Stigma impedes the social integration of persons recovering from psychiatric disability, especially those with criminal histories. Little is known about factors that lessen this stigma. Four hundred and four adults listened to one of four vignettes describing a 25-year-old male with schizophrenia and responded to a standard set of items measuring social distance. The individual who was gainfully employed (vs. unemployed), or who had a prior misdemeanor (vs. felony) criminal offense, elicited significantly less stigma. Employment may destigmatize a person coping with both psychiatric disability and a criminal record. Mental health services should encourage paid employment and other paths to community integration.

Self-management has been shown to increase perceived control over both illness and nonillness aspects of life among people with chronic conditions but has not received significant research attention among persons with multiple sclerosis (MS). Based on relationships proposed in the illness intrusiveness and disability centrality models, this study explored the relationships between subjective and objective measures of MS impact, self-management, perceived control, and subjective quality of life (SQOL). A sample of 157 adults with MS participated in this research. The results suggest that self-management is strongly associated with perceived control and that both perceived control and self-management mediate the relationship between MS impact and SQOL. The rehabilitation counseling implications of these findings are discussed.

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The current study examines marital satisfaction from the perspective of a well spouse who is responsible for caregiving a spouse with Multiple Sclerosis (MS). Forty spouses of individuals with MS completed questionnaires. A multiple regression analysis was conducted to determine the relationship of love, satisfaction with physical intimacy, communication, and caregiver burden to marital satisfaction. Results indicated that love and communication were significantly positively related to marital satisfaction, and caregiver burden was significantly negatively related to marital satisfaction. Satisfaction with physical intimacy was not significantly related to marital satisfaction with this sample of caregiver spouses. Implications for counselors were discussed.

The purpose of the study is to contribute to the understanding of quality of life as it is experienced by a community-based, nonclinical sample of individuals with HIV/AIDS by applying family resiliency theory and cognitive appraisal concepts of uncertainty and optimism. Through the use of a Web-based survey, 125 individuals with HIV/AIDS completed an online questionnaire. Disease progression, as measured by CD4 count, is not found to be related to quality of life. When considered separately, both the family resiliency variables and the cognitive appraisal variables are found to predict quality of life. The overall prediction model, composed of the three sets of predictor variables—cognitive appraisal, family resiliency, and disease progression—is found to explain over 60% of the variance in quality of life of people with HIV/AIDS.

The purpose of this qualitative project was to explore employment-related considerations through the perspectives of supported employment consumers with both psychiatric disabilities and criminal offense histories. Fourteen individuals participated in semi-structured interviews. Resulting themes included the importance of nonvocational services; relationship between mental illness and criminal activity; impact of mental illness and offense history on employment; helpful elements of supported employment; and recovery and advice to others. These findings help to explain how supported employment can mitigate social underachievement and social decline in an especially high need population.

The purpose of this study was to examine career expectations and outcomes for individuals who were identified as academically talented high school students. Data for this study were collected at two different time periods: 10 years and 20 years after participants' high school graduation. A decade after graduation from high school, participants described how their careers were similar or different from their expectations and projected where they expected to be in their careers in 10 more years. Twenty years after high school graduation, participants reported on their careers and their reports were compared with their expectations from 10 years after graduation. The majority of participants were accurate in their career predictions.