bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Manager Intervention with Troubled Supervisors
Authors: Hopkins Karen M.
Published: March 2007

Although research demonstrates the importance of supervisors’ supportive and helping interactions with troubled workers, little is known about how managers help troubled supervisors. Survey data from managers and supervisors in a top manufacturing company revealed that supervisors experienced personal troubles and sought help from informal and formal resources, including their managers. Managers reported supporting and helping troubled supervisors, informally and formally. However, both supervisors’ help seeking and managers’ help giving used more informal than formal processes. Managers’ attitudes about help giving and awareness of supervisors’ problems were associated with their intervention behaviors. This study examines the important role that managers may play in facilitating supportive communication and helping interactions in the workplace.
Engineering Selves
Authors: Jorgenson Jane
Published: March 2007

This article used the concept of discursive positioning to explore the narrative construction of professional identities among women engineers. The analysis of interviews with 15 women in a variety of engineering specialties suggested that they adopt a variety of distinct and sometimes contradictory positionings to present themselves as qualified professionals. In general, participants were reluctant to acknowledge gender relations as consequential for their careers and were also ambivalent about the implied focus of this research on female engineers as a “marginalized group.” A case is made for including and examining female engineers’ selfdetermined identities to arrive at more adequately complex descriptions of their work realities.
An Information Processing Analysis of Organization Information Adequacy/Abundance
Authors: Alexander Elmore R. , Helms Marilyn M. , Curran Kent E.
Published: March 2007

Penley (1982) attempted to clarify the understanding of information adequacy/abundance by examining the relationship between the internal and external systems of an organization and the match between the information processing requirements of a system and its capacity. His model did not consider the effect of communication effectiveness on the relationship. This article expands the model proposed by Penley by considering both the place of communication effectiveness as well as the potential for interactions between communication effectiveness and the internal and external systems of an organization. While support is found for the importance of communication effectiveness in the model, no interactions were found to be significant. In general, the results provide support and expand on Penley's results.
Organizational Perspectives for Public Relations Research and Practice
Authors: Trujillo Nick , Toth Elizabeth Lance
Published: March 2007

In this article, the authors review three broad paradigms from organizational research—functionalist, interpretive, and critical—and some of the representative theoretical approaches within each of these paradigms. They discuss the implications of these various perspectives for research in public relations and illustrate these implications with examples of research from public relations literature. They conclude with a brief analysis of the public relations efforts of Johnson and Johnson during the Tylenol crisis and illustrate how organizational theory and research can inform our analyses of public relations research and practice.
The Letter of Recommendation
Authors: Knouse Stephen B.
Published: March 2007

Attribution theory has been proposed as a means of understanding reader perceptions of the letter of recommendation. To test the hypothesis that familiarity may moderate the attributional framework of the letter, 97 managers read letter variations arrayed in a 4 (3 months, 1 year, 5 years, or 10 years familiarity) × 2 (dispositional or situational attribution framework) factorial design. Results showed that the situational framework was more effective for shorter periods of familiarity, while the dispositional framework was more effective for longer familiarity. In addition, readers perceived long familiarity (10 years) to be detrimental. Implications for writing letters of recommendation were discussed.
Corporate Publics and Rhetorical Strategies
Authors: Ice Richard
Published: March 2007

This article examines the role of rhetorical strategies in repairing damaged corporate relationships. Applying a multiple-publics concept and adapting Ware and Linkugel's rhetorical strategies of apologia to corporate discourse, this essay explores the use of an integrated model to corporate public relations. A case study of Union Carbide's justification of the Bhopal gas leak demonstrates the utility of such an approach. The essay concludes by examining the consequences of certain rhetorical strategies and the implications of this approach for management communication.
Gender Differences and Similarities in Management Communication
Authors: Wilkins Brenda M. , Andersen Peter A.
Published: March 2007

An abundance of primary research studies on managerial gender communication has produced no definitive findings regarding differences in the communication behaviors of male and female managers. A meta-analysis provides a synthesis of 25 primary studies. Six research questions address issues of behavioral differences and methodologies regarding managerial gender communication research and findings. Results of the meta-analysis suggest that communication differences between male and female managers are minimal, and of little social importance. The researchers suggest a position of sex similarities, advocate the use of an interactionist perspective, and urge future researchers to conduct high-quality research from which theory may be posited.
Identification with Multiple Targets in a Geographically Dispersed Organization
Authors: Scott Craig R.
Published: March 2007

