Introduction: Suicide and depression continue to be pervasive problems across military populations, including within the National Guard. Existing literature highlights the protective effects of social support and unit cohesion for both suicide risk and depression, yet to our knowledge, these associations have never been confirmed in National Guard populations. Thus, the aim of this study was to investigate the impacts of social support resources (i.e., general social support and unit cohesion) on depression and suicide risk among a large sample (n = 877) of National Guard service members. Methods: Multilevel modeling was used to examine the impact of social support resources on depression and suicide ideation at both the individual and unit level. Results: Results indicated that higher levels of perceived social support were associated with lower levels of depression and suicide ideation at both the individual and unit levels. Additionally, higher levels of perceived unit cohesion significantly predicted lower levels of depression and suicide ideation at the individual, but not unit level. Discussion: Limitations include self-report measurement and cross-sectional nature of the data. These findings hold implications for improvement of operational climate within military units and reduction of suicide risk and depressive symptoms among National Guard service members.
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to determine the influence that newspaper, blog and social media sources of information about a play have on respondents’ willingness to purchase a ticket to a theatrical production.
Design/methodology/approach
Respondents saw two advertisements and one review for theatrical productions. The authors randomly varied the version of each advertisement and review so that information regarding the production appeared to originate from a newspaper, blog or social media site. The authors asked respondents to rate the professionalism of the review and advertisements and how likely they were to purchase a ticket. The authors also collected demographic information.
Findings
The authors found that newspapers, blogs and social media had similar influence on respondents’ willingness to purchase a ticket. Respondents also viewed the blog-based play review as being as professional as the review from a newspaper. However, respondents were more likely to say they would purchase a ticket to a well-known play than a new play. Female respondents were more willing to purchase a play ticket.
Research limitations/implications
Implications for marketers include the usefulness of non-traditional media (e.g. blogs, social media) in promoting a play – especially for new plays. Theater critics will find that their opinions are equally influential, regardless of whether the medium of publication is traditional (e.g. a newspaper) or digital (e.g. a blog). Principal limitations are the artificiality of a true experiment and an overly simplistic pricing method in the study.
Practical implications
Professionals selling tickets to theatrical productions should use favorable quotes and responses from social media and blogs when marketing tickets because audience members trust that these sources of information as much as newspapers. Internet-based theater critics should appreciate that they are perceived as being as reputable as newspaper-based critics.
Originality/value
Research on theater advertising is extremely limited (especially outside of Broadway), as are studies on the influence of theater critics. The study adds to this meager body of research and provides needed practical guidance to theater marketers.
Despite increases in fiscal and human resources dedicated to support college student service-members and veterans (CSSV), retention rates remain low with a little over half of this population completing a postsecondary degree. This low retention rate is often attributed to emotional and psychological difficulties associated with transitioning from the stress of military and combat-related environments to civilian life. The current study investigated potential factors related to the academic performance of 412 CSSV. Investigators examined structural models to test hypothesized relationships of independent variables consisting of emotion regulation strategies; college selfefficacy (CSE); regulatory emotional self-efficacy (RESE); and PTSD symptom severity as predictors for self-reported cumulative grade point average (GPA). Consistent with the study hypotheses, path analyses of three structural models demonstrated the influence emotion regulation strategies have on academic outcomes and PTSD symptom severity. Additional mediation models demonstrated cognitive reappraisal, college self-efficacy and regulatory emotional self-efficacy as having direct paths significantly predicting GPA and PTSD severity. Structural models did not produce significant mediation between emotion regulation strategies and GPA. However, both college self-efficacy and regulatory emotional self-efficacy partially mediated cognitive reappraisal and PTSD symptom severity. Implications and specific recommendations for promoting and maximizing the academic success of CSSV are discussed.
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