The Influence of Storytelling on the Identity of Children of Adolescent Parents

Grounded in Communicated Narrative Sensemaking, this dissertation examines the influence stigma and storytelling have on those born to adolescent parents. Analyses based on a survey completed by 141 individuals found those born to adolescent parents were more likely to report that their parents were stigmatized because of their status as an adolescent parent than they were to report that they themselves were stigmatized. Additionally, the more one’s parents worried about being stigmatized, the more one was likely to worry about one’s parents’ stigma transferring to them, and to worry about being stigmatized oneself. Furthermore, those who perceived that their parents were stigmatized due to their status as an adolescent parent had lower self-esteem than those who did not perceive that their parents were stigmatized. Those whose parents were stigmatized were also more likely to have families that utilized narrating as a boundary management technique. Lastly, an analysis of interview data from 8 individuals who completed the survey found those born to adolescent parents who saw their parents struggle went through a process termed agency-driven attribution shift, which refers to a transformative process whereby individuals are able to rid themselves of guilt and burden they placed on themselves as children for their parents’ struggles and take agency over their birth story

Argumentative Competence in Friend and Stranger Dyadic Exchanges

This is a post-peer-review, pre-copyedit version of an article published in Argumentation. The final version is available online at: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10503-019-09487-x .This manuscript investigates the role of argumentative competence in interpersonal dyadic exchanges. Specifically, this study examined the two sub-dimensions of competence, argumentative effectiveness and appropriateness, and their connections with argumentative traits, situational features, and argument satisfaction. In addition, self-perceived versus observed argumentative competence were compared. Participants in the study (N = 282, 141 dyads) completed measures before and after a face-to-face argumentative discussion with another person about one of two possible topics (student athlete pay and texting while driving). Results revealed that argumentation traits had little effect on argumentative competence, but competence was predicted by one’s knowledge about the topic. Argument satisfaction depended only on arguers’ own competence, not their partners’. Finally, a perceptual bias existed regarding argument effectiveness (but not appropriateness) in that participants rated themselves higher than did observers

#WhyITold: A Pilot Test of Twitter Messages Aimed at Promoting Bystander Intervention against Domestic Violence

This study examined the effectiveness of various messaging via Twitter in persuading bystanders of domestic violence (DV) to intervene on behalf of DV victims. Using Fishbein’s (2000) integrative model of behavioral prediction as a guiding framework, an experiment was conducted with 196 undergraduates from a large Southwestern university. Participants were randomly assigned to read either a: (1) tweet describing warning signs associated with DV motivating bystander intervention, (2) gain or loss framed tweet emphasizing why a bystander chose to intervene, or (3) control tweet that simply provided statistics on the prevalence of DV in the U.S. Results indicate injunctive norms were the best predictor of participants’ intent to intervene in a DV situation, and that the most effective approach to promoting bystander intervention is to highlight warning signs of DV. Implications for practice are also discussed

Training Anchoring and Representativeness Bias Mitigation Through a Digital Game

Objective. Humans systematically make poor decisions because of cognitive biases. Can digital games train people to avoid cognitive biases? The goal of this study is to investigate the affordance of different educational media in training people about cognitive biases and to mitigate cognitive biases within their decision-making processes. Method. A between-subject experiment was conducted to compare a digital game, a traditional slideshow, and a combined condition in mitigating two types of cognitive biases: anchoring bias and representativeness bias. We measured both immediate effects and delayed effects after four weeks. Results. The digital game and slideshow conditions were effective in mitigating cognitive biases immediately after the training, but the effects decayed after four weeks. By providing the basic knowledge through the slideshow, then allowing learners to practice bias-mitigation techniques in the digital game, the combined condition was most effective at mitigating the cognitive biases both immediately and after four weeks.This item from the UA Faculty Publications collection is made available by the University of Arizona with support from the University of Arizona Libraries. If you have questions, please contact us at [email protected]

Could I be pregnant? A study of online adolescent pregnancy forums for social support

Research on adolescent parenthood has found one of the most critical predictors of offspring’s well-being is social support; however, scholars have also found that expectant adolescents sometimes experience a lack of support from their face-to-face networks. Very little research has examined how adolescent parents might make up for this discrepancy by utilizing mediated social networks; therefore, this study aims to fill a gap in the literature by examining how adolescent parents and expectant adolescents utilize online networks for support. One hundred and fifty messages from two online forums of adolescent pregnancy Web sites were content analyzed to examine the type of social support solicited by individual members. Additionally, 150 pairs of messages were examined to determine whether other community members provided the type of support solicited in the original posts. Guided by the optimal matching model, findings revealed informational and emotional support were sought most frequently across the two forums, with few users soliciting esteem, network, and tangible support. A further examination of the responses provided to support seekers revealed these online communities’ members most frequently matched the type of support initially solicited, followed by situations where they provided more support than asked for. Out of all five support types, those original posts that solicited informational or tangible support were most likely to have responses that provided the support type that was requested and even though posters did not necessarily ask for it, community members often provided emotional and esteem support in their responses

Training Anchoring and Representativeness Bias Mitigation Through a Digital Game

Objective. Humans systematically make poor decisions because of cognitive biases. Can digital games train people to avoid cognitive biases? The goal of this study is to investigate the affordance of different educational media in training people about cognitive biases and to mitigate cognitive biases within their decision-making processes. Method. A between-subject experiment was conducted to compare a digital game, a traditional slideshow, and a combined condition in mitigating two types of cognitive biases: anchoring bias and representativeness bias. We measured both immediate effects and delayed effects after four weeks. Results. The digital game and slideshow conditions were effective in mitigating cognitive biases immediately after the training, but the effects decayed after four weeks. By providing the basic knowledge through the slideshow, then allowing learners to practice bias-mitigation techniques in the digital game, the combined condition was most effective at mitigating the cognitive biases both immediately and after four weeks.This item from the UA Faculty Publications collection is made available by the University of Arizona with support from the University of Arizona Libraries. If you have questions, please contact us at [email protected]