Brett N. Steenbarger

Group Psychotherapy and Managed Behavioral Health Care: Current Trends and Future Challenges

The rising cost of health care within the private and public sectors has created an increased demand for the management of benefit dollars. This trend has significant implications for group psychotherapists, as group modalities offer cost-effective ways of delivering services to traditional outpatient and inpatient populations. Continued cost-containment pressures and increasing attention to outcome studies will fuel trends toward briefer, manualized group treatments and intensive group outpatient programs as alternatives to hospitalization. Quality-based demands will challenge payors to (a) address biases against group psychotherapy among providers and patients and (b) integrate recent process-and-outcome research in determining the appropriateness of group versus individual modalities for particular patients and presenting problems.

Sex roles, stress, and distress: A study of person by situation contingency

Literature on the relationship between sex roles and adjustment has suggested that masculine traits, rather than the androgynous interaction of masculine and feminine traits, are associated with positive adjustment. Studies with noncollege student populations, however, raise questions as to the generalizability of these findings. Suggestions that sex role traits are associated with particular defensive styles raise the possibility that the sex role-adjustment link is mediated by situational factors. The present study assessed sex role orientation, depression, hostility, and stress in 105 students of nursing. Femininity predicted positive vocational adjustment within the group, masculinity was associated with lower levels of depression, and femininity predicted lower hostility. Within the sex role orientations studied, androgynous nurses reported lower depression and vocational stress than their undifferentiated counterparts. It is suggested that feminine sex roles, promoting an internalization of threat, aid positive adjustment in settings marked by joint instrumental and interpersonal demands.

Designing the Study

Abstract Building upon an initial article, which described the processes of literature review and hypothesis development, the authors summarize issues of research design. General issues encountered by researchers in college health settings include the establishment of a clear research focus, selection of a representative and adequate study sample, use of reliable and valid measures, and adherence to professional ethics. Specific means of addressing these design concerns are summarized, using examples from college health research.

An Introduction to the Research Process

Abstract College health professionals are often intimidated by the research process and thus miss opportunities to develop and communicate their ideas. The present article, the first in a series on college health research, describes the basics of the research process, including the purpose and nature of research and the ways in which ideas are developed into research hypotheses. The process of reviewing research literature is described in detail, including methods for computerized searching.

Prevention in College Health: Counseling Perspectives

Such problems as sexually transmitted diseases, alcohol and other drug use, and acquaintance rape require college health professionals to function in primary and secondary preventive roles. In this article, the authors draw upon counseling literature and college health practice to identify the central elements of preventive programs, highlight specific intervention formats used in preventive work, and describe how interventions are assembled into coherent programs of prevention. To illustrate the structure and process of long-range, institutionalized preventive efforts, the authors describe an initiative addressing the primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention of substance use at a health sciences campus.

Research in College Health I: An Introduction to the Research Process

College health professionals are often intimidated by the research process and thus miss opportunities to develop and communicate their ideas. The present article, the first in a series on college health research, describes the basics of the research process, including the purpose and nature of research and the ways in which ideas are developed into research hypotheses. The process of reviewing research literature is described in detail, including methods for computerized searching.

Research in College Health 2: Designing the Study

Building upon an initial article, which described the processes of literature review and hypothesis development, the authors summarize issues of research design. General issues encountered by researchers in college health settings include the establishment of a clear research focus, selection of a representative and adequate study sample, use of reliable and valid measures, and adherence to professional ethics. Specific means of addressing these design concerns are summarized, using examples from college health research.

Research in college health. 3: Representative designs and their challenges.

This article explores three research designs common to college health investigations: survey, epidemiologic, and experimental. It identifies the varieties of research questions addressed by these designs and notes examples from clinical nursing/medicine, mental health, and health education topics. In addition, it summarizes the unique challenges encountered in each of these designs, including issues of sample selection, adequate measurement, and control.

Analyzing and Communicating Results

Abstract The final article in this series on research in college health deals with the analysis and communication of research data. The authors introduce descriptive and inferential statistics and summarize the applicability of different types of statistical analysis to college health research. Two major means of conveying results, conference presentations and journal articles, are also described and some guidelines for the effective communication of findings are offered.

Representative Designs and Their Challenges

Abstract In this article, the authors explore three research designs common to college health investigations: survey, epidemiologic, and experimental. They identify the varieties of research questions addressed by these designs and note examples from clinical nursing/medicine, mental health, and health education topics. In addition, the authors summarize the unique challenges encountered in each of these designs, including issues of sample selection, adequate measurement, and control.