Disruptions,adjustments and hopes: The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on child well-being in five Majority World Countries

Drawing on integrated data from focus groups and diary entries, we explored the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on child well-being for children from five Majority World Countries. We focus on the disruptions the pandemic caused, the adjustments made in response to these, and children's vision of a post-pandemic world. Underlying children's experiences of loss, boredom and concerns about educational progress, was an awareness of systemic inequalities that disadvantaged them or others in their community. Findings have implications on capturing children's voices through introspective and dialogical approaches that transcend cultures and for the development of preventive and responsive interventions during crises.     

Prejudices,social competencies and political orientations in relation to schools’ hidden curriculum

In the framework of a one-and-a-half year long research and development project implemented by the Kurt Lewin Foundation, we studied the relationships between organizational culture and the hidden curriculum of schools, as well as how students’ knowledge, opinions, and attitudes are connected to active citizenship, democratic values, social and political issues, and questions related to minorities. We were interested to discover whether we could find any connections between school life, teaching competencies, teachers’ knowledge and students’ extreme right sentiments, and political attitudes. According to our hypothesis, students in a more democratic school should hold more democratic views, and should be more open towards minorities, demonstrating more support for human rights and the rule of law. Our research – focusing on graduating student cohorts, studying in secondary schools located in Eastern Hungary – only partly confirmed our hypothesis: the schools involved in the project influenced students’ knowledge, opinions, and attitudes regarding issues within schools. However, with respect to most questions, there was a limited relationship between school environment and student attitudes regarding social-political issues outside the schools. Our research also explored the underlying reasons behind the results and – connected to that – possible ways to ameliorate attitudes, from the school management level to educational policy-making.

A Kurt Lewin Alapítvány másféléves kutatási-fejlesztési programja során megvizsgáltuk, hogy milyen kapcsolat van az iskolák szervezeti kultúrája, rejtett tanterve és a diákok aktív állampolgársággal, demokratikus értékekkel, szociális és politikai kérdésekkel, valamint kisebbségekkel kapcsolatos tudása, vélekedése és attit?dje között. Arra voltunk kíváncsiak, hogy található-e kapcsolat az iskolai élet, a tanítás és a tanárok ismeretei, kompetenciái és attit?dje, valamint a diákok széls?jobboldalhoz kapcsolódó érzelmei és politikai attit?dje között. Hipotézisünk szerint a demokratikusabb iskolák diákjai maguk is inkább demokratikusak, nyitottabbak a kisebbségek felé, jobban támogatják az emberi jogokat és a jogállami kereteket. Kutatásunk, melyben kelet-magyarországi középiskolák végz?s diákjai vettek rész, csak részben igazolta feltevésünket: a programba bevont iskolák a diákok iskolán belüli életére vonatkozóan bírnak befolyásoló hatással a diákok tudására, véleményére és attit?djeire. Mindazonáltal a legtöbb kérdés esetében az iskola falain kívüli élet társadalmi-politikai ügyeit illet?en nincsenek jelent?s hatással. Kutatásunk annak is utána járt, hogy milyen magyarázatok találhatók az eredményekre és - ehhez kapcsolódóan - milyen fejlesztési lehet?ségek állnak rendelkezésre az iskolaigazgatási szintt?l egészen az oktatáspolitikai döntéshozásig. Jelen cikkünkben a diákok adott társadalmi-politikai kérdéseket illet? attit?djeire vonatkozó eredményeket és a releváns fejlesztési javaslatokat ismertetjük.     

Political Participation and Cumulative Disadvantage: The Impact of Economic and Social Hardship on Young Citizens

In this article, we seek to provide the most comprehensive exploration to date of the effects of economic and social disadvantage on young citizens' voter turnout. We look at four overlapping domains of hardship—those rooted in (a) the family context, (b) the community context, (c) the school context, and (d) major events and life transitions. Our conceptual model of cumulative advantage/disadvantage identifies the different ways in which disadvantages can have cumulative effects on social outcomes generally and on civic participation in particular. Our framework also suggests how patterns of advantage and disadvantage may be mediated by social institutions. Using data from the National Education Longitudinal Survey, we show that disadvantages rooted in the family have major impact on all groups of young citizens and that family disadvantage interacts with school disadvantage for whites. We also show that the effects of early parenthood, being arrested, and dropping out of school have differential effects depending on race. We also show that community colleges function as civic leveling institutions—especially for African American youth.     

