This study was designed to understand the response of the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) and the Food Stamp Program (FSP) in southern Louisiana during Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. This study used portions of the PRECEDE/PROCEED model to develop the questions for the interviews and interpret the barriers and enabling and reinforcing factors with regard to changes in policy, budget, reporting, and program administration after the hurricanes. Information collected from this research seeks, not only to contribute to the literature on this topic, but to be made available to policymakers and program administrators to make informed decisions. The effects of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in southern Louisiana were catastrophic. They were unusual in that the impact of the storms covered an extraordinary amount of the Gulf Coast region and an enormous amount of people were affected. In response to the catastrophe, two federally mandated food assistance programs, the NSLP and FSP, released a series of waivers, initiating a disaster program, which decreased eligibility requirements; therefore allowing more people affected by the hurricanes to access the benefits. One-on-one interviews were conducted with regional, state, and local program administrators to understand the challenges and successes faces while implementing the disaster programs. The study participants were asked to participate based on their roles, responsibilities, and direct affect of either Hurricane Katrina, Rita, or both. Results of the study revealed the speedy response of the USDA and community support led to the success of the programs. The barriers that most administrators faced while trying to implement the programs were infrastructure damage, lack of communication due to power outage and loss of cellular service, and lack of commerce in the area. Overall, both programs were successful in their commitment to their underlying mission: increasing food access to those affected by the storms.

The current study examined the possible relationship between premarital sexual behaviors and the state of the marriage as reported by women. Participants were recruited from local Southern Baptist churches and were sent an anonymous mail-out questionnaire; 36 women returned questionnaires that were usable for analyses. Bivariate correlations for the variables that were considered demonstrated that the number of premarital sexual intercourse partners for the participant and her husband were strongly and negatively correlated to marital satisfaction, marital stability, low divorce thoughts, and feelings about the marriage. An analysis of variance showed that the women who experienced premarital sex (intercourse or oral sex) with at least one noncommitted partner had lower marital satisfaction than the women who did not experience premarital sex with a noncommitted partner.

The purpose of the study was to investigate values and other social and psychological factors influence on dress and appearance of African American college students (AACS). The dependent variable was dress and appearance. Independent variables consisted of external values (being well-respected, security, warm relationships with others, and sense of belonging) and internal values (self-respect, sense of accomplishment, fun and enjoyment, self-fulfillment, and excitement). Included in the independent variables were social factors (media and referents' influence (peers and family)) and psychological factors (self-consciousness, self-confidence, fashion leadership, and shopping enjoyment). Social adaptation theory provided the theoretical framework. The theory encompasses the social and psychological aspects of an individual's thinking and reasoning. The underlying basis of social adaptation theory states that information is absorbed into existing cognitive structures, such as an individual's values. A web-based survey was used to collect data of 282 AACS, freshman through graduate level, on two college campuses in a U.S. southern state. It was emailed to students by university personnel. As an incentive to complete the survey, participants were offered a university logo item. External values had a positive relationship with this group of AACS' dress and appearance. Internal values were most important in the daily lives of AACS in this study. Those internal values were sense of accomplishment, self-respect, fun and enjoyment and self-fulfillment. The most important value of all values was self-respect. Of the social factors, media was a better predictor of dress and appearance than family and peers. In regard to the psychological factors, all of the variables contributed to the influence of dress and appearance, with fashion leadership having the greatest influence. Hypothesis one: Internal and external values influence dress and appearance of AACS, was partially supported. Hypothesis two: Referents will be the most influential social factor on dress and appearance was not supported. Hypothesis three: Fashion leadership will be the most influential psychological factor on dress and appearance was supported. Dress and appearance of AACS was influenced by external values, media, and the psychological factors - fashion leadership, self-consciousness, self-confidence, and shopping enjoyment.

