The Impact of Neighboring on Changes in Sense of Community Over Time: A Latent Transition Analysis

Sense of community (SOC) is associated with the quality of community life and the building of social capital. While its linkage to informal social behavior, such as neighboring, is inherent in discussions regarding theory, empirical evidence remains scarce. Moreover, the degree to which neighboring behavior influences SOC over time is largely unknown. Using a latent transition analysis, the effect of neighboring on SOC was investigated over a 5-year span from 2006 to 2011 among a sample of adults (n?=?165) in Arizona. Initially, a latent class analysis identified two SOC subgroups: Low SOC and High SOC. The likelihood of shifts in SOC class membership over 5 years was generally stable, with most individuals staying in the same group (82.3% Low SOC; 92.4% High SOC). Neighboring behavior and socio-demographic covariates impacted the likelihood that individuals changed classes, with 25.3% of Low SOC individuals transitioning to High SOC in 2011 and 55.4% of High SOC individuals moving to Low SOC in 2011. Specifically, having an income greater than $60,000 and visiting with neighbors lessened the likelihood of being in the Low SOC class in 2006; and length of residence and exchanging favors with neighbors lessened the likelihood of being in the Low SOC class in 2011. These findings have implications for both community design and community development practice. Design and development interventions that promote greater social interaction may help build and sustain SOC over time.

     

GENDER AND RACE PATTERNS IN THE PATHWAYS FROM SPORTS PARTICIPATION TO SELF-ESTEEM

Athletics is the most prominent extracurricular activity in U.S. secondary schools in terms of student participation and school budgets. The latter is often justified on the grounds that healthy bodies produce healthy minds, that school sports boost school spirit, and that participation in school-based sports increases students' self-esteem. In this article we examine the interrelationships among participation in a school-based sport and the benefits assumed to be associated with it. Specifically, we test a model that postulates that school spirit, operationalized as attachment to school, and healthy bodies, operationalized as a sense of physical well-being, mediate the relationship between school sports and self-esteem. Data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health on Caucasian and African American girls and boys were employed to test the model. School attachment and physical well-being absorbed the statistical effect of participating in a sport for all four gender-by-race groups. Among Caucasian girls a negative residual effect of sports participation was observed, which suggests that sports participation encapsulates multiple effects with contradictory influences. For African American girls school attachment by itself was not a significant mediator of the effect of sports participation on self-esteem. For all groups a sense of physical well-being was the more powerful mediator.     

A social identity model of prosocial behaviors within nonprofit organizations

This study draws on social identity theory, while developing and testing the Social Identification Model of Prosocial Behavior among voluntary participants in nonprofit organizations. This model posits relationships between organization identification, commitment, satisfaction, and prosocial behavior among nonprofit volunteers. Path analysis results indicate successful identification of the model. Specifically, when volunteers identified with their nonprofit, they had higher levels of prosocial behaviors, commitment, and satisfaction. This study provides several important extensions to social identity theory and nonprofit literatures while highlighting the need for further research examining motivations behind prosocial behaviors within nonprofits.     

Child Care “Packaging” Among TANF Recipients: Implications for Social Work

This article reports the results of a study that examined the ways in which current and recent TANF recipients assembled or “packaged” their child care arrangements among formal and informal providers. The findings are drawn from in-person, in-depth interviews with current and former welfare recipients. The study found that most of the respondents used multiple providers within the category of informal child care for reasons including availability, the use of a network of social acquaintances as a problem-solving resource, the need to accommodate irregular work hours, and personal trauma that contributed to a distrust of strangers in formal settings. The findings can affect the efficacy of practice with TANF recipients by contributing to social workers’ understanding of the context of decision-making regarding child care.     

“A rape was reported”: construction of crime in a university newspaper

Historically, the news media have engaged in high rates victim blaming in their reporting of sexual assaults. However, in recent years, gains in civil rights and renewed attention to Title IX may mean sexual assault victims are receiving less-biased news coverage. Using a content analysis, we examined the tone and message of all crime stories published in one United States university newspaper from academic year 2015–2016 (n = 99). Comparing attributions of responsibility made to both victims and offenders across several major crime categories (rape, murder, sexual assault, robbery, physical assault, sexual misconduct, and sexual abuse), and consistent with historical trends, we found higher levels of victim blaming in stories on rape and sexual assault than any other crime. We identify rhetorical devices commonly used to discredit the victim and/or absolve the perpetrator. Despite perceived gains achieved by Title IX, news coverage continues to buttress victim blaming culture.     

Access to justice for Aboriginal People in the Northern Territory

This article discusses research in the Northern Territory on Aboriginal civil and family law needs. It is based on focus group discussions and interviews with legal services providers and other associated organisations. The article argues that key areas of legal need involve discrimination, housing, child protection, social security, credit/debt and consumer law problems. It further argues that welfare conditionality, particularly as embodied in the NT Intervention and subsequent Stronger Futures policies, has exacerbated the need for legal assistance and advocacy for Aboriginal people.     

Deliberative street politics and sacralized dissent: Morocco’s 20 February movement and the Jamaa Al Adl Wal Ihsane

During a wave of protest in 2011, Morocco was home to its own uprisings, spurred on by the 20 February movement. Unlike its neighbors to the east, the Moroccan regime was never dismantled. So, what was the sociopolitical significance of the 20 February movement? This profile examines the landscape at the time of uprisings and presents brief interview data to make the case that these protests facilitated a political articulation and a new deliberative street politics.     

Playground Accessibility and Neighbourhood Social Interaction Among Parents

While the positive association between social interaction and access to green space is well accepted, little research has sought to understand the role of children??s playgrounds in facilitating social interaction within a community. Playgrounds are spaces designed to facilitate play and the interaction of children, but may also be important places of interaction between parents. In this paper we examine how access to playground spaces is related to social interaction between parents. We use two measures of accessibility (1) walking distance to the closest playground and (2) playground service area, a measure of the number of potential users of a playground based on population density. We use generalized estimating equations, an extension of generalized linear models, to control for the confounding effects of socio-economic status (income, education), neighbourhood dynamics (neighbourhood location, years in neighbourhood) and free time (daily outdoor activity, marital status, number of children) on the independent relationship between social interaction and access to playground spaces. Our results suggest that while accessibility to playgrounds is associated with social interaction among parents, the direction of the effect is opposite to existing literature on green space and social interaction; parents with low accessibility to playgrounds are more likely to interact socially with their neighbours than parents with high accessibility. Our results suggest a pattern of spatial behaviour in which the burden of poor access to some resources may actually encourage greater neighbourhood engagement. Future research studying the relationship between health and green space may benefit from studying the specific role of playground spaces.     

The Culture of High-Risk Alcohol Use Among Club and Intramural Athletes

Abstract

Objective: The purpose of this study was to examine the drinking patterns of club and intramural college athletes and compare their alcohol consumption, perceived norms around the excessive use of alcohol, experience of negative consequences, and employment of protective strategies with those of campus varsity athletes. Participants: A total of 442 undergraduate students attending a private, suburban institution in the Northeast participated in the American College Health Association National College Health Assessment-II Web survey in spring 2011. Thirty-five students identified themselves as varsity athletes, 76 identified as club sport athletes, and 196 students identified themselves as intramural athletes. Methods: Survey responses were analyzed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences. The Pearson's correlation coefficient and test for independence were applied to identify significant relationships between athlete status and identified variables related to alcohol use. Results: Results indicated that there were significant correlations between athlete status and all variables, to varying degrees. Conclusions: These findings have implications for campus health promotion professionals and athletics program coordinators seeking to address high-risk alcohol use among college athletes.