Rules of engagement: Practice what you tweet

This study explored tweets that mention highly engaged companies and compared them to tweets that mention less engaged competitors. Results showed that a highly engaged company received less negative mentions in tweets, but only if the company also practiced dialogical communication. Additionally, less engaged companies received more mentions in tweets and in one instance tweets that mentioned a less engaged company shared more links with others.     

Avoid falling for a jerk(ette): Effectiveness of the Premarital Interpersonal Choices and Knowledge Program among Emerging Adults

Premarital education may help emerging adults form healthy relationships, but evaluation research is needed, particularly with community samples. We studied emerging adults in the Premarital Interpersonal Choices and Knowledge (PICK) program, using a pre‐ to post‐ and a posttest‐then‐retrospective‐pretest design to examine change in perceived relationship skills, partner selection, relational patterns, and relationship behaviors and attitudes. Mixed models analyses showed that scores for the treatment group (n = 682) increased from pre to post on all four outcomes. Changes in scores for the nonequivalent comparison group (n = 462) were nonsignificant. In addition, significant differences between pre‐ and retrospective prescores demonstrated evidence for response shift bias. The results suggest that the PICK program helps participants increase their knowledge regarding the components of healthy relationship formation.     

Why Not Consider Citizenship?: A Critique of Post-school Transitional Models for Young Disabled People

The transition from school to 'adulthood', for young disabled people, is generally considered difficult by the relevant literature and service providers in the field. The present transitional models, however, both lack a consensus on the criteria for a 'successful' transition and fail to incorporate the young people into the debate. The young people can be treated with little respect and given little control in transitional decisions, particularly as three negative statuses are typically attributed to them when they face transitional services: of being crisis-ridden adolescents, of being needy clients, and of being marginalized members of society. Instead, a transitional model based on citizenship is advocated, which would include re-locating the debate over 'successful' transition criteria with disabled people, altering the present 'transitional service' systems to revolve around the young people, and greater connections between disability advocacy organizations and young disabled people.     

Research in the service of society: Women at the institute for research in social science

This paper examines the place and contributions of women at the Institute for Research in Social Science from 1925 to 1945. Founded by Howard Odum at the Unviersity of North Carolina in 1924, the Institute provided an environment in which women could pursue social scientific work free from the gender discrimination found at most universities during the period. Research and publications by the women made important contributions to sociology and related fields while fulfilling the Institute’s primary mission of promoting regional understanding and development.     

The personal factor in evaluation use : A case study of a steering committee's use of a conservation tillage survey

In 1985 a statewide farmer survey about conservation tillage was conducted. It provided baseline data for a major energy conservation project. The data were used for 2 years, at which time a case study was undertaken to identify factors which influenced the tillage survey's use. The influence of the personal factor on evaluation use had been identified prior to planning the tillage survey. Therefore, the process used for conducting the tillage survey capitalized on the personal factor by using a team approach. The case study identified ways intended users actually used the tillage survey results, associated these findings with the team strategy, and generated important factors contributing to evaluation use when the personal factor was accounted for. Factors supporting the personal factor which appear to have influenced use were timeliness, intended users' ownership of the information, interaction among decision makers and the evaluator, methodological appropriateness and quality, and planning for use of the results.     

Making a difference? Bringing children's and young people's views into policy‐making

As the participation of children and young people in policy decision‐making has spread in the UK, participation work is facing hard questions on its translation from principle to effective practice. The participation literature has been largely self‐referential in its consideration of policy influence. This paper considers the potential usefulness of the UK literature on policy networks, which categorises the relationships between government actors and other interests in policy‐making. A brief introduction is given to this literature. Then a participatory project is examined in light of certain key concepts within the policy network literature. The paper concludes by considering how both the participation and the policy networks literature might learn from each other in future conceptual and empirical work.     

Workplace discrimination and traumatic brain injury: the national EEOC ADA research project

Using the Integrated Mission System of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the employment discrimination experience of Americans with traumatic brain injury is documented. Researchers compare and contrast the key dimensions of workplace discrimination involving Americans with traumatic brain injury and persons with other physical, sensory, and neurological impairments. Specifically, the researchers examine demographic characteristics of the charging parties; the industry designation, location, and size of employers against whom complaints are filed; the nature of discrimination (i.e., type of adverse action) alleged to occur; and the outcome or resolution of the investigations. Findings indicate that persons with traumatic brain injury were more likely to encounter discrimination after obtaining employment as opposed to during the hiring process. They were also more likely to encounter discrimination when they were younger or Caucasian or when employed in the Midwestern or Western United States. Implications are addressed.