Organizations today are characterized by changing structures and shifting employee loyalty, both of which make research on identification especially timely. Based on social identity theory, this study of a geographically dispersed organization builds on past identification research by examining 4 viable targets of identification simultaneously, the compatibility and competition between those targets, and the influence of several types of tenure. A series of hypotheses and research questions addressing these concerns are analyzed on the basis of 153 surveys from county, area, and state personnel in Colorado's Cooperative Extension Service. Five general conclusions are drawn regarding the relevance of multiple identification targets for the most dispersed geographic levels, the importance of occupational identification across organizational levels, the compatibility between all identification targets, differences between short-and long-term employees, and the importance of occupational tenure in predicting identification.
Sex Differences, Organizational Level, and Superiors' Evaluation of Managerial Leadership
Authors: Knott Katherine B. , Natalle Elizabeth J.
Published: March 2007

Sex differences and leadership research literature includes many findings concerning subordinate evaluations of managers' performance, but little is known about superiors' perceptions of male and female managers. This study explored superiors' evaluations of the leadership skills of their managers to determine if sex differences exist. A sample of 400 male and female managers, representing middle and upper organizational levels, were rated on Benchmarks, a multirater feedback instrument developed at the Center for Creative Leadership. A 2 x 2 MANOVA detected no interaction effect between sex of the manager and organization level. Main effect analyses revealed one difference: Female managers were rated higher on 1 of 16 scales, putting people at ease. Upper level managers were evaluated higher than middle level managers by their superiors on 8 scales. Results indicate that sex differences are not salient in distinguishing managerial leadership ability once the manager has crossed a threshold of organizational experience.
Decision Making under Time Pressure
Authors: Smith C. A.P. , Hayne Stephen C.
Published: March 2007

A quasi-experiment was conducted in which groups made business decisions under time pressure. Half of the groups were supported with a group support system (GSS) called the Electronic Discussion System; half had no computer support. The groups consisted of college students who had considerable experience with the GSS and the decision task and had worked together for the previous 10 weeks. Decision quality, decision speed, and leadership emergence were measured. All groups received significant financial rewards in direct proportion to their decision quality and decision speed. GSS groups used more time to arrive at their decisions but made decisions of higher quality than non-GSS-supported groups. In addition, there was some evidence that, under time pressure, GSS-supported groups used a more leader-directed decision process than did other typical users of GSS.
Task Characteristics, Managerial Socialization, and Media Selection
Authors: Donabedian Bairj , McKinnon Sharon M. , Bruns William J.
Published: March 2007

Why do managers choose one communication medium in preference to another? Early studies relied on rational-choice theories to model how managers select media. Recent research, however, has proposed a role for social factors in media selection. Employing a large sample collected in the field, this study finds strong support for Information Richness Theory, a rational-choice model connecting managers' choice of media to task characteristics such as variety and analyzability. Also tested were variables indexing the rank and functional area of the managers, with the intent of measuring the impact of group socialization on media choice. These rank and functional area variables, although sometimes significant, did not materially expand the explanatory power of a model that also included rational-choice variables.
Managerial Media Selection and Information Evaluation from the Receiver’s Perspective in Decision-Making Contexts
Authors: Lee Jaesub , Heath Robert L.
Published: March 2007

This study explored managerial media selection and information evaluation in decisionmaking contexts. Expanding this line of research, this study focused on the perspective of managers when they receive and/or seek information rather than send it across organizations in the oil and gas industry. Findings from 69 interviews indicate that managers (a) prefer to receive trade, product, and service information through multiple media; (b) perceive information received via multiple media to be comprehensible, credible, and relevant to their tasks; but (c) use rich media to seek additional information. Furthermore, managers prefer to use rich media to monitor informational environments when they need information more closely related to issues in their urgent decision-making tasks.
The Meaning of Living with AIDs: A Study Using Parse's Theory of Man-Living-Health
Authors: Nokes Kathleen M. , Carver Kathleen
Published: March 2007

This paper explores the meaning of living with Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) using Parse's theory of man-living-health as the conceptual framework. The design of the study is based on the qualitative descriptive method. Analysis of the data gathered from interviews with fourteen subjects reveals the emergence of three themes related to the meaning of living with AIDS: (a) an abrupt shift in patterns of being give rise to changing priorities, (b) fluctuating possibilities arise in the uncertainty of being with and away from close others, and (c) changing hopes and dreams surface from the insights of suffering. Practice propositions were identified from the findings of the study.
Learned Helplessness as an Interacting Variable with Self-Care Agency: Testing a Theoretical Model
Authors: McDermott Mary Anne Nelson
Published: March 2007

