Mobile Home Park on the Prairie: A New Rural Community Form*

Abstract Mobile home parks are an increasingly common form of residence for the rural poor. A rural central Illinois mobile home park and its residents seemingly possess features—a distinct territory, a homogeneous population, and a collectively held rural ideology—that foster formation of a sense of community. Other factors, however, some unique to this relatively new rural residential form, present physical and social barriers that challenge park residents' construction of a sense of community. We use ethnographic data to describe daily life in a rural mobile home park and to determine who among its working‐poor residents are most able to construct a sense of community, and thus to gain access to the potentially beneficial community social resources that are crucial to making a difference in the quality of their lives.     

Foster youth emancipating from care: caseworkers' reports on needs and services

This article presents findings from a survey mailed to caseworkers, who answered questions about special needs, independent living skills, educational attainment, and services for 416 randomly selected foster youth in Illinois. A third of the adolescents had a mental health disorder, developmental disability, or other special need that their caseworkers believed would interfere with their ability to live independently. Additionally, urban youth were underserved relative to other youth. Youth with more behavior problems and educational and job skill deficits were less likely than other youth to continue to receive child welfare services past age 18, suggesting that services must be provided throughout adolescence to meet the needs of the most vulnerable clients.     

Evaluating the Relation of Vocal Accommodation in Conversation Partners' Fundamental Frequencies to Perceptions of Communication Quality

Previous acoustic analysis of fundamental frequencies from interview partners' voices revealed mutual accommodation of voice frequency and amplitude. These findings also showed partners' accommodation was associated with such attributes as social status. However, previous studies did not assess the function of partners' voice accommodation in extending general communication quality. The present study employs an experimental protocol wherein the fundamental frequency is included in some conversations and filtered from others to show, first, that partners do actively accommodate the fundamental frequency of their voices, and, second, that elimination of the fundamental frequency from conversation partners' voices profoundly alters perceived positive evaluations by judges overhearing the conversation. This experiment specifies an important auxiliary role for the fundamental frequency in nonverbal communication.     

Analysis of fundamental frequency reveals covariation in interview partners' speech

Spectral analysis of the fundamental frequency band in speech of interview partners reveals covariance of voice energy levels and thus a possible form of rudimentary social synchrony. Though this phenomenon of paralinguistic covariance has been observed by a number of researchers, techniques for examining it have not been exploited using modern instruments for Fast Fourier Transform analysis nor has the effect been statistically explicated in depth. This study reports on research showing that the acoustic signal conveying covariance information resides in the fundamental frequency band of the speech spectrum, a band which in itself has traditionally been considered inconsequential to perceived intelligible verbal communication. Acoustic signals from speech of four interview partners interacting with the author were analyzed in three frequency settings—2 KHz., .5 KHz., and .2 KHz.—to target the low frequency band in which the covariance phenomenon is most coherently transmitted. Analysis was performed using a dedicated instrument, the Fast Fourier Transform analyzer, to obtain spectra, and spectral output was processed statistically to produce relationships showing the covariance effect. Also, this paper addresses means by which potency of influences from technical artifacts, as introduced by instrumentation, interview environment, or statistical protocols are appraised. Research conclusions present an efficient, lucid, and reliable method for analyzing the paralinguistic mode of nonverbal behavior, and, in addition, offer evidence that the nonverbal, vocal channel of communication carries a signal embodying a semantic message. These conclusions raise some crucial questions regarding the influence of a hitherto unreported function of the fundamental frequency in voices of interview partners.I wish to acknowledge support of Bebe Lavin, Chairperson, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Rudolph O. Buttlar, Dean, College of Arts and Sciences, Stephen Webster, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, and the Research Council, Kent State University.     

Pubertal Timing and Tempo: Associations With Childhood Maltreatment

This study examined pubertal timing and tempo in a sample of 445 adolescents (53% male), using both variable‐centered (latent growth curve) and person‐centered (latent class) approaches, to discern the pubertal development trajectories associated with the experience of maltreatment. Results from the variable‐centered analyses indicated a slower initial tempo that increased later for boys who had experienced neglect. The person‐centered results indicated three classes for boys that mainly differentiated tempo effects and two classes for girls primarily distinguishing timing differences. For girls, sexual abuse predicted membership in an earlier pubertal timing class. These findings enhance our knowledge of the variability in pubertal development as well as gender differences in maltreatment types that may alter pubertal timing and tempo.     

至少,2021年的春天就在下个月

冬天还没过去,但春天总是会来.冯·内古特曾经对年轻人说,"耐心一点.你的未来将会来到你面前,像只小狗一样躺在你脚边,无论你是什么样,它都会理解你,爱你".我们觉得在此刻,没有什么比这句来自上个世纪的寄语,更适合送给每一个正在读这篇文章的你.新春快乐!