Brenda P. Egolf

The Psychosocial Consequences of Living Environment Instability on Maltreated Children

The relationship between stability of living arrangements and adolescent deviance was examined for 212 adolescents in a longitudinal study of maltreated and non maltreated children. Transitions in caretakers and residences have a statistically significant relationship to 5 indicators of adolescent deviant behavior. While maltreatment in childhood poses a risk for later deviance in adolescence, the risk can be even greater for those who have experienced more transitions while growing up.

Alar and apples: newspapers, risk and media responsibility

During 1989, a major environmental and health risk issue, the spraying of Alar on apples, created a furor among the American people. After hearing charges from the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) that eating Alar-laden apples significantly increased a childs risk of developing cancer, numbers of school districts dropped apples from their menus and parents poured apple juice down the drains. Apple sales plummeted. The NRDCs charges, which were disseminated by a well-planned and effective public relations campaign, brought counter-charges from the US Environmental Protection Agency, which accused the NRDC of basing its study on poor data, among other things. The core of the dispute was in the risk figures and risk interpretations being used by each organization. This study reviewed coverage in 13 newspapers during 1989 of the Alar issue. It found good and bad aspects, but little to support the degree of criticism applied by many people to media coverage of Alar. The 13 newspapers produced a total of 297 articles during the year and were not sensational in their approach. Many played the story in the prime news sections, alerting people to possible problems as suggested in most interpretations of media responsibility. Many articles also included a large number of sources and gave the apple industry a prominent voice. More problematic was their treatment of the Alar story as a hard news event, with short, superficial articles that lacked detailed analysis of the central part of the controversy—the risk issues. Four newspapers from apple-growing regions provided generally better coverage of the issue than did those from non-apple regions. The Alar issue has become a major landmark in media coverage of risk. The coverage had great economic and other repercussions that still continue. These newspapers would have been more responsible had they made health risk information more central in their coverage. Instead, reporters covered the conflict itself instead of the science behind the conflict. The study suggests a new model of risk reporting to better serve readers and viewers.

Community social change and mortality

This paper first reviews the types of explanations that have been used in analyzing unequal distribution in coronary heart disease among different groups and changes in prevalence over time. The explanations have mostly focused on the individual: individual behaviors, personalities, stressors, or social ties. It is suggested here that a shift in focus to community-level characteristics may also aid in understanding changes in mortality. Data are presented from Roseto, PA--a town that became known in the 1960s for its strong Italian traditions and very low mortality from myocardial infarction and that subsequently experienced a sharp rise in mortality--and from the adjacent comparison town of Bangor. Data collected over several decades--in some cases as far back as 1925--on marriages, population composition, organizational memberships, voting patterns, and social class indicators suggest that important community changes that accelerated significantly in the 1960s coincided with and may help to explain Rosetos loss of protection from coronary heart disease deaths after 1965.

Chernobyl coverage: how the US media treated the nuclear industry

This study attempted to uncover whether enough background information about nuclear power and the nuclear industries in the USA, USSR and Eastern and Western Europe had been included during the first two weeks of US coverage of the Chernobyl accident so that Americans would not be misled in their understanding of and attitudes toward nuclear power in general. It also sought to determine if reporters took advantage of the Chernobyl accident to attack nuclear technology or the nuclear industry in general. Coverage was analysed in five US newspapers and on the evening newscasts of the three major US television networks. Despite heavy coverage of the accident, no more than 25% of the coverage was devoted to information on safety records, history of accidents and current status of nuclear industries. Not enough information was provided to help the publics level of understanding of nuclear power or to put the Chernobyl accident in context. However, articles and newscasts generally balanced use of pro- and anti-nuclear statements, and did not include excessive amounts of fear-inducing and negative information.