Whatever it takes: Leaders' perceptions of abusive supervision instrumentality

In this paper we examine how leaders' perceptions of the instrumental benefits of abusive supervision shape their tendencies to abuse their employees. We posit that leaders who believe abuse has a positive impact on employee performance will engage in more abusive supervision than their peers, with downstream implications for employees' counterproductive work behaviors. Furthermore, we position leader empathic concern as a boundary condition, whereby empathic concern mitigates the effects of leaders' perceptions of abusive supervision's instrumentality. Data from two studies employing both experimental and field survey designs offer convergent support for our hypotheses. Overall, our findings challenge the prevailing view that abusive supervision is primarily motivated by a desire to aggress, instead demonstrating that leaders sometimes abuse their employees in the pursuit of more pro-organizational goals.     

A mixed-method exploration of functioning in Safe Schools/Healthy Students partnerships

This paper presents a mixed-method approach to measuring the functioning of Safe Schools/Healthy Students (SS/HS) Initiative partnerships. The SS/HS national evaluation team developed a survey to collect partners’ perceptions of functioning within SS/HS partnerships. Average partnership functioning scores were used to rank each site from lowest to highest. Sites with the most favorable perceptions of partnership functioning were defined as having average scores in the top 10% (n = 10) and sites with the least favorable perceptions of partnership functioning were defined as having average scores in the bottom 10% (n = 10). Qualitative data for these 20 sites were inductively open coded for emergent themes and analyzed for patterns using grounded theory approach. Six themes emerged that distinguished sites reporting the most favorable and least favorable perceptions of partnership functioning: partner engagement, facilitators, barriers, shared decision making, partnership structure, and sustainability. Sites reporting the most favorable perceptions of partnership functioning effectively utilized collaboration processes that facilitate coalition building, such as shared decision making, effective communication, and developing a clearly defined structure. Qualitative themes from this analysis provide evidence of validity for the partnership functioning scale used and illustrate distinguishing features between sites with the most favorable and least favorable perceptions of partnership functioning.     

Sources of state capacity in Latin America: commodity booms and state building motives in Chile

The pursuits of private profit and distributional political advantage can be powerful state building motives. This article describes how each motive can trigger a distinct causal sequence amid commodity booms, which can result in the growth of state capacity. First, when pursuing profit during booms, export-oriented actors regularly seek new state-supplied public goods, the provision of which promotes the expansion of state capacity. Second, when booms enrich rivals to the ruling coalition, coalition members may respond with institution building to preserve their existing political advantages. A case study of Chile (1848–1883) and supplementary evidence from Argentina, Central America, Colombia, and Peru indicate that these causal sequences may have been central to state building in Latin America historically.     

Confidence estimation via the parametric bootstrap in logistic joinpoint regression

We consider asymptotic properties of the maximum likelihood and related estimators in a clustered logistic joinpoint model with an unknown joinpoint. Sufficient conditions are given for the consistency of confidence bounds produced by the parametric bootstrap; one of the conditions required is that the true location of the joinpoint is not at one of the observation times. A simulation study is presented to illustrate the lack of consistency of the bootstrap confidence bounds when the joinpoint is an observation time. A removal algorithm is presented which corrects this problem, but at the price of an increased mean square error. Finally, the methods are applied to data on yearly cancer mortality in the US for individuals age 65 and over.     

Contraceptive use patterns across teens’ sexual relationships: The role of relationships,partners, and sexual histories

By using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, we examine how adolescent relationship characteristics, partner attributes, and sexual relationship histories are associated with contraceptive use and consistency, incorporating random effects to control for respondent-level unobserved heterogeneity. Analyses show that teens' contraceptive use patterns vary across relationships. Teens with more-homogamous partners, with more-intimate relationships, and who communicate about contraception before sex have greater odds of contraceptive use and/or consistency. Teens in romantic relationships, and who are older when engaging in sex for the first time, have greater odds of ever using contraceptives but reduced odds of always using contraceptives. Teens continue habits from previous relationships: teens with experience practicing contraceptive consistency and females who previously have used hormonal contraceptive methods are better able to maintain consistency in subsequent relationships. Also, relationship and partner characteristics are less important for females who previously used hormonal methods.     

Called to Medicine: Physicians’ Experiences of Career Calling

Using consensual qualitative research methodology, the authors explored physicians’ (N = 17) career calling experiences through semistructured interviews. Eight domains emerged: definition of calling, development of calling, calling's fit with career, maintenance of calling, emotional well‐being, relationships, recreation, and future. Within these domains, 17 general and 40 typical categories emerged. Results suggest physicians’ callings were influenced by others, met with both support and barriers, and chosen because of fit with interests, prosocial motivation, or religious/spiritual influences. Calling positively and negatively influenced emotional well‐being, relationships, and recreation and was expected to continue after retirement. Counselors are encouraged to use a narrative lens to conceptualize clients’ calling development, use job crafting techniques to support calling maintenance, and prepare clients for postretirement career calling development. Future research might examine when and why a medical calling's strength may change over time.     

Adaptations to Traditional Familial Roles: Examining the Challenges of Grandmothers’ Counterlife Transitions

Grandmothers-raising-grandchildren narratives challenge normative familial preconceptions. Utilizing the life-course theory to examine the turbulence and time-disordered role orientations, this study showcases the familial development punctuated by transitions and highlights the transformations experienced in grandparent relationships. This qualitative phenomenological study investigates six grandmothers’ experiences about their unforeseen life circumstances and their renegotiation of normal age-appropriate transitions that cause them to reconstruct their life plans. Five themes (obligation, desperation, intervention, salvation, and normalization) emerged from their experiences that underscore the transformative generational structures and explore adaptive life-course trajectories.     

Culture and the Confederate flag: Attitudes toward a divisive symbol

The Confederate flag remains a controversial symbol. This article reviews research on attitudes toward the Confederate flag and its public display. In order to better understand the divisiveness of the flag, I outline a historical timeline of the U.S. South and the Confederate flag while emphasizing the association between race and politics within the region. Culture is crucial to this paper because the flag is rooted in cultural constructions of its symbolism, and because opinions toward the flag shed light on the process of cultural change. Overall, this work synthesizes existing research on attitudes and legislative voting patterns focused on the flag and provides a foundation and suggestions for future inquiry into the topic. As a case study analyzing the manner in which “unsettled times” (Swidler, 1986) produce climates conducive to social change, I argue that the Charleston Emanuel AME Church shootings created an opportunity to remove the Confederate flag from the South Carolina capitol grounds. I conclude by viewing the flag debate within a society that has and continues to perpetuate racial inequities. Future research has the task of analyzing implications of Confederate flag support hopefully leading to the elimination of ideologies that spur racial violence.