The Legacy of Early Abuse and Neglect for Social and Academic Competence From Childhood to Adulthood

This study used data from the Minnesota Longitudinal Study of Risk and Adaptation (N = 267) to investigate whether abuse and neglect experiences during the first 5 years of life have fading or enduring consequences for social and academic competence over the next 3 decades of life. Experiencing early abuse and neglect was consistently associated with more interpersonal problems and lower academic achievement from childhood through adulthood (32–34 years). The predictive significance of early abuse and neglect was not attributable to the stability of developmental competence over time, nor to abuse and neglect occurring later in childhood. Early abuse and neglect had enduring associations with social (but not academic) competence after controlling for potential demographic confounds and early sensitive caregiving.     

Our Buddies,Ourselves: The Role of Sexual Homophily in Adolescent Friendship Networks

The present study tests the assumption that peers wield sufficient influence to induce sexual homophily (i.e., similarities in sexual experiences). Because girls face greater stigma for their sexual experiences than do boys, sexual homophily may be greater in girls' friendship networks than in boys'. Stochastic actor-based models were used to analyze network data (n = 2,566; ages 14–18) from two high schools in the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health. Sexual homophily was present in friendship networks. Girls and boys were equally susceptible to their friends' influence, but the former exhibited a stronger preference for befriending same sexual debut status peers than the latter. The findings suggest that adolescents—particularly girls—“curate” their networks to minimize peer ostracism.     

Understanding the role cumulative exposure to highly qualified science teachers plays in students' educational pathways

Years of experience, education level, and subject matter expertise are three measures of teacher qualification that are employed widely in contemporary educational policies including tenure, salary, and hiring, despite significant questions about their effectiveness at predicting student performance. These questions reveal a critical gap in the literature, concerning, in particular, the enduring impact of teachers' qualifications on students' educational experiences, and they ways in which related research has traditionally been framed and conducted. Specifically, studies examining these predictors have focused almost exclusively on investigating the role that an individual teacher's qualifications have on students' performance. In schools, however, students are exposed to different teachers every year, and those teachers often have differing qualifications. This study explores the impact of teacher qualification from a cumulative perspective by examining the relationship between cumulative science teachers' qualifications (measured by years of experience, education level, and subject matter expertise) and students' educational success (academic achievement, college enrollment, and decision to major in a Science, Technology, Engineering, or Mathematics field). The study found that students taught by science teachers who—as a group—were cumulatively more highly qualified, tended to have higher achievement, as well as better educational pathways and outcomes in STEM. Given that students are taught by teachers from across a broad spectrum of qualification throughout their schooling, findings from this study could have important implications, not only for research and practice, but also for education policy.     

Using an adaptation programme to introduce children to the early years of schooling in Slovakia

The article presents a new adaptation programme entitled ‘With a smile to school’ for pupils of the first year at primary schools. The adaptation programme comprises several methods and measures which are focused on the regulation of pupils’ adaptation process. The efficiency and effectiveness of the adaptation programme were verified through an experiment at selected primary schools in Slovakia in the school year 2016/2017. Based on the experiment results, a proposal for implementation of the adaptation programme to school practice was drawn up. The experiment results were evaluated by means of selected statistical methods.     

Connecting social media use with gaps in knowledge and participation in a protest context: the case of candle light vigil in South Korea

This study sheds light on the recent use of social media for protests, with the 2016 South Korean candle light vigils as the case study. An extensive amount of literature has explored social media’s potential for informing and mobilizing the public to engage in protest activities. Previous research has mainly focused on the direct effect of social media on protest engagement. Moving beyond the direct effect, this paper sought a better understanding of social media’s role in the democratic process by examining how social media affects political knowledge and protest participation, depending on an individual’s political interest level. To test these relationships, this study used survey data collected in South Korea during the mass candlelight vigils in South Korea in 2016 (N?=?922). Findings suggest that the knowledge gap narrowed amongst those with high social media use, mainly due to a greater knowledge drop for those with high political interest. On the other hand, when it comes to participation, the participation gap widened amongst those with high social media use, largely due to a greater increase in participation for those with high political interest. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.     

