Cohesion,Satisfaction With Family Bonds,and Emotional Well‐Being in Families With Adolescents

The present paper investigated whether higher cohesion and satisfaction with family bonds were associated with the daily experience of emotional well‐being in varying social circumstances. Using a sample of school‐age adolescents (N = 95) and both their parents, data were gathered daily over 1 week using a diary approach in addition to self‐report instruments. Multilevel analyses revealed higher cohesion to be associated with well‐being in fathers and adolescents, but not in mothers. Parents also reported higher well‐being when with friends or colleagues than when alone. Moreover, fathers who scored higher on cohesion reported higher well‐being when with family members than when alone, whereas adolescents who scored higher on satisfaction with bonds reported lower well‐being when with peers or siblings than when alone.     

Exploring types of interference between work and non-work: using a diary study approach

Studies of work and family issues have used predominately between-subject cross-sectional designs. While some researchers have called for more longitudinal studies, others have suggested that a more strategic way forward for the field is the use of daily diary studies (Frone, Russell, & Cooper, 1992). This study explores different types of interference between work and non-work domains, using a diary study methodology. This study consisted of a two-week diary study among 12 Irish employees. Analysis involved a two-step procedure involving both content analysis and interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA). Results indicated that while individuals reported strain-based and time-based interference, evidence was also found of interference concerning persistent and intrusive thoughts. Despite some limitations to the study, this paper demonstrates that diary studies represent an opportunity for researchers to explore work and non-work experiences in a sensitive and ecologically valid way.     

EVALUATING PDAS FOR DATA COLLECTION IN FAMILY RESEARCH WITH NON-PROFESSIONAL COUPLES

Repeated measures designs such as daily diary methods provide flexibility for examinations of fluid phenomena. The focus of this paper is to evaluate the effectiveness of Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) as data collection tools with an end of the day (EOD) diary design and a non-professional sample. Participants reported the PDA was easy to use, convenient and enhanced the privacy of their responses. The PDAs minimized data entry errors and increased the data validity because responses were time stamped. Given the overall positive nature of participant reactions and the additional data PDAs make available to the researcher, the technology is recommended for further use in collecting data with non-professionals or in other couple or family research.     

Internet and mobile phone text messaging intervention for college smokers

OBJECTIVE: The authors developed a smoking cessation program using mobile phone text messaging to provide tailored and stage-specific messages to college smokers. PARTICIPANTS AND METHODS: The authors recruited 31 daily smokers who desired to quit from a college campus and asked them to use an Internet and mobile phone text messaging program to quit smoking. RESULTS: Six weeks after program initiation, 45% reported abstinence with 42% abstinent based on cotinine verification. Continued smokers reported significantly reduced smoking rates and dependence. Overall, participants accepted the text messages. CONCLUSIONS: These results replicate findings from an earlier study and indicate that mobile phone text messaging is a potentially efficacious and easily disseminated method for providing cessation interventions to young adult smokers.     

The relative costs and benefits of telephone interviews versus self-administered diaries for daily data collection

This article compares two methods of collecting daily data: self-administered diaries and telephone interviews. Study participants included 44 men and 56 women between the ages of 16 and 35 who participated in a larger study of drinking, drug use, and sexual activity. Participants were randomly assigned to either the written diary or the telephone interview conditions; question wording and format were identical in both conditions. Daily data were collected for a period of 8 weeks. Results indicate that although telephone interviews resulted in slightly more missed days of data collection, they generally yielded less item-level missing data, produced cleaner data and therefore were less costly to process, and were as palatable to participants as self-administered diaries. Except for reports of drinking and vegetable consumption, telephone and diary conditions did not differ in the amount of behavior reported; more drinking and vegetable consumption were reported with telephone interviews, however. Telephone interviews also imposed considerably higher overall personnel costs.     

Internet and Mobile Phone Text Messaging Intervention for College Smokers

Objective: The authors developed a smoking cessation program using mobile phone text messaging to provide tailored and stage-specific messages to college smokers. Participants and Methods: The authors recruited 31 daily smokers who desired to quit from a college campus and asked them to use an Internet and mobile phone text messaging program to quit smoking. Results: Six weeks after program initiation, 45% reported abstinence with 42% abstinent based on cotinine verification. Continued smokers reported significantly reduced smoking rates and dependence. Overall, participants accepted the text messages. Conclusions: These results replicate findings from an earlier study and indicate that mobile phone text messaging is a potentially efficacious and easily disseminated method for providing cessation interventions to young adult smokers.     

