Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Many New Voters Make The Granite State One To Watch In November, Kenneth M. Johnson, Dante J. Scala, Andrew Smith

The Carsey School of Public Policy at the Scholars' Repository

A third of potential voters in New Hampshire during the fall of 2008 have become eligible to vote in the state. Further, these potential new voters are more likely to identify with the Democratic Party and less likely to identify as Republicans than are established New Hampshire voters, contributing to the state's "purple" status.

Working Hard For The Money: Trends In Women's Employment 1970 To 2007, Kristin Smith

The Carsey School of Public Policy at the Scholars' Repository

Seventy-three percent of married rural mothers with children under age 6 work for pay. As men's employment rates have dropped over the past four decades, more rural women are working to keep the lights on at home. Rural women are just as likely as their urban counterparts to work for pay, but they earn less, have fewer occupational choices, and have seen their family income decline as men's wages have not kept pace with inflation. Dr. Smith's report looks at over 30 years of data about women's employment.

The Nature And Dynamics Of Internet Pornography Exposure For Youth., Chiara Sabina, Janis Wolak, David Finkelhor

Sociology

Abstract

We examined exposure to Internet pornography before the age of 18, as reported by college students (n = 563), via an online survey. Ninety-three percent of boys and 62% of girls were exposed to online pornography during adolescence. Exposure prior to age 13 was relatively uncommon. Boys were more likely to be exposed at an earlier age, to see more images, to see more extreme images (e.g., rape, child pornography), and to view pornography more often, while girls reported more involuntary exposure. If participants in this study are typical of young people, exposure to pornography on the Internet can …

Integrating Landscapes That Have Experienced Rural Depopulation And Ecological Homogenization Into Tropical Conservation Planning, Aerin L. Jacob, Ismael Vaccaro, Raja Sengupta, Joel N. Hartter, Colin A. Chapman

Geography

If current trends of declining fertility rates and increasing abandonment of rural land as a result of urbanization continue, this will signal a globally significant transformation with important consequences for policy makers interested in conservation planning. This transformation is presently evident in a number of countries and projections suggest it may occur in the future in many developing countries. We use rates of population growth and urbanization to project population trends in rural areas for 25 example countries. Our projections indicate a general decline in population density that has either occurred already (e.g., Mexico) or may occur in the future …

Grey Gold: Do Older In-Migrants Benefit Rural Communities?, Nina Glasgow, David L. Brown

The Carsey School of Public Policy at the Scholars' Repository

Older Americans retiring to rural areas quickly integrate in their new communities and bring significant social and intellectual capital to those communities, finds a new issue brief from the Carsey Institute. The brief is among the few studies to consider social rather than economic impacts of older in-migration to rural areas.

Discussion On Poor Rural Areas At The Brookings Institution, Cynthia M. Duncan

The Carsey School of Public Policy at the Scholars' Repository

No abstract provided.

Rural Children Now Less Likely To Live In Married-Couple Families, Allison Churilla

The Carsey School of Public Policy at the Scholars' Repository

The percentage of rural children living in married-couple families dropped to 68 percent in 2008, one percentage point below that of children in metropolitan areas. In 1990, 76 percent of rural children and 72 percent of metropolitan-area children were living in married-couple families. But while marriage declined in both areas in the 1990s, urban rates bottomed out at 68 percent in 1998. The share of rural children living in married-couple families plunged from 73 percent in 2000 to 68 percent in 2008.

Concentrated Rural Poverty And The Geography Of Exclusion, Daniel T. Lichter, Domenico Parisi

The Carsey School of Public Policy at the Scholars' Repository

One-half of rural poor are segregated in high-poverty areas, a new policy brief co-published by the Carsey Institute at the University of New Hampshire and Rural Realities. This brief highlights the challenges faced by America's rural poor, particularly as they are physically and socially isolated from middle-class communities that might offer economic opportunities.

Who Cares About Polar Regions? Results From A Survey Of U.S. Public Opinion, Lawrence C. Hamilton

Sociology

Abstract

What do members of the general public know about polar regions, and how much do they care? Who knows or cares? This paper explores data from the General Social Survey (GSS), which in 2006 questioned a representative sample of more than 1800 U.S. adults about their knowledge and opinions concerning polar regions. The polar survey items were modeled on long-running GSS assessments of general science knowledge and opinions, recently summarized in the U.S. National Science Board's report Science and Engineering Indicators 2008. Polar knowledge proves to be limited but certainly not absent among survey respondents. Polar knowledge, general science …

Examples Of Creative Graphing, Lawrence C. Hamilton

The Carsey School of Public Policy at the Scholars' Repository

No abstract provided.

