Examines an ongoing community development project in a primarily African-American county in Georgia. Identifies characteristics of the local development effort and compares them to the elements in the black organizational autonomy model of community development. (Author/JOW)

Examined the effectiveness of leisure education for older adults having difficulty adjusting psychologically after a stroke. Participants received either an experimental home leisure education program (intervention group) or a friendly home visit (control group) after discharge from rehabilitation. The intervention group performed significantly…

Presents the psychometric properties of the Youth Quality of Life Instrument-Research Version (YQOL-R) conceptual module. Item and factor analyses confirmed the hypothesized conceptual model derived from previous qualitative research. The scales of the YQOL-R showed acceptable internal consistency, reproducibility, expected associations with other…

Presents a rationale for the addition of psychological counseling in the treatment of persons with medical illnesses. Empirical data on the mind-body connection are presented, and the Medical Crisis Counseling model is outlined as an example of an effective intervention. Discusses issues and counseling techniques related to the model within the…

Used national survey data to examine gender differences in relationships of marital status and of marital quality to psychosocial well-being. Findings suggest that it is quality of marital interaction rather than marriage per se that is more important for individual well-being, and that effects of marital quality are stronger among women than…

Presents theory and typology of marital quality. Outlines three-corners model--systems theory of the self-in-marriage. Describes seven types of marital relationships in terms of systems theory, including four variants of high-quality marriage. Highlights model through critical assessment of Lewis and Spanier's (1979) essay on marital quality and…

Literature-based quality of life dimensions for individuals with disabilities were derived and proposed as a conceptual model, which was supported by 1,243 empirical measures in 87 studies. The studies were analyzed for demographic variables, type of investigation, methods of assessment and their psychometric properties, and common dimensions of…

From longitudinal study of first years of marriage, aspects of joint narrative told by couple about their relationship were related to assessment of marital quality. Several narrative measures taken in first year of marriage predicted marital quality in third year over and above relevant social demographic and psychological variables. (Author/NB)

Outlines the rationale for promoting comprehensive development in troubled communities. Argues that such approaches employ strategies that address the social, physical, and economic needs and circumstances of community residents. Looks at historical and current approaches and examines the experience of the Ford Foundation's Neighborhood and Family…

Reports preliminary evidence on an innovative approach to gang violence which relies on community mobilization, social intervention, suppression, opportunities provision, organizational development, and targeting. Describes program processes and outcomes. The project involved teams of community youth workers, tactical police officers, adult…

Surveyed fibromyalgia syndrome support group members about characteristics of the disease and how it affected their lives. Respondents had symptoms for many years before being diagnosed. Symptoms varied tremendously on a daily and yearly basis, so disease management was in a constant state of flux. Most symptoms significantly impacted quality of…

This article describes and presents an initial analysis of a quality-of-life?based model of psychosocial adaptation to chronic illness and disability. This model, termed disability centrality, represents a conceptual and theoretical synthesis of several existing theories and models, drawn from the quality-of life, rehabilitation counseling, and…

Our focus in this paper is on efforts to include persons with developmental disabilities in faith communities. We provide a review of the relevant literature on religious participation and faith communities for persons with disabilities and blend the limited data available on these topics with the perspectives of individuals whose efforts focus on…

Bifactor and second-order factor models are two alternative approaches for representing general constructs comprised of several highly related domains. Bifactor and second-order models were compared using a quality of life data set (N = 403). The bifactor model identified three, rather than the hypothesized four, domain specific factors beyond the…

We illustrate testing measurement invariance in a second-order factor model using a quality of life dataset (n = 924). Measurement invariance was tested across 2 groups at a set of hierarchically structured levels: (a) configural invariance, (b) first-order factor loadings, (c) second-order factor loadings, (d) intercepts of measured variables,…