Stayovers in emerging adulthood: Who stays over and why?

Emerging adulthood is an intense period of personal development and interpersonal exploration; most emerging adults engage in several romantic relationships of varying commitment levels throughout their late teens and early twenties. The current study explored whether one relationship behavior, staying over, is related to specific demographic characteristics, previous experiences, and personal beliefs and attitudes. A sample of 627 emerging adults were surveyed about their experiences with staying overnight with their romantic partners, their reasons for doing so, and their attitudes about full‐time cohabitation. Participants who were older, had cohabited at some point, lived independently from family, viewed religion as unimportant, and had positive attitudes about cohabitation were found to be more likely to stay over.     

A BIBLIOMETRIC EVALUATION OF CORE JOURNALS IN COMMUNICATION RESEARCH

Bibliometrics is a method of assessing scientific activity based on the citation links between journal articles. Nine core journals in the field of communication were studied to evaluate their influence on each other and on journals outside the field. Most of the data were drawn from the Social Sciences Citation Index Journal Citation Reports, 1977–1979 issues. It was found that communication journals make only about 13% of their cites to other communication journals, and 44% of these are self-citations. With the exception of Public Opinion Quarterly, communication journals make five citations for every one they receive. A network analysis showed that the nine journals clustered into two groups: speech-communication journals and mass communication journals. Human Communication Research has the most influence within the communication discipline, and Public Opinion Quarterly has the most influence outside the discipline. Communication remains a field with separate subliteratures and is very dependent on journals outside communication research.     

Adult attachment styles and stressor severity as moderators of the coping sequence

This study examined the normative temporal sequence of the coping process and whether stressor severity or adult attachment styles moderated that sequence. Participants (N = 75) described a minor or a major stressor. They were given a stack of index cards, representing coping strategies from five different domains. They selected strategies they had employed and sorted them into the order used. Overall, support from partner was one of the first coping techniques used. Adult attachment styles moderated the coping sequence. For major stressors, dismissing attachment predicted later use of support seeking from partner and earlier use of distancing coping, while preoccupied attachment predicted earlier use of emotion‐focused coping.     

NATURAL GOODNESS,RIGHTNESS, AND THE INTERSUBJECTIVITY OF REASON: REPLY TO ARROYO,CUMMISKEY, MOLAND,AND BIRD‐POLLAN

Abstract: In response to Arroyo, I explain my position on the concept of “natural goodness” and how my use of that concept compares to that of Geach and Foot. An Aristotelian or functional notion of goodness provides the material for Kantian endorsement in a theory of value that avoids a metaphysical commitment to intrinsic values. In response to Cummiskey, I review reasons for thinking Kantianism and consequentialism incompatible, especially those objections to aggregation that arise from the notion of the natural good previously described. In response to Moland, I explain why I think Hegelian worries about the supposed emptiness of the Kantian self do not apply to my account. And in response to both Moland and Bird‐Pollan, I argue that, contrary to the view of some Hegelians, the intersubjective normativity of reason is not something developed through actual social relations; rather, it is something essential to an individual's relations with himself or herself.     

Effective social support: Antecedents and consequences of partner support during pregnancy

This longitudinal study investigated a new conceptualization of the effectiveness of social support attempts called social support effectiveness (SSE) that takes into account the quantity and quality of support attempts and the extent to which they meet the needs of recipients. SSE was assessed in a sample of 176 pregnant women with regard to their partners’ social support behaviors. Potential antecedents of SSE were investigated, including individual and relationship variables. In addition, it was hypothesized that women who appraised their partner’s support as more effective would have lower prenatal anxiety, both concurrently (in mid‐pregnancy) and prospectively (in late pregnancy). Factor analyses confirmed that all hypothesized aspects of SSE contributed to a unitary factor of SSE. Structural equation modeling was used to test the proposed antecedents and consequences of SSE. Results revealed that women’s ratings of the effectiveness of partner support were predicted by their interpersonal orientation (adult attachment, network orientation, kin individualism–collectivism, and social skills) and by characteristics of their relationships with their partners (relationship quality, emotional closeness and intimacy, and equity). Furthermore, women who perceived themselves to have more effective partner support reported less anxiety in mid‐pregnancy and showed a reduction in anxiety from mid‐ to late pregnancy. Findings are discussed with regard to implications for advancing research on social support processes, especially within relationship contexts.     

