Digital Commons Network^™

Understanding Connections Between Rural Communities And Family Well-Being, Cynthia Fletcher

The Carsey School of Public Policy at the Scholars' Repository

In this report, author Cynthia Needles Fletcher explores the role of "place" in shaping rural residents'-and in particular low-income residents'-futures. The analysis draws from interviews with residents and community key informants in Hampton, Iowa in an original study in 1997 and again in 2012-13

Levels Of Household Chaos Tied To Quality Of Parent-Adolescent Relationships In Coös County, New Hampshire, Corinna J. Tucker

The Carsey School of Public Policy at the Scholars' Repository

In this brief, author Corinna Tucker examines Coös County adolescents’ reports of household chaos using data from the Coös Youth Study and discusses whether socio-economic and parenting differences are related to adolescents who experience household chaos. Tucker reports that household chaos—characterized by high levels of environmental noise, crowding, disorganization and instability—is generally low in Coös County, but there is variability in the extent of adolescents’ experiences with chaos. Household chaos was greater in households with lower socio-economic status than those with average and higher socio-economic status. The finding that household chaos was related to adolescents’ reports of lower quality relationships …

Generational Inversions: 'Working' For Social Reproduction Amid Hiv In Swaziland, Casey Golomski

Anthropology

How do people envision social reproduction when regular modes of generational succession and continuity are disrupted in the context of HIV/AIDS? How and where can scholars identify local ideas for restoring intergenerational practices of obligation and dependency that produce mutuality rather than conflict across age groups? Expanding from studies of HIV/AIDS and religion in Africa, this article pushes for an analytic engagement with ritual as a space and mode of action to both situate local concerns about and practices for restoring dynamics of social reproduction. It describes how the enduring HIV/AIDS epidemic in Swaziland contoured age patterns of mortality where …

A Systematic Review Of Effective Youth Prevention Education: Implications For Internet Safety Education., Lisa M. Jones, Kimberly J. Mitchell, Wendy A. Walsh

Crimes Against Children Research Center

ABSTRACT: Over the past two decades, a wide array of internet safety education materials and programs have developed to increase positive youth behavior and safety online. Although it is a new area of prevention, programs should incorporate practices that prior prevention evaluation studies tell us work best. To inform internet safety education, 31 youth prevention education meta-analyses across a wide range of youth prevention (substance abuse, risky sex behavior, delinquency, etc.) were coded to identify prevention program characteristics shown by research to be most effective. The review identified that active, skill-based lessons, focused on research based causal and risk factors, …

A Content Analysis Of Youth Internet Safety Programs: Are Effective Prevention Strategies Being Used?, Lisa M. Jones, Kimberly J. Mitchell, Wendy A. Walsh

Crimes Against Children Research Center

ABSTRACT: Almost half of youth in the U.S. report receiving internet safety education (ISE) in their schools. Unfortunately, we know little about what educational messages make a difference in problems such as cyberbullying, sexting, or online predators. To consider directions for improving effectiveness, a content analysis was conducted on materials from four ISE programs. Results indicate that ISE programs are mostly not incorporating proven educational strategies. Common ISE messages have proliferated without a clear rationale for why they would be effective. It is recommended that program developers and other stakeholders reconsider ISE messages, improve educational strategies, and participate in evaluation. …

Social Connections, Safety, And Local Environment In Three Manchester, New Hampshire, Neighborhoods Survey Of Residents’ Perceptions, Justin R. Young

The Carsey School of Public Policy at the Scholars' Repository

This fact sheet uses data from a survey of Bakersville, Beech Street, and Gossler Park residents in Manchester, New Hampshire, to draw attention to the current state of connectedness, trust, and perceptions of the local environment in these three neighborhoods. Author Justin Young finds that residents of these neighborhoods report that they generally feel safe during the day, that they are comfortable reporting crimes to the police, and that they are hopeful that if a child was hurt or scared, there would be a trustworthy adult nearby to help. Only about half of respondents in these neighborhoods felt there was …

Understanding The Role Of Technology In The Commercial Sexual Exploitation Of Children: The Perspective Of Law Enforcement., Kimberly J. Mitchell, Dana Boyd

Crimes Against Children Research Center

This exploratory study was conducted to better assess how technology can be used in criminal investigations; it is important to get a better understanding of how technology is currently employed in child sex trafficking as well as the approaches and needs of law enforcement. 144 investigators from Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Forces and affiliate agencies responded to an online semi‐structured survey, including 45 investigators with experience conducting investigations of the commercial sexual exploitation of children (CSEC) that involved technology. Participants included investigators working in local, county, and state law enforcement agencies in the United States. The discussion suggested …

Rightsizing Projects With Easyprojects, Valerie L. Harper

University Library Scholarship

Planning and implementing two major projects at once made some form of team-accessible planning software a must. Learn how one library chose a cloud-based project management tool, rightsized it for the two teams' needs and brought organization out of chaos!

