Sharing beyond Slacktivism: the effect of socially observable prosocial media sharing on subsequent offline helping behavior

New forms of youth social and political participation have been termed ‘Slacktivism’ – low-cost online forms of social engagement that decrease subsequent offline participation. Previous experimental work has provided support for a ‘Slacktivism effect,’ but it is unclear if this theoretical model applies to youth media sharing on social networking sites. This study uses a novel sharing simulation paradigm to test the effect of publicly vs. anonymously sharing a social cause video on subsequent willingness to engage in offline helping behavior. Results show that publicly (as compared to anonymously) sharing a selected video on one’s own Facebook wall led to a greater willingness to volunteer for an issue-related cause. Participants’ existing use of social media for engagement in social issues/causes moderated the effect, such that only participants low in use of social media for social engagement were susceptible to the sharing manipulation. Implications for reconceptualizing media sharing as a unique form of online participation beyond ‘Slacktivism’ are discussed.     

Lyme Disease: A Case Report

Abstract

Using a needs-assessment technique called story-boarding to determine characteristics of health promotion and wellness among university students is discussed. Storyboarding allows students to work together as they generate ideas and eliminates the territorial defensiveness that often occurs when new ideas are suggested. Sixteen graduate students in a health education teaching methods course demonstrated the use of the technique to identify characteristics of wellness for university students. In addition, they identified content areas and outlined key programs, services, personal habits, and skills useful for enhancing university students' wellness.     

Infant feeding and asthma: is breast milk best?

Asthma is the most commonly occurring chronic childhood disease in the United States and is the leading cause of hospitalization and missed school days. In this article, I examine whether differences in asthma diagnosis can be attributed to differences in breastfeeding incidence and duration. Using data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Survey, I examine whether unobserved heterogeneity in the breastfeeding decision plays a role in childhood asthma propensity. I use the recursive bivariate probit framework to account for potential endogeneity by modeling the breastfeeding and asthma equations jointly. Results indicate that after accounting for the unobserved heterogeneity found in infant feeding practices, breastfeeding leads to lower rates of asthma diagnosis in children at age one. Breastfeeding for at least 3 months appears to have the strongest effects in children diagnosed at age one. However, there are no discernible effects of breastfeeding on the incidence of asthma by age three. These results indicate that breastfeeding can result in lower rates of wheezing and better respiratory health in small children.     

A Two-Dimensional Person-Environment Fit Analysis of the Performance, Effort and Satisfaction of Research Scientists

SUMMARY This study questions traditional assumptions in the person-environment fit models. Previous research has regarded any kind of fit as positive and any kind of misfit as negative. In the present study, this thinking is refined. It is proposed that consideration of the nature of the fit or misfit matters and that different dependent variables, including performance, may be affected differently. The proposal is tested with a sample of 212 research scientists. The findings demonstrate modest support for the differing effects of type of fit on the dependent variables.