Further evidence on education and job satisfaction

Regression analysis of data from recent U.S. national surveys was used to estimate, for white men and women separately, the total effect of amount of education on job satisfaction and the effect net of extrinsic rewards (money, prestige, authority, and autonomy). We reasoned that education which does not lead to extrinsic rewards would lead to dissatisfaction with work by producing unfulfilled expectations and aspirations, and thus we hypothesized that the estimated effect of education on job satisfaction net of extrinsic rewards would be negative. The hypothesis was not supported for women and was only weakly supported for men, and thus the findings of this study do not suggest that any increase in overeducated workers will have a major negative impact on job satisfaction., The indicated total effect of education is positive for both sexes but is considerably stronger for women than for men.     

A Virginia Tech MFT ethics class reflects on the shootings at Virginia Tech

The authors of this article include the professor and most of the students in a doctoral course on marriage and family therapy ethical and professional issues that met the semester that a disturbed student shot and killed 32 Virginia Tech students and faculty before killing himself. In this article, we reflect through short essays on issues related to the tragedy, ethics, and recovery.     

Roles and Responsibilities of Community Nonprofit Boards

In this study, roles and responsibilities associated with nonprofit boards of directors were supported by a framework inclusive of Strategic Activities, Operations, and Resource Planning roles. This framework can be valuable for paid staff and volunteers in understanding the broad scope of the work of nonprofit boards and practical applications such as agenda setting for board meetings and designing board training and development activities.     

The “Homeless Problem” and the Double Consciousness*

The purpose of this article was to identify manifestations of a social discourse that construct those who are homeless as an existential problem. Based on 4 years of ethnographic data and grounded theory analysis, we illustrate the nature of exclusionary social practices that emerge from discourse on the “homeless problem” as well as the conflicting identities experienced by those who are homeless. Herein we frame the data using DuBois concept of “double consciousness.” Our findings indicate that those who are homeless mix together discourses of value and legitimacy with self‐applied stigmas and self‐denigrating political perspectives in ways that directly mirror DuBois’ notion of the conflicting nature of African and American identities around the end of the nineteenth century. We illustrate identity problems that manifest in the contemporary conflict between being both “homeless” and “American.”     

Cultural and Contextual Influences on Parenting in Mexican American Families

Family stress theory can explain associations between contextual stressors and parenting. The theory, however, has not been tested among Mexican Americans or expanded to include cultural‐contextual risks. This study examined associations between neighborhood, economic, and acculturative stressors and parenting behaviors in a sample of 570 two‐parent Mexican American families. Results support the negative impact of economic stress on parenting through parental depressive symptoms. Neighborhood stress influenced fathers’ depressive symptoms and parenting, but not mothers’. The effects of acculturative stress were inconsistent. Results suggest that contextual stressors common to Mexican American families impact parenting behaviors through parental depression.     

In-stream habitat predicts salamander occupancy and abundance better than landscape-scale factors within exurban watersheds in a global diversity hotspot

Urban Ecosystems - The southern Appalachian Mountains have experienced rapid human population growth rates since the 1980s. Land used practices are shifting from rural to residential. The majority...     

Mothers' Union Statuses and Their Involvement in Young Children's Schooling

U.S. schools often expect the educational involvement of parents, which may be facilitated when parents have partners, especially a partner also invested in the child. As such, parental involvement at school and at home could be a channel of the diverging destinies of U.S. children from different families. This study applied fixed effects modeling to the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study–Kindergarten Cohort to examine the link between mothers' union statuses and their involvement behaviors. Being partnered appeared to benefit mothers' school and home involvement when children were in the primary grades, with little evidence of an additional benefit from that partnership being marital. A biological tie between the male partner and the child only seemed to matter for mothers' school involvement. These patterns did not vary by family income, maternal depression, or maternal employment, but they were stronger when children were just beginning schooling.     

Launching Medical Foster Home Programs: Key Components to Growing This Alternative to Nursing Home Placement

Objective: The objective of this research was to examine and explain elements that enhanced or thwarted program growth of the United States Veterans Health Administration Medical Foster Home program. Methods: This qualitative study was conducted nationally through individual interviews over the phone and in-person (n = 22) with coordinators (n = 15 at slow-growth programs; n = 6 at fast-growth programs), program support assistants (PSAs) (n = 1 at slow-growth program), and home-based primary care team members (n = 3), as well as three in-person focus groups (n = 28 total participants) with home-based primary care team members. All participants (N = 53) were involved with programs in existence for at least two years. Results: Facilitators and barriers that enhanced or thwarted program growth emerged around four themes: A full-time coordinator; Unmitigated home-based primary care team engagement; Pursuit and receipt of appropriate referrals; and Match between caregiver, home, and Veteran. Conclusions: To facilitate program growth, program leaders should consider themes identified and how to foster situations and shape policies that put themes into practice.     

Understanding Reputational Crisis: Definition,Properties, and Consequences

To better understand the nature of reputational crisis, this study examined two crisis events using the corporate ability (CA) and corporate social responsibility (CSR) crisis categorization frameworks. This scenario-based experimental study validates the usefulness of the CA–CSR crisis categorization by demonstrating that not only do people actually discern differences between these two types of crises, but their awareness of a crisis type also influences their interpretation of the crisis, as well as their perceptions of and attitudes toward the target firm. In particular, this study shows that a CSR crisis, versus a CA crisis, is interpreted more seriously and, consequently, causes heavier damage to the evaluation of the firm. In addition, the halo effect of a favorable prior reputation was found in the CA crisis condition, but not in the CSR condition. Based on these findings, this study suggests that the recognition of CA and CSR crises provides a boundary condition, which determines divergent effects of crises on perceivers' evaluation of the target firm.     

A comparison of carbon and nitrogen stocks among land uses/covers in coastal Florida

Coastal areas are rapidly developing due to population growth and the appeal of coastlines. In order to gain insight into how land use/cover affects carbon (C) storage in a coastal context, we examined soil and vegetation C and soil nitrogen (N) across land uses near Apalachicola, FL. Forested wetlands had the greatest soil C and N storage, while natural pine forests and pine plantations had the least. In paired plots, urban lawns had significantly greater mineral soil N content compared to urban forest remnants. Total ecosystem C (soil + vegetation) was higher in forested wetlands than all other land uses/covers combined due to the high organic content of those wetland soils. Urban forest remnants and lawns had greater total ecosystem C than natural pine forests and pine plantations, which likely reflects the differential influence of prescribed fire and less frequent anthropogenic disturbances between the rural and urban areas, respectively. Projections of land use change in Franklin County, FL combined with these data suggest that increases in C storage are possible with continued urbanization along the Gulf Coast, if forest remnants are left and lawns are incorporated in built-up areas. However, this study does not account for C emissions during land conversion, or any emissions associated with maintaining urban built-up and residential areas. A better understanding of land use/cover influences on C pools has applications for planning and development, as well as ecological and environmental protection in the region.