The impact of an older adult parent on communicative satisfaction and dyadic adjustment in the long-term marital relationship: adult-children and spouses' retrospective accounts

This research examined adult-children and their spouses' (N v = v 15 dyads) self-reports of communicative behaviors in the long-term marital relationship when caring for an older adult parent in their home and long-term married couples (N v = v 34 dyads) not caring for a parent. A quasi-experimental retrospective design was implemented to determine the effect of an older adult parent on the relational change of the adult marital dyad. Results of a mixed model ANOVA revealed a significant 2-way interaction effect in a negative direction regarding communicative satisfaction for long-term married couples after a parent has moved into the adult-child home with no other substantial or significant findings. An analysis of the means indicated that the interaction effect is a function of the fact that having a parent present slightly decreases marital satisfaction, whereas when the parent is not present satisfaction increases. Implications of the results for the study of caring for an older adult parent in the adult-child and spouse long-term marital relationship are discussed, and future applications of the life span developmental perspective are suggested     

More Than Just Low-Hanging Fruit: A Collaborative Approach to Weeding in Academic Libraries

This article focuses on using collaboration to develop and implement a comprehensive and systematic approach to weeding in a small academic library. Collection assessment, analysis of options, and determination of feasibility form the basis for the development of the weeding agenda. Collaborative strategies that include the creation of a collection management committee, the formation of weeding teams, and the inclusion of teaching faculty shape the implementation of the weeding project. Finally, the authors address unforeseen problems and the collaborative solutions developed to address them.     

English in Hong Kong: a preliminary study of the ACERWord Knowledge Test – Form F and the Raven's Standard Progressive Matrices as indicators of verbal reasoning ability and abstract reasoning ability among Hong Kong university students

The standard of English of Hong Kong students is a matter of considerable debate. Academics, business people and others bemoan the deterioration of English-speaking skills and the declining quality of students. Explanations for this situation include the introduction of mass education, the lack of trained English teachers and an exam-centred curriculum. Yet, little research has been undertaken concerning student intellectual ability and English skills. This short report examines the English skills of 146 undergraduates using the ACER Word Knowledge Test - Form F , and their abstract reasoning ability using Raven's Standard Progressive Matrices. The results show that Hong Kong students, while low in English skills are superior in intelligence. Although exploratory and subject to qualification, the research has implications for the teaching and continued use of English in Hong Kong schools and universities.     

Bringing War Down to Earth: The Dialectic of Pity and Compassion in Doonesbury's View of Combat Trauma

Post-traumatic stress disorder among returning veterans from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan has invoked all manner of public responses, not least of which is a sense of pity that begins and ends with the moment of recognition. As such, the publicity of soldier sufferance ironically mitigates the need for a more complex socialization to the pain of war that might be animated by a more nuanced emotional response rooted in the disruption of common narratives about sacrifice, service, and heroism. This essay argues for the potential of Garry Trudeau's trilogy of cartoons, collected under the titles of The Long Road Home, The War Within, and Signature Wound, to depict a dialectic of pity and compassion while underscoring the inadequacies of discourses of trauma through the use of bathos—a verbal–visual descent that emphasizes the commonplace in the seemingly extraordinary through the trope of the ridiculous.     

Understanding the decline in unwanted online sexual solicitations for U.S. youth 2000–2010: Findings from three Youth Internet Safety Surveys

To explore the decline in online sexual solicitations between 2000 and 2010 by examining the characteristics of solicitations to better inform prevention efforts. Data are from the Youth Internet Safety Surveys (YISS); three cross-sectional, nationally representative telephone surveys of 3561 youth Internet users in the United States, ages 10 through 17 (1501 in YISS-1; 1500 in YISS-2; 1560 in YISS-3). Unwanted online sexual solicitation was defined as requests to engage in sexual activities or sexual talk or give personal sexual information that were unwanted or, whether wanted or not, made by an adult. The decline in unwanted sexual solicitations from 19% in 2000 to 13% in 2005 to 9% in 2010 was driven by a reduction in youth who were being asked to talk about sex or for personal sexual information online. Pre-teens (ages 10–12) accounted for the majority of this decline. Multiple solicitations over the course of a year also decreased. More solicitations occurred at the hands of people youth knew in person prior to the incident – mainly friends and acquaintances, and less so at the hands of people youth met online. By 2010 most solicitations were occurring through social networking sites. Victims were disclosing solicitation incidents at greater rates in 2010 – mostly to friends. In spite of continuing anxiety about the impact of the Internet on the safety of youth, encouraging trends suggest experiences, behavior and education are moving in the direction of greater online safety and improved experiences for youth.     

Simply Irresistible: Reality TV Consumption Patterns

This purpose of this study was to explore college students' consumption patterns in regard to reality television, their rationale for watching reality shows, their perceptions of the situations portrayed on these shows, and the role of social affiliation in the students' consumption of reality television. The results of focus groups indicate that while participants perceive a social stigma associated with watching reality television, they continue to watch because of the perceived escapism and social affiliation provided.     

Audience Activity and Reality Television: Identification,Online Activity,and Satisfaction

This study is an examination of audience activity in reality television. This genre was chosen because the program producers encourage activity with Web-based video footage, photos, program summaries and speculations, online discussions, and voting. Hypotheses predicted that audience viewing motives would be significant predictors of identification, online post-exposure activity, and satisfaction. In general, the study's hypotheses were supported. Identification was predicted by watching for social learning and cognitive and emotional involvement. Engaging in online activity after watching was predicted by elaboration and feeling negative emotion. Viewing satisfaction was predicted by viewing motive; cognitive and emotional involvement; and, surprisingly, less online activity after watching.     

Latino expectations of communicative competence: A focus group interview study

Drawing on Martin, Hammer, and Bradford's (1994) work on intercultural communicative competence, this investigation explored Latino expectations of communicative competence using focus group interviews. Like the Martin et al. (1994) study, communicative competence was examined in four contexts — intracultural‐social, intracultural‐task, intercultural‐social, and intercultural‐task. Results indicated overall support for seven of Martin et al.’s (1994) eight behavioral categories. Data from focus group interviews in this study suggested an additional competence category specific to task contexts as well as some emic behaviors not identified in the Martin et al. (1994) investigation.     

A struggle to contextualize photographic images: American print media and the “Burning Monk”

On June 11, 1963, Thich Quang Duc sat in a lotus position in the middle of a busy Saigon intersection and set fire to himself. His self‐immolation was caught in an award‐winning series of photographs by Malcolm Browne. The “Burning Monk”; photographs — now recognized as some of the most powerful visual images to have come out of this period of history — became a frame through which many Americans perceived the events unfolding in South Vietnam during the Summer and Fall of 1963. This essay suggests that although these visual images engaged the American audience, their meaning — and thus the frame they provided — was the subject of a dispute within the American print media. How this frame was constructed depended largely upon whether the images were situated against a backdrop of religious oppression, or a war for freedom against the communists.