What Motivates Parents to Mediate Children’s Use of Smartphones? An Application of the Theory of Planned Behavior

Applying the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB), this study examines parents’ attitudes, social norms, self-efficacy, and intentions regarding parental mediation of children’s smartphone use. A survey conducted with parents of young smartphone users aged 10–17 shows that parents tend to perceive discussion-based active mediation to be more desirable, as compared to rule-making restrictive mediation. Findings also indicate that the extent to which parents believe that they have control over their parental mediation practices plays an important role in forming positive intentions to practice parental mediation, regardless of the mediation domain.     

Using Rhetorical/Relational Goal Theory to Examine College Students’ Impressions of Their Instructors

Guided by rhetorical/relational goal theory, the purpose of this study was to examine whether students’ impressions of their instructors’ credibility, attraction, and homophily are influenced by four specific rhetorical and relational communication behaviors that instructors use when communicating with their students in the classroom. Participants were 193 undergraduate students enrolled in a variety of introductory communication courses at a large mid-Atlantic university. Using a series of multiple regression analyses, it was found that (a) clarity emerged as the sole indicator of instructor competence, trustworthiness, and task attraction; (b) clarity and confirmation emerged as indicators of goodwill; and (c) humor and confirmation emerged as indicators of social attraction and attitude homophily.     

Applying Self-Determination Theory to College Students’ Physical-Activity Behavior: Understanding the Motivators for Physical (In)Activity

Physical activity is necessary for college students as only 20%–40% engage in the recommended amounts (Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, 2010). This article qualitatively examines college-student motivators and hindrances for physical activity in order to develop effective interventions. Although a primary theory in psychology, Self-Determination Theory relies heavily upon social contexts as catalysts for motivation. Communication can cause both within- and between-person differences in motivation. Findings suggest that college-student motivation is greatly influenced by the communication between themselves, their important relationships (e.g., friends, family, and significant other), and societal pressures. Moreover, findings reveal that college students seem to be more motivated through extrinsic means rather than more autonomous forms of motivation.     

Katz and Aakhus’ Theory of Apparatgeist: Students’ Perceptions of Normative and Non-normative Behaviors for Technology Use

Course: This activity was used in an upper-level, undergraduate, special topics course entitled “Issues in Mobile Communication.” However, the activity could also be used in undergraduate courses relating to mediated communication, interpersonal communication and communication theory

Objectives: The purpose of this activity is to increase students’ awareness of how norms for mobile communication technology use are established     

Using a Targeted Rubric to Deepen Direct Assessment of College Students’ Abilities to Evaluate the Credibility of Sources

At the Sonoma State University Library, a rubric was designed specifically for deepening the assessment of freshmen students’ ability to evaluate the credibility of sources. The course-level rubric was developed after program-level assessments proved too broad to uncover specific challenges in this particular skill. As a direct assessment tool, the rubric allows teaching faculty and librarians to more clearly identify and address the smaller steps required for a student to successfully learn to evaluate a source. The rubric and the results of using it as an assessment tool with a freshmen-level, general education oral communication/critical thinking course are discussed.     

Does Facebook Use Predict College Students’ Social Capital? A Replication of Ellison,Steinfield, and Lampe’s (2007) Study Using the Original and More Recent Measures of Facebook Use and Social Capital

In 2007 Ellison, Steinfield, and Lampe published an article on the positive association between Facebook use and social capital that started a decade of research on the social outcomes of social network site use. Although cited almost 9,000 times, it received critique on the conceptualization and operationalization of Facebook use and social capital. In this study we replicate Ellison et al.’s study with original and alternative measures of social capital and Facebook use, thereby shedding light on the robustness, stability, and ecological validity of the original findings. We found that Facebook intensity positively predicts the original social capital measures, lending support to the validity of the original findings. Its relationship with structural measures, however, was weak for bridging and absent for bonding social capital.     

Using Political Journalists’ Definitions of Public Opinion to Predict Source Use in Political News

This study examined political journalists’ definitions of public opinion and how these definitions influence the structure of political news stories. After considering prior conceptualizations of public opinion, a scale of two distinct definitions of public opinion was created, consisting of the optimist’s and the pessimist’s definitions. Using a survey of political journalists in the United States, these public opinion definitions were significant predictors of the use of particular sources in political news stories. Importantly, the two definitions had opposite influences on the use of opinion polls, shedding light on the discrepancy in use and perception of poll results in political news.     

