Program Knowledge and Racial Disparities in Savings Outcomes in a Child Development Account Experiment

This study investigated whether participants’ program knowledge was associated with savings outcomes in Child Development Accounts and whether differences in program knowledge explained racial and ethnic disparities in savings outcomes. We used data collected from White, Black, American Indian, and Hispanic treatment participants in the SEED for Oklahoma Kids (SEED OK) experiment (N?=?1126). Analysis results indicated that knowledge of SEED OK program features was low, especially among members of minority groups. Logit and Tobit regressions showed that program knowledge was positively related to the likelihood of holding a SEED OK account and to individual savings amounts. Gaps in program knowledge were associated with racial disparities in savings outcomes. If Whites and minorities had the same levels of program knowledge, gaps in savings outcomes would have significantly narrowed. The findings call for the development of policy designs and communication tools to enhance knowledge of program features among households with Child Development Accounts, especially racial- and ethnic-minority households.     

Engaging Youth in Municipal Government: Moving Toward a Youth-Centric Practice

Youth councils are one mechanism to engage youth in community governance; yet, there is scant research to guide practice. This study examined the extent to which youth are engaged in the origin, structure, and activities of municipal youth councils. Interviews were conducted with 24 adult stakeholders involved in the operations of youth councils. Data were analyzed using thematic analysis. Results demonstrated that youth-centric practice builds upon theoretical frames of positive youth development, social justice, and civic engagement. Youth-centric practice consists of youth representation, leadership, initiative, and decision-making. Results can assist practitioners and policy makers in engaging youth in municipal government.     

La revolución digital: mobile media use in contemporary Cuba

ABSTRACT

Recent scholarship on mobile internet use in the Global South highlights access disparities, along with shifting social practices that accompany greater web connectivity. Cuba is part of the Global South, and ranks among the least internet connected countries in the world. Venegas’[2010. Digital dilemmas: The state, the individual, and digital media in Cuba. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press] thorough account of technology use in Cuba positions Cuban digital media as an assemblage of political, economic, historical, and global factors. Recently, however, mobile digital technologies in Cuba have undergone rapid transformation. Continuing tensions between the US and Cuba remain part of how the country's infrastructure and internet practices develop in location-specific ways. In this paper, we utilize ethnographically-informed data to provide a case study of the mobile internet adaptations in Havana, Cuba. Specifically, we draw upon Sutko and de Souza e Silva [2010. Location-aware mobile media and urban sociability. New Media & Society, 13(5), 807–823] framework for location-aware mobile media and urban sociability to examine the unique communication and coordination practices of Havana internet culture. Additionally, Massey [2005. For space. London: Sage] and Wiley and Packer [2010. Rethinking communication after the mobilities turn. The Communication Review, 13(4), 263–268] notions of space allow investigation of Cuban cultural technologies within a larger social field. These theoretical lenses enable interrogation of mobile device adaptations on mobility, sociability, and space to position Cuban media use as an assemblage of local and global forces.     

When i’m right you’re wrong: attitude correctness facilitates anger and approach motivation toward opposing individuals

Attitude correctness and attitude clarity define the broader concept, attitude certainty. Repeating one’s attitude to oneself causes attitude clarity, while learning that the majority of others agree with you causes attitude correctness. The current research tests how attitude correctness influences emotions and behavioral intentions toward individuals with opposing attitudes. We predicted that compared to clarity, those high in attitude correctness would feel more anger toward an opposing individual and a stronger desire to confront, oppose, and argue with them. Results across two studies supported predictions; believing that you hold the same attitude as the majority sparks feelings of anger toward individuals with differing viewpoints. The current work contributes to our understanding of heated debates and ugly confrontations.     