Cross‐community comparability of attitude questions: An application of item response theory

The use of attitude questions is very common in comparative surveys as it allows researchers to gauge the perspectives of respondents toward social issues and explain cross‐country differentials in attitudes. Comparative studies implicitly assume that equivalently worded items are measuring the same construct in different settings. However, the results of these studies might be questionable if the measurement invariant assumption is violated and different groups of respondents do not have a shared understanding of the attitude items. This paper uses item response theory to compare the measurement of items and to test whether equivalently worded attitude questions about family dissolution are understood in the same way across various communities in India, Malaysia, Pakistan and the Philippines. The paper also examines the interaction between the respondent’s gender, the sex of the spouse leaving the marriage and the responses to the attitude questions about acceptability of family dissolution.     

Youth supervision while mothers work: a daily diary study of maternal worry

Using data from a daily diary study of hourly hotel employees in the US and their children, this study examined links between youth supervision arrangements and maternal worry while at work, examining both differences between individuals and day-to-day variation within individuals. Multilevel model analyses revealed both between- and within-person effects linking youth supervision to maternal worry. Mothers’ partner status functioned as moderator, and maternal knowledge also emerged as a protective factor when youth were in self-care, highlighting a potential target for future work–family interventions, particularly those for hourly employees with limited access to family-friendly workplace policies.     

Familism Values,Family Time,and Mexican‐Origin Young Adults' Depressive Symptoms

Using longitudinal data across eight years, this study examined how parents' familism values in early adolescence predicted youths' depressive symptoms in young adulthood via youths' familism values and family time. We examined these processes among 246 Mexican‐origin families using interview and phone‐diary data. Findings revealed that fathers' familism values predicted male and female youths' familism values in middle adolescence. For female youth only, fathers' familism values also predicted youths' family time in late adolescence. The link between family time and young adults' depressive symptoms depended on parental acceptance and adolescent gender: Among female and male youth, family time predicted fewer depressive symptoms, but only when paternal acceptance was high. For female adolescents only, family time predicted fewer depressive symptoms when maternal acceptance was high but more depressive symptoms when maternal acceptance was low. Findings highlight family dynamics as the mechanisms through which familism values have implications for youths' adjustment.     

The Role of Mobile Phones in Family Communication

Whilst there is a wealth of research into family communication and family relationships, there is little information about whether (and if so how) mobile phones have impacted on these processes. The authors’ study involved individual semi‐structured interviews with 60 families, including parents/carers and young people aged 11–17, to investigate this further. The interviews explored how mobile phones are used in family communication; participants’ views about the benefits and disadvantages of mobile phone use; and issues around safety, surveillance and privacy. The findings show that young people and parents see mobiles as a key way for families to keep in touch, and to monitor and ensure young people’s safety. However, some participants felt there was a downside to this, in relation to some young people either withdrawing into their own social worlds, or having a false feeling of security as a result of having a mobile. Gender differences in views and usage were also found. The paper concludes with some general comments about the role of mobile phones in family life.     

Disability citizenship and digital capital: the case of engagement with a social enterprise telco

ABSTRACT

This paper uses as its base a key initiative involving a not-for-profit organisation (NPO), government start-up funding and a social enterprise which evolved through three phases. The purpose of the initiative was the development of a smart phone technology platform for people with disability. The paper’s purpose is to answer questions about the ways in which the mobile technology, seen here as assistive technologies, supported the development of disability citizenship and active citizenship. Data were collected through in-depth interviews conducted at three points in the 13-week programme during which participants with disability received customised support for their phone and training in its use, at no cost. Fifteen participants volunteered to take part in the research project, along with their significant other and service provider. Key themes were identified in the preliminary analysis. Exploring these using Ragnedda’s ([2017]. The third digital divide: A Weberian approach to digital inequalities. Abingdon: Routledge) three levels of digital divide, and Wilson’s ([2006]. The information revolution and developing countries. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press) categories of access allowed a series of philosophical, ethical and human services management questions to emerge, challenging the optimism with which the digital economy is presented as a solution to issues of inequality. Although the mobile technologies were very successful as assistive technologies for some participants, the findings reinforced the potential for such technologies to further entrench aspects of social exclusion. They also identified ways in which the shift in the role of the NPO to social entrepreneurship, and its relationships with government and private enterprise, had the potential to undermine the exercise of disability citizenship by turning participants into consumers.     

The Devil is in the Detail: Clinicians,Academics and Researchers Resolving the Problems of Clinical Research

The difficulties associated with conducting valid family therapy research within a clinical practice discourage many potential researchers. This article will describe collaboration between a group of academics, researchers and clinicians who decided to explore the process and efficacy of systemic family therapy conducted within a working private practice. The specific questions we are addressing are, whether the requests clients bring to their first session of therapy can be reliably classified by practitioners, whether these requests change over time, and whether the nature of the request is associated with therapist and client ratings of therapeutic outcome. Additional questions about the form and nature of the therapeutic alliance as experienced by both client and practitioner are also being explored. This paper will map the passage of the work from inception to its current state where over 140 clients are active participants. In doing so attention will be paid to the obstacles encountered: practical, financial and ethical, and the solutions devised to address these.     

