How Does Divorce Affect Iranian Women's Sexual Well-Being?

Sexuality and divorce are two interwoven subjects with complex effects on women's sexual well-being in Iranian culture. Results of this exploratory study using focus group discussions and individual interviews revealed how the sexual well-being of women was influenced by the divorce experience through common patterns and recurring themes. A total of 26 women participated voluntarily in the study. They were approached through a selected social support group in a center in West Tehran in 2011, and all had been divorced for less than 10 years. For the majority, sexuality-related matters became complicated and jeopardized their overall well-being in postdivorce life. This finding, along with the fact that the majority were seeking financial and emotional support, implies that counseling women and providing economic support for postdivorce life might improve women's sexual well-being.     

How Does Borderline Personality Disorder Affect Parental Care?

This article seeks to find arguments based on research for the possibility of dealing with borderline personality disorders (BPDs). This is illustrated by the frequency with which children are removed from parents who have been given the diagnosis of BPD. The author favors the view that there are degrees of BPD. As a result, it is felt that psychological treatment can do much to reverse the symptoms of BPD, in many cases, if not all. Following the delineating of the research, the author presents strategies and procedures that seek to counteract the symptoms of BPD and when possible the eventual reinstatement of children with the parent.     

Does Anxiety Affect Adolescent Academic Performance? The Inverted-U Hypothesis Revisited

The inverted-U relationship between anxiety and performance in the context of endogeneity has yet to be investigated. Junior high school students from Taiwan were used as the sample for investigating the effect of anxiety levels on the comprehensive analysis aptitude of students. The ordinary least square (OLS) analysis indeed confirmed the inverted-U relationship. In addition, both fixed-effect analysis and two-stage least square (2SLS) analysis using variation in acne severity to instrument for anxiety also concluded that anxiety increased performance at lower anxiety levels. However, this relationship was positive and insignificant at higher anxiety levels. Overall, our results supported the left (increasing) part of the inverted-U relationship between anxiety and performance, but found no evidence for the right (decreasing) part of the inverted-U relationship.     

Does Motherhood Affect Productivity, Relative Performance, and Earnings?

The Ladies Professional Golf Association provides a unique setting to examine productivity differences between women with children and women without children. In this paper, productivity is directly observed (e.g., the player’s golf score), unlike most studies that use wage as a proxy for productivity. Therefore, discrimination cannot be a source of observed differences in productivity between mothers and nonmothers, since the earnings of players are strictly determined by relative performance. Using panel data on women professional golfers, I find that motherhood lowers productivity. The productivity of women who eventually become mothers increases in the years before giving birth and then declines thereafter. The results support the human-capital explanation and Becker’s effort hypothesis of the family gap. One further finding is that marriage increases productivity.

How Does Premarital Cohabitation Affect Trajectories of Marital Quality?

We investigate the link between premarital cohabitation and trajectories of subsequent marital quality using random effects growth curve models and repeated measures of marital quality from married women in the NLSY‐79 (N = 3,598). We find that premarital cohabitors experience lower quality marital relationships on average, but this is driven by cohabitors with nonmarital births. Premarital cohabitors without nonmarital births report the same marital quality as women who did not cohabit before marriage. Nonmarital childbearing is more strongly associated with lower subsequent marital quality for White women than for Black or Hispanic women. Marital quality declines at similar rates for all couples regardless of cohabitation or nonmarital childbearing status. These findings are robust to numerous alternative model specifications.     

Does Public or Not-for-Profit Status Affect the Earnings of Hospital Workers?

This paper examines the earnings differentials among hospital workers in the public, private nonprofit, and private for-profit sectors. Utilizing data from the 1995 through 2007 Current Population Surveys, unadjusted earnings are highest in the private nonprofit sector and lowest in private for-profit firms. Once measurable characteristics are accounted for, health practitioners in for-profit and nonprofit hospitals earn similar wages while public sector workers earn small but significant wage penalties. Nonprofit hospitals tend to attract workers with higher levels of skill as measured by schooling and potential experience. This could be explained in part by worker sorting and lower cost containment incentives in nonprofit hospitals. Wage change analysis using pooled 2-year panels constructed from the CPS indicate no significant differences in earnings between the three sectors of employment. Whatever the role of the sector of employment on the overall earnings of hospital workers, there is sufficient worker mobility within the industry to largely eliminate systematic wage differences across type of hospital.

