Open Access and Promotion and Tenure Evaluation Plans at the University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire

Department and program evaluation plans at the University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire were examined to see if these documents provide evidence that could be used to justify supporting the publication of peer-reviewed open access articles toward tenure and promotion. In an earlier study, the authors reveal that faculty members at the University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire are more unaware of open access publishing than their counterparts at larger universities. These findings dovetail with other studies that show that faculty members are reluctant to publish in open access journals because of concerns about the quality of those journals. The existing body of scholarship suggests that tenure-line faculty fear publishing in open access journals because it could adversely impact their chances of promotion and tenure. The authors of this current study sought to determine if department and program evaluation plans could influence negative perceptions faculty have of open access journals. The implications of this study for librarians, scholarly communication professionals, tenure-line faculty, departments, and programs are addressed.     

Evaluating Parents in Partnership: A Preliminary Study of a Child Welfare Intervention Designed to Increase Reunification

Child welfare systems struggle with how best to accomplish reunification for children who have been removed from their home due to child maltreatment. Parent mentor programs may facilitate the reunification process. In these programs, parents who have successfully reunified with their children after child welfare involvement provide support and guidance for parents currently navigating the system. The current study examines (a) whether distance was a barrier to participation in orientation of a parent mentor program (called Parents in Partnership [PIP]) for 98 parents involved with the child welfare system and (b) whether participation affected reunification outcomes for 73 parents. Logistic regression models showed parents who lived closer to the PIP orientation location were more likely to participate in the orientation. Further, parents who attended PIP orientation were 5 times more likely to reunify with their children. Parent mentor programs may be one way to increase the likelihood of reunification for families involved in the child welfare system and may increase the engagement of fathers involved with the child welfare system. Future research should examine whether participation in parent mentor programs reduces the length of time children stay in foster care in addition to increasing rates of reunification.     

I want my Snooki: MTV’s failed subjects and post-feminist ambivalence in and around the Jersey Shore

As a sexually promiscuous and outrageously flamboyant young woman, Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi of MTV’s Jersey Shore (2009–2012) Jersey Shore. 2009–2012. Television Series. Seasons 1–6. USA: MTV. [Google Scholar] could be said to be the ultimate example of Angela McRobbie’s post-feminist subject. However, as pervasive as post-feminist narratives have become in popular culture, the figure of Snooki problematizes its ideal forms of femininity and meritocratic success. In this paper I argue that Snooki’s potential challenges to post-feminist ideology were contained by news reporting on her at the height of her fame. This analysis posits a noteworthy divide in that those most inclined to watch/consume Snooki-as-text (the MTV audience) likely remained beyond the reach of the news media’s attempt to re-inscribe hegemonic ideologies onto her star image/text. I examine the relation between Snooki-as-text (the Snooki presented on Jersey Shore) and the extra-textual attempts to undermine her popularity and legitimacy. I frame this discussion along three axes of transgression and containment: the sexual empowerment/threat paradigm; the physical markings of class and ethnic subjectivity; and the textual boundaries of meritocratic success. Despite efforts to contain her, Snooki’s short-lived success hints at an ambivalence toward post-feminism today that could help chart a revitalized form of feminist politics within youth-driven popular culture.     

Policy Climates and Reductions in Automobile Use*

Objectives. This study examines how national environmental policy influences individual car‐driving behavior in the European Union. Methods. Using the International Social Survey: Environment II in conjunction with the 2001 and 2002 Environmental Sustainability Indices, we analyze the relationship between macro‐level policy indicators and the reported reduction of individual car driving for environmental reasons, controlling for meso‐ and micro‐level factors. Results. Our results show that individuals report a greater likelihood of driving less for environmental reasons when they live in nations that adopt strong pro‐environmental policies, even when such policies are not directly related to car use. Conclusions. Our finding that a national policy climate focused on environmental sustainability is associated with pro‐environmental behaviors among individuals in that nation encourages us to believe that greater international cooperation on environmental issues (such as the Kyoto Protocol) and increased strength of domestic environmental policies will positively change individual behavior.     

