Supportive and Challenging Social Factors in a Decision to be Sexually Abstinent

Several studies have examined the intrinsic factors, including fear of pregnancy or sexually transmitted diseases, which motivate adolescents to choose sexual abstinence. Currently, little research has been dedicated solely to the extrinsic/social factors, which may also be influential in the decision to abstain from pre-marital sex. Four social factors were presumed to be especially influential, supporting a decision to be sexually abstinent and four social factors were presumed to be significant, challenging the choice to adopt a sexually-abstinent-untilmarriage life style. The proposed supportive social factors include: (a) Parental influence, (b) Peer influence, ( c) Religious affiliation/membership, ( d) Personal relationship with God. The proposed challenging social factors include: (a) Peer pressure to engage in sexual activity, (b) Pressure from a dating partner, (c) Media Influence, (d) Alcohol use. The opinions of adolescents towards these social factors and their influence on adolescents\u27 decision to remain sexually abstinent was presumed to vary depending on age, and gender. Fourteen hundred and forty surveys completed by adolescents who attended a one-day abstinence seminar were evaluated. Questions related to the social factors they assert to be most influential in an abstinence decision were analyzed. Results revealed that 94.6% of the sample reported a commitment to abstinence. Out of the four supportive social factors hypothesized, a personal relationship with the Lord was perceived by respondents to be the most supportive (87.2%) followed by affiliation with a church or synagogue (81.3%), friends (76.9%), and finally parents (61.9%). Out of the four challenging social factors hypothesized, media pressure was found to be most challenging (47.9%) followed by peer pressure (45.2%), pressure from a dating partner (19.2%), and alcohol (17%). Significant age and gender differences were found including results suggesting that females receive more support from friends to be abstinent then males and that peer pressure increases with age. Overall, results indicate that support from a church as well as a relationship with God are more important supportive factors in a commitment to abstinence then friends or parents for all age and gender groups. For this sample, parents are among the least supportive factors indicating a lack of communication and the need for parent training in order to improve discourse between adolescents and parents about sexual issues

Social Entrepreneurship and Social Transformation

This study provides a comparative analysis of seven cases of social entrepreneurship that have been widely recognized as successful. The paper suggests factors associated with successful social entrepreneurship, particularly with social entrepreneurship that leads to significant changes in the social, political and economic contexts for poor and marginalized groups. It generates hypotheses about core innovations, leadership, organization, and scaling up in successful social entrepreneurship. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications for the practice of social entrepreneurship, for further research, and for the continued development of support technologies and institutions that will encourage future social entrepreneurship.This publication is Hauser Center Working Paper No. 15. The Hauser Center Working Paper Series was launched during the summer of 2000. The Series enables the Hauser Center to share with a broad audience important works-in-progress written by Hauser Center scholars and researchers

Interview with Alex Stoner

Dr. Alex Stoner is assistant professor of Sociology at Salisbury University. His work focuses on critical theory and political economy of the environment. His work has appeared in journals such as Logos, and Critical Sociology. Dr. Stoner is also the recipient of the 2013 Albert Szymanski and T.R. Young Graduate Student Paper Award, given out by the American Sociological Association’s Marxist Sociology Section. Dr. Stoner joined us to discuss his current work on the critique of the concept of the Anthropocene, as well as the need to develop a critical theory of the environmen

Radiation Effects on Metastable States of Superheated Water

Radiation Effects on Metastable States of Superheated Water covers theory, application, and experimentation into the behavior of water at temperatures above the boiling point. The backgrounds of Positron Emission Tomography target design, bubble chambers, and superheat measurements are presented. The quantitative theory of metastable liquids and their characteristic waiting time is discussed. Energetics of bubble formation from two different perspectives are included. Finally, the design of an apparatus for measuring liquid superheats in the presence of radiation is covered in some detail, including several design iterations, first measurements made on the apparatus, and techniques for data reduction

Dementia-specific lived environment and life quality model: environmental interventions and roles of expert practitioners, The

