Cell Phone Internet Access,Online Sexual Solicitation,Partner Seeking,and Sexual Risk Behavior Among Adolescents

Archives of Sexual Behavior - Online partner seeking is associated with sexual risk behavior among young adults (specifically men who have sex with men), but this association has yet to be explored...     

The Impact of Local Immigration Enforcement Policies on the Health of Immigrant Hispanics/Latinos in the United States

Objectives. We sought to understand how local immigration enforcement policies affect the utilization of health services among immigrant Hispanics/Latinos in North Carolina.Methods. In 2012, we analyzed vital records data to determine whether local implementation of section 287(g) of the Immigration and Nationality Act and the Secure Communities program, which authorizes local law enforcement agencies to enforce federal immigration laws, affected the prenatal care utilization of Hispanics/Latinas. We also conducted 6 focus groups and 17 interviews with Hispanic/Latino persons across North Carolina to explore the impact of immigration policies on their utilization of health services.Results. We found no significant differences in utilization of prenatal care before and after implementation of section 287(g), but we did find that, in individual-level analysis, Hispanic/Latina mothers sought prenatal care later and had inadequate care when compared with non-Hispanic/Latina mothers. Participants reported profound mistrust of health services, avoiding health services, and sacrificing their health and the health of their family members.Conclusions. Fear of immigration enforcement policies is generalized across counties. Interventions are needed to increase immigrant Hispanics/Latinos’ understanding of their rights and eligibility to utilize health services. Policy-level initiatives are also needed (e.g., driver’s licenses) to help undocumented persons access and utilize these services.Federal immigration enforcement policies have been increasingly delegated to state and local jurisdictions, leading to increased enforcement activities by local police. This shift has resulted largely from the implementation of 2 federal initiatives: section 287(g) of the Immigration and Nationality Act and the Secure Communities program. Section 287(g) authorizes Immigration and Custom Enforcement to enter into agreements with state and local law enforcement agencies to enforce federal immigration law during their regular, daily law enforcement activities. The original intention was to “target and remove undocumented immigrants convicted of violent crimes, human smuggling, gang/organized crime activity, sexual-related offenses, narcotics smuggling and money laundering.”1 Added to the Immigration and Nationality Act in 1996, section 287(g) was not widely used in its first decade, but its use accelerated in the mid- to late 2000s.2,3The Secure Communities program differs from section 287(g) in that it does not authorize local enforcement bodies to arrest individuals for federal immigration violations. Instead, when individuals are arrested for nonimmigration matters, the Secure Communities program facilitates the sharing of local arrestees’ fingerprints and information with Immigration and Custom Enforcement and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which checks them against immigration databases. If these checks reveal that an individual is unlawfully present in the United States or otherwise removable because of a criminal conviction, Immigration and Custom Enforcement takes enforcement action.4Some evidence suggests that both section 287(g) and the Secure Communities program contribute to Hispanic/Latino immigrants’ general mistrust of local law enforcement and fear of utilizing a variety of public services, such as police protection and emergency services.2,5–7 Although many immigrant Hispanics/Latinos in the United States experience barriers to care because of a lack of bilingual and bicultural services, low health literacy, insufficient public transportation, and limited knowledge of available health services,8–12 studies have suggested that individuals lacking legal status may have more difficulty obtaining health services and may experience worse health outcomes than do individuals with legal status.13–18 Among immigrant Hispanics/Latinos, the fear of deportation, a lack of required forms of documentation, interaction with law enforcement personnel, and racial profiling are factors also associated with reduced utilization of health services and worse health.6,19–22 Such fears lead to incomplete sequences of care,19,20,23,24 promote the use of nonstandard and unsafe contingencies for care,16,25–27 and contribute to public health hazards, as immigrants delay preventive care or treatment.13,22,28 These fears further affect long-term health outcomes as immigrant Hispanics/Latinos alter their physical activity, food purchasing behaviors, and food consumption because of concerns about being in public.29 They may withhold information from health care providers19 and experience high levels of stress, leading to compromised mental health.20,30,31The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act bars undocumented or recent legal immigrants from receiving financial assistance for health insurance32; thus, many will continue to remain uninsured and dependent on public health services and free clinics for a significant portion of their care. Because these services are associated with government authority, there is the potential that increasing immigration enforcement policies will deter noncitizens from seeking needed care, not only to their detriment but also to the detriment of public health.Currently there is little research examining the impact of recent immigration enforcement policies on the access to and utilization of health care, and there has been a call to better understand the public health impact of current immigration policies and their enforcement.29 Through mixed methods, we explored the effect of local immigration enforcement policies on access to and utilization of health services among immigrant Hispanics/Latinos in North Carolina. We analyzed vital records data to determine whether there were differences in utilization of prenatal services by Hispanic/Latina mothers pre- and postimplementation of section 287(g), and we conducted focus groups and in-depth interviews with Hispanics/Latinos living in counties that had implemented section 287(g) and in “sanctuary” counties, counties in which leaders, including politicians and clergy, have spoken out against the program.     

