Religious Service Attendance and Volunteering: A Growth Curve Analysis

Despite methodological advances in studying the relationship between religious attendance and volunteering, its dynamic nature still needs to be elucidated. We apply growth curve modeling to examine whether trajectories of religious attendance and volunteering are related to each other over a 15-year period in a nationally representative sample from the Americans’ Changing Lives data (1986-2002). Multivariate results showed that the rates of change in religious attendance and volunteering were positively related, and excluding religious volunteering did not alter the finding. It was also found that the initial level of religious attendance was positively associated with the rate of increase in volunteer hours over the period. Mediation analyses revealed that participation in voluntary associations explained the dynamic relationships between religious attendance and volunteering. These results provide evidence that involvement in organized religion and volunteering are dual activities that change together over the adult life course

The Role of Prior Knowledge and Elaboration in Text Comprehension and Memory: A Comparison of Self-Generated Elaboration versus Text-Provided Elaboration

A series of six experiments investigated the effect of text-provided elaborations and prior knowledge on memory for text. In all experiments, subjects read 28 episodes, half of which were associated with well-known individuals, and the other half were associated with unknown individuals. In Experiment 1, text-provided elaborations enhanced recall only when the reader did not possess a high level of prior knowledge. The findings from Experiment 1 were hypothesized to be the result of readers generating relevant elaborations during text comprehension. Experiment 2 supported this hypothesis by providing evidence of self-generated elaborations. Experiment 3 provided evidence that this generation process occurred on-line. The results from Experiments 4 and 5 extended these findings by showing that readers with high prior knowledge automatically generate causally relevant elaborations when the sentences have a low relation. The findings of Experiment 6 suggest that distinctive text-provided elaborations are more effective than normal text-provided elaborations only when readers have high prior knowledge

The Effect of Elaboration on Memory: Self-Generated Elaboration vs Experimenter-Provided Elaboration

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of elaborations on memory . Two types of elaborations (self-generated elaboration and experimenter-provided elaboration) were examined. The experiment consisted of three phases (incidental learning phase, immediate test phase, and delayed test phase). In the incidental learning phase, subjects were asked to make plausibility judgments about 28 fictitious episodes. Half of these were about well-known individuals and the other half were about unknown individuals. Each name (either well-known or unknown) was presented with either two supportive facts or without the supportive facts. During the immediate test phase, subjects were given unexpected memory tests. One week later, unexpected delayed memory tests were administered. Results from both immediate and delayed tests indicated that self-generated elaborations based on prior knowledge subjects had about well-known individuals enhanced the retention of target information, whereas experimenter-provided elaborations involving the presence of supportive facts only benefited memory performance when the subjects had prior knowledge about the individuals. Experimenter-provided elaborations were also effective to the extent that the encoding context was reinstated at testing

Tying Knots With Communities: Youth Involvement in Scouting and Civic Engagement in Adulthood

Using data from a nationally representative sample of American adult males (N = 2,512), this study examines (a) whether duration of membership in the Boy Scouts of America is associated with adult civic engagement and (b) whether five characteristics of positive youth development (confidence, competence, connection, character, and caring) account for the relationship between duration of Scouting membership and adult civic engagement. The results from structural equation modeling indicate that duration of participation in Scouting is positively associated with four indicators of civic engagement: community involvement, community volunteering, community activism, and environmental activism. Among the five positive characteristics, confidence and competence were found to fully mediate the effects of Scouting on all four types of civic engagement, whereas the other three only to partly mediate the effects

Final Evaluation Report: A Randomized Controlled Trial of the Effectiveness of a Responsible Fatherhood Program: The Case of TYRO Dads

Despite the growing number of responsible fatherhood programs, only a few of them have been evaluated based on a randomized controlled trial. To fill this gap in evaluation research on fatherhood programs, we conducted a single-blind, randomized, controlled trial to assess the effectiveness of an Ohio-based fatherhood program called “TYRO Dads” in improving the father-child relationship among low-income, primarily unmarried, nonresidential fathers. We collected data from 252 fathers who participated in the study at 17 research sites in eight cities in Ohio by conducting a survey three times between February 2015 and September 2016: before the intervention (pretest), immediately after the intervention (post-test), and three months after the intervention (follow-up). Study participants were randomly assigned to two groups: 137 in the intervention or treatment group who took “TYRO Dads,” a five-week fatherhood course (which consists of 10 sessions of 20 hours in total; i.e., two two-hour sessions per week) and 115 in the control group who only were offered the opportunity to attend an informational session about employment resources and other resources available to help them achieve their goals. The primary outcomes of interest include fathers’ reports of satisfaction with parenting their child and the frequency of father-child activities. Also measured were secondary outcomes of intervention: fathers’ parenting efficacy, role identity, coparenting relationship with their child’s mother, and perceived challenges in parenting

A Randomized Controlled Trial of the Effectiveness of the TYRO Dads Program

Objective: To examine whether fathers who attend TYRO Dads class report greater satisfaction in their relationship with their child and increased engagement in activities with their child than nonparticipants and, if so, whether parent- ing efficacy, parenting role identity, and coparenting rela- tionship with the child’s mother account for differences in father involvement between the intervention and control groups. Background: Despite the growing number of fatherhood intervention programs, limited experimental research has been conducted to evaluate their effectiveness. Method: A randomized controlled trial was conducted with a sample of 252 fathers randomly assigned to inter- vention and control groups. Both groups completed a pre- test survey and were followed up at the end of intervention (posttest) and 3 months after the intervention (follow-up). Latent growth curve models were used to estimate both intervention and dosage effects. Results: The intervention group fathers reported signifi- cant improvement over time in the level of satisfaction of the relationship with their child. This finding may be partly because program participants became more confi- dent in their parenting role, had their parenting role iden- tity enhanced, or felt better about their relationship with their child’s mother. These results were more pronounced among those who attended eight out of 10 sessions. Conclusion: In this study, the TYRO Dads program was an effective intervention helping low-income fathers boost their confidence as a father and enhancing fathers’ percep- tion of their relationship with the child’s mother. Implications: Responsible fatherhood programs should make an intentional effort to incentivize participation to increase attendance and the likelihood of completing the program

Explaining Gender Differences in Changes in Volunteering after Divorce

Although there is evidence that divorce and volunteering are related, little is known about the process by which divorce affects volunteering. Using four-wave panel data spanning 16 years, this study examines the causal mechanisms underlying changes in volunteering following divorce. Results from estimating structural equation models indicated that divorce affects volunteering through different mechanisms for women and men. For women, increased financial strain explained a decline in volunteering after divorce. For men, decreased social integration measured by formal group participation accounted for a decline in volunteering after divorce. Domain-specific analyses further showed that decreased religious attendance following divorce explained a decline in religious volunteering and, at the same time, an increase in secular volunteering among men but not women. Men appear to switch their volunteering domains from religious to secular organizations after divorce