Sur la Glace a Sweet Briar : On The Ice At Sweet Briar

https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/mmb-ps/2538/thumbnail.jp

Letters Against Loneliness: The Effect of a Pen Pal Program Uniting Older Adults and College Students on Perceived Loneliness

Surveys within years and particularly the COVID-19 pandemic have revealed increasing rates of loneliness. More research is also emerging linking loneliness with a myriad of negative health outcomes as well as reduced quality of life. There is little research about effective interventions addressing loneliness. This paper reviews the available literature on the topic and proposes a pen pal program for college students and older adults developed based on available evidence

Do Health Insurance Premium Restrictions Improve Older Workers Labor Market Outcomes by Socioeconomic Status?

Delaying retirement improves retirement preparedness, but older workers cannot work longer if employers do not hire or retain them.  This study examines one way in which public policy potentially makes older workers more attractive to employers: state regulatory restrictions on how much employer premiums are permitted to increase at small firms with older, unhealthier workforces.  The study uses data from the Current Population Survey from 1989-2013 to compare older individuals' overall employment, small-firm employment, and earnings in states with varying degrees of premium regulation, and among workers of different educational backgrounds.  The analysis shows mixed results.  Stronger premium regulations were not effective in increasing employment: employment at small firms, which are most sensitive to premium increases, saw no statistically significant increase, and overall employment for older workers at both large and small firms increased only slightly.  The earnings gap between large and small firms is also smaller in states with tighter restrictions, but older workers were not helped appreciably more than younger workers.  These results suggest that indirect efforts to lower the price of hiring an older worker are not likely to be effective in improving their job prospects

Self-Regulation Efforts and Cognitive Load Concerns within a Developmental Learning Environment

People new to the higher education learning environment, and without posessing the abilities sometimes described as ”learning how to learn”, delve into either gateway courses or developmental courses. In this case study, a developmental course instructor integrates self-regulation tools and cognitive load sensitivity into her developmental course, with positive outcomes.https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/archivedposters/1070/thumbnail.jp

More than a wheelchair in the background: a study of portrayals of disabilities in children\u27s picture books

A review of scholarly research conducted between 2004 and 2014 revealed that portrayals of disabilities in works of children’s literature were historically poor, containing stereotypical and negative characterizations. While noting some improvements, researchers still decry a lack of balance in roles of power between characters with disabilities and those without, a lack of depth in storylines and levels of character development, and disproportionate representations of disability categories, male and female characters, and cultural minorities in comparison to the true population (Altieri, 2006; Dowker, 2004; Dyches & Prater, 2005; Dyches, Prater, & Leininger, 2009; Golos & Moses, 2011; Golos, Moses, & Wolbers, 2012; Hughes, 2012; Kendrick, 2004; Koc, Koc, & Ozdemir, 2010; Konrad, Helf, & Itoi, 2007; Kunze, 2013; Leininger, Dyches, Prater, & Heath, 2010; Matthew & Clow, 2007; McGovern, 2014; Myers & Bersani, 2008; Prater, Dyches, & Johnstun, 2006; Wopperer, 2011; Worotynec, 2004). I evaluated the quality of disability portrayals in fifty-five children’s picture books originally published between 2010 and 2015. I revised a rubric by Menchetti, Plattos, and Carroll (2011) to use for my analysis. I noted continued disproportions between disability categories portrayed in books compared to those in the U.S. school population, recording particularly distinct discrepancies in the numbers of orthopedic impairments and specific learning disabilities. My findings confirm the notion developed among past researchers that the highest-quality portrayals are produced by authors and illustrators whose life experiences have given them informed perspectives from which to depict disability. I also discovered that award-winning texts including characters with disabilities do not always score highly on all measures of evaluation. I noted the ongoing tendency for stories to revolve around the disability, taking on a didactic quality. Conversely, my findings indicate a greater prevalence in the number of characters with disabilities playing prominent story roles, as well as a perceived increase in the number of characters representing cultural diversity. An annotated bibliography at the conclusion of this piece lists eleven books with high-quality portrayals according to their rubric evaluations, as well as a few texts that fell below the selected criteria but still deserve recognition for their successes in depicting characters with disabilities