Perspectives of elders in thriving marriages on why their marriages thrive

Lengthy lifespans prompt research on how aging adults thrive in their marriages. This qualitative research study explored the perspectives of 14 elder couples nominated as thriving in their marriages. The 28 participants, living in the United States, ranged in age from 70 to 89. Twelve couples were in first marriages that ranged from 43–67 years. Two couples were in second marriages for 27 and 29 years. The participant group was diverse in race, ethnicity, religion, and birthplace but not in socio-economic-status and formal education level. Together the two researchers, also over 70, conducted two interviews with each couple, also together, in the two-year study. The in-depth, semi-structured interviews were the major source of data; secondary sources were a values-ranking inventory, a self-anchoring scale activity, an exercise on findings from other studies, and two small focus group discussions. The findings were: a) thriving couples experienced significant and pervasive in-depth love, b) shared extensive commonalities, c) teamed mutually, d) solved problems and confronted challenges well, d) welcomed caring gestures and expressions of appreciation, and e) valued physical affection and sexual intimacy. The insights and advice shared could benefit not only married elder couples, but also single elders in their social relationships, couples considering marriage, and those who work with elders in hospitals, healthcare facilities, and counseling services.     

An examination of the relationships among United States college students' media use habits,need for cognition,and grade point average

The current study uses survey methods to understand how US college students' use of various types of social media, such as social networking websites and text messaging on smart phones, as well as consumption of traditional media, such as watching television and reading books for pleasure, is (or is not) related to intellectual cognitive processing and performance in school. The current results, which were based on a number of multiple regression analyses, revealed college students’ use of traditional media appears to be a significant and viable predictor of both college students’ grade point averages (GPAs) and their levels of need for cognition (NFC). On the other hand, college students’ use of socially interactive technologies appears to be wholly unrelated to college students’ GPAs and their levels of NFC. Implications of these findings, both in terms of the relationships among social and traditional media use and success at school as well as relationships among shifts in young people's media use habits and possible related shifts in their levels of cognitive processing, are explored.     

新疆阿勒泰地区少数民族受众广播电视传播效果研究

主要以调研数据为基础,试图从分析阿勒泰地区少数民族受众的媒体使用情况勾勒出少数民族地区广播电视的传播效果现状图,进而发现不同媒体在当地传播中存在的问题,以期为解决这些问题起到一定的参考作用。     

Comparisons of Structural Equation Modeling and Hierarchical Linear Modeling Approaches to Couples' Data

This article compares 2 statistical approaches for the analysis of data obtained from married couples. The article summarizes a current multilevel (or hierarchical) model that has demonstrated considerable utility in marital research; it also extends this formulation in several respects. This model is then respecified into a more familiar structural equation modeling (SEM) formulation, highlighting the similarities and the differences in the 2 approaches. Cross-sectional data on 348 American married couples is used to examine the influence of age, duration of marriage, and number of children on marital satisfaction. Results of the 2 sets of analyses yielded nearly identical findings. The strengths and possible extensions of the SEM approach are discussed.     

Blood and Bones: The Influence of the Mass Media on Australian Primary School Children’s Understandings of Genes and DNA

Previous research showed that primary school children held several misconceptions about genetics of concern for their future lives. Included were beliefs that genes and DNA are separate substances, with genes causing family resemblance and DNA identifying suspects at crime scenes. Responses to this work ‘blamed’ the mass media for these misunderstandings. This study aimed to determine whether that blame had any foundation by examining the media habits and conceptions about genes and DNA of Australian children. With little prior research considering the influence of entertainment mass media on children’s academically relevant knowledge, this was an exploratory study with a mixed modes design. Data were collected by detailed media questionnaires and face-to-face interviews with 62 children aged 10–12 years, and subjected to content and thematic analysis. Specific mass media examples children reported using were examined for genetics content. Results indicate 5 h/day of media use, mostly television including crime shows, and that children perceived television to be their main source of information about genetics. Most children (89 %) knew DNA, 60 % knew genes, and more was known about uses of DNA outside the body such as crime solving or resolving family relationships than about its biological nature and function. Half believed DNA is only in blood and body parts used for forensics. These concepts paralleled the themes emerging from the media examples. The results indicate that the mass media is a pervasive teacher of children, and that fundamental concepts could be introduced earlier in schools to establish scientific concepts before misconceptions arise.     

The effect of uncertainty reducing strategies on young couples' relational repair and intimacy

Relying on uncertainty reduction theory, this study examines the effect of communication strategies on assessments of relational repair and intimacy. Approximately one hundred heterosexual, romantically involved couples nominated unfaithfulness, third party competition, and geographic distance as events most negatively affecting their relationships. These couples also reported that they most often engaged in interactive communication behavior (especially relationship talk) to repair their relationships. In addition, men's passive strategy use and women's active strategy use were associated with self‐reported and partner‐attributed beliefs that the relationship was repaired. Perceptions of relational repair were, in turn, tied to the degree of self‐reported intimacy.     

