Adoption of agricultural conservation practices in the United States: Evidence from 35 years of quantitative literature

This is a comprehensive review of all published, quantitative studies focused on adoption of agricultural conservation practices in the United States between 1982 and 2017. This review finds that, taken as a whole, few independent variables have a consistent statistically significant relationship with adoption. Analyses showed that variables positively associated with adoption include the farmer self-identifying primarily as stewardship motivated or otherwise nonfinancially motivated, environmental attitudes, a positive attitude toward the particular program or practice, previous adoption of other conservation practices, seeking and using information, awareness of programs or practices, vulnerable land, greater farm size, higher levels of income and formal education, engaging in marketing arrangements, and positive yield impact expected. Some variables often thought to be important, such as land tenure, did not emerge as consistently important in this cross-study review. Other variables, such as farmers\u27 sense of place, training, presence of institutional conditions supporting adoption, and the role of collective decision making are not measured in enough studies to draw conclusions but potentially have a relationship with adoption decisions. Implications for how to promote conservation adoption and directions for future research are discussed. Because positive attitudes and awareness of conservation programs or practices are positive predictors of adoption, practitioners should share benefits of specific practices and programs and leverage existing practice adoption. Further work to explore relationships between conservation adoption and the role of farmer identity, nuances of land tenure, and the influence of structural factors is needed. Moreover, we suggest that future research should focus on the impact of different messages and avenues of reaching farmers in order to continue to inform conservation practices. Future research should consider both individual and institutional factors that facilitate and constrain adoption

The shadow of the past: Convergence of young and old South American desert lizards as measured by head shape traits

Convergence is a pervasive phenomenon in the Tree of Life, and evolution of similar phenotypes sharing the same environmental conditions is expected in phylogenetically closely related species. In contrast, contingent factors are probably more influential in shaping phenotypic diversity for distantly related taxa. Here, we test putative convergent evolution of lizard head morphologies among relatively closely related desert dwelling Liolaemus species, and the very distantly related Ctenoblepharys adspersa. We estimated a multilocus time-calibrated phylogeny of 57 species of South American liolaemus lizards, based on seven molecular markers. We collected head shape data for 468 specimens, and used three phylogenetic comparative methods (SURFACE, CONVEVOL, and WHEATSHEAF index) to test for and estimate the strength of convergence. We found strong evidence for convergence among Pacific desert lizard C. adspersa, Liolaemus audivetulatus, Liolaemus insolitus, Liolaemus poconchilensis, Liolaemus stolzmanni, and a candidate species (Liolaemus “Moquegua”). Our results suggest that, despite the long divergence and phylogenetic distance of C. adspersa with respect to convergent Liolaemus species, natural selection was probably more important than historical contingency in shaping phenotypic evolution in these desert lizards.Fil: Aguilar Puntriano, César. Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos; Perú. Museo de Historia Natural de San Marcos; PerúFil: Avila, Luciano Javier. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Centro Nacional Patagónico. Instituto Patagónico para el Estudio de los Ecosistemas Continentales; ArgentinaFil: de la Riva, Ignacio María. Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas. Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales; EspañaFil: Johnson, Leigh. University Brigham Young; Estados UnidosFil: Morando, Mariana. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Centro Nacional Patagónico. Instituto Patagónico para el Estudio de los Ecosistemas Continentales; ArgentinaFil: Troncoso-Palacios, Jaime. Universidad de Chile; ChileFil: Wood, Perry L.. University of Kansas; Estados UnidosFil: Sites, Jack W.. University Brigham Young; Estados Unido

Adoption of agricultural conservation practices in the United States: Evidence from 35 years of quantitative literature

Copyright © 2019 Soil and Water Conservation Society. All rights reserved. This is a comprehensive review of all published, quantitative studies focused on adoption of agricultural conservation practices in the United States between 1982 and 2017. This review finds that, taken as a whole, few independent variables have a consistent statistically significant relationship with adoption. Analyses showed that variables positively associated with adoption include the farmer self-identifying primarily as stewardship motivated or otherwise nonfinancially motivated, environmental attitudes, a positive attitude toward the particular program or practice, previous adoption of other conservation practices, seeking and using information, awareness of programs or practices, vulnerable land, greater farm size, higher levels of income and formal education, engaging in marketing arrangements, and positive yield impact expected. Some variables often thought to be important, such as land tenure, did not emerge as consistently important in this cross-study review. Other variables, such as farmers’ sense of place, training, presence of institutional conditions supporting adoption, and the role of collective decision making are not measured in enough studies to draw conclusions but potentially have a relationship with adoption decisions. Implications for how to promote conservation adoption and directions for future research are discussed. Because positive attitudes and awareness of conservation programs or practices are positive predictors of adoption, practitioners should share benefits of specific practices and programs and leverage existing practice adoption. Further work to explore relationships between conservation adoption and the role of farmer identity, nuances of land tenure, and the influence of structural factors is needed. Moreover, we suggest that future research should focus on the impact of different messages and avenues of reaching farmers in order to continue to inform conservation practices. Future research should consider both individual and institutional factors that facilitate and constrain adoption

