Recent ucdsoc items

Measuring the spatial scale of structural racism and discrimination: Consequences for estimated life expectancy

Thu, 26 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

OBJECTIVES: Understanding the role of structural racism and discrimination is crucial for understanding persistent social disparities across many domains, but a key concern remains: how does it operate at different spatial scales, and does that affect how it should be measured? We explore both empirical and theoretical differences between structural racism measures at meso and macro scales in the United States. We construct two different measures of structural racism at the meso-level (that is, neighborhoods), one capturing absolute measures of neighborhood blight, the other relative indicators of Black-White inequality. We test four different scales of these meso-level measures, each defined by a buffer centered on a block with four different radii. We simultaneously measure relative racial inequality at the macro level (that is, the county). METHODS: We compared the relationship between structural racism measures on life expectancy at varying meso-scales. The structural racism...

Managing interdependence: American foreign policy and the political origins of globalization

Wed, 25 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

This paper presents an explanation for globalization centred around a relatively-novel area of inquiry in the study of the phenomenon: American foreign policy. We trace the transformation in how American foreign policy makers approached globalization from the late 1960s to the early 1990s; from a multilateral strategy called ‘Trilateralism’ in the 1970s, to a strategy called ‘Enlargement’ in the early 1990s, based around American dominance. Where proponents of Trilateralism sought to build a global political-economic architecture to govern markets, proponents of Enlargement supported economic liberalization as a means of fostering democratization. We show that, rather than being purely a story of market liberalization, globalization was in large part a product of this shift in American foreign policy. This argument has implications for the contemporary political backlash to globalization, which we argue represents the continued rejection of multilateralism in American foreign policy.

Competing Models of Disability: Medicalization’s Ambivalent Effects on the Paralympic Movement

Wed, 11 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Disability is predominantly understood as a medical problem. Since the 1980s, disability scholars have critiqued the medicalization of disability to illuminate disability’s social and political dimensions. Building on this tradition, the present article analyzes the Paralympic movement to call sociological attention to how medicalization affects disabled social movements, cultural production, and cultural practices. The author draws from interviews with Paralympic athletes and coaches alongside primary historical sources to identify and evaluate medicalization’s effects on the Paralympic movement. Findings show that medicalization both enabled and constrained the Paralympic movement. The medicalization of spinal cord injuries developed lifesaving treatments and mobilized disability sport as rehabilitative treatment to mold patients into healthy, productive “taxpayers.” Framing disability sport as rehabilitation catalyzed the medicalization of the Paralympic movement, as the medical...

Cultural integration of invasive species

Wed, 3 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Many invasive non-native species gradually become embedded within local cultures. Such species can increasingly be perceived by society as familiar or even native elements of the social-ecological system and become an integral part of local cultures. Here, we explore this phenomenon and refer to it as the cultural integration of invasive species. Although culturally integrated species can positively contribute to people’s lives and well-being, and provide new or lost ecosystem services, their acceptance can also hinder the ability of conservation managers to successfully manage invasive species by reducing public support for their management. Cultural integration can infringe upon social values and cultural identities, and contribute to the erosion and homogenization of biocultural diversity. It can also modify or displace the cultural uses and values of native species, and may disrupt social-ecological legacies and dynamics. We present the main mechanisms of cultural integration,...

Security, Surveillance, Segregation, and Suspensions: The Context of Race Disparities in School Discipline

Thu, 20 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000

We examine three axes of racial stratification in contemporary US schooling: segregation, exclusionary discipline, and on-campus policing. Analyzing nationwide survey and administrative data from the US Department of Education linked with crime data from the FBI, we estimate associations among schools’ student ethnoracial compositions, on-campus presence of law enforcement officers and private security guards, use of surveillance and control tactics, and number of suspensions issued. Schools’ concentrations of Latinx and Black students are positively associated with their use of surveillance and social control practices and odds of employing sworn law enforcement officers and security guards. Moreover, higher shares of Black students are associated with greater use of exclusionary discipline. In models including statistical adjustment for local crime incidence, the estimated association between Black student enrollment and student suspension rates is substantially attenuated following...