The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the role of familial protective factors in moderating the relationship between risk and resilience in Sudanese refugee youth exposed to political violence. Interviews, direct observations, and physical artifacts were the sources of data. Eight Lost Boys participated in the study, providing narratives of their experiences of the Sudanese civil wars. They also answered questions posed about the role of familial protective factors in moderating the relationship between risk and resilience. The interviews were recorded on audiotape and then transcribed. Data consisted of the transcripts and field notes of processes and observations. The field notes also included the Contact Summary Form, and when a physical artifact was obtained, an Art Work Analysis Form. The transcripts and field notes were later analyzed and coded. Eventually themes emerged. The results of the study indicate that familial protective factors play a role in moderating the relationship between risk and resilience in Sudanese refugee youth exposed to political violence. However, not all familial protective factors play a role nor those that do play a role do so equally. Some factors were more important than others as indicated by their frequency of being mentioned by the participants. Also, familial protective factors do not play a sole or primary role in moderating the relationship between risk and resilience. It appeared that initially familial protective factors were the sole protective mechanism. However, once the youth were separated from their families of origin and, given their extreme circumstances and need for protection and support, they quickly sought and developed other sources of support. Given the presence of their peers and little else as potential sources of support it seems natural that the peer group evolved as a surrogate family over a period of time. Eventually, the participants come to rely on their peers/surrogate family as their primary source of support. Finally, implications and recommendations for policy, practice, and future research were noted.

Much of the research that exists on Black marriage is usually from a deficit perspective and focuses on the decline of marriages among Black Americans. Even so, many Black families are marriage based and it is unfortunate that little research exists that focuses on understanding these families from a strength-based approach. It is important that we learn what constitutes the characteristics of strong Black marriages and families and learn how Black U.S. families differ from and are similar to Euro U.S. families. This study looked at the hows, whys, and processes of enduring and sustaining marriages in Black families. Black couples were interviewed to examine strengths and characteristics that contribute to happy, strong, long-term marriage for Black Americans. A purposive sample of Black married (or remarried) couples were interviewed to identify factors and characteristics that contribute to a strong, long-term marriage. Participants in this study were 12 heterosexual Black couples (24 participants) that were married for at least 20 years. The average length of marriage for the couples was 33 years. Participants ages ranged from 45 years to 75 years old. The findings revealed six salient themes discussed by participants. The first four themes were relational and marital in scope. They were: (a) the influence of children on marriage, (b) the influence of faith on marriage, (c) the sources of strength for marriage, and (d) the characteristics for a strong marriage. The final two themes were more societal in scope. They were: (e) the impact of Black community on marriage, and (f) the impact of racism on marriage. These findings highlight the strengths of strong, enduring Black marriages and families. This qualitative study provided insights and understandings from the participants points of view, including findings that concentrated on experiences, processes, meaning and understandings of Black persons and families.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the status and the effect of organizational factors on the level of technology adoption within the context of the Indian garment industry. Specifically, this study focuses on the effect of firm size, export orientation, top managements commitment, cost of capital, technical skills, and competitive advantage. An online survey using a structured questionnaire was prepared through an online research service. A multiple regression analysis (MRA) was used to test the hypotheses. The results revealed that firm size positively influences and export orientation negatively influences the technology adoption level of a firm. The effect of competitive advantage was moderately significant. On the other hand, the results indicated that the top management commitment, cost of capital, and technical skills did not have significant effects on the technology adoption level.

This study examined the effects of resistant starch in a high fat diet (28% of energy) on body weight, abdominal fat, cecal weight and pH, serum gut peptide YY (PYY) and gene expression for PYY and proglucagon in male Sprague Dawley rats. Three groups of rats (8wk) were fed one of the following diets for ten wks: energy control (EC; 3.7 kcal/g), resistant starch (RS; 3.7 kcal/g) and fiber control (FC; 2.9 kcal/g). Results were classified as significant when p<0.05. The consumption of RS resulted in significant increases in cecal weight (full and empty), serum PYY, gene expression for PYY and proglucagon in cecum and significant decrease in pH in cecal contents compared to the other groups. However, the disemboweled body weight and abdominal fat for RS were not lower compared to the EC. In our previous studies, we observed that RS in a low fat diet (18% of energy), produced similar gut signaling, as in the current study, but reduced disemboweled body weight and abdominal fat compared to EC. The reason for the unexpected results needs further study. Since high fat diets have been shown to alter brain response to other satiety signals (leptin), a high fat diet might affect neuronal responses to PYY and GLP-1 signaling from the gut caused by dietary RS.

