Alienation and Social Awareness Among College Students*

The generality of feelings of alienation among college students was tested by employing two sets of alienation scales. The obtained intercorrelations indicated a close correspondence between feelings of alienation from the university and from the surrounding society. The social learning hypothesis was investigated by relating these forms of alienation to two information tests. Inverse relationships were found between degrees of alienation and awareness concerning both the immediate university situation and larger political events. The influence of social background characteristics on the major variables was generally negligible.     

Influences of patient, service program, and clinician characteristics on judgments of functioning and treatment recommendations

The study examines the interactions among (a) type of service program (inpatient, partial hospital, and outpatient) (b) patient characteristics (social support, cooperativeness with treatment, and whether the symptoms of aggression are directed externally toward others or internally toward self), and (c) the type of level of functioning scale used (grossly versus behaviorally anchored scales) on two sets of dependent measures: (1) clinicians' judgments of patient level of functioning and (2) the clinicians' recommendations for initial treatment modality (inpatient, partial hospitalization, or outpatient individual or group therapy). Seventy-eight clinicians made judgments on 16 analogue cases systematically varied on the three patient variables. Forty-six clinicians worked in programs regularly using a behaviorally anchored functioning scale; of these, 27 made their level of functioning ratings with the nine point scale used by their programs, 19 used a grossly anchored scale (from “extreme dysfunction” to “no dysfunction”). The remaining 32 clinicians, from programs using structured scales, used the grossly anchored scale. Clinicians who used the behaviorally anchored scale gave higher level of functioning ratings overall and were less influenced by differences in the patient variables manipulated in the case vignettes. Male and female clinicians showed different effects of the patient social support variable. Treatment recommendations were influenced by the patient variables and by the type of service setting in which the clinician was working.     

SOGS and DSM-IV in the British Gambling Prevalence Survey: Reliability and Factor Structure

This article examines the psychometric performance and reliability of two problem gambling scales (the South Oaks Gambling Screen [SOGS], and a scale based on the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (4th edn) [DSM-IV]) and their constituent items, based upon data from the first British Gambling Prevalence Survey (Sproston et al ., 2000). Separate factor analyses of SOGS items and DSM-IV items suggested the existence of two independent factors in each case: dependence and gambling-related problems. Scores based upon SOGS and DSM factors correlated only moderately. It is concluded that no single existing screening questionnaire adequately reflects the multi-dimensional nature of problem gambling.     

Perspectives of elementary school educators in Japan,South Korea,Taiwan and the US on disability,stigmatization and children's developing self Part 1: Defining the problem in cultural context

The stigmatization of individuals with disabilities is a widespread social justice issue. This paper introduces a study of disability, stigmatization and self for children with disabilities and their typically-developing peers. It is the first of two companion papers. It examines the problem of stigmatization from the perspectives of experienced elementary school educators practicing in diverse cultural contexts. We conducted cross-cultural analyses of individual, audio recorded interviews with 26 Japanese, 43 Korean, 16 Taiwanese and 18 US educators, including school social workers. Educators from all four cultural groups described disability and stigma as challenging children's development of self: children with disabilities may experience the self as isolated and inadequate, and typically-developing peers may experience the self as lacking culturally expected values of empathy and respect. Educators' understandings of children's experiences also were culturally nuanced. Educators variously described children with disabilities as experiencing a sense of not belonging [Japan], loss of motivation [South Korea], too much shame [Taiwan], and low self-esteem [US]. They variously described typically-developing children as challenged to show empathy [Japan], include children with disabilities in their peer group [South Korea], develop benevolence [Taiwan], and show respect for individual differences [US]. We contextualize educators' perceptions within their specific sociocultural-historical contexts. Our second paper will focus on solutions; specifically, educators' perspectives on how to minimize stigmatization and support the development of self for children with disabilities and their typically-developing peers. Together, these companion papers provide social workers with valuable perspectives for eliminating the stigmatization of children with disabilities in future generations.     

