Provision of a Wildfire Risk Map: Informing Residents in the Wildland Urban Interface

Wildfires in the wildland urban interface (WUI) are an increasing concern throughout the western United States and elsewhere. WUI communities continue to grow and thus increase the wildfire risk to human lives and property. Information such as a wildfire risk map can inform WUI residents of potential risks and may help to efficiently sort mitigation efforts. This study uses the survey-based contingent valuation (CV) method to examine annual household willingness to pay (WTP) for the provision of a wildfire risk map. Data were collected through a mail survey of the East Mountain WUI area in the State of New Mexico (USA). The integrated empirical approach includes a system of equations that involves joint estimation of WTP values, along with measures of a respondent's risk perception and risk mitigation behavior. The median estimated WTP is around U.S. $12 for the annual wildfire risk map, which covers at least the costs of producing and distributing available risk information. Further, providing a wildfire risk map can help address policy goals emphasizing information gathering and sharing among stakeholders to mitigate the effects of wildfires.     

The Work Values of First‐Year College Students: Exploring Group Differences

A sample of 3,570 first‐year college students were surveyed regarding the factors they deemed most important to their long‐term career choice. Students as a whole identified intrinsic interest, high salary, contributions to society, and prestige as their 4 most important work values. Additional analyses found men more likely to espouse extrinsic values, women more likely to espouse social values, and students from median parental‐income groups more likely to espouse intrinsic values. In light of these results, counselors are encouraged to place a greater emphasis on the role of work values in the decision‐making process.     

Racial Stratification and the Confederate Flag: Comparing Four Perspectives to Explain Flag Support

Recent events have brought attention to Confederate monuments positioned across the USA and polarized debates about their proper placement; however, prior research examining support for Confederate symbols is largely limited to white Americans. This study examines public support for the South Carolina Confederate flag using four perspectives of racial stratification—black/nonblack, combined race-ethnicity, ethnoracial pentagon, and nonwhite/white. Using data from two nationally representative surveys of noninstitutionalized US adults collected in 2000 and 2015 (n?=?7638), we identify associations between theories of racial stratification and Confederate flag stances. Multiple model fit indices indicate that the combined race-ethnicity theory of racial stratification best mapped onto public support followed by the ethnoracial pentagon and black/nonblack perspectives. The nonwhite/white model exhibited the poorest fit. Findings from logistic regressions showed that whites had significantly higher odds of supporting the Confederate flag compared to blacks and Latinos. Additionally, blacks had lower odds of flag support than Latinos, Asian Americans, Native Americans, Pacific Islanders, and multiracial respondents. We argue that an overlooked aspect of Confederate monuments is their signified antiblackness demonstrated in this study by greater support for the flag among all nonblack racial-ethnic groups. Findings imply that prioritizing whites’ views in discussions of Confederate monuments offers an inadequate depiction of public opinion by race-ethnicity. Disaggregating views via the combined race-ethnicity measure highlights racial-ethnic variation in support of the South Carolina Confederate flag.

     

Brain Circulation: The Educational Profile of Return Migrants

Population Research and Policy Review - Countries increasingly compete to attract and retain human capital. However, empirical studies, particularly those of migrants moving back to developing...     

Media coverage and issue visibility: State legislative responses to school bullying

Dealing with the schoolyard bully is an age-old problem; however, legislators have only recently tackled it at the state level. This study examines the adoption of anti-bullying policies from the policy diffusion and innovation perspective with an emphasis on the role of print media coverage. The study contributes to the policy diffusion literature by examining both national and local media coverage as conduits for diffusion and adds to the expanding views of the diffusion process beyond the traditional geographic proximity argument. Further, it provides the first examination of an emerging policy area important to education policy scholars. The findings show issue saliency via national media coverage drives policy adoption beyond any geographic proximity.     

Working parent friendly schools: the role of school instrumental support in work–family conflict

Instrumental support can foster or ameliorate parent experiences of work–family conflict. Based on theories relating social support to stress, a framework for considering how school support affects work–family conflict is proposed and tested. Parent experiences of instrumental support (school schedules, school service provision, and staff accessibility) and school demands on parents (volunteer and homework involvement) were investigated in relation to levels of work–family conflict. Work demands were related to both family-interference-with-work and work-interference-with family; family demands related only to time-based family-interference-with-work. Perceptions of school scheduling as supportive were related negatively to both time- and strain-based work-interference-with family, whereas perceptions of school transportation services were related to both time- and strain-based family-interference-with-work. No buffering effects of these types of support were found. Implications for how community organizations can play a role in ameliorating work–family conflict are discussed.