TURKISH AND U.S. ATTITUDES TOWARD AGING

As people live longer and the number of older adults increases worldwide, it becomes important to understand the factors that influence how we understand and perceive our own aging as well as how we construct our attitudes toward older adults. Although studies have indicated that later adulthood can be a healthy, productive, and satisfying time of life, ageism or prejudice and discrimination against older adults and a fear of the aging process, continues to be a widespread phenomena. The purpose of this study was to compare attitudes and anxieties toward aging of young and middle-aged men and women from the United States and Turkey. The results indicate that significant country and gender differences exist in how people feel about getting older and the age at which they consider themselves to be “old.” Contact with elders as well as education regarding the process of aging appear to have a significant impact on attitudes toward aging.     

LEISURE AND THE RETIRED PROFESSOR: OCCUPATION MATTERS

ABSTRACT

Little attention has been given to the leisure activities of retired professors, whose activity patterns in retirement may be different from those of other occupational groups because of their lifetime commitment to work. This interview study uses both quantitative and qualitative data to investigate: (a) the leisure and professional activities of retired professors; (b) the anticipated leisure activities of older employed professors; and (c) the relationship between sociodemographic factors and leisure activities of professors in retirement. Respondents were 54 retired (response rate 83%) and 17 employed (response rate 94%) professors aged 70–74 from a major research university. Content analysis of the tape-recorded open-ended questions indicated that volunteer activity, travel, exercise or sports, and work around the house or garden were the most commonly described leisure activities of retirees. A large majority of retirees (70%) also continued professional activities. Travel and exercise or sports were the most frequently planned activity for employed respondents. Correlational analysis revealed little relationship between sociodemographic factors and leisure activities in retirement. Implications for retirement education and leisure programming are discussed.     

RECALL SCORES OF OLD AND YOUNG PEOPLE AS A FUNCTION OF REGISTRATION INTERVALS

The subjects, 24 old (mean age, 69 yr) and 24 young (mean age, 19 yr) people, were given one learning trial on paired associate lists under each of four temporal conditions: (1) 3 sec study (association) interval; (2) self‐paced study interval; (3) self‐paced study interval and 4 sec registration interval; (4) self‐paced study and registration intervals. The response interval for the single recall trial was self‐paced for all conditions. The subject was instructed to use the registration interval to ensure that the association between the paired items was “fixed” in his or her mind. The recall scores of the elderly subjects but not the young subjects improved significantly as a function of the registration interval. The results suggest that with advanced age more time is required for information processing, and specifically for the registration of an association and/or its transfer from primary to secondary memory. The significant improvement of the older subjects from the paced‐study‐interval condition to the self‐paced‐study‐and‐registration‐intervals condition supports the contention that modification of conditions under which the older person is expected to perform can result in substantial performance increments.     

Against the odds: resilience in mathematics students in transition

This paper examines ‘resilience’ of mathematics students in transition from a sociocultural perspective, in which resilience is viewed as relational and in particular as a function of the social and cultural capital students may bring to the new field. We draw on two students’ stories of transition, in which we recognise elements traditionally viewed as ‘risks’ for mathematics students in transition into institutions where new demands are made. However, in each case it seems that some of their apparent background ‘risk factors’—coming from poorer socioeconomic backgrounds and disadvantaged schools—have come to serve to constitute capital, buttressing their particular resilience, as they provide a crucial kind of autonomy that is particularly valued in the new institution. We identify the learners’ reflexivity as having been crucial to this accumulation of capital and we discuss some educational implications.     

Prevalence and Predictors of Cyberbullying Perpetration by High School Seniors

Cyberbullying is the deliberate and repeated misuse of communication technology by an individual or group to threaten or harm others. Guided largely by the communication skills deficiency model and previous research on cyberbullying, this study examins the effects of several predictor variables (i.e., verbal aggression, sex, risky behaviors, parental monitoring, parental limits, technology use, and scope of Internet activities) on cyberbullying perpetration. A total of 1,606 incoming freshmen at a large southwestern university completed an online survey measuring all predictor and dependent variables under investigation. Overall, 35% of these individuals reported that they had cyberbullied at least one person during their senior year of high school. Results indicated that verbal aggression, risky behaviors, and cyberbullying victimization emerged as significant predictors of cyberbullying perpetration. These results have important theoretical and practical implications for those interested in developing cyberbullying prevention interventions.     

Host country R&D determinants of MNE entry strategy: A study of ownership in the automobile industry

We investigate how host country R&D influences ownership decisions made by technology-intensive multinational enterprises (MNEs) as they internationalize. We draw from institutional and resource based theories, as well as literature on agglomeration and clusters, and construct a unique dataset of 1324 foreign investments recorded by German automobile manufacturers between 2005 and 2012 for our empirical tests. We find that in host countries that are cluster-abundant there will be a greater likelihood that technology-intensive MNEs will adopt joint ventures over wholly-owned subsidiaries, and will more likely use a lower equity stake in any joint venture. We find partial support for the influence of other aspects of host country R&D, including innovation output and inward technology FDI. Various robustness tests and insights from selected cases provide further support. Importantly, findings demonstrate the importance of multi-dimensional characteristics of host country R&D over and above those such as market size, political stability and cultural distance that are more commonly utilized and discussed in the entry strategy literature. The findings have implications for host country policy as well as strategy-makers in MNEs seeking to compete on the basis of globalized R&D.     

Interpreting measures of fundamental movement skills and their relationship with health-related physical activity and self-concept

The aims of this study were to determine proficiency levels of fundamental movement skills using cluster analysis in a cohort of U.K. primary school children; and to further examine the relationships between fundamental movement skills proficiency and other key aspects of health-related physical activity behavior. Participants were 553 primary children between 9- and 12-years old, 294 boys and 259 girls, who were assessed across eight different fundamental movement skills. Physical activity behaviors included markers of physical fitness, recall of physical activity behavior, and physical self-concept. Hierarchical cluster analysis was used to classify groups based on fundamental movement skills proficiencies and discriminant analysis to predict fundamental movement skills proficiency based upon the physical activity variables. This interpretation of fundamental movement skills performance revealed distinct groups of fundamental movement skills proficiency in both genders with several gender-specific components of physical activity shown to discriminate children with differing levels of fundamental movement skills proficiency (p < .05, r > .40).     

Coach ratings of skills and their relations to practice,play and successful transitions from youth-elite to adult-professional status in soccer

Elite soccer players (~15 yr) from professional academies in the UK were rated on technical, tactical, physical and creative skills by coaches at time 1 (T1). Players estimated accumulated hours in soccer practice (coach-led activities) and play (self-led activities) during childhood. Coach-ratings were again collected 2.5 yr later (T2) for players that received a professional contract (~17 yr). Adult-professional status was determined at T3 (~ 20 yr). Skill ratings distinguished across the three “future” groups (academy-only, youth-professional only and adult-professional), for all but creative skill. For players that transitioned to youth-professional, medium sized correlations were noted between childhood practice amounts and technical and creative skill ratings at T1, although practice amounts correlated more strongly with skill ratings at T2. Play amounts were not related to any skills. Within groups of youth elite athletes, domain-specific play in childhood, and to a lesser degree practice, were generally not good discriminators of specific-skills. The effects of sport-specific practice on the development (and discriminability) of skills takes time to emerge. We consider the implications for talent development models and purported links between play and creativity.