Teaching Children about the Global Economy: Integrating Inquiry with Human Rights

Although children are already part of the global economy, they often have little understanding of its influence without explicit instruction. The article focuses on recommendations for teaching elementary students in grades three through five about the global economy utilizing the pedagogical recommendations from the National Council for the Social Studies and curricular and pedagogical suggestions from economic educators, human rights educators, and research. The author advocates using the inquiry arc to actively engage students in learning and integrating a human rights perspective, along with an economic perspective, to broaden students' understanding of the global economy. Economics helps young students learn why their clothes and toys are produced in different countries while human rights education enables them to comprehend the lives of workers who produce their clothing and toys. The inquiry arc also offers opportunities for young students to take action when they encounter human rights abuses during the production of their toys and clothing. Children are not only prepared for their future role as citizens but act as citizens while they are still children concerned about the human rights of all people involved in producing their clothes and toys.     

Biology Matters? Intimate Relationships of Young Adults From Divorced and Intact Family Backgrounds as a Function of Biological Father and Male Model Involvement

Parental divorce generally results in reduced paternal involvement (i.e., decreased availability of a male model). The consequences are severe given the father's role in shaping children's intimate relationship beliefs and behaviors. Yet, after divorce, other sources of modeled behaviors might be available (e.g., stepfathers or grandfathers). To date, no research has compared biological paternal involvement and other male model involvement with regard to young adults' intimate relationships. Our results indicate that young adults who experience high paternal or male model involvement report more positive intimate relationship behaviors. Further, no differences were found between the high paternal involvement and high male model involvement groups, suggesting positive male model involvement might moderate the effects of divorce and low paternal involvement.     

The Impact of Parental Death on Child Well-being: Evidence From the Indian Ocean Tsunami

Identifying the impact of parental death on the well-being of children is complicated because parental death is likely to be correlated with other, unobserved factors that affect child well-being. Population-representative longitudinal data collected in Aceh, Indonesia, before and after the December 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami are used to identify the impact of parental deaths on the well-being of children aged 9–17 at the time of the tsunami. Exploiting the unanticipated nature of parental death resulting from the tsunami in combination with measuring well-being of the same children before and after the tsunami, models that include child fixed effects are estimated to isolate the causal effect of parental death. Comparisons are drawn between children who lost one or both parents and children whose parents survived. Shorter-term impacts on school attendance and time allocation one year after the tsunami are examined, as well as longer-term impacts on education trajectories and marriage. Shorter- and longer-term impacts are not the same. Five years after the tsunami, there are substantial deleterious impacts of the tsunami on older boys and girls, whereas the effects on younger children are more muted.     

Psychosocial correlates of recreational ecstasy use among college students

College students' ecstasy (MDMA) use increased significantly in recent years, yet little is known about these students. In this study, the authors used the Center for Alcohol and Other Drug Studies (CORE) survey to compare 29 college students who had used ecstasy and other illicit drugs with 90 students who had used marijuana and no other illicit drugs. They noted differences in age, frequency of alcohol and marijuana use, average age of onset of marijuana use, frequency of negative consequences associated with substance use, perceptions of peer norms' drug use, perceived peer acceptance of substance use, and risk perception of substance use. When they entered polysubstance use as a covariate, many of these correlates became nonsignificant. The authors suggest that college ecstasy initiators may be a cohort of marijuana users who tend to engage in multiple risk-taking behaviors. This study serves as a preliminary effort to better understand college students who use ecstasy recreationally.     

Encounters with Philanthropic Information: Cognitive Dissonance and Implications for the Social Sector

Using interviews with senior level employees in the social sector, I analyze the interactions between organizations and individual potential and existing donors. I recommend a reevaluation of the sector’s use of what I term “agents of philanthropy,” as well as a reconsideration of the hesitation to introduce philanthropic giving to individuals and corporations. To support this assertion, I conduct a thematic content analysis of The New York Times to show how the transference of philanthropic information affects the cognitions and subsequent actions of readers. Using this analysis, I show how individuals may be primed for charitable giving if only these opportunities were presented. The design and focus of this research addresses what I have perceived as oversights in philanthropic research to date: the exclusion of psychology theory, an overemphasis on the conscious, stated motivations of donors, and the lack of interdisciplinary work on prosocial behaviors.