Self-Esteem,Self-Efficacy,and Social Connectedness as Mediators of the Relationship Between Volunteering and Well-Being

ABSTRACT

This study examines the potentially mediated relationship between volunteering and well-being. Using survey data from a random sample (N = 2,990) of the population of the state of Victoria, Australia, three hypotheses were tested: Volunteers will report higher well-being than nonvolunteers; volunteers will report higher self-esteem, self-efficacy, and social connectedness than nonvolunteers; self-esteem, self-efficacy, and social connectedness will mediate the relationship between volunteer status and well-being. Results supported the hypotheses and showed that self-esteem, self-efficacy, and social connectedness were all significant mediators of the volunteering–well-being relationship. Increased social connectedness associated with volunteering was found to be the strongest first step in these pathways. This points to the importance of social connection for well-being, but future research using longitudinal designs is required to further test these relationships and provide the capacity for evidence of causality.     

Examining Recruitment Follow-Up Phone Calls and Their Influence on Attendance for Husbands and Wives in a Marriage and Relationship Education Program

Low-income married couples face unique stressors that contribute to increased relationship distress. Federal funding has supported research initiatives aimed at studying how marriage and relationship education (MRE) influences the relationships of low-income married participants. However, research identified recruitment and retention of low-income participants as a major obstacle to the replication of these programs. Therefore, this study examined programmatic data from 786 low-income married participants to investigate how recruitment follow-up influenced attendance in the MRE program. A weak, inverse relationship was found for women between the number of pre-enrollment phone calls made and hours spent in MRE. We found a statistically significant difference between who was contacted (wife, husband, or both) and attendance to the initial intake appointment for program enrollment. Implications and future research are discussed.     

Examining Passive and Active Recruitment Methods for Low-Income Couples in Relationship Education

One of the most difficult aspects of studying low-income couples is the effective implementation of recruitment and retention strategies. Low-income couples face environmental stressors that make participation difficult, and research has yet to identify efficacious methods of recruiting and retaining low-income couples into funded studies. Researchers and practitioners targeting low-income participants rely on a “learn-as-they-go” approach. Therefore, we examined passive and active recruitment strategies for 394 married participants with children under age 18 and reporting a total household income within 200% of the Federal Poverty Guidelines who participated in a federally funded couples and relationship education program. Univariate ANOVAs indicated significant differences between recruitment method and total time spent in couples and relationship education workshops for both women and men. Further, results indicated a relationship exists between recruitment method and the number of follow-up contacts required before participants attended the initial intake appointment. Implications for practice and research are discussed.     

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.     

ALCOHOL, ETHNICITY, AND VIOLENCE: The Role of Alcohol Availability for Latino and Black Aggravated Assaults and Robberies

This article is one of the first to assess the impact of alcohol availability, an important but understudied neighborhood element, and other social disorganization measures for Latino and black aggravated assault and robbery victimizations. Using data from Miami, Florida, for 1996 and 1997, we find that although most predictors have similar effects on the outcomes for both groups, higher alcohol availability rates are associated with more Latino but not black victims. To explain this finding, we relate the criminogenic influence of alcohol to contextual features of Latino and black neighborhoods, thereby integrating qualitative observations and quantitative data. Higher concentrations of recent immigrants are also related to fewer black assault victims, more Latino assault victims, but not to robberies for either group.     

Why a universal population‐level approach to the prevention of child abuse is essential

This paper argues for the importance of adopting a population‐level approach to promote more effective parenting and to reduce the risk of child maltreatment. Family‐based interventions based on social learning principles have been shown to make a useful contribution in the treatment of child maltreatment. However, typically such programmes have been used to treat parents who have already become involved in the child protection system. We argue that the creation of community‐wide support structures to support positive parenting is needed to reduce the prevalence of child maltreatment. Such an approach requires several criteria to be met. These include having knowledge about the prevalence rates for the targeted child outcomes sought, knowledge about the prevalence of various parenting and family risk factors, evidence that changing family risk factors reduces the prevalence of targeted problems, having culturally appropriate, cost‐effective, evidence‐based interventions available and making these widely accessible. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Estimation in Semiparametric Marginal Shared Gamma Frailty Models

The semiparametric marginal shared frailty models in survival analysis have the non–parametric hazard functions multiplied by a random frailty in each cluster, and the survival times conditional on frailties are assumed to be independent. In addition, the marginal hazard functions have the same form as in the usual Cox proportional hazard models. In this paper, an approach based on maximum likelihood and expectation–maximization is applied to semiparametric marginal shared gamma frailty models, where the frailties are assumed to be gamma distributed with mean 1 and variance θ. The estimates of the fixed–effect parameters and their standard errors obtained using this approach are compared in terms of both bias and efficiency with those obtained using the extended marginal approach. Similarly, the standard errors of our frailty variance estimates are found to compare favourably with those obtained using other methods. The asymptotic distribution of the frailty variance estimates is shown to be a 50–50 mixture of a point mass at zero and a truncated normal random variable on the positive axis for θ₀ = 0. Simulations demonstrate that, for θ₀ < 0, it is approximately an x −(100 − x )%, 0 ≤ x ≤ 50, mixture between a point mass at zero and a truncated normal random variable on the positive axis for small samples and small values of θ₀; otherwise, it is approximately normal.     

Using number of failed contact attempts to adjust for non-ignorable non-response

Summary.  We present a general method of adjustment for non-ignorable non-response in studies where one or more further attempts are made to contact initial non-responders. A logistic regression model relates the probability of response at each contact attempt to covariates and outcomes of interest. We assume that the effect of these covariates and outcomes on the probability of response is the same at all contact attempts. Knowledge of the number of contact attempts enables estimation of the model by using only information from the respondents and the number of non-responders. Three approaches for fitting the response models and estimating parameters of substantive interest and their standard errors are compared: a modified conditional likelihood method in which the fitted inverse probabilities of response are used in weighted analyses for the outcomes of interest, an EM procedure with the Louis formula and a Bayesian approach using Markov chain Monte Carlo methods. We further propose the creation of several sets of weights to incorporate uncertainty in the probability weights in subsequent analyses. Our methods are applied as a sensitivity analysis to a postal survey of symptoms in Persian Gulf War veterans and other servicemen.     

Modeling Fear of Crime and Perceived Victimization Risk: The (In)Significance of Neighborhood Integration

The bulk of fear–of–crime research has been limited to one questionnaire item that asks respondents to assess their personal safety by answering "how safe they feel alone in their neighborhoods at night." More recently, however, studies have pointed to the multidimensional nature of fear of crime and perceived risk of victimization. Following this line of inquiry, we investigate the potential impact of several variable sets on three measures of fear of crime or risk perception—the traditional risk assessment of being alone at night, a measure of worry about crime, and a more general assessment of neighborhood safety. Of particular interest are the relative effects of neighborhood integration variables on the measures of fear/risk. A comparison of the effects of neighborhood integration variables with a set of perceived neighborhood disorder, routine activities, socio–demographic characteristics, and victimization experience variables reveals that the neighborhood disorder (incivilities), income, and crime prevention measures produce the most consistently significant effects on fear of crime and perceived risk. Contrary to our expectations, neighborhood integration variables appear to be relatively unimportant.