Assessing attitudes of college students toward cross-cultural relationships: Implications for social work practice,research, and education

Higher education in America is a major social institution and an incubator of intellectual thought, holding an important and transformative place in the public domain, but it has also been implicated in the perpetuation of inequality, and the feeding of racial animus. The research question guiding this quantitative study explored predictors of college students’ perceptions of interracial relationships, which led to the querying of factors likely to impact social distance regarding interracial relationships at a mid-sized, diverse, rural university in the south. Two instruments were utilized to test the variables; the Bogardus Social Distance scale and the Social Dominance Orientation scale. The findings indicate statistical significance among two of the three variables examined, when controlling for socioeconomic and demographic variables; positive interracial experiences (p = < .002) and, greater amounts of interracial social contact (p = < .046) predict lower social distances regarding interracial relationships. Implications for higher education involve greater efforts toward social inclusion, increased cultural sensitivity, and an acknowledgment of the current and past structural and systemic inequities that have hindered positive race relations, and a vow to rectify those.     

At-Risk Youth and Hope: Incorporating a Ropes Course Into a Summer Jobs Program

Hope is important in the career development of at-risk youth. A 1-day Ropes Course, designed to increase hope, was incorporated into a summer jobs program for this population. The Ropes Course used individual and group activities that challenged the participants to overcome obstacles and achieve predetermined goals. Program evaluation data, including the Hope Scale and a thought-listing activity, indicated that the participants experienced an increase in hope after the Ropes Course.     

Gender, knowledge about AIDS, reported behavioral change, and the sexual behavior of college students

This article reports on an analysis of the relationships among knowledge about AIDS, self-reported changes in sexual behavior, and independent measures of those behaviors--condom use, coital frequency, and number of partners. The sample consisted of 195 sexually active, heterosexual college students attending a northeastern state university in spring 1988. With other relevant variables held constant, statistically significant associations in the predicted direction were found between knowledge and reported change and each of the dependent variables among the men, especially the men not involved in relationships. Among women, however, the only significant association was that between reporting the beginning of condom use and the frequency with which condoms were used in the past year. Possible reasons for these gender differences are discussed.     

Effect of communication variables,affective variables,and teacher immediacy on willingness to communicate of foreign language learners

The current study examined the willingness to communicate (WTC) of language learners who were studying English as a foreign language in a Chinese college setting. Some 234 college students participated in the study. The objective of the current study was to test the proposed relationships among communication apprehension (CA), self-perceived communication competence (SPCC), integrativeness, attitudes toward the learning situation, motivation, instrumental orientation, teacher immediacy, and second language (L2) WTC. A quantitative research method using questionnaires was employed. A path model was proposed and tested to examine the relationships among variables. The results of the study supported MacIntyre et al.'s (1998) WTC model. Four proposed relationships in the original path model were not obtained. Another four new relationships between variables were supported by the data. The significance of the current study lies in its theoretical contribution to the WTC construct and its pedagogical implication in second language teaching and learning.     

Woody plant communities along urban,suburban, and rural streams in Louisville,Kentucky, USA

Anthropogenic changes in land use and cover (LULC) in stream catchments can alter the composition of riparian plant communities, which can affect ecosystem functions of riparian areas and streams from local to landscape scales. We conducted a study to determine if woody plant species composition and abundance along headwater streams were correlated with categorical and continuous LULC and environmental variables along an urban-to-rural gradient. These variables were calculated at different spatial scales (subcatchment level and within 0.5 and 1 km radii of plots) and used % impervious surface cover (ISC) and finer scale LULC classification levels to determine their ability to explain species composition, diversity, abundance, non-native provenance and wetland indicator status of four plant strata—canopy tree, tree sapling, tree seedling and shrub. At all scales, we found distinct riparian woody communities within land-use categories, with significant differences among shrub species. Fine-scale land-cover variables correlated with species composition of shrub, tree sapling and tree seedling strata, but not the canopy tree stratum. Celtis occidentalis and Acer negundo were ubiquitous but dominated riparian areas surrounded by development, while Asimina triloba was associated with forested rural riparian banks. Non-native shrubs, Lonicera maackii and Euonymus alatus, were indicative of areas surrounded by development, while the native shrub, Lindera benzoin, was associated with deciduous forest. Negative factor-ceiling relationships between canopy tree, sapling and tree seedling densities and % ISC were found, with abrupt declines above approximately 30 % ISC. Facultative wetland shrubs were not found above 30 % ISC. Streambank height, which was strongly negatively correlated with depth to the water table and positively correlated with cumulative catchment area, was negatively correlated with facultative wetland tree and shrub species. In addition, riparian tree sapling and seedling densities declined as the abundance of Lonicera maackii increased.     

