Commitment Messages Communicated in Families of Origin: Contributions to Relationship Commitment Attitudes

Despite the wealth of research on relationship commitment, surprisingly little has examined the contributions communication in families of origin makes to perceptions of commitment. Data from a survey of 145 individuals revealed three types of individuals based on reports of commitment-related communication in families of origin: optimist, structural-optimist, and cautious. Results revealed that these three types of individuals differed on their beliefs, models, and expectations about commitment and romantic relationships. The study contributes to our understanding of the developmental origins of perceptions of commitment in relationships and the contributions communication in families of origin makes to those perceptions.     

Negotiating Breakups and Renewals in On-Again/Off-Again Dating Relationships: Traversing the Transitions

Using phase-oriented interviews (N = 65), this study explored how partners in on-again/off-again relationships negotiated the turning points of breakups and renewals in their relationships. The qualitative analysis revealed themes reflecting transition initiation (i.e., the communication or behavior instigating the transitions) as well as themes reflecting how partners enacted and managed the transitions (e.g., viewing transitions as provisional, resolving past problems and planning for new issues, and using external factors to maintain the transition). Navigating the relational transitions created a struggle for some partners, but the negotiation process elicited feelings of a fresh start for others. Collectively, the themes highlight factors related to communication as well as partners' subjective interpretations, which may be useful in further understanding how partners negotiate relational transitions.     

Friendship formation in inclusive early childhood classrooms: what is the teacher’s role?

This study examined strategies teachers reported using to support friendships among young children in inclusive early childhood classrooms. The teachers included 25 general early childhood educators from 9 child care centers and 20 early childhood special educators from 9 specialized programs. The Playmates and Friends Questionnaire for Teachers documented the number and nature of children’s friendships and teachers’ reported use of 11 different strategies to support individual friendships. Overall, the friendship strategies that teachers reported using most frequently included providing sufficient free choice time, allowing children to form their own friendships, and commenting on the play between friends. The majority of teachers reported rarely using two strategies: arranging for children to play together outside of the classroom and allowing two friends to exclude other children from their play. Teachers reported using more active friendship strategies to support dyads in which one or both children had special needs. Implications of these findings to support friendship formation in inclusive early childhood settings and directions for future research are presented.     

Learning from Friends and Terminating Friendships: Retrieving Friendship as a Moral Educational Concept

In contrast to ancient times, friendship is rarely discussed nowadays as a resource in moral education. Even within Aristotle-inspired character education, where it could naturally claim pride of place, its coverage is miniscule compared, say, to that of the emulation of moral exemplars. The aim of the present article is to retrieve friendship as a moral educational concept: to explain how moral educational goals define and sustain deep friendships, and how the thorny issue of when friendships should be terminated is best understood in terms of considerations as to whether they have exhausted their educational potential. By arguing that education is the raison d'être of deep friendship, Kristján Kristjánsson shows how friendship is developmentally constituted and, in its most complete form as “character friendship,” educationally executed. There is no such thing as friendship per se, but rather friendship at a certain developmental niveau (or level), with its specific developmental assets and liabilities: qualitatively differentiated according to its educational affordances. While operating within a broad Aristotelian framework, Kristjánsson devotes two sections to charting the moral educational liabilities that may dissipate even the most complete friendships, a topic mostly overlooked by Aristotle himself.     

方外交与元代寺观饮酒风习

方外交，又称方外友，是指世俗中人与出家僧道结成的朋友交谊。在元代，方外交之风大为盛行，主要原因有五：一是科举制度的一度停废，使广大士人的出路受阻，因此选择了社会性的退避。二是文人士大夫由于仕途失意，寻求心灵的慰藉。三是部分南宋遗民与蒙元新统治者采取不合作的态度，转而遁迹林下。四是一些文人士大夫自身对于佛道的向往与迷恋。五是由于蒙元统治者对宗教的优容政策。文学和出游构成元代方外交的主体内容。吟诗作赋、赏花观月、焚香煮茗、琴棋书画、诗酒清谈，都是元代方外交的重要元素。元代的方外交既有个人之间的友谊，也有群体性的交往。在元代，很多寺观酿酒售酒，一些僧道也竞相饮酒，与文人士大夫诗酒唱和。元代寺观僧道饮酒呈现的逸风雅韵，与他们自身所具备较高文学素养和艺术品住有关，也与他们所交往对象普遍具有较高文化层次的文人士大夫群体有关。方外交和寺观饮酒风习中呈现的野逸气质，为元代社会文化的多元性和兼容性涂抹了绚丽的一笔色彩。     

从诗文酬唱看苏轼与黄庭坚的非凡友谊

苏轼是我国北宋中期文坛上的领袖,黄庭坚为苏门学士并开一代诗派。师徒之间诗文酬唱频繁,友谊非凡。从他们大量的酬唱诗文来看,二人之间的友谊体现在他们生活志趣以及人格理想上的相知相通,诗歌艺术上的交流切磋、争奇斗巧和宦海沉浮,人生遭遇中的勖勉与慰藉等方面。     