Restraint And Seclusion Of Students With A Disability Continue To Be Common In Some School Districts Patterns Remain Relatively Consistent Despite Recent Policy Changes, Douglas J. Gagnon, Marybeth J. Mattingly, Vincent J. Connelly

The Carsey School of Public Policy at the Scholars' Repository

In 2013, Carsey released a brief that analyzed rates of restraint and seclusion using a large, nationally representative data set of U.S. school districts. This brief, which analyzes a more comprehensive data set and the most current Civil Rights Data Collection, serves as a follow-up to the pre­vious brief. Authors Douglas Gagnon, Marybeth Mattingly, and Vincent Connelly report that, despite numerous states with revised policies related to seclusion and restraint in schools between 2009 and 2012, trends in the rates of restraint and seclusion of students with a disability in the United States remained relatively consistent between survey years. Low-poverty, …

Imls Place Grant: Press Release 2, Place Project Group

PLACE Project

Press release dated October 25, 2014, describing the PLACE (Position-based Location Archive Coordinate Explorer) project that is funded by the Institute for Museum and Library Services. The University of New Hampshire (UNH) library partnered with the UNH Earth Systems Research Center to develop a geospatial interface that is searchable by geospatial coordinates.

Sent to the Geoportal Web page (Patrick Florence).

Health Insurance Among Young Adults Rebounds Post Recession: More Become Dependents On A Parent's Plan After Aca Extends Coverage To Adult Children, Michael J. Staley, Jessica A. Carson

The Carsey School of Public Policy at the Scholars' Repository

While much of the existing research explores young adults' insurance only in the post-recession period (that is, 2010 to present), authors Michael Staley and Jessica Carson assess young adults' rates of coverage within and beyond the context of the recession by examining changes across the entire 2007 to 2012 period.

Cause For Optimism? Child Poverty Declines For The First Time Since Before The Great Recession, Marybeth J. Mattingly, Jessica A. Carson, Andrew P. Schaefer

The Carsey School of Public Policy at the Scholars' Repository

New data released on September 18, 2014, by the U.S. Census Bureau indicate that child poverty fell by 0.4 percentage point between 2012 and 2013, to 22.2 percent. Though still significantly higher than in 2007 when the Great Recession hit (18.0 percent), and higher than at its conclusion (20.0 percent) in 2009, the decline from 2012 may be cause for optimism. Estimates suggest the number of poor children declined by roughly 300,000 between 2012 and 2013.

Husbands’ Job Loss And Wives’ Labor Force Participation During Economic Downturns: Are All Recessions The Same?, Kristin Smith, Marybeth J. Mattingly

Sociology

Earlier research showed an added-worker effect for wives when their husbands stopped working during the Great Recession (December 2007–June 2009) but not when husbands stopped working in recent years of prosperity (2004–2005). By including one recession per decade for the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s, this article builds upon that research by using Current Population Survey data to compare wives’ labor force responses to their husbands stopping work across three recessions to determine whether wives’ employment responses during the Great Recession differed from those during earlier recessions. Additionally, we hypothesize motivations for wives entering the labor force and consider the occupations …

Getting Kids Out Of Harm's Way: The United States' Obligation To Operationalize The Best Interest Of The Child Principle For Unaccompanied Minors, Erin B. Corcoran

Law Faculty Scholarship

The government estimates by the end of the fiscal year over 90,000 children will enter the United States. According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees 58% of these children were forcibly displaced and are potentially in need of international protection. However, in U.S. immigration law unaccompanied children are often seen as illegal migrants and law enforcement prioritizes their “alien” status over their status as children. As the crisis escalates, many of these children are being housed at emergency shelters in icebox-cold cells – nicknamed hierleras, Spanish for freezers, with no access to food or medical care, while DHS …

Trends In Bullying And Peer Victimization., David Finkelhor

Crimes Against Children Research Center

Increased attention to bullying in recent years has created the impression among some observers that the problem has been on the rise. But at the same time, crime and violence in general, and youth violence in particular, have been decreasing overall in the US. Could this decline apply to bullying and peer victimization?