Bad Apples or Bad Orchards? An Organizational Analysis of Educator Cheating on Standardized Accountability Tests

Thu, 20 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Using an explanatory sequential mixed-methods design, we analyze quantitative administrative and survey data and qualitative archival data to examine the organizational character of standardized test cheating among educators in Georgia elementary schools. Applying a theoretical typology that identifies distinct forms of rule breaking in bureaucratic organizations, we find that teacher-focused, individual-level explanations for cheating are inadequate, particularly in the context of large-scale cheating outbreaks. Our findings suggest cheating scandals tend to arise when rule-breaking decisions shift toward higher levels of the educational bureaucracy, and school and district leaders enact multiple strategies to motivate coordinated cheating efforts among lower-level educators. In these scenarios, a “bad apples” explanation focused on rogue teachers fails to account for the systematic organizational underpinnings of standardized test cheating. We describe the institutional and...

The well-being of Afghan refugees in Türkiye within liminal legality

Sun, 9 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Drawing on forty-five interviews, this study contributes to discussions on refugee well-being and liminal legality by exploring how international protection status (IPS), a liminal legal status, shapes the well-being of Afghan refugees in Türkiye. IPS provides work authorisation and access to social services but restricts refugees' spatial settlement to Turkish satellite provinces, introducing spatial immobility. I employ the concept of ‘spatial liminal legality’ to analyse how the well-being of undocumented Afghan refugees in Istanbul and Afghan refugees with IPS in Trabzon varies in terms of economic integration, social integration, and future plans. As a spatialised liminal legality, the IPS work permit does not alleviate economic precarity for Afghan refugees who find employment in the labour market. The IPS independent work permits mitigate economic precarity for those establishing businesses, primarily small local shops in Trabzon. IPS is key to accessing education and bolsters...

Chinese Marriages in Transition: From Patriarchy to New Familism Xiaoling Shu and Jingjing Chen. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press. 218 pp. $28.95 (pbk). ISBN 9781978804661

Mon, 21 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Chinese Marriages in Transition: From Patriarchy to New Familism Xiaoling Shu and Jingjing Chen. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press. 218 pp. $28.95 (pbk). ISBN 9781978804661

Mind the Gap: Gender, Racial, and Educational Differences in American Gender Attitudes from 1977 to 2018

Mon, 21 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Despite dramatic changes since the 1970s, gender and educational gaps in gender egalitarian attitudes have persisted while the racial gap (with Blacks leading) has narrowed. We apply interest-based and socialization mechanisms to predict the differential influences of labor market influences on changing gender attitudes for different races, genders, and educational groups. Using 21 waves of the General Social Survey, 1977–2018 (N = 27,662), and cross-classified age-period-cohort models, we examine the effects of two known labor market dynamics that shifted Americans’ gender attitudes, gender equality in the labor force and men’s overwork, on egalitarian gender attitudes among different racial, gender, and educational groups. The findings indicate that rising labor force gender equality is associated with stronger shifts toward gender egalitarianism among whites, bringing their attitudes more in line with Blacks and closing the racial gap. The rise of men’s overwork in the mid-1990s...

Political Bridging and Struggles in Puerto Rican/Latino Solidarity Politics in Orlando

Wed, 16 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000

This paper examines how a politics of solidarity is forged between Puerto Ricans and Latinos in Orlando metro. To do so, it focuses on how Puerto Ricans in Orlando think about immigration rights and how Puerto Ricans negotiate the issue of immigration with issues affecting Puerto Ricans. To conduct the analysis, I draw on in-depth interviews and participant observations I conducted in Orlando metro during the 2016 election cycle. I find a politics of solidarity between Puerto Ricans and Latinos in Orlando metro is cultivated and challenged at various levels: by Latino political elites, organizations and funders, and individual views on immigration. I contend these findings capture the complexity of forging and enacting a politics of solidarity on-the-ground—that is, they elucidate tensions, negotiations, and cooperation in the bridging of Puerto Rican and Latino politics in a critical region of the state and one that is consequential for national politics.

