Health benefits of volunteering in the Wisconsin longitudinal study

We investigate positive effects of volunteering on psychological well-being and self-reported health using all four waves of the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study. Confirming previous research, volunteering was positively related to both outcome variables. Both consistency of volunteering over time and diversity of participation are significantly related to well-being and self-reported health. The relationship of volunteering to psychological well-being was moderated by level of social integration, such that those who were less well integrated benefited the most. Mattering appears to mediate the link between volunteering and wellbeing. Controls for other forms of social participation and for the predictors of volunteering are employed in analyses of well-being in 1992. We find volunteering effects on psychological well-being in 2004, controlling for 1992 wellbeing, thus providing strong evidence for a causal effect.     

The Roles of Parenting Styles and Social Capital in the School Performance of Immigrant Asian and Hispanic Adolescents*

Objective. This study investigates the role of parenting styles and social capital (parental involvement, intergenerational closure, expectation, and trust) in accounting for school performance among ethnic groups and across immigrant generations. Methods. Using data from the Adolescent Health Survey, we estimate fixed‐effects models to analyze students' grade‐point averages. We compare three generations of Asian students and three generations of Hispanic students to the third‐generation (native born with native parents) white students. Results. We find significant differences by both race/ethnicity and generational status in parenting styles and forms of social capital. However, while family socioeconomic status (SES) accounts for the achievement gap between foreign‐born Hispanic and the third‐generation white students, parenting styles and forms of social capital do not moderate any ethnic‐generational differences. Conclusions. Family influences, apart from SES, cannot explain ethnicity‐generation differences in school grades among Hispanic and Asian adolescents. This study provides conceptual clarification and empirical evidence for the significant but independent association between students' school grades and parenting styles on the one hand, and social capital on the other.     

Psychometric Evaluation of the Affect Regulation Checklist: Clinical and Community Samples,Parent-Reports and Youth Self-Reports

The Affect Regulation Checklist (ARC) was designed to capture affect dysregulation, suppression, and reflection. Importantly, affect dysregulation has been established as a transdiagnostic mechanism underpinning many forms of psychopathology. We tested the ARC psychometric properties across clinical and community samples and through both parent-report and youth self-report information. Clinical sample: Participants included parents (n = 814; M_age = 43.86) and their child (n = 608; M_age = 13.98). Community sample: Participants included independent samples of parents (n = 578; M_age = 45.12) and youth (n = 809; M_age = 15.67). Exploratory structural equation modeling supported a three-factor structure across samples and informants. Dysregulation was positively associated with all forms of psychopathology. In general, suppression was positively associated with many forms of psychopathology, and reflection was negatively associated with externalizing problems and positively associated with internalizing problems.     

Explaining Variations in the Nonprofit Founding Process

Although the organizational founding process is subject to various isomorphic pressures, significant variation is still found in the completion, ordering, and timing of founding events. Prior research on entrepreneurship suggests the importance of education and previous experience in determining who is best positioned to recognize entrepreneurial opportunities, which may explain some of the variation in the founding process. In this article the authors present an analysis of an original survey of recently founded religious nonprofits to better understand how founder, organizational, and contextual characteristics influence the founding process in this specific nonprofit context. Overall, the authors’ findings show that founder education and experience particularly affect the founding process as well as organizational characteristics; however, these effects vary across different dimensions of this process.     

Women's expectations and experiences with labour pain in medical and midwifery models of birth in the United States

