Sexual health education group for adolescents with mental problems

1. Providing sexual health education for adolescents with mental health problems presents a difficult but important clinical task. 2. Using a group format for this task is an effective way to provide information about sexual health and promote positive coping strategies related to relationships and sexual issues. 3. Group leaders need to be aware of their own values related to sexual issues and have the ability to be frank and nonjudgmental.     

Auswirkungen von Downsizing-Maßnahmen auf das organisationale Commitment der verbleibenden Mitarbeiter: Ein Vorher-Nachher-Vergleich

This study examines the consequences of downsizing efforts on organizational commitment, job satisfaction and work motivation of the remaining workforce (?survivors“) in a middle-sized telecommunication company. Employees were surveyed five months prior to the downsizing process (n=150) and eleven months thereafter (n=160). The assessment of organizational commitment was based on a questionnaire that was developed by Allen and Meyer (1990) within the scope of their three-components-model which includes affective, continuous and normative commitment. Although layoffs — as one part of the whole downsizing process — were not implemented in the investigated company, but only in a sister enterprise, which is part of the same holding, the affective commitment of employees towards their corporation dropped. On the other hand, the normative and the balanced commitment remained constant. Moreover, every second survivor showed reduced job satisfaction and work motivation. It should be noted that although the results of reorganisation and restructuring did not directly affect the employees of the investigated company, the emotional linkage between employees and employer was affected in a negative way. Additional findings from qualitative interviews suggest that restructuring was perceived to cause a crack in the prevailing corporate culture and the psychological contract. In addition, a deterioration of work conditions through work overload resulted.     

Early Childhood Education and Care as a Social Work Issue

Early childhood education and care affects millions of young people, their parents, and ultimately society at large. Social workers are employed directly in early childhood education and care programs and also witness the results of inadequate early interventions in various practice settings. Yet social workers do little of the research related to this topic. Numerous issues relate to both social work and to thoughtful discussions of early childhood education and care, including the unequal use of high quality early education programs, which is ultimately a social justice issue. This article elucidates how social workers can and why they should contribute to practice, policy, and research related to early childhood education and care.     

Medicare and Medicaid Reimbursement Rates for Nursing Homes Motivate Select Culture Change Practices But Not Comprehensive Culture Change

Components of nursing home (NH) culture change include resident-centeredness, empowerment, and home likeness, but practices reflective of these components may be found in both traditional and “culture change” NHs. We use mixed methods to examine the presence of culture change practices in the context of an NH’s payer sources. Qualitative data show how higher pay from Medicare versus Medicaid influences implementation of select culture change practices, and quantitative data show NHs with higher proportions of Medicare residents have significantly higher (measured) environmental culture change implementation. Findings indicate that heightened coordination of Medicare and Medicaid could influence NH implementation of reform practices.     

Creating Tactile Space during a University Extension Field Day Event: The Case of a Sustainable Agriculture Innovation

Drawing on the concept of “tactile space,” we evaluate the experiential learning environment of a university extension field day event focused on a sustainable agriculture innovation: biodegradable plastic mulch. Introduced by sociologist Michael Carolan, “tactile spaces” are sensuously rich learning environments where participants interact with each other and the environment in an “embodied” and “embedded” manner leading to long‐lasting attitudinal and behavioral change. In our study, farmers, extension professionals, crop consultants, and mulch manufacturers participated in a field day event designed to provide both embodied and embedded experiences in an effort to stimulate interest in biodegradable plastic mulch, an economically and environmentally sustainable alternative to polyethylene mulch. Field day participants engaged in hands‐on demonstrations preceded and followed by focus group sessions. Enhancing the learning environment in these ways improved the success of the field day event by encouraging practice‐based forms of learning, which supplemented and reinforced the claims made about biodegradable plastic mulch. However, the tactile space could have been enriched by providing more opportunities for participants to become embedded within the environment, and by adding elements to overcome the temporal limitations of the field day event. This research contributes to the broader literature on participatory research and extension.     

Out with Multiple Choice and In with Essays: A More Accurate Way to Measure Reading Comprehension

The certification test for English teachers in a certain state asked candidates to identify the name of the frog in Mark Twain's "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County." If students answered this question correctly and said, Dan'l Webster, does this mean that these students would be prepared for the teaching field? Conversely, if students answered this question incorrectly, does this mean they were ill - prepared for becoming teachers? Can such an irrelevant question really point to the knowledge and abilities of future teachers? Hardly, use of unimportant questioning such as this illustrates the main problem with using a multiple choice format when assessing students. Trivial items such as names of animals and other insignificant information are often given priority over their significance in the story simply because students are not able to demonstrate what they really know in narrative form (Smagorinsky, 2002).     

Ageism: A Review of Research and Policy Implications

The current literature on aging and ageism is summarized in support of a theoretical perspective that includes both the biological and the psychosocial components of these processes. Conceptual and methodological problems are identified in models that rely on a deficit approach to aging. We suggest that the biased responses of others foster older adults' stress-related emotional and hormonal responses—responses that may effectively reduce their social and cognitive competence. This negative feedback process ultimately acts in a stereotype-maintaining fashion. Implications are drawn for possible changes in social policy and institutional practices that may reduce or prevent the harmful effects of ageism. Examples are given of existing policies and practices that limit the lives of older adults (in the guise of protection), along with newly instituted policies and practices (including those at an international level) that place the welfare of older adults in the context of life course issues shared by all.     

Introducing audio-vision into evidence: the impact of audio recordings and their technical limitations in police use of force cases

ABSTRACT

This article explores the technical limitations of audio recordings and how those limitations impact the reliability of sound evidence in police use of force cases. In audiovisual recordings, audio is often assumed neutral, redundant or to have the same limitations as its visual counterpart. Bringing together film theorist Michel Chion’s concept of audio-vision and the technical specifications of mobile audio recording, this article highlights how design priorities and compression processes can influence the way sound evidence is perceived. By failing to acknowledge audio recordings as distinct from their visual counterparts, they are rendered invisible and are therefore under scrutinized throughout legal processes. This neglect becomes notably problematic in cases of police use of force where audio/visual recordings often work to bolster the already privileged officer testimony.     

Adaptive learning,adaptive utility,and rational behavior in a repeated prisoner's dilemma

Two dimensions of learning are explored in a repeated prisoner's dilemma experiment. Subject update their perceptions of the true model of their opponent's behavior. Subjects also update their beliefs Kraft Funds at the Fuqua School of Business, helpful comments by Robert Axelrod, Michael Cohen, Fred Feinberg, J. Keith Murnighan, Kip Viscusi, Bob Winkler, and two anonymous referees, and the programming assistance of Oris Stuart and Michael Guiry.