Beyond the Stalled Gender Revolution: Historical and Cohort Dynamics in Gender Attitudes from 1977 to 2016

Tue, 25 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

It remains unclear to what extent shifts in gender attitudes are products of changes in micro-level characteristics, macro-level social transformations, or net cohort and period transitions. We test these questions on 20 waves of data from the General Social Survey, 1977-2016 (N = 45,125). Compositional change in individual characteristics accounts for almost 78 percent of the cohort variation in gender attitudes, but only 32 percent of the historical transformations. Macro dynamics are responsible for an additional 60 percent of the historical change in gender attitudes. Two structural forces are associated with historical transitions in American gender attitudes: gender equality in the labor force and the rise of men's overwork. Each of these factors accounts for a significant proportion of the period variation in gender attitudes in our analysis, and the rise of men's overwork appears to account for the puzzle of the "stalled revolution" in the 1990s and its "restart" in the...

Newborn weight change and predictors of underweight in the neonatal period in Guinea‐Bissau, Nepal, Pakistan and Uganda

Fri, 21 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

In low- and middle-income countries (LMIC), growth impairment is common; however, the trajectory of growth over the course of the first month has not been well characterised. To describe newborn growth trajectory and predictors of growth impairment, we assessed growth frequently over the first 30 days among infants born ≥2000 g in Guinea-Bissau, Nepal, Pakistan and Uganda. In this cohort of 741 infants, the mean birth weight was 3036 ± 424 g. For 721 (98%) infants, weight loss occurred for a median of 2 days (interquartile range, 1-4) following birth until weight nadir was reached 5.9 ± 4.3% below birth weight. At 30 days of age, the mean weight was 3934 ± 592 g. The prevalence of being underweight at 30 days ranged from 5% in Uganda to 31% in Pakistan. Of those underweight at 30 days of age, 56 (59%) had not been low birth weight (LBW), and 48 (50%) had reached weight nadir subsequent to 4 days of age. Male sex (relative risk [RR] 2.73 [1.58, 3.57]), LBW (RR 6.41...

Experiences and attitudes related to newborn feeding in central Uganda: A qualitative study

Fri, 21 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

OBJECTIVE: Adequate infant nutrition is a critical cornerstone of population health, yet adherence to recommended breastfeeding practices is low in many countries in sub-Saharan Africa, including Uganda. This study aims to describe local attitudes, experiences and beliefs related to nutrition in early infancy in Central Uganda. DESIGN: We conducted 5 focus group discussions and 12 key informant interviews to gather information on local attitudes, experiences and beliefs related to feeding in early infancy. SETTING: Urban areas of Central Uganda. PARTICIPANTS: Parents and healthcare and public health professionals. RESULTS: Participants reported numerous concerns related to infant health including inadequate infant weight, premature birth, diarrhea, fever, gastrointestinal infection and malnutrition. Awareness of the infant health benefits of exclusive breastfeeding was prevalent but experienced as in balance with maternal factors that might lead to supplementation, including employment...

Unequal but widespread despairs: Social inequalities and self-rated health trends in the United States in 1972–2018

Wed, 12 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

SIGNIFICANCE: Past studies show rising mortality and morbidity among middle-aged white Americans since the 21st century. This research analyses trends in declining self-rated health (SRH) across demographic groups, focusing on shifts in SRH inequalities by gender, race, and socioeconomic status (SES). It sheds light on declining health trends in the United States and deepens our understanding of health inequalities and their dynamics in high-income countries. METHOD: We analyse 29 waves of cross-sectional data from the General Social Survey (1972-2018, N = 46,133) using Bayesian Hierarchical Age-Period-Cohort Cross-Classified Random Effect models (BHAPC-CCRM) to estimate age, period, and cohort effects, and changes in health gaps over time as interactions between period and race, gender, or SES. RESULTS: SRH improved until the 21st century but then declined across all gender, race, income, education, and employment groups after controlling for age and cohort effects....

