Digital Commons Network^™

Local Civic Health: A Guide To Building Community And Bridging Divides, Quixada Moore-Vissing, Carrie Portrie, Michele Holt-Shannon, Bruce L. Mallory, Jessica A. Carson, Daniel Bromberg, Sarah Boege, Carly Prescott, Steph Mcnally, Mikayla Townsend

The Carsey School of Public Policy at the Scholars' Repository

In the same way that doctors conduct an annual check-up to assess our health, we can collect information to assess the civic health of our communities. Civic health includes factors such as how much people trust each other, show up at public meetings, get involved, vote, and help out neighbors.

This seven-part guide is designed to help people at the local level collect data to better understand what factors bring people together or push them apart. This information can help communities to thrive and strengthen democracy at the local level.

The guide includes exercises around mapping the different populations who …

Changing Child Care Supply In New Hampshire And Vermont’S Upper Valley, Jessica A. Carson, Sarah Boege

The Carsey School of Public Policy at the Scholars' Repository

In this brief, authors Jess Carson and Sarah Boege describe changes in the early childhood education and care landscape of Grafton and Sullivan Counties in New Hampshire and Orange and Windsor Counties in Vermont, collectively known as the Upper Valley. The authors find that the Upper Valley lost 25 regulated child care providers serving children under age 5 between 2017 and 2021. However, with closure rates twice as high among family-based providers than among center-based providers and some new providers opening, the net number of slots has remained relatively stable (5,169 slots in 2021). The overall effect has been to …

Why Interstate Child Care Scholarship Policy Choices Matter In The Upper Valley: "You Can Only Charge The Families So Much", Sarah Boege, Jessica A. Carson

The Carsey School of Public Policy at the Scholars' Repository

In this brief, the authors explore how state-level decisions in New Hampshire and Vermont manifest in the early childhood education and care sector, through the lens of the interstate Upper Valley region. They demonstrate the significant differences in the reach and adequacy of child care financial assistance programs (“child care scholarships”) across state lines, with Vermont’s program setting family income eligibility thresholds higher and delivering higher-value reimbursements to child care providers than New Hampshire’s program. While scholarships are key for widening low-income families’ access to high quality care, they are not a panacea. Not all eligible families participate in child …

Child Care Investments And Policies In The Upper Valley, In The Pandemic And Beyond: “People Have To Hurry Because This Arpa Funding Isn’T Going To Last Forever”, Sarah Boege, Jessica A. Carson, Kamala Nasirova

The Carsey School of Public Policy at the Scholars' Repository

In this brief, the authors illustrate New Hampshire and Vermont’s different responses to supporting the early childhood education and care sector during the COVID-19 pandemic and examine the limited publicly available data on pandemic relief funds through the lens of the interstate Upper Valley region. While data limitations preclude the authors from identifying which child care pandemic relief programs worked best and for whom, the authors find spatial and program type differences in relief receipt. Using data from interviews with early childhood educators in the Upper Valley, the authors identify the role that temporary relief funds have played in keeping …

Institutional Grantmaking To New Hampshire Nonprofits, Jessica A. Carson, Alison Moore

The Carsey School of Public Policy at the Scholars' Repository

In 2019, the New Hampshire Funders Forum contacted the Carsey School of Public Policy at the University of New Hampshire for support in creating an inaugural report on institutional grantmaking in the state. After initial exploration raised questions about the comprehensiveness of existing data sources, the Funders Forum commissioned Carsey to develop an alternate approach utilizing original tax filings to create the most accurate and comprehensive portrait of institutional grantmaking in the state available. This report represents the culmination of that effort and is intended to provide a baseline description of institutional grantmakers that support New Hampshire nonprofits for members …

Are Income Tax Breaks For Seniors Good For State Economic Growth?, Ben Brewer, Karen S. Conway, Jon Rork

The Carsey School of Public Policy at the Scholars' Repository

In this brief, authors Ben Brewer, Karen Conway, and Jon Rork discuss the findings of their recently published study that investigates, directly, the impact on state economic growth of expanding income tax breaks for seniors. All state income tax systems contain provisions that reduce the state income tax burden for elderly households, and most modest-income elderly households owe little in state income taxes. Each year state legislatures consider expansions to these tax provisions, which tend to benefit primarily upper-income elderly households, with advocates suggesting such changes will be “good” for the state, in part by retaining and attracting elderly residents. …

The Recent U.S. Population Growth Rate Increased From Last Year's Record Low, But Remains Below Historical Levels, Kenneth M. Johnson