This article describes the theoretical development and initial testing of a model outlining the interaction of the concepts of self-care agency and learned helplessness in healthy working adults. Orem's theory of self-care and the reformulated learned helplessness theory are discussed as the theoretical basis for the study. The self-care agency conditioning factors, age and gender, were examined for relationships to the main variables. In a descriptive, correlational design, the hypothesis, that learned helplessness was inversely related to self-care agency, was supported (r = -.57). Neither age norigender was related to main variables in the population. Implications for nursing research, self-care theory clarification, and nursing practice are discussed.
Quality of Life: An Interpersonal Perspective
Authors: Peplau Hildegard E.
Published: March 2007

Quality of life is a continuum having a higher to lower range. A person's perceptions of life quality are time-related and situation-dependent and tend to vary according to changing life circumstances. Human relationships, especially during the early years of growth and development, can be constructive or destructive influences which can color perceptions, expectations, and behavior patterns manifested in interpersonal interactions throughout the life span. Relationships define and confirm self-worth, identity, acceptance as a human being, a sense of belonging, and other essential interpersonal needs. Relationships provide social support and tend to reduce stress. The quality of interpersonal relationships has a strong bearing on perceptions of quality of life.
Testing Orem's Theory of Self-Care Deficit: Dependent Care Agent Performance for Children
Authors: Gaffney Kathleen Flynn , Moore Jean Burley
Published: March 2007

The purpose of this study was to test Orem's theory of self-care deficit, one of three constituent theories included in her general self-care deficit theory of nursing. Specifically, the relationship between dependent care agent performance and basic conditioning factors was examined. Dependent care agent performance for children was defined as health promotion and self-care activities provided by a responsible adult on behalf of the child. The Dependent Care Agent Questionnaire was used with a sample of 380 mothers of children from ages 1 to 16 years. The hypothesis that basic conditioning factors influenced dependent care agent performance was supported (R2 = .13, p = .0001).
Rogerian Science, Phantoms, and Therapeutic Touch: Exploring Potentials
Authors: Biley Francis C.
Published: March 2007

Traditional medical approaches to the treatment of potentially distressing phantom pain and sensations have been inconsistent in their success. In this article, the subject of phantom pain and sensations is explored and reconceptualized according to Martha Rogers' science of unitary human beings. Emergent perspectives, illustrated by a series of short case studies, suggest that such a reconceptualization and particularly the use of therapeutic touch may have a significant impact on positive human field image patterning.
Vigilance as a Caring Expression and Leininger's Theory of Cultural Care Diversity and Universality
Authors: Carr Jeanine M.
Published: March 2007

Vigilance, or the close, protective involvement of families caring for hospitalized relatives, was explored in this study using holistic ethnography. Leininger's theory of cultural care diversity and universality provided direction for the researcher to generate substantive data about the meanings, patterns, and day-to-day experience of vigilance. Five categories of meaning were derived from the data: commitment to care, emotional upheaval, dynamic nexus, transition, and resilience. The research findings expand understanding of vigilance as a caring expression, suggest direction for nursing practice, and contribute to Leininger's theory of cultural care diversity and universality and the development of nursing science.
The Struggle Over the Text: Compulsory Heterosexuality and Educational Policy
Authors: Birden Susan , Gaither Linda L. , Laird Susan
Published: March 2007

Effectively questioning educational policy in purely secular terms is especially difficult in the Bible Belt. Educators outside the Bible Belt may be skeptical of such claims, but empirical research with regard to lesbian and gay students' experiences substantiate this contention. Although argumentation explicitly citing biblical texts in public school policy contexts violates the U.S. Constitution, freedoms of speech, press, and assembly still protect popular opinion grounded in biblically based interpretations of policy issues. As long as educational policy with regard to sexual diversity is formed only at state/local levels, the Bible Belt's cultural pragmatics necessitate understanding prominent biblical interpretative strategies on sexual diversity and competing secular theorizing about sexual ontology, metaphysics, ethics, and politics that fuel policy disputes. Lacking critical awareness of interpretive strategies, educational leaders may find themselves at the mercy of local popular prejudice, unable to prevent these controversies from eclipsing ethical concern for gay and lesbian students' and teachers' safety and well-being.
Bounding Teacher Decision Making: The Threat of Intensification
Authors: Gitlin Andrew
Published: March 2007

One common limitation in most reform efforts is an understanding of the relation among teachers' work, decision making, and the construction of school knowledge. This study attempts to fill this gap by examining how critical theories of teachers' work both inform and are informed by an analysis of two case study middle schools. Findings from this study suggest that many of the decisions that teachers make are based on their attempt to contain the threat of intensification. Such a self-regulatory process shaped decisions in the areas of planning, grading, and classroom management and fostered a defensive form of school knowledge that is fact oriented, routinized, and mundane. Particularly troubling is the finding that this defensive form of knowledge was most pronounced in classes with large numbers of students of color
Digital Divide or Digital Opportunity? The Role of Technology in Overcoming Social Exclusion in U.S. Education
Authors: Selwyn Neil , Gorard Stephen , Williams Sara
Published: March 2007

