Social networks,stress and child abuse

The study investigated the relationship between situational stress, strength of informal social networks and maternal child abuse. Structured interviews were conducted with 41 abusive mothers and 59 non-abusing mothers using an author-developed instrument to measure social network strength and situational stress. Abusing mothers, on the average, reported significantly weaker, less supportive informal social networks than the non-abusing mothers. Both the neighbor-friend networks and the kinship networks of the non-abusing mothers were found to be stronger than those of the abusing mothers. The data also supported the positive association of situational stress with child abuse. Both situational stress and strength of social network proved to be significant predictors of abuse. The findings supported the hypothesized mediating effect of strong social networks upon the relationship between situational stress and child abuse. Mothers living in highly stressful life situations who reported strong social networks were less likely to be abusers than mothers living in high stress situations who reported weak social networks. The mediating functions of social networks are proposed, and the implications of the findings for interventions with high risk parents to prevent child abuse are discussed.     

Measuring housing and environmental quality as indicator of quality of urban life: A case of traditional city of Benin,Nigeria

Using objectively derived criteria from Nigerian 1959 Town Planning Act, the National Council on Housing definition of standard housing and Oredo Local Authority Building and Adoptive Bye-Laws, this study measured the quality of housing in the three major areas of structural materials, internal unit facilities provided and environmental or neighbourhood amenities/facilities. The computations showed that deficiencies were greatest in the neighbourhood, internal facilities and structural materials in that order. Quality showed a lapse rate from the core to the periphery and from high to low income areas. The QOL measurement showed that to the respondents the quality of the city housing detracts from their quality of living. Policy and planning implications of the findings were discussed.     

Sexuality,Technology, and Sexual Scandal in The Good Wife

Inspired by the CBS drama The Good Wife, this article explores sexuality, new media, and scandal in contemporary American culture. Focusing on real life sex scandals as well as those fictionalized on the show, it argues that sexuality is lived and experienced in mediated terms. The Good Wife focalizes these understandings by concentrating on the experiences of the wronged wife, yet at the same time pushes back against the notion that sexual publicity can arrive at a “truth” of sex, using a literal language of negation and a visual language of barriers and blockages in order to make this case. By emphasizing the enigmatic qualities of personal desire and sexual exchange, The Good Wife reformulates silence as a strategy, transmuting it into an ethos of deliberate unknowability.     

Police Budgeting: Using Overtime as a Management Tool

Public Organization Review - Following the death of George Floyd, there were national calls for budget reductions and reforms for police departments. The City of San Jose’s Auditor’s...     

Reactions to the O. J. Simpson Verdict: "Mindless Tribalism" or Motivated Inference Processes?

The difference in opinion between White Americans and Black Americans as to whether O. J. Simpson is guilty of murder can be understood within the context of the literature on motivated inference. Both self-serving and group-serving motives can lead to bias in how people gather, interpret, and integrate evidence. The current study revealed that the relative salience of race and gender in women's self-concepts (measured by the Twenty Statements Test) was associated with different beliefs about Simpson's innocence or guilt. Although Black women were more likely than White women to believe that Simpson was not guilty, this was more true for Black women who spontaneously self-identified in terms of race. Similarly, when gender was an accessible aspect of identity, women were more likely to believe that Simpson was guilty. High need for cognition (i.e., the tendency to engage in effortful cognitive activity) actually magnified some of these differences.