高校大学生MOOC持续使用行为研究——基于ECM-ISC和承诺信任理论

新型冠状病毒疫情为MOOC平台带来的机遇,但也面临如何继续留住用户的挑战。厘清高校大学生用户MOOC持续使用行为的影响因素,对MOOC平台优化服务、提升用户体验具有重要意义。本文基于ECM-ISC模型,结合考虑交互关系的承诺信任理论模型,对高校大学生MOOC持续学习行为的因素及各因素之间的关系进行了实证分析。研究结果表明:内在动机是学习者满意度的主要影响因素;信任是用户持续使用MOOC平台的重要影响因素;引入信任和承诺后的用户持续使用行为模型具有更强的解释力;信任与承诺在满意度对用户持续使用的正向影响中起到部分中介和链式中介作用。     

Teenagers' Use of MSN Features,Discussion Topics,and Online Friendship Development: The Impact of Media Richness and Communication Control

With a sample of 248 Hong Kong adolescents, this study probed the impact of media richness and communication control on teenagers' use of MSN® for online friendship development. Both media richness and communication control contributed to MSN's overall functionality and teenagers' self-presentation and friendship development. Media richness positively influenced both social and task communications and shortened the time needed to turn a stranger to friend, whereas communication control showed a positive relationship to social friendship communication. Rich features, such as webcam and MSN Spaces, facilitated the increase of acquaintances, new friends, opposite-sex friends, and total number of friends, whereas messaging helped build close friendships. Overall, media richness and communication control appeared to be valid constructs in explaining teenagers' MSN feature use and online friendship development.     

Changes in acceptance of dating violence and physical dating violence victimization in a longitudinal study with teens

Teen dating violence is a pervasive issue in adolescence and has been linked to maladjustment (Temple, Shorey, Fite et al., 2013). Physical dating violence is a particularly significant problem with one in five adolescents reporting experiencing physical teen dating violence (TDV; Wincentak et al., 2017). Acceptance of violence has been suggested to increase the risk of TDV; however, most studies to date have been cross-sectional. The purpose of the current study is to examine patterns of acceptance of dating violence and TDV victimization across time. Participants were ethnically diverse teenagers (N = 1042; ages 13–18) who were followed over a four-year period. Multivariate latent growth curve modeling techniques were used to determine trajectories of physical TDV victimization and attitudes accepting of dating violence. Results showed two trajectories for physical TDV victimization, linear and quadratic, and two trajectories for acceptance of dating violence, non-linear and quadratic. Parallel models investigating the interplay between TDV victimization and acceptance demonstrated two possible trends; however, we did not find any evidence for a longitudinal relationship between the two variables, suggesting that change in acceptance was not related to change in physical TDV victimization. Instead, our results suggest a significant amount of heterogeneity in these trajectories. These findings suggest studies are still needed to further explore longitudinal patterns of TDV to better understand how to reduce the risk of teen dating violence.     

Privacy Recalibration in Personal Relationships: Rule Usage Before and After an Incident of Privacy Turbulence

Although privacy violations can be uncomfortable and disruptive, they have the potential for positive outcomes in relationships if addressed. Using Communication Privacy Management theory as a framework, this study surveyed a community sample of 273 adults to examine their retrospective accounts of privacy violations in personal relationships. Results showed that less than half of the sample offered explicit rules for information management, and the majority of participants blamed the confidant for the privacy turbulence. Findings indicated that people often do not share similar information with the violator in the future, but if they do, less than half offer explicit privacy rules during the privacy recalibration process. Confrontation efficacy was positively associated with initiating a conversation about the privacy turbulence and that people who engaged in privacy recalibration were more likely to report forgiveness and relational improvement and less likely to report relational damage than those individuals who did not.     

中国大学治理：激励、承诺与约束

如何激励大学内部行为人的问题在当前颇受关注，一般认为多任务的激励模型可以提供一个解释。然而，在论证了大学任务具有不可验证性后，模型的分析结果表明，最优的激励方式应该是低激励，或者是不激励的。也就是说，按照这一结论，中国大部分关于激励大学人员的理论建议和现实政策都是徒劳的，甚至是起负作用的。因此，笔者借鉴交易成本政治学的思想，认为当对大学不能实行强激励机制时，承诺和约束机制则变得非常重要。     

Laughter,smiles and grins: The role of humor in learning and facilitating

Abstract

This article inquires into the role of humor in the relational learning process that takes place in adventure education programs. It presents program episodes, which the authors experienced in their practice as facilitator, staff trainer and researcher, and explores the related literature. Four aspects appear to affect whether humor either facilitates or interferes with participants' learning in development programs. First, humor plays a role in developing relationships among participants and between participants and facilitators, and hence in the relational safety that characterizes an environment conducive to learning. Second, it may play a role in creating a workable distance to sensitive learning issues. Third, humor may offer new and unexpected perspectives, which contribute to revising familiar but restrictive reference frames. Finally, humor seems to fulfill these functions to the extent that it is not planned to do so, and as such may exemplify the ‘paradox of functionality’ in relational processes.     

