Your search found 2423 results.

Descriptors:
Quality of Life; Foreign Countries; Multiple Regression Analysis; Neighborhoods; Social Indicators; Community Problems; Community Surveys; Gender Differences; Schematic Studies; Questionnaires; Mail Surveys; Physical Environment; Health Conditions; Ethnicity; Age Differences; Measures (Individuals); Psychological Characteristics; Social Characteristics; Environmental Influences; Community Attitudes

Abstract:
This article examines the association between perceptions of neighborhood problems and health-related quality of life (HRQOL) in a sample of New Zealand residents (n = 692). A modified version of the Neighborhood Problems Scale (originally developed by Steptoe and Feldman, 2001) and the World Health Organization Quality of Life (WHOQOL-BREF) were used to assess perceptions of neighborhood problems and HRQOL, respectively. Multiple linear regression analyses were conducted to assess the association between perceptions of neighborhood problems and each of the WHOQOL-BREF domains: physical, psychological, social, and environmental HRQOL. Perceptions of neighborhood problems and gender interacted in the physical HRQOL regression; the negative association between perceived neighborhood problems and physical HRQOL was stronger for males compared with females. Neighborhood problems were also negatively predictive of psychological, social, and environmental HRQOL. Overall, our results suggest that the various aspects of well-being may be influenced by perceptions of neighborhood problems. (Contains 2 tables and 1 figure.) Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract

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Descriptors:
Social Systems; Path Analysis; Systems Approach; Volunteers; Activism; Change Agents; Predictor Variables; Social Cognition; Group Dynamics; Social Change; Extraversion Introversion; Interpersonal Competence; Questionnaires; Community Characteristics; Individual Characteristics; Community Attitudes

Abstract:
The present article attempts to shed light on the direct and indirect contribution of personal resources and community indices to Sense of Cohesion among activists engaging in community volunteer work. The sample comprised 481 activists. Based on social systems theory, three levels of variables were examined: (1) inputs, which included personal resources (self-esteem, sense of mastery, and sense of coherence); (2) throughputs, which included community indices (organizational commitment, leadership competence, and representation); and (3) outputs, i.e., change in the community which enhances community cohesion. Path analysis revealed interesting results: organizational commitment, representation, and leadership competence fully mediated between self-esteem and community cohesion; and sense of coherence had a direct positive association with organizational commitment. Moreover, sense of mastery and sense of coherence contributed directly to community cohesion. The Discussion presents an analysis of these findings. (Contains 1 figure.) Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract

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Descriptors:
Action Research; Intervention; Mental Health; Rural Areas; Community Leaders; Counties; Gerontology; Barriers; Research Problems; Resistance (Psychology); Access to Health Care; Program Descriptions; Federal Programs; Health Promotion; Models; Educational Resources; Technical Assistance; Community Attitudes; Older Adults; Aging (Individuals); Rural Population; Rural Sociology; Community Influence; Social Environment; Local Issues; Participatory Research; Community Health Services; Health Education; Health Programs; Health Needs

Abstract:
Geographical, economic, social and cultural barriers to accessing services in rural areas are widely reported. Less widely discussed are dilemmas posed by individual and community reluctance to address sensitive health issues. This article, focusing on the highly sensitive area of mental health, and employing a participatory action approach, describes the natural history of a project, the Mental Health and Aging Initiative (MHAI) to enhance awareness of mental health issues in rural Kentucky-Appalachian communities and overcome the reluctance of individuals in these communities to seek assistance. Funded by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), MHAI involved an educational intervention to improve knowledge about mental health and aging in rural Appalachian counties. The need to overcome significant community reluctance to engage in discussion of mental health resulted in significant modification of the protocol. The intervention was grounded in recognition of four key aspects of the local situation: (1) the need to understand the sensitivity of mental health as an element of rural culture; (2) the critical role of local community leaders as points of entry, acceptance, and action; (3) the need to overcome social stigma and reframe the topic of mental health in a more positive light; and (4) the need for methodological innovation in developing an empowering educational action plan oriented toward community-wide long-term impact. The intervention model that emerged from these considerations was based on engaging community leaders, providing educational and technical resources, and nurturing the acceptance by individual rural residents of responsibility for monitoring community mental health. This motif became a central theme in a strategy designed to facilitate culture change and acceptance of mental health as a community concern. It involved active engagement of community representatives in defining and implementing an intervention consistent with participatory action research as a means of empowering rural residents in monitoring and addressing sensitive health care issues. Given that many issues in rural health are difficult to address because of such sensitivity, the approach described is considered to have application in other contexts. Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract

