kristen bernhardt

Since so many people have looked at the undergraduate version of this paper, I wanted to make the updated version available. I presented a talk at the Pacific Sociological Association's annual meeting in Long Beach, CA based on this version.

This study addresses some key issues in mental health care for children in foster-care systems nationwide. Despite language in federal legislation that urges mental health screenings for all children upon entry to foster care, many children are still falling through the cracks due to lack of access to care and lack of continuity of care across placements. This paper is particularly concerned with children who have been exposed to trauma and are at high risk for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), especially those who are between one and three years old, a crucial stage for personality development. PTSD is a serious condition which can follow a traumatic event or repeated psychological or physical trauma, characterized by intrusive thoughts or reliving of the trauma (flashbacks), emotional numbing or depression and dissociative reactions, among other symptoms. In light of the fact that the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders fifth edition, to be released this year, will include a subtype of PTSD specifically for children under six, the proposal focuses on screening for PTSD in infants and toddlers. It solves the problem with access to and follow-up of care (making sure that initial recommendations for psychological screening and treatment are actually sought out) by recommending that child welfare agencies hire practitioners at the master’s level to deal with parental-rights-termination cases. These practitioners should be trained in evidence-based mental health practices. They can be new hires, or agencies can use federal grant money which is already allotted to states for additional training of existing staff. Communities will eventually see a financial gain from this practice in the form of reduced Medicaid spending and better outcomes for adult children exiting the system.

2nd-generation immigrants often have to navigate the expectations of parents and family (rooted in the culture of the host country) with American presentations and interpretations of sexuality, and stereotypes about who they are and how they should act within U.S. society. This paper explores some of the qualitative literature about these conflicting messages in the Latina(o) culture, particularly those authors working within a sex-positive framework.

This qualitative discourse analysis study examines 12 documents accessed from the U.S. House of Representatives Committee for Science, Space, and Technology’s website. Documents were textually and contextually analyzed, compared to the mainstream counter-discourse, and situated within a sociological framework of cultural hegemony and elite theory. Documents under the search term “climate change” were more scientifically worded, but compared with those searched for under the term “global warming” only subtle differences were found. Analyses examines these differences, and explores how and why the overarching themes of scientific bias and uncertainty, discrediting mainstream science, conspiracy between the Obama administration and elite scientists, and, to a lesser degree, economic damage were used to frame climate-change doubt. The study finds that underlying themes in this particular discourse of denial included hypocrisy, trust and betrayal, justice and fairness within capitalism, obstruction and impasse, and distraction and diversion.