Diversity and Rigor Trends in Retailing Research: Assessment and Guidelines

This study presents an evaluation of research diversity and rigor levels in the retail marketing literature in order to glean valuable insights for researchers. Retailing is a significant sub‐field within marketing, and occupies a large portion of the extant marketing literature. The study consists of a content analysis of 600 quantitative empirical articles in the top six marketing journals (i.e. Journal of Retailing, Journal of Marketing, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Consumer Research, Marketing Science and Journal of Marketing Research) over a 12‐year period. Over this period, the diversity and rigor of research design and data analytical methods were assessed across ten research sub‐communities of retail marketing research. The authors develop a measure for evaluating the rigor of research design and analytic techniques most commonly used in business research. The data reveal trends and areas for improvement in research design and reporting scholarly research.     

What criteria do child protective services investigators use to substantiate exposure to domestic violence?

The primary purpose of this study is to determine whether child protective services investigators apply a recognizable set of criteria to substantiate batterers and victims of battering for exposing their children to domestic violence. Although domestic violence occurred in 35% of the 1,248 substantiated incidents of child maltreatment, only 31 (7.1%) couples were investigated for exposing a child to domestic violence or failing to protect a child from domestic violence. All of the batterers investigated and in the caregiver role when their children were exposed to domestic violence were substantiated. The unsubstantiated victims of battering tended to use more protective behaviors (M=3.82) than the substantiated victims (M=2.00); yet, at the case level, using more than one protective behavior did not seem to be a criterion used to substantiate the victims. Instead, it appears that investigators were discriminating between those protective behaviors by the victims that ended contact between the batterers and the children--for a substantial amount of time--and those that did not in both the substantiation and removal decision. Key issues related to applying criteria in incidents involving domestic violence are discussed along with recommendations to further refine and document them.     

Assessing local capacity for health intervention

Because of their location within the practice realm, participatory, community-based public health coalitions offer many lessons about implementing and sustaining local interventions. This paper presents a case study of capacity assessment at the local level. Capacity evaluation methods are presented, with emphasis on the theoretical framework used to guide the evaluation. The capacity evaluation framework presented herein was theoretically based and designed to generate practical information to facilitate the adoption of a locally tailored youth obesity prevention program, VERB Summer Scorecard (VSS). Using multiple methods, four aspects of community capacity were assessed, including community, knowledge and skills, resources, and power. Within each category, factors that facilitated or impeded program implementation were distinguished. The evaluation protocol was designed to generate information increasing community capacity to sustain a community-based obesity prevention program. Capacity tables were used as a program-planning tool and as a system for sharing implementation and sustainability requirements with potential adopters. This case study also explores how to use capacity assessment results to empower coalitions to serve as catalysts for development of local programs in other communities.     

A Longitudinal Examination of the Associations between Fathers' and Children's Attributions and Negative Interactions

The present investigation examined the concurrent and longitudinal relations between attributions and negative behavioral interactions in the context of the father-child dyad. Participants were 177 fathers and their young adolescents recruited from non-metropolitan counties in the southeast. Results indicated that for children, attributions about their father play a significant role in their negative behavioral interactions with their father both within and across time. Interestingly, father's earlier negative behavioral interactions with their children predicted children's subsequent attributions about their father in the longitudinal analyses. In addition, both attributions and behavioral interactions were highly stable across time for both fathers and children.     

Disturbing the AcademicConferenceMachine: Post‐qualitative re‐turnings

Author 1:

They say they want to disturb the AcademicConferenceMachine.

Author 34:

What is an AcademicConferenceMachine?

Author 2:

Please do not go in that direction. Ask, for example, what does an AcademicConferenceMachine do?

Author 51:

Ok, so what does it do?

Author 6:

AcademicConferenceMachines are becoming so regulated and standardized that they might lose the possibility to produce different knowledge and to produce knowledge differently.

Author 227:

Do you think they succeeded?

Author 9999:

I do not know.

     

Frequency of job stressors,difficulty unwinding after work,and sleep problems among urban transit operators

Poor sleep quality is associated with numerous physical and mental health problems. The purpose of this study is to analyze the occupational and demographic factors associated with sleep problems among a sample of urban transit operators. The sample consists of 676 workers (44% female, 67% African American) at a Northern California public transit agency who participated in a cross-sectional worksite tobacco survey. Approximately 27% of the sample reported that they often had trouble going to sleep or staying asleep in the past 12?months. Results of multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that frequency of job stressors (e.g., equipment problems, road or traffic problems, poor access to bathrooms) and amount of time needed to unwind and relax after work were significantly associated with often experiencing insomnia symptoms (odds ratio [OR]?=?1.76 and 2.44, respectively). Younger workers, females, and nicotine-dependent smokers were more likely to report often experiencing sleep problems than older workers, males, and nonsmokers. Employment length and work shift were not associated with the outcome. The findings indicate that transit operators experience elevated prevalence of past-year sleep problems, and occupational factors play a role in their occurrence. Future research should explore if policies that help reduce frequency of job stressors can mitigate poor sleep quality among this occupational group.     

Quality of life among U.S. Army spouses during the Iraq war

ABSTRACT

During the course of previous military conflicts, attention has been focused on separations experienced by service members and their loved ones. This study utilized the ABC-X model of Family Stress and Resiliency Theory to provide information about specific family and parental stressors, family coping, appraisal of stress and coping abilities, and quality of life for spouses at various stages of a recent military deployment. Three groups of spouses differed primarily for levels of family stress and quality of life. In addition to comparative analysis, path analyses were conducted for each group to determine the influence of stressors, coping, wellbeing, and sense of coherence on quality of life. The model for the group of spouses with service members deployed longest accounted for the greatest amount of variability in quality of life. Implications for family counseling, social work practice, and community policy have been provided.