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Descriptors:
Medical Services; Structural Equation Models; Community Attitudes; Rural Areas; Migration; Aging (Individuals); Economic Change; Older Adults; Surveys; Correlation; Health Services; Internet; Attachment Behavior; Community Characteristics

Abstract:
As rural communities undergo substantial demographic and economic changes, understanding the migration intentions and their antecedents of rural elderly persons becomes increasingly important. Using data drawn from a survey of adults from 24 rural Utah communities conducted in 2008, we examine whether rural residents 60 years of age or older plan to remain in their present communities (N = 621). We use structural equation models (SEM) to estimate the relationships between a variety of individual and community-level background measures, including perceptions of local service quality, leaving one's community for health care, Internet use, attachment to and satisfaction with community, and plans to age in place. Results suggest that even as the rural context of economic decline, population loss, and distance to medical services may reduce the viability of staying in a community, a desire to remain in the community is primarily a function of perceptions of the quality of local services and community satisfaction. This research highlights the need to better understand the interplay between the availability of medical services and perceptions of distance as well as to understand the complex relationship between individual and community level characteristics for migration intentions. (Contains 1 figure, 3 tables and 2 footnotes.) Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract

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Descriptors:
Disabilities; Vocational Rehabilitation; Rural Areas; Economic Opportunities; Employment Patterns; Urban Areas; Counties; Wages; Rural Population; Job Development; Skilled Workers; Blue Collar Occupations; Career Development; Interviews; On the Job Training; Rehabilitation Counseling; Self Employment; Community Attitudes; Community Relations; Employers

Abstract:
Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) agencies provide a range of services to help people with disabilities become employed. How services are delivered, however, depends on several factors including client interests and abilities as well as economic opportunities within the local community. For better or worse, rural and urban clients face vastly different employment landscapes. For instance, USDA Economic Resource Service data indicate that rural people earn lower wages and experience lower employment rates (ERS, 2012). Rural counties also have fewer full-time jobs per capita, particularly in skilled labor sectors. Urban areas have higher employment rates in professional and managerial positions, while rural communities have higher rates in blue collar and resource based occupations characterized by limited benefits and less opportunity for advancement. Additionally, rural counties have a higher percentage of very small firms compared to urban counties. This economic variation requires different employment strategies for rural and urban clients. Recently, the authors conducted a national qualitative study to better understand how VR agencies approach rural employment with their clients. This factsheet focuses on informant comments related to the rural employment landscape and VR approaches to overcoming barriers and developing jobs for rural clients. Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract

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Descriptors:
Rural Areas; Water; Microbiology; Sustainable Development; Water Quality; Structured Interviews; Program Implementation; Pretests Posttests; Influence of Technology; Community Attitudes; Participant Satisfaction; Developing Nations; Followup Studies; Social History; Familiarity; Knowledge Level; Interpersonal Communication; Educational Needs; Environmental Influences; Environmental Standards; Environmental Education; Training Methods; Training Objectives; Performance Factors

Abstract:
The world is facing a shortage of clean drinking water. Current predictions, due to growing population, urbanization, and climate change estimate access to clean water to be further challenged in the coming years. Research has indicated that point of use (POU) technologies are likely to be the most efficient at delivering clean water (water cleaned of diarrhea causing microbes and bacteria) to rural populations. POU technologies, and specifically the biosand filter (BSF) are shown to be affordable, effective, and sustainable in rural areas. Many studies point to the need of proper education and follow-up with BSF users. BSF technology has been used for the last 4 years in Nkokonjeru, Uganda by a partnership between Engineers Without Borders, Davis Branch and a local nongovernmental development agency, Rural Agency for Sustainable Development (RASD). Both quantitative and qualitative data were gathered at 10 sites with 23 water filters to identify the bacteria count before and after BSF use. Users at sites answered questions from a structured interview and demonstrated their BSF procedure. The survey indicated many BSFs were not being used or were not yielding clean water, due most likely to insufficient education and follow up. Implications of research led to the development of a training and implementation approach to improve the BSF program in Nkokonjeru, to modify RASD's ongoing program of BSF distribution. (Contains 3 appendices, 8 tables, and 12 figures.) Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract

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Descriptors:
Social Justice; Educational Change; Race; Conflict Resolution; Peace; Ethnography; Mail Surveys; Electronic Mail; Critical Theory; Discourse Analysis; Discourse Communities; Community Attitudes; Blacks; Foreign Countries; Resistance to Change; Intergroup Relations; Participant Observation; Ethics; Social Attitudes