How Do Adolescent and Young Adult Patients with Cancer Manage Their Chemotherapy-Related Symptoms at Home?

Wed, 11 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Chemotherapy can cause many distressing side effects, potentially impacting treatment completion and quality of life in adolescent and young adult (AYA) patients with cancer. To identify ways to help mitigate chemotherapy-related symptoms, we sought to elicit barriers and facilitators to managing symptoms experienced by AYAs with cancer through interviews. Qualitative thematic analysis identified three main domains: (1) managing chemotherapy symptoms (e.g., medication, home remedies), (2) anticipating and mitigating symptoms (e.g., management of symptoms at home, anticipatory guidance), and (3) knowing when to seek care (e.g., unexpected and unusual symptoms). This study elucidated that AYAs can successfully manage symptoms at home when given the proper guidance and this could be a focus of future efforts to improve outcomes in this population. The Clinical Trial Registration number is NCT04594096.

Promoting Mental and Physical Health of Vietnamese Immigrants Through a Cultural Movement Intervention

Wed, 27 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0000

OBJECTIVES: Older Vietnamese adults are among the most underserved groups in the United States, despite being at high risk for stress and other negative experiences (e.g., access to same-language practitioners, transportation barriers, lack of health care). Minimal progress has been made in decreasing treatment barriers for this underserved population. One promising approach involves using indigenous, culturally based interventions to enhance psychological and physical well-being. Such interventions may reduce utilization and quality of care disparities because they emphasize a more holistic approach to health, thereby limiting the shame and face loss often experienced due to the stigma associated with mental illness. The present study examined the efficacy of lishi, a traditional East Asian movement form of exercise, in promoting mental and physical health outcomes for older Vietnamese immigrant adults. METHOD: Seventy-one older Vietnamese adults participated in this randomized...

Health-Related Quality of Life After Lobectomy for Lung Cancer: Conceptual Framework and Measurement

Tue, 20 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0000

BACKGROUND: Lung cancer surgery has a significant impact on health-related quality of life (HRQOL). In prior studies of HRQOL after lung cancer surgery, researchers selected the HRQOL domains of interest. To increase the patient-centeredness of these studies, we conducted a qualitative study to ascertain which aspects of HRQOL are most relevant to them postoperatively and to identify Patient-Reported Outcome Measurement Information System measures most germane to patients undergoing lobectomy for lung cancer. METHODS: We conducted in-depth semistructured interviews with 25 patients after lobectomy for lung cancer to solicit input regarding the physical, social, and emotional HRQOL domains relevant after surgery. Interviews were transcribed verbatim, and a thematic content analysis to identify HRQOL themes was performed. Themes were integrated to create a conceptual framework to guide outcome measurement selection. RESULTS: Qualitative analysis indicated that within the physical...

New Familism Changing Gender, Family, Marriage, and Sexual Values

Fri, 2 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0000

New Familism Changing Gender, Family, Marriage, and Sexual Values

Drops of inclusivity: Racial formations and meanings in Puerto Rican society, 1989-1965

Tue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Drops of inclusivity: Racial formations and meanings in Puerto Rican society, 1989-1965

Race and the Empire-state: Puerto Ricans’ Unequal U.S. Citizenship

Tue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Contemporary theorizing regarding citizenship emphasizes the legal and social significance of citizenship status. Citizenship awards individuals a formal status and exclusive rights while also granting them membership into a national community. This study investigates tenets of liberal citizenship by examining the meaning of U.S. citizenship for Puerto Ricans. Drawing on 98 in-depth interviews with Puerto Ricans in Orlando, Florida, this study finds incongruences between theoretical understandings of citizenship and the experience of citizenship on the ground. Specifically, respondents define U.S. citizenship as a formal status and a set of rights; however, they express that their U.S. citizen status does not grant them membership into the American community. This study captures incompatibilities between legal and social dimensions of citizenship. I argue Puerto Ricans’ understandings of and experiences with U.S. citizenship stem from (1) the state’s marking Puerto Rico (as a...

