Stress Reduction in Child-Abusing Families: Global and Specific Measures

This study compared in-home treatment to traditional county services for their ability to reduce stress in child-abusing families. 47 families who were at risk for having at least one child removed from the home for child abuse were referred to Families First for an intensive 6-wk., in-home therapy program. A comparison group of 29 families who were also at risk for having at least one child removed for abuse received traditional county services but no in-home therapy. Stress scores used were derived from a factor analysis of the Family Inventory of Life Events and Changes (FILE) that had identified 10 stress factors. The stress data were analyzed by a series of 2 × 2 analyses of variance, group and time being the independent variables and the stress factors the dependent variables. Total stress was significantly reduced over time for both groups, and several specific stress factors were also significantly reduced over time. In secondary analyses, 2 × 3 (group by time) analyses identified interactions for total stress and three of the individual stress factors. In-home treatment was effective in reducing stress, but traditional services were also effective. Some possible explanations were discussed. A major finding was that, by including analyses using the specific stress factors (rather than just the Total Stress score), a much richer understanding of the role stress plays in abusive families is provided. It was concluded that, although global stress may be reduced by different methods, some specific types of stress are more likely to be reduced than others.

Ambient vibration test results of the Imperial County Services Building

The ambient vibration test results conducted on the Imperial County Services Building prior to the 15 October 1979 Imperial Valley earthquake are summarized. These results are of significant interest because the Imperial County Services Building has been the source of many postearthquake investigations due to the fact that the 1979 earthquake represented the first time a building instrumented with strong motion recorders suffered and recorded the major structural failure.

Elastic analysis of the Imperial County Services Building

This paper* presents the results of an elastic structural analysis of the Imperial County Services Building in El Centro, California. This analysis is of particular significance because the Imperial County Services Building suffered major structural damage during the October 1979 Imperial Valley earthquake, and the building's response was recorded on permanently installed strong motion accelerographs. * The abbreviations used are: a = fraction of distance to centroid; A′s = area of compression steel; b = beam width; C=0.05/3T; d = distance of tension steel from beam surface; d′ = distance of compression steel from beam surface; Fj = force at jth level; f′c = concrete compressive strength; f′s = stress of compression steel at ultimate moment; FT = portion of V considered concentrated at the top of the structure (equal to 0 for the ICSB); hj = height above the base of the level j; K = ductility factor; Mu = ultimate moment; n = number of levels to the uppermost level in the main portion of the structure; T = building period; V = base shear; wj = portion of the total dead load which is loaded at level j; W = total dead weight of the structure; Z = zone factor.

Inelastic analysis of the imperial county services building

Full scale ambient and forced vibration dynamic measurements of buildings have become a continuing research activity over the last twenty years or so. One building that has been studied in such a way was the Imperial County Services Building which was also instrumented with a number of seismographs. On the 15 October 1979, this building suffered major structural damage in a powerful earthquake. This paper briefly describes the ICSB and the damage that occurred, before discussing the computer models that were analysed to study the likely inelastic behaviour of the building. Though the analytical time histories do not show very good agreement with the seismograph results, they do show that the transverse component of the earthquake had a significant effect on the behaviour of the building on account of a non-symmetric arrangement of the ground floor shear walls in the transverse direction. Another factor was the placing of a ground level slab above the detailed column hinges.