Investigating the Marketization of the Nonprofit Sector: A Comparative Case Study of Two Nonprofit Organizations

VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations - It has been well documented in recent years that nonprofits are becoming increasingly marketized. What is less well...     

From Detention Camps of Thailand to Freedom in the Foothills of North Carolina: One Family’s Remarkable Story

In the 1980s, a number of Hmong families relocated from Thailand detention camps to the United States. This research explores one such family. The family became the key informant in snowball sampling for a larger, ongoing study. Following a series of interviews, qualitative narrative life stories were created and themes of family preservation, survival, and perpetuation of Hmong culture began to emerge. Importantly, parental concerns about how to keep the family intact despite different levels of acculturation surfaced during the process. The purpose of this research was to examine one family’s attempts to preserve the oral history of the Hmong culture and to promote understanding across generations and community members from different cultural backgrounds. The interviews gave the family a forum to expose and discuss their secret journey along with their sacrifices and triumphs. Significantly, the sense of urgency to blend the Hmong and American cultures was profound.     

Meditation lowers stress and supports forgiveness among college students: a randomized controlled trial

OBJECTIVE AND PARTICIPANTS: The authors evaluated the effects on stress, rumination, forgiveness, and hope of two 8-week, 90-min/wk training programs for college undergraduates in meditation-based stress-management tools. METHODS: After a pretest, the authors randomly allocated college undergraduates to training in mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR; n = 15), Easwaran's Eight-Point Program (EPP; n = 14), or wait-list control (n = 15). The authors gathered pretest, posttest, and 8-week follow-up data on self-report outcome measures. RESULTS: The authors observed no post-treatment differences between MBSR and EPP or between posttest and 8-week follow-up (p > .10). Compared with controls, treated participants (n = 29) demonstrated significant benefits for stress (p < .05, Cohen's d = -.45) and forgiveness (p < .05, d = .34) and marginal benefits for rumination (p < .10, d = -.34). CONCLUSIONS: Evidence suggests that meditation-based stress-management practices reduce stress and enhance forgiveness among college undergraduates. Such programs merit further study as potential health-promotion tools for college populations.     

Perceptions of lesbian and gay (LG) individuals as desecrators of Christianity as predictors of anti-LG attitudes

This study applied religious coping theory to examine the relationship between participants' perceptions that lesbian and gay (LG) individuals desecrate Christian values (the stressor) and anti-LG attitudes (the response) and whether religious coping influences the relationship between these variables. Greater agreement with desecration messages was associated with higher levels of anti-LG attitudes. Positive religious coping was associated with lower levels of anti-LG attitudes while negative religious coping was associated with higher levels. Greater exposure to messages that LG individuals desecrate Christian values was associated with greater agreement with those messages. Longitudinal studies with more diverse samples are needed to examine causality and the generalizability of the findings. However, these results have implications for preventing and mitigating anti-LG attitudes.     

Domestic violence among male and female patients seeking emergency medical services

Gender differences among a cohort of injured patients seeking emergency medical services were examined with respect to their experiences as perpetrators and/or victims of domestic violence. Contextual issues, including violence initiation, emotional and behavioral responses to partner-initiated violence, and injury frequency and severity were analyzed. Women reported male partner-initiated violence more frequently than men reported female partner-initiated violence. Behavioral responses to partner initiated violence varied. Women were more likely to report using force back and to involve law enforcement. Women were more likely to be injured in a domestic assault over their lifetime, within the last year, and at the time of recruitment. Comparison of injury severity revealed that women reported higher rates of injuries than men in all possible severity categories. Women also reported experiencing more fear than men during partner-initiated violence, as well as being subjected to larger numbers of dominating and controlling behaviors, and greater intimidation secondary to their partner's size. Understanding contextual differences in partner violence for women and men has significant implications for policy development, identification, treatment, and referral of patients identified as living in violent relationships.