Kids’ Time: childhood,television and the regulation of time

This article is concerned with the relationships between children's understanding of the organisation of television time and their sense of what it means to be a child. It is based on qualitative data gathered in one inner city primary school, as part of a broader research project investigating the changing nature of children's media cultures. The article suggests that the notion of time is a crucial aspect of the ways in which children define their relationship with television. It analyses three related aspects of this phenomenon: firstly, children's perceptions of the institutional definitions embodied in the practice of television scheduling; secondly, their notions of psychological development, based partly on the structure of the schedule and partly on their own ‘reading histories'; and thirdly, the place of their television viewing in the scheduling and organisation of family life.     

Mediating the message: television programme design and students' understanding

The research reported represents a non-standard approach to basic research on educational television, in that it uses qualitative methods to describe learning and to illuminate which programme features are important. It was based on observation, interview and test data from five groups of 20–30 Open University students, each watching a social science television programme as part of their course. A qualitative analysis of students' summaries of the programmes showed that only half achieved the intended learning outcomes. A further analysis of the students' responses to key extracts showed that this is more likely to be because of programme structure than because of presentational quality. The research design and results are related to similar studies on students learning from text, and contrasted with the methodology adopted in other studies of the effects of educational television.     

Laboratory and research

This study explored the themes used by married couples, dating couples, relatives, live‐in friends, and non‐live‐in friends to interpret their current relational episodes. One hundred eighteen people participated in fifty‐five report tasks. Among the findings were that dating couples used themes of commitment, fragility, and manipulation, while marital couples, relatives, and live‐in friends used themes of involvement, work, and respect.     

“It's me. I'm it.”: Defining adolescent sexual identity through relational dialectics in Dawson's creek

Television criticism frequently focuses on the deconstruction of individual representations in texts, a practice that privileges specific characters rather than relationships among characters. This paper examines the usefulness of fictional television relationships for adolescent sexual identity formation by examining Dawson's Creek for its construction of gay character Jack McPhee. Jack's sexual identity is constructed and modified through dialectical tensions in his relationship with Jen Lindley, ultimately allowing him to express sexual identity in terms of acceptance rather than in terms of political or legal rights. This difference in narrative form illuminates potential differences between the formation of adult and adolescent sexual identity. Examining ethnographic work on gay men and their use of fictional media combined with a close reading of Dawson's Creek for sexual identity construction, this paper ultimately argues that fictional representations could serve as a template from which gay adolescents enact personal relationships. It also calls for critical media scholars to examine positive aspects of television representations.     

OLDER ADULTS' PARTICIPATION IN UNIVERSITY CLASSES: COGNITIVE,MORALE, AND FAMILY CORRELATES

The number of older adults taking advantage of courses offered by institutions of higher learning is increasing. Despite this trend in university and college enrollment, educators know little about the reasons why adults aged 55 years and over are making the decision to return to school. This paper describes the results of an exploratory study about: (1) educational motivations of older students; (2) effect of involvement in university classes on older adults' attitude toward aging; and (3) impact of older individuals' participation in university classes on marital relations.

Interviews were_ conducted with twenty‐one married couples, aged 55 years and older (X = 68.54), with one spouse attending university classes. In order to compute life satisfaction analyses, a control sample was secured. This group consisted of 33 married couples, 55 years and over (X = 70.93), with neither spouse participating in continuing education.

Results indicated that older students viewed intrinsic learning goals to be significantly more important than extrinsic incentives (p<.01). Student couples reported significantly more positive attitudes toward growing older than did nonstudent couples (p<.05). Although participation in university classes had only a minimal impact on members' marital interaction, student couples express satisfaction with this effect.

Recommendations suggested the construction of assessment measures of older adults' self‐initiated versus externally reinforced learning goals. It is advised that pre‐ and posttest interview schedules be used when determining the impact on family solidarity of older adults' pursual of further learning. Future research is suggested which explores whether participation in continuing education provides skills or information for older persons to adjust to their changing environments which in turn would have an influence on level of morale.     