2013 Summer.Includes bibliographical references.Individuals with Alzheimer's disease and related neurodegenerative dementias (ADRD) are particularly vulnerable to their environments due to diminished abilities to correctly process, organize, and integrate sensory information, leading to potential behavioral problems and functional deficits (Cohen-Mansfield, 2004; Kitwood, 1997). For individuals living in long-term care facilities, qualities of the physical and social environment can have an immediate and compounding effect on the quality of life of residents. Yet, to date there is little research on current best occupational therapy practices related to environmental interventions for people with ADRD living in long-term care. A proposed model of practice unique to occupational therapy called the Lived Environment Life Quality Model provides an appropriate theoretical framework in which to identify and examine processes of physical and social environmental interventions. This research study employed an action research methodology to identify physical and social environmental interventions employed by six expert occupational therapy practitioners, framed within the context of confirming and disconfirming the Lived Environment Life Quality Model. The results showed an overall confirmation of the model. Physical and social environmental interventions identified represent a vast and complex list that infiltrated all aspects of care, with the practitioner operating as a powerful change agent capable of dictating, influencing, and operating as part of the environmental intervention itself. Ultimately, it is important for occupational therapists to serve as ambassadors of care, and step into the foreground of enacting large-scale systems change within all aspects of the physical and social environment of the long-term care facility to elevate quality of life for residents with ADRD

Development and Control of Licking Behavior in the Guinea Pig (Cavia Porcellus)

Four non-licking guinea pigs were reinforced with water for successive approximations to licking an operandum feeder. Once all subjects had obtained their total liquid intake for a three-week period by licking, an optimum deprivation schedule was determined. Fixed ratio and variable interval schedules were found to affect licking behavior of the guinea pigs being slightly lower than that of the rat. Precise control over the onset and offset of licking was demonstrated through discrimination training

The Influence of Newspaper Prose Organization on Core Proposition Recall and Reader Proposition Production

This research study asked whether journalistic writing, as found in daily newswriting, facilitated or hindered the recall of main ideas and the recall of ideas developed by the reader. Comparisons were made to the recall of main ideas and the recall of reader developed ideas after reading condensed versions of the same materials. The questions asked by the study are based on a review of literature that identified overall prose passage organization as a readability factor important to reader retention of main ideas. A review of current research based on theories of story and prose passage structures and on memory structures was made. The development of techniques for observing the results of reader interaction with material read was noted. Study subjects read two short daily news articles, similar in length, prose organization, numbers of core propositions, and numbers of overall propositions in their original form or in a condensed form that utilized only core propositions (i.e., main ideas). Twenty-five high school seniors read and responded to two tasks by recalling passage ideas and their own ideas. A practice day preceded two days of testing. Results identified no significant differences in the recall of main ideas after reading an original news story or after reading a condensed news story. However, using a ratio of ideas generated by the reader to ideas read, idea production was significantly greater after reading the condensed material. Incidental findings identified order of response as making a significant difference in the number of main ideas recalled. A greater number of passage ideas was retained when recall of main ideas was the first task. Avenues for continued research include: exploration of the limits of this study\u27s findings; identification of the relationship of recall error to prose organization; the refinement of observation techniques; understanding of atypical organization in reader recall; the relationship of prose structure to quality of reader-developed ideas; and understanding idea development as a process. Skilled readers should be able to utilize daily news articles for retention of factual ideas. However, within the organization of this study, the condensed material produced the same recall in fewer words. If the reader\u27s goal is to remember what is read, recall of text ideas should precede the reader\u27s production of ideas that are his own. Observation of retellings enable the teacher to closely observe the reader\u27s retention resulting from interaction with the text. Observation will be less channeled by external influences such as questions, workbook tasks or teacher assignments

The development of concept formation in children

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Boston University.I. Theory The purpose of this study was to investigate the development of concept formation in children. The study was focused upon two aspects: 1. Changes in the mode of approach to a task of concept formation as a function of the developmental level of the child. Developmental differences in concept formation as a response to variation in material. From Piaget's theoretical concepts behavioral indices of concept formation were derived. With the younger age group, it had been stated that cognitive functions were influenced by perceptual dominance. When confronted with a situation in which changes in relationships occur, the child is unable to free himself from the perceptual aspects of the immediate stimuli. The younger age child is unable to combine successive actions and holds rigidly to a set. Older children when confronted with such a situation in which there is a change combine the several events and are able to disregard immediate stimuli, if they are irrelevant. The older child can make generalizations regarding a problem regarding a problem but this also goes through a period of differentiation. That is, the child from about 9 - 11 can make generalizations but these are based upon the manipulation of the concrete aspects of the situation. From about 11 years of age, the child is able to formulate hypotheses from the material, is relatively free from the concrete aspects, and does not find it necessary to go through a process of manipulation in order to derive hypothesis. From these considerations, certain behaviors would be expected from children in the different age groups when confronted with a concept formation task [TRUNCATED