Relational Maintenance in the Digital Age: Implicit Rules and Multiple Modalities

The present project utilized a mixed methods approach to examine how individuals use CMC to maintain proximal relationships. Nine different communication channels were examined concurrently to elucidate how frequently mediated relational maintenance is used and to examine what participants reported in terms of motives for use and avoidance of particular channels. Findings indicate that participants in proximal relationships are hyper-aware of the amount of intimacy implied by a particular communication channel and strategically engage channels to suit their needs. We propose that relationships will be difficult to maintain if people violate the implicit rules that appear to govern channel selection.     

Verbal Aggression in Romantic Relationships: The Influence of Family History,Destructive Beliefs About Conflict,and Conflict Goals

This article aimed to achieve two complimentary goals. First, this study examined verbal aggression in romantic relationships as a function of exposure to family verbal aggression in childhood and beliefs about the destructive nature of conflict. Second, this study considered the influence of conflict goals on the use of verbal aggression in romantic relationships. As predicted, history of family verbal aggression was negatively associated with destructive beliefs about conflict, and destructive beliefs about conflict partially mediated the association between history of family verbal aggression and verbal aggression in current romantic relationships. In addition, destructive beliefs about conflict were negatively associated with verbal aggression in current romantic relationships at high levels of importance of revenge-motivated goals; destructive beliefs about conflict were not significantly associated with verbal aggression in current romantic relationships at moderate or low levels of revenge-motivated goals.     

The Success of Urban Schools in Oxnard,California: An In-Depth Look at Developmental and Relational Assets

Abstract

The study is a mixed-methods investigation of how urban schools are succeeding. The study surveyed 28 former students from urban schools in Oxnard, California. The qualitative responses represent themes that align to a high level of school connectedness and social–emotional learning (SEL) as key indicators of a successful urban school district. The responses also aligned with the thematic structures of the assets and relationships frameworks and to SEL standards.     

Online Communication Attitude Similarity in Romantic Dyads: Predicting Couples' Frequency of E-Mail,Instant Messaging,and Social Networking Site Communication

Following the interaction enjoyment approach (Burleson &; Denton, 1992 Burleson , B. R. , &; Denton , W. H. ( 1992 ). A new look at similarity and attraction in marriage: Similarities in social-cognitive and communication skills as predictors of attraction and satisfaction . Communication Monographs , 59 , 268 – 287 . doi: 10.1080/03637759209376269 [Taylor &; Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]), this investigation examined whether (a) romantic couples possess similar online communication attitudes and (b) such attitudes predict frequency of email, instant messaging, and social networking site communication between dyad members. Results indicated couples possessed similar attitudes toward online social connection but not online self-disclosure; moreover, couples' attitudes predicted media use in a communal pattern, with equivalent actor and partner effects. Attitude toward online social connection positively predicted all forms of online communication, with attitude toward online self-disclosure positively predicting social networking site communication and inversely predicting e-mail communication. One implication of these results is that relational context may moderate the extent to which individual attitudes predict media use patterns.     

Living in Plurilingual Spaces: Self-Study,Critical Friendship,and the Plurality of Publics

ABSTRACT

In this article, we engage in collaborative self-study through a critical friendship that is specifically designed to evoke our personal histories in relation to how we approach our practices as teacher educators. In particular, we focus on understanding the conceptual origins of our pedagogies of teacher education and how our identities as teacher educators were shaped, and continue to be shaped, by colleagues, teacher candidates, and by the process of self-study itself. We argue that the multiple studies that are available to any self-study research programme create a plurality of publics in which we identify, and are identified, in particular ways by particular members of the teacher education community. One significant avenue for our developing line of work concerns the ways in which our shared bilingualism plays out during our critical friendship, and how the use of multiple languages helps us to reframe our identities as teacher educators, particularly whilst engaged in translanguaging practices.     

A Methodological Conundrum: Comparing Schools in Scotland and England

This article considers a conundrum in research methodology; the fact that, in the main, you have to use a social science-based research methodology if you want to look at what goes on in a classroom. This article proposes an alternative arts-based research method instead based on the work of Eisner, and before him Dewey, where one can use the more traditional critical, close reading techniques that are usually associated with a degree in English. We look at a case study English lesson to illustrate and explore how this may be done.     

An intervention for relational and physical aggression in early childhood: A preliminary study

A preventive intervention for reducing physical and relational aggression, peer victimization, and increasing prosocial behavior was developed for use in early childhood classrooms. Nine classrooms were randomly assigned to be intervention rooms (N = 202 children) and nine classrooms were control rooms (N = 201 children). Classroom was the unit of analysis and both observations and teacher-reports were obtained at pre and post-test. Focus groups were used to develop the initial program. The 6-week program consisted of developmentally appropriate puppet shows, active participatory sessions, passive concept activities and in vivo reinforcement periods. Preliminary findings suggest that the “Early Childhood Friendship Project” tended to reduce physical and relational aggression, as well as physical and relational victimization and tended to increase prosocial behavior more for intervention than control classrooms. Teachers and interventionists provided positive evaluations of the program and there is evidence for appropriate program implementation.