Validation of a measure of college students' intoxicated behaviors: associations with alcohol outcome expectancies, drinking motives, and personality

OBJECTIVE: The authors aimed to develop a measure of college students' intoxicated behaviors and to validate the measure using scales assessing alcohol outcome expectancies, motives for drinking, and personality traits. PARTICIPANTS AND METHOD SUMMARY: The authors administered these measures and an inventory describing 50 intoxicated behaviors to 198 college students and conducted factor analysis on intoxicated behaviors. Logistic regression models examined relationships between intoxicated behavior dimensions and expectances, motives, and personality traits. RESULTS: Self-reported behaviors during intoxication episodes were reducible to 3 basic dimensions that formed reliable and valid scales: social, antisocial, and emotionally labile intoxication. CONCLUSIONS: Researchers can use the Intoxicated Behaviors Inventory to evaluate the effectiveness of interventions targeting drinking or to identify college students at risk for problematic consequences of alcohol use. In addition, results point to the need for community efforts to encourage more moderate drinking among college students.     

Reliability and validity of egocentered network data collected via web: A meta-analysis of multilevel multitrait multimethod studies

Our goal in this article is to assess reliability and validity of egocentered network data collected through web surveys using multilevel confirmatory factor analysis under the multitrait multimethod approach.In this study, we analyze a questionnaire of social support of Ph.D. students in three European countries. The traits used are the frequency of social contact questions. The methods used are web survey design variants.We consider egocentered network data as hierarchical; therefore, a multilevel analysis is required. Within and between-ego reliabilities and validities are defined and interpreted.Afterwards, we proceed to a meta-analysis of the results of the three countries where within and between-ego validities and reliabilities are predicted from survey design variables which have to do with question order (by questions or by alters), response category labels (end labels or all labels) and lay-out of the questionnaire (graphical display or plain text). Results show that question order by questions, all-labeled response categories and a graphical display lay-out with images lead to a better data quality. Our basic approach consisting on multilevel and meta-analysis can be applied to evaluate the quality of any type of egocentered network questionnaire, regardless of the data collection mode.     

Social Capital,Place of Residence,and College Attendance1

The relationship between social interaction and college attendance is examined across varying types of communities. Structural arrangements and interaction patterns that foster positive relationships are regarded as social capital and are conceptualized as investments that can yield human capital returns in terms of higher educational attainment. Logistic regression procedures are employed to analyze data from the High School and Beyond Longitudinal Study. The social capital model of college attendance is estimated for the full sample and separately for high school students living in urban, suburban, and rural communities. Predicted probabilities of attending college for students with high and low social capital are obtained. Results of these analyses indicate that parental expectation of college attendance is the most powerful predictor of subsequent college attendance among variables examined. Measures of community social capital and parental human capital also strongly predict attendance.     

