This study extends existing research on psychology of working theory by assessing components of the model among two community samples (N = 364) of high school youth. We examined structural models linking student perceptions of external barriers to higher education to three indices of adaptive career progress, work volition, career adaptability, and school motivation. We also assessed the roles of student perceptions of proactive personality, critical motivation, and teacher social support as moderators of perceived external barriers for the three career progress indices. The findings reveal main effects, rather than moderating contributions for critical motivation and proactive personality, with only teacher support being a significant moderator for career adaptability and work volition. The moderating effect was inconsistent with theoretical expectations, however. The results are discussed with attention to further research and applicability for vocational intervention.

Minorities are underserved for health services in the United States, and persons from minority backgrounds are disproportionately represented among individuals suffering from low health literacy, a situation that creates a further barrier to understanding health needs and seeking health services. These barriers persist among persons with SCI, with racial and ethnic differences impacting both health outcomes and subjective sense of well-being. Providing health information resources on-line is a well-accepted diffusion strategy in the 21st century, but most health information available on-line is written at a level of complexity that is not useful to or usable by individuals with lower levels of literacy. On-line materials have the potential to resolve some of the difficulties persons with low literacy experience in accessing health information by supplementing text with video demonstrations and audio explanations. YouTube, the popular, open-access, video-sharing social media Web site, provides an opportunity for delivering accessible and literacy-neutral information on topics important to the health of people with SCI. This article explores the use of YouTube in mobilizing knowledge on cardiometabolic disease (eg, cardiovascular disease, obesity, hypertension, diabetes) and pressure ulcer management for the greater SCI community.

On-line knowledge sharing of disability self-management offers a learning advantage in that it can be individualized to on-line community members' needs. It also promotes accessibility by removing the geographic, transportation, financial, time, and distance barriers that often accompany face-to-face, patientoriented education. A consumer-focused training project conducted at the Rehabilitation Research and Training Center on Spinal Cord Injury aims to promote self-management skills in persons with SCI in the areas of skin care, cardiometabolic risk reduction, and obesity prevention. The training framework incorporates a YouTube-based, shared video social network that connects participants with community-based resources necessary to achieve independence, stability, and community integration. The purpose of this article is to describe a preliminary analysis of SCI-specific educational videos posted to the YouTube Web site. It is anticipated that findings from the project will enable individuals with SCI to self-manage health and function more independently in their daily lives.

BackgroundTraumatic brain injury is a major health problem that frequently leads to deficits in executive function. Self-regulation processes, such as goal-setting, may become disordered after traumatic brain injury, particularly when the frontal regions of the brain and their connections are involved. Such impairments reduce injured veterans’ ability to return to work or school and to regain satisfactory personal lives. Understanding the neurologically disabling effects of brain injury on executive function is necessary for both the accurate diagnosis of impairment and the individual tailoring of rehabilitation processes to help returning service members recover independent function.Methods/designThe COMPASSgoal (Community Participation through Self-Efficacy Skills Development) program develops and tests a novel patient-centered intervention framework for community re-integration psychosocial research in veterans with mild traumatic brain injury. COMPASSgoal integrates the principles and best practices of goal self-management. Goal setting is a core skill in self-management training by which persons with chronic health conditions learn to improve their status and decrease symptom effects. Over a three-year period, COMPASSgoal will recruit 110 participants with residual executive dysfunction three months or more post-injury. Inclusion criteria combine both clinical diagnosis and standardized scores that are >1 SD from the normative score on the Frontal Systems Rating Scale. Participants are randomized into two groups: goal-management (intervention) and supported discharge (control). The intervention is administered in eight consecutive, weekly sessions. Assessments occur at enrollment, post-intervention/supported discharge, and three months post-treatment follow-up.DiscussionGoal management is part of the “natural language” of rehabilitation. However, collaborative goal-setting between clinicians/case managers and clients can be hindered by the cognitive deficits that follow brain injury. Re-training returning veterans with brain injury in goal management, with appropriate help and support, would essentially treat deficits in executive function. A structured approach to goal self-management may foster greater independence and self-efficacy, help veterans gain insight into goals that are realistic for them at a given time, and help clinicians and veterans to work more effectively as true collaborators.

In this article, we discuss the integration of prevention science and vocational psychology for person- and system-focused prevention with a critical social justice agenda. More specifically, we focus on career development education as a potentially transformative primary prevention activity for increasing youth access to decent work and lives of well-being. We consider this as a critical agenda for two reasons. First, there are continued declines in the availability of decent work on a global level. In addition, youth who are marginalized by society are particularly vulnerable in competing for access to such dwindling opportunities and in thriving in communities and workplaces characterized by oppressive policies and practices. Building upon previous work in prevention and vocational psychology from a social justice perspective, we suggest that the psychology of working theory (PWT) can serve as a conceptual framework for developing and evaluating person- and system-focused preventive interventions that will address marginalization and seek to prepare all youth for an uncertain and shifting work future.

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