“炫”出你的掌中宝!(英文)

当看到街上来来往往的人手里拿着相同或相似教式的手机,你是否觉得有些单调乏味?当自己的手机不知不觉间挂上道道划痕,你可曾感到郁闷。甚至有些恼火?想"炫"一下自己的手机,让它变成只属于你的掌中宝吗?     

Step In or Stay Out? Parents' Roles in Adolescent Siblings' Relationships

We studied parents' direct involvement in adolescent sibling relationships, including parents' reactions to sibling conflict and their time spent in the company of the sibling dyad. Participants were 185 White, working‐ and middle‐class families; firstborns averaged 15 and secondborns averaged 13.5 years of age. In separate home interviews mothers, fathers and both adolescents described their personal and family relationship qualities and experiences. In a series of 7 evening phone calls, family members reported on each day's activities including the time they spent and their companions in 63 daily activities (e.g., do dishes, play sports, talk on phone). Analyses revealed 3 general conflict reactions by parents: (a) noninvolvement (e.g., tell siblings to work out problem themselves); (b) intervene (e.g., step in and solve problem); and (c) coach (e.g., give advice about how to solve problem). We found mother‐father differences in conflict reactions and time spent with siblings; differences in parents' direct involvement as a function of the gender constellation of the sibling dyad also were evident. Direct involvement was linked to sibling relationship qualities and explained variance beyond that accounted for by an index of indirect involvement, that is, parental warmth. Further, parents' orientations toward autonomy were linked to the indices of involvement such that parents with stronger autonomy orientations were less involved, and parents' orientations explained variance in their involvement beyond that explained by adolescent characteristics.     

The Digital Practices of Mobile Phones

From a global perspective, the mobile phone is by far the most widely used information and communication technology (ICT). People in both developed and developing nations have found ways to integrate the mobile phone into their daily lives. Despite the ubiquity of the mobile phone, the cultural impact of the mobile phone in and of itself has not been a major topic within the sociology of culture. To this end, there are two goals of this paper. First, three common uses of the mobile phone are presented. To separate cultural practices associated with mobile phones from practices associated with other domains of social life, the term digital practices is used. Second, this paper will discuss the domestication of technology approach, and its applicability to the study of mobile phones. Identifying practices and providing a framework for interpreting these practices can help scholars interested in theorizing and teaching the cultural (as opposed to economic or technological) aspects of mobile telephony.     

Family Time Activities and Adolescents' Emotional Well‐being

The literature is divided on the issue of what matters for adolescents' well‐being, with one approach focusing on quality and the other on routine family time. Using the experience sampling method, a unique form of time diary, and survey data drawn from the 500 Family Study (N = 237 adolescents with 8,122 observations), this study examined the association between family time and adolescents' emotional well‐being as a function of the type of activities family members engaged in during their time together. Hierarchical linear model analyses revealed that eating meals together was beneficial to adolescents' emotional well‐being, especially when fathers were present. Family leisure was also beneficial to teens' well‐being. By contrast, productive family time (e.g., homework) was associated with lower emotional well‐being, as was maintenance family time (e.g., household chores), but only when adolescents engaged in it with both parents.     

The blessings and burdens of communication: cell phones in Jamaican transnational social fields

Abstract Although much mention has been made of the importance of ICTs for transnational migrants, we know relatively little about how these technologies affect or change everyday transnational communications. Tracing the shift from community phone boxes to individually owned mobile (cell) phones in rural Jamaica, in this article I focus on the integration of mobile phones in Jamaican transnational communication. Equipped with a mobile phone, rural Jamaicans no longer rely on collect phone calls and expensive calling cards to initiate the connections between their friends and relatives living abroad. For many Jamaicans without access to a regular or reliable phone service prior to 2001, the mobile phone is viewed as an unadulterated blessing, transforming the role of transnational communication from an intermittent event to a part of daily life. For others, however, the mobile phone remains an object of ambivalence, bringing unforeseen burdens and obligations.     

Effects of method on participants and disclosure rates in research on sensitive topics

This study replicates and extends the research of Rosenbaum, Rabenhorst, Reddy, Fleming, and Howells, which also appears in this special issue. Responses from 398 randomly assigned participants regarding differentially sensitive topics were collected via four methods of data collection: written questionnaires, face-to-face interviews, telephone interviews, and an automated telephonic data collection system (ATDC). Several significant differences in data collection methodology and topic area were found, including greater disclosure of sensitive information via the ATDC system than via face-to-face and paper-and-pencil conditions. Participants who were assigned to the ATDC condition felt significantly more comfortable answering questions compared to those in the face-to-face interview condition. Participants in the telephone interview condition reported answering significantly more carefully than participants answering via written questionnaire. Taken together, the results of this study and the previous one it replicates suggest that the ATDC produces disclosure rates that are at least equivalent to, if not greater than, those generated using traditional methods for collecting sensitive data.