Bridgewater State University

About: Bridgewater State University is a education organization based out in Bridgewater, Massachusetts, United States. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Poison control. The organization has 625 authors who have published 1223 publications receiving 21820 citations. The organization is also known as: BSU & Bridgewater State.

Using Theory to Examine Fatal Child Maltreatment Among a Sample of Children Known to Child Protective Services

Abstract: The purpose of this study was to use theory to test different models to predict fatal maltreatment: parental psychopathology, social/economic stress, and ecological theory. These models were tested using a subsample of children who were identified as “prior victims” in the National Child Abuse & Neglect Data Set from 2008 to 2012. At the multivariate level, the analyses suggest a statistically significant relationship between social/economic stress variables, including partner violence, inadequate housing, and financial problems. Repeated reports to child protective services and interactions between the age of child and financial problems often acted as protective factors. Implications for research and the child welfare field are discussed.

The Multifaith Campus: Transforming Colleges and Universities for Spiritual Engagement.

Abstract: Dafina Lazarus Stewart, Michael M. Kocet, and Sharon Lobdell explore what college and university campuses would look like if transformed to promote and sustain religious and secular pluralism and interfaith cooperation.

Dumuzi's Dream: Dream Analysis in Ancient Mesopotamia.

Abstract: One of the benefits of exploring the texts of ancient dreams is that this kind of study can show quite clearly the way dream narratives are embedded within the realities of the culture in question, much in the same way that we as modern dreamers dream in a style influenced by our culture. This point is not always clearly acknowledged by psychological and neurological dream researchers, who at times describe dreams as if they belonged solely to the dreamer’s consciousness, independent of influences beyond their personal experiences, or represent that they derive from the physical structures of the brain’s architecture. The influence of cultural conditioning should not be overlooked in dream interpretation, no matter what the time and place of the dream may be. As well, through a study of dream texts we can obtain glimpses of earlier methods of dream interpretation, which were also necessarily situated within a cultural context different from our own. In some cases these are only implicit in the texts, whereas in others the methodology is laid out for us to examine in detail. And sometimes the contemplation of an ancient dream can bring a frisson of recognition across the millennia, especially when the culture in question is closely related to our own. The Sumerians were the first people in the world to create an urban civilization, economically based on a vast surplus of wheat and barley grown in the fertile floodplains of the Tigris and Euphrates valleys in what is today southern Iraq. Their population grew quickly from small towns to city-states and eventually to larger political units. As the volume of surplus goods increased, the need for inventorying them and identifying their ownership

Citizen Participation in Local Politics: Evidence from New England Town Meetings

Abstract: Given the well-documented decline in voter turnout and other forms of citizen engagement, spurring greater citizen participation remains crucial to the future of American democracy (Berry, Portney, and Thomson 1993). At the state and national level, innovations such as motorvoter registration, early voting, and mail-in ballots are receiving significant attention as methods of increasing electoral participation. At the local level, Berry, Portney, and Thomson (1993, 3) suggest that one method of encouraging more direct citizen participation is “building communities where neighbors talk to each other about politics.” They reason that in face-to-face meetings, citizens can truly begin to understand each other and search for solutions to community issues (see also Putnam 2000). These face-to-face meetings form the backbone of the New England town meeting government in which registered voters attend public meetings to debate and vote on a variety of policy, administrative, and budgetary issues. Town meetings require a high level of effort (many town meetings last several hours or several evenings) and interaction. Citizens who engage in such meetings consciously choose to spend time working to solve problems and administer community affairs. The commitment is quite different from engagement in other forms of direct democracy, such as the initiative and referenda. While these procedures allow citizens in many local governments direct access to government through the ballot box, they require less time and effort and do not offer the opportunity to engage other community members in policy discussions. The interaction between citizens involved in the town meeting can be used to generate the type of “social capital” that is argued to be in such decline in American political and social life. By social capital, Coleman (1990), Putnam (2000), and others refer to the networks, norms, and trust that enable people to act together to achieve common goals. Town meetings offer citizens the opportunity to come together with others and participate in a community’s political affairs. If democratic participation can be stimulated by direct citizen interaction, communities in which town meetings are held should cerCitizen Participation in Local Politics: Evidence from New England Town Meetings

The formative capacity of momentous events and leadership development

Abstract: Purpose – The primary purpose of this paper is to explore how momentous events may contribute to leadership development. A second purpose is to show how the formative attributes of momentous events are linked to leader traits needed for effective leadership.Design/methodology/approach – The leadership tripod is used as the relational framework for exploring the formative capacity of momentous events. The formative capacity of momentous events, however, is realized through the personal memories of those events, that is, through autobiographical memory. Autobiographical memory, then, will provide an additional more rudimentary framework for exploring momentous events; within this framework, the momentous event will be dissected in order to identify its basic attributes, to explore how these attributes affect the leadership structure, and to show how changes to the leadership structure develop leaders.Findings – Attributes and formative mechanisms of momentous events were identified, as were leader traits ne...