Cyberbullying Perpetration and Victimization Among Middle-School Students

Objectives. We examined correlations between gender, race, sexual identity, and technology use, and patterns of cyberbullying experiences and behaviors among middle-school students.Methods. We collected a probability sample of 1285 students alongside the 2012 Youth Risk Behavior Survey in Los Angeles Unified School District middle schools. We used logistic regressions to assess the correlates of being a cyberbully perpetrator, victim, and perpetrator–victim (i.e., bidirectional cyberbullying behavior).Results. In this sample, 6.6% reported being a cyberbully victim, 5.0% reported being a perpetrator, and 4.3% reported being a perpetrator–victim. Cyberbullying behavior frequently occurred on Facebook or via text messaging. Cyberbully perpetrators, victims, and perpetrators–victims all were more likely to report using the Internet for at least 3 hours per day. Sexual-minority students and students who texted at least 50 times per day were more likely to report cyberbullying victimization. Girls were more likely to report being perpetrators–victims.Conclusions. Cyberbullying interventions should account for gender and sexual identity, as well as the possible benefits of educational interventions for intensive Internet users and frequent texters.Cyberbullying is the “willful and repeated harm inflicted [on another] through the use of computers, cell phones, or other electronic devices.”1^(p5) Among 6th- through 10th-grade students nationally, 4% reported being cyberbullying perpetrators, 5% reported being a victim of cyberbullying, and 5% reported being perpetrators–victims (meaning that they have both perpetrated and been victimized by cyberbullying) during the previous 2 months.2 Among middle-school students in the southeastern and northwestern United States, a nonprobability sample of 3767 students by Kowalski and Limber3 found that 11% reported being a victim of cyberbullying, 4% were cyberbullying perpetrators, and 7% were perpetrators–victims during the previous 2 months. Cyberbullying may be more insidious than traditional bullying, because cyberbullying can quickly reach wide audiences (e.g., e-mails sent to an entire school), can be perpetrated anonymously, and is not bound to in-person interactions.4,5 Although cyberbullying has garnered widespread media attention, to our knowledge, no previous study has explored correlates of cyberbullying with a representative probability sample in an urban middle-school sample.Cyberbullying is associated with a host of health and behavioral health consequences. Research has suggested that cyberbullying may have a greater effect on depression and suicidal ideation than traditional offline bullying.6 Both perpetration and victimization are associated with mental health consequences, including lower self-esteem,7 recent depressive symptoms,5,8,9 and suicidal ideation.5,8,10 Cyberbullying perpetrators are more likely to have problems with their behavior, peer relationships, and emotions, and are less likely to be prosocial than their peers who are neither cyberbullying perpetrators nor victims of cyberbullying.11 Specifically, female cyberbullying perpetrators express greater anxiety and depression than their female peers who are not cyberbullying perpetrators.12 Cyberbullying victimization is also strongly associated with substance use, violent behavior, and risky sexual behavior among high-school students.10Cyberbullying disproportionately affects youths who are already vulnerable to mental health and behavioral health disparities, including members of sexual minorities (i.e., gay, lesbian, bisexual), girls, and racial and ethnic minorities. More than half of sexual-minority middle- and high-school students nationally report being a cyberbully victim during the previous year, with almost one fifth reporting often or frequent victimization.13 Female students are significantly more likely to be cyberbully perpetrators–victims than their male peers.9,14 Studies have reported that male students are