The Carsey School of Public Policy at the Scholars' Repository

In this data snapshot, Carsey Senior Demographer Kenneth Johnson reports that the U.S. population grew by just 1,256,000 between July of 2021 and July of 2022, according to new Census Bureau estimates. This was an increase from the record low growth of the preceding year, but it remains well below historical rates. There were just 245,000 more births than deaths in the past year, an increase from the 144,000 in the previous year, but still the second smallest natural gain in 80 years. Deaths reached a record high of 3,443,000 last year, 20 percent more than three years ago. In …

Cultivating A Data Literate Workforce: Considerations For Librarians, Wendy G. Pothier, Patricia Condon

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Where The Action Is: Positioning Matters In Interaction, Danielle M. Pillet-Shore

Faculty Publications

Position matters. As a conversation analyst examining any form of recorded synchronous human interaction – be it casual or institutional – I constantly monitor for, and organize my collections of target phenomena around structural position: Where on a transcript and when in an unfolding real-time encounter does a participant enact some form of conduct? Because conversation analysis (CA) is primarily focused upon action sequences, I use CA methods to examine the ways in which participants’ audible utterances and visible body-behaviors accomplish particular social actions due at least in part to their positioning within a sequence of interaction – …

Depersonalizing Troubles In Institutional Interaction: Routinizing In Parent-Teacher Conferences, Danielle M. Pillet-Shore

Faculty Publications

This article advances our understanding of institutional interaction by showing when and how it can be advantageous for professionals to treat addressed-recipients as non-unique. Examining how teachers talk about children-as-students during parent-teacher conferences, this investigation illuminates several specific interactional methods that teachers use to depersonalize the focal student’s trouble, delineating as among these the novel practice of “routinizing”—citing firsthand experience with other similar cases. Analysis demonstrates how teachers use routinizing to enact their expertise, both responsively as a vehicle for attenuating and credentialing their advice-giving to parents/caregivers, and proactively to preempt parent/caregiver resistance to their student-assessments/evaluations. This research …

Migration Continues To Fuel New Hampshire's Population Gain, Kenneth M. Johnson

The Carsey School of Public Policy at the Scholars' Repository

In this data snapshot, Carsey Senior Demographer Kenneth Johnson reports that the population of New Hampshire grew by 7,700 (0.55 percent) to 1,395,000 between July of 2021 and July of 2022, according to new Census Bureau estimates. New Hampshire’s population gain was the second largest in New England. The population gain was entirely due to migration. In all, 10,200 more people moved into New Hampshire than left between July of 2021 and July of 2022. Nearly 62 percent of this migration gain was because more people moved here from other states than left, but the state also gained from immigration. …

Recent Data Suggest Rural America Is Growing Again After A Decade Of Population Loss, Kenneth M. Johnson

The Carsey School of Public Policy at the Scholars' Repository

In this data snapshot, author Kenneth Johnson reports that after a decade of population loss, rural America gained population between 2020 and 2021 because migration gains offset a growing excess of deaths over births due to COVID-19. Between 2010 and 2020, nonmetropolitan (rural) America lost population for the first time in history because more people left rural areas than moved to them and because the excess of births over deaths dwindled. Yet, the latest Census Bureau population estimates document renewed population gains in nonmetropolitan America between April 2020 and July 2021. In fact, the rural population gain exceeded that in …

Implementing Just Climate Adaptation Policy: An Analysis Of Recognition, Framing, And Advocacy Coalitions In Boston, U.S.A., Jeffrey T. Malloy, Catherine Ashcraft, Paul Kirshen, Thomas G. Safford, Semra Aytur, Shannon H. Rogers

Faculty Publications

Cities face intersectional challenges implementing climate adaptation policy. This research contributes to scholarship dedicated to understanding how policy implementation affects socially vulnerable groups, with the overarching goal of promoting justice and equity in climate policy implementation. We apply a novel framework that integrates social justice theory and the advocacy coalition framework to incrementally assess just climate adaptation in Boston, Massachusetts in the United States. Boston made an ambitious commitment to address equity as part of its climate planning and implementation efforts. In this paper, we evaluate the first implementation stage over the period 2016–2019 during which Boston developed coastal resilience …

Violence And Aggression In Healthcare, Peter Antal

Institute on Disability

No abstract provided.