In this bulletin, we will summarize the trends, from youth surveys that have tracked bullying specifically, and also those that have tracked closely related phenomena such as school assaults, school thefts, school fighting and school hate speech.

These surveys generally show declines in bullying and peer victimization, …

Test Of Personal Intelligence 1.4 (Topi 1.4) Manual, John D. Mayer, Abigail T. Panter, David R. Caruso

UNH Personality Lab

Personal intelligence involves the capacity to reason about personality and personality-relevant information. People high in personal intelligence are good at understanding themselves and others. The UNH Personality Lab developed a series of ability-based tests that assess this skill, under the name of the Test of Personal Intelligence (TOPI).

Related Foster Parents Less Likely To Receive Support Services Compared With Nonrelative Foster Parents, Wendy A. Walsh, Marybeth J. Mattingly

The Carsey School of Public Policy at the Scholars' Repository

This brief identifies gaps in support services among foster parents using data from a nationally representative survey of children involved in the child welfare system (the second National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being). Authors Wendy Walsh and Marybeth Mattingly report that the percentage of foster parents who received recent support services (within a six month timeframe) varies dramatically by foster placement and support service type. Kinship foster parents (both formal and informal) in all households regardless of poverty status are less likely to have received training, used respite care, or participated in peer support groups in the past six …

Key Findings And Recommendations From The Coös Youth Study: Research From The First Half Of The Study, Michael S. Staunton, Eleanor M. Jaffee

The Carsey School of Public Policy at the Scholars' Repository

In this brief, authors Michael Staunton and Eleanor Jaffee review the key findings and recommendations from research conducted in the first half of the Coös Youth Study, which began in 2008 and is planned to continue through 2018. The study explores young people’s decisions about their educational and job opportunities in rural northern New Hampshire and their plans to stay in their home region or move away. The authors discuss the highlights of these topics: youth aspirations and perceptions of regional opportunities, substance use and mental health, participation in extracurricular and out-of-school activities, youth retention and out-migration, and community attachment …

Somewhere There’S A Place For Us: Linking Fedora Digital Collections And Open Geoportal, Eleta Exline, Thelma Thompson, Michael Routhier, Place Project Group

PLACE Project

The University of New Hampshire Library and its partner, the UNH Earth Systems Research Center, have been awarded a grant in the amount of $474,156 from the Institute for Museum and Library Services, National Leadership Grants for Libraries Program, to build PLACE, the Position-based Location Archive Coordinate Explorer. Among project objectives is to provide a toolkit for other institutions to implement in their geospatial digital collections. The project will contribute to two open source communities: Open Geoportal (OGP) and Fedora Commons. In this poster session we will provide an overview of the PLACE project timeline and a visual representation of …

Public Insurance Drove Overall Coverage Growth Among Children In 2012, Michael J. Staley

The Carsey School of Public Policy at the Scholars' Repository

Using data from the American Community Survey, this brief examines the rates of health insurance coverage among children under 18 in the United States by region and by rural, suburban, and central city residence between 2008 and 2012. Author Michael Staley reports that, between 2011 and 2012, overall rates of health insurance coverage among children increased slightly (0.3 percentage point); 92.8 percent of the nation’s children had health insurance in 2012. Rates of public health insurance coverage for children grew from 28.3 percent in 2008 to 38.1 percent in 2012, whereas rates of private health insurance coverage for children decreased …

Rural Environmental Concern: Effects Of Position, Partisanship And Place, Lawrence C. Hamilton, Joel N. Hartter, Thomas G. Safford, Forrest R. Stevens

Sociology

The social bases of environmental concern in rural America resemble those for the nation as a whole, but also reflect the influence of place. Some general place characteristics, such as rates of population growth or resource-industry employment, predict responses across a number of environmental issues. Other unique or distinctive aspects of local society and environment matter as well. We extend earlier work on both kinds of place effects, first by analyzing survey data from northeast Oregon. Results emphasize that “environmental concern” has several dimensions. Second, we contextualize the Oregon results using surveys from other regions. Analysis of an integrated dataset …

Proposed Eitc Expansion Would Increase Eligibility And Dollars For Rural And Urban “Childless” Workers, Jessica A. Carson, Marybeth J. Mattingly

The Carsey School of Public Policy at the Scholars' Repository

This brief uses data from the 2013 Annual Social and Economic Supplement to the Current Population Survey to examine how President Obama’s proposed expanded eligibility and higher credit values might affect tax filers in both rural and urban America. Authors Jessica Carson and Marybeth Mattingly report that proposed changes to the earned income tax credit (EITC) will increase the share of workers without a qualifying child eligible for the EITC equally in rural and urban places, although rural residents are more likely to be eligible under both current and proposed policies. The average increase in the credit is $476, more …

Ala Schedule Place Poster Announcement, Place Project Group

PLACE Project

Page from the ALA Conference Schedule announcing the PLACE Poster Session.

