Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Data Snapshot: U.S. Population Growth Continues To Slow Due To Fewer Births And More Deaths, Kenneth M. Johnson

The Carsey School of Public Policy at the Scholars' Repository

The U.S. population grew by just 2,020,000 or 0.62 percent between July 2017 and July 2018 according to recent Census Bureau estimates. This is the lowest population growth rate since 1937.

2020 Census Faces Challenges In Rural America, William P. O'Hare

The Carsey School of Public Policy at the Scholars' Repository

In this brief, author Bill O’Hare discusses how the 2020 Census will have ramifications for every person in the United States, urban and rural residents alike. Outlining the special challenges that will make some rural areas and populations difficult to enumerate accurately, he identifies rural areas where special outreach and operations will be needed to get a complete and accurate count. He reports that though the rural population is generally easier to count than the urban population, several places and populations in rural areas will be difficult to enumerate accurately in the 2020 Census. They include: blacks in the rural …

Test Of Personal Intelligencemini-12 (Topi Mini-12): Brief Manual And Test (9th Edition), John D. Mayer, Abigail T. Panter, David R. Caruso

UNH Personality Lab

Personal intelligence can be defined as the capacity to reason about personality and to use personality and personal information to enhance one’s thoughts, plans, and life experience (Mayer, 2008, p. 209). It is a “hot” intelligence in the sense of operating on information that is personally relevant and of importance to the individual.

The gold standard for measuring intelligences is through the use of ability scales. The Test of Personal Intelligence (TOPI), a 134-item ability measure, has been developed over three versions (1.0, 1.1., and 1.2) to test the existence of personal intelligence and to provide for its measurement (Mayer, …

Population, Greenspace, And Development:Conversion Patterns In The Great Lakes Region, Mark Ducey, Kenneth M. Johnson, Ethan P. Belair, Barbara D. Cook

The Carsey School of Public Policy at the Scholars' Repository

In this brief, authors Mark Ducey, Kenneth Johnson, Ethan Belair, and Barbara Cook combine demographic, land-cover, and other spatial data to estimate the incidence and extent of conversion from greenspace (forestland, shrublands, and grasslands) to development in the Great Lakes states. They report that greenspace conversions to developed land are most common in areas where greenspace is already limited. Population density strongly influences the conversion of greenspace to development. Conversions are most likely to occur on the urban periphery and in high-amenity rural areas. This research contributes to a better understanding of the linkages between demographic and land-cover change and …

More Young Adult Migrants Moving To New Hampshire From Other U.S. Locations, Kenneth Johnson

The Carsey School of Public Policy at the Scholars' Repository

New Hampshire received a significant net inflow of people from other U.S. states between 2013 and 2017 according to new Census Bureau estimates. The average annual domestic migration gain was 5,900 between 2013 and 2017. In contrast, only about 100 more people moved to New Hampshire than left it for other U.S. destinations annually during the Great Recession and its aftermath between 2008 and 2012

The Interaction Between The Minimum Wage And The Federal Eitc, Andrew Schaefer, Jessica Carson, Marybeth Mattingly, Andrew Wink

The Carsey School of Public Policy at the Scholars' Repository

In this fact sheet, authors Andrew Schaefer, Jessica Carson, Marybeth Mattingly, and Andrew Wink examine the interaction between the minimum wage and the federal Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) to determine whether a minimum wage increase would produce gains in the sum of earnings plus EITC dollars for low-income workers. They report that for workers earning the minimum wage, an increase would result in higher income; none would experience a lower net income due to changes in the federal EITC credit (though this may be offset by loss of other safety net program benefits). For some family types, increased income …

Data Snapshot: Fewer Young Adults Lack Health Insurance Following Key Aca Provisions, Jessica Carson

The Carsey School of Public Policy at the Scholars' Repository

T he share of people without health insurance has dropped dramatically since the implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), but declines have been most dramatic among young adults age 19 to 25. In 2008, one-in-three 23-year-olds were uninsured, likely reflecting their graduation from college and therefore, their ineligibility to be covered on parental plans. Beginning in 2010, the ACA allowed young adults to remain on their parents’ plans until age 26; the orange line in Figure 1 reflects this shift, as 26-year-olds, rather than 23-year-olds, became the most often uninsured by 2013.

