Socialising adolescent volunteering: How important are parents and friends? Age dependent effects of parents and friends on adolescents' volunteering behaviours

This study examined the relative importance of best friend's and parents' volunteering and civic family orientation (combined with open family communication) in adolescent volunteering, and the moderating effect of age. Results, involving 698 adolescents (M age = 15.19; SD = 1.43), revealed that adolescents were more likely to volunteer when their best friend and parents volunteered, and volunteered more frequently when their family had a stronger civic orientation combined with more open family communication. Clear age differences were found: when adolescents get older, friends become more important for whether they volunteer, and the family's civic orientation becomes important for their volunteering frequency. An implication of these findings may be that, depending on adolescents' age and the aspect of volunteering, interventions may focus on targeting parents' or friend's civic behaviour to stimulate adolescent volunteering.     

Soldiers’ perspectives of the Married Army Couples Program: A review of perceived problems and proposed solutions

The current study investigated soldiers’ perceptions of the Married Army Couples Program (MACP) using data from focus groups conducted with Army personnel in dual-military marriages. Despite the high success rate of the program (approximately 80–83%)—success being defined as establishment of a joint domicile within a 50-mile radius of each spouse’s duty station—a variety of difficulties were reported as well as consequent negative perceptions. Problems included dissatisfaction with the parameters defining joint domicile, obstacles to career advancement, lack of quality information regarding the program, and unequal allocation depending on one’s level of leadership support. Difficulties with MACP led to negative impressions of the program and of the Army as a whole. Specifically, when asked about challenges related to the program, many participants reported perceptions of a poorly functioning program, an uncaring environment, and of the Army as a hypocritical institution. For individuals in dual-military marriages, these difficulties affect quality of life. For the institution, these negative perceptions can potentially lead to problems with retention of one or both members of a dual-military couple. We propose several strategies to improve the effectiveness of MACP and to increase positive perceptions of the program based on suggestions from the focus groups in addition to the military and work literatures.     

The effects of literacy on the recognition of dichotic words

The hypothesis that awareness of phonemic segments influences the way in which speech is perceived was examined. Illiterate adults, who generally lack awareness of segments, were compared with literates, who are aware of the segmental structure of speech, on the recognition of words presented dichotically. A group of people who learned to read and write but who do it only occasionally was also tested. The results indicated much better performance in literates than in illiterates or semiliterates. In addition, literates made proportionally more single-segment errors, especially those limited to the first consonant, and fewer global errors, i.e. on all the segments of a syllable, than illiterates. On the other hand, phonetic feature blendings were as frequent in illiterates as in literates. It is suggested that awareness of segments allows attention to be focused on the phonemic constituents of speech and thus contributes to better recognition in difficult listening conditions. However, awareness of segments does not influence the preattentive extraction of phonetic information.

The hypothesis that awareness of phonemic segments influences the way in which speech is perceived was examined. Illiterate adults, who generally lack awareness of segments, were compared with literates, who are aware of the segmental structure of speech, on the recognition of words presented dichotically. A group of people who learned to read and write but who do it only occasionally was also tested. The results indicated much better performance in literates than in illiterates or semiliterates. In addition, literates made proportionally more single-segment errors, especially those limited to the first consonant, and fewer global errors, i.e. on all the segments of a syllable, than illiterates. On the other hand, phonetic feature blendings were as frequent in illiterates as in literates. It is suggested that awareness of segments allows attention to be focused on the phonemic constituents of speech and thus contributes to better recognition in difficult listening conditions. However, awareness of segments does not influence the preattentive extraction of phonetic information.