Pilot test of a home-based program to prevent perceived insufficient milk

Problem

Although the World Health Organization and American Academy of Pediatrics recommend exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months, only 22% of U.S. mothers do so. Mothers’ perceived insufficient milk (PIM) is the primary reason for breastfeeding discontinuation globally. There are two changeable causes of PIM: (1) mothers’ misinterpretation of their infant’s behavior, and (2) mothers’ lack of confidence in their ability to breastfeed.

“We thought it would be easy”: recruitment challenges,successes and best practices for low-income couple populations

Recruitment challenges present ongoing struggles for social science professionals. Especially problematic are recruiting endeavors when target populations are highly stressed, highly mobile, and are comprised of couples rather than individuals. Included in this study is a rationale supporting the need to study recruitment challenges coupled with a literature review discussing recent recruitment research summaries. Based upon a Delphi-type discussion with couples relationship education (CRE) experts, our team constructed a qualitative study to examine recruitment challenges in low-income CRE programs. Fourteen interviews were conducted with “successful” program leaders identified by federal regional managers within the Administration for Children and Families (ACF). Data were analyzed, and results detailing four main “challenge” themes, four “success” themes, and a seven-step best practice model are presented.     

Social Action Research and the Commission on Community Interrelations

The Commission on Community Interrelations (CCI) was officially launched in 1945 by the American Jewish Congress (AJC) with Kurt Lewin as its chief consultant. Its intent was to bring research to bear on religious and racial discrimination. Espousing the ideals of democratic social engineering, CCI's action research projects aimed for scientific credibility and social utility. This article examines CCI's development from 1944 to 1952. By the early 1950s, changes within the AJC and in local communities and increased legal and mass protest strategies for racial justice as well as changes within social psychology as a subdiscipline challenged the viability of CCI's action research programs.     

Talking about work stress: Discourse analysis and implications for stress interventions

This study used discourse analysis to explore the way in which employees understand work stress. Twenty-two female clerical workers in a Canadian city participated in focus group meetings where they talked about and made sense of their experiences of work stress. The women's accounts were analysed using discourse analysis methods (i.e. an examination of how talk is constructed). The findings revealed that talking about being stressed provides a socially acceptable way of expressing discomfort and regaining a sense of importance that is lost through feeling under-valued and under-appreciated in the organization. In contrast, admitting to being unable to cope with stress was considered to be 'abnormal'. The stress discourse fosters a sense of helplessness and ambiguity by not acknowledging external influences on clerical workers' experiences, such as their place within the power structure of the organization, and by limiting their sense of agency and control over problems experienced at work. The implications of these findings for organizational culture and interventions are discussed. For example, employers are encouraged to be conscious of the messages being sent to employees about how negative emotions or distressing experiences at work are to be addressed (i.e. how 'stress' is to be managed). Recommendations are made for future research using discourse analysis, such as the examination of alternative discourses that aim to improve conditions at work.     

幸运却无法幸福的倔强骨头

“我将以我的命运爱你”，这曾经是我的爱情信条，因为在我看来，没有一种生活会比与人同甘苦、共命运更为崇高、更有价值。但现在发现，我只能以我的命运爱自己，只能与我自己共命运。     

Gender roles,marriage, and residential independence

This article examines the effects of gender role attitudes on leaving home for marriage and for unmarried independence among young men and women in the United States in the 1980s. The choice to leave home for unmarried independence is associated with two major changes in family relationships: the shift in parent-child interaction from a traditional emphasis on children's obedience toward a greater stress on independence, and the shift toward more egalitarian definitions of gender roles in both work and family spheres. We ask the following: What is the effect of holding more modern gender role attitudes on gender differences in leaving home for marriage? Does holding more modern gender role attitudes influence patterns of leaving home for marriage and for unmarried independence differently for men and women? We examine these questions with data from sophomores in the High School and Beyond Survey.     

The ‘Feminization’ of Management? Issues of ‘Sameness’ and ‘Difference’ in the Roles and Experiences of Female and Male Retail Managers

Explanations of women’s poor representation in senior management usually emphasize differences between women and men managers’ experiences, circumstances and aspirations, and the gendered character of organizational structures and processes. Whilst these may all disadvantage women, some writers have suggested recently that women managers may differ in style and orientation in ways particularly appropriate for today’s developing organizations. This paper explores issues of ‘sameness’ and ‘difference’ between women and men managers in retailing. Whilst both male and female store managers wanted to downplay gender differences and adopt a ‘gender neutral’ approach, they also associated a number of advantages and disadvantages with being a woman manager in certain contexts. Rapid sectoral change had caused companies to reassess the desired attributes and competences of managers; associated both with an enhanced valuing of ‘feminine’ qualities and with a more ‘objective’ and ‘clinical’ approach to assessment. Despite their equal numbers at entry points women remained poorly represented at senior levels, suggesting that subjective and informal processes were important determinants of women and men’s progress. Given management is inherently a process enacted by individual managers within a social context the extent to which it can be conceived in gender neutral terms is questioned since individuals are inevitably discussed and identified in terms of their gender.