Verbal aggression in violent and nonviolent marital disputes

Recent research suggests that verbal aggression may function as a catalyst to violence between spouses in marital disputes. Communication skills deficiencies may predispose spouses to rely upon verbal aggression in family conflict situations instead of more constructive forms of communication such as argumentation. This suggests a need to understand better the role of verbal aggression in interspousal violence. A study is presented which compared a sample of nonabused wives to a clinical sample of abused wives in terms of self‐reports of the use of verbal aggression by the husband and wife in their most recent dispute. While there were several differences between the two groups, of the ten types of verbally aggressive messages examined, character attacks most clearly differentiated violent from nonviolent marital disputes. Two hypotheses which predicted the degree of verbal aggression in violent and nonviolent disputes and the relationship between husband and wife usage were supported. Implications are discussed especially in terms of studying interspousal violence from a communication orientation.     

Gymnastics and child abuse: an analysis of former international Portuguese female artistic gymnasts

The growing competitiveness of modern sport means that children, from very early ages, are increasingly submitted to intensive training programmes. These programmes are problematic for young athletes not only because their developing bodies are particularly susceptible to different kinds of injuries, but because athletes are also particularly vulnerable to experiences of different kinds of abuses. Using data collected through semi-structured interviews this study examines the various kinds of abuse that former Portuguese female gymnasts underwent during their sporting careers. Interviewees were asked to reflect on their past experiences and discuss aspects of the gymnastics subculture. Weight control, training/competing with injuries and corporal punishment emerged as key themes. The study therefore shows that the physical and psychological abuse of young athletes occurs even beyond the confines of elite professional sport, and thus that a broader spectrum of athletes learn to consider these forms of exploitation and abuse as normal.     

Home advantage in soccer: a retrospective analysis

The existence of home advantage has been established for all major professional team sports in England and North America. The advantage was found to be greatest in soccer, with the home team currently obtaining about 64% of all points gained in the English Football League. Home advantage has changed very little since the formation of the League in 1888 and there are only small variations between the four Divisions of the League. The advantage is less marked in local derbies, in the FA Cup and in nonprofessional competitions. It is greater in the European Cup and increases as the stages of the competition progress. The allocation of three points, instead of two, for a win in the Football League has not changed home advantage, but its effect has been greatly reduced in the GM Vauxhall Conference where an away win gains more points than a home win. The statistical evidence suggests that crowd support and travel fatigue contribute less to home advantage in soccer than do the less easily quantifiable benefits of familiarity with conditions when playing at home. Further possible explanations for the advantage are discussed in the light of findings in other sports.     

Evidence of a reduced home advantage when a team moves to a new stadium

Home advantage is well documented for professional baseball, basketball and ice hockey in North America. One of the possible causes of this advantage is familiarity with the local playing facility. This was investigated and quantified in an analysis of 37 teams moving to new stadiums, but in the same city, from 1987 to 2001. Home advantage during the first season in a new stadium after the move was significantly less than home advantage in the final season in the old stadium (P= 0.011). The reduction was evident in all three sports. Possible confounding factors, such as crowd size and crowd density, were considered but did not appear to have an effect. It is estimated that about 24% of the advantage of playing at home maybe lost when a team relocates to a new facility.     

Talking about contract cheating: facilitating a forum for collaborative development of assessment practices to combat student dishonesty

Contract cheating presents an existential threat to university assessment integrity and, therefore, to the reputations of universities and their graduates. We report on two workshops, with academic development participants who collaboratively addressed assessment identity verification through problem identification and solution creation. As facilitators, we iteratively reflected on the workshop processes to design and refine subsequent offerings. The corresponding research sought to increase sectoral collaboration and evidence student authorship in assessment. This work provides one approach to developing practice-driven resources and insights for academic developers to encourage others to collaboratively address complex problems that are difficult to resolve, like contract cheating.     

The Application of the Microcounseling Paradigm to the Training of Support Personnel in Counseling

The microcounseling paradigm was utilized in 3 4-hour segments to train paraprofessionals in the skills of attending behavior, expression of feeling, and reflection of feeling. Sixteen female subjects served in the project and followed a modified micro-counseling routine in learning each of the skills. Results showed that all trainees evidenced significant learning of all 3 behavioral skills in a short period of time. Significant pre- to post-treatment differences occurred on all criterion measures. Results are discussed with respect to the training of support personnel in counseling via the microcounseling paradigm.     

Recording Primary Language

The ILEA Primary Language Record has had a significant effect upon approaches to the assessment of language in the primary school, having proved to be both professionally thorough and practically useful. In this article Dominic Wyse explores ways in which the PLR can be modified to make it even more useful for teachers, while maintaining its underlying philosophy. He shows quite clearly how the record can be used to improve the quality of teaching and learning and offers a welcome alternative to simplistic models of literacy assessment.     

Texas Hold ‘Em: An Exploration of the Divergent Perspectives of Texas’s Campus Carry Law

One of the most pressing concerns on college campuses today is student safety. To date, nine states have passed Campus Carry legislation and more states may follow. Texas was the eighth state to pass Campus Carry legislation. Specifically, in the 2015 Legislative session, the Texas Legislature voted to allow License to Carry (LTC) holders to carry concealed weapons on college and university campuses. This law, Senate Bill 11 (SB 11), took effect in the fall 2016 at four-year universities and, a year later, took effect on two-year college campuses across Texas. At the heart of this debate, are questions that will affect college campuses across this nation: will this law make colleges safer, or more dangerous and how practical is it to allow or prevent guns on campus? This article employed a case study approach to explore the perspectives held by faculty, staff and students at a Texas community college, which is currently implementing this new law. While the vast majority of Higher Education institutions opposed this new law, its passage in the Texas legislature was swift. At the onset of this study, the researcher speculated that the Campus Carry Law would be vigorously opposed by the faculty, staff and students, but surprisingly this research revealed dramatically different perspectives held by the stakeholders mostly centered around one issue: perceptions of safety. This research also seeks to outline policy considerations for institutions in states with similar pending legislation.