Parents Forever: Evaluation of an Online Divorce Education Program

Divorce education programs are conducting increasingly rigorous impact evaluations to assess if their curriculum improves parenting practices, reduces conflict in the coparenting relationship, and improves outcomes for children. This article presents a 6-month follow-up evaluation of the online version of Parents Forever, an 8-hour divorce education course developed by the University of Minnesota Extension. At follow-up, parents (N = 232) reported significant improvements on several questions about postdivorce parenting and well-being, indicating that the online version of Parents Forever is effective in promoting positive behavioral change for parents.     

THE COEFFICIENT OF CONCORDANCE AND THE Q-SORT TECHNIQUE

Under the assumption of random assignment of scores, Kendall's coefficient of concordance and its sampling distribution are applied to rectangular Q-sorts. F, normal, and chi square approximations and their limits of application are described.     

Integrative Intensive Retreats for Veteran Couples and Families: A Pilot Study Assessing Change in Relationship Adjustment,Posttraumatic Growth,and Trauma Symptoms

We assessed a brief, systemic retreat‐style intervention that was developed to address concerns about the utilization of services for veterans coping with traumatic stress. A total of 76 dyads (N = 152) were assessed before and after a 4‐day retreat, which included psychoeducation, group and conjoint therapeutic sessions, and recreational relaxation components. Overall, participants reported a reduction in trauma symptoms, but only support persons experienced a significant increase in posttraumatic growth from pretest to posttest. Both veterans and their romantic partners reported an increase in relationship adjustment after the retreat. Opportunities to address the needs of this population by removing barriers to treatment and reducing feelings of isolation, as well as implications for similar treatments are discussed.     

Changing perspectives on the insider/outsider distinction in community sociology

This article reports on a community study which explores the nature of the distinction between insiders and outsiders in contemporary community life. Although the presence of this distinction is reported in many community studies, detailed examination of how it operates in practice reveals that insider status is open to negotiation. A person's claims to be an insider may be based on other grounds besides length of residence, for example the degree of participation in local community organizations. In addition, doubts are cast on the supposition that long local residence is always positively regarded, in the light of the finding that in-migrants may associate it with parochialism. These ideas are linked to recent developments in the sociology of community that emphasize the importance of distinguishing between the different dimensions of community relationships (including the time dimension). On this basis it is argued that in-migrants should not be equated with outsiders, since their position within community relations will be influenced by several other factors, notably social class and employment status, household type, position in kinship networks, age and gender. The insider/outsider distinction is therefore more complex than is allowed in approaches that reduce it to a single dimension related to length of residence. Este articulo presenta un informe sobre una investigacion comunitaria que explora la distincion entre los de dentro ('insiders') y los de fuera ('outsiders') en la vida contemporanea comunitaria. Aunque la presencia de esta distincion se nota en muchos estudios comunitarios, un examen detenido de como se aplica en la practica revela que la condicion de 'insider' se presta a negociacion. La afirmacion de 'insider' de cualquier individuo se puede basar en otras razones ademas de por extenso de residencia, por ejemplo, el nivel de participacion en organizaciones comunitarias de la localidad. Ademas se pone en duda la suposicion que la residencia extensa en la localidad siempre se mira bien, ya que 'in-migrants (los que entran) la pueden asociar con el provincianismo. Estos ideas se relacionan con recientes desarrollos en la sociologia de la comunidad que ponen enfasis en la importancia de disinguir entre las diferentes dimensiones de relaciones communitarias (incluyendo la dimension temporal). Asi se sostiene que los 'in-migrants' no deben ser equiparados con los 'outsiders' ya que su posicion dentro de las relaciones comunitarias se vera influida de varios otros factores, en particular clase social, estado laboral, categoria de hogar, posicion en las redes de parentesco, edad y sexo. Por lo tanto, la distincion 'insider-outsider' es mas compleja que lo que permiten considerar los enfoques que la reducen a una sola dimension relacionda a duracion de residencia.     

Comparing Service Use of Early Head Start Families of Children With and Without Disabilities

The current study compared patterns of service utilization reported by Early Head Start (EHS) families of children with and without disabilities by secondary analysis of data from the longitudinal investigation of the effectiveness of EHS. Findings reveal comparable positive trends for both groups of families for receipt of services corresponding to EHS performance standards promoting child and family development, family support, and health care. Service challenges remain in the low use of dental services overall and the higher use of acute health care services for children with disabilities. Future research should examine causes and outcomes of service use.     

From Damsels in Distress to Sexy Superheroes

Video games are an important form of media that have the potential to impact gender role attitudes. Sexist portrayals of characters may affect gender behaviors and attitudes. As such, it is important to discover how characters, particularly females, are portrayed in video games. The current study examined video game magazines analyzing the portrayal of female video game characters and how this portrayal has changed in the last twenty years. Results indicate a growing trend toward a decreased benevolent sexism portrayal and an increase in a hostile sexism portrayal over time.     

Organisational leadership and/for sustainability: Future directions from John Dewey and social movements

In this paper, we suggest that organisational leadership that is based (generally) on a neoliberal paradigm has contributed to an ‘intolerable situation’ that was recognised at the United Nations (2015a) Paris Agreement on Climate Change. We, therefore, attempt to re-frame organisational leadership based on a sustainability paradigm. In doing so, we draw on John Dewey’s thinking on publics: due to the need for greater stakeholder involvement in identifying how sustainability could be achieved and increasing pressure from governments, campaigning groups and public opinion for organisations to expand their boundaries further to interact with, and take seriously, the needs of the communities that they affect. Then―and for the implementation of this re-frame and cognizant of the community requirement―we will offer that guidance may be drawn from the emerging social movements literature, specifically the importance of narration, mobilisation and organisation. Finally, we present a revised framework for organisational leadership that is based on this sustainability paradigm.     

Role stress among physician executives

On the one hand, physician executives are clinicians who place value on professional autonomy. As clinicians, the best interests of the patient drive their decision making and their value system. On the other hand, as managers, physician executives serve as agents of an organization. Because of the differences in the two cultures, some physicians have called the physician executive position a "no man's land" To address these issues and answer the questions that surround them, the authors developed a survey that was mailed to a random sample of the membership of the American College of Physician Executives. Parts of the survey served in other studies of role conflict and role ambiguity. Parts of the survey are new, developed specifically to analyze the physician executive role. The findings are reported in this article.