Appreciating Living Well in Two Rural Nova Scotian Communities

This article employs appreciative inquiry to investigate factors that mediate or foster rural well-being in Tatamagouche and Advocate Harbour, Nova Scotia. Study participants identified many factors involved in bolstering well-being: community engagement, an appreciation of the natural magnificence, vibrant arts and culture, citizen efficacy, and a sense of shared responsibility. They also included environmental sustainability, healthy lifestyles, self-sufficiency, being hospitable, compassionate, and responsible citizens with playful and grateful spirits. Further study is needed to substantiate the factors that could help mediate rural well-being.     

Household adversity and food security: The case of youth in public housing neighborhoods

This paper sets out to explore factors that may be associated with food hardship among young people who reside in public housing (N?=?124). The study is guided by Family Stress Theory and uses data from a cross-sectional study of African–American adolescents living in a public housing neighborhood located in West Baltimore. Results suggest that food security (defined as availability, accessibility, and adequacy) was negatively related to mother’s incarceration, large households, household experiencing material hardships, and interpersonal conflict as well as violence. It was also linked to community disorganization. Program and policy implications are suggested.     

Adopting a financial capability and asset-building curriculum at historically Black colleges and universities

ABSTRACT

Social workers currently engage in financial capability practice with low-income and financially vulnerable individuals and families in diverse practice settings, but typically lack professional preparation for this work. In response, several schools of social work have begun adopting financial capability curricula. Using an in-depth interview methodology, this study examines the adoption of a curriculum in financial capability and asset building (FCAB) from the perspectives of faculty and administrators (N = 19) at four historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs). Findings show that key reasons for curriculum adoption are prior working relationships and trust, relevance of FCAB content to student and community needs, and alignment with program, institutional, and professional goals. Using the diffusion of innovation theory to understand curriculum adoption in HBCUs suggests that perhaps trust and relationship building are particularly important in the case of minority serving institutions.     

Are interventions supporting separated parents father inclusive? Insights and challenges from a review of programme implementation and impact

This paper reviews divorce‐related parenting programmes, assessing the extent to which fathers are included and whether father inclusion influences outcomes. The paper also discusses limitations of the research evidence and implications for future intervention and evaluation design. Thirteen programmes met the criteria in the review period 2005–2012 but only four had been evaluated using randomized control trials or with independent measures from mothers and fathers. Analysis of these four programmes shows modest evidence of reduced couple‐conflict, improved coparenting and some evidence of improved child outcomes. Key issues raised are the need for improving the quantity and quality of demographic data about fathers; the importance of incorporating analysis by gender of parent into evaluation design and the value of developing and routinely using father‐related indicators to measure programme impact on men's parenting, fathering and co‐parental relationships.     

A Bionian Reading of the Mother in Anne Enright’s The Green Road

ABSTRACT

Anne Enright’s The Green Road (2015a) centers on the mother, Rosaleen. When she leaves her children and her home in the West of Ireland to walk the Green Road, Rosaleen asks herself, “Where did it begin?,” which is “more a cadence than a question” (p. 259). Her journey echoes that described by Wilfred Bion, with reference to Samuel Taylor Coleridge: “like one that on a lonesome road, doth walk in fear and dread” (Bion, 1970, p. 46). Rosaleen is attempting to escape the feeling that she does not exist. As she travels, reality gives way to fantasy as time and space appear to merge. Eventually, she is frightened to turn back because “she had fallen into the gap” (Enright, 2015a, p. 266). This may be read as the emotional state of transformation in O. Bion (1970, p. 43) exhorts us to forget what we think we know: memory, desire, and understanding. Applying this to a consideration of Rosaleen, whose children know her by so many names (“Mammy,” “Mama,” “Ma,” “Rosaleen,” and “Dark Rosaleen”), provides for an exploration, alongside Rosaleen, not of who she was in the past or who we might wish her to be but beyond preconceived ideas of Irish motherhood to a place where new meaning may emerge.     

Age-Friendly Portland: A University-City-Community Partnership

This article addresses the question of how creating an age-friendly city has come to be an important policy and planning issue in Portland, Oregon. In 2006, researchers from Portland State University's Institute on Aging examined the meanings of age friendliness among a broad range of participants in Portland, Oregon. The research was conducted in conjunction with the World Health Organization's (WHO) Age-Friendly Cities project and followed the completion of two earlier non–WHO-related projects. The city of Portland, through the Institute on Aging, was one of nine original members to apply for and be accepted into the WHO Global Network of Age-Friendly Cities and Communities. An Age-Friendly Portland Advisory Council was formed to guide the development of an action plan, monitor progress over time, and suggest additional research. To understand how Portland's age-friendly policy effort has developed over time, we use Kingdon's (1984) agenda-setting framework to explain how the policy problem was formulated, how solutions were developed, and the influence of local politics. The policy actors, including individuals and organizations working within and outside of government, are described. The Portland experience provides a case study that other cities, especially those with a strong commitment to community-engaged urban planning, may find useful as they develop age-friendly initiatives.     