significantly more likely to be cyberbullying perpetrators2,15 and significantly less likely to be cyberbully victims.2,6,9 Middle-school boys are more likely to cyberbully others because of their race, sexual identity, or both.16 African American students are more likely to be cyberbully perpetrators and Hispanic students are more likely to be cyberbully perpetrators–victims than their White peers.2Cyberbullying may occur across a variety of technology platforms, and the specific qualities of each platform may affect how cyberbullying is perpetrated and experienced. Earlier studies suggested that instant messaging, chat rooms, and message boards were the most common mediums for middle-school students who experienced cyberbullying.3,17 More recently, youths have migrated to social media platforms such as Facebook,18–20 necessitating an examination of cyberbullying across more contemporary and emerging platforms for youth interaction.More frequent use of technology has also been associated with cyberbullying. Students who use the Internet for at least 3 hours per day and those who use instant messaging and Web cams are significantly more likely to have been cyberbully victims at least 7 times during the previous year.17 Frequent Internet users are significantly more likely to be cyberbully perpetrators, victims, and perpetrators–victims.14Research has shown that even though cyberbullying takes place in a virtual space, most cyberbullying perpetrators know their victims and vice versa. Moreover, 73% of victims reported being “pretty sure” or “totally sure” about the identity of their cyberbully, with 51% of cyberbullying perpetrators identified as a classmate, 43% as someone who they only knew online, and 20% as an in-person, nonclassmate relation.17 Cyberbullying perpetrators of middle-school victims were most often a classmate or a stranger; cyberbullying perpetrators most often reported that they cyberbullied classmates, friends, and strangers.3This study expanded previous work with high-school samples2 and nonprobability samples of middle-school students3,17 to explore the role of sexual identity, gender, race, and technology use patterns in a random sample of urban middle-school students in Los Angeles County, California. The study focused on demographic characteristics including sexual identity, patterns of technology use (i.e., frequency of Internet use, texting, parental rules regarding Internet use), and platforms on which middle-school students experience cyberbullying (i.e., Facebook, Twitter, e-mail, text messaging) to inform interventions to disrupt this maladaptive behavior and help protect early adolescents from the consequences of cyberbullying.     

Validation of the self-confidence scale of nursing care in urinary retention

Objective:

to validate an instrument to measure self-confidence of nursing care in urinary retention.

Methods:

methodological research study, carried out after ethical approval. A Likert-like scale of 32 items related to nursing care in urinary retention was applied to students of the graduate nursing course. For instrument validation, analysis of the sample adequacy and main components, Varimax orthogonal rotation and internal consistency analyses were developed.

Results:

in a sample of 305 students, there was high correlation of all items with the total scale and Cronbach''s alpha of 0.949. The scale items were divided into five factors with internal consistency: Factor 1 (0.890), Factor 2 (0.874), Factor 3 (0.868), Factor 4 (0.814) and Factor 5 (0.773), respectively.

Conclusion:

the scale meets the validity requirements, demonstrating potential for use in evaluation and research.     

Aplasia cutis congenita: a conservative approach of a case with large,extensive skin,and underlying skull defect

Aplasia cutis congenita is a disease in which skin, bone, and dura mater can be absent. In majority of the cases it affects the scalp. We report a baby girl born at term with a large scalp and skull defect measuring 9 × 10 cm. Conservative treatment led to complete epithelization.