Effects of Corporate Support of a Charity on Public Perceptions of the Charity

A quasi-experimental design (N = 517) was used to investigate the effect on audience response to a supported charity if corporate support is featured in an advertisement. The results indicate that corporate support of a charity appears not to influence audience attitudes and donation intentions for the charity. A small portion of the audience may be motivated to donate when learning of a large corporate donation to the charity. The level of individuals’ favorability for the charity was the strongest predictor of their attitudes and intentions. Gender was also a predictor of more positive charity attitudes, with females reporting more positive attitudes than males for three of four charities. Managerial implications and areas for future research are discussed.     

Changes in negative attributions during couple therapy for abusive behavior: relations to changes in satisfaction and behavior

This study examined effects of cognitive-behavioral couple therapy (n = 25 couples) and a variety of systems-oriented couple therapy models (n = 30 couples) in reducing negative attributions and degrees to which decreases in negative attributions were associated with improvements in other aspects of relationship functioning. Couples seeking treatment at a university clinic and experiencing psychological and/or mild-to-moderate physical abuse completed 10 weekly sessions. Attributions, relationship satisfaction, psychological abuse, communication, and negotiation were assessed before and after treatment. Women and men in both treatments exhibited decreased negative attributions, which moderated increases in satisfaction and decreases in negative communication, as well as increases in positive communication for men. The findings reinforce the importance of modifying negative attributions when intervening to reduce abuse.     

Gambling in Australian Indigenous communities: the state of play

Gambling has both positive aspects and negative effects for Australian Indigenous gamblers and families. While traditional card games organised by the communities themselves have been found to have important social value, there is increasing evidence that commercial gambling such as gaming machines (‘pokies‘), casinos and TAB betting has a range of far‐reaching negative social and economic consequences for Indigenous population groups. However an understanding of participation by Indigenous people in contemporary gambling is still undeveloped and is dominated by western concepts. The cultural distinctiveness and complexity of Indigenous Australia create profound conceptual and methodological difficulties with the potential to distort the research process and outcomes, as well as policy solutions. The current lack of understanding also impacts on the cultural relevance and effectiveness of service provision for Indigenous gamblers, their families and communities.     

Dialogic Pedagogy for Youth Participatory Action Research: Facilitation of an Intergroup Empowerment Program

This article describes the pedagogical and facilitation approach of a yearlong youth empowerment program that engaged a group of adolescents who were racially and socioeconomically diverse in participatory action research. Nine adolescents from inner-city neighborhoods and suburban communities across the metropolitan Detroit, Michigan, region completed a Photovoice project. As part of the project, the youth documented racial segregation to inform community-based advocacy efforts. Pedagogical principles from intergroup dialogues were used to help facilitate participants’ understanding of differences across race and socioeconomic status. The article outlines the four-stage curricular design used to organize group activities. Those stages are (1) group formation, (2) exploration of differences and commonalities, (3) discussion of controversial issues, and (4) action planning. This article illustrates how facilitation of a diverse group in participatory action research may require a dialogic approach that addresses cross-cultural differences and builds positive intergroup collaboration skills.     

Canada is #IdleNoMore: exploring dynamics of Indigenous political and civic protest in the Twitterverse

Social media have been playing a growingly important role in grassroots protest over the last five years. While many scholars have explored dynamics of political cyberprotest (e.g., the ongoing transnational Occupy movement, the 2012 Quebec student strike, the student-led protest movement in Chile between 2011 and 2013), few have studied sub-dynamics relating to ethno-cultural minorities’ uses of social media to gain visibility, mobilize support, and engage in political and civil action. We fill part of this gap in the academic literature by investigating uses of Twitter for political engagement in the context of the Canada-based Idle No More movement (INM). This ongoing protest initiative, which emerged in December 2012, seeks to mobilize Indigenous Peoples in Canada and internationally as well as their non-Indigenous allies. It does so by bringing attention to their culture, struggles, and identities as well as advocating for changes in policy areas relating to the environment, governance, and socio-economic matters. Our study explores to what extent references to aspects of Indigenous identities and culture shaped INM-related tweeting and, by extension, activism during the summer of 2013. We conducted a quantitative and qualitative content analysis of 1650 #IdleNoMore tweets shared by supporters of this movement between 3 July 2013 and 2 August 2013. Our study demonstrates that unlike other social media-intensive movements where economic and political concerns were the primary drivers of political and civil engagement, aspects of Indigenous culture influenced information flows and mobilization among #IdleNoMore tweeters.     