The face says it all: CEOs,gender, and predicting corporate performance

This study examined relationships among CEOs' facial appearance, gender-linked traits, and the financial performance of their company as indicated by Fortune 1000 rank and company profits. Naïve college students rated traits based solely on the facial appearance of male and female CEOs whose companies were matched by Fortune 1000 rank. Female CEOs were rated higher than male CEOs on communal traits (supportiveness, compassion, warmth), whereas male CEOs were rated higher than female CEOs on agentic traits (dominance, leadership, powerfulness), consistent with social role theory. Correlations with company rank and/or profits were found for powerfulness for male CEOs, and for supportiveness, warmth and compassion for female CEOs. For female CEOs, a communal composite predicted company rank and profits, and an agentic composite marginally predicted company rank. The findings do not indicate why these variables are related, but implications for the association of gender-linked traits with top corporate leaders are discussed.     

Transforming a nonprofit work environment for creativity

As many nonprofit organizations struggle to maximize the use of their resources while simultaneously handling more complex social problems, creativity becomes especially important. It is the necessary first step required for innovation, which provides agencies with the upper hand in many areas of organizational management. It has been suggested that certain work environments can contribute to increased levels of creativity. So it is important that the managers of nonprofit organizations have tools that allow them to develop a work context that enhances employee creativity. This article presents a study where one such tool—concept mapping—was used in the process of transforming a work environment. Qualitative and quantitative data showed that the transformation efforts contributed to major changes in the organization's culture, leadership's attitudes and behaviors, coworker relationships, and the physical work environment, which in turn contributed to positive organizational outcomes.     

ADDRESSING SOCIAL DILEMMAS WITH MASCOTS,INFORMATION, AND GRAPHICS

Reducing nonpoint source pollution is a complex social dilemma involving externalities, information asymmetries, and coordination problems. Using a laboratory experiment, this research investigates how mascots, public information, and data visualization can improve collective group behavior to address a social dilemma. Results show that groups reduce pollution in the experiment when a community mascot expresses negative emotions in response to poor water quality outcomes. Additionally, groups pollute less when they are provided public information about water quality, and abatement is greater when feedback is negatively framed. This study demonstrates how novel nonmonetary incentives can be used to achieve a collective environmental goal. (JEL D79, Q25, Q52, Q53, D83)     

Puberty Education in a Global Context: Knowledge Gaps,Opportunities, and Implications for Policy

Youth programs and policies provide opportunities for institutions and societies to support healthy adolescent development. Puberty education programs are universally important, as they provide crucial knowledge and skills to help youth and their caregivers navigate the physical, emotional, and interpersonal changes of puberty with positive outcomes. However, few puberty programs have been rigorously evaluated, resulting in a lack of evidence‐based knowledge and practice in this area. This review examines the status of research on puberty education and related programs and draws on the broader intervention literature and recent research findings on adolescence to identify program features that might improve program effectiveness. Implications for policy are also discussed. The need for rigorous program evaluation is emphasized throughout.     

Disjunctures for Women and Frontline Workers: Implementation of the Family Violence Option

This research uses analysis of qualitative interviews with 10 battered welfare clients and 15 frontline welfare workers to examine the implementation of the Family Violence Option (FVO) under welfare reform. States adopting the FVO agree to screen for domestic violence, refer identified victims to community resources, and waive program requirements that would endanger the women or with which they are unable to comply. The analyses find that none of the 10 clients in this study received these services. This lack of services reflects four critical disjunctures between the formal policy and the policy experienced by the clients. It also reveals several more basic structural factors that provide conflicting mandates to frontline workers. Frontline workers' discretionary behaviors enforce core rules related to welfare eligibility and reduce welfare caseloads but do not provide violencerelated services to victims.