Correlates of verbally aggressive communication in adolescents

This investigation identifies demographic, media, and social correlates of verbally aggressive communication in adolescence. Mail surveys were completed and returned by 2,300 adolescents between the ages of 13 and 15. These adolescents were asked about the prevalence of verbal and physical aggression, the context in which it occurred, demographics, and the interpersonal and media influences in their lives. The results indicate that verbal aggression is widespread, that committing and experiencing verbal aggression is largely reciprocal, that there is a strong relationship between committing verbal and physical aggression, and that peer social influence and listening to violently oriented music are mildly related to verbal aggression in adolescents. These findings suggest more resources should be allocated to teaching adolescents to understand and control verbal aggression. Further, they provide important answers to many prevention and intervention programmatic questions, including context, content, and targeting concerns. Since the negative consequences of verbal aggression are severe and long lasting, decreasing this destructive communication behavior should significantly improve the lives of many adolescents. These and other practical implications are expanded upon and discussed.     

Predicting Employee Turnover from Friendship Networks

Employees (n=40) at a fast-food restaurant were surveyed about characteristics of their position and their level of satisfaction. Employees were then asked to report with whom they regularly communicated inside and outside the workplace and to indicate how close they were to employees with whom they were linked. Employee turnover was measured after three months had elapsed. A goal of the research was to replicate a model of employee turnover that predicts employees more central in their social network to be less likely to leave, and to test a social support explanation of the centrality model. The results indicated that employees who reported a greater number of out-degree links with friends were less likely to leave. The number of in-degree links with friends did not significantly predict turnover, and neither did network links with peers. Friendship prestige, measured by the number of in-degree links, was strongly correlated with relational closeness and amount of time spent with employees outside the workplace.     

Leadership or Management

Abstract

This paper considers leadership and management issues affecting libraries in general. Specific attention is devoted to academic libraries and their reference departments. It focuses on the dynamics of leadership and management of academic library reference services and what is expected of the reference department head of the 21st century. It explores the changing roles of reference librarians and those of their leaders or department heads. It examines the leadership skills, traits, and competencies and attributes expected of the department head of reference in the new millennium. The paper also examines the paradox of leadership and management and draws distinction between the two terms. It finally looks into whether it is appropriate to have a manager from outside the library profession to be the head of an academic library reference department.     

政治领袖的影像与国家形象的修辞——以美国白宫发布的总统影像为例的分析

近年来,随着中国不断走向世界,"国家形象修辞"问题日益凸显。国家形象修辞是一个国家为了维护或者改变自己的形象所采取的符号性活动,是整个国家的官方形象、大众传媒形象、文化与经济产品形象、公众形象等等修辞活动的集合,其中,自然也包含国家领导人的影像修辞。美国白宫发布的总统照,就是一种精心策划的国家形象修辞活动。这些照片在修辞上突出表现为"去政治化"、"去礼仪化"、"去中心化"的特点,而这些特点背后,又无不包孕着更深刻的政治隐喻,值得我们借鉴。     

College Students' Sexual Health: Investigating the Role of Peer Communication

This study used the Theory of Planned Behavior as a guide to investigate college students' discussions with their peers about sexual health-related topics. Two hundred thirty-one undergraduates from a large university completed a questionnaire that assessed their comfort level discussing sexual health-related issues, the topics discussed, and the sex of the discussion partners. Some of the topics most frequently discussed included birth control, condoms, sexually transmitted diseases, and resources. Although a majority of the participants felt comfortable talking with both males and females, participants felt more comfortable discussing with their own gender than the opposite gender, and were in general more comfortable talking with females than males. Results showed that most students felt comfortable discussing sexual health-related topics with their peers, with females reporting a slightly higher comfort level than males.     

Preschool Routines,Peer Learning and Participation

The aim of this study was to examine what children learn spontaneously from each other in everyday activities within the preschool culture. It involves an interpretation and analysis of specific situations, which focus on the spontaneous learning that occurs in children's actions and communication . Everyday activities in preschool are associated with routines in situations like meals, circle time and play activities. In these situations children have opportunities to learn about rules, ways of acting, routines, codes and discursive practices; knowledge and skills which are often tacit but which children learn from each other through social practices.     

Peer interaction in Andalusia and Holland: A comparative study

Abstract

The relative scarcity of studies of cultural variations in peer interaction served as impetus for the present study. In this investigation, differences in peer interaction (child age: about 5 years) in Andalusia and Holland were examined both in an urban and a rural settings. Observational data were analysed with special interest on the collectivism-individualism dimension. Results showed that Andalusian children displayed a stronger tendency than Dutch children to function as part of a social group. However, this tendency was more clearly present in the Andalusian rural than in the urban setting. No cultural differences were found with respect to sociometric ratings. Results were discussed in terms of ecological factors in cross-cultural research.     

Adult recognition of school bullying situations

Bullying and harassment by school peers has received increasing attention as their relation to personal problems and more extreme forms of violence has become better recognized. Emphases of empirical studies have focused on characteristics and behaviours of both school bullies and their victims. There is a need to place these traits and actions into the context of the situation in which they occur, in order to expand the research and allow for the development of more sophisticated and comprehensive educational, prevention and intervention programmes. A total 251 professionals (teachers and counsellors) participated in this empirical study on the ability of professionals to differentiate between bullying and other forms of conflict. Participants were asked to judge the severity of 21 scenarios depicting different combinations of situational characteristics and also whether they constituted bullying situations or not. Results indicated that physical threat or abuse was seen as more severe than verbal or social/emotional abuse, and professionals more often rated physical conflicts as bullying even when they did not fit the definition. The repeated nature of an abusive relationship and an unfair match between participants were bullying situation characteristics found to be related to the responses of more and less effective situation evaluators. Implications for pre- and in-service training of educators were considered based on study results and previous research.     

The effects of individual characteristics,socioeconomic status,and political engagement on the attainment of student leadership roles in Chinese university students

This study analyzes the effects of individual characteristics, socioeconomic status, and political engagement among Chinese university students with respect to their attainment of student leadership roles. The study investigated 10,930 students from elite Chinese universities. The results showed that female and only-child students were more likely to become student leaders than male students and students with siblings. Students from local Hukou (household registration) were less likely than students from nonlocal Hukou, to become student leaders. Each upgrade of one level in the membership of the Chinese Communist Party doubled the students’ odds for attaining student leadership roles.     

一类具有动态领导者和时滞的多主体系统的一致性

研究了一类具有动态领导者并且存在时变耦合时滞的多主体系统的一致性问题．在所考虑的模型中,领导者的速度不能被精确量测．为了跟踪这样一个领导者主体,将对每个跟随者主体构造分散式状态估计器以及设计基于邻居的控制器;同时,由于耦合时滞的存在,基于邻居的控制器和状态估计器均包含了时变时滞的作用．当多主体系统的耦合拓扑是固定的或切换的有向图时,跟随者与领导者之间的跟踪误差得到了估计．特别地,可以证明,当动态领导者的速度可以被精确量测时,每一个跟随者都能够跟踪上领导者．