Teaching Note—Using TED Talks in the Social Work Classroom: Encouraging Student Engagement and Discourse

Focusing on TED Talks (online videos) as a resource for social work educators, this teaching note shares our ideas regarding the use of the online videos as an avenue for reaching students and encouraging discussions in the social work classroom. The article first explores the TED platform and then discusses using TED as a teaching tool. Finally, we share our perspectives and student voices on selected videos that can be useful in social work education, including references to specific Council on Social Work Education competencies and practice behaviors. The videos bring world-renowned speakers into the classroom, providing social work educators with rich teaching opportunities limited only by their imagination.     

The effect of inbreeding on early childhood mortality: Twelve generations of an amish settlement

An unresolved issue in research on child survival is the extent to which familial mortality risk in infancy is due to biological influences net of sociodemographic and economic factors. We examine the effect of consanguinity on early childhood mortality in an Old Order Amish settlement by using the inbreeding coefficient, an explicit measure of the degree of relatedness in one's ancestry. Inbreeding has a net positive effect on neonatal and postneonatal deaths. We find social, demographic, and population-based sociocultural explanations for this effect among the Amish population which is known to experience certain genetically transmitted defects associated with mortality.     

Educational and Financial Institutions Partnering to Implement CSAs: Evaluation of Financial Partners’ Perspectives from the 2011 GEAR UP Invitational Priority

Educational and financial institutions are increasingly partnering to open Children’s Savings Accounts (CSAs); however, little is known about these partnerships’ effectiveness for planning and implementing CSAs. A 2011 invitational priority from the Department of Education encouraged partnerships between Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs (GEAR UP) programs and financial institutions to open CSAs for low-income students, which provided an opportunity to evaluate these partnerships. In-depth interviews with 10 personnel from 6 financial institutions who partnered with 4 GEAR UP programs revealed that partnerships with stakeholders, time spent on planning, and strategies for overcoming barriers were important for implementing CSAs. Lessons for practice and policy are discussed.     

A Latent Growth Curve Analysis of the Structure of Aggression,Drug Use,and Delinquent Behaviors and Their Interrelations Over Time in Urban and Rural Adolescents

Latent growth curve analysis was used to examine the structure and interrelations among aggression, drug use, and delinquent behavior during early adolescence. Five waves of data were collected from 667 students at three urban middle schools serving a predominantly African American population, and from a more ethnically diverse sample of 950 students at four rural middle schools. One set of models focused on changes in individual behaviors; the other on changes in a global problem behavior factor. Models with separate growth trajectories for aggression, drug use, and delinquent behavior provided the best fit for both samples and revealed relations between initial levels of aggression and subsequent changes in the other behaviors. Boys and girls differed in their initial levels of these behaviors, but not their patterns of change. Differences in growth curve trajectories were found across samples. These findings have important implications for assessment and prevention of problem behaviors in adolescents.     

Sense of Community and Community Participation: A Meta-Analytic Review

Many studies indicate that participation and sense of community (SoC) are associated factors enhancing community development. However, research has almost completely ignored the magnitude of the association between the two and the stability of this relationship across contexts, populations and different forms of community participation. A meta-analysis was conducted to assess the following: (a) the strength and stability of the SoC-participation relationship; (b) variations in this relationship associated with different forms of participation (i.e., civic and political); and (c) the influence of population characteristics on the SoC-participation relationship. The results showed that the SoC-participation relationship is significant, positive and moderately strong for forms of participation in the adult population and specific cultural contexts. Implications for theory and applications are discussed.     

The revised safe at home instrument for assessing readiness to change intimate partner violence

This article describes the development and factor structure of the Revised Safe At Home instrument, a 35-item self-report measure designed to assess individuals' readiness to change their intimate partner violence behaviors. Seven new items have been added, representing content specific to the Maintenance stage, and other items have been revised to strengthen the assessment of earlier stages and address gender concerns. Confirmatory factor analysis using multisite data (two sites, a total of 281 men at intake) supported the conclusion that a four-factor model (Precontemplation, Contemplation, Preparation/Action, and Maintenance stages) was consistent with the observed covariances. A high degree of correlation between the Preparation/Action and Maintenance scales was observed, but subsequent testing indicated a need to treat the two as distinct factors in the model. It is recommended that scoring include only 31 items that perform well.     

Exploring the effects of creative CEO leadership on innovation in high-technology firms

This study introduces two dimensions of strategic leadership, termed operational and creative specifically developed for top executives of high-technology firms. Creative leadership reflects a CEO's emphasis on developing social and human capital and investing in the firm's internal knowledge development. We contrast this with operational leadership which reflects a CEO's ability to explore new paths of growth as well as exploit existing ones by redefining and extending the boundaries of the firm to new product and market domains. Hypotheses relating these two dimensions of leadership with innovation quantity, innovation resonance and novelty are tested using a sample of 77 high-technology firms.