It's About Time! Examining Received Dosage and Program Duration as Predictors of Change Among Non‐Distressed and Distressed Married Couple and Relationship Education Participants

Although Couple and Relationship Education (CRE) programs were intended to be preventive in nature, an emerging reality is that relationally distressed couples are attending programs. This has raised questions about both its general usefulness and what is known regarding predictors of change in CRE for distressed couples particularly. Previous work has identified dosage and duration as important moderators of changes, and there are myriad program contexts offered, highlighting the need to examine these among distressed couples. This study utilized a sample of community CRE participants and examined received dosage and program duration as predictors of change. Comparing results for distressed and non‐distressed participants, we found several group differences. Findings suggest that it is important to consider distress level and time spent in programs when placing participants. In addition, research should continue to examine these groups separately (or comparatively) to find out what works for whom.     

Back to Square One: Socioeconomic Integration of Deported Migrants

This paper addresses the issue of socioeconomic integration of forced return migrants, focusing on the Maghreb countries. Starting from the hypothesis that the return has to be prepared, I tested whether a disruption in the migration cycle (such as deportation) increases the individual's vulnerability and affects his integration from both a structural and sociocultural point of view, using the 2006 Migration de Retour au Maghreb (MIREM, or Return Migration to the Maghreb) survey. I found that forced returnees are more vulnerable to negative labor market outcomes compared to voluntary returnees. The absence of forced returnees from the labor market, or their underperformances, creates a net loss for the origin country and also incentives to re‐migrate. The negative effect is statistically significant not only immediately after return, but also in the long run, at survey time. Forced return is also significantly and negatively correlated with sociocultural integration, reflecting a marginalization of deported migrants in their home environment, which may act as a re‐emigration incentive.     

Alcohol use and strenuous physical activity in college students: A longitudinal test of 2 explanatory models of health behavior

Objective: To help clarify the effect of gender on the bidirectional relationship between alcohol use and strenuous physical activity in college students. Participants: Five hundred twenty-four (52% female) college students recruited in August 2008 and 2009 and followed up in April 2009 and April 2011, respectively. Methods: Participants reported their alcohol use and strenuous physical activity on 2 occasions (baseline and follow-up) spaced approximately 1 or 2 years apart. Results: For females, alcohol use quantity at baseline was associated with increased strenuous physical activity at 1- and 2-year follow-ups, and alcohol use frequency at baseline was associated with decreased strenuous physical activity at 2-year follow-up. For males, alcohol use frequency at baseline predicted decreased strenuous physical activity at 1-year follow-up. Conclusions: Gender differences may be explained from an eating disorders perspective such that women use physical activity as a compensatory strategy to combat potential weight gain from calories consumed during alcohol use.     

Racial/Ethnic Minority Vocational Research Trends: An 11‐Year Update

This study extends Flores et al.'s ( 2006 ) 36‐year analysis of racial/ethnic minority (REM) career research to identify recent trends in choice of topics and leading individual and institutional contributors. The authors identified 166 articles on REM career research published from 2005 to 2015 in the Journal of Vocational Behavior, The Career Development Quarterly, the Journal of Career Assessment, and the Journal of Career Development. Of these studies, 92% were empirical, with more than three quarters of these using quantitative rather than qualitative methodology. Most frequently, the empirical studies (n = 153) were based on samples of high school (30.7%) or undergraduate (34.6%) students. The authors discuss the implications of their findings and suggest ways to expand REM career research in the future.     

Does Revenue Diversification Predict Financial Vulnerability Among Non-governmental Organizations in sub-Saharan Africa?

Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) experience financial challenges that hinder efforts to promote social change and development. Revenue diversification is one adaptive response to these challenges, yet there is a lack of evidence concerning the relationship between revenue diversification and financial vulnerability among NGOs in SSA. Using data from an online survey of NGOs (N = 170), we hypothesized that a greater number of revenue sources is associated with lower probability of financial vulnerability, while a greater level of dependence on international funding is associated with higher probability of financial vulnerability. Results from probit regression models controlling for organizational characteristics indicated partial support for hypotheses. Having four or more types of revenue was associated with 87% lower probability of financial vulnerability compared to having one type of revenue (p < 0.001). Also, NGOs with up to half of their budgets covered by international sources had 17% lower probability of financial vulnerability compared to NGOs with no international funding (p < 0.05). Implications for future research to further explore these relationships are discussed.     

Patterns of Nonverbal Behavior Associated with Truth and Deception: Illustrations from Three Experiments

The digital age has brought with it new and powerful computer-based methods of analyzing heretofore elusive patterns of nonverbal behavior. C-BAS (Meservy 2010) is a computer-assisted behavioral observation tool for identifying and tracking nonverbal behaviors from video. THEME (Magnusson, The hidden structure of interaction: from neurons to culture patterns, IOS Press, Amsterdam, pp 4–22, 2005) is a software program that discovers patterns among discrete events in time-ordered data. Together, these tools enable more precise measurement and analysis of nonverbal behavioral dynamics. Applications to three corpora derived from interpersonal deception experiments reveal unique nonverbal patterns that distinguish deceptive from nondeceptive interactions. The first and second experiments produced serial, hierarchically related patterns of behaviors that differed in length and complexity between truthful and deceptive participants during interviews about a theft and cheating, respectively. The third experiment produced differential patterns by and among group members completing a task. Deceivers were inclined toward strategic initiations and interactional control, whereas suspicious group members adopted a more passive, possibly watchful stance. Discovery of these patterns challenges the prevailing view that nonverbal behaviors are too faint and inconsistent to identify deceptive communication. Results have numerous implications regarding the following: the development of new measurement tools locating significant effects of nonverbal behaviors, support for theory that coherent and repetitive relationships exist within and among interactants’ communication, demonstration of the role of nonverbal behaviors in deceptive communication and the dynamic and strategic nature of deception.     

Influential factors in the choice of public transportation or cars as the mode of transportation in habitual commutes / Factores que influyen en la elección del transporte público o el automóvil como modo de transporte en los desplazamientos habituales

The goal of this study is to analyse the differences in attitudes towards habitual modes of transportation among users of public and private transportation. The explanatory capacity of attitudes when determining the mode choice, along with the structural and sociodemographic factors, are also verified. The study was performed in three Spanish cities with 742 participants. The results revealed that cars are better rated than public modes of transportation in the attributes associated with immediate advantages (i.e., speed and availability) and convenience. Subways are highly rated in both immediate and deferred advantages (environment, safety, cost and health). Buses are the mode rated the lowest of the three. Using logistic regression, it was verified that the variance explained by a model that includes attitudes (R² = .639) is higher than the variance explained by a model based solely on variables related to infrastructures (R² = .489). The discussion of these results includes proposals aimed at decreasing car use.