The use of information technology in education is now a political orthodoxy, seen by many politicians and educators as a ready means of widening participation to those social groups traditionally excluded from learning. However; the role of technology in overcoming social exclusion in education and lifetime learning practices has often failed to be objectively discussed, with a tendency for many educationalists to adopt either overtly optimistic or pessimistic positions. From this background, the present article objectively examines both current patterns of exclusion from education and technology alongside the range of ongoing policies and initiatives established in the United States concerned with technology and education. Moreover; based on a range of North American and European research literature concerned with participation in education, the article then discusses the issues and problems faced by U.S. educationalists and policy makers in proactively using technology as a means of reducing social exclusion in lifelong education.
Global Rhetoric, Local Policy: Teacher Training Reform in Israeli Education
Authors: Gottlieb Esther E.
Published: March 2007

The focus of this article on teacher education reform in Israel is on educational reform documents, which have been subjected to a discourse analysis applying methods from poetics and intellectual history. It was possible to identify specific items of the international teacher education repertoire used to legitimate a local policy. For instance, when the Latin letters "B.Ed. " are inserted in the Hebrew tex4t it legitimizes the Boger hora'a (literally "teaching graduate") degree by assimilating it to the transnational degree of "B.Ed." The analysis shows how global reform rhetoric has been used to negotiate a new construct somewhere between the "ideal model" of teacher professionalization imported from the pacesetting countries (the United States and Great Britain) and the local situation.
Local Knowledge, Academic Skills, and Individual Productivity: An Alternative View
Authors: Balfanz Robert
Published: March 2007

This article explores the relationship between local (informal) knowledge, academic skills, and individual productivity. It argues that educational reform efforts often misinterpret and simplify this relationship in their attempt to improve the contribution of mass schooling to individual performance at work and as a citizen. As a consequence, many contemporary reform efforts inaccurately portray the productive capacity of the American public, propose curricular reforms and measurement strategies which are conceptually under developed, and may fail to realize their stated goals.
Cultural Transformation in an Urban Professional Development Center: Policy Implications for School-University Collaboration
Authors: Case Charles W. , Norlander Kay A. , Reagan Timothy G.
Published: March 2007

Entrenched organizational policies, coupled with significantly different (and to some degree incompatible) institutional and professional cultures, have made educational reform difficult to achieve. In this article, the process of cultural transformation in the redesign of a teacher preparation program involving an urban professional development center is discussed. It is suggested that such school-university partnerships can enhance the education of individual students, provide a variety of professional development activities for all involved, and foster research activities within school environments. Such collaboration can clearly build a cohort of teachers who will be better prepared for the multicultural nature of the public schools of the next century.
The Immorality of Test Security
Authors: Wiggins Grant
Published: March 2007

In this essay the author argues that test security in student testing is a practice of questionable morality and efficacy, despite the long-standing use of the practice by test-makers. Arguing that the practice is an unthinking immoral habit, with its roots in premodern medieval views of the teacher-student relationship, the author proposes that new policies and practices be formulated to protect the inherently vulnerable student in the same way that laws now protect adult test-takers and experimentees. The author argues that secrecy priorto, during, and after a test be scrutinized carefully and minimized through the use of explicit principles-an assessment Bill of Rights-that put the students' rights on a par with those of the test-maker and that honor the modem rights of informed consent and due process.
Economic Development and Public Education: Strategies and Standards
Authors: McGregor Eugene B.
Published: March 2007

Public discussion of public school reform has been animated by a popular presumption that public education is a key to economic development. The popular model further presumes that a direct and simple mechanism connects education and development. Review of a rapidly accumulating literature indicates that there is a strong connection, but the mechanisms are many and complex rather than few and simple. Three basic development strategies are identified and corresponding educational standards are defined as a way of simplifying a growing complexity confronting public decision makers. The strategy-standard pairs are termed the shifting foundation, high-performance applications, and innovation process.
Reducing Hispanic Dropout: A Case of Success
Authors: Neumann Richard A.
Published: March 2007