Effects of Physical and Emotional Maternal Hostility on Adolescents’ Depression and Reoffending

This study examines whether (1) mothers vary in the way they express hostility toward their delinquent adolescent offspring, (2) different types of maternal hostility differentially affect adolescents’ depression and recidivism, and (3) adolescent depression serves as a mechanism through which maternal hostility predicts later reoffending. The sample consists of 1,216 male first‐time offenders, aged 13–17 years (M = 15.80, SD = 1.29). Confirmatory factor analysis supported the premise that maternal hostility could be distinguished into two subtypes: emotional and physical hostility. Adolescent offenders who experienced emotional or physical hostility by their mothers reported greater depressive symptoms and reoffending 6 months later. Further, the relation between maternal hostility (of each type) and adolescent reoffending was partially explained by depressive symptomology.     

Service learning and the practice of social justice and care

The values of a social justice pedagogy in teacher education are assumed to be firmly established in South African higher education. This article discusses how serviced learning (SL) can provide practical experience of caring and serve the promotion of the ideals of social justice in two initial teacher education programmes. However, an analysis of data in this case study shows that, although SL practice has served as a platform for social justice and for care as two basic educational values, participants were not yet able to verbalize and theorize these values. They were also not able to embed these values in their reflection about service as an inherent component of education. With data from different role players in a number of SL projects, we show that the students’ discourse of what it means to be a caring teacher in a just society has not yet been developed despite the successful practical experience. It was found that, although the students had been building a practice ‘platform’ for service, they had not yet been able to articulate the conceptual intersect of care and social justice clearly. With this epistemological notion in mind, two main themes from the data analysis are discussed: 1) How SL shifted student learning from ideas ‘about’ service to implemented service, and 2) how the practical experience promoted reciprocity in inter-institutional and inter-generational communities of practice.     

Intergenerational Transmission of Multipartner Fertility

Using data from administrative registers for the period 1970–2007 in Norway and Sweden, we investigate the intergenerational transmission of multipartner fertility. We find that men and women with half-siblings are more likely to have children with more than one partner. The differences are greater for those with younger versus older half-siblings, consistent with the additional influence of parental separation that may not arise when one has only older half-siblings. The additional risk for those with both older and younger half-siblings suggests that complexity in childhood family relationships also contributes to multipartner fertility. Only a small part of the intergenerational association is accounted for by education in the first and second generations. The association is to some extent gendered. Half-siblings are associated with a greater risk of women having children with a new partner in comparison with men. In particular, maternal half-siblings are more strongly associated with multipartner fertility than paternal half-siblings only for women.     

When Home Is Still Unsafe: From Family Reunification to Foster Care Reentry

Reuniting children with their families is the preferred outcome of foster care, yet many children reunited with their families reenter foster care. This study examined how parental substance abuse and mental health problems, and the time allotted for reunification, are associated with reentry risk. We used a complete cohort of children who entered the Texas foster care system in fiscal years 2008 and 2009 to identify the risk of foster care reentry within 5 years of reunification using selection‐adjusted multilevel survival analysis. Approximately 16% of reunified children reentered care within 5 years. Substance abuse and mental health problems predicted higher rates of reentry. Reunification after 12 months was associated with increased reentry risk overall, but not among children commonly exempted from federal permanency timelines. Permanency guidelines that restrict the length of time to achieve reunification may have the unintended consequence of pushing reunification before maltreatment risks have been resolved.     

Effects of Religiosity,Forgiveness, and Spousal Empathy on Marital Adjustment

This study focused on married couples in a region of the United States that previous research has identified as having high rates of both religiosity and divorce. As a result, this study was designed to examine the effects of religiosity, forgiveness, and spousal empathy on marital adjustment. To investigate these constructs, married couples in this region were recruited (n?=?829) to participate in a cross-sectional, self-report telephone survey. Results indicate that religious service attendance and spousal empathy have direct positive effects on marital adjustment in European American married men; while religious service attendance, forgiveness, and spousal empathy have direct positive effects on marital adjustment in European American married women. Among African-American participants, only spousal empathy had a direct effect on marital adjustment for both men and women. Finally, spousal empathy moderated the association between previous marriage and current marital adjustment among European American married women.