States bear any relation to women’s private discourse about their abortion experiences? In this work—a qualitative study of the abortion narratives of 20 women—I argue that the familiar pro-choice and pro-life frameworks that have dominated public abortion discourse do not begin to provide a suitable forum for the collective expression and understanding of women’s personal abortion stories. By focusing on the conflicting rights of the parties involved, these frameworks leave us poorly equipped to understand how women experience abortion as members of social networks where interdependence and connection are important. While the debate emphasizes conflicting rights, women articulate their experiences with abortion in ways that emphasize relationship, care, and connection to others. By drawing on the work of theorists such as Dorothy Smith, Jean Baker Miller, Carol Gilligan, and Georg Simmel, I illuminate the misappropriation of women’s abortion experience in the public debate, relating this phenomenon to the social-structural context in which it and other exclusions of subordinate groups occur.

Starting from a person–environment fit framework, this study investigates whether ethnic congruence—the percentage of co-ethnics in a school—relates to school misconduct and whether congruence effects differ between ethnic minority and majority students. Moreover, we investigate whether eventual associations are mediated by friendship attachment, perceived teacher support, and general school belonging. Multilevel analyses of data from 11,759 students across 83 Flemish secondary schools show that higher ethnic congruence is associated with lower levels of school misconduct but only for ethnic minority students. This effect was not mediated by friendship attachment, nor by teacher support, but it was mediated by general school belonging. We conclude that ethnic minority students in schools with a higher percentage of peers of co-ethnic descent are less likely to break the school rules because they feel more contented in the school context, which is congruent with the person–environment fit framework.

Recent concerns have been expressed that youths are an increasingly violent segment of U.S. society. This report explores such claims by presenting alternative dimensions with which trends in youth violence can be interpreted. Using Uniform Crime Reports and U.S. Bureau of the Census data for 1958-1993, rates of arrests for murder, taken to represent absolute levels of involvement in this form of violence, are analyzed for trends among 15- to 19-year-olds. Relative involvement, operationalized as the ratio of arrest rates for those aged 15-19 to those of the remainder of the population, is also analyzed for trends. A pronounced upward trend since the mid-1980s in both rates and ratios of arrests for murder is found for ages 15-19, resulting in this group now having the highest levels of absolute and relative involvement in murder arrests of any age category, a distinct departure from previous years. As a context for interpreting these levels, the involvement of current 15- to 19-year-olds is shown to exceed by a considerable margin the involvement of similarly aged cohorts of baby boomers, a youth group formerly the object of considerable public concern. Research is encouraged that addresses the multifaceted sources contributing to this dramatic societal shift in age-related patterns of arrests for murder and, by assumption, involvement in homicide offending.

Previous studies have demonstrated a connection between intimate partner violence (IPV) and a child’s alienation from the abused parent, but little is known about the relationships between the type of IPV, aspects, and severity of a child’s alienation, and the target parent’s gender. This study assessed the presence of an IPV history (verbal and physical aspects) among parents who identify as targets of their children’s unreasonable rejection. Also investigated were associations between the form of IPV and manifestations of a child’s alienated behavior, parent’s gender and type of IPV, and parents’ gender and degree of the child’s alienation. Self-identified alienated parents (n = 842) completed an online survey that included an IPV screening measurement (Hurts, Insults, Screams, Threatens screening tool) and a measure of the parent’s perception of their child’s alienated behaviors (Rowlands Parental Alienation Scale). The majority identified as IPV victims and reported a higher level of verbal than physical abuse. More mothers than fathers identified themselves as IPV victims. As a group, IPV victims rated their child as more severely alienated than did non-IPV alienated parents. Mothers were more likely than fathers to report physical aggression by the other parent and more likely than fathers to assess their child’s alienated behaviors as more severe. Victims of physical violence reported their children were less likely to withhold positive affection from them. This knowledge may assist in earlier identification of the alienation process and greater recognition, legitimacy, funding, and opportunities for enhanced collaboration among stakeholders. This, in turn, may lead to improvements in prevention, intervention, and accountability, thus helping to interrupt alienation processes.

The present study examines the controversial issue of whether women and men are equally abused in dating relationships. Undergraduate and graduate students (n = 874) completed a survey about their experiences and perpetration of psychological, sexual, and physical aggression within dating relationships. To enable a more contextualized understanding of these phenomena, motives for and outcomes of dating violence were also assessed. Women and men reported comparable amounts of overall aggression from dating partners, but differed in the types of violence experienced. Women were more likely to experience sexual victimization, whereas men were more often the victims of psychological aggression; rates of physical violence were similar across genders. Contrary to hypotheses, women were not more likely to use physical violence in self-defense than men. However, although both genders experienced similar amounts of aggressive acts from dating partners, the impact of such violence is more severe for women than men.