Food (in)security communication: a Journal of Applied Communication Research forum addressing current challenges and future possibilities

ABSTRACT

This forum brings together food, (in)security, and communication. The authors participating in this forum center communication as both process and tool for understanding, mitigating, and making meaning of food (in)security. The nine authors together discuss the role of communication in food (in)security, the central challenges for scholars and practitioners working on food (in)security, and the creative possibilities and impacts influencing the future of food (in)security. The forum produces a call for applied scholars to re-imagine communication frameworks in order to make meaningful differences in their communities.     

Using special events to motivate visitors to attend art galleries

The contemporary directions of art galleries worldwide are changing as social patterns and demands, as well as visitor expectations of their experiences at art galleries, change. New programs and strategies are being developed in galleries to make these institutions more appealing to people who would not normally visit them, and one such strategy is the staging of special events. However, because galleries are staging an increasing number of special events, the factors motivating visitors to attend these institutions are changing. Visitors hope to have different experiences and encounters in the gallery during special events. This paper presents the findings from a study in Australia about visitors’ motivations to attend special events in galleries. It highlights the different factors that motivate visitors to attend the gallery specifically for a special event in comparison to visiting the gallery's permanent collections.     

Early Childhood Parenting Predicts Late Childhood Brain Functional Connectivity During Emotion Perception and Reward Processing

Seventy-nine 3-year olds and their mothers participated in a laboratory-based task to assess maternal hostility. Mothers also reported their behavioral regulation of their child. Seven years later, functional magnetic resonance imaging data were acquired while viewing emotional faces and completing a reward processing task. Maternal hostility predicted more negative amygdala connectivity during exposure to sad relative to neutral faces with frontal and parietal regions as well as more negative left ventral striatal connectivity during monetary gain relative to loss feedback with the right posterior orbital frontal cortex and right inferior frontal gyrus. In contrast, maternal regulation predicted enhanced cingulo-frontal connectivity during monetary gain relative to loss feedback. Results suggest parenting is associated with alterations in emotion and reward processing circuitry 7–8 years later.     

Infant Proneness-to-Distress Temperament, Maternal Personality, and Mother-Infant Attachment: Associations and Goodness of Fit

66 mother-infant pairs were examined when the infants were 9 and 13 months. The purpose of this report was to examine relations between infant proneness-to-distress temperament, maternal personality characteristics, and mother-infant attachment. There were no main-effect relations between infant proneness-to-distress temperament as assessed at 9 months and infant attachment classification at 13 months. This was true whether security of attachment (A and C vs. B) or proposed temperament (A1-B2 vs. B3-C2) groupings of attachment classifications were examined. Infant proneness-to-distress temperament, however, was associated with maternal behavior and personality. Furthermore, security of attachment could be predicted by an interaction between maternal personality and infant proneness-to-distress. The importance of considering goodness-of-fit relations in predicting attachment security is discussed.     

The Impact of GEAR UP on College Readiness for Students in Low Income Schools

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the impact of the Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Program (GEAR UP) on college readiness outcomes using a quasi-experimental design. GEAR UP is designed to increase the number of low-income students who are prepared to enter and succeed in postsecondary education by providing 6-year grants to states and district partnerships to provide services at high-poverty middle and high schools. Specifically, this study sought to evaluate whether 173 schools that participated in GEAR UP showed increases in the percentages of students who were prepared to enter and succeed in postsecondary education, as compared to students from similar, non-GEAR UP schools. Seven years (2003–2009) of matched cohort data were compiled to include all regular (e.g., nonspecial education) high schools with grade 12 enrollment as documented by the National Center for Educational Statistics. Participation in and performance on three College Board assessments that measure college readiness at the high school level (SAT, PSAT/NMSQT, and AP) as well as percent free/reduced-price lunch were used to identify comparable schools. Results showed that, overall, the GEAR UP program showed positive evidence of improving college readiness outcomes for low income students using a variety of college readiness measures.     

Distinct Factors Associated With Head Start Mothers’ Self-Report of Perceived Low Positive and High Negative Maternal Expressiveness

Research Findings: There is growing acknowledgment of the need for parenting interventions to address early-onset behavior and emotional concerns. Favorable child outcomes have been linked to parents’ responsiveness and positive expressiveness. Given the theoretical and empirical link between perceptions and actual behavior, Head Start mothers (n = 114) participated in an investigation to examine factors that may be associated with level of self-reported maternal expressiveness. Participants completed the Self-Expressiveness in the Family Questionnaire (Halberstadt, Cassidy, Stifter, Parke, & Fox, 1995). Analysis suggested that self-reported high negative expressiveness was linked with raising a preschooler with perceived internalizing and externalizing behaviors, high parenting stress, and obtaining a post–high school degree. A perceived view of being low in positive expressiveness, in contrast, correlated with different variables, including raising a preschooler with a diagnosed delay, not having any child receive specialized services, raising only 1 child, dropping out of high school, and not receiving behavior advice from Head Start staff. Practice or Policy: Implications for examining self-reported low positive and high negative expressiveness as separate constructs with possibly different intervention pathways are discussed.     

Assessing anxiety in youth with autism spectrum disorder

Anxiety is now recognized as one of the most common co-occurring conditions in youth diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Despite the prevalence of this comorbid condition, accurate assessment and diagnosis of anxiety in ASD has proven difficult. This paper will address the considerable research literature on assessing anxiety in youth with ASD, including difficulties related to assessment and differential diagnosis. In addition, this paper will describe relevant tools and methods for assessing anxiety in this complex population.