Do You Trust Scientists About The Environment?, Lawrence C. Hamilton

The Carsey School of Public Policy at the Scholars' Repository

In this brief, author Lawrence Hamilton examines the results of a Granite State Poll conducted by the University of New Hampshire Survey Center in late January–early February 2014. The poll asked about public trust in scientists, along with other questions on science, political, and social issues that help to place the science-trust results in perspective. Almost two-thirds of New Hampshire residents surveyed say that they trust scientists to provide accurate information about environmental issues. Only 12 percent do not trust scientists to provide this information. Wide disparities occur along party lines, however, regarding this and other questions about science. The …

Usability Testing: Open Geoportal 2.0, Rob Wolff, Kristin Parker

PLACE Project

The PLACE project team at the University of New Hampshire Library performed usability testing on May 9, 2014 with three participants with GIS experience. Tasks focused on use of Open GeoPortal 2.0 (beta).

Immigration To Manchester, New Hampshire, Sally Ward, Justin R. Young, Curt D. Grimm

The Carsey School of Public Policy at the Scholars' Repository

This brief analyzes immigration and refugee resettlement in Manchester and the effects on the city’s demographic composition, as well as the implications for its future. Authors Sally Ward, Justin Young, and Curt Grimm report that Manchester, New Hampshire, like the nation, is experiencing a new wave of immigration. In the past, most of the city’s immigrants tended to come from Canada and Europe. Today, they are most likely from Latin America, followed by Asia and, to a lesser extent, Africa. The rate of refugee placement in Manchester has remained relatively steady since the 1990s. Of all refugees who arrived in …

Validation Of Satellite Rainfall Products For Western Uganda., Jeremy E. Diem, Joel N. Hartter, Sadie J. Ryan, Michael W. Palace

Geography

Central equatorial Africa is deficient in long-term, ground-based measurements of rainfall; therefore, the aim of this study is to assess the accuracy of three high-resolution, satellite-based rainfall products in western Uganda for the 2001–10 period. The three products are African Rainfall Climatology, version 2 (ARC2); African Rainfall Estimation Algorithm, version 2 (RFE2); and 3B42 from the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission, version 7 (i.e., 3B42v7). Daily rainfall totals from six gauges were used to assess the accuracy of satellite-based rainfall estimates of rainfall days, daily rainfall totals, 10-day rainfall totals, monthly rainfall totals, and seasonal rainfall totals. The northern stations had …

Predicting September Sea Ice: Ensemble Skill Of The Search Sea Ice Outlook 2008–2013, Julienne Stroeve, Lawrence C. Hamilton, Cecilia M. Bitz, Edward Blanchard-Wrigglesworth

Sociology

Since 2008, the Study of Environmental Arctic Change Sea Ice Outlook has solicited predictions of September sea-ice extent from the Arctic research community. Individuals and teams employ a variety of modeling, statistical, and heuristic approaches to make these predictions. Viewed as monthly ensembles each with one or two dozen individual predictions, they display a bimodal pattern of success. In years when observed ice extent is near its trend, the median predictions tend to be accurate. In years when the observed extent is anomalous, the median and most individual predictions are less accurate. Statistical analysis suggests that year-to-year variability, rather than …

Who's Legit: Parents Or Peers?, Chelsea K. Davignon, Devon L. Ayer

Student Research Projects

No abstract provided.

The Increasing Diversity Of America's Youth, Kenneth M. Johnson, Andrew P. Schaefer, Daniel T. Lichter, Luke T. Rogers

The Carsey School of Public Policy at the Scholars' Repository

This brief documents how unfolding demographic forces have placed today’s children and youth at the forefront of America’s new racial and ethnic diversity. Authors Kenneth M. Johnson, Andrew Schaefer, Daniel T. Lichter, and Luke T. Rogers discuss how the rapidly changing racial and ethnic composition of the youth population has important implications for intergroup relations, ethnic identities, and electoral politics. They report that diversity is increasing among America’s youth because there are more minority children and fewer non-Hispanic white children. Minority births exceeded non-Hispanic white births for the first time in U.S. history in 2011 according to Census Bureau estimates. …