¡Puerto Rico Se Levanta!: Hurricane María and Narratives of Struggle, Resilience, and Migration.

Tue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Hurricane Maria, a Category 4 storm, ravaged Puerto Rico on September 20, 2017. All regions of the island were affected, given Maria’s trajectory and magnitude. The storm flooded island communities, thousands of houses endured structural damage or were completely destroyed, and the storm devastated the island’s infrastructure. Island residents lacked access to public services and everyday essentials for months, including food, potable water, and adequate medical services. Florida has become Puerto Ricans’ primary mainland destination in recent decades, and the state has attracted the largest proportion of Hurricane Maria evacuees. This study draws on resiliency and migration models to analyze the experiences of Puerto Ricans displaced by Hurricane Maria. Data for this research come from 17 in-depth interviews and observations conducted in the Orlando metropolitan area from December 2017 through January 2018. The research examines how respondents and their families experienced...

Second-generation Central Americans and the formation of an ethnoracial identity in Los Angeles

Tue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Second-generation Central Americans and the formation of an ethnoracial identity in Los Angeles

Sunbelt Diaspora: Race, Class, and Latino Politics in Puerto Rican Orlando

Tue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Sunbelt Diaspora: Race, Class, and Latino Politics in Puerto Rican Orlando

“He begins by targeting Mexicans and he will end with Puerto Ricans”: unpacking Florida Puerto Ricans’ politics of immigration

Wed, 15 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000

“He begins by targeting Mexicans and he will end with Puerto Ricans”: unpacking Florida Puerto Ricans’ politics of immigration

Advancing Research To Address The Health Impacts Of Structural Racism In US Immigration Prisons

Fri, 5 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0000

The US is the world leader in imprisoning immigrants. Its mass immigration detention system emerged as an extension of mass incarceration, rooted in a legacy of racist US immigration and criminal laws. Immigration policy is a structural determinant of health that negatively affects the health of imprisoned immigrants, their families, and their communities. The systemic harms of "detention facilities," which we refer to as "immigration prisons," have been extensively documented, yet incrementalist reforms have failed to result in improved outcomes for immigrants. We argue that ending the practice of immigrant imprisonment is the most effective solution to mitigating its harms. Community-based programs are safer and less expensive than imprisonment, while also being effective at ensuring compliance with government requirements. We identify several priorities for researchers and policy makers to tackle the health inequities resulting from this structurally racist system. These include...

COVID-19’s Unequal Toll: Differences in Health-Related Quality of Life by Gendered and Racialized Groups

Fri, 15 Mar 2024 00:00:00 +0000

We examine whether the COVID-19 pandemic was associated with changes to daily activity limitations due to poor physical or mental health and whether those changes were different within and between gendered and racialized groups. We analyze 497,302 observations across the 2019 and 2020 waves of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System survey. Among White men and women, the COVID-19 pandemic was associated with fewer days of health-related activity limitations and decreased frequent activity limitation (≥14 days in the past month) compared to the prepandemic period. By contrast, Latina and Black women experienced increased days of activity limitation and greater likelihood of frequent activity limitation, and these changes were significantly different than for White women. These findings are robust to the inclusion of structural inequality measures and demonstrate how systemic racism and sexism likely exacerbate a myriad of pandemic-related...