How Does Web Site Interactivity Affect Our Perceptions of an Organization?

This study investigates the effects of different levels of Web site interactivity on individuals' perceptions of an organization's reputation. The underlying theoretical mechanism for this relationship was explored by statistically investigating the mediating role of 3 variables—perceived customization, involvement, and liking—using bootstrapping analysis. Results indicate that the level of Web site interactivity positively influenced participants' perceptions of the organization's reputation, with liking and involvement fully mediating this relationship. These findings demonstrate the theoretical complexity of interactivity—it can at once attract users peripherally with likeable aesthetics and engage them centrally with features that involve them. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.     

Does International Migration Affect Labor Supply,Non‐farm Diversification and Welfare of Households? Evidence from Egypt

This study examines the effect of international migration in Egypt using fixed‐effect regressions and panel data from Egypt Labour Market Panel Surveys in 2006 and 2012. We find that men and people with higher education are more likely to migrate than women and people with lower education. Middle‐aged people are also more likely to migrate than young or old people. International migration does not seem to affect the overall employment of remaining members of migrant‐sending households. However, it tends to increase the self‐employed work of members of migrant‐sending households. Finally, international migration also helps migrant‐sending households increase their wealth index. Remittances are used to improve living conditions (housing) and purchase more assets and durables. This finding supports the theory as well as the policy to increase migration as a way to stabilize consumption and reduce poverty in low income countries.     

How do International Volunteering Characteristics Influence Outcomes? Perspectives from Partner Organizations

This study examines how different types of international volunteering influence common program outcomes such as building organizational capacity, developing international relationships, and performing manual labor. Survey responses were collected from 288 development-oriented volunteer partner organizations operating in 68 countries. Data on the duration of volunteer service, the volunteers’ skill levels, and other variables were used to develop a rough typology of international volunteering. Binary logistic regression models then assessed differences in outcomes across five volunteering types. Findings suggest that future research needs to be more precise about how the nuances and complexity of diverse forms of international volunteering influence outcomes.     

Does Democracy Matter? A Transatlantic Research Design on Democratic Performance and Special Purpose Governments

The next big step in public management research is to move beyondthe question of whether management matters to answer the question:does democracy matter? The public management discipline haslargely ignored the impact of democratic structure on performance,partly because of limited variation in the constitutional designof public service organizations. Recent growth in the numberand types of special purpose governments offers an organizationalpopulation with a wider distribution on the democratic structureparameter. Conceptual and methodological advances in delimitingand measuring "democratic performance" as a function of formalstructures and informal practices provide an intellectual infrastructurefor scholars. Hypotheses are derived in which democratic performanceis either a dependent or independent variable. Differences incontextual variables in the United Kingdom and the United Statesmake transatlantic comparative research a worthwhile proposition.A research strategy for generating knowledge on "does democracymatter?" is set out.     

Does Listening to Mozart Affect Listening Ability?

Considerable research has been conducted testing Rauscher, Shaw, and Ky's (1993) Rauscher, F. H., Shaw, G. L and Ky, K. N. 1993. Music and spatial task performance. Nature, 365: 611[Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar] Mozart Effect (ME). This study attempts to replicate, in part, research that tested the ME on listening comprehension abilities. Also included in this study is an examination of control group issues in current day research. We hypothesized that students who listen to Mozart would demonstrate greater listening comprehension than students involved in one of four control groups. Students were exposed to one of five treatments and then completed a listening comprehension test about a videotaped lecture they viewed. Ultimately, results uncovered a ME when comparing the Mozart A (alpha) group with the alternative treatment control groups (Mozart B [beta] music and Rock and Roll music), but no ME when comparing the Mozart A group and the non-music control groups (sitting in silence or working on a crossword puzzle). Discussion focused on the ME and listening comprehension as well as on the nature of control groups in experimental research.     