This article reports findings from an exploratory investigation of a comparatively low drop-out rate occurring in a predominantly Mexican American school district. Although it appears that numerous factors contribute to the district's ability to keep students in school-alternative education programs for "at-risk" students; counseling programs; a predominantly bilingual/bicultural faculty, staff, and administration; and, among other things, professional development programs for teachers-they are best understood as interrelated parts of a complex system rather than discrete elements that any school district may add piecemeal to achieve a lower drop-out rate. The most important factor contributing to strong student bonds with schools in the district, however, appears to be the sociocultural contexts of community and schooling.
State of the Art Versus the State of Practice: A Discrepancy in Need of Repair
Authors: Reynolds Maynard C.
Published: March 2007

Although we possess a significant body of knowledge that could improve education, it seeps slowly and unevenly into practice in the schools. There is a wide discrepancy between the "state of the art" and the "state of practice " in education everywhere but especially in the inner cities and remote rural areas. The author asks, "What should be the characteristics of a system designed to repair the discrepancy?" then proposes a complex diagnosis and prescription to help close the gap between the state of the art and the state of practice in the schools. As an example of the gap between knowledge and practice, the author explores the issue of categorical programs—a system that, he argues, has proven largely ineffective but continues nonetheless. Finally, drawing on the example of the "total system" in scientific agriculture, he suggests a number of design characteristics for a system for knowledge dissemination and utilization in education.
Reforming Schools in a Democratic Pluralistic Society
Authors: McGee Banks Cherry A. , Banks James A.
Published: March 2007

The authors argue that issues related to race, class, and gender diversity have been silenced in most school reform efforts. They maintain that to meet national and global needs for the next century, school reform must incorporate diversity issues, promote the democratic ideals stated in the nation's founding documents, and help students acquire the knowledge, attitudes, and skills needed to construct civic, moral, and just communities that promote the common good. The authors make policy recommendations for transforming school reform to reflect diversity and for educating students in a multicultural society.
Time, Money, and the Control of One's Own Work Life: An Examination of the Deferred Salary Leave Plan
Authors: Jacobson Stephen L. , Kennedy Sylvia
Published: March 2007

This article describes a contractually negotiated income leisure substitution provision commonly used in Canada but relatively unknown to school districts in the United States. Known as the deferred salary leave plan, this personnel policy enables teachers to assume greater control over their own work lives by allowing them to set aside monies to underwrite their own leaves of absence. After first examining this policy innovation, the authors argue that opportunities for income/leisure substitutions such as the deferred salary leave plan may help teachers alleviate job stress, offset the increased work demands of reform initiatives such as site-based management and shared decision making, and cause educational policy makers to reconsider common but rather narrow conceptions of staff development.
Transnational Migrants, Cultural Citizenship, and the Politics of Language in California
Authors: Mirón Louis F. , Inda Jonathan Xavier , Aguirre JoAnn K.
Published: March 2007

In this article, the authors explore, through the notions of cultural citizenship, how newly arrived immigrant students in California seek to carve out social space. They argue that students in Santa Ana, California, both embrace and challenge the prevailing ideologies on language embedded in Proposition 227, the so-called "English for the Children" initiative. Students here are at least moderately successful in exploiting the "translocality " of cities like Santa Ana to become polyglot citizens in America.
A Study of Disparities among School Facilities in North Carolina: Effects of Race and Economic Status
Authors: Burton Ramona L.
Published: March 2007

This study examines the relationship between the physical state of elementary school facilities and the proportion of low-income and African American children attending schools. It is hypothesized that as the proportion of low-income or Black children attending schools increases, the quality of school buildings decreases. Using data from the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction, this hypothesis is tested by means of a regression model on three levels: statewide, intradistrict, and interdistrict. Findings suggest that as the proportion of low-income students increases (other things being equal) the condition of facilities worsens. This is the case for all three types of analysis. However, as the proportion of Black students increases, the condition of facilities appears to improve modestly.
When Good Ideas Become Bad Policy: Implications of the National Voluntary Mathematics Test
Authors: Hartmann Christopher E. , Fisher Gwen L.
Published: March 2007

This article addresses President Clinton 's call for a National Voluntary Mathematics Test (NVMT) in the eighth grade. First, we discuss the form and content of the NVMT Our analysis suggests that several unanswered questions regarding the validity of the test devalue the information it can provide for students, parents, and teachers. Second, we describe the consequences of implementing a national test of student performance. We contend that these consequences require additional policy initiatives designed to address the effects of test implementation. We conclude that the enactment of the NVMT as currently proposed is unwise.
The Politics of Bilingual Education
Authors: Mitchell Douglas E. , Destino Tom , Karam Rita T. , ColÓN-MuÑIz Anaida
Published: March 2007