Changing The Public Conversation About Social Problems, Lynn Davey

The Carsey School of Public Policy at the Scholars' Repository

Policy Leadership Initiative Year III Addressing Energy Challenges for Low-income Families in Northern New England

Affordable Heat: Lowering Vermont's Fuel Bills And Greenhouse Emissions, Richard Cowart

The Carsey School of Public Policy at the Scholars' Repository

Policy Leadership Initiative Year III Addressing Energy Challenges for Low-income Families in Northern New England

Pay As You Save (Pays), Paul A. Cillo

The Carsey School of Public Policy at the Scholars' Repository

Policy Leadership Initiative Year III Addressing Energy Challenges for Low-income Families in Northern New England

Affordable Heat: A Whole-Buildings Efficiency Service For Vermont Families And Businesses, Richard Cowart, Richard Sedano, Frederick Weston, Brenda Hausauer

The Carsey School of Public Policy at the Scholars' Repository

Policy Leadership Initiative Year III Addressing Energy Challenges for Low-income Families in Northern New England

Climate Energy Policy And Low-Income Consumers, Antonia Herzog

The Carsey School of Public Policy at the Scholars' Repository

Policy Leadership Initiative Year III Addressing Energy Challenges for Low-income Families in Northern New England

Many New Hampshire Jobs Do Not Pay A Livable Wage, Daphne Kenyon, Allison Churilla

The Carsey School of Public Policy at the Scholars' Repository

As the U.S. economy falters and recession looms, 79 percent of jobs in New Hampshire do not pay a wage sufficient for single-parent families with two children to provide basic needs such as housing, food, transportation, child care, and health care. Carroll County has the lowest percentage of livable wage jobs, with only 13 percent of jobs paying a livable wage for single-parent families with two children.

Religion, Politics, And The Environment In Rural America, Michele Dillon, Megan M. Henly

The Carsey School of Public Policy at the Scholars' Repository

Reflecting the heterogeneous nature of rural America, rural Americans are divided primarily along religious lines on their perspectives of environmental conservation and climate change. And as rural voters and environmental issues become key issues in the upcoming presidential election, this religious divide presents a challenge to political candidates.

Polishing The Dimond: Changing Spaces For Enhanced Services To The Unh Community, Louise Buckley, Eleta Exline

University Library Scholarship

In 2007 the UNH Library orchestrated several space redesign projects to enable new services and functions within the Library and adapt to changing academic support needs. These projects included the creation of a digital imaging lab in an unused preservation workroom, and the redesign of the Government Documents Department office to accommodate the transfer of its public service desk to the IT Support Center of the new Dimond Academic Commons. Creativity and flexibility by all participants as well as a shared goal of providing the best possible service to students, faculty, and staff helped meet challenges such as tight deadlines, …

Measures And Methods: Four Tenets For Rural Economic Development In The New Economy, Anita Brown-Graham, William Lambe

The Carsey School of Public Policy at the Scholars' Repository

Rural communities working to find strategies for success in today's economy need to rethink the tools they are using. Brown-Graham is the executive director of the Institute for Emerging Issues and a policy fellow at the Carsey Institute. William Lambe is the associate director at the Community and Economic Development Program at the School of Government, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

What Motivates African-American Charitable Giving: Findings From A National Sample, Vernon B. Carter, Jerry D. Marx

Social Work

Given the growing wealth of minority families in America, including that of African-American families, the potential for charitable donations from these households is much greater. The purpose of this secondary analysis is to examine those variables that may influence African-American charitable giving patterns. This study uses the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) data to analyze the effects of multiple factors on the giving habits of African-Americans. Based on this study's findings, social workers employed as executive directors or fund-raisers in private nonprofit organizations may want to identify and cultivate individual African-American donors directly, instead of relying on United Way …

A Profile Of New Hampshire's Foreign-Born Population, Ross Gittell, Timothy Lord

The Carsey School of Public Policy at the Scholars' Repository

At the turn of the 20th century, New Hampshire had over 88,000 foreign-born persons, over 15,000 more than it has today. In 1900, the state's concentration of foreign born (21 percent) was higher than the average percentage and more than three times the current percentage of 6 percent in the state. In 1900, New Hampshire ranked 15th of all states in percentage of the foreign-born population. As of 2008, New Hampshire ranks 26th out of the 50 states.

