Persistent Risk-Related Worry as a Function of Recalled Exposure to the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Prior Trauma

Large oil spills are disasters associated with psychological effects for exposed communities. The amount of worry that individuals experience after a disaster may be influenced by many factors, such as the type and extent of exposure to disaster impacts, prior trauma, and sociodemographic characteristics. This study examined the nature and predictors of worry about ongoing impacts of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon (DH) oil spill reported by Gulf of Mexico coastal residents. A random sample of 2,520 adult residents of Gulf of Mexico coastal counties were administered a telephone survey in 2016, including items about persistent worry and exposure to DH impacts, prior trauma, residence at the time of the spill, and sociodemographic characteristics. Respondents varied in the amount of worry they reported about ongoing health, social, and economic impacts. Controlling for sociodemographic characteristics, higher exposure to the DH oil spill was related to higher levels of worry about ongoing impacts, with past traumatic events related specifically to worry about health impacts. Unexpectedly, those who moved into the region after the spill showed similar levels of worry to residents exposed to the spill, and higher levels than residents who did not recall being exposed to the DH oil spill. This study highlights the impact of the DH oil spill on coastal residents many years after the DH disaster. The findings underscore the need to examine multiple pathways by which individuals experience disasters and for risk researchers to close knowledge gaps about long-term impacts of oil spills within a multi-dimensional framework.     

THE SOCIAL GEOGRAPHY OF GENDER-SWITCHING IN VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENTS ON THE INTERNET

The virtual social worlds of the internet give people unparalleled control over the construction and presentation of their identities. Gender-switching is perhaps the most dramatic example of how people exercise this control. It occurs when people present a gender that is different from their biological sex. While gender-switching figures prominently in academic commentaries and popular writings about on-line social life, there is little systematic research on the phenomenon. On-line surveys of two stratified random samples (N's=233 and 202) of MOO users were conducted. The majority of participants (60 per cent) in social MOOs (popular text-based internet social venues) had never engaged in gender-switching, while the majority in role-playing MOOs were either gender-switching currently (40 per cent) or had done so in the past (16.7 per cent). More than half of those who currently gender-switched did so for less than 10 per cent of their time on-line. In spite of the freedom to use indeterminate or even plural gender identities, most participants who switched genders (78.7 per cent) did so within traditional binary conventions (male to female, female to male). The primary reason for gender-switching was the desire to play roles of people different from one's self. The primary barrier to gender-switching was the belief that it is dishonest and manipulative. Attitudes toward gender-switching and on-line participation were better predictors of gender-switching than personal background demographics or personality measures. The images of gender-switching that emerge from this first systematic study of the phenomenon are considerably more benign than that usually portrayed in the literature. Gender-switching appears to be practised by a minority of MOO users for a small percentage of their time on-line. Gender-switching within MOOs of all kinds might best be understood as an experimental behaviour rather than as an enduring expression of sexuality, personality, or gender politics.     

Basic Reading Through Dance program. The impact on first-grade students' basic reading skills

This study evaluates the effectiveness of an arts-based educational program, Basic Reading Through Dance. Basic Reading Through Dance is a 20-session, curriculum-based reading intervention for first-grade students developed by Whirlwind, a not-for-profit organization. There were a total of 721 first-grade students from Chicago public schools who participated in the study, with 328 students from 6 schools receiving the program and 393 students from 9 schools serving as controls. The program was designed to improve reading skills, as assessed by the PhonoGraphix Test, such as code knowledge (alphabet sounds) and phoneme segmentation (separating letter sounds within spoken words). Results suggest that the students who participated in the program improved significantly more than control students on all reading skills that were assessed.     

Delinquency,School Context,and Risk Factors in India,Australia, and the United States: Implications for Prevention

There is a dearth of research on delinquency, school context, and risk factors across developed and developing nations. Using representative samples and matched surveys, we examined delinquency among cohorts in Mumbai, India (N = 3,717); Victoria, Australia (N = 1,842); and Washington State (WA), United States (N = 1,828). We used multivariate Poisson hierarchical linear modeling. Risk factor and delinquency levels varied across sites. Delinquency clustered within certain schools, particularly in Mumbai. Community disorganization exhibited an association with delinquency as a school‐level context effect in Mumbai and Victoria. Peer delinquency, sensation seeking, and poor family management exhibited cross‐nationally consistent associations with delinquency. Programs that target schools, the clustering of problem behaviors, and cross‐nationally consistent risk factors should be considered internationally.     

Who Is Our Neighbor? Toward a Multilevel and Cross-National Roadmap for Building Community Capacity

The acceptance of diversity in neighborhood contexts has far-reaching implications across the developed and developing world, and it bears directly on social justice. Additionally, practitioners not only frequently work in diverse communities, but aim to build community capacity in such settings. Using a multilevel framework, this project quantitatively examines diverse neighbor acceptance across and within 70 nations. Results show that individual-level human capital and democratic institutions at the national level are driving forces behind diverse neighbor acceptance. Working toward a roadmap for building community capacity, the article highlights the multilevel nature of diverse neighbor acceptance in a cross-national context.     

An Interview with Terry Reese

In July 2005, Bonnie Parks spoke with Terry Reese, digital production unit head at Oregon State University's Valley Library (Corvallis). In this interview, Reese shares his views on topics ranging from electronic journal management to the impact Google Scholar might have on the way libraries provide access to information.     

Same-Sex Marriage: A Construct in a Quest for Ecological Validity

The Kitzinger and Wilkinson's ASAP paper serves as the foundation for this discussion of the same-sex marriage construct. The major focus of this discussion is, "What needs to occur in order for ecological validity to be achieved?" First, there needs to be some concerted attention paid to the entire spectrum of close relationships (at both the positive and the negative end of the continuum) before the same-sex marriage construct is fully embraced. Next, some attention needs to be paid to the diversity of viewpoints/beliefs/attitudes that exists concerning same-sex marriage within the ethnically and culturally diverse LGBT communities.