The elevated risk for non-lethal post-separation violence in Canada: a comparison of separated, divorced, and married women

The purpose of the study was to shed light on the potentially differing dynamics of violence against separated and divorced women by their ex-husbands and violence against married women by their current husbands. Using a nationally representative sample of 7,369 heterosexual women from Cycle 13 of Statistics Canada's General Social Survey, available risk markers were examined in the context of a nested ecological framework. Separated women reported nine times the prevalence of violence and divorced women reported about four times the prevalence of violence compared with married women. The strongest predictors of violence against married women, namely, patriarchal domination, sexual jealousy, and possessiveness, were not significant predictors of violence against separated and divorced women. This suggested that post-separation violence is a complex phenomenon the dynamics of which can be affected by much more than domination and ownership.     

Conditional impact of facebook as an information source on political opinions: the case of political reform in Hong Kong

This study is interested in the impact of Facebook as a source for political information on public opinion during political controversies. In a society where the mainstream media are under heavy influence by the dominant power and yet Internet communication is largely open and free, social media may become particularly important for the transmission of critical information and viewpoints. The social media information environment may exhibit an overall ‘anti-establishment bias.’ However, the impact of social media should vary across individuals depending on the extent and character of user selectivity. Analysis of data collected during the political reform debate in Hong Kong (N?=?3,246) show that reliance on Facebook as an information source relates negatively to support for the government’s reform proposal. But the relationship is strongest for people without a strong political orientation and people who do not name any newspapers as their main information source. General theoretical implications of the findings are discussed.     

Does anybody notice? How policy positions of coalition parties are perceived by voters

Does governing in coalitions affect how coalition parties’ policy positions are perceived by voters? In this article, the authors seek to understand the relationship between parties’ participation in coalition governments and their perception by voters. Policy positions are an important instrument through which parties compete for the support of voters. However, it is unclear to what extent voters can correctly perceive the positions of parties when they govern together with other coalition partners. It is argued here that because of the blurred lines of responsibility in multiparty cabinets, it is difficult for voters to correctly perceive the positions of coalition parties. What is more, it is expected that the internal functioning of coalition cabinets affects the extent to which coalition parties struggle to get their message out to voters. It is hypothesized in the article that intra‐cabinet conflict is negatively related to misperception. To test their theoretical expectations, the authors combine data on the left‐right policy positions of political parties from the Comparative Manifestos Project with data on how these positions are perceived by voters gathered from the Comparative Study of Electoral Systems from 1996 to 2011. The findings shed light on the relationship between party competition and coalition governments, and its implications for political representation.     

Building Reciprocal Partnerships for Service-Learning: The Experiences of Hong Kong Secondary School Teachers

With the maturation of the service-learning field in recent years, school–community partnerships have emerged as an important area for studying the effectiveness of this type of experiential education. However, the paucity of studies of school–community partnerships indicates that they are only beginning to be understood and thus require further investigation. Drawing upon 5 focus group interviews with 22 secondary school teachers in Hong Kong, this study gives examples of the diversity of service-learning partnerships and provides strategies for developing and maintaining effective partnerships. The research and practice implications of the present findings for promoting reciprocal school–community partnerships are discussed.