Most and Least Meaningful Learning Experiences in Marriage and Family Therapy Education

Marriage and family therapy educators increasingly emphasize training competencies. What we know less about is what makes family therapy education meaningful to marriage and family therapy (MFT) graduate students and what does not. In this study, through an Internet survey, we explored the most and least meaningful learning experiences of 68 MFT graduate students and recent graduates of Commission on Accreditation for Marriage and Family Therapy Education—accredited programs. We used thematic analysis to identify and illustrate resulting themes, which included the importance of experiential and personal components to learning, the professor‐student alliance, tying theory to practice, and the experiences of students with their clients, among others. We discuss the implications of these findings to support family therapy education and offer tentative suggestions for formative discussions both within and across programs. Video Abstract is found in the online version of the article .     

Value‐enhancing Learning from Industry‐wide Diversification Experience

Diversification is an important strategic decision and a rare event. By definition, when undertaking a new diversification, a firm will not have direct internal experience of the venture. In this regard, external experience of similar diversifications provides a valuable lesson pool for the focal manager. While there are many studies of internal learning in organizational learning literature, research on external learning is still scarce. This paper proposes a theoretical framework for external experiential learning and applies it to a study of the effect of industry experience on diversification value. It reports the novel finding of a cubic relationship between external learning from industry experience and diversification value. This indicates that industry experience matters to the outcomes of strategic decisions, but that the effect of this external experience on learning is conditional upon certain characteristics of the experience: namely, specificity and heterogeneity.     

Cognitive Cultural Intelligence and Life Satisfaction of Migrant Workers: The Roles of Career Engagement and Social Injustice

This paper examines the mediating effect of career engagement on the relationship between cognitive cultural intelligence (CQ) and life satisfaction among international migrant workers in Australia. It also examines the moderating effect of perceived social injustice on the cognitive CQ–career engagement relationship, as well as on the indirect cognitive CQ–life satisfaction relationship via career engagement. Using survey data from four hundred and sixty-two migrant workers in Australia, it was found that cognitive CQ was positively related to life satisfaction and that career engagement mediated this relationship. Social injustice moderated the impact of cognitive CQ on career engagement such that the impact was stronger among those perceiving a higher rather than a lower level of social injustice. Furthermore, the indirect effect of cognitive CQ on life satisfaction via career engagement was also stronger for those perceiving higher social injustice. These findings provide new insights regarding the antecedents of life satisfaction as well as reveal a vocationally relevant mechanism underlying the relationship between cognitive CQ and life satisfaction. The results inform potential practical strategies to enhance the career progression and life satisfaction of international migrant workers.     

Layer Sampling

Layer sampling is an algorithm for generating variates from a non-normalized multidimensional distribution p( · ). It empirically constructs a majorizing function for p( · ) from a sequence of layers. The method first selects a layer based on the previous variate. Next, a sample is drawn from the selected layer, using a method such as Rejection Sampling. Layer sampling is regenerative. At regeneration times, the layers may be adapted to increase mixing of the Markov chain. Layer sampling may also be used to estimate arbitrary integrals, including normalizing constants.     

Extramarital Sex Among Vietnamese Married Men: Results of a Survey in Urban and Rural Areas of Northern and Southern Vietnam

Research on extramarital sex (EMS) is commonly conducted from a perspective that implicitly understands this behavior as a violation of the marital relationship. In contrast, Vietnamese cultural norms have, at some points in history, condoned if not outright encouraged EMS in the name of preserving family lineage. Yet little is known about the prevalence of EMS among contemporary Vietnamese men and its association with marriage quality. This is a notable gap, given the enormous sociocultural and ideological shifts the country has experienced over the past several decades. Drawing upon a sample of 126 married men (Mean age = 45.56; SD = 10.52) surveyed in urban (Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City) and rural areas (Ha Tay and Can Tho) in Vietnam, we examined the relationship between EMS and geographic region, demographic characteristics, sexual values, quality of marriage, and sexual satisfaction within marriage. Our results show that geographic location had a strong impact on EMS, while most marital relationship quality variables did not impact the odds of EMS for married men in Vietnam.     

The Cultural Context of Nondisclosure of Alcohol-Involved Acquaintance Rape Among Asian American College Women: A Qualitative Study

With high college enrollment and increasing alcohol use, Asian American (AA) college women may be at particular risk for experiencing alcohol-involved acquaintance rape. Although AA women have expressed the weakest intentions to report rape when compared to other ethnic groups, cultural factors influencing these intentions remain unexamined. Guided by grounded theory, 17 self-identified AA college women were interviewed about how the average AA college woman would respond to an alcohol-involved acquaintance rape. Despite awareness of benefits of disclosing rape, participants emphasized that nondisclosure would be the normative response. Three themes emerged from participants: institutional, sociocultural, and psychological contexts of nondisclosure. At an institutional level, nondisclosure referenced mental health and police services, which included Asian stereotypes and mistrust of police. Within a sociocultural context, rape nondisclosure focused on negative consequences on relationships with parents and, to a lesser extent, on friendships. Emotional avoidance and not labeling an acquaintance rape as rape were psychological strategies for rape nondisclosure. Participant's conceptualizations of mental and physical health concerns, specifically post-rape concerns, were framed within sociocultural/macrostructural contexts and may not match that of the more individualistic U.S. mainstream conceptualizations of health. Culturally sensitive rape education may be more effective in increasing rape prevention and support.     

What teachers say about addressing culture in their EFL teaching practices: the Vietnamese context

This paper examines Vietnamese EFL teachers’ beliefs about the role of culture in language teaching. It also considers how they address culture in their teaching practices in a Vietnamese university. Ethnographic data collected from semi-structured interviews indicated that opportunities for culture to find its way into EFL classroom activities were still limited. Priority was given to teaching language knowledge and skills, while culture played a minor role only.     

Regenerative Markov Chain Importance Sampling

We introduce Markov Chain Importance Sampling (MCIS), which combines importance sampling (IS) and Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) to estimate some characteristics of a non-normalized multi-dimensional distribution. Especially, we introduce some importance functions whose variates are regeneratively generated by MCMC; these variates then are used to estimate the quantity of interest through IS. Because MCIS is regenerative, it overcomes the burn-in problem associated with MCMC. It could also speed up the mixing rate in MCMC.