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Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons

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Articles 1 - 9 of 9

Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

A Theater-Based Approach To Primary Prevention Of Sexual Behavior For Early Adolescents, Lisa D. Lieberman, Cydelle Berlin, Lori-Ann Palen, Olivia Silber Ashley Dec 2011

A Theater-Based Approach To Primary Prevention Of Sexual Behavior For Early Adolescents, Lisa D. Lieberman, Cydelle Berlin, Lori-Ann Palen, Olivia Silber Ashley

Department of Public Health Scholarship and Creative Works

Early adolescence is a crucial period for preventing teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections. This study evaluated STAR LO, a theater-based intervention designed to affect antecedents of sexual activity among urban early adolescents (N = 1,143). Public elementary/middle schools received the intervention or served as a wait-listed comparison group in a quasi-experimental study. Students completed pretest and posttest questionnaires. Multivariate regression models were used to examine treatment effects. Comparison students showed significantly greater increases in sexual intentions and decreases in pro-abstinence attitudes and intended age of first sex than treatment group adolescents. Comparison girls showed significantly greater increases in …


Sexuality Education, Eva Goldfarb, Norman A. Constantine Dec 2011

Sexuality Education, Eva Goldfarb, Norman A. Constantine

Department of Public Health Scholarship and Creative Works

Sexuality education comprises the lifelong intentional processes by which people learn about themselves and others as sexual, gendered beings from biological, psychological, and sociocultural perspectives. It takes place through a potentially wide range of programs and activities in schools, community settings, religious centers, as well as informally within families, among peers, and through electronic and other media. Sexuality education for adolescents occurs in the context of the biological, cognitive, and social-emotional developmental progressions and issues of adolescence. Formal sexuality education falls into two main categories: behavior change approaches, which are represented by abstinence-only and abstinence-plus models, and healthy sexual development …


Holding My Breath: The Experience Of Being Sikh After 9/11, Muninder Kaur Ahluwalia Sep 2011

Holding My Breath: The Experience Of Being Sikh After 9/11, Muninder Kaur Ahluwalia

Department of Counseling Scholarship and Creative Works

This article is based on the author’s experiences after the 9/11 terrorist attacks in New York City and the impact of the attacks on her life as a New Yorker, an academic, and a member of a Sikh family and community. To position the author’s narrative, her reflection integrates race-based traumatic stress (Carter, 2007), a model suggesting that individuals who are targets of racism experience harm or injury. The author outlines lessons learned that affect her both personally and professionally, including (a) Paralysis can happen but advocacy and allies are healing, (b) Trauma changes the work, and (c) …


A Systematic Observational Study Of A Juvenile Drug Court Judge, Christopher Salvatore, Matthew Hiller, Benta Samuelson, Jaime Henderson, Elise White Sep 2011

A Systematic Observational Study Of A Juvenile Drug Court Judge, Christopher Salvatore, Matthew Hiller, Benta Samuelson, Jaime Henderson, Elise White

Department of Justice Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

The shift of the juvenile justice system from its initial rehabilitative ideal toward a more punitive orientation highlights the need to systematically document key elements of the juvenile drug court model. In particular, it is important to clearly document the role of the juvenile court judge because he or she is considered vital to this program model. The current study used participant observation as well as confidential questionnaires on which youth shared their perceptions of the judge. Findings show the judge‐participant interactions typically were brief, varied by the participants' level of compliance with the program, and that sanctions were given …


The Community Action Framework In Practice: An Illustration Based On The Ready By 21 Coalition Of Austin/Travis County, Raphael Travis Jr., Tamara Leech Aug 2011

The Community Action Framework In Practice: An Illustration Based On The Ready By 21 Coalition Of Austin/Travis County, Raphael Travis Jr., Tamara Leech

Department of Public Health Scholarship and Creative Works

The field of positive youth development has expanded focus from articulating and measuring desired manifestations of positive well-being to assembling the environmental conditions known to promote these desired outcomes. Evidence of the effectiveness of community-level efforts promoting positive youth development is still emerging, in particular theory-driven examples of community-driven youth development. This study examined the Community Action Framework, one theory-based community youth development model, through the experiences of the Ready by 21 Austin/Travis County coalition (RB21). The coalition connects youth-serving organizations and also regional coalitions, while promoting the positive development of area youth. Participant observation, interviewing, and archival strategies were …


Mothering As A Life Course Transition: Do Women Go Straight For Their Children?, Venezia Michalsen Aug 2011

Mothering As A Life Course Transition: Do Women Go Straight For Their Children?, Venezia Michalsen

Department of Justice Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

In this study, qualitative, in-depth interviews were conducted with 100 formerly incarcerated mothers to explore the relationship between attachment to children and desistance from criminal behavior. Exploratory data analysis revealed that mothers do believe that children play important roles in their desistance, consistent with the tenets of life course theory. However, children were also described as sources of great stress, which may in turn promote criminal behavior. Women also related desistance to reliance on self and a higher power, and to a desire to avoid future involvement with the criminal justice system. The article concludes with a call for more …


The Intention-To-Cause Bias: Evidence From Children's Causal Language, Paul Muentener, Laura Lakusta Jun 2011

The Intention-To-Cause Bias: Evidence From Children's Causal Language, Paul Muentener, Laura Lakusta

Department of Psychology Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

The current study explored causal language in 3.5- to 4-year-old children by manipulating the type of agent (human acting intentionally or unintentionally, or inanimate object) and the type of effect (motion or state change) in causal events. Experiment 1 found that the type of agent, but not the type of effect, influenced children's production of causal language. Children produced more causal language for intentionally caused events than for either unintentionally- or object-caused events, independent of the type of effect. Experiment 2, which tested children's judgments of descriptions for the events, found a similar pattern. Children preferred causal descriptions more for …


Deficits In Adults With Autism Spectrum Disorders When Processing Multiple Objects In Dynamic Scenes, Kirsten O'Hearn, Laura Lakusta, Elizabeth Schroer, Nancy Minshew, Beatriz Luna Apr 2011

Deficits In Adults With Autism Spectrum Disorders When Processing Multiple Objects In Dynamic Scenes, Kirsten O'Hearn, Laura Lakusta, Elizabeth Schroer, Nancy Minshew, Beatriz Luna

Department of Psychology Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

People with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) process visual information in a manner that is distinct from typically developing individuals. They may be less sensitive to people's goals and, more generally, focus on visual details instead of the entire scene. To examine these differences, people with and without ASD were asked to detect changes in dynamic scenes with multiple elements. Participants viewed a brief video of a person or an inanimate object (the "figure") moving from one object to another; after a delay, they reported whether a second video was the same or different. Possible changes included the figure, the object …


Citizen Chávez: The State, Social Movements, And Publics, Anthony Peter Spanakos Jan 2011

Citizen Chávez: The State, Social Movements, And Publics, Anthony Peter Spanakos

Department of Political Science and Law Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Scholars are divided over whether the emancipatory politics promised by new social movements can be attained within civil society or whether seizure of the state apparatus is necessary. The Bolivarian Revolution led by President Hugo Chávez presents a crucial case for examining this question. Chávez’s use of the state apparatus has been fundamental in broadening the concept of citizenship, but this extension of citizenship has occurred alongside the deliberate exclusion of others. This has not only limited its appeal as a citizenship project but created counterpublics that challenge the functioning of the government and its very legitimacy. Analysis of Bolivarianism …