The purpose of the study was to assess predictors of family resiliency following a disaster and the relationships among them in an exploratory manner. Predictors that were assessed in the study were resource loss, prior traumatic events, cumulative stress and selected demographic characteristics. Using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) by combining Census data with storm damage estimates and purposive sampling, 50 participants affected by Hurricane Katrina from a single suburban community in Southern Louisiana in early spring 2006 were recruited and interviewed. In late spring and summer, data collection was continued in Southwestern Louisiana and 32 rural respondents affected by Hurricane Rita were interviewed. These participants were recruited through rural and farm associations and with the aid of Cooperative Extension Service agents. The typical respondent affected by Hurricane Katrina in the study was a married, employed Caucasian female around 48 years old. The typical respondent affected by Hurricane Rita was a married, employed Caucasian female around 56 years old. Because there was no existing instrument that measures family resiliency, a multi-dimensional assessment was developed by reviewing existing instruments that measure similar constructs. Resource loss was measured by the Loss of Resource (LOR) inventory (Sattler, 2002). Prior traumatic event and cumulative stress were assessed by an instrument that was modeled after the assessment that was used in the baseline interview that was developed by Harvard Medical Schools Hurricane Advisory Group (2006). Following a frequency and reliability analysis, hypotheses were tested using correlation and regression analysis. For the Hurricane Katrina sample, higher amounts of resource loss and being female significantly predicted less family resiliency. For the Hurricane Rita sample, lower income significantly predicted less family resiliency. Results suggest that resource loss, gender, and income are important factors to consider when locating families that are more likely to be vulnerable following a disaster.

The current study examined the possible relationship between preschooler's school readiness and their attachment representations. More specifically, the study examined preschooler's performances on standardized tests and their perceptions of close relationships. The possible connection between school readiness and attachment representations was through children's experiences of stress during standardized testing situations (Fleege, Charlesworth, Burts, & Hart, 1992) and children's stress invoking the use of their internal working models (Bowlby, 1969/1982). The children were administered the Brigance CIBS-R (Glascoe, 1999), a standardized test that was most often used in the local schools to assess school readiness. The children were also videotaped while participating in the Narrative Story Stem Technique (NSST, Bretherton, Ridgeway, & Cassidy, 1990) to observe the children's perceptions of close relationships through story completions. The results showed that the children who demonstrated a higher number of attachment representations in comparison to the other children also obtained the higher scores on the subscale of the Brigance CIBS-R. The children who demonstrated a lower number of attachment representations in comparison to the other children also obtained the lowest scores on the subscale of the Brigance CIBS-R. Using a Spearman's rank correlation coefficient within a particular group of the children, it was discovered that an identifiable relationship existed between the rank order of the children's performances on a subscale of the Brigance CIBS-R and the rank order of the number of their attachment representations. The results indicate that children who seem to have impoverished attachment representations may also experience more stress in a standardized testing situation and may consequently perform lower on standardized tests that are used to assess school readiness.

The purpose of this study was to examine the associations between early adolescent decision making and behavioral adjustment with special interest in the interaction between parent-child relationship quality and decision making on behavioral adjustment. Associations were examined using data provided by 218 early adolescents. Girls comprised half the sample and the mean age was just over 11 years old. Main effects were consistent with previous research. Early adolescent decision making was associated with greater behavior problems and depressed mood. Parent-child relationship quality was defined as conflict and acceptance. Greater conflict was associated with poor behavioral adjustment while greater acceptance was associated with more positive behavioral adjustment. Multiple regression analysis was used to test possible interactions between early adolescent decision making and conflict and acceptance on each behavioral adjustment variable (behavior problems, depressed mood, and school performance). Consistent with previous research, neither conflict nor acceptance moderated the associations between early adolescent decision making and behavioral adjustment.