Age Changes in Prosocial Responding and Moral Reasoning in Adolescence and Early Adulthood

Age changes' measures of prosocial responding and reasoning were examined. Participants' reports of helping, empathy‐related responding, and prosocial moral reasoning were obtained in adolescence (from age 15–16 years) and into adulthood (to age 25–26 years). Perspective taking and approval/interpersonal oriented/stereotypic prosocial moral reasoning increased from adolescence into adulthood, whereas personal distress declined. Helping declined and then increased (a cubic trend). Prosocial moral judgment composite scores (and self‐reflective empathic reasoning) generally increased from late adolescence into the early 20s (age 17–18 to 21–22) but either leveled off or declined slightly thereafter (i.e., showed linear and cubic trends); rudimentary needs‐oriented reasoning showed the reverse pattern of change. The increase in self‐reflective empathic moral reasoning was for females only. Thus, perspective taking and some aspects of prosocial moral reasoning—capacities with a strong sociocognitive basis—showed the clearest increases with age, whereas simple prosocial proclivities (i.e., helping, sympathy) did not increase with age.     

Development of the PEARLS model (Particulate Exposure from Ambient to Regional Lung by Subgroup) and use of Monte Carlo simulation to predict internal exposure to 2.5 in Toronto.

Air pollution is a current and growing concern for Canadians, and there is evidence that ambient levels that meet current exposure standards may be associated with mortality and morbidity in Toronto, Canada. Evaluating exposure is an important step in understanding the relationship between particulate matter (PM) exposure and health outcomes. This report describes the PEARLS model (Particulate Exposure from Ambient to Regional Lung by Subgroup), which predicts exposure distributions for 11 age-gender population subgroups in Toronto to PM2.5 (PM with a median aerodynamic diameter of 2.5 microm or less) using Monte Carlo simulation techniques. The model uses physiological and activity pattern characteristics of each subgroup to determine region-specific lung exposure to PM2.5, which is defined as the mass of PM2.5 deposited per unit time to each of five lung regions (two extrathoracic, bronchial, bronchiolar, and alveolar). The modeling results predict that children, toddlers, and infants have the broadest distributions of exposure, and the greatest chance of experiencing extreme exposures in the alveolar region of the lung. Importance analysis indicates that the most influential model variables are air exchange rate into indoor environments, time spent outdoors, and time spent at high activity levels. Additionally, a "critical point" was defined and introduced to the PEARLS to investigate the effects of possible threshold-pathogenic phenomena on subgroup exposure patterns. The analysis indicates that the subgroups initially predicted to be most highly exposed were likely to have the highest proportion of their population exposed above the critical point. Substantial exposures above the critical point were predicted in all subgroups for ambient concentrations of PM2.5 commonly observed in Toronto after continuous exposure of 24 hours or more.     

The folly of theorizing “A” but testing “B”: A selective level-of-analysis review of the field and a detailed Leader–Member Exchange illustration

Leadership research has recently begun to emphasize the importance of examining the level of analysis (e.g., individual, dyad, group, organization) at which phenomena are hypothesized to occur. Unfortunately, however, it is still not commonplace for theory to clearly specify, and for investigations to directly test, expected and rival level-of-analysis effects. This article first selectively reviews a cross-section of theories, models, and approaches in leadership, showing generally poor alignment between theory and the level of analysis actually used in its testing. A multiple levels of analysis investigation of the Leader–Member Exchange (LMX) model is next presented. This theory has as its foundation the dyadic relationship between a supervisor and his or her subordinates. Yet, less than 10% of published LMX studies have examined level of analysis—and none has employed dyadic analysis. Using within- and between-entities analysis (WABA) and two different samples, four LMX level-of-analysis representations are tested, which involve monosource data; three of these models are then tested using heterosource data. Overall, good support is found for the LMX approach at the within-groups and between-dyads levels. Implications for aligning theory with appropriate levels of analysis in future research are considered.     

Early Parental Positive Behavior Support and Childhood Adjustment: Addressing Enduring Questions with New Methods

A large literature provides strong empirical support for the influence of parenting on child outcomes. The current study addresses enduring research questions testing the importance of early parenting behavior to children's adjustment. Specifically, we developed and tested a novel multi‐method observational measure of parental positive behavior support at age 2. Next, we tested whether early parental positive behavior support was related to child adjustment at school age, within a multi‐agent and multi‐method measurement approach and design. Observational and parent‐reported data from mother–child dyads (N = 731; 49 percent female) were collected from a high‐risk sample at age 2. Follow‐up data were collected via teacher report and child assessment at age 7.5. The results supported combining three different observational methods to assess positive behavior support at age 2 within a latent factor. Further, parents' observed positive behavior support at age 2 predicted multiple types of teacher‐reported and child‐assessed problem behavior and competencies at 7.5 years old. Results supported the validity and predictive capability of a multi‐method observational measure of parenting and the importance of a continued focus on the early years within preventive interventions.