Proposition 227 was approved by Californians in June 1998. In essence, the voters amended the state constitution to outlaw bilingual education. This use of political power was used to solve technical arguments over language instruction for limited English proficiency (LEP) students. This article creates a framework for analyzing the politics of language development research and school program implementation. The model is then applied to language development programs in a large Southern California school district. The educational and political implications of the model and its application to Proposition 227 are discussed.
Externship at the Massachusetts Attorney General's Office
Authors: Spencer Elizabeth
Published: March 2007

While a student at Massachusetts College of Pharmacy, I did an externship with the Massachusetts Attorney General's Office Medicaid Fraud Control Unit. The unit investigates suspected fraud by health professionals and health care organizations. The director of pharmacy investigations, my preceptor, is a pharmacist and a Certified Fraud Examiner. This is a valuable combination when working on cases involving pharmaceuticals and durable medical equipment. Working at the Attorney General's Office has broadened my understanding of career options available to pharmacists. I would highly recommend this to any pharmacy student who may be doing externship work in the near future.
Spirituality, Resourcefulness, and Arthritis Impact on Health Perception of Elders with Rheumatoid Arthritis
Authors: Potter Mertie L. , Zauszniewski Jaclene A.
Published: March 2007

Arthritis is the leading chronic condition for older adults and the leading cause of disability in the United States. Providing holistic care to promote positive health perception and support healthy lifestyle decisions with these individuals is critical in attaining and maintaining quality of life. This study examined variables reflecting reactions to stress, lines of defense and resistance, and the basic core of humans in the context of the Neuman Systems Model in a convenience sample of 47 adults with a mean age of 70.4 years. The combined effects of the social, emotional, and physical impact of arthritis and additive or mediating effects of learned resourcefulness and spirituality on general health perception in older adults were investigated. Social, emotional, and physical impact together predicted health perception. The social impact of arthritis was a significant independent predictor for spirituality. Furthermore, spirituality and health perception were significantly correlated.
Factors Associated with Quality of Life in Adolescents with Spina Bifida
Authors: Sawin Kathleen J. , Brei Timothy J. , Buran Constance F. , Fastenau Philip S.
Published: March 2007

Adolescents with complex neurological conditions such as spina bifida require a holistic approach to their health care. Quality of Life (QOL) and the factors associated with QOL are important and understudied variables for these adolescents. A sample of 60 adolescents and their parents was interviewed to determine a) the adolescent’s and family’s QOL, b) condition/adolescent/family factors associated with QOL measures, and c) the relationship between adolescent and parent ratings on QOL measures. QOL was moderately high in these families. Few condition measures were related to QOL. However, several adolescent and family factors were significantly related to both overall QOL and health-related quality of life. There was no difference between adolescents and their parents on overall adolescent and family QOL items. Holistic practitioners need to be aware of areas perceived positively and negatively by these adolescents and their families as well as factors associated with outcomes.
Cultural and Spiritual Meanings of Childbirth
Authors: Callister Lynn Clark , Semenic Sonia , Foster Joyce Cameron
Published: March 2007

This descriptive, phenomenological study investigated the cultural and spiritual meanings of the childbirth experience from the personal perspectives of 30 Canadian Orthodox Jewish and 30 American Mormon women. Fewer Jewish women had childbirth education and attendance of their partners during childbirth than did Mormon women. Participants in the study, having codified belief systems, expressed the primary importance of bearing children in obedience to religious law. Birth was articulated as a bittersweet paradox, often accompanied by a sense of empowerment. Women described the importance of personal connectedness with others and with God, the importance of childbearing, and the spiritual and emotional dimensions of their childbirth experiences. Religious beliefs help women define the meaning of childbirth and may provide coping mechanisms for the intensity of giving birth. It is essential for holistic nurses to value and acknowledge the cultural and spiritual dimensions of the childbirth experience.
A Holistic Life View of Human Immunodeficiency Virus-Infected African American Women
Authors: Russell Jan M. , Smith Katharine V.
Published: March 2007

Minority women represent the fastest growing segment of the population to acquire HIV/AIDS in the United States. Although African American women are a large proportion of this group, no published study has concentrated solely on a holistic view of the experiences of HIV-infected African American women. The primary purpose of this phenomenological pilot study was to describe the lives of five HIV-infected African American women. Audiotaped interviews were conducted and subsequently were examined, using Giorgi’s steps of analysis. Twelve themes emerged from the data: violence, addiction, it couldn’t happen to me, shock and denial, education, time, uncertainty, cycles, secretive nature of their lives, someone, survival, and children. It is clear, even from this small pilot study, that these women have complex experiences that must be better understood before effective health care interventions can be designed and implemented.
Injuries among the Elderly in the Home Environment
Authors: Sjörgen Harmeet , Björnstig Ulf
Published: March 2007

