Comprehensive career planning: The VCU Career Connections Program

Individuals with disabilities who complete post secondary education programs must be prepared to plan and direct their long-term careers. Despite recent legislation, students with disabilities exiting higher education continue to face obstacles such as negative employer attitudes, architectural barriers, and lack of necessary services and supports when attempting to access employment and pursue their careers. This article describes a comprehensive career-planning program designed to enhance employment opportunities for individuals with disabilities as they graduate from higher education.     

The development of collective moral leadership among parents through education organizing

It is often assumed that parent participation in schools is primarily based on self-interest and that this is a frequent source of contention between parents and teachers. This article examines the experiences of members of the Jamaica Plain Parent Organizing Project (JP-POP), a community-based organization in Boston, and reveals that some parents have learned to act beyond their individual self-interest and to organize on behalf of the entire community as a result of their participation. The authors present qualitative data from interviews with JP-POP members to ascertain the motivations behind their initial decisions to become involved in education, the benefits they derive from their participation, and the gradual evolution of narrow definitions of self-interest to more communal understandings. Finally, they draw out implications for the potential capacity enhancement of community-based organizations in education at both the institutional and district levels.     

Impacts of media on sexual behaviour and relationships among youth in foster care

Youth in foster care (YFC) are at high risk of negative reproductive and other health outcomes and may be especially vulnerable to negative impacts of media due to early adversity and a lack of stable caregiver relationships. The aim of this project was to explore how access and exposure to media impacts YFC in order to inform future research in this realm and promote resilience in this understudied population. We conducted semistructured interviews with YFC ages 15–21 (n = 22) and focus groups with foster caregivers (n = 86). We used thematic analysis to analyse data for themes related to media. Youth and caregivers described four main themes: (a) impacts of media on youth norms and attitudes, (b) impacts of media on youth behaviour, (c) impacts of youth exposure to pornography, and (d) caregiver monitoring and mediation of media. Data from this study indicate that media has unique, important effects on YFC norms and behaviours, including sexual behaviours. Foster caregivers encounter multiple barriers to monitoring and mediating media use for YFC. Further research is needed to explore differential effects of media on YFC versus non‐YFC in order to develop effective interventions and mitigate potential negative effects of media.     

I am more than a mom: Stories of parental leave during the transition to motherhood in Canada

The transition to motherhood is a time of tremendous change, during which maternal subjects experience important shifts in their relationships with family, friends, employers, and state. Parental leave policies have potential to mitigate some of these changes, contributing positively to health and economic outcomes. Indeed, such policies have been identified as essential for achieving gender equality, serving to address both recognition and redistributive claims. In this paper, we explore parental leave policy through the lens of first time mothers in Canada, where two distinct policy regimes coexist. Using narrative analysis, we examine the ways in which the transition to motherhood is embodied and enacted through policy experiences. The stories we uncover, stories of helplessness, of control and resistance, and of stymied progress, illuminate how leave policies differently position maternal subjects in complex social settings.     

Determining urban exploiter status of a termite using genetic analysis

Urban ecosystems are characterized by “urban exploiters”: species that thrive in the modified environment of cities. Few insects have been categorized as such, in part because they are usually considered as pests first, in part because many studies do not identify to species, and in part because many insects can survive in small vegetated areas within the urban matrix. Some termites may be prime examples of urban exploiters; Coptotermes species are rare in natural forests, but are abundant and major pests in urban areas. We investigated the genetic structure of the South East Asian species Coptotermes gestroi in the urban nation of Singapore. There was a panmictic population across the city, yet all 29 colonies were genetically distinct, and many had expanded from recent bottlenecks. There were no significant differences between colonies in vegetated areas (forests and parks), and those in urban habitats. The genetic pattern is similar to some other urban exploiter species in comparable environments, thus confirming C. gestroi is a native species that has become an urban exploiter, the first termite to be considered as such.     

Ethical Actions: A Comparison of Individual and Group Recommendations

In order to examine the way ethical decisions are made, we asked ethicists, regulatory officials, and experienced researchers to review a set of scenarios that depict important ethical tensions in research. The method employed was “protocol analysis,” a talk-aloud technique pioneered by cognitive scientists. Each individual was asked to make recommendations for courses of action. Later, we held a focus group of university faculty and staff with either institutional review board experience or research ethics training. They too were asked to recommend actions. The results show there are areas where the two data collection approaches agree, as well as areas of considerable difference. Implications for training in the responsible conduct of research are discussed.     

Family Functioning and Mental Health of Transgender and Gender-Nonconforming Youth in the Trans Teen and Family Narratives Project

Transgender and gender-nonconforming (TGN) youth are at increased risk for adverse mental health outcomes, but better family functioning may be protective. This study describes TGN youth’s mental health and associations with family functioning in a community-based sample. Participants were from 33 families (96 family members) and included 33 TGN youth, ages 13 to 17 years; 48 cisgender (non-transgender) caregivers; and 15 cisgender siblings. Participants completed a survey with measures of family functioning (family communication, family satisfaction) and mental health of TGN youth (suicidality, self-harm, depression, anxiety, self-esteem, resilience). TGN youth reported a high risk of mental health concerns: suicidality (15% to 30%), self-harm (49%), clinically significant depressive symptoms (61%); and moderate self-esteem (M = 27.55, SD = 7.15) and resiliency (M = 3.67, SD = 0.53). In adjusted models, better family functioning from the TGN youth’s perspective was associated with better mental health outcomes among TGN youth (β ranged from ?0.40 to ?0.65 for self-harm, depressive symptoms, and anxious symptoms, and 0.58 to 0.70 for self-esteem and resiliency). Findings from this study highlight the importance of considering TGN youth’s perspectives on the family to inform interventions to improve family functioning in families with TGN youth.     

The Social Worker as Transdisciplinary Professional: A Reflective Account

The transdisciplinary key worker model requires early childhood intervention professionals to make radical adjustment in their respective scopes of knowledge and practice. Focused on the author’s brief experience in a key worker role, the article highlights challenges and contradictions that arise when health and welfare professionals are expected not only to exchange knowledge, skills, and expertise, but also to perform each other’s work. Two contextual, reflective accounts of the reasons why social workers should be cautious in task transfers in transdisciplinary teams are given. The article renews support for social workers playing professionally appropriate roles in early childhood intervention teams in ways that can protect best service delivery to children with disability and their families.     

Motivating Mormons

Despite numerous studies on motivation for generosity, much remains unknown. Given that the lion's share of giving and volunteering is directed toward religious institutions, we aimed to test the motivation for the generosity of Mormons. Previous research has indicated that Mormons (Latter‐day Saints) volunteer and donate at much higher levels than other groups. This study examined how self‐reported motivations to volunteer explain the annual number of hours volunteered and the likelihood of donating toward various causes. We used thirty qualitative interviews with Latter‐day Saints to create a comprehensive questionnaire measuring the time spent engaged in various volunteer activities and whether or not the respondents donated to various causes. The questionnaire also asked respondents to rank how important twenty‐five different motivations were to their service or volunteering. We used factor analysis of the results on the twenty‐five motivation items to identify underlying variables behind volunteer motivations, and we used the scores on the five resulting factors in multiple regression analyses to predict volunteer hours and logistic regression analyses to predict the likelihood of making donations. Different types of motivations predicted different types of volunteering and charitable giving. Theological motivations had the broadest impact and predicted religious volunteering, social volunteering to benefit church members, social volunteering through the church to benefit the community, religious donations, and donations toward social causes made through the church. After inserting control variables into our models, we found that none of the five types of motivations predicted secular volunteering or secular charitable giving. We conclude with managerial and conceptual implications of these and other results.