Assessing Racial and Ethnic Differences in Attitudes towards the Use of Physical Discipline in Parenting: A Mixed-Methods Approach

Using a concurrent nested mixed-methods approach, this study assessed racial and ethnic differences in attitudes towards the use of physical discipline in parenting based on data recently collected in Nebraska. Relative to Non-Hispanic White parents, African American parents were more likely to approve the practice of physical punishment to correct misbehavior of children, whereas Hispanic parents were less likely to support physical punishment. There was a positive relationship between acculturation and approval of physical discipline among Hispanic parents. Understanding these differences can help inform the design and implementation of future parenting education programs for parents of different racial and ethnic backgrounds.     

Social and Political Convergence on Environmental Events: The Roles of Simplicity and Visuality in the BP Oil Spill

Cet article étudie de quelle façon et à quel moment les journaux, les ONG environnementales, les entreprises privées et le gouvernement convergent autour des événements environnementaux. En utilisant les données sur le déversement de pétrole BP en 2010 tirées des journaux aux États‐Unis, au Canada et en Grande‐Bretagne et des communiqués de presses de Greenpeace, du Club Sierra, de Halliburton, de Transocean, d’Exxon/Mobil et les annonce de presse de la secrétaire de presse pour le Maison Blanche, nous étudions la capacité d'un événement à faire converger des actions sociales et politiques. En concevant les événements comme des actants, nous vérifions les arguments tirés des publications sur les mouvements sociaux et sur la définition de l'agenda politique à propos du timing, de la simplicité et de la visualité afin de comprendre comment les acteurs politiques convergent. Nous observons que l'effet de convergence est lié au timing, mais pas à la simplicité ou à la visualité. This paper examines how and when newspapers, environmental nongovernmental organizations, businesses, and the government converge on environmental events. Using data on the 2010 BP Oil Spill from newspaper articles in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom, press releases by Greenpeace and Sierra Club, press releases by BP, Halliburton, Transocean, ExxonMobil, and Shell, and press statements by the White House Press Secretary, we examine an event's potential to trigger convergence of social and political action. By treating events as political actants, we examine arguments from the agenda‐setting and social movement literatures on timing, simplicity, and visuality to understand when political actors converge. We find that convergence is related to temporal cycles but not simplicity or visuality.     

Teaching Consumer Demographics to Marketing Students

This paper reports on an initiative to incorporate consumer demographics—techniques and concepts that are not traditionally part of the curriculum of marketing students—into a second year consumer behaviour subject, for an undergraduate marketing degree, and also into related post-graduate study. It addresses three topics: (1) the position of demographics and demographic techniques in the field of consumer behaviour, and more generally in marketing; (2) approaches to the study of consumer behaviour; and (3) the authors’ recommended approach to teaching consumer demographics and behaviour. The authors’ views are informed by their experience teaching 15 undergraduate and postgraduate cohorts.     

Media use predictors of online political efficacy among Internet users in five Arab countries

Informed by research on the uses and gratifications of the Internet for political activity, this study examines predictors of online political efficacy among Internet users in five Arab countries (N?=?4029): Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, Lebanon, Qatar, and the U.A.E. As predicted, variables presumed to be associated with political dissidence in Arab countries – unemployment, distrust of mainstream media, young age, and feeling country is on the wrong track – were not positively associated with online political efficacy. Counter to what was hypothesized, however, Internet reliance and social media use were not strongly or consistently associated with online political efficacy in the five countries. Rather, the strongest predictors of efficacy were a belief in news media credibility, print media use (newspapers, magazines, and books), belief in the reliability of online information, and tolerance of free speech online. Findings align with some prior research on predictors of online political efficacy, but not with common presumptions of the role the Internet plays among Arab publics.     

Gambling and Adverse Life Events Among Urban Adolescents

This study explored the cross sectional association between adverse life events and gambling in a sample of 515 urban adolescents (average age 17, 55% male, 88% African American). Approximately half of the sample had gambled in the past year (51%); 78% of the gamblers gambled monthly and 39% had a gambling-related problem. On the other hand, 88% of the sample had experienced at least one life event in the past year, and those experiencing events tended to live in more disadvantaged neighborhoods. The mere acknowledgement of experiencing a stressful life event in the past year (yes/no) was not associated with an increase in odds of being a gambler, with gambling more frequently, or with having a gambling problem. However, when the context of the event was considered, an association was found between directly experiencing threatening and deviant/violent types of events and frequent gambling (OR > 2). Additionally, the probability of being a gambler increased as the number of events experienced increased (aOR = 1.07, 95% CI = 1.01, 1.13, P = 0.013), but problems among gamblers were not associated with the number of events experienced (aOR = 1.01, 95% CI = 0.92, 1.11, P = 0.876). During adolescence, life events appear to be connected more with the frequency of gambling rather than with problems related to gambling.