Well-Being, Changes to Academic Behavior, and Resilience Among Families Experiencing Parental Immigration Imprisonment

Wed, 17 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0000

While the deleterious impacts of parental incarceration are well documented, we know less about the experiences of children with parents imprisoned by immigration authorities. We draw from 62 multigenerational and multiperspective interviews conducted in California with school-age children experiencing parental immigration imprisonment (PII), and their nondetained caregivers. We find that children experiencing PII report feelings and behaviors suggestive of significant psychological distress, which leads to changes in engagement and behavior at school. While some children access academic support and counseling, often following advocacy from nondetained parents or interventions by teachers, others do not receive such support. Many children conceal their family’s situation and withdraw from school-based programs—alarmingly, the very same structures that could support them through PII. These behaviors are rooted in compounded vulnerability, that is, children’s overlapping experiences...

Gender disparities in the education gradient in self-reported health across birth cohorts in China

Wed, 16 Aug 2023 00:00:00 +0000

BackgroundVariation in the relationship between education and health has been studied intensely over the past few decades. Although there is research on gender disparity and cohort variations in educational effect on health using samples from the U.S. and Europe, research about China’s is limited. Given the specific social changes in China, our study is designed to analyze the gender and cohort patterns in the education-health gradient.MethodThe latent growth-curve modeling was used to analyze the gender and cohort variations in the education gradient in self-rated health among Chinese respondents. The study employed longitudinal and nationally representative data from the Chinese Family Panel Studies from the years 2010 to 2016. Each cohort is specified according to their distinct periods of social change in China. Following the analysis, we used latent growth-curve model to illustrate gender and cohort differences in the age-graded education and health trajectories.ResultsAlthough...

Lonely in a Crowd: Cohort Size and Happiness in the United Kingdom

Wed, 9 Aug 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Studies have shown that happiness level varies significantly across birth cohorts and baby boomers are the unhappiest of all birth cohorts. Yet, we don’t know if this is due to their large cohort size negatively affecting happiness. We question whether people born in high fertility times are unhappy because they suffer more from economic setbacks and/or social strains. Using 9 waves of data from the European Social Survey United Kingdom Subset 2002–2018 (N = 19,364) and hierarchical age-period-cohort cross-classified models, we analyze the effects of cohort size, socioeconomic status, marital status, and sociality on happiness. Cohort size, marital status, and sociality are the top three factors of cohort difference in happiness, but socioeconomic status is not. Cohort size is negatively associated with happiness. Income, education, or employment are not the source of unhappiness among the Boomers. Besides being members of a large cohort, the Boomers have two known factors...

Knowledge Discovery: Methods from data mining and machine learning

Wed, 9 Aug 2023 00:00:00 +0000

The interdisciplinary field of knowledge discovery and data mining emerged from a necessity of big data requiring new analytical methods beyond the traditional statistical approaches to discover new knowledge from the data mine. This emergent approach is a dialectic research process that is both deductive and inductive. The data mining approach automatically or semi-automatically considers a larger number of joint, interactive, and independent predictors to address causal heterogeneity and improve prediction. Instead of challenging the conventional model-building approach, it plays an important complementary role in improving model goodness of fit, revealing valid and significant hidden patterns in data, identifying nonlinear and non-additive effects, providing insights into data developments, methods, and theory, and enriching scientific discovery. Machine learning builds models and algorithms by learning and improving from data when the explicit model structure is unclear and...

Mothers and Fathers Matter: The Influence of Parental Support, Hostility, and Problem Solving on Adolescent Friendships

Wed, 9 Aug 2023 00:00:00 +0000

We examine the pathways by which parents influence adolescents’ close friendships, focusing on three types of behavioral styles: hostile, warm, and problem solving. Structural equation models are estimated using data at two time points from the Iowa Youth and Families Project (N = 227 friendship pairs). Results suggest that the lives of adolescents and both their mother and father are inexorably linked. Observed interactions with a close friend at Time 2 reveal teens recreate their parents’ original hostile, supportive, and problem-solving styles from Time 1. This outcome depends on (a) type of behavior and (b) gender. Mothers’ supportive behavior, fathers’ problem solving, and both parents’ hostile behavior significantly influence adolescents’ comparable interaction styles. Adolescents’ subsequent behavior toward their friend significantly affects friendship quality. Lower levels of hostile behavior in female youth, increased problem solving by males, and supportive actions toward...

