Public Understanding of Climate Change: Certainty and willingness to act

During a 10-week period prior to the 1997 Kyoto conference on climate change, two parallel studies were conducted: Study 1 examined media portrayals of global warming and the certainty with which information was reported (percentage of 'hedging'); Study 2 was a telephone survey to assess public knowledge about key topics in global climate change, people's certainty about their information, trust in the media, and willingness to take action on global warming. Media reports were found to be scarce, and about half of the references to global warming were found to be hedged. More hedging was evident in the New York Times than in other print media and national television reports, and economic impacts of climate change were reported with the greatest certainty. The audience (N = 139 adults, average age 36–45, with at least a high school education) reported trusting their media sources more than 50% of the time. They were collectively fairly knowledgeable and certain about global warming information (9.1 on a scale of - 20 to + 20), and they appeared to be willing to adopt a range of responsible behaviors seen to be useful in countering global warming (average response 3.0 out of 4). The knowledge/certainty factor was described as 'attitude under uncertainty', and was significantly related to media trust (r = 0.325, p < 0.01) and willingness to act responsibly (r = 0.400, p < 0.01). Comparing Study 1 with Study 2, the research does not support a hypothesis that media hedging is related to uncertainty. Implications for environmental communicators are discussed.     

Mom Expo: Bridging the Gap Between Local Women and Perinatal Resources

The purpose of this project was to describe the implementation of a perinatal health fair intended to connect local women to holistic resources. Researchers used participatory strategies to develop the health fair with local women and perinatal educators. Researchers evaluated the health fair using pragmatic measures based on the (Reach, Effectiveness, Adoption, Implementation, Maintenance) framework. Forty-two attendees were reached and 23 educators hosted booths and educational sessions. Feedback indicated strong enthusiasm for future similar events. Nearly three quarters of the time spent implementing the health fair was devoted to building relationships within the community. Overall, this project provides practical and empirical information to inform the planning, implementation, and evaluation of perinatal health fairs that establish meaningful connection between local women, perinatal educators, and health researchers.     

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

The Urban Review - Youth-led participatory action&nbsp;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.     

Are There Gender Differences in How Students Write Their Essays? An Analysis of Writing Processes

This study compared gender groups on the processes used in writing essays in an online assessment. Middle‐school students from four grades responded to essays in two persuasive subgenres, argumentation and policy recommendation. Writing processes were inferred from four indicators extracted from students’ keystroke logs. In comparison to males, on average females not only obtained higher essay scores but differed from males in their writing processes. Females entered text more fluently, engaged in more macro and local editing, and showed less need to pause at locations associated with planning (e.g., between bursts of text, at sentence boundaries). That these differences were detected after controlling for essay scores suggests that they cannot be attributed solely to disparities in group writing skill.     

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.