Cross-national comparisons of college students' attitudes toward diet/fitness apps on smartphones

Objective: Based on the technology acceptance model (TAM), we explored the nationally-bounded roles of four predictors (subjective norms, entertainment, recordability, and networkability) in determining the TAM variables of perceived usefulness (PU), perceived ease of use (PEOU), and behavioral intention (BI) to use diet/fitness apps on smartphones. Participants/methods: College students in the US and South Korea were invited to participate in a survey. We obtained 508 questionnaires (304 from the US and 204 from Korea). Data were analyzed mainly through path analysis. Results: The four factors positively predicted the PU and PEOU of diet/fitness apps. While the effects of the predictors on the three TAM components were generally stronger among the US students than Korean students, the effect of subjective norms on the BI of diet/fitness apps was weaker among Korean students. Conclusion: Findings from the cross-national comparisons were helpful for thoroughly understanding the contextualized mechanisms involved in the adoption of diet/fitness apps.     

What Behaviors Do Young Heterosexual Australians See in Pornography? A Cross-Sectional Study

This study investigated how frequently a group of young heterosexual Australians (ages 15 to 29) saw a range of behaviors represented in pornography over the previous 12 months. Participants were recruited to an anonymous online survey. Those who reported having viewed pornography in the past 12 months (n = 517) indicated how frequently they saw each of a list of 17 behaviors when they watched pornography in the past 12 months. Men’s pleasure (83%) was seen frequently by the highest proportion of young people surveyed, followed by a man being portrayed as dominant (70%). Women were more likely to report frequently seeing violence toward a woman (p < 0.01). Men were more likely to report frequently seeing heterosexual anal sex (p < 0.01), ejaculation onto a woman’s face (p < 0.01), women portrayed as dominant (p < 0.01), a man being called names or slurs (p < 0.01), and violence toward a man that appears consensual (p < 0.01). Younger age was significantly associated with frequently seeing women’s pleasure (p < 0.05), violence toward women which appeared consensual, and all types of violence (p < 0.01). Older age was associated with frequently seeing men’s pleasure (p < 0.01) and heterosexual anal sex (p < 0.05). Our findings draw attention to the gendered ways that behaviors in pornography are seen and identified by young heterosexual audiences.     

Neighborhood Priority or Desegregation Plans? A Spatial Analysis of Voting on San Francisco’s Student Assignment System

In 2011, San Francisco held an unprecedented citywide vote on its public schools’ student assignment policy. Proposition H provides a unique opportunity to learn more about the public’s desire for “neighborhood schools,” as compared to their interest in maintaining districtwide desegregation efforts. This paper takes the approach of applying geographic information system tools and regression analysis to understand the relationships between neighborhood, race, income, and attitudes toward student assignment systems. By comparing the election results with demographics and school quality data, we identify patterns of support for the narrowly defeated proposition. Support for a shift toward neighborhood-based schools was higher in census tracts with high-performing schools, more school age children, high median income, or a large fraction of foreign-born residents, and lower in tracts with a high percentage of Latinos. The shifting race- and class-based politics of the city foreshadow expected demographic shifts in the US.     

Cross-Consortial Collaboration: Expanding Capacity for Law Libraries

ABSTRACT

In our digital information era, libraries have increasingly joined forces to act cooperatively through library consortia. Through membership in a consortium, a library can capitalize on programs like advocacy, joint purchasing, e-resource licensing, shared discovery platforms, etc. Resources saved through such efforts, including staff time and money, can then be deployed back into the library for other, mission-critical activities. Following the economic collapse of 2008, libraries needed more than ever to maximize exceedingly scarce budgets. In response, consortia began to push the envelope, exploring even deeper collaborations in an effort to minimize redundancies and maximize efficiencies. This article will look at some examples of cross-consortial collaboration and focus specifically on the ongoing efforts among the Legal Information Preservation Alliance (LIPA), the Mid-America Law Library Consortium (MALLCO), and the NELLCO Law Library Consortium (NELLCO) to achieve more robust cooperation across the three organizations. The authors are the three executive directors of the named organizations.