Changing times and subjective well-being in urban China 2003–2013: An age-period-cohort approach

Wed, 9 Aug 2023 00:00:00 +0000

This paper analyzes the intersection of individual lives and historical context by examining how cohort membership, historical conditions, and individual maturation influence subjective well-being in urban China. We use cross-classified multilevel models and repeated measures of happiness from seven waves of the Chinese General Social Survey (CGSS 2003–2013, N = 43,308). The results indicate that individuals born between 1956 and 1961 experienced setbacks at various pivotal moments throughout their life, including education, employment, economic stability, and social connections, and this cohort reports a lower overall sense of happiness when compared to other cohorts. The effect of aging on happiness comprises a U-shaped pattern; the middle-aged are the least happy. We observe an upward trend in happiness from 2003 to 2013. These results are confirmed by using subjective socioeconomic status (SES) as an alternative measure of well-being from CGSS 2003 and CGSS 2005 (N = 11,992)....

The Role of Social Position Within Peer Groups in Distress-Motivated Smoking Among Adolescents.

Sat, 1 Jul 2023 00:00:00 +0000

OBJECTIVE: The relationship between smoking and adolescents' peer relationships is complex, with studies showing increased risk of smoking for adolescents of both very high and very low social position. A key question is whether the impact of social position on smoking depends on an adolescent's level of coping motives (i.e., their desire to use smoking to mitigate negative affect). METHOD: We assessed how social position predicts nicotine dependence in a longitudinal sample (N = 3,717; 44.8% male; mean age = 13.41 years) of adolescent lifetime smokers measured between 6th and 12th grades. Using both social network analysis and multilevel modeling, we assessed this question at the between-person and within-person level, hypothesizing that within-person decreases in social position would lead to increased risk of nicotine dependence among those with high levels of coping motives. RESULTS: In contrast to our hypotheses, only interactions with the between-person measures of...

COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy and intent in California registered nurses

Fri, 30 Jun 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Despite a national vaccination effort prioritizing frontline healthcare workers, COVID-19 vaccination rates among nurses have been lower than necessary to protect workforce and patient health. Historically, nurses have been more vaccine hesitant than other healthcare workers. To assess the vaccine attitudes and COVID-19 vaccine intent of California's registered nurses, we conducted a statewide cross-sectional survey among 603 licensed RNs working in direct patient care. Of 167 respondents (27.7%), 111 met inclusion criteria. Their mean score of 3.01 on a 6-point rating scale on the Vaccine Attitudes Examination scale measuring general vaccine hesitancy was comparable to previous findings among U.S. West Coast adults. Greater vaccine hesitancy was significantly associated with lower COVID-19 vaccine intent, after controlling for relevant confounders. Since nurses make up the largest portion of the healthcare workforce, it is crucial to specifically address this group's vaccine...

The “Societalization” of pandemic unpreparedness: lessons from Taiwan’s COVID response

Tue, 13 Jun 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Adopting a Civil Sphere Theory framework, we argue that Taiwan’s efforts at containing COVID-19 resulted from its “societalization” of pandemic unpreparedness, which was triggered by the 2003 SARS outbreak and resumed during the COVID-19 pandemic. Societalization refers to the process through which institutional failures are transformed into societal crises, with the civil sphere mobilized to discuss institutional dysfunctions, push for reforms, and attempt to democratize or otherwise transform institutional cultures. The societalization of pandemic unpreparedness in Taiwan led to reforms of the public health administration and the medical profession, thereby establishing state mechanisms for encouraging early responses and coordinating centralized command during outbreaks, and healthcare infrastructures for coordinating patient transfer and ensuring supplies of personal protective equipment. Reflections upon past uncivil acts among citizens motivated the civil sphere to foster...

