Nonverbal communication, which includes proxemics, or the study of an individual's use of space, plays a major role in communication relationships. Culture, gender, and status can all influence one's use of personal space. This study was designed to investigate the physiological effects (heart rate and galvanic skin response) of the invasion of a…

Describing an alternative approach to the delivery of educational services aimed at social work practitioners in rural areas, this article details a Montana educational delivery system that incorporated isolated field experience with opportunities for student interaction and extensive written and phone communication between the educational staff…

This paper explores a little-understood aspect of labor markets, their spatial geography. Using data from New York State, it finds teacher labor markets to be geographically very small. Teachers express preferences to teach close to where they grew up, and, controlling for proximity, they prefer areas with characteristics similar to their…

High speed data services known as broadband have the potential to make rural areas less isolated and improve the rural quality of life, but physical barriers, sparse population density, and few markets present significant obstacles to their deployment in rural areas. Broadband applications such as e-commerce, distance education, and telemedicine…

Basic management of disruptive classroom behavior is a necessary aspect of classroom control. Three basic techniques are planned: ignoring, in which inappropriate behavior is not reinforced; signal interference, in which nonverbal signals on the part of the teacher affect behavior change; and proximity control, in which the teacher's physical…

Investigated social and demographic determinants of frequency of noncustodial father visits with children, amount of noncustodial father-child support, and association between visiting and paying support. Surveyed divorced custodial mothers (N=180). Found more frequent visitation and greater child support among fathers with higher education and…

Studies of college students and citizens of south Florida, United States, students in Shanghai, China, and an international sample of social psychologists show that social influence, measured by the frequency of memorable interactions, is heavily determined by distance. Confirms one principle from Latane's 1981 theory of social impact. (JBJ)

This study examined temporal-geographic patterns among 830 confirmed incidents of child abuse in 31 rural Colorado counties during 1986-90. Findings suggest that a first incident of abuse or neglect serves as a sentinel event, predicting a period of more frequent receipt and substantiation of maltreatment cases by child protection professionals in…

Examined effects of ethnolinguistic differences on social proximity between Cantonese- and Mandarin-speaking Chinese children in a day care center. Found that each group of children was more likely to be in closer proximity to children speaking their own language than to children speaking the other language during free choice floor- and group-time…

Individuals' mental maps of the world are highly misrepresentative of the actual world. Availability in memory partly explains the reasons for this misrepresentation. When asked to place the 50 states in their correct locations, students have difficulty with states not in close proximity to their own because of availability, such that the…

This paper proposes a new analysis of consumption inequality using relational methods, derived from network images of social structure. We combine structural analysis with theoretical concerns in consumer research to propose a relational theory of consumption space, to construct a stratification indicator, and to demonstrate its analytical…

Due to the difficulties inherent in staffing rural schools it is increasingly common for early career teachers (ECTs) to experience school leadership roles. Such opportunities include a range of responsibilities such as establishing school and curriculum direction and providing leadership in pedagogy, assessment, and school-community relations.…

Classroom teachers know that "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure," therefore putting much time and energy into proactive strategies such as appropriate praising of desired behaviors or using proximity and precorrection to encourage behavior suitable for a good learning environment. Teachers also know that even after they use…

A study examined the impact of both gender and college experience on judgments of the importance of its factors that determine liking. Seniors and freshmen completed a survey on friend relationships. Participants provided demographic information about a best friend (i.e., where the friend is now, age, and sex), and rated the importance of…

Research has found that the need for personal space is greater for normal persons who are interacting with stigmatized persons, such as overweight people, and that one who is identified as deviant may be more sensitive to environmental cues and react more strongly to affective stimuli. To investigate the reactions to approach/distance among…