Dynamic relationships between children’s higher‐order regulation and lower‐order reactivity predict development of attention problems

Dual‐process theories contend that interplay between higher‐order (i.e., regulatory) and lower‐order (i.e., reactive) systems influences the development of attention in early childhood. We therefore investigated interactions between an aspect of children's top‐down self‐regulation (i.e., effortful control; EC) and positive reactivity (indexed by observed positive affectivity; PA) and negative reactivity (indicated by cortisol stress reactivity and observed fear) in predicting children's early attention problems. We found that observed EC at the age of three predicted lower attention problems 2 years later, controlling for attention problems at baseline. Importantly, the predictive effect of EC was more pronounced for children higher in cortisol stress reactivity at the age of three; this pattern was not found for observed PA or fear. Findings align with dual‐process developmental theories that emphasize the dynamics between regulatory and reactive processes in shaping child development. Our study provides the first evidence supporting dual‐process interactions in the domain of attention problems and has implications for identifying early risk markers and informing early prevention programs for children at greater risk for attention problems.     

Caregiver‐endorsed strategies to improving sexual health outcomes among foster youth

Foster youth are at an increased risk of unintended pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections (STIs) compared with peers. We conducted 11 semistructured focus groups with 86 foster and kinship caregivers in three child welfare jurisdictions to understand their strategies for monitoring and communicating with youth in foster care around sexual health topics, with the overall goal of developing a training for caregivers to reduce STI and unintended pregnancies among youth in foster care. We used thematic analysis to analyse the data. Three main themes emerged: (1) strategies to communicate with youth about sexual health (trust‐building, open/direct communication, tailoring information to each individual youth, creative conversation‐starters, and self‐education), (2) strategies for monitoring youth (e.g., tailoring monitoring to youth development/characteristics, clearly communicating rules, co‐development of rules, spending time with youth/friends/friends' parents, using technology, using a social support system), and (3) other strategies to promote positive youth development (advocating for youth, engaging youth in goal‐setting). Trainings that provide caregivers with (1) information on sexual health and normal adolescent development and (2) strategies and skills to help caregivers engage in open, evidence‐informed communication, and monitor youth in a tailored, developmentally‐informed manner are likely to improve reproductive health and other outcomes among youth in foster care.     

Linguistic indirectness in parent–preschooler reminiscing about emotion‐related events: Links with emotion regulation and psychosocial adjustment

The concept of linguistic indirectness is well established within the field of pragmatics, in which it has been observed that speakers express ideas directly and indirectly. We integrated the analysis of linguistic directness and indirectness with the examination of two established measures of parental emotion socialization through reminiscing: elaboration and emotion explanations. We examined the unique associations of parents’ direct and indirect elaboration and emotion explanations with preschoolers’ emotion regulation and psychosocial adjustment. Participants were 55 parent–preschooler dyads (31 girls, 24 boys). The dyads reminisced about positive and negative events. Conversations were coded for parental elaboration, parental use of emotion explanations, and parental linguistic directness and indirectness. Children's emotion regulation was observed during standard tasks, and teachers reported on children's psychosocial adjustment. Multivariate regressions including direct elaboration and direct emotion explanations indicated that parents who engaged in more indirect elaboration when discussing positive events had children with worse emotion regulation. Parents who used indirect emotion explanations when discussing positive events had children with better psychosocial adjustment. Parents’ indirect speech during negative event discussions was not related to child outcomes. The results suggest differential functions for indirect elaboration and indirect emotion explanations in relation to children's social outcomes, and support the utility of examining linguistic indirectness.     

A Population-Based Study of Coupling and Physical Activity by Sexual Orientation for Men

ABSTRACT

Research has suggested that men in relationships are more physically active than men who are single. This study provides a weighted analysis of physical activity by coupling status for men of different sexual orientations. Aggregated data from the United States 2013–2014 National Health Interview Survey were used to conduct multivariate logistic regression analyses. Compared to straight men (n = 29,926), gay men (n = 623) were less likely to be in a relationship (AOR 0.32, CI: 0.25–0.41). Coupled gay men did more physical activity than coupled straight men and were 1.62 (CI: 1.05–2.50) times more likely to be active, 1.67 (CI: 1.10–2.51) times more likely to be high active, 1.89 (CI: 1.24–2.89) times more likely to engage in muscle-strengthening activities, and 2.00 (CI: 1.28–3.11) times more likely to meet aerobic and muscle-strengthening recommendations. Coupling facilitates physical activity for men. However, more research is needed to help explore underlying mechanisms for differences by sexuality.     

Neighborhood Poverty and Children's Academic Skills and Behavior in Early Elementary School

Neighborhoods provide resources that may affect children's cognitive and behavioral outcomes. However, it is unclear to what degree associations between neighborhood disadvantage and outcomes persist into elementary school and whether neighborhood disadvantage interacts with household disadvantage. Using data from the 2010–2011 Early Childhood Longitudinal Study‐Kindergarten Cohort (N = 15,100 children) merged with census data from the American Community Survey, this study examines associations between neighborhood poverty and children's math, reading, and behavioral outcomes at kindergarten and first and second grades. Findings indicate that as tract‐level poverty increases, children's achievement worsens after controlling for child and family characteristics. These associations persist into second grade and are stronger for children in poor versus nonpoor households. Findings suggest that neighborhood disadvantage may contribute to poorer achievement scores, particularly among children with few household resources, but that household disadvantage and other characteristics largely explain behavioral outcomes. Research and policy implications are discussed.