Understanding US Immigration Detention: Reaffirming Rights and Addressing Social-Structural Determinants of Health.

Sat, 10 Jun 2023 00:00:00 +0000

A crisis of mass immigration detention exists in the United States, which is home to the world's largest immigration detention system. The immigration detention system is legally classified as civil, rather than criminal, and therefore non-punitive. Yet it mimics the criminal incarceration system and holds detained individuals in punitive, prison-like conditions. Within immigration detention centers, there are increasing reports and recognition of civil and human rights abuses, including preventable in-custody deaths. In this paper, we propose understanding the health impacts of detention as an accumulation of mental and physical trauma that take place during the entirety of a detained immigrant's experience, from migration to potential deportation and removal. Further, we explore the social-structural determinants of health as they relate to immigration detention, contextualize these determinants within a human rights framework, and draw parallels to the larger context of US...

The Migration of Children from Mexico to the USA in the Early 2000s

Fri, 9 Jun 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Children comprise a significant share of immigrants around the world, yet scholarship has largely treated children as adult-like or adult-following actors in migration. We explore how the early life course and parents’ migration structured children’s migration from Mexico to the USA from 2002 to 2005, using the Mexican Family Life Survey, national survey data from Mexico that tracked 854 migrants, including 375 children, to the USA. We find that while parents’ migration decisions matter at all ages, young children who migrate are nearly always accompanied by their parents, whereas the minority of adolescents are. Primary school-aged children and accompanied adolescents migrate in response to community violence and barriers to education, suggesting that their migration reflects concerns about where it is best to raise children. Adolescents who migrate without their parents do so in response to economic factors, much like adults; however, adolescents also respond to youth community...

“I know best:” women caring for kin with dementia

Fri, 9 Jun 2023 00:00:00 +0000

The dementia care literature in the home is vast, particularly in the health sciences where the focus remains on intervention to address carer emotional distress and burden. The sociological literature on dementia care has primarily utilized the illness disruption and (bio)medicalization models to show how meaning and practices are negotiated in the non-expert setting. Instead, I apply a feminist labor process perspective to examine the question of why women dementia kin carers resist relinquishing care responsibilities to others. This qualitative grounded theory study is based on seven waves of interviews (total = 98) conducted over approximately five years with 15 Latina dementia kin carers recruited through clinic and community sites in Northern California. Findings show how Latina kin carers exercise a degree of control and autonomy over the care process because they have developed tacit knowledge and skills to craft quality care of kin. In facing the dilemma of...

Migration and Mental Health in Mexico: Domestic Migrants, Return U.S. Migrants, and Non-Migrants

Thu, 8 Jun 2023 00:00:00 +0000

In this paper, we use survey data from the Mexican Retrospective Demographic Survey (Encuesta Demográfica Retrospectiva) and National Survey of Households (Encuesta Nacional de Hogares) collected in 2017 to examine self-reports of depression, anxiety, chronic fatigue, and pain among domestic migrants, returned U.S. migrants, and non-migrants. Although self-reports do not always correspond to clinical diagnoses, they offer some insight into mental health, especially for those without a diagnosis because of limited access to services or stigma. Regression results reveal that domestic migrants, e.g., those who moved within Mexico, reported more anxiety, chronic fatigue, and pain, but risks for U.S. migrants were comparable to non-migrants, controlling for other characteristics. Findings from the decomposition analysis helps explain these findings. While domestic migrant vs. non-migrant differences result both from different migrant demographic attributes, such as age and gender,...

Gender Differences in the Early Career Outcomes of College Graduates: The Influence of Sex-Type of Degree Field Across Four Cohorts