healthy people 2020 - Society for Public Health Education

✯ Conference Abstracts ✯
saturday | november 6
various strategies including local and statewide community coalitions.
Although HIV/AIDS coalitions resemble other health promotion coalitions
they differ in that People Living With HIV/AIDS (PLWHAs) are
federally mandated or required by the funder to participate. As a result,
PLWHA membership is thought to be largely due to these requirements.
Other factors affecting participation, including social support, often have
been overlooked. There is a dearth of research on the role that social support
plays in coalition participation and its relationship to coalition success.
The purpose of this study was to document PLWHAs’ perception
of social support experiences and coalition success with regard to their
participation in HIV/AIDS coalitions. This study used a qualitative research
design guided by the grounded theory approach. 13 HIV positive,
HIV/AIDS coalition participants were interviewed in New York City, NY
during December 2009. Verification was achieved though continuous
clarification of the researcher’s biases, the development of rich and thick
description, triangulation, negative case analysis, a peer review, and an
external audit. Results revealed that PLWHAs perceive that social support
exists in said coalitions. Six main themes related to social support
emerged from the data: (a) the acquisition of knowledge and information,
(b) the desire to give back and help others, (c) the desire to participate
in a “successful” effort, (d) the desire to stay connected through
coalition activities, (e) the desire to give and receive social support, (f)
PLWHAs strongly desired to give back to others and strived to acquire
information and skills to do so. In addition, PLWHAs perceived that the
most important factor related to coalition success is social support and
that the provision of social support influence why they joined, continue
and participate as active members and leaders. Recommendations for
health education include: exploring social support as means of coalition
recruitment and retention of underserved and culturally distinct groups,
examining current coalition activities for ways to incorporate social support
for its most vulnerable members, and including social support as a
factor in the evaluation of coalition success.
early risers 2
sat / nov 6 / 7:00 am - 8:15 am / Room: Molly Brown
Critical Thinking: A Necessary Skill for Leadership.
This workshop provides attendees with a good working knowledge of
Critical Thinking Tools and Techniques; practice sessions with these
tools on real business issues, and planning on how to use them in the
future. The templates, called Thinksheets, in this workshop are used
primarily as a teaching aid to guide future, out of class use.
current sessions d
sat / nov 6 / 8:30 am – 9:45 am
current sessions d1
Room: Colorado E-F
student fellowship presentations
Adolescent Dating Violence: A National Assessment of
School Counselor’s Practices.
Jagdish Khubchandani, PhD (c), MD, MPH, CHES, Ball State University
background: Adolescent dating violence (ADV) is a significant public
health problem which affects 9%-34% adolescents in the United States
according to various estimates. Schools can play an important role in
preventing ADV, educating teens about healthy dating relationships and
responding to incidents of ADV. Little is known about school personnel’s’
practices and perceptions regarding ADV.
theoretical framework: A combination of constructs from the
Health Belief Model, and Stages of Change Theory were used to create a
valid and reliable instrument for assessing school counselor’s knowledge
and beliefs about ADV. This study assessed school counselor’s knowledge
and beliefs about ADV, the barriers to assisting victims of ADV, current
practices of schools in relation to ADV.
hypothesis: The study determined whether public schools have a
protocol for responding to an incident of ADV. Additionally, the study
assessed the school counselor’s perceptions of the role played by various
school personnel in relation to assisting victims of ADV.
methods: A comprehensive literature review was conducted to develop
a questionnaire with adequate face validity. A panel of experts (n=12) assessed
the instrument for content validity. The required sample (n=257)
was determined by a priori power analyses at 90% confidence interval
and 5% confidence level considering the total population of high school
counselors (n=4500) in the US who were members of the American
School Counselors Association. Finally, factoring in a potential non-response
rate of 50%, a three wave mailing process was employed to survey
a national random sample of high school counselors (n=550). Mailings
included self addressed postage paid return envelope, a cover letter,
questionnaire and a $1 bill as an incentive for the participants (these
techniques were used to maximize the response rate).
results: As of now data is being collected and we are in the last phase
of data collection. However, early results indicate that the majority of
school counselors reported that they do not have a protocol in their
schools to respond to an incident of adolescent dating violence.
Additionally, the majority of counselors reported that in the past 2 years
training to assist victims of teen dating abuse has not been provided
to personnel in their schools, their school does not conduct periodic
student surveys that include questions on teen dating abuse behaviors,
and their school does not have a committee that meets periodically to
address health and safety issues which include teen dating abuse.
coclusion: It would appear from the preliminary results that schools
do not find adolescent dating violence a high priority. In addition, counselors
found a number of barriers (other important issues, lack of space
etc) to assisting students involved in ADV.
implications for practice: Schools need to establish a means
for assessing the status of ADV in their student population. In addition,
schools need to provide in-service education for school personnel
regarding prevention, assessment and interdiction of ADV.
Alcohol-Related Problems and Suicidal Behavior Among
College Students: Belongingness and Burdensomeness
as Potential Mediators.
Dorian Lamis, PhD (c), MA, University of South Carolina; Patrick Malone
Suicidal behaviors and alcohol use are both prevalent on U.S. college
campuses (CDC, 2007). Prior research has clearly demonstrated an
association between these behaviors in individuals attending college
(Lamis et al., in press). This study is intended to establish the relations
among alcohol-related problems, suicidal behaviors, and two components
of Joiner’s (2005) interpersonal-psychological theory of suicide in
a sample of 996 college students. The interpersonal-psychological theory
of suicide posits that an individual will not engage in serious suicidal
behavior unless he/she has both the desire and capability to do so. The
current study will focus on the suicidal desire components of the theory
(i.e., thwarted belongingness and perceived burdensomeness), which
Joiner proposes are distinct, but related, constructs that must be present
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