Sexual compulsivity among heterosexual college students

A growing body of literature suggests that an association exists between sexual compulsivity and participation in sexual behaviors that are high risk in terms of HIV/STD infection. In most of these studies, sexual compulsivity has been measured using the Sexual Compulsivity Scale. As yet, sexual compulsivity has only been assessed with this scale among individuals who are members of high risk groups for HIV infection or who are HIV-positive. In this study, we found support for reliability and construct validity of the SCS in a sample of 876 heterosexual college students, a group not yet examined in the sexual addiction and compulsivity literature. Construct validity was substantiated by the presence of significant relationships of sexual compulsivity with frequencies of sexual behaviors and numbers of sexual partners. The scale was also related to gender and age. Sexual compulsivity scores were associated with frequency of risky sexual behaviors. The relationships between sexual compulsivity and solo, partner, public, and risky sexual behaviors remained significant when we controlled for demographic variables. Although we found support for construct validity of the SCS in our sample, it is not clear whether the scale distinctly measures sexual compulsivity or taps into other constructs, such as sexual desire and sexual exploration.     

Color, Labels, and Interpretive Heuristics for Response Scales

We carried out two experiments to investigate how the shadingof the options in a response scale affected the answers to thesurvey questions. The experiments were embedded in two web surveys,and they varied whether the two ends of the scale were representedby shades of the same or different hues. The experiments alsovaried the numerical labels for the scale points and examinedresponses to both unipolar scales (assessing frequency) andbipolar scales (assessing favorability). We predicted that theuse of different hues would affect how respondents viewed thelow end of the scale, making responses to that end seem moreextreme than when the two ends were shades of the same hue.This hypothesis was based on the notion that respondents usevarious interpretive heuristics in assigning meaning to thevisual features of survey questions. One such cue is visualsimilarity. When two options are similar in appearance, respondentswill see them as conceptually closer than when they are dissimilarin appearance. The results were generally consistent with thisprediction. When the end points of the scale were shaded indifferent hues, the responses tended to shift toward the highend of the scale, as compared to scales in which both ends ofthe scale were shaded in the same hue. Though noticeable, thisshift was less extreme than the similar shift produced whennegative numbers were used to label one end of the scale; moreover,the effect of color was eliminated when each scale point hada verbal label. These findings suggest that respondents havedifficulty using scales and pay attention even to incidentalfeatures of the response scales in interpreting the scale points.     

An Analysis of AAMFT Supervisors: Their Identities,Roles, and Resources*

This paper reports data from a comprehensive study of AAMFT approved supervisors. It reviews findings on a variety of demographic variables and identifies significant relationships between these data and patterns of supervisory attitudes and procedures. The discussion presents a demographic profile of the approved supervisors with an analysis of their supervisory models and resources, the extent of their professional activities, and the issue of adjunctive personal psychotherapy for students in clinical training.     

'It's in the blood and you're not going to change it': fish harvesters' narrative accounts of injuries and disability

The purpose of this study was to validate Hanson's Learning Profile Inventory (LPI) and Teaching Style Inventory (TSI) further, and to assess the degree to which self-reported style preferences on these scales corresponded to actual observable learning and teaching style behaviors of students and teachers in differing instructional situations. No significant differences were found between the reported and observed learning and teaching style preferences of students and their instructors. Further, student and teacher classifications on the GEFT test of field independence/dependence corresponded to their classifications on the introversion/extroversion scale of the LPI and TSI further clarifying and validating this component of this scale on these two measures. This study was a formative study with a small sample (N=12) due to the burdens of observational ratings, which needs to be replicated with a confirmatory study.     

Multidimensionality of sexual attitudes

In four studies, we used the Sexual Attitudes Scale, a new multidimensional instrument, and (a) concluded final construction of the scale, (b) assessed the relationships between the scale and three criterion measures, and (c) provided initial construct validation of the instrument through demonstrated relationships with several relevant psychosocial variables and personality/attitude measures. The instrument was initially administered to a large sample (N = 807); the scores were factor analyzed, and scales were defined. A refined version was cross validated on another large sample (N = 567), with results that mostly replicated earlier results. The Sexual Attitudes Scale was then given to another sample (N = 105), along with the Sexual Opinion Survey, the Reiss Male and Female Premarital Permissiveness Scales, and the sex‐guilt subscale of the Revised Mosher Guilt Inventory. Results showed the Sexual Attitudes Scale to have moderate and conceptually consistent correlations with these other scales. Additional results from three studies revealed significant relationships between subjects' sexual attitudes and relevant demographic/psychosocial variables (e.g., gender, love experience) and demonstrated substantial links between the Sexual Attitudes Scale and measures of related concepts such as sensation seeking and love attitudes. The Sexual Attitudes Scale is a psychometrically sound new scale assessing Sexual Permissiveness, Sexual Practices, Communion, and Instrumentality.     