Does Charging Nonprofit Volunteers Affect Their Satisfaction?

Nonprofits that offer volunteer experiences in foreign countries have long charged fees to their volunteers, but recently some other nonprofit organizations have begun to charge as well. Volunteer attitudes toward such fees have not previously been studied. Product marketing research has suggested that fees can sometimes improve participants’ evaluation of their experience, but public service motivation research seems to suggest that fees will diminish participants’ satisfaction. This study examines the attitudes toward fees of 4,400 volunteers who paid $310 to participate in a week‐long project that built and repaired housing in Appalachia. Although a third of volunteers believed that the fee enhanced their appreciation of the program, an equal proportion disagreed. An even larger percentage of the volunteers believed the fee discouraged some volunteers. Concerns with fees were more common among youth volunteers than adult volunteers and among those who volunteered for altruistic rather than for career reasons. Most volunteers, even those critical of fees, were positive about their volunteer experience, but those who were least positive about the fees were also somewhat less positive about their experience. These results suggest that decisions about volunteer fees must balance the benefits of additional funds for enhanced client services against the likelihood of discouraging some potential volunteers, especially younger or more altruistic volunteers.     

Does FDI Guarantee the Stability of International Capital Flows? Evidence from Malaysia

The conventional wisdom is that crises are largely due to swings in short‐term capital. Economies that finance their current account deficits mainly via foreign direct investment (FDI) are therefore seen as being less susceptible to a crisis. The analysis in this article, backed up by some empirical evidence drawn from Malaysia, challenges the casual presumption that the switch towards FDI alone will automatically imply that extreme capital instability will become a thing of the past.     

Does Supermarket Purchase Affect the Dietary Practices of Households? Some Empirical Evidence from Guatemala

Very little is known about how changes in the retail environment affect consumers’diet and health status, especially in developing countries. This article examines the impact of supermarket purchases on the dietary practices of households in Guatemala, using an instrumental variable method to take account of the potential endogeneity of the supermarket purchase variable. The results reveal that supermarket purchases increase the share of highly and partially processed foods at the expense of staple foods, and are also positively and significantly associated with individual Body Mass Index. Different policy moves should be envisaged towards‘healthier’diets.     

Does Adolescent Affect Impact Adult Social Integration? Evidence from the British 1946 Birth Cohort

Using data from the MRC National Survey of Health and Development (the British 1946 birth cohort), we take a life course approach with a sociology of mental health framework to examine the relationship between adolescent affect and adult social integration. The results suggest that being observed as anxious or sad in adolescence has long-term effect on adult social integration. These associations are not explained by adult mental health or socioeconomic status, for the most part. The results demonstrate support for social selection processes between adolescent mental health and adult social outcomes and suggest a disparate effect of type of adolescent affect on adult social outcomes.     

Does Economic Crisis Always Harm International Migrants? Longitudinal Evidence from Ecuadorians in Barcelona

Current research on the impacts of the 2007 global economic crisis on international migration takes two different positions. Some studies emphasize the negative impacts while others are more positive. This article argues that these two positions offer simplistic interpretations which fail to take account of the complex micro‐level realities that determine migrant experiences. The article discusses how a small group of migrants from Guayaquil, Ecuador, accumulate and consolidate a complex portfolio of assets both before and during the economic crisis in Spain. Conceptualized in terms of an asset accumulation framework, and based on micro‐level longitudinal trend data, rather than the more generally used macro‐level snapshots or anecdotal evidence, the study highlights the fact that the formalization of legal status or citizenship is a crucial pre‐condition, which sets in motion a ‘virtuous’ cycle of consolidation of an interrelated portfolio of assets, regardless of the wider macro‐economic environment. Even if this turns into a ‘vicious’ cycle, for those losing jobs, to date Spanish welfare benefits have acted as a social protection mechanism.