School choice's idealized premises and unfulfilled promises: How school markets simulate options,encourage decoupling and deception,and deepen disadvantages

In school choice systems, families choose among publicly funded schools, and schools compete for students and resources. Using neoinstitutionalist and relational inequality theories, our article reinterprets recent critical sociological and education research to show how such markets involve actors' enacting myths; these beliefs and their associated practices normalized white, privileged consumption as a basis for revamping public education as market exchanges between schools and families. Proponents argue that choice empowers individuals, focuses organizations on improving quality, and benefits society more broadly by reducing inequality and segregation. We argue that such school choice myths' excessive emphases on individual decision‐making and provider performance obscure the actual impacts of school choice systems upon people, organizations, and society. First, rather than enlarging alternatives that families can easily research, select, and (if needed) exit, school choice systems often simulate options, especially for disadvantaged populations. Second, rather than focusing schools' efforts on performance, innovation, and accountability, they can encourage organizational decoupling, homogeneity, and deception. Third, rather than reducing societal harms, they can deepen inequalities and alienation. Future research should examine both how markets are animated by bounded relationality—routines that enable them to form, maintain, and complete exchanges with organizations—and how activism can challenge marketization.     

Are dual and single exposures differently associated with clinical levels of trauma symptoms? Examining physical abuse and witnessing intimate partner violence among young children

A significant portion of children living in the United States have experienced trauma. Informed by the developmental traumatology model, we explored the effects of physical abuse and witnessing intimate partner violence (IPV) on childhood trauma symptoms. This study utilizes a convenience sample of 580 high‐risk children between 3 and 12 years who received services from one‐child advocacy centre during a 12‐month period. We performed a series of binary logistic regression analyses to examine if physical abuse, exposure to IPV, and dual exposure (i.e., both physical abuse and IPV) are distinctly associated with six trauma symptoms, including anxiety, depression, posttraumatic stress (PTS), dissociation, anger, and sexual concerns. The results indicated that dual exposure was predictive of all trauma symptoms, except for dissociation. Additionally, physical abuse was associated with PTS, anger, and sexual concerns, whereas exposure to IPV was associated with depression, PTS, and sexual concerns. Research and implications for practitioners working with young children are discussed.     

The effects of traffic noise on tadpole behavior and development

Urban Ecosystems - Traffic noise is known to negatively affect many wildlife species by interfering with foraging behavior. Frogs often lay their eggs in roadside ditches because they are...     

Help-seeking behaviors and attitudes of emerging adults: How college students reporting recent suicidal ideation utilize the internet compared to traditional resources

Abstract

Objective: Suicide is the second leading cause of death among emerging adults, yet little is known regarding their online help-seeking. Participants: The National Research Consortium of Counseling Centers in Higher Education's dataset (N=26,292). Methods: Students across the United States were recruited from 73 four-year institutions to participate during the 2010–2011 school year. Results: Observed the effectiveness of online and traditional help-seeking stratified by recent suicidal ideation related to their most distressful period in the past year. Females and younger students endorsed both types of help-seeking, yet those with recent ideation were less likely to disclose any help-seeking. Among those reporting recent ideation, only females reported that traditional supports were more than moderately helpful. Regardless of whether students endorsed ideation, students who were younger, engaged in risky behaviors and identified as females reported that online resources were more than moderately helpful. Conclusions: Online resources could potentially bridge barriers to traditional help-seeking for those reluctant to seek out care, yet traditional resources were reported to be the most effective among this sample.     

Why is the gender revolution uneven and stalled? Gender essentialism and men's movement into ‘women's work'

Men's limited movement into female occupations has been identified as a key barrier to future declines in occupational sex segregation and achieving greater gender equality. So why are men so reticent to enter jobs normatively regarded as female? Drawing from qualitative interviews with multiple stakeholders in four female‐dominated occupations in Australia, this article documents the processes that influence men's employment in gender‐atypical jobs. Gender essentialism is central to many processes that generate and/or stall changes in men's representation in female‐dominated occupations. While gender essentialism's role in producing and reproducing occupation sex segregation is well known, its role in reducing occupational sex segregation is a critical process which has previously received limited attention. The article details gender essentialism's integrative function.     

