The Experience of Columbian Child Soldiers from a Resilience Perspective

There are child soldiers fighting with government forces and opposition groups in more than 30 countries worldwide. Although studies have been conducted on the impact of war-related trauma on children, very few have focused on those children who do not exhibit trauma-related symptoms after experiencing armed combat. The purpose of this study was to identify and understand some of the mechanisms and resources that resilient children draw upon to overcome the trauma of child soldiering. Six Colombian child soldiers were recruited through purposive sampling techniques to participate in a narrative study focusing on their lived experiences and their personal understanding of how they were able to overcome the effects of war trauma. Six narrative themes were identified and discussed in terms of the literature on trauma and childhood resilience and also related to counselling needs and services.     

Faculties of Education in Traditional Universities and Universities of the Third Age: A Partnership Model in Gerontagogy

This article discusses “Universities of the Third Age”, whose function is quite distinct from established universities' traditional role in teaching, research, and community services. Consequently, there is an urgent need to develop a model of partnership between traditional universities and Universities of the Third Age, ensuring better training for educators working with senior citizens. Determining the roles of teachers, supervisors, and students will facilitate greater cooperation, and allow for a linkage of Universities of the Third Age (U3A) with traditional faculties of education, as well as further refinement of the theoretical and practical professional training of future educators of older people.     

Using phenomenography to build an understanding of how university people conceptualise their community-engaged activities

Higher education institutions are seeking greater community engagement through academic, social and civic activity. In response, researcher attention has turned to impacts on students’ education, and benefits to both university and community partners. This phenomenographic study examines how a diverse group of teachers, researchers and administrators at one New Zealand university conceptualised their involvement in community-engaged learning and teaching. We identified an outcome space where university people conceived their community engagement in three ways: within an expert/novice discourse, as advocacy, and in the most complex conception, as reciprocal learning. When working with and within communities, we suggest that university people should be supported to approach community engagement as reciprocal learning rather than adopting approaches that render community partners in passive roles.     

Measuring the Early Adulthood Outcomes of Young Adults with Disabilities: Developing Constructs using NLTS2 Data

Secondary data analysis was used to develop and examine disability-related differences in outcome constructs from the National Longitudinal Transition Study-2. Findings suggest that outcome constructs could be created that represented key elements of quality of life domains including social relationships, financial independence, financial supports, employment, emotional well-being, postsecondary education, independent living, health status, access to services, and advocating for needs. The constructs could be measured equivalently across disability groups, but young adults with high incidence disabilities, generally, experienced more positive outcomes than those with more severe disabilities, despite the finding that those with more severe disabilities have greater access to services and financial supports. Implications for future research and practice are discussed.     

Is the Door-in-the-Face a Concession?

The Door-in-the-Face (DITF) sequential message strategy was investigated in a three-study analysis of existing experimental findings. The current study predicted there would be a positive relationship between concession size and compliance rates in DITF studies. Study 1 included 25 comparisons where size of concession was quantifiable as measured by percentage reduction from initial to target request in the DITF condition. Study 2 data relied on a panel of undergraduate students to provide an index of concession size in 12 additional observations. A third study validated the panel procedure of rating concession size and also provided 9 additional independent observations from the pool of published studies on DITF. Results from each study indicated a positive relationship between concession size and effect size (r = 0.35, 0.55, 0.68, respectively). Study findings provide support for reciprocal concessions explanation for DITF effects.     

Adults'' Responses to Infants Varying in Appearance of Age and Attractiveness

The relations among age appearance, facial attractiveness, and adult expectations of the developmental maturity of infants were examined in 3 studies. In Study 1, a relation was demonstrated between ratings of the attractiveness (77 judges) and age appearance (53 judges) of 6-month-olds: less attractive infants were judged to be older than their attractive age-mates. In Study 2, 75 parents judged the specific developmental abilities of 6-month-old infants and estimated the age of the babies. Parents overestimated both the age and the developmental abilities of the unattractive infants. Furthermore, ability estimates for the unattractive infants were significantly higher than judgments of the typical abilities of 6-month-olds made by another group of 35 parents. Finally, the results of Study 2 were replicated in Study 3 conducted with 348 mothers. It was also demonstrated in Study 3 that, although mothers expected unattractive infants to be capable of more specific developmental skills, they nevertheless rated the general competence of the unattractive infants to be lower than that of attractive infants. Specious contradictions in the attractiveness and age appearance literatures are resolved by these results: age appearance seems to function as an informational cue with respect to specific age-appropriate abilities, whereas attractiveness elicits evaluative attributions of general competence. Both types of information conveyed in faces may have important implications for adult evaluations of infants and older children.     

Culture, Climate, and Contribution: Career Satisfaction Among Female Faculty

Retention of female faculty is an important issue for institutions of higher education aiming for excellence and diversity. However, an essential first step in understanding retention is to examine what contributes to career satisfaction for academic women. This study is based on data from a census survey of faculty conducted in 1996 at a Research I university located in the Midwest. Using Hagadorn's (2000) model for conceptualizing faculty job satisfaction, the study identifies domains of environmental condition, departmental climate, and demographics that play a role in female faculty's overall career satisfaction.