What Youth Care About: Exploring Topic Identification for Youth-Led Research in School

The Urban Review - Youth-led participatory action research (YPAR) has been documented to increase youth’s social, emotional, and cognitive outcomes, foster critical thinking and...     

Project Outcome results in action

ABSTRACT

The Public Library Association’s performance measurement initiative, Project Outcome, is a free online toolkit designed to help public libraries understand and share the impact of essential library programs and services by providing simple surveys and an easy-to-use process for measuring and analyzing outcomes. Interviews of participating libraries and community stakeholders were conducted in 2017 to create five success case studies. What PLA learned is that libraries using Project Outcome surveys can leverage their outcome data into actionable results—tracking their impact across time, improving and expanding programs and services, supporting new and deepening existing partnerships, and increasing library championship.     

Place,community and information behavior: Spatially oriented information seeking zones and information source preferences

Even in a digitally advanced society, much of our daily lives is based in place, but information behavior research has largely ignored place as theoretically relevant to information behavior. This study explores the implications of a place-based approach to studying information practices, and examines factors that influence information seeking and sharing in place-based communities among parents of individuals with disabilities. Based on qualitative data gathered from 35 parents of individuals with disabilities, it proposes a spatial model of information source preferences based on the theory of information horizons, and discusses implications of the model for future research related to information seeking and places. It also presents substantive place-related findings about local information needs, including discussion of the local parent network as an information seeking system.     

The Role of Relational Uncertainty in Topic Avoidance among Couples with Depression

To address a key gap in theorizing and research, we consider relational uncertainty as an explanation for why individuals experiencing depressive symptoms may be reluctant to talk about sensitive issues. We report closed-ended online survey data from 126 romantic couples in which one or both partners had been professionally diagnosed with depression. Results indicated that relational uncertainty mediated the positive association between depressive symptoms and topic avoidance. Partner effects from men to women also emerged. These findings are valuable for identifying relational uncertainty as a mechanism that may explain people's unwillingness to discuss challenging topics when they are experiencing depressive symptoms.     

Correlates of Sustained Volunteering: Advocacy for Students with Disabilities

Parents of students with disabilities often receive support from special education advocates, who may be trained through a variety of programs. Using a web-based survey, this study examined the postgraduation advocacy activities of 83 graduates of one such volunteer advocacy training program. In the one to four years after program graduation, 63.8% (53 of 83) of the graduates advocated for one or more families; these sustained advocates reported stable rates of advocacy over time, and advocates performed activities that were either family-focused or school-focused. For graduates who advocated post-training, amounts of advocacy were positively related to satisfaction with advocating and with higher levels of involvement with other advocates and with the broader disability community. Compared to those not advocating after graduating, sustained advocates reported greater advocacy-role identities, increased involvement in disability groups, and higher likelihood to advocate in the upcoming year. Future research and practice implications are discussed.     

Does First Sex Really “Just Happen?” A Retrospective Exploratory Study of Sexual Debut Among American Adolescents

First sex marks a significant transition for most adolescents, yet teens often report that it was unplanned. Seventy-four college students participated in exploratory focus groups about their first sex. Although initially asked whether their first sex was spontaneous or planned, many participants revealed evidence of forethought or anticipation, signifying a third option, anticipation. This study suggests that the development and timing of sexual health messages should build on the apparent, albeit often unacknowledged, planning and thought that accompany the transition to first sex. Specifically, during the time immediately preceding first sex, young people might be particularly open to such messages.     

Pink Ribbons Inc: breast cancer activism and the politics of philanthropy

This essay explores the cultural reconfiguration of breast cancer in the United States since the 1970s. It traces how breast cancer has been transformed in public discourse from a stigmatized disease best dealt with privately and in isolation, to a neglected epidemic worthy of public debate and political organizing, to an enriching and affirming experience during which women with the disease are rarely ‘patients’ and mostly ‘survivors.’ In the latter of these configurations, survivors emerge as symbols of hope who through their courage and vitality have elicited an outpouring of philanthropy, a continued supply of which will apparently ensure that the fight against breast cancer remains an unqualified success. By examining three key sites in this shift—federal policy, breast cancer marketing and the Susan G. Komen Foundation's Race for the Cure—the essay seeks to understand how, and with what effects, this transformation has occurred.     

Association of the Functional Movement Screen™ with match-injury burden in men’s community rugby union

Evidence supporting use of the Functional Movement Screen (FMS^TM) to identify athletes’ risk of injury is equivocal. Furthermore, few studies account for exposure to risk during analysis. This study investigated the association of FMS^TM performance with incidence and burden of match-injuries in adult community rugby players. 277 players performed the FMS^TM during pre-season and in-season time-loss injuries and match exposure were recorded. The associations between FMS^TM score, pain, and movement-pattern asymmetries with match-injury incidence (≥8-days time-loss/1000hours), severe match-injury incidence (>28-days time-loss/1000hours), and match-injury burden (total time-loss days/1000hours for ≥8-days match-injuries) were analysed using Poisson regression. Multivariate analysis indicated players with pain and movement-pattern asymmetry during pre-season had 2.9 times higher severe match-injury incidence (RR, 90%CI = 2.9, 0.9–9.7) and match-injury burden (RR, 90%CI = 2.9, 1.3–6.6). Players with a typically low FMS^TM score (mean – 1SD threshold) were estimated to have a 50% greater match-injury burden compared to players with a typically high FMS^TM score (mean + 1SD threshold) as match-injury burden was 10% lower per 1-unit increase in FMS^TM score. As the strongest association with injury outcome was found for players with pain and asymmetry, when implementing the FMS^TM it is advisable to prioritise these players for further assessment and subsequent treatment.