How research data is cited in scholarly literature: A case study of HINTS

This study investigated how Health Information National Trends Survey (HINTS) data from the U.S. National Cancer Institute (NCI) was cited in the scholarly literature. It addressed the following research questions: (1) What patterns of citations exist among authors of research articles using HINTS data? and (2) How is the citation format of HINTS data characterized? We collected scholarly articles that used HINTS data as primary or secondary data for analysis from Web of Science databases and HINTS publications on the NCI website. Among the resulting 250 articles, we identified citations to HINTS data themselves (data citations) and those to HINTS‐related documents (data‐related citations). Among the 250 articles, 156 articles (62.4%) cited HINTS data or HINTS‐related documents; only 29 articles (11.6%) cited HINTS data, while 127 (50.8%) cited HINTS‐related documents. Both data and data‐related citations increased over time. Data citation format varied, and 13 different compositions of citation elements were identified. Author, Title, and Location (URL) were common elements. The frequent use of URLs is undesirable due to URL instability. Furthermore, the data citations showed not only various compositions of citation elements but also ill‐defined element formats. Standardized citation formats are therefore needed.     

Using government websites to enhance democratic E-governance: A conceptual model for evaluation

The last few decades have witnessed unprecedented transformations in every sector of society, resulting from the explosive advancement of information and communication technologies. This drastic development has raised the hopes of citizens for better lives, in both developing and advanced countries, urging innovation in government to make it more competent. Due to e-business revolutions, governments around the world have applied similar principles and technologies to government by opening their websites for more efficient publication of information and more effective delivery of public services. While a government website is an important venue for citizens to participate in public affairs and decision-making processes, early e-government practices tended to overlook democratic purposes by focusing on the features of e-business and information systems. There have been increasing criticisms that e-government system design has focused mainly on the provider's perspectives. Reflecting on the theoretical implications of this, we argue that a government website should facilitate democratic processes involving not only information sharing and delivery of better public services, but also deliberation and coproduction. The purpose of this study is to probe into multidimensional features that enable government websites to fulfill their promises. Developing an integrative model for evaluating a government website, namely the Democratic E-governance Website Evaluation Model, we conducted a qualitative meta-analysis of four strands of literature: information systems, business, public administration, and democratic theory. Our study contributes to the literature by extending the purview of e-government website analysis beyond the question of citizens' acceptance and towards the issue of their engagement, bringing a stimulating view of citizens as active agents in governance, and it provides a holistic model for public authorities to improve their websites to facilitate democratic e-governance that helps to create more effective public outcomes.     

Effect of Internet Literacy in Understanding Older Adults’ Social Capital and Expected Internet Support

This article investigates whether knowledge of Internet usage among older adults is related to social capital as well as their expectations to obtain social support online. A U.S. national survey of adults aged 60 and older (n = 1,101) found that Internet literacy is significantly associated with their expected Internet support and bridging and bonding social capital even after controlling for age, Internet use, and other factors.     

Examination of DMT-based methods for evaluating the liquefaction potential of soils

The flat dilatometer test (DMT) has the potential to be a useful tool in the evaluation of liquefaction potential of soils. In practice, it is necessary to carefully examine existing DMT-based methods for evaluating liquefaction potential. We conducted the DMT and cone penetration test (CPT) in high liquefaction potential areas to examine the existing DMT-based methods for liquefaction potential evaluation. Specifically, the DMT and CPT were conducted side-by-side at each of six in-situ sites, and thus it is feasible to utilize those test results to validate the existing DMT-based methods. The DMT parameter, horizontal stress index (K _D), is used as an indicator for estimating liquefaction resistance of soils in terms of cyclic resistance ratio (CRR). The analysis results revealed that the existing K _D-based liquefaction evaluation methods would overestimate the CRR of soils, which leads to overestimation of the factor of safety against liquefaction. Also, the estimations of DMT-K _D values by using the CPT-q _c as well as the correlation between DMT-K _D and CPT-q _c proposed by the previous studies would be significantly smaller than field measurements. The results reflected that further validation of the existing DMT-based methods for liquefaction evaluation is desirable.     

Integrating to learn and learning to integrate: A case study of an online master's program on science–mathematics integration for middle school teachers

iSMART (Integration of Science, Mathematics, and Reflective Teaching) Program is an online science and mathematics integrated graduate program for middle school teachers across the state of Texas. As part of a large design-based research project, this paper describes the initial stages of the design process of the iSMART program for its first cohort in the fall of 2010 with a focus on program development. The paper begins with our theoretical perspective and rationale for our use of design-based research methodology. We then provide a review of literature on the integration of science and mathematics and the design of online learning environments. Next, we report on the decisions made by science and mathematics teacher educators in the early process of iSMART design as well as the online design components. Finally, we provide our plan for the continuous implementation and redesign of the program with the first cohort of 25 iSMART teachers.