Virtually every student knows someone who has battled cancer. It is a topic that is of great interest to many students because of their personal connection to the subject. Mitosis is an important topic in a middle school unit on cells and cell processes (National Science Standards, Grades 5?8: Life Sciences: Content Standard C). Studying cancer…

Cancer affects not just the patient but also the entire family system. The effect of a parent's cancer on young children in the family may lead to emotional distress and school problems. This article describes guidelines for a counseling group for elementary school children of cancer patients to be led by the school counselor and meet in the…

This study examined the acoustic characteristics of vowels produced by speakers with partial glossectomy. Acoustic variables investigated included first formant (F1) frequency, second formant (F2) frequency, F1 range, F2 range and vowel space area. Data from the speakers with partial glossectomy were compared with age- and gender-matched controls.…

To demonstrate how qualitative methods can be used to guide the planning of online learning within the cultural and intertextual milieu of the Internet, this project gives the data, methods and the results of the contextualization and conceptualization of an online learning environment. The learning environment addressed and invited people with…

This study assessed the association of lifestyle and clinical health behaviors with prostate specific antigen (PSA) tests. The study used cross-sectional data from the 2002 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS). We used Stata 8.0 to take into account the complex sample design in analyses. Both lifestyle and clinical health behaviors…

This article presents a formative evaluation of a CDC Racial and Ethnic Approaches to Community Health (REACH) 2010 faith-based breast and cervical cancer early detection and prevention intervention for African American women living in urban communities. Focus groups were conducted with a sample of women (N = 94) recruited from each church…

Context: Multiple national agencies and organizations recommend that women age 40 years and older have an annual screening mammogram. Women who are poor, less educated, lack a usual source of care, and reside in rural Appalachia are less likely to have had a recent mammogram. Purpose: To increase use of mammography among a rural Appalachian…

Previous research suggests that belief in the uncontrollability of a situation results in maladaptive attempts to control outcomes; perceptions of cancer's uncontrollability may result in negative attitudes toward the disease and toward patients. To test this theory 160 college students read and responded to a paragraph describing a disease…

A review of existing stress and coping models and an analysis of the distress caused by childhood cancer suggest that a broader conceptualization of coping that includes "pleasure management" is needed. Presently, successful coping is identified as the employment of strategies which allow the individual to adapt to stress. Traditional…

Compared parents (N=40) whose adult children died in traffic accidents to parents (N=24) whose adult children died of cancer. Cancer parents tended to experience loss less painfully than did accident parents. Differences between groups were explained by older age of children at death and less intense expression of grief. Circumstances of death…

Factors associated with quitting smoking were analyzed. Quitters were those who had stopped for at least one year. Quit rates were higher for males, those in higher age groups of both sexes, those of higher educational and occupational levels, Jews, and whites. (Author.VM)

Interviewed 32 married couples about their experiences and strategies for coping with their children's cancer. Most informants reported that family cohesion was strengthened by their experiences and that spouses were the most important source of support. (BH)

Evaluated the effects of increased methodological rigor on the validity of the Observation Scale of Behavioral Distress and on findings concerning whether children habituate to painful procedures. Data were scored with and without refinements. Results indicated that children do habituate but that refinements had little effect on validity. (BH)