Investigating Racial And Ethnic Disparities In The Provision Of Workplace Accommodations In The United States, Debra L. Brucker, Megan Henly, Andrew J. Houtenville

Institute on Disability

This study used data from a nationally representative survey that follows people 50 and older over time (the Health and Retirement Study) to test whether the receipt of workplace accommodations by persons with work limitations varies by race/ethnicity. Workplace accommodations can include changes to time (allowing more breaks, allowing different arrival or departure times, or shortening the workday), provision of equipment/assistance (getting someone to help, getting special equipment, arranging special transportation), and changes to work (changing the job, helping to learn new job skills). We found that 85% of persons with work limitations identified a need for workplace accommodations, but …

Personal Intelligence Is Evident In The Sophistication Of People’S Narratives About Personality, Jayne L. Allen, John D. Mayer

UNH Personality Lab

Personal intelligence concerns the ability to understand personality in oneself and others—including the understanding of motives, socioemotional traits, and abilities. We examined if people’s scores on the ability-based Test of Personal Intelligence (TOPI) would be reflected in their narratives about someone whose personality they had learned about. In a Preliminary Study (N = 220), we collected narratives and open-ended descriptions about their learning. In Study 1 (N = 212), experts rated the respondents’ open-ended narratives for their sophistication about personality, defined as their knowledge and complexity of thought around the topic. Respondents also filled out checklists concerning what they learned …

U.S. Fertility Up Slightly, But 8.6 Million Fewer Births Long Term, Kenneth M. Johnson

The Carsey School of Public Policy at the Scholars' Repository

In this data snapshot, Carsey Senior Demographer Kenneth Johnson reports that National Center for Health Statistics data for 2021 show a slight increase in births, rising 1.5 percent from the 2020 level which was a 40-year low. Even with the uptick, the 3,659,000 births in 2021 were the third fewest in 40 years. There is little to suggest a substantial increase in fertility rates in the short term, though preliminary data suggest that births in the first three months of 2022 were higher than in early 2021 when COVID first impacted births.

Contemporary trends continue a birth decline that began …

Growing Racial Diversity In Rural America: Results From The 2020 Census, Kenneth M. Johnson, Daniel Lichter

The Carsey School of Public Policy at the Scholars' Repository

In this brief, authors Kenneth Johnson and Daniel Lichter report that although population declines were widespread between 2010 and 2020, rural America became more racially and ethnically diverse. In part, the recent uptick in racial diversity in rural America is a consequence of White population decline.

Rural America remains predominately non-Hispanic White with 35 million White residents constituting 76 percent of the rural population according to the 2020 Census. This represents a decline from 79.8 percent in 2010. The number of rural residents who are members of a racial or ethnic minority increased to 11 million between 2010 and 2020, …

Conspiracy Vs. Science: A Survey Of U.S. Public Beliefs, Lawrence C. Hamilton

The Carsey School of Public Policy at the Scholars' Repository

In this brief, author Lawrence Hamilton reports the results of a nationwide U.S. survey that asked respondents whether they agreed, disagreed, or were unsure about a series of statements that mixed pseudo-science con­spiracy claims with well-established scientific facts.

Around 10 percent of respondents agreed with conspiracy claims that the Earth is flat, NASA faked the Moon landings, or COVID-19 vaccinations implant tracking microchips. For comparison, 58 to 83 percent agreed with statements of basic scientific facts—such as the Earth is billions of years old, or revolves around the Sun. Although agreement with conspiracy claims was low overall, it was significantly …

"Daylight Maximizing" Time For All, Rebecca Ray

The Carsey School of Public Policy at the Scholars' Repository

Twice a year debates erupt across the continen­tal United States: should we keep Daylight Savings Time or leave it behind for­ever? The only preference with widespread agree­ment is against changing clocks, one way or the other. Perhaps all of the participants in this perennial argu­ment have a common opponent: not each other, but the time zone lines as they are currently drawn.

Keeping Daylight Savings year-round would bring unreasonably late sunrises in Detroit and other cities in the Northwest corners of our current time zones, creating morning traffic hazards for pedestrians. But Standard Time brings winter sunsets before 5 p.m. …

More Coffins Than Cradles In 2,300 U.S. Counties: Covid's Grim Impact, Kenneth M. Johnson

The Carsey School of Public Policy at the Scholars' Repository

In this brief, Carsey Senior Demographer Kenneth Johnson reports that COVID’s impact is reflected in the sharp rise in U.S. deaths, reaching 3,434,000 between July 2020 and July 2021. This is a record high and 20 percent more than two years ago before the COVID pandemic. Births diminished to just 3,582,000, the fewest since 1979. The primary driver of U.S. population growth has long been the substantial surplus of births over deaths. This surplus has now dwindled to just 148,000, compared to 923,000 two years ago—an 84 percent decline. With immigration also at a low ebb, the population grew by …

Rural America Lost Population Over The Past Decade For The First Time In History, Kenneth M. Johnson

The Carsey School of Public Policy at the Scholars' Repository

In this brief Carsey Senior Demographer Kenneth Johnson examines rural demographic trends between 2010 and 2020 using data from the 2020 Census. The economic turbulence beginning with the Great Recession and continuing through the next decade had a significant demographic impact on rural America. Between 2010 and 2020 rural population loss was widespread, with more than two-thirds of all nonmetropolitan counties losing population. With fewer births, more deaths, and more people leaving than moving in, rural America experienced an overall population loss for the first time in history. Population losses were greatest in remote rural counties, but even in rural …

Clean Energy Project Development For Low-Income Communities: Strengthening The Ecosystem For Delivering Solar Energy And Deep Efficiency Retrofits, Eric Hangen

The Carsey School of Public Policy at the Scholars' Repository

Scaling clean energy in low-income communities through solar and deep efficiency retrofits presents financing challenges, but that is only part of the problem. Drawing on research conducted by the Carsey School’s Center for Impact Finance, this white paper outlines a road map depicting the ecosystem needed to deliver clean energy projects to underserved communities.