Six hundred persons (aged 60 years and over) injured in 621 injury events in the home environment and treated at the Regional Hospital in Umeą, Northern Sweden in a 1-year period, were studied. The injury and fracture rates were 30 and 15 per 1,000 elderly home population, respectively. Injuries were grouped into fall injuries (76%) and nonfall injuries (24%). The fall injury incidence was higher in women than in men. Most fall injuries occurred indoors. Environmental factors played a role in half of the fall injuries, and intrinsic factors in at least one fifth. Intrinsic factors in fall injuries became increasingly important with advancing age. Nonfall injuries were sustained in woodworking, home maintenance or building work, and household chores. Fall injuries were of a greater severity than nonfall injuries and accounted for 82% of the injury-related costs in this age group. The medical "cost" exceeded the corresponding cost of traffic and occupational injuries among all ages in the same geographic area. In conclusion, prevention of injuries, particularly falls, in this vulnerable and increasing homebound population is urgently needed.
Alzheimer's Disease
Authors: Max Wendy , Webber Pam , Fox Patrick
Published: March 2007

This study presents detailed estimates of the hours and cost of informal care provided to Alzheimer's disease patients in Northern California. Data were collected over 12 months from 93 community-residing patients and their caregivers and from 94 institutionalized patients and their caregivers. Patients residing in the community received an average of 286 hours per month of unpaid care, whereas institutionalized patients received 36 hours per month. Alternative methods of imputing informal costs are described. The annual value of informal care (in 1990 dollars) is $34,517 for the noninstitutionalized sample and $5,542 for the institutionalized sample. The determinants of informal caregiving were examined and compared in the two settings. The more cognitively impaired the individual, the higher the informal costs no matter what the residental setting. In an institutional setting, the younger the patient and caregiver, the higher the costs. If a caregiver is not a spouse, higher informal care costs were also found.
Physical Performance and Physical Self-Efficacy in the Elderly
Authors: Bosscher Rudolf J. , Van Der Aa Hanneke , Van Dasler Marielle , Deeg Dorly J. H. , Smit Johannes H.
Published: March 2007

This study examined the relationship between physical performance and physical self-efficacy beliefs in older adults. It was hypothesized that subjects who perform better on physical tasks would show more positive beliefs of physical self-efficacy. Information was obtained from 124 subjects (61 men and 63 women) aged 55 to 85 years. Tests of mobility, strength, and dexterity were administered, as well as a self-report questionnaire of physical self-efficacy. Although most physical performance indexes were observed to be at lower levels after 75 years of age, physical self-efficacy beliefs in women did not show this pattern if the drop in physical performance was relatively small. Male subjects in the age group of 75 years and older however, showed substantial lower levels of performance in most of the tests, which was associated with more negative beliefs of physical self-efficacy. This was corroborated by multiple regression analyses, showing that sex was a significant predictor of physical self-efficacy beliefs in most performance tests. This prediction was moderated by age such that older men had more negative beliefs of physical self-efficacy than older women.
Has Working More Caused Married Women to Volunteer Less? Evidence from Time Diary Data, 1965 to 1993
Authors: Tiehen Laura
Published: March 2007

Now that married women are working more for pay than they were three decades ago, are they less likely to volunteer? I use national time diary surveys conducted in 1965, 1975, 1985, and 1993 to document a decrease in the weekly volunteer participation rate of working-age married women, from 16.4% in 1965 to 9.3% in 1993. Changes in observable characteristics explain about 65% of the decrease in married women’s volunteer participation from 1965 to 1985. The increased employment rates of married women as well as the changes in their parental status are substantial contributors to the decline in their volunteer participation. Married women’s gain in educational attainment is the most important factor to offset the decline in their volunteer participation. However, married women’s changing labor force and parental status do not explain why married women’s volunteer participation continued to decline from 1985 to 1993.
Decentralization and Equity in Public and Nonprofit Sectors
Authors: Wolpert Julian
Published: March 2007

This article examines hypotheses relating equity in service provision to decentralization in the nonprofit sector and to the lessons of the nonprofit experience for an increasingly decentralized public sector The findings indicate a relatively minor current role for nonprofits in distributive activities and significant differences in the generosity levels of communities and the targeting of donor support for charitable services, as opposed to amenity and civic services. The analyses also indicate some relative decline in giving levels in the most generous communities. The findings imply that decentralization of distributive programs to states and communities may be an effective strategy for limiting their scope and cutting back on national commitments to distressed population groups and communities.
War and Children's Mortality
Authors: CARLTON-FORD STEVE , HAMILL ANN , HOUSTON PAULA
Published: March 2007

