A Developmental Comparison of the Out‐of‐school Recreation and Leisure Activity Participation of Boys and Girls With and Without Physical Disabilities

Similarities and differences were examined in the out‐of‐school recreation and leisure activity participation of 422 children with physical disabilities and 354 children without disabilities. The roles of age (six to eight years, nine to 11 years, and 12–14 years), gender, and disability status were examined with respect to the diversity, intensity, location, companionship, and enjoyment of participation in five types of activities, controlling for family income. The findings indicate that dimensions and types of activity participation are differentially influenced by age, gender, and disability. Age cohort comparisons indicated that children without disabilities experienced a widening social world characterised by more intense social participation, greater participation with non‐family members, and stable levels of enjoyment across the age groups. In contrast, children with disabilities in the various age groups were similar in their intensity of social participation and the nature of their companionship, with 12–14 year olds reporting less enjoyment of social activities than those aged six to eight years or nine to 11 years. The findings support the utility of a developmental and contextual perspective in understanding children’s patterns of participation. The information can be used by service providers and managers interested in creating centre‐based or community‐based recreational opportunities, and in providing information to parents about how to encourage children’s recreation and leisure participation.     

Upset among youth in response to questions about exposure to violence,sexual assault and family maltreatment

To assess whether youth are upset by being asked questions about sensitive kinds of abuse, victimization, family maltreatment, and sexual victimization in the course of standard epidemiological surveys. A national sample of youth aged 10–17 were interviewed on the telephone by experienced interviewers as part of the National Survey of Children Exposed to Violence. At the end they were asked whether answering questions had upset them. Of the youth interviewed, 4.5% reported being at all upset and 0.8% reported being pretty or a lot upset. However, only a minority of those upset, .3% of the total sample, said they would not participate again had they known about the content. But even in this group, the regret about participation was mostly due to the length of the survey, not the types of questions being asked. Thus, asking about exposure to abuse and sensitive kinds of victimization in standard interview surveys is associated with low levels of respondent upset due to the nature of the questions.     

The Contextual Importance of Diversity: The Impact of Relational Demography and Team Diversity on Individual Performance and Satisfaction

ABSTRACT : Organizations are seeing an increase in the level and types of diversity among their employees. It is important that managers understand the myriad of ways that diversity influences employees. This study investigates the effect of being different on an individual's performance and satisfaction levels. Being different on visible characteristics (i.e., sex, age, race) predicted negative outcomes. Being different on informational characteristics (educational background, years of work experience) had both positive and negative effects on objective performance but no effect on satisfaction or perceived performance. The level of team diversity (the degree to which a team is heterogeneous and homogeneous) influenced the outcomes above and beyond that of being different. The results of this study have real consequences for the way diversity is managed in organizations.