The Usda Summer Food Service Program In Coos County New Hampshire, Jean Bessette

The Carsey School of Public Policy at the Scholars' Repository

In this report, author Jean Bessette examines the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Summer Food Service Program (SFSP) operating in 2017 in four communities in Coös County, New Hampshire. She reports that the SFSP provides benefits to Coös County on multiple levels. For children, it ensures the availability of nutritious meals in the summer when school meal programs are not operating; for parents, it helps to alleviate pressure on food budgets; and for communities, it helps to ameliorate the impacts of poverty and lack of economic growth and development. Successful strategies to increase participation in summer food programs include providing …

Open Access Browser Plug-Ins, Eleta Exline

Open Access Events

Browser Plug-ins like the Open Access Button and Unpaywall search thousands of sources with millions of articles to link you to free, legal, full text articles instantly

Prevention Matters, September/October 2018, Prevention Innovations Research Center

PIRC Newsletter

No abstract provided.

Data Snapshot: Eitc Continues To Reach Families In Poor Places, Andrew Schaefer, Marybeth Mattingly, Kennedy Nickerson, Jessica Carson

The Carsey School of Public Policy at the Scholars' Repository

Recent proposals in the House and Senate focus on amplifying the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC)—a refundable tax credit for low-income workers—to compensate for growing wage inequity. Authors Andrew Schaefer, Marybeth Mattingly, Kennedy Nickerson, and Jessica Carson find that the share of EITC filers who are families with children is especially high in the poorest counties, including many places throughout the South.

Understanding People-Centered Intelligences, John D. Mayer

UNH Personality Lab

No abstract provided.

Data Snapshot: Declines In Child Poverty Continue In 2017, Jessica Carson, Andrew Schaefer, Marybeth Mattingly

The Carsey School of Public Policy at the Scholars' Repository

The official poverty measure indicates that child poverty declined by 1.1 percentage points between 2016 and 2017, according to analyses of the latest American Community Survey data released today. By 2017, child poverty across the nation was still 0.4 percentage point higher than before the Great Recession. Child poverty remained higher in cities and rural places than in the suburbs. For the first time, rates in cities dipped below the pre-recession level, although poverty is still slightly higher in rural and suburban places than in 2007.

How To Begin, Danielle M. Pillet-Shore

Communication

This article introduces the special issue of Research on Language and Social Interaction organized around the theme “Opening and Maintaining Face-to-Face Interaction.” The contributions to this special issue collectively consider “how to begin”—either a new encounter or a new sequence after a lapse in conversation. All articles analyze naturally occurring, video-recorded episodes of casual and/or institutional copresent interaction using multimodal conversation analytic methods. Though the opening phase of a face-to-face encounter may elapse in a matter of seconds, this article shows it to house a dense universe of phenomena central to sustaining our human sense of self and our social …

Arriving: Expanding The Personal State Sequence, Danielle M. Pillet-Shore

Communication

When arriving to a social encounter, how and when can a person show how s/he is doing/feeling? This article answers this question, examining personal state sequences in copresent openings of casual (residential) and institutional (parent-teacher) encounters. Describing a regular way participants constitute—and move to expand—these sequences, this research shows how arrivers display a nonneutral (e.g., negative, humorous, positive) personal state by both (1) deploying interactionally timed stance-marking embodiments that enact a nonneutral state, and (2) invoking a selected previous activity/experience positioned as precipitating that nonneutral state. Data demonstrate that arrivers time their nonneutral personal state displays calibrated to their understanding …