Television as a training and educational medium

Summary and Conclusions An attempt was made to summarize the implications of television research to date upon the training or educational use of the medium. The instructional and administrative advantages of television were discussed with respect to their potential teaching applications. In addition, research findings on instructor and student requirements and subject matter selection for television teaching were developed. Finally, the importance of testing and developing test-measurement procedures adapted to television was emphasized. There is general agreement that television has a promising future both for military and civilian training and education. There are many important areas of research and evaluation which remain to be explored. But research to date has already uncovered information and methods which permit both military and civilian users to bridge the gap between television research and its application to many everyday instructional and educational situations. This paper summarizes the implications of TV research upon training and education. It draws particularly from the authors’ own studies in the military use of TV. Joseph H. Kanner is Chief of the Training Section, Television Branch, Army Pictorial Service Division, Office of the Chief Signal Officer, U. S. Army. Richard P. Runyon and Otello Desiderato are research psychologists with the Pictorial Evaluation Office, Signal Corps Pictorial Center, Long Island City, New York.     

Environmental education in television narratives: a Brazilian case study

Abstract

This article discusses recent Brazilian research on the relationship between environmental education and cultural studies. Television narratives about the environment and/or sustainability in our everyday lives are used to pose some initial questions about this relation. First, culture is discussed briefly showing how it potentially relates to teaching and informs our role as environmental educators. We argue that culturalist perspectives on research in environmental education politicise teaching practices, even though they are in a context that strays from prerogatives that envisage a future world marked by sustainable development and a green economy. We investigate the impacts of television narratives and images on our everyday lives wherein we are consistently taught particular written and visual messages about how to plan for our future. Examples are draw from the teaching effects of a Brazilian television programme called Repórter Eco, broadcast on a public television network, including the sustainable management of the baru (a typical tree from the Brazilia Cerrado). We argue the educational aspects of television programmes should receive critique, as the relationships established between people and various media artifacts produce particular meanings and ways of seeing the world. This presents a challenge for teachers as examining these subjective ways carefully requires critical examination, not only in terms of education for sustainability or environmental preservation, but also teaching using media.     

TELEVISION IN THE TEACHING OF CHEMISTRY: A REVIEW FROM FURTHER EDUCATION

The uses and potentialities of educational television as described by recent authors are reviewed, and television compared with film from the viewpoints of producer and audience, while off‐air recordings are compared with ‘home‐made’ programmes.

The author concludes with an extensive review of the literature concerned with the uses of television in the teaching of chemistry. While the review does not attempt to list every possible reference, none of the few that have been omitted adds substantially to the uses mentioned, and the survey should provide a basis for those interested in beginning research in this field, as well as those contemplating the introduction of television into chemistry teaching.

The article was prepared in connection with research into student attitudes to educational television, the results of which will appear in the next issue of the Journal.     

Amount,content and context of infant media exposure: a parental questionnaire and diary analysis

Recent research has indicated that there are long‐term consequences of early media exposure. This study examined the amount, content and context of television exposure across the infancy period in the USA. Parents of 308 infants aged 6–18 months completed questionnaires detailing parental attitudes regarding their children’s television use and 24‐hour television diaries to provide an accurate measurement of household television usage. Television exposure during infancy varied as a function of infant age, sibling status, socio‐economic status and parental attitudes toward television. Regression analyses indicated that parental attitudes were not associated with the amount of television exposure, but were associated with the content of television exposure. These findings indicate that television exposure changes rapidly across infancy and is associated with parental attitudes.     

How can we Teach History through Television?

This article contrasts the often ambivalent attitudes of teachers towards television and generalised research on teachers’ uses of television, with detailed empirical evidence from primary school history co‐ordinators describing their reactions to and expectations of the medium. The data describes a wide variety of reasons why television is educationally useful in the teaching and learning of history. The argument is articulated that teachers and children can be sophisticated viewers of televisual schools history, offering useful guidelines for programme makers; but that teacher conservatism and lack of advisory support for teachers’ deployment of the medium may be hindering its educational effectiveness.     

Evaluation of a pilot project: preparenthood and pregrandparenthood education

A pilot project in expanding perinatal education is presented in this article. The author has experimented with a series of group sessions on the introduction to the transition to parenthood for couples who are either engaged or recently married. Such couples, if introduced to the changes associated with the transition to parenthood at a point of development in the commitment process, may increase their chances of weathering the turbulence that is often a part of the transition. The potential grandparents are part of the process since they are usually an important source of social support. Preparenthood and pregrandparenthood education is a useful extension of perinatal education for the beginning of this century.     

Factors that Influence the Use and Impact of Educational Television in School

The main arguments in this article were presented in a paper at a European Broadcasting Union (EBU) seminar on research into educational television. It focuses on factors that influence the use and impact of educational television in school, drawn from an overview of international research on educational television, mainly in the eighties. The critical factors influencing the use and impact of educational television in schools are described as quantity and variety of educational television broadcasts available, easy access to equipment, regular transmission slots in the broadcast schedule with repeats, programme series, information, support material, relation to the curriculum, new demands, attitudes to educational television and teaching style and philosophy.