What They Don't Know Won't Hurt Them: Parents’ Judgments About Lying to Their Adolescents

This research examined judgments about parents lying to their adolescents. Ninety‐six participants from four primarily Caucasian groups (24 parents of 18‐year‐olds, 24 parents of 14‐year‐olds, 24 18‐year‐olds, and 24 14‐year‐olds) assessed hypothetical situations in which a parent lies to their adolescent about their past experience engaging in risky activities such as drug use and shoplifting. Evaluations and justifications for deception varied as a function of the domain of each act, the age of the adolescent being lied to, and consideration of parents’ duty to foster a protective and trusting relationship. Results are discussed in terms of parents’ and adolescents’ reasoning about deception to achieve and resist socialization goals in several (moral, personal, prudential, and multifaceted) social‐cognitive domains.     

PREDICTING RETIREMENT SAVINGS USING SURVEY MEASURES OF EXPONENTIAL‐GROWTH BIAS AND PRESENT BIAS

In a nationally representative sample, we predict retirement savings using survey‐based elicitations of exponential‐growth bias (EGB) and present bias (PB). We find that EGB, the tendency to neglect compounding, and PB, the tendency to value the present over the future, are highly significant and economically meaningful predictors of retirement savings. These relationships hold controlling for cognitive ability, financial literacy, and a rich set of demographic controls. We address measurement error as a potential confound and explore mechanisms through which these biases may operate. Back of the envelope calculations suggest that eliminating EGB and PB would increase retirement savings by approximately 12%. (JEL D91, D14)     

Integrative Systemic Therapy: Lessons on Collaboration and Training for the 21st Century

The field of couple, marital, and family therapy (CMFT) is at an important juncture of identity development and synthesis. Integrative Systemic Therapy (IST) is a problem‐centered metaframeworks approach that meets the growing needs of family therapists working with diverse and complex family systems and restores the field to its original focus on collaboration. This paper describes the process by which IST developed featuring anecdotes from live interviews with the founders. We briefly outline IST's theoretical pillars and the essential way IST practitioners deliver treatment including a blueprint for therapy. Finally, we propose that IST is a comprehensive, systemic guide uniquely beneficial to CMFT training and discuss our approach to integrating IST into our training of students in a COAMFTE accredited program.     

Dispatches From Along the Veil: Stories of Racial Rejection

In the wake of both long‐standing frustration with, and objective levels of, race, gender, and class exclusion in academic societies, I dive into a professional diary I have collected over the years. I demonstrate nine interactional patterns culled from my own experiences alongside the Du Boisian “veil.” Such social forces are often considered esoteric and inaccessible due to racial hierarchies, elite gatekeeping, and methodological constraints. I read these patterns as mechanisms in the reproduction of a racialized interaction order. That order both creates, and is bolstered by, systematic discrimination, disciplined exclusion, and constricted knowledge production.     

Effects of Brief Messages About Antiretroviral Therapy and Condom Use Benefits Among Black and Latino MSM in Three U.S. Cities

This pilot study examined effects of HIV prevention messages about self and partner benefits of antiretroviral therapy (ART) and condom effectiveness on increased intentions for behavior change. Data were from Messages4Men, a study examining prevention messages among 320 HIV-positive and 605 HIV-negative Black and Latino MSM. Men completed a computer-based assessment after message exposure, and multivariable models controlled for risky sex and demographics. A majority of HIV-positive men reported increased intentions for ART use; 22% reported partner benefit information was new. HIV-positive men with a detectable viral load had significantly greater adjusted odds of reporting intentions for ART use. Over half of HIV-negative MSM reported ART benefit information was new, and 88% reported increased intentions to discuss ART use with infected partners. Black MSM anticipated they would increase condom use in response to the self and partner benefit messages. Tailored messages on benefits of ART are needed for MSM.     

Determinants of urban tree canopy in residential neighborhoods: Household characteristics, urban form, and the geophysical landscape

The aesthetic, economic, and environmental benefits of urban trees are well recognized. Previous research has focused on understanding how a variety of social and environmental factors are related to urban vegetation. The aim is often to provide planners with information that will improve residential neighborhood design, or guide tree planting campaigns encouraging the cultivation of urban trees. In this paper we examine a broad range of factors we hypothesize are correlated to urban tree canopy heterogeneity in Salt Lake County, Utah. We use a multi-model inference approach to evaluate the relative contribution of these factors to observed heterogeneity in urban tree canopy cover, and discuss the implications of our analysis. An important contribution of this work is an explicit attempt to account for the confounding effect of neighborhood age in understanding the relationship between human and environmental factors, and urban tree canopy. We use regression analysis with interaction terms to assess the effects of 15 human and environmental variables on tree canopy abundance while holding neighborhood age constant. We demonstrate that neighborhood age is an influential covariate that affects how the human and environmental factors relate to the abundance of neighborhood tree canopy. For example, we demonstrate that in new neighborhoods a positive relationship exists between street density and residential tree canopy, but the relationship diminishes as the neighborhood ages. We conclude that to better understand the determinants of urban tree canopy in residential areas it is important to consider both human and environmental factors while accounting for neighborhood age.