Working Families’ Access To Early Childhood Education, Jessica Carson

The Carsey School of Public Policy at the Scholars' Repository

In this brief, using data from the Census Bureau, state administrative systems, and a Carsey survey of working parents, author Jessica Carson examines the child care landscape of the Upper Valley of New Hampshire and Vermont and links these findings to a discussion of early childhood education policy and practice. She reports that 96 percent of Upper Valley parents surveyed said child care is necessary in order for them to work. The number of slots offered by licensed (home- and center-based) early childhood education providers in the Upper Valley is 2,000 short of the estimated number of young children whose …

Arriving: Expanding The Personal State Sequence, Danielle M. Pillet-Shore

Communication

When arriving to a social encounter, how and when can a person show how s/he is doing/feeling? This article answers this question, examining personal state sequences in copresent openings of casual (residential) and institutional (parent-teacher) encounters. Describing a regular way participants constitute – and move to expand – these sequences, this research shows how arrivers display a non-neutral (e.g., negative, humorous, positive) personal state by both (i) deploying interactionally-timed stance-marking embodiments that enact a non-neutral state, and (ii) invoking a selected previous activity/experience positioned as precipitating that non-neutral state. Data demonstrate that arrivers time their non-neutral personal state displays calibrated …

How To Begin, Danielle M. Pillet-Shore

Communication

This article introduces the special issue of Research on Language and Social Interaction organized around the theme “Opening and Maintaining Face-to-Face Interaction.” The contributions to this special issue collectively consider “how to begin” – either a new encounter, or a new sequence after a lapse in conversation. All articles analyze naturally-occurring, videorecorded episodes of casual and/or institutional copresent interaction using multimodal conversation analytic methods. Though the opening phase of a face-to-face encounter may elapse in a matter of seconds, this article shows it to house a dense universe of phenomena central to sustaining our human sense of self and our …

Prevention Matters, July/August 2018, Prevention Innovations Research Center

PIRC Newsletter

No abstract provided.

Both Rural And Urban Snap Recipients Affected By Proposed Work Requirements, Jessica A. Carson

The Carsey School of Public Policy at the Scholars' Repository

With the expiration of the current Farm Bill on September 30, 2018, the House and Senate are working in conference committee to reconcile their versions of its replacement. A major difference between the two is the House’s inclusion of a more intensive work requirement.

The Opioid Crisis In Rural And Small Town America, Shannon M. Monnat, Khary K. Rigg

The Carsey School of Public Policy at the Scholars' Repository

In this brief, authors Shannon Monnat and Khary Rigg examine rural versus urban differences in opioid mortality and identify challenges for dealing with the opioid crisis in rural areas. They report that, in 2016, opioid mortality rates were higher in urban than in rural counties, particularly in the Midwest, but rates have increased more in rural than in urban counties over the past two decades. Since 2010, the share of drug overdose deaths involving prescription opioids has declined, but the share of deaths involving heroin and synthetic opioids has spiked in both rural and urban areas. The most dramatic increases …

Parental Substance Use In New Hampshire: Who Cares For The Children?, Kristin Smith

The Carsey School of Public Policy at the Scholars' Repository

In this brief, author Kristin Smith examines parental substance use and who cares for children when their parents cannot. It uses data from the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services’ Division for Children, Youth, and Families Results Oriented Management and the Statewide Automated Child Welfare Information System (NH Bridges), and the American Community Survey. She reports that the number of child abuse and neglect reports assessed by the New Hampshire Division for Children, Youth, and Families increased by 21 percent between 2013 and 2016. The number of children or youth removed from parental care increased from 358 in …

Comm-Entary, Spring 2018 - Full Issue

Comm-entary

In this issue:

Art Therapy and Virtues Between the Young and Old by Ellen Gibbs

Representation in Media – The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly by Hiwalani Kapanui

EDM: Spirituality in Sound by Abigail Lehner

Local Reactions, Revolutionary Implications: The Stamp Act Rebellion in Portsmouth, New Hampshire as a Precursor to American Independenceby Charlotte Harris

“Playing” to God: An Analysis of Video Games through the Lens of Religion by Jason Paul

Protest Policing and the Privatization of Surveillance by Jenna Ward

The Importance of Overall Structure in Conducting a Medical Encounterby Lindsey Hall

A Tropic Understanding of …

Prevention Matters, May/June 2018, Prevention Innovations Research Center

PIRC Newsletter

No abstract provided.