Abstract:
In an ethnographically designed study, guided by a critical community psychology framework, Black staff members at a historically White Afrikaans university campus conducted email conversations relating to issues of race, social justice and reconciliation. The conversations were initiated by the author (Black) who mainly used prompts found in the local institutional context to elicit responses from colleagues. A critical discourse approach to thematic analysis of the email conversations was followed. The main findings are: Compared to the potential number of respondents (32 Black staff members or 18% of all faculty staff), very few colleagues (9 or 28% of Black staff members) responded via email to the invitations but, when met in person, all expressed strong views on the topics or prompts used in the initialising emails. The critical discourse approach revealed clear psychopolitical awareness and strong discourses of fear, powerlessness and bitterness, as well as a discourse of non-engagement. These discourses appeared in all three domains of analysis: local, institutional and societal. Theoretical explication is sought mainly in resistance theory for the discourse of non-engagement and the scarcity of responses located in the local domain. Transformative resistance is suggested so that alternative discourses are inculcated, at least, in faculties of education at some historically White Afrikaans university campuses. Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract

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Descriptors:
Pregnancy; Cultural Context; Cultural Background; Foreign Countries; Interviews; Maya (People); Heritage Education; Social Change; Social Life; Social Development; Textbook Content; Community Attitudes; Community Characteristics; Locus of Control; Individual Development; Educational Practices; Cultural Traits

Abstract:
Over more than three decades spent researching cultural aspects of how children learn, the author has had the opportunity to learn about how individuals and cultural communities change and continue. During her research on children's learning by observing and "pitching in" in a Mayan community in Guatemala, the author learned a great deal from interviewing a leading midwife--an expert on pregnancy, birth, and early childhood. Chona Perez was born to be a midwife, marked with a sign of her calling at her birth (with a piece of the amniotic sac over her head like a veil). The author has been talking with her for over three decades about her remarkable work and life. Twenty years ago, they decided to write a book, called "Developing Destinies: A Mayan Midwife and Town" (2011), about how Chona learned her work from her birth destiny, her childhood, and being divinely selected and prepared for this calling. "Developing Destinies" illuminates human development as a cultural process by recounting the life and work of this Mayan sacred midwife, as well as the changes and continuities of children's and families' ways of life in Chona's Guatemalan Mayan town. The book shows how individuals build on cultural heritage from prior generations while also creating new ways of living. Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract

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Descriptors:
Foreign Countries; Corporations; Social Responsibility; Community Relations; Community Attitudes; Expectation; Fuels; Industry; Case Studies; Community Development; Empowerment; Participative Decision Making; Community Involvement; Trust (Psychology); Organizations (Groups); Politics

Abstract:
Poor community-company relations in the Niger Delta have drawn attention to the practice of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in the region. Since the 1960s, transnational oil corporations operating in the Niger Delta have adopted various CSR strategies, yet community-company relations remain adversarial. This article examines community expectations of CSR and the influence of the traditional, political, and administrative systems on community expectations of CSR in the Niger Delta region. An overview of CSR, oil industry CSR practices in the Niger Delta, and the methodology used is presented. The findings show that community expectations were framed through the lens of underdevelopment and its implications for the social and economic wellbeing of the indigenes. The implications of the traditional, political, and administrative systems and the network of organizations for CSR in the Niger Delta are discussed. (Contains 3 figures and 4 tables.) Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract

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Descriptors:
Technical Institutes; Online Courses; Adjunct Faculty; Teaching Methods; Focus Groups; Higher Education; College Faculty; Mixed Methods Research; Community Colleges; Two Year Colleges; Gender Differences; Electronic Learning; Distance Education; Educational Technology; Teacher Effectiveness; Surveys; Mentors; Technology Uses in Education; Community Attitudes; Community Development; Community Involvement

Abstract:
This article describes the results of a mixed-methods study that examined the perceptions of community among online faculty in Washington state community and technical colleges. Twelve community and technical colleges were randomly selected from the 34 colleges in Washington state. Results indicated significant differences between females versus males on questions related to motivators, time, and interactions. A significant difference existed among program area faculty related to regularly scheduled community-building activities. There were no significant differences between responses from full-time versus adjunct faculty or among the responses based on instructors' number of years teaching online or their age. The results of this study suggest a strong agreement (87%) among all faculty on the value and importance of interacting with other online colleagues regarding effective online teaching practices. (Contains 5 tables.) Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract

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