BackgroundThis research focuses on how women understand and experience labour as related to two competing views of childbirth pain. The biomedical view is that labour pain is abnormal and anaesthesia/analgesia use is encouraged to relieve the pain. The midwifery view is that pain is a normal part of labour that should be worked with instead of against.AimsTo determine differences in the preparation for and experiences with labour pain by women choosing midwives versus obstetricians.MethodsPrenatal and postpartum in-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with a convenience sample of 80 women in Florida (United States): 40 who had chosen an obstetrician and 40 who had chosen a licensed midwife as their birth practitioner.FindingsWomen in both groups were concerned with the pain of childbirth before and after their labour experiences. Women choosing midwives discussed preparing for pain through various non-pharmaceutical coping methods, while women choosing physicians discussed pharmaceutical and non-pharmaceutical pain relief.ConclusionsEqual numbers of women expressed concerns with childbirth pain during the prenatal interviews, while more women choosing doctors spoke about pain after their births. Women had negative experiences when their planned pain relief method, either natural or medical, did not occur. The quandary facing women when it comes to labour pain relief is not choosing what they desire, but rather preparing themselves for the possibility that they may have to accept alternatives to their original preferences.     

Binary Mixtures of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons Display Nonadditive Mixture Interactions in an In Vitro Liver Cell Model

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) have been labeled contaminants of concern due to their carcinogenic potential, insufficient toxicological data, environmental ubiquity, and inconsistencies in the composition of environmental mixtures. The Environmental Protection Agency is reevaluating current methods for assessing the toxicity of PAHs, including the assumption of toxic additivity in mixtures. This study was aimed at testing mixture interactions through in vitro cell culture experimentation, and modeling the toxicity using quantitative structure‐activity relationships (QSAR). Clone‐9 rat liver cells were used to analyze cellular proliferation, viability, and genotoxicity of 15 PAHs in single doses and binary mixtures. Tests revealed that many mixtures have nonadditive toxicity, but display varying mixture effects depending on the mixture composition. Many mixtures displayed antagonism, similar to other published studies. QSARs were then developed using the genetic function approximation algorithm to predict toxic activity both in single PAH congeners and in binary mixtures. Effective concentrations inhibiting 50% of the cell populations were modeled, with R² = 0.90, 0.99, and 0.84, respectively. The QSAR mixture algorithms were then adjusted to account for the observed mixture interactions as well as the mixture composition (ratios) to assess the feasibility of QSARs for mixtures. Based on these results, toxic addition is improbable and therefore environmental PAH mixtures are likely to see nonadditive responses when complex interactions occur between components. Furthermore, QSAR may be a useful tool to help bridge these data gaps surrounding the assessment of human health risks that are associated with PAH exposures.     

Network Positions and the Probability of Being Acquired: An Empirical Analysis in the Biopharmaceutical Industry

This paper examines the relationship between the firm's direct ties, its inter‐firm network prominence and its likelihood of being acquired. The authors argue that firm's direct ties and prominence enhance the firm's visibility and signal its quality – and thus foster the firm's likelihood of being acquired. However, higher levels of direct ties and prominence, by providing access to resources and the firm's status, respectively, increase the firm's ability to remain independent and thus reduce its likelihood of being acquired. Thus, the authors posit the overall relation as an inverted U‐shaped. Furthermore, they show that, for firms that undergo an initial public offering, the aforementioned relation becomes much weaker. The hypotheses are empirically tested in the biopharmaceutical industry and important theoretical and managerial implications are discussed.     

The Role of Technology on Young Adolescent Development: Implications for Policy, Research and Practice

This National Science Foundation funded qualitative study highlights unique features of adolescent technology use and its impact on the developmental maturational processes of early adolescence. One hundred twenty-eight 13- and 14-year-old students were interviewed about their information technology (IT) use. The most salient feature of the interview data is that the students perceived technology as integral to all aspects of their everyday life experience. In particular, they understood the necessity of using technology for the development of their cognitive/academic skills, and they spoke about the need to have technology skills for their future careers. They also seemed to understand how IT helped them develop psychosocially, especially in the areas of communication and relationship development. Throughout the interviews, these young adolescents expressed pleasure and pride in their self-reported high level of technoliteracy. Their voices can help expand our understanding of adolescent development in the digital age, and suggest implications for policy, practice, and research.     

The evolutionary diversity of urban forests depends on their land-use history

Urban Ecosystems - Urbanization leads to strong modifications of landscape structure and ecosystem functioning, and urban areas are spreading rapidly. The aim of this study was to investigate how...