Children In Central Cities And Rural Communities Experience High Rates Of Poverty, Sarah Savage

The Carsey School of Public Policy at the Scholars' Repository

New U.S. Census Bureau data released in August highlight increasing similarities of poverty rates between children in urban and rural communities. This common indicator of child well-being is closely linked to undesirable outcomes in areas such as health, education, emotional welfare, and delinquency.

Urban And Rural Children Experience Similar Rates Of Low-Income And Poverty, Allison Churilla

The Carsey School of Public Policy at the Scholars' Repository

Data in this brief shows that the percentages of children living in low-income areas and poverty over the past fifteen years in rural and urban America are converging.

Population Growth In New Hispanic Destinations, Kenneth M. Johnson, Daniel T. Lichter

The Carsey School of Public Policy at the Scholars' Repository

Natural increase—more births than deaths—is now the major engine of Hispanic population growth in many large metro areas and their suburbs, as well as numerous smaller metropolitan areas and rural communities. Hispanics now account for half of U.S. population growth, and Hispanic population growth is the reason many communities grew instead of declined.

Sexually Assaulted Children: National Estimates And Characteristics., David Finkelhor, Heather Hammer, Andrea J. Sedlack

Crimes Against Children Research Center

Provides information on the estimated number and characteristics of children who were sexually assaulted in the United States in 1999. This Bulletin is the seventh in the Second National Incidence Studies of Missing, Abducted, Runaway, and Thrownaway Children (NISMART–2) series. Information on sexual assault was gathered from NISMART–2 interviews with victims and their families.

Building New Hampshire History, Eleta Exline

University Library Scholarship

This presentation, delivered at the ExLibris Users Group of North American (ELUNA) 2008 annual conference, was a case study of the New Hampshire History Digital Collections project at the University of New Hampshire Library. The collections are drawn from a variety of sources, including legacy digitized state documents and local histories, newly digitized and transcribed American Civil War manuscripts, and books scanned in conjunction with the Open Content Alliance. Topic included included legacy collection migration into DigiTool, METS implementation, project workflow, and collection level DigiTool interface customization.

Ten Years Of Community Profiles In New Hampshire, Charlie A. French, Fabienne Lord-Fonesca

Natural Resources & the Environment

Through a program called Community Profiles, the University of New Hampshire Cooperative Extension has helped 57 New Hampshire communities develop a vision for their future and mobilize local residents to act on that vision. The Community Profile process is based on the premise that communities must engage members in identifying and documenting common and deeply held values from which to craft a vision for the future if they are to build and sustain community vitality. The process also helps communities find new and creative ways to pursue that vision by leveraging resources within and outside of the community. These resources …

Evaluating Children’S Advocacy Centers’ Response To Child Sexual Abuse, Theodore P. Cross, Lisa M. Jones, Wendy A. Walsh, Monique Simone, David Kolko, Joyce Sczepanski, Tonya Lippert, Karen Davison, Arthur Crynes, Polly Sosnowski, Amy L. Shadoin, Suzanne Magnuson

Sociology

Children’s Advocacy Centers (CACs) play an increasingly significant role in the response to child sexual abuse and other child maltreatment in the United States. First developed in the 1980s, CACs were designed to reduce the stress on child abuse victims and families created by traditional child abuse investigation and prosecution procedures and to improve the effectiveness of the response. According to several experts (Fontana, 1984; Pence and Wilson, 1992; Whitcomb, 1992), child victims were subjected to multiple, redundant interviews about their abuse by different agencies, and were questioned by professionals who had no knowledge of children’s developmental limitations or experience …

Caretaker Satisfaction With Law Enforcement Response To Missing Children., Heather Hammer, David Finkelhor, Richard Ormrod, Andrea J. Sedlack, Carol Bruce

Crimes Against Children Research Center

Examines satisfaction with law enforcement from the perspective of all primary caretakers who contacted police when one or more of their children experienced a qualifying episode in the Second National Incidence Studies of Missing, Abducted, Runaway, and Thrownaway Children (NISMART–2) National Household Survey of Adult Caretakers. This Bulletin is the eighth in the NISMART–2 series.

Place Matters: Challenges And Opportunities In Four Rural Americas, Lawrence C. Hamilton, Leslie R. Hamilton, Cynthia M. Duncan, Chris R. Colocousis

The Carsey School of Public Policy at the Scholars' Repository

A survey of 7,800 rural Americans in 19 counties across the country has led to the Carsey Institute's first major publication that outlines four distinctly different rural Americas—amenity, decline, chronic poverty, and those communities in decline that are also amenity-rich—each has unique challenges in this modern era that will require different policies than their rural neighbors.