Shaping the Development of Prejudice: Latent Growth Modeling of the Influence of Social Dominance Orientation on Outgroup Affect in Youth

Social dominance orientation (SDO) has been theorized as a stable, early-emerging trait influencing outgroup evaluations, a view supported by evidence from cross-sectional and two-wave longitudinal research. Yet, the limitations of identifying causal paths with cross-sectional and two-wave designs are increasingly being acknowledged. This article presents the first use of multi-wave data to test the over-time relationship between SDO and outgroup affect among young people. We use cross-lagged and latent growth modeling (LGM) of a three-wave data set employing Norwegian adolescents (over 2 years, N = 453) and a five-wave data set with American university students (over 4 years, N = 748). Overall, SDO exhibits high temporal rank-order stability and predicts changes in outgroup affect. This research represents the strongest test to date of SDO’s role as a stable trait that influences the development of prejudice, while highlighting LGM as a valuable tool for social and political psychology

Reciprocal relations between workplace bullying, anxiety and vigor: A two-wave longitudinal study

Background and Objectives: Workplace bullying has been classified as an extreme social stressor in work contexts and has been repeatedly linked to several negative consequences. However, little research has examined reversed or reciprocal relations of bullying and outcomes. Design: We conducted a two-wave longitudinal study with a time lag of six months. Methods: The study sample consisted of 348 employees of the Spanish workforce. The present study examined longitudinal relationships between workplace bullying, psychological health, and well-being. On the basis of conservation of resources theory, we hypothesized that we would find reciprocal relations among study variables over time. Results: Results of cross-lagged structural equation modeling analyses supported our hypotheses. Specifically, it was found that Time 1 (T1) workplace bullying was negatively related to Time 2 (T2) vigor and positively related to T2 anxiety. Additionally, T1 anxiety and vigor had an effect on T2 workplace bullying. Conclusions: Overall, these findings support the validity of the theoretical models postulating a reciprocal bullying–outcome relationship, rather than simple one-way causal pathways approaches

Perfectionism and achievement goals in young Finnish ice-hockey players aspiring to make the Under-16 national team

Research on perfectionism suggests that is it useful to differentiate between perfectionistic strivings and perfectionistic concerns. Regarding the 2 x 2 achievement goal framework, the usefulness of this differentiation was recently demonstrated in a study with university student athletes (Stoeber, Stoll, Pescheck, & Otto, 2008, Study 2), in which it was found that perfectionistic strivings were associated with mastery-approach and performance-approach goals and perfectionistic concerns with mastery-avoidance, performance-approach, and performance-avoidance goals. Because the study was largely exploratory and only used non-elite athletes, the aim of the present research was to replicate and extend these findings by investigating a sample of 138 young, elite ice-hockey players, while adding further measures of perfectionism and using structural equation modelling (SEM) to confirm the relationships between perfectionistic strivings, perfectionistic concerns,and the 2 x 2 achievement goals. The SEM results showed that, in elite athletes also, perfectionistic strivings are associated with mastery-approach and performance-approach goals, whereas perfectionistic concerns are associated with masteryavoidance, performance-approach, and performance-avoidance goals. Our findings corroborate the importance of differentiating between perfectionistic strivings and perfectionistic concerns when studying perfectionism in sports, because only perfectionistic concerns (and not perfectionistic strivings) are associated with maladaptive patterns of achievement goals

Measuring urban social sustainability:Scale development and validation

Despite the significant role of social sustainability in the sustainable development agenda, there is a lack of research to clearly define and fully operationalise the concept of urban social sustainability. The aim of this study is to contribute to the existing literature by developing a comprehensive measurement scale to assess urban social sustainability at the neighbourhood level. We argue that urban social sustainability is a multidimensional concept that incorporates six main dimensions of social interaction, sense of place, social participation, safety, social equity and neighbourhood satisfaction. Failure to consider each of these dimensions may lead to an incomplete picture of social sustainability. Validity, reliability and dimensionality of the urban social sustainability scale are examined using factor analysis. We also illustrate the application of the urban social sustainability scale by investigating the influence of quality of design, as one of the least studied factors of urban form, on different dimensions of social sustainability. The paper uses data collected from the household questionnaire survey in a sample of 251 respondents from five case study neighbourhoods of Dunedin city, New Zealand. This study provides new evidence on the significance of improving neighbourhood quality of design and its positive and significant relationship with different dimensions of social sustainability and the overall social sustainability