Summer Camp As A Force For 21st Century Learning: Exploring Divergent Thinking And Activity Selection In A Residential Camp Setting, Myles Lynch, Jonathan A. Plucker, C Boyd Hegarty, Nate Trauntvein

Education

This study investigated change in divergent thinking (DT), an indicator of creative potential, at two gender-specific residential summer camps. Additionally, this study examined whether the change in DT varied by gender and by the type of activities campers self-select. Quantitative methods, using a quasi-experimental design was used in order to understand differences in camper scores. A total of 189 youth, 100 girls, 89 boys, between the ages of 9 and 14 years participated in the current study. Participants were administered a modified version of Guilford's (1967) alternate uses task, a measure of DT, in which respondents were asked questions such …

Climate Change, Sea-Level Rise, And The Vulnerable Cultural Heritage Of Coastal New Hampshire, Meghan Howey

The Carsey School of Public Policy at the Scholars' Repository

In this brief, author Meghan Howey examines the impact of climate change and sea-level rise on the vulnerable cultural heritage of coastal New Hampshire. Coastal New Hampshire has been identified by scientists and recognized by policy makers as an area experiencing many of the effects of climate change, including increasing temperatures and rising sea levels. The continued trajectory of such change places the seacoast region at a very high risk of coastal flooding today and of coastal land submersions within the next 50 to 100 years. Coastal New Hampshire stands to lose 14 percent of its known prehistoric and historic …

Place: A Dynamic Geospatial Data Repository, Eleta Exline, Hannah Hamalainen

PLACE Project

Poster presented at University of Massachusetts and New England Area Librarian e-Science Symposium, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, Massachusetts, April 5, 2018

Drug Overdose Rates Are Highest In Places With The Most Economic And Family Distress, Shannon M. Monnat

The Carsey School of Public Policy at the Scholars' Repository

In this brief, author Shannon Monnat examines county-level mortality data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, pooled for 2006–2015, to gain insight into the U.S. drug overdose problem. She reports that, unlike the news media’s regular portrayal of the drug overdose epidemic being a national crisis, some places have much higher drug mortality rates than others. On average, rates are higher in counties with higher levels of economic distress and family dissolution, and they are lower in counties with a larger per capita presence of religious establishments. These findings hold even when controlling for demographic differences, urban …

Domestic Migration And Fewer Births Reshaping America, Kenneth Johnson

The Carsey School of Public Policy at the Scholars' Repository

In this fact sheet, author Kenneth Johnson analyzes new Census Bureau data released on March 22, 2018, to analyze the continuing influence of domestic migration on U.S. demographic trends. He reports that domestic migration losses from large urban cores rose sharply. Domestic migration gains are accelerating in other metro areas. Population growth has resumed in rural areas. In addition, while the number of deaths is rising, the number of births is not.

Full-Time Employment Not Always A Ticket To Health Insurance, Jessica Carson

The Carsey School of Public Policy at the Scholars' Repository

In this brief, author Jessica Carson examines differences in health insurance coverage by workers’ income, and explores who is eligible for an employer-based plan, who enrolls in those plans, and the reasons why workers choose not to enroll. She reports that, in 2016, only 33 percent of low-income workers (those below 200 percent of the official poverty threshold) employed full time, year round reported having employer-based health insurance, compared to 57 percent of higher-income workers. Low-income workers are less often offered insurance: 40 percent of low-income workers work for employers who do not offer insurance to any employee, compared to …