Sexual compulsivity among heterosexual college students

A growing body of literature suggests that an association exists between sexual compulsivity and participation in sexual behaviors that are high risk in terms of HIV/STD infection. In most of these studies, sexual compulsivity has been measured using the Sexual Compulsivity Scale (SCS; Kalichman & Rompa, 1995). As yet, sexual compulsivity has only been assessed with this scale among individuals who are members of “high risk” groups for HIV infection or who are HIV‐positive. In this study, we found support for reliability and construct validity of the SCS in a sample of 876 heterosexual college students, a group not yet examined in the sexual addiction and compulsivity literature. Construct validity was substantiated by the presence of significant relationships of sexual compulsivity with frequencies of sexual behaviors and numbers of sexual partners. The scale was also related to gender and age. Sexual compulsivity scores were associated with frequency of risky sexual behaviors. The relationships between sexual compulsivity and solo, partner, public, and risky sexual behaviors remained significant when we controlled for demographic variables. Although we found support for construct validity of the SCS in our sample, it is not clear whether the scale distinctly measures sexual compulsivity or taps into other constructs, such as sexual desire and sexual exploration.     

Occurrence of breeding bird species in urban parks: Effects of park structure and broad-scale variables

Occurrences of breeding bird species in 54 urban parks were investigated in the city of Oulu in northern Finland. Park area, human activity, habitat, and landscape structure within a 9-ha square surrounding the study park were related to the bird species richness and occurrence of individual bird species. A total of 22 species was observed. The area of the park explained 39% of the variance of species richness. Seven species (wheatear [Oenanthe oenanthe], common rosefinch [Carpodacus erythrinus], garden warbler [Sylvia borin], lesser whitethroat [Sylvia curruca], linnet [Acanthis cannabina], redpoll [Carduelis flammea], and yellowhammer [Emberiza citrinella]) were not detected in parks of >0.75 ha. Species with lower area demands occurred closer to the town center than species with greater area requirements. Ground-nesting species were poor colonizers of urban parks, whereas high numbers of nest boxes in urban parks attracted many cavity-nesting species. The willow warbler (Phylloscopus trochilus) and the magpie (Pica pica) bred more often in unmanaged than in managed parks, probably because of the greater vegetation cover in unmanaged parks. Park structure variables were entered into models for 7 of the 12 most common bird species, whereas broad scale variables were entered into models for 6 of the 12 species. The number of adjacent buildings had a negative affect on three bird species (the willow warbler, hooded crow [Corvus corone cornix], and spotted flycatcher [Muscicapa striata]). The occurrence of breeding species in urban parks depends on the size of the park, park structure, and landscape structure outside the park.     

Endorsement for Civil Rights for Lesbian,Gay, Bisexual,and Transgender People Among Heterosexual College Students: Informing Socially Just Policy Advocacy

In the past decade, advocacy efforts to establish social policies that legally recognize same-sex relationships and protect lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people from employment discrimination have increased considerably throughout the country. To inform these advocacy campaigns, we investigate endorsement for LGBT civil rights among heterosexual college students (n = 1,714). Students, overall, were moderately supportive of LGBT rights. Twenty-one variables were found to be significant in the initial analyses; however, only seven retained significance in the final analysis which controlled for all variables. Results suggest that political ideology and specific LGBT attitudes are most influential. Religiosity and having LGBT extended family members are also important. Implications for LGBT advocacy efforts are discussed.