Knowledge of Suicide Risk Factors,But Not Suicide Ideation Severity,Is Greater Among College Students Who Viewed 13 Reasons Why

Abstract

Objective: To test associations between viewing 13 Reasons Why, Season 1 and past week suicide ideation severity, behavior risk, stigma, and knowledge in college students. To explore whether personal exposure to suicide and depressive symptom severity moderated these associations. Participants: Eight-hundred and eighteen college students, 64% (n?=?522) of whom watched 13 Reasons Why. Methods: Students completed surveys online. Multivariate negative binomial regressions were used to test associations between watching 13 Reasons Why and suicide-related variables, and interaction terms. Results: Suicide ideation severity and suicide behavior risk were not significantly associated with viewing 13 Reasons Why; however, there was limited statistical power to detect associations. The association between watching 13 Reasons Why and greater suicide knowledge was stronger among those who did not have personal exposure to suicide. Conclusions: 13 Reasons Why may be a platform for psychoeducation on suicide, particularly among those who do not have personal exposure.     

Doing good while doing business: Using financial viability to enhance employability for the disadvantaged

The employment social enterprise (ESE) model can provide an opportunity to create a financially viable business that helps individuals with employment barriers become integrated into the labor force. This research studied eight ESEs. Findings suggest that by applying private‐sector business principles to a workforce development programs, social enterprises can provide participants with meaningful and valuable work experience, while offsetting program costs. Analysis identified four promising practices that social entrepreneurs should adopt when setting up a new enterprise. Enterprises should (a) provide soft‐skill training and social services to participants; (b) operate at a size that allows for economies of scale in production and the provision of support services; (c) have few occupational skill requirements; and (d) hire supervisors with both industry knowledge and the capacity to support individuals with employment barriers.     

The Relationships Between Sense of Belonging to a Community GLB Youth Group; School,Teacher, and Peer Connectedness; and Depressive Symptoms: Testing of a Path Model

Research indicates belonging to a gay, lesbian, and bisexual (GLB) support group is indirectly associated with fewer depressive symptoms, via higher levels of sense of belonging to the general community. The current study extended this research by testing a path model to determine whether school, teacher, and peer connectedness are influenced by sense of belonging to a community GLB youth group. A sample of 82 Australian GLB adolescents aged 14 to 18 years who currently attend high school completed the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale, the Psychological Subscale of the Sense of Belonging Instrument, and the Social Questionnaire for Secondary Students. Results indicated very good model fit. Higher levels of belonging to a community GLB youth group were associated with higher levels of school, teacher, and peer connectedness, but only peer connectedness was directly associated with depressive symptoms. Higher levels of school and teacher connectedness were associated with higher levels of peer connectedness. Interventions aimed at increasing belonging to a community GLB youth group may have indirect benefits for the mental health of GLB adolescents, via higher levels of school, teacher, and peer connectedness.     

Parental advice to preadolescent bystanders about how to intervene during bullying differs by form of bullying

The current study examined parental advice given to fourth‐ and fifth‐grade preadolescents who imagined being bystanders to different forms of bullying (physical, verbal, property attack, social manipulation, exclusion). We assessed the frequency with which parents advised youth to follow specific intervention strategies (stop the bully, help/comfort the victim, tell adults), and we tested whether the frequency by which parents provided each kind of advice varied by the form of bullying described. One hundred and six fourth‐ and fifth‐grade preadolescents completed an interaction in which their parent gave them advice about how to respond if they were bystanders to five hypothetical bullying situations. Each situation described a different form of bullying. Across forms of bullying, parents most frequently told bystander children to intervene by telling an adult. However, advice differed based on the form of bullying presented. Parents most frequently advised children to “tell an adult” in response to physical bullying or property attacks, most frequently advised children to “help/comfort victims” in response to social exclusion and physical attacks, and most frequently advised children to “stop the bully” in response to verbal and social manipulation bullying.     

Women's Success in Academic Science: Challenges to Breaking Through the Ivory Ceiling

Although a greater number of women are entering academic science than ever before, women remain underrepresented and are perceived as less successful than men in their fields. The reasons behind this are complicated and debatable. In this paper, I review the challenges that women continue to face in the natural and social academic sciences. Women continue to face barriers toward obtaining academic positions and securing promotions. A crucial aspect of the problem lies in the subjective definition of “success,” which creates subconscious biases as well as gendered processes within institutions. These processes include biased evaluations of success in academia, limited mentorship for women in science, limited networking opportunities, and lack of institutional support for mothers. Future research should look more closely at the gendered definition of success, and related constraints within academia that keep women from breaking through the ivory ceiling.