The Development and Evaluation of Online Learning Modules to Deliver Lifespan Content in Human Behavior in Social Environment Courses

This article details the development and evaluation of a lifespan development computer modules that were used in human behavior in social environment courses. An anonymous, Web-based survey was developed to evaluate the modules. Supporting the first hypothesis, the majority of students (83.5%) found the modules to be a good learning alternative. The hypotheses that MSW students will experience more barriers to Web-based instruction and that students who previously mastered more content will spend less time on mobdules than students who previously mastered less content were not supported. Lessons learned provide implications for the use of computer-assisted instruction.     

“And Now I’m Just Different,but There’s Nothing Actually Wrong With Me”: Asexual Marginalization and Resistance

This article explores the relationship between contemporary asexual lives and compulsory sexuality, or the privileging of sexuality and the marginalizing of nonsexuality. Drawing on 30 in-depth interviews, I identify four ways the asexually identified individuals in this study saw themselves as affected by compulsory sexuality: pathologization, isolation, unwanted sex and relationship conflict, and the denial of epistemic authority. I also identify five ways these asexually identified individuals disrupted compulsory sexuality: adopting a language of difference and a capacity to describe asexuality; deemphasizing the importance of sexuality in human life; developing new types of nonsexual relationships; constituting asexuality as a sexual orientation or identity; and engaging in community building and outreach. I argue that some of these practices offer only a limited disruption of compulsory sexuality, but some of these practices pose a radical challenge to sexual norms by calling into question the widespread assumption that sexuality is a necessary part of human flourishing.     

The Discounted Moments of the Surplus After the Last Innovation Before Ruin Under the Dual Risk Model

□ This article's focus is on finding an explicit form of the discounted moments of the surplus at the time of the last jump before ruin for the compound Poisson dual risk model. For this purpose, we derive a non-homogeneous integro-differential equation, which is satisfied by the targeted quantity. To solve this equation, the general solution of the corresponding homogeneous equation and a particular solution of the non-homogeneous equation are obtained. Also, some additional results are provided, such as the defective distribution of the time to ruin and the Laplace transform of the time when the last jump before ruin happens.     

Reports of Conferences,Institutes, and Seminars

Five reports cover the 2009 Ohio Valley Group of Technical Services Librarians Conference, the COUNTER and Usage Data webinar, the 2009 Acquisitions Institute at Timberline Lodge, the 2009 North American Serials Interest Group Conference, and selected sessions of the 2009 annual conference of the American Library Association in Chicago, Illinois.     

An investigation of successfully treated adolescent sex offenders

Little is known about the characteristics of adolescent sex offenders who do not reoffend. Most studies emphasize reoffense rates, recidivism and those who reoffend. Moreover, these studies provide quantitative summaries without describing the individual, his behavior, and challenges after treatment. The present study seeks to provide novel information about the life experiences of adolescent sex offenders who have not reoffended after reentering society. Through a structured questionnaire and an in-depth qualitative interview, the adolescents (N = 7) provided information regarding their life experiences after treatment with an emphasis on the challenges they face in society.     

“The right to lead”: Navajo language,dis‐citizenship,and Diné presidential politics

This article examines the 2014 Navajo Nation presidential primary election and language debate as a window into the politics of Navajo heritage language and identity. Using Facebook posts written in response to a videotaped hearing testing the fluency of one of the candidates that subsequently went viral, we analyse social citizenship and stigmatized language identities through the lens of critical Diné (Navajo) language consciousness. Focusing on generational differences between speaker groups that undergirded this debate, we analyse (a) the fluency test itself and (b) online and ethnographic responses to the fluency test. Using discourse analysis of Facebook posts of both heritage language and new Navajo speakers, we show how new speakers in particular express investment in their language and Diné cultural continuity and, through their emphasis on the heterogeneity of contemporary Diné communicative practices, offer an alternative template for ways to move forward in Diné language reclamation efforts.     

Pulling ads,making apologies: Lowe's use of Facebook to communicate with stakeholders

This study examines the use of Facebook by Lowe's to reach its stakeholders after the controversial decision to pull its advertising from TLC's All-American Muslim. Through an online survey, the study gauges people's thoughts about the use of Facebook to apologize. Results showed significant differences based on age, race/ethnicity, and political affiliation regarding the use of Facebook and significant differences based on education, time spent on Facebook, political affiliation and race/ethnicity regarding the wording of Lowe's apology.     

Narrating Adoption: Resisting Adoption as “Second Best” in Online Stories of Domestic Adoption Told by Adoptive Parents

Framed in narrative theory and relational dialectics theory, one hundred online stories of domestic adoption told by adoptive parents were qualitatively analyzed, revealing four primary discourses of adoption that challenge the idea that adoption is a second-best way to parent. Narrative beginnings were dominated by a discourse of adoption as a valuable alternative to pregnancy. Narrative middles-and-ends featured two discourses of how the adoption process unfolds: adoption as a worthwhile struggle guided by destiny and adoption as a smooth and predictable process. Intertwined with these process-oriented constructions of adoption was a discourse of adoption as communal kinning, which emphasized a hybrid family form comprised of both biological and nonbiological ties.     

Virtual Shop Fronts: The Internet,Social Media,and Caribbean Civil Society Organisations

The Internet and, more recently, social media seem to promise the ability for non-state actors to more easily participate in domestic and international politics. ‘Global civil society’ can become ever more global with the help of these ‘new media’. This article uses the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) case to question the capacity of information and communication technologies (ICTs) to contribute positively to the insertion of developing country civil society organisations (CSOs) in a global civil society. Notwithstanding the possibilities that ICTs may open, Caribbean CSOs are not yet able to tap into these potentials effectively. Caribbean CSOs face resource constraints that ICTs alone may be unable to solve. However, the most significant hurdle that Caribbean CSOs face to elevating their work within global civil society is their relative powerlessness within global civil society. The article contends that this limited ability to be of influence is historically contingent and illustrates that hierarchies exist within global civil society that mirror asymmetries of power inherent in the state system.     

Evaluating Parents in Partnership: A Preliminary Study of a Child Welfare Intervention Designed to Increase Reunification

Child welfare systems struggle with how best to accomplish reunification for children who have been removed from their home due to child maltreatment. Parent mentor programs may facilitate the reunification process. In these programs, parents who have successfully reunified with their children after child welfare involvement provide support and guidance for parents currently navigating the system. The current study examines (a) whether distance was a barrier to participation in orientation of a parent mentor program (called Parents in Partnership [PIP]) for 98 parents involved with the child welfare system and (b) whether participation affected reunification outcomes for 73 parents. Logistic regression models showed parents who lived closer to the PIP orientation location were more likely to participate in the orientation. Further, parents who attended PIP orientation were 5 times more likely to reunify with their children. Parent mentor programs may be one way to increase the likelihood of reunification for families involved in the child welfare system and may increase the engagement of fathers involved with the child welfare system. Future research should examine whether participation in parent mentor programs reduces the length of time children stay in foster care in addition to increasing rates of reunification.