EFFECT OF TEMPORARY CONTRACTS ON PERCEIVED WORK CHARACTERISTICS AND JOB STRAIN: A LONGITUDINAL STUDY

This longitudinal study investigates differences in perceived work characteristics and job strain as a function of employment status. The study examines the effects of a change from involuntary temporary to permanent status ( N = 75) compared to staying permanent ( N = 257), as well as comparing temporary contract and permanent contract employees at Time 1 and a second-wave comparison that included new temporary contract employees ( N = 92) and new permanent contract employees ( N = 34). Results suggest that temporary employment status is associated with negative and positive consequences. On the negative side, temporary status reduced perceptions of job security and participative decision making, which had deleterious effects on job strain. On the other hand, temporary employees had fewer strain-inducing role demands (in particular, lower role overload). The net effect was that temporary employees had lower job strain, which analyses suggested was due to indirect effects of the lower role demands.     

A META-ANALYSIS OF TEAMWORK PROCESSES: TESTS OF A MULTIDIMENSIONAL MODEL AND RELATIONSHIPS WITH TEAM EFFECTIVENESS CRITERIA

Drawing from Marks, Mathieu, and Zaccaro (2001) , we proposed that narrowly focused teamwork processes load onto 3 higher-order teamwork process dimensions, which in turn load onto a general teamwork process factor. Results of model testing using meta-analyses of relationships among narrow teamwork processes provided support for the structure of this multidimensional theory of teamwork process. Meta-analytic results also indicated that teamwork processes have positive relationships with team performance and member satisfaction, and that the relationships are similar across the teamwork dimensions and levels of process specificity. Supplemental analyses revealed that the 3 intermediate-level teamwork processes are positively and strongly related to cohesion and potency. Results of moderator analyses suggested that relationships among teamwork processes and team performance are somewhat dependent on task interdependence and team size.     

SOCIAL CAPITAL & FAITH‐BASED ORGANISATIONS

This year is the twentieth anniversary of the germinal report ‘Faith in the City’ which first drew attention to the concerns of religious agencies whose remit is to tackle growing multiple deprivation in the UK. Since then, the role of faith‐based organisations (FBOs) as mediators of welfare provision, urban regeneration and community development has attracted little attention from sociologists despite claims that such roles are becoming increasingly important. Successive UK governments have highlighted the potential of religious congregations in enhancing social capital and promoting social cohesion. The seminal work of Greg Smith (University of East London) emphasises this theme while other sociological literature in this area (mainly American, e.g., Putnam) argues that FBOs in the community provide a degree of social support and relationship structures that accumulate as social capital resources. This discussion paper is an attempt to open up the debate on the ways in which FBOs can develop and enhance the social capital value of local community groups.     

The Mental Vulnerability Questionnaire: A psychometric evaluation

Eplov, L.F., Petersen, J., Jørgensen, T., Johansen, C., Birket‐Smith, M., Lyngberg, A. C. & Mortensen, E. L. (2010). The Mental Vulnerability Questionnaire: A psychometric evaluation. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology 51, 548–554. The Mental Vulnerability Questionnaire was originally a 22 item scale, later reduced to a 12 item scale. In population studies the 12 item scale has been a significant predictor of health and illness. The scale has not been psychometrically evaluated for more than 30 years, and the aim of the present study was both to evaluate the psychometric properties of the 22 and 12 item scales and of three new scales. The main study sample was a community sample comprising more than 6,000 men and women. In this sample the coefficients of homogeneity were all over 0.30 for the three new scales, but below 0.30 for the 12 and the 22 item scales. All five Mental Vulnerability scales had positively skewed score distributions which were associated significantly with both SCL‐90‐R symptom scores and NEO‐PI‐R personality scales (primarily Neuroticism and Extraversion). Coefficient alpha was highest for the 22 and 12 item scales, and the two scales also showed the highest long‐term stability. The three new scales reflect relatively independent dimensions of Psychosomatic Symptoms, Mental Symptoms, and Interpersonal Problems, but because of reliability problems it remains an open question whether they will prove useful as predictors of health and morbidity.     

Citation Networks of Communication Journals, 1977–1985 Cliques and Positions,Citations Made and Citations Received

This article analyzes the pattern of citations among all communication journals covered by the first nine years of the Journal Citation Reports volume of the Social Sciences Citation Index (Garfield, 1977–1985). It approaches these analyses from two perspectives: (1) bibliometric analysis of citation flows, ratios, and impact factors, and (2) network analysis of both cohesion-based and position-based citation patterns. The field of communication exhibits clear clustering and inbreeding, consisting of cliques of interpersonal journals, mass media journals, and residual isolate journals. Citation patterns within and across these cliques have been very stable from 1977 through 1985. The cohesion analyses show that Human Communication Research and Communication Education provide weak ties from mass media journals to interpersonal communication journals. The Journal of Communication is cited the most strongly by the most journals, and provides, by means of citations, bidirectional channels for the flow of scientific information between mass media journals and interpersonal journals. The positional analyses show that the set of journals that has similar citing patterns is somewhat different from the set of journals that is cited similarly. In particular, the set of sources for the research reported in articles in these journals is not similar to the set of journals that refer to the articles in these journals.