Dialogue and transparency: A content analysis of how the 2012 presidential candidates used twitter

This study conducted a content analysis of the Twitter pages of the 2012 presidential candidates to determine how they were using Twitter, if they were engaging in meaningful dialogue with their followers, and if they were being transparent. Tweets from February 1, 2012 through February 29, 2012 were coded. Overall, the candidates tweeted most about the economy, events, and specific primaries but failed to created meaningful dialogue with their followers. Some candidates were more transparent than others in regards to who was responsible for tweeting.     

Evaluative concerns and personal standards perfectionism as predictors of body dissatisfaction in Asian and European American female college students

ABSTRACT

Objectives: The present study examined perfectionism (viz, evaluative concerns and personal standards) and ethnicity as predictors of body dissatisfaction in female college students. Participants: Participants were 298 female college students sampled by December of 2013. Methods: A self-report survey with measures of body dissatisfaction, perfectionism, and demographics was conducted. Results: Regression analyses indicated that evaluative concerns perfectionism (ECP) was a significant predictor of body dissatisfaction. The inclusion of ethnicity was found to further augment the prediction model. Moreover, we found support for an ECP × Ethnicity interaction effect in predicting body dissatisfaction. Specifically, among high-ECP female students, European Americans, compared with Asian Americans, reported the highest level of body dissatisfaction. Conclusion: High ECP represents a potential marker of body dissatisfaction in female college students. However, the presence of high ECP is a more critical predictor of body dissatisfaction in European American female students, compared with Asian American female students.     

Screening Elders in the Emergency Department at Risk for Mistreatment: A Pilot Study

Impaired functional status is associated with risk of elder mistreatment. Screening for functional impairment in elderly patients admitted to emergency departments could be performed to identify patients at risk for elder mistreatment who might benefit from further evaluation. This study utilized a modified Identification of Seniors at Risk (ISAR) screening tool to identify the proportion of elderly at risk for mistreatment due to functional difficulties presenting to two emergency departments in southeastern Virginia, one urban, the other rural. Of a 180-patient cohort (90 per site), 82 screened positive (46%), ISAR > 2 (range 0–6), indicating nearly half of all patients enrolled are at risk for mistreatment. Patients presenting to the urban emergency departments were potentially more at risk than their rural counterparts (p < 0.01). Health care professionals, particularly in urban settings, should consider screening seniors with a simple tool to identify patients at risk of elder mistreatment.     

A case study of an African American stepgrandmother raising adopted grandchildren

Research on the perspectives of older African American stepgrandparents raising adolescent grandchildren is underdeveloped. This case study research uses a culturally sensitive conceptual framework to explore the experiences of one African American stepgrandmother raising adopted grandchildren. The participant was identified in a larger study of older grandparents raising adolescent grandchildren. An in-depth, face-to-face interview was conducted in a public place. The themes described by this older African stepgrandmother included (1) strong family ties overlaid with family conflict and emotional difficulties, (2) traditional philosophies of parenting and childrearing that conflicted with her spouse, (3) reliance on a constellation of support including her religious community, and (4) recommendations for improving resource development. The findings of this case study identify critical issues for this older African American stepgrandmother. Although the findings are not meant to generalize, social workers and other helping professionals can benefit from the increased knowledge gained from this stepgrandmother’s experiences that can inform issues for exploration with similar caregivers.     

Verbal Communication about Sex in Marriage: Patterns of Language Use and Its Connection with Relational Outcomes

This study examined the vocabulary husbands and wives use for talking to each other about sex, and connections between language use and relational qualities. Married people (n = 293) responded to a questionnaire about their use of common sex-related terms and about several characteristics of their marriage: sexual communication satisfaction, relational satisfaction, and relational closeness. Cluster analysis based on reported use revealed that sexual terms fell into clusters characterized as clinical terms, slang, or standard English. Results showed an association between use of sexual terms, particularly slang terms, and both satisfaction and closeness. This connection was stronger for women than for men. The findings offer insight into sexual talk and marital relationships.     

Caring children: exploring care in post-divorce families

This article draws on information from in‐depth interviews in addition to a survey from a Norwegian ‘Families after divorce’ study, in which the perspective of children and younger people are emphasized. We describe the complex relations between care‐giving and care‐receiving among children and adults in post‐divorce families and challenge and nuance the traditional western picture that emphasizes children as the receivers of care and adults as care‐givers. Inspired by the notion of ‘caringscapes’, the article seeks to incorporate the spatial and the temporal into the analysis of care and caring, and three ‘caring routes’ are identified: i) the ‘money squeeze route’, ii) the ‘emotional considerations route’ and iii) the ‘time squeeze’ route. The three routes are verified by the interview data as having both direct and indirect effects on the phenomenon of caring. We argue that children's care‐giving should be further investigated both empirically and theoretically and that a caringscapes approach might provide insight and departure for further research.     

The experience of sexual desire: Psychological correlates in a college sample

In order to elaborate on available models of sexual desire, we administered a sexual desire questionnaire to 144 college students, ages 18 to 54. Included in this measure were questions concerning the frequency of sexual desire, whether the respondent had participated in sexual activity without desire, or vice versa, experienced desire without sexual behavior, and a question assessing which cues are used by the subject to gauge sexual desire (e.g., frequency of intercourse, sexual dreams). Subjects also completed the Passionate Love Scale, Sexual Arousal Inventory, and Crowne‐Marlowe Social Desirability Scale. The results indicate that as a group, males report experiencing sexual desire more frequently than females. Males appeared to rely on similar indicators of desire as females, specifically genital arousal and sexual daydreams. For both males and females, sexual desire was significantly correlated with sexual arousal (r = 0.50, females; r = 0.44, males) while the correlation of desire and love was nonsignificant for both sexes. However, desire and sexual behavior did not necessarily co‐occur, as both males and females reported engaging in sexual behavior without desire. These data suggest that greater attention be paid to the definitional features of sexual desire in nonclinical samples, in an effort to clarify current diagnostic categories and to provide population base rates.     

Weakly universally consistent static forecasting of stationary and ergodic time series via local averaging and least squares estimates

Given a stationary and ergodic time series the problem of estimating the conditional expectation of the dependent variable at time zero given the infinite past is considered. It is shown that the mean squared error of a combination of suitably defined local averaging or least squares estimates converges to zero for all distributions whenever the dependent variable is square integrable.