Stronger Working Memory Reduces Sexual Risk Taking in Adolescents,Even After Controlling for Parental Influences

This study examined the prospective influence of adolescent working memory (WM) on changes in impulsivity and sexual risk taking and assessed whether this relation could be explained by confounding effects of parental influences. Data from 360 community adolescents (M_age = 13.5 ± 0.95 years; 52% female; 56% non‐Hispanic White; low‐mid socioeconomic status (SES); recruited from Philadelphia area in 2004–2005) were analyzed using structural equation modeling to predict changes in impulsivity and sexual risk taking over a 2‐year follow‐up, using baseline assessments of WM, parental monitoring, parental involvement, and SES. Stronger WM predicted reduced involvement in sexual risk taking at follow‐up, effects channeled through changes in impulsivity dimensions of “acting without thinking” and “inability to delay gratification.” Parental variables had a protective influence on adolescent impulsivity and risk involvement, but the effects of WM operated independently of parental influences.     

Preparing at-risk youth for a changing world: revisiting a person-in-context model for transition to employment

Background: The current global cohort of youth has been called ‘a generation at-risk’, marked by a dramatic rise in youth who are not in employment, education or training programmes. In 2010, youth were three times as likely as adults to be unemployed, with youth unemployment worsening in 2012 and 2013. Accordingly, there is an urgent need to examine educational structures that can promote greater labour market attachment and successful transition into employment for youth worldwide. Vocational and work-based education (WBE) has been identified as one of the most recommended and promising educational structures for curtailing youth under- and unemployment. However, WBE takes many forms, making it difficult to discern which WBE programme is most likely to meet the diverse needs of any individual at-risk youth. Moreover, there has been a dearth of theoretical conceptualisations to explain WBE as a context that promotes resilience for at-risk youth as they transition into the world of work.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to present a revised model for WBE as an enabling context for at-risk youth in transition from school to employment. Specifically, a person-in-context approach is used, situating youth-related facets (e.g. agency) in relation to systemic facets (e.g. political, cultural) to provide a comprehensive theoretical basis for WBE. The revised model maintains three overlapping domains – the individual, the social-cultural and the economic-political – to address a theoretical gap in the literature on transition systems while providing a foundation for practical efforts to prepare at-risk youth for engaging in a changing labour market.

Design and Methods: The model was constructed through a systematic and interdisciplinary integrative literature review that examined empirical, conceptual, policy-based and practice-based literature on at-risk youth transition from school to work. Articles and documents were analysed for both individual and contextual factors that influence transition, in order to contribute towards the development of a robust person-in-context model. Existing models of transition and other systems were also examined that addressed the needs of at-risk youth. A ‘person-in-context’ approach was selected for our model as it enabled representation of both macro- and microcosmic factors that shape effective WBE programming.

Conclusions: The model is organised around three critical domains that were identified as being influential for school-to-work transition: the individual domain, the social-cultural domain and the economic-political domain. Within each of these domains, multiple facets are described that shape youth transition. WBE is positioned at the centre of the model as an educational structure that can attend to the multiple facets that shape engagement in school and work. The paper concludes with an explicit research agenda linked to the model and practical implications for WBE programming.     

Nursing Care Preferences among Filipino Elderly: A Conjoint Analysis

While nursing care has been investigated in the context of patient satisfaction, health care delivery, nursing skill, and patient centered care, elderly patients’ nursing care preferences have not been fully explored nor identified from the lens of utility analysis. This study is a purposive sample of 300 Filipino geriatric patients from the regions of Calabarzon and National Capital Region (NCR) participated and were asked to rank cards from 1 to 12 relative to the following five attributes: waiting response time, nursing uniform, empathetic capacity through time spent and eye contact, and nursing skill based on their preferences. Results of conjoint analysis via Sawtooth Software 18 indicated that nurse attire was the most important attribute (57.26%) while empathetic capacity through eye contact was least important to Filipino elderly (2.27%). Significant differences were found in the respondents’ profile. Among the given attributes, nursing uniform had the most impact in determining an elderly choice of services. Conversely, eye contact had minimal importance. In the health care setting, utilization of this study would allow nursing care to refocus nursing care delivery to maximize satisfaction and hospital loyalty. Future research may explore the cultural and regional differences in terms of preferences among the elderly.     

The value of literacy practices

The concepts of literacy events and practices have received considerable attention in educational research and policy. In comparison, the question of value, that is, ‘which literacy practices do people most value?’ has been neglected. With the current trend of cross-cultural adult literacy assessment, it is increasingly important to recognise locally valued literacy practices. In this paper we argue that measuring preferences and weighting of literacy practices provides an empirical and democratic basis for decisions in literacy assessment and curriculum development and could inform rapid educational adaptation to changes in the literacy environment. The paper examines the methodological basis for investigating literacy values and its potential to inform cross-cultural literacy assessments. The argument is illustrated with primary data from Mozambique. The correlation between individual values and respondents’ socio-economic and demographic characteristics is explored.     

Google in perspective: understanding and enhancing student search skills

This paper describes a study of undergraduate student search behaviour, examines the results through the lens of various disciplines, and provides new insights that will increase our understanding and facilitate the development of more effective instructional programmes. Perspectives and research results drawn from multiple disciplines are used to explore the role of mental models, reference groups and habits, and intellectual development in the search behaviour demonstrated by the undergraduate students. During interviews conducted as part of the study, many students were able to articulate the importance of source evaluation and describe electronically-appropriate methods for assessing the authority and reliability of Web-based information resources. In practice, however, these students frequently abandoned source evaluation altogether and, following the path of least resistance, relied exclusively on basic Google searching. This approach both compromised the quality of their search results and contributed to frustration with the research process. This may not be extraordinarily unusual behaviour, but it is cause for considerable concern among information literacy programme planners and instructors. Discussion of the study results and related research is followed by pragmatic suggestions for modifying ineffective search behaviour through enhanced instructional programmes.     

Surviving the Broadcast Media in Small Language Communities

Abstract

The broadcast media challenge the survival of small languages as never before. To date the result largely has been negative, since broadcast media can penetrate to the remote areas that often shelter small languages and can invade even the strongest small‐language sanctuary ‐‐ the home. Where modern media have been enlisted to serve small languages, the uses to which the small languages have been put have been mostly serious and usually educational. This emphasis on the serious overlooks the strongest attributes of most small languages: their rich individuality as repositories of local flavour and folk tradition. These could be mustered for use in broadcasting to great effect and benefit in the support of beleaguered small languages.