Students and sex work in the UK: providers and purchasers

Available evidence suggests that changes in the funding of UK higher education in recent years have been accompanied by an increased student presence in the sex industry, ostensibly for financial reasons and to make ends meet. The current study comprises a sample of students (N = 200) drawn from several universities in the UK. Data were gathered on financial and employment circumstances, a range of measures of psychological well-being, attitudes to sex work, whether respondents were currently engaged in different types of sex work and whether they had participated in utilising a range of sexual services or forms of adult entertainment. Results indicated that around 6% (2.7%–9.3%) of the sample was currently working in the sex industry – in erotic dancing, stripping or escorting, with significant numbers of both male and female students also involved in purchasing and using sexual services. Little evidence was found to link these activities to prior experiences of psychological adversity. The implications of the results are discussed.     

The Effect of Leader-Member Exchange Differentiation Within Work Units on Coworker Exchange and Organizational Citizenship Behaviors

The concept of leader-member exchange (LMX) is predicated on the notion that leaders have differing quality relationships with each subordinate, leading to the formation of an ingroup and an outgroup. This suggests that for a sophisticated understanding of the impact of LMX relationships on individuals’ sentiments and behaviors, followers’ perceptions of the collective set of workgroup LMX relationships may be as important as their individual LMX relationships. This research examines employee perceptions of LMX across 67 work units, and investigates how these perceptions relate to coworker exchange (CWX) relationships and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB). Results indicate that CWX is strongly, positively related to the LMX of the participant and their colleagues. A significant, positive relationship between measures of CWX and OCBs directed toward the work unit, but not the organization, was also observed.     

Conveying a Stance of Religious Pluralism in Children’s Literature

Religious discrimination is a global concern, as social dissonance and devastating violence result from religious intolerance. In order to develop socially competent, global citizens and create a peaceful society, religious diversity must be explored in public school classrooms; yet it remains a controversial and seldom addressed topic. Children’s literature that conveys religious pluralism can help teachers start this crucial conversation. A content analysis of 14 religiously pluralistic texts was conducted to understand how children’s authors enact a pluralistic stance. Findings indicate that fiction authors employ five main archetypes to express messages of religious pluralism: the questioner, one truth believer, counterpoint character, atheist, and coach. Both fiction and nonfiction authors confront issues of religiously disguised violence, provide educational information about religious beliefs and practices, emphasize commonalities between religions, maintain an assertive and respectful voice when describing religious beliefs, and highlight the existence of multiple spiritual paths. Implications of these findings for classroom practice are discussed.     

Oral Language and Reading in Bilingual Children

This article examines the question: Do lexical, syntactic, fluency, and discourse measures of oral language collected under narrative conditions predict reading achievement both within and across languages for bilingual children? More than 1,500 Spanish–English bilingual children attending kindergarten–third grade participated. Oral narratives were collected in each language along with measures of Passage Comprehension and Word Reading Efficiency. Results indicate that measures of oral language in Spanish predict reading scores in Spanish and that measures of oral language skill in English predict reading scores in English. Cross‐language comparisons revealed that English oral language measures predicted Spanish reading scores and Spanish oral language measures predicted English reading scores beyond the variance accounted for by grade. Results indicate that Spanish and English oral language skills contribute to reading within and across languages.     

Utilizing “On Tap” Experts in Deliberative Forums: Implications for Design

Experts play important roles in supporting public deliberation. These roles include developing and vetting background materials, participating in question-and-answer sessions with citizens, and giving pubic presentations. Rarely, though, are experts asked to be on hand during deliberative forums, whereby they have the opportunity to interact with deliberating groups. The inclusion of experts during forums presents a tension because, although they can elevate the quality of the conversation by correcting factual errors, they can also, perhaps unknowingly, crowd out and silence citizen, or “nonexpert,” participation. Careful consideration of communication design can help public deliberation practitioners manage this tension so that experts, when involved in forums, enhance rather than undermine the deliberative process. Taking communication as design, we analyze the interaction of an invited expert at a water scarcity forum in Northern Colorado who derailed discussion and hindered dialogue by “going rogue.” We then turn to stasis theory to conceptualize the effective inclusion of technical experts in public deliberations. Through forum design and training practices, we propose that experts can help resolve issues of conjecture and definition in a manner that frees deliberating groups to discuss substantive and subjective issues of quality and policy.     

Examining the Effectiveness of a Multicomponent Reading Comprehension Intervention in Middle Schools: A Focus on Treatment Fidelity

In this experimental study, we examined the effects of a multicomponent reading comprehension intervention in sixth- to eighth-grade English language arts classes with a focus on factors to enhance treatment implementation. We tested the contribution of a theoretically derived fidelity framework that included adherence, quality, dosage, program differentiation, and student responsiveness. The study was conducted in three schools, involving 14 teachers and 859 students. English language arts classes were randomly assigned to the Comprehension Circuit Training intervention (n?=?30) or typical practice comparison (n?=?31) conditions, and all teachers taught in both conditions. Findings indicated that there was no reliable difference between the intervention and typical practice groups on standardized or researcher-developed proximal measures. To investigate the relationship between fidelity and student outcomes, we conducted a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to determine the relation of the indicators to a latent fidelity factor. Results of the CFA revealed a single fidelity factor composed of the adherence, quality, dosage, student responsiveness, and program differentiation variables. The fidelity factor was statistically significantly related to outcomes on a standardized comprehension measure (γ?=?.86, p?γ?=?.52, p?相似文献