In a “tour” through this ecosystem, author Eric Hangen reviews examples of the work different organizations are doing in each of its niches, as well as which niches seem to be richly popu­lated and which niches need more support and invest­ment. Main conclusions from the tour …

Research-To-Practice, Prevention Innovations Winter Newsletter, Prevention Innovations Research Center

PIRC Newsletter

No abstract provided.

Pieces Of The Whole: Using The Research Process To Integrate Data Management And Information Literacy Skills, Patricia Condon, Megan Bresnahan, Eugenia Opuda

Faculty Publications

The research process is naturally embraced as part of the academic curriculum in higher education. Graduate students write theses and dissertations based on their original scholarships, undergraduate stu­dents produce papers for courses and work in labs or in the field, and both participate in faculty-led research projects. The research process is tack­led holistically through coursework, yet when library instructors are invited to teach students about information literacy and research data management topics, these may be presented as tangential to or mistimed with other course content and learning activities. In this chapter, the authors present a com­prehensive, student-centered model for teaching …

Advancing Data Literacy: Mapping Business Data Literacy Competencies To The Acrl Framework, Patricia B. Condon, Wendy G. Pothier

Faculty Publications

The relationship between data literacy and business librarianship continues to grow in relevance as the conversation intensifies in higher education and the business world. Establishing shared vocabularies and mappings to foundational library professional documents is essential to moving the discourse forward. This article presents a mapping between seven baseline business data literacy competencies and the ACRL Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education.

Genealogy Behind Bars: An Update, Kathrine C. Aydelott

Faculty Publications

This brief essay is an update to “Genealogy Behind Bars: Professional Development Through Prisoner Requests: A Case Study,” in Genealogy and the Librarian: Perspectives on Research, Instruction, Outreach and Management, Carol Smallwood and Vera Gubnitskaia, eds. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2018, which see for context.

‘Big’ And ‘Little’ Quo Vadis? In The United States, 1913–1916: Using Gis To Map Rival Modes Of Feature Cinema During The Transitional Era, Jeffrey Klenotic

Faculty Publications

This article emanates from a geospatial database of over 600 premieres of the Cines company’s Quo Vadis? (1913), an eight-reel film distributed by George Kleine, and nearly 250 premieres of the Quo Vadis Film Company’s Quo Vadis? (1913), a three-reel film of ambiguous origins distributed by Paul De Outo. By mapping local premieres of both films across the United States from 1913 through 1916, the data show with spatiotemporal precision the spread of Quo Vadis? as one of cinema’s early blockbuster titles. Yet within this national phenomenon, the two films’ footprints reveal differing cultural geographies served by competing efforts to …

Childcare Remains Out Of Reach For Millions In 2021, Leading To Disproportionate Job Losses For Black, Hispanic, And Low-Income Families, Jonathan Koltai, Jessica A. Carson, Tyrus Parker, Rebecca Glauber

The Carsey School of Public Policy at the Scholars' Repository

Using data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s Household Pulse Survey, collected in late summer through the fall of 2021, this brief documents recent racial and income disparities in reports of inadequate access to childcare and identifies the employment-related consequences of these shortages.

The authors find that, in Fall 2021, about 5 million U.S. households had a child under age 12 who was unable to attend childcare as a result of it being closed, unavailable, unaffordable, or because parents were concerned about their child’s safety in the past month. Black and low-income households were more likely to experience inadequate childcare access. …

Smallest U.S. Population Growth In History: More Deaths, Fewer Births, And Less Immigration, Kenneth M. Johnson

The Carsey School of Public Policy at the Scholars' Repository

In this brief, author Kenneth Johnson reports that the U.S. population grew by just 393,000 between July of 2020 and July of 2021 according to new Census Bureau estimates—the lowest rate of annual population gain in history and the smallest numeric gain in more than 100 years. Diminished immigration from abroad contributed, but the driver of this minimal population gain was that there were only 148,000 more births than deaths. This is the smallest natural gain in more than 80 years. COVID-19 played a central role in this small population gain. In addition to 475,000 deaths directly attributable to COVID-19 …