“Pretty Pressure” From Peers,Parents, and the Media: A Longitudinal Study of Appearance‐Based Rejection Sensitivity

Drawing from the tripartite sociocultural model of body image, the researchers examined whether direct messages and modeling from peers, parents, and media were concurrently and prospectively associated with appearance‐based rejection sensitivity (appearance‐RS) in young adolescents (M_age = 12.0 years). Appearance‐RS was higher among those who concurrently reported more appearance‐related teasing and pressure by peers, more parent teasing, and greater acceptance of media appearance ideals. In prospective analyses, greater increases in appearance‐RS over 1 year were found for adolescents who perceived higher levels of parental appearance‐related teasing and negative attitudes about their own appearance. Moderation analyses indicated the positive prospective association between parental negative appearance attitudes and appearance‐RS was found in younger but not older participants. Gender did not moderate associations.     

Building a better workplace for teen volunteers through inclusive behaviors

Facing a decline in the number of hours donated to nonprofit organizations, volunteer coordinators must strive to determine the most effective strategies for retaining volunteers. Relationship management theory provides a framework to gauge the well‐being of an organization's relationship with its stakeholders. Through surveys administered to 317 teenage volunteers at three library systems, this study found that of four factors—trust, commitment, satisfaction, and control mutuality—trust had the strongest ability to predict intent to continue volunteering. Further analysis revealed that trust could be enhanced by including teenagers in work groups throughout the organization, seeking their input on organizational decisions, and ensuring they receive formal and informal organizational communications.     

Coming Out to Tell Our Stories: Using Queer Theory to Understand the Career Experiences of Gay Men in Public Relations

Despite the increasing focus on understanding the diversity of public relations, academics and practitioners have largely ignored gay men. Grounded in queer theory, this qualitative study examines the experiences of gay men working in public relations. We used in-depth interviews and focus groups to allow participants to discuss their careers openly. Practitioners indicated that they enjoyed working in public relations, although they pointed out areas of dissatisfaction and suggested ways to improve the working environment for gay men. These include an increased awareness of personal lives and the gay community, reduction of stereotypes, and adopting diversity-friendly policies.     

Managing Risk at the Tucson Sector of the U.S. Border Patrol

This article describes a risk analysis used to inform resource allocation at the Tucson Sector of the U.S. Border Patrol, the busiest sector for alien and drug trafficking along the Southwest land border with Mexico. The model and methodology that underlie this analysis are generally applicable to many resource allocation decisions regarding the management of frequently occurring hazards, decisions regularly made by officials at all levels of the homeland security enterprise. The analysis was executed by agents without previous risk expertise working under a short time frame, and the findings from the analysis were used to inform several resource allocation decisions.     

Comparing the two sides of the nonprofit organization–donor relationship: Applying coorientation methodology to relationship management

Although public relations scholars recommend practitioners strive for symmetry in their communication programming, scholarship on the organization–public relationship has abandoned the push for symmetry despite potential problems that could emerge when the organization and publics have different viewpoints. Using the coorientation methodology, this study found that even though fundraisers and donors at a West coast hospital viewed their relationship positively, the differences in the evaluations leave room for the organization to devise strategies to improve the relationship status.     

Characteristics of social smoking among college students

Social smoking is a newly identified phenomenon in the young adult population that is poorly understood. We investigated differences in social smoking (smoking most commonly while partying or socializing) and other smoking within a convenience sample of college smokers (n = 351) from a large midwestern university. Results revealed that 70% of 351 current (past 30-day) smokers reported social smoking. No significant difference was found in motivation to quit between smoking groups. However, a significant difference was found between groups in confidence to quit, the number of days smoked, and the number of cigarettes smoked on those days. More social smokers than expected did not perceive themselves as smokers. Logistic regression analysis revealed that lower physical and psychological dependence and higher social support scores predicted social smoking.     

The everyday use of surname to determine ethnic ancestry

This paper examines the influence of surname on how descendants of white European immigrants to the United States, who are of mixed ethnic ancestry, determine their ethnic identification. It is based on 60 in-depth interviews about ethnic identity and family history, conducted with Catholic, suburban later-generation residents of Santa Clara County California and Montgomery County, Pennsylvania (suburbs of San Jose and Philadelphia, respectively).These respondents describe how other people identify them using their surname as an indicator of ethnic background as well as how they use surnames to identify others. They continue to use surnames for their own and others' ethnic identifications despite the fact that they are also continually made aware of the ways in which surname is a faulty, and often inaccurate, indicator of ethnic origin. Factors such as intermarriage, name changes and insufficient knowledge of types of surnames undermine the predictive value of surnames for determining ethnic origin. This examination of the day-to-day use of surnames to determine ethnic ancestry shows the discrepancy between the widespread belief that ethnicity is the naming of a fixed, personal, biological trait that is inherited from one's ancestors and the day-to-day evidence that ethnicity is a processual social phenomenon involving change, choice, and movement across ethnic boundaries for the individual.