This article examines the impact of war on young children's mortality in a sample of 137 countries. Years recently at war (1990-5) interact with years previously at war (1946-89) to elevate children's mortality rates (1995). Religious composition (percentage Christian and percentage Muslim) also interacts with years recently at war to reduce the effect of war on children's mortality rates. Controlling for women's literacy and access to safe water completely eliminates the effect of years previously at war, but not years recently at war.
Economic Status, Community Danger and Psychological Problems Among South African Children
Authors: BARBARIN OSCAR A. , RICHTER LINDA
Published: March 2007

An extensive literature links community violence and poverty in the US to psychological difficulties in children. To test the cross-national generalizability of these relationships, 625 young, South African mothers residing in black townships with different levels of community danger and material hardship rated their 6-year-olds on emotional functioning and behavioral problems. Most mothers were African, employed and of low educational attainment. Community danger was confirmed as a risk factor for anxiety, depression, aggression, opposition and low affability in children. A composite measure of socioeconomic status as indexed by education and job status was unrelated to behavioral and emotional adjustment. However, children experiencing material hardship had fewer problems related to behavioral selfcontrol than children in families with greater access to material resources.
The Ironic Contradictions in the Discourse on Generation X or How `Slackers' are Saving Capitalism
Authors: HEIMAN RACHEL J.
Published: March 2007

In the early 1990s, youth in the US were deemed a generation of `slackers'. Marketing and advertising agencies capitalized upon this mix of concern and blame concerning Generation X. This article explores the ways that these representations reflect changes within and anxieties about the future of the professional-managerial class. I suggest that these images have been also inadvertently shaping the subjectivities of the younger members of this generation. In so doing, they may be helping create the flexible worker that appears to be enabling the capitalist system to regulate itself during contemporary shifts to transnational capitalism.
A Passion for Boundaries
Authors: GULLESTAD MARIANNE
Published: March 2007

Based on ethnographic work in Norway, this article places children and childhood at the heart of contemporary theories about nationalism and national identification. Modern ideas about the nation can be characterized by an emphasis on outer boundaries, in contrast to politics organized around dynastic or religious centers with varying spheres of influence and diffuse external boundaries. The tendency to focus on boundaries seems to be generally reinforced in the present stage of capitalist modernity. The contention of the article is that as a result of the interplay between inherited values and dramatic social changes, contemporary Norwegians put questions of units and boundaries into the foreground with particular force. Boundaries are important in everyday life, in the popular media and in political discussions - most notably current debates about raising children and the recent debates about the European Union. For example, there is an interesting parallel between the little sign in the baby's buggy saying `do not touch' and the Norwegian `no' to the European Union.
State-family Alliances and Children's Welfare
Authors: FURSTENBERG FRANK F.
Published: March 2007

A popular topic of dialogue in many nations today concerns the proper balance between family and state in terms of their responsibility for the cultivation of potential in children. This article begins with a discussion of the American prototype of the family-state alliance vis-a-vis the child, contrasting the American model to alternative European models. This discussion leads the author to speculate about the consequences of various patterns of family-state collaboration on the well-being of children. The article concludes with an agenda of comparative research that explores the relationship between state and kinship systems and the direct or indirect impact on children.
Children and Citizenship in Britain
Authors: COCKBURN TOM
Published: March 2007

In the 1980s and 1900s there has been a substantial amount of discussion around notions of citizenship. Given the marginal treatment of children in mainstream sociology in the 1980s, it is small wonder that no mention is made of children in these discussions. This article challenges most conceptions of citizenship as they currently stand in their exclusion of children. It adopts a social model of citizenship that emphasizes the ways in which people are connected to each other, rather than being viewed as acting as individualized, autonomous, rational beings separate from each other. The idea that citizenship is conferred upon people according to a system of `rights' and `obligations' should by its very nature assume that people are connected with others in profound ways. Distilling notions of rights, duties and obligations to those of `individuals' elides the crucial importance of human association. If people's associations with others form the starting point of ideas of citizenship, then the location of children within that society becomes less problematic.
Contested Childhood
Authors: HELLEINER JANE
Published: March 2007

This article examines discourses of childhood drawn from press reports, parliamentary debates and government-sponsored reports concerning the Travelling People, an indigenous ethnic minority population in Ireland. Discourses of childhood are located within a changing Irish political economy and shifting Traveller-related policy. The case study reveals how discourses of childhood articulate with, and often reinforce, inferiorizing discourses of racism, gender and class. It is argued that critical analyses of the discourses of childhood can simultaneously challenge naturalized constructions of `the child' and other discourses of social inequality.