Catalogers’ Perceptions and Use of Social Media and Conventional Information Sources for Professional Development

Many professional development information sources are available to catalogers, who may be constrained by limited time and money to devote to them. This article reports the results of a survey gathering information on six types of information sources: journal articles, conferences, electronic discussion lists, blogs, microblogs, and social networking sites. Catalogers rated these resources regarding their importance to filling professional development needs, the reliability of the information disseminated, and their usefulness for obtaining specific types of information. The results should help catalogers and their administrators decide where to focus their attention both as consumers and disseminators of continuing education information.     

The Effects of Instructor Credibility,Grade Incentives,and Framing of a Technology Policy on Students’ Intent to Comply and Motivation to Learn

This experiment assessed whether instructor credibility (low or high) moderated the effects of grade incentives (rewards or punishment) and advantage framing (gain or loss) of technology policies on students’ intent to comply and motivation to learn. Results indicate that credibility increased motivation to learn. Significant moderated moderated mediation was found: a three-way interaction affected both intent to comply, and motivation to learn as mediated by attitude toward the policy. Specifically, credibility positively influenced learning outcomes via attitude when the syllabus used opposing frame-incentive structure (i.e., gain-framed punishment and loss-framed reward).     

Consuming to Cope: Investigating College Students’ Expressive Suppression as an Indirect Effect of Family Communication and Drinking Context

This study explored relationships between family communication patterns, college students’ expressive suppression, and drinking to cope, aiming to assess whether suppression might represent an indirect effect in the relationship between conformity orientation and drinking to cope. Participants (N = 251) completed an online questionnaire analyzed using CFA and SEM. Results indicated that conformity orientation has a small impact on drinking to cope and that conformity orientation predicts suppression. Specifically, students from protective family types tend to use suppression more and are more likely to drink to cope. Results also demonstrated a small relationship between suppression and drinking to cope. Lastly, college students’ use of suppression acts as an indirect effect in explaining a small part of the association between conformity orientation and drinking to cope.     

Communicating Prevention: The Effects of the keepin’ it REAL Classroom Videotapes and Televised PSAs on Middle-School Students’ Substance Use

This study sought to determine if exposure to two communication-oriented activities, videotapes and public service announcements, accounts for changes in substance use among adolescents participating in the Drug Resistance Strategies Project's keepin’ it REAL adolescent substance use prevention curriculum. Middle-school students (4,734, 72% Latino) responded to questionnaires related to these analyses. An analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) model was fit separately to six substance use outcomes. The results suggested that intervention students who saw four or five videos engaged in less substance use in the past month than did students who saw fewer videos. Having seen the PSAs one or more times did not predict the reported change in substance use.     

Information Behavior and Japanese Students: How Can an Understanding of the Research Process Lead to Better Information Literacy?

Academic librarians are striving to better serve international students as this emerging population grows on university campuses. Past studies of international students generally focus on linguistic and cultural differences in relation to information literacy skills development. However, it is necessary to go beyond these factors to better serve the population. By using a framework based in information behavior research, the present study investigates the factors that mediate students' behavior and information literacy skills. Practical recommendations based on the findings of an in-depth qualitative study of students' research process are provided.     

Finding the Theory and Method for the Pedagogy of Teaching Legal Research: A Response to Callister's “Time to Blossom”

In his article “Time to Blossom,” Callister invites legal research experts to begin a discussion as to what theory and methodology would be most effective for teaching legal research. This article suggests that utilizing a tailored form of systems theory in conjunction with active learning methods would allow legal educators not only to teach students in an effective and understandable manner but also to adapt their teaching methods to correspond to changes in the legal research field.     

Using a theoretical model of communal coping to understand changes in language brokers’ coping patterns: Implications for Latina/o early adolescents’ brokering stress and efficacy

Language brokering occurs when immigrant youth linguistically and culturally mediate for family and members of U.S. mainstream culture. Under some circumstances, brokering can be stressful. Based on a theoretical model of communal coping, this study utilized two waves of survey data from 342 Latina/o sixth- to eighth-grade students to identify different types of copers: (a) communal copers, (b) tentative copers, and (c) declined-ownership copers. Communal copers reported greater brokering stress than tentative brokers in the middle of the year, but not by the end of the year. Communal copers reported greater brokering efficacy than tentative copers in the middle and end of the year. Declined-ownership copers consistently had the lowest brokering stress and moderate brokering efficacy.