Network governance in the heritage ecology

This article examines an AHRC ‘Co-Design and Co-Production’ project focussed on the decision-making processes within the ‘heritage ecology’. The project involved three UK universities and a range of heritage institutions and community organisations. The project set out to empower community organisations through an emphasis upon deliberative democracy. Heritage is conceptualised as public value because it is used to define identity and belonging in civil society. Network governance theory is used to characterise the operational capabilities and the decision-making environment in the heritage ecology. The article argues that the public value of heritage is realised through network governance when ‘human elements’, such as emotional value are authentically and legitimately represented in deliberative processes.     

Private woodland owners’ perspectives on multifunctionality in English woodlands

Increasing emphasis is being placed in forest policies to deliver public goods such as biodiversity, recreation, landscape and carbon sequestration, alongside timber production. In light of this, it is important to understand how woodland owners themselves perceive their role in delivering these multiple benefits. With up to 80% of woodland in some areas in England in private ownership, and with an increasing number of owners with non-financial objectives for their woodland, the private sector may offer opportunities for delivering public goods. The purpose of this study was to investigate the perceptions and attitudes of private woodland owners to multifunctional woodland management in three study areas in England: Cornwall, the Lake District and the High Weald Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB). Q Methodology was used to identify four perspectives of woodland ownership and management, which can be described as: the Hobby Conservationist; the Individualist; the Custodian and the Multifunctional Owner. The implications of the findings for forest policy are discussed.     

Effects of Exogenous and Endogenous Distracters on Immediate and Long‐Term Recall in Toddlers

We explored the role that exogenous and endogenous competitors for attention play in infants’ abilities to encode and retain information over a 6‐month period. Sixty‐six children visited the laboratory at 15 months, and 32 returned for a second visit at 21 months. Children observed models of conventional‐ relation and enabling‐relation action sequences. Half the children were distracted by a “Mister Monkey” mechanical toy during the conventional‐relation sequence, while the other half was distracted during the enabling‐relation sequence. The Early Childhood Behavior Questionnaire indexed endogenous factors at both ages. Immediate postmodel production of target actions indexed encoding efficiency, and 6‐month production of target actions indexed long‐term recall. The exogenous distracter impacted encoding efficiency (i.e., immediate recall), but not long‐term recall. Endogenous factors (i.e., temperament) were primarily associated with long‐term recall. Of special interest was our finding that endogenous factors, especially surgency, moderated the effect of the exogenous distracter. It appears that when learning conventional‐relation sequences in the presence of exogenous distracters, surgency mobilizes attentional resources toward the learning objective; however, when learning enabling‐relation sequences under the same conditions, surgency either boosts the saliency of the distracters or boosts children’s susceptibility to them.     

Pre-foster Care Maltreatment Class as a Predictor of Maltreatment in Foster Care

The majority of youth in the foster care system have been removed from their homes as means of protection against parental maltreatment. Studies have shown, however, that foster youth may continue to experience maltreatment after they have entered the child welfare system (Poertner et al. in Child Youth Serv Rev 21(7):549–563, 1999; Tittle et al. in Urbana 51:61801, 2008). In this study, we explore how maltreatment prior to foster care entry may predict maltreatment while in care for youth who are preparing to emancipate. Using latent class analysis and multinomial logistic regression, we find that current or former foster youth with histories of multiple maltreatment (particularly, combined pre-foster care histories of neglect and physical abuse) are more likely to report neglect, physical abuse and sexual abuse in care than those with histories of low maltreatment. These youth should be the target of prevention efforts in child welfare agencies.     

Helping foster youth find a job: a random‐assignment evaluation of an employment assistance programme for emancipating youth

A primary task for youth aging out of foster care is finding and maintaining a job. In recognition of the challenges that foster youth face, employment assistance has become an important part of child welfare agencies' efforts to prepare youth for emancipation. The current study uses random assignment to evaluate the impact of an employment assistance programme for foster youth on the rate of employment, income and other self‐sufficiency outcomes among a group of adolescents in substitute care in Kern County, California. Data were collected via multi‐wave, in‐person interviews of 254 foster youth. At the second follow‐up interview, only two‐fifths of the sample report being employed. However, three‐quarters of the sample are either working or attending school, and a quarter reports both working and attending school. Nevertheless, significant minorities report experiencing financial hardships and receiving financial assistance. No statistically significant impacts of the evaluated programme are found on any measured employment or self‐sufficiency outcome. Implications for child welfare policy are discussed.     

A meta-analytic review and future research agenda of charismatic leadership

Charismatic leadership is a critical construct that draws much attention from both academic and practitioner literatures. Despite the positive attention received by the charisma construct, some have criticized its conceptualization and measurement. These critiques have, in turn, cast doubt on what we know regarding the antecedents and outcomes of charismatic leadership. In this review, we adopt a recently developed definition of charismatic leadership and then conduct a meta-analysis of its antecedents and objective outcomes. Following an examination of 76 independent studies and 36,031 individuals, results indicate that the Big Five traits and cognitive ability vary in their association with charismatic leadership. Other findings show that dimensions of charismatic leadership predict outcomes of interest, such as supervisor-rated task performance, supervisor-rated citizenship behaviors, and group or organization performance. Several shortcomings are identified, however, in testing theoretical and methodological moderating variables. The present research ultimately provides a roadmap for new frontiers in theoretical, measurement and empirical work on charismatic leadership.     

Marriage Encounter: A Critical Appraisal

This paper describes and evaluates the Marriage Encounter movement from theoretical and clinical perspectives. While acknowledging that Marriage Encounter responds to a need among many couples for greater marital closeness, the authors raise concerns about potentially destructive and illusory effects of the Marriage Encounter experience. The paper calls for more dialogue between professionals and leaders of the Marriage Encounter movement as well as for empirical evaluations of the program's effects .     

Foster youth transitions to adulthood: a longitudinal view of youth leaving care

The well-being of youths who age out of the out-of-home care system in the U.S. has long been of great interest to child welfare practitioners and policymakers. In spite of this interest, however, very little is known about how these youths fare when they must make the transition to independence. The Foster Youth Transitions to Adulthood Study is tracking the experiences of 141 young adults who left care in Wisconsin in 1995 and 1996. This article describes these youths and their experiences in the first 12 to 18 months after leaving care. The findings suggest that the transition to independence is a difficult time for youth leaving the out-of-home care system.