A Pilot Randomized Trial of an Intervention to Enhance the Health-Promoting Effects of Older Adults’ Activity Portfolios: The Engaged4Life Program

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the feasibility and outcomes of the Engaged4Life program, an intervention to encourage inactive community-dwelling older adults to embed physical activity, cognitive activity, and social interaction into their everyday lives in contexts that are personally meaningful and natural for them. Fifteen participants were randomized to the intervention group (technology-assisted self-monitoring of daily activity via pedometers and daily tablet-based surveys; psychoeducation + goal-setting via a 3-hour workshop; and peer mentoring via phone 2×/week for 2.5 weeks) and 15 to the control (technology-assisted self-monitoring only). Recruitment was shown to be feasible and efficient, but not able to reach the target for men. Retention rate was 83% and participants manifested high adherence and engagement with the intervention. Though this pilot trial was not powered to demonstrate significant differences between groups, daily steps increased by 431 (11% increase) from baseline to Week 4 for the intervention (p < .05), but decreased by 458 for the control, for a net difference of 889 steps (p < .05). Findings were sustained at Week 8 (p < .01). In a future trial, difficulties in recruiting men, barriers due to the technology-intensive design, and the optimization of secondary outcome measures should be addressed.     

And Neither Are We Saved: Asian Americans' Elusive Quest for Racial Justice

Derrick Bell, Civil Rights activist, legal scholar, and a founder of critical race theory, dedicated much of his life and scholarship to the pursuit of racial justice. Twenty‐six years ago, in his work And We Are Not Saved, he recognized that racial progress has been stalled and racial equality would not be a reality in his lifetime. Bell passed away in October 2011, and we are reminded that there is still much work to do. He presented a conundrum that race scholars have said all there is to say about racial problems in the United States; yet, he encouraged scholars to keep moving the work forward. At the time And We Are Not Saved was written, much of the racial scholarship was centered on the Black–White paradigm. In the 26 years since Bell wrote it, there has been a growth of Asian American research. This essay surveys some critical racial analysis of Asian Americans. There have been major contributions to the literature extending racial scholarship beyond the Black–White paradigm. Additionally, intersectional scholarship extends the discussion into other systems of oppression, highlighting how racism can be veiled in different systems. Critical race scholarship is imperative to keep Bell's dream of racial equality alive.     

“抗战通俗”:抗战文艺的“变格”叙事

抗战的严峻态势促使战时文艺工作者积极抛却成见,广泛汲取一切有益因子,借以最大程度地进行抗日宣传.于是通俗文艺也被纳入“抗战”叙事的洪流,并由此创生出崭新的“抗战通俗”类“变格”叙事.此类“变格”叙事不仅通过“叙事回避”达到了“叙事动员”的目的,而且更展现出了抗战文艺的多样风姿.     

International Migration and Educational Assortative Mating in Mexico and the United States

This paper examines the relationship between migration and marriage by describing how the distributions of marital statuses and assortative mating patterns vary by individual and community experiences of migration. In Mexico, migrants and those living in areas with high levels of out-migration are more likely to be in heterogamous unions. This is because migration increases the relative attractiveness of single return migrants while disproportionately reducing the number of marriageable men in local marriage markets. In the United States, the odds of homogamy are lower for migrants compared with nonmigrants; however, they do not vary depending on the volume of migration in communities. Migrants are more likely than nonmigrants to “marry up” educationally because the relatively small size of this group compels them to expand their pool of potential spouses to include nonmigrants, who tend to be better educated than they are. Among migrants, the odds of marrying outside of one’s education group increase the most among the least educated. In Mexican communities with high rates of out-migration, the odds of marrying outside of one’s education group are highest among those with the highest level of education. These findings suggest that migration disrupts preferences and opportunities for homogamy by changing social arrangements and normative climates.     

Advantages of Groups in Market Transactions

This paper takes individuals as rationaleconomic decision makers but ones operating withinwell-defined groups not just today but into the futurewhen a reputation for fair dealing will be ofsignificance. The paper explores the functional advantageswhich might accrue from group membership in suchcircumstances. As social science makes clear, mostgroups come into being for social and cultural reasonsindependent of any obvious immediate economic advantage.For this reason, this paper is exploratory of theboundary between economic reasoning and that of othersocial sciences. It explores the bridge toofar, cited by Loveridge in the 1993 special editionof this journal. This is a metaphor for the possibilityof a meaningful connector between social psychologicaland economic reasoning. This paper tentatively looks into the relationships that might beestablished between the specific economic analysiscovered by this paper and that deployed in other socialsciences. In essence, the paper suggests that bothreputational and informational benefits arise from groupbehavior. These benefits accrue to both its members andothers. By extension it is argued that similaradvantages can accrue to families ofproducts in marketing. In both cases, reputationallinkage serves as a commitment device(Schelling, 1960) with ensuing benefits to all membersof the group or product family. These relationships areseen to mediate the reputational guarantees given to consumers.     

Mandated RFID and Institutional Responses: Cases of Decentralized Business Units

Using a theory‐building approach based on case studies, this research explores the responses of four decentralized business units to institutional pressure to adopt Radiofrequency Identification (RFID) technology. The institutional pressure emanates from the Department of Defense, and the affected decentralized business units operate in a large defense contractor. Institutional theory explains how organizations respond to external pressures to adopt new procedures, policies, and technologies. The case studies show how business units vary in their response to the RFID mandate and how different internal dynamics manifest. The responses range from complying faithfully, primarily concerned with satisfying the external constituent, to completely ignoring the mandate and focusing on internal efficiency initiative utilizing RFID. A number of propositions are developed to better understand the organizational responses to exogenous pressure to implement RFID. The paper concludes by proposing future research directions and issues that must be considered further.     

Client Violence Against Social Workers at Homeless Assistance Organizations in South Korea

This study examined the essence of client violence that social workers encounter at homeless assistance organizations in South Korea. Based on 149 self‐administered questionnaires in 29 homeless assistance organizations in Seoul metropolitan areas, the study verified that client violence against social workers was prevalent. More than 70% of respondents experienced physical violence from their clients; 78.5% reported emotional violence; 53% reported property damage. This study also found that client violence emerged differently according to gender and types of agencies in the field. The results suggested that effective prevention strategies against client violence should be encouraged to maintain valuable human resources and to create a safe workplace in the field of social work.