Recent ucm_ssha_socio_oapdeposits items

The public university as a potential just transition hub

Mon, 6 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Abstract: Public universities surrounded by frontline communities create the potential to serve as focal points for just transition strategies to address the climate crisis. University students from environmental justice communities can serve as just transition ambassadors as trusted messengers to facilitate equitable climate solutions and green workforce development. In the context of finite financial resources, state agencies and philanthropic foundations should consider prioritizing investing in units within universities working with disinvested and low-income populations. More specifically, investing in university labor centers offers the greatest likelihood of obtaining desired outcomes. A case study of the University of California, Merced, is presented as a model for designating public universities in regions with high densities of climate-vulnerable groups as hubs for implementing just transition practices.

Trends and Disparities in Mental Health and Suicidality by Sexual Orientation Among East Asian Adolescents in Canada, 1998-2023.

Wed, 8 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Purpose

Sexual minority East Asian adolescents face distinct stressors that negatively impact mental health and increase suicidality risk. This study examines trends in mental health and suicidality among East Asian adolescents in Canada, focusing on changes in sexual orientation-based disparities over time.

Methods

We analyzed data from East Asian adolescents in the British Columbia Adolescent Health Survey (1998-2023) including 13,086 boys and 13,812 girls. Age-adjusted logistic regression analyses, stratified by gender, were used to examine 25-year trends in extreme stress, hopelessness, suicidal ideation, and suicide attempts by sexual orientation (heterosexual, mostly heterosexual, and lesbian, gay, or bisexual [LGB]).

Results

Positive trends among East Asian adolescents included decreased extreme stress among heterosexual boys and girls, hopelessness among heterosexual boys and mostly heterosexual girls, and suicide attempts among heterosexual and LGB...

Parental education disparities in childhood vaccination in Denmark: A test of two explanations for the role of misinformation

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

How does misinformation contribute to socioeconomic disparities in childhood vaccine uptake? While prior research has extensively examined the determinants of vaccination at the population-level, less attention has been paid to the mechanisms generating disparities across socioeconomic status (SES) groups. A fundamental cause theory perspective suggests that vaccination disparities driven by misinformation are due to unequal access to resources that enable higher-SES parents to avoid the influence of such misinformation. By contrast, a neoliberal cultural frames of parenting perspective suggests that higher-SES parents, in trying to avoid risks for their child, would be more receptive to inaccurate claims that arise outside the mainstream medical and scientific community. We test hypotheses from these two perspectives using 22 birth cohorts of Danish national health registry data (1990-2011) analyzing uptake of children's first dose of the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine (MMR1)...

Unmasking survey fraud: investigating data quality issues in an MTurk sample

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

Social scientists increasingly rely on Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk) for survey participant recruitment, but emerging research suggests a decline in data quality, raising concerns about its reliability. In November 2023, a sample of 221 U.S. MTurk workers was recruited for a survey experiment examining the impact of affordable housing rhetoric on self-esteem. Despite implementing several best practices for recruitment on MTurk – such as system qualifications, screening questions, and virtual private server/network detection – we found that an estimated 65–84% of the workers seeking compensation submitted fraudulent survey responses. This study details five strategies we used to identify fraudulent data: survey re-entry, duplicate demographic data, similar open-ended responses, nonsensical open-ended responses, and repeated geographic coordinates. Our findings reveal critical shortcomings in current MTurk best practices and suggest that, without additional third-party fraud prevention...

The Role of Capacity-Building Organizations and Environmental Threat in Addressing Air Quality in Highly Polluted Regions

Fri, 30 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Involving residents in meaningful participation in heavily polluted regions faces many obstacles. This study focuses on the conditions that enhance individual involvement in civic initiatives against environmental hazards in one of the largest cities in the United States, facing chronic and heightened air pollution exposure. The work is based on a large-scale representative survey of 1950 residents in Fresno, California. The survey was carried out by a multiracial coalition of community-based organizations. The findings suggest that those individuals with ties to capacity-building organizations and with civic engagement experience were the most willing to attend local meetings about air pollution. In addition, days with higher levels of air pollution also acted as an environmental threat, motivating civic action. The study suggests that increasing public participation in pollution mitigation begins with investing in the types of civic organizations that specialize in capacity...

The Glocal Foundations of Threat-Driven Labor Resistance to Authoritarian Capitalism

Wed, 13 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The Glocal Foundations of Threat-Driven Labor Resistance to Authoritarian Capitalism

Digitalised higher education: key developments, questions, and concerns

Wed, 26 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Digitalised higher education: key developments, questions, and concerns

Student Debt Cancellation on Campus

Wed, 26 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Student Debt Cancellation on Campus

Elite embeddedness: the rise of financiers on university boards as parallel social organizations

Wed, 26 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Abstract: We develop a theory of elite embeddedness in which social organizations parallel to the economy can provide advantages via private information and reciprocity from other elites. The growing representation of private equity and hedge fund managers on university boards of trustees is analyzed to show how this increasingly wealthy sub-group of financiers gained elite social ties despite the decline of bank-based interlocks between corporate boards. We find evidence that financiers secured trustee positions both because of their high rates of elite degree holding and their attraction to trustee appointments at the most selective schools. We also find that private equity firms attained higher investment returns when their general partners held more trustee positions. The results suggest that benefits accrue to elite intermediaries from social closure in parallel social organizations such as universities.

Coming Out (or not) on College Applications: Institutional and Interpersonal Dimensions of Disclosing LGBQ+ Identities

Wed, 4 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Many college campuses recently began asking undergraduate applicants about their sexual identities on their college applications. How do applicants who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, and otherwise on the queer spectrum (LGBQ+) experience this question, and what factors influence how they respond? The authors use focus group and interview data with 60 LGBQ+ undergraduate students attending two college campuses to explore these questions. Although many students were comfortable with coming out, they described evaluating the potential risks and benefits of disclosure, and some lacked trust in the institution and were concerned about loss of information control. Unlike when coming out in other institutions, many expressed serious concerns about how the information might get back to their parents. Such spillover effects from institutional disclosure have not been previously identified in the literature. These concerns were heightened for students of color. The present results extend theoretical...

Perceived barriers and facilitators to HPV vaccination: Insights from focus groups with unvaccinated mid-adults in a U.S. medically underserved area

Mon, 2 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Shared clinical decision-making (SCDM) about HPV vaccination has been recommended for U.S. mid-adults aged 27-45 since 2019. To explore barriers and facilitators to HPV vaccination in this population, we conducted 14 virtual focus groups with 86 unvaccinated mid-adults (34 men and 52 women) in California's medically underserved Inland Empire between September 2020 and January 2021. We systematically analyzed the focus group data using the rigorous and accelerated data reduction (RADaR) technique to identify key themes. Identified barriers included: lack of awareness, vaccine hesitancy, and perceived unaffordability (cited in 14 groups); lack of healthcare provider communication and insufficient time (13 groups); fear of moral judgment (12 groups); lack of motivation and information needs (10 groups); and lack of reliable transportation and foregone care during the COVID-19 pandemic (3 groups). Proposed facilitators included: tailored HPV vaccine information for mid-adults, cost...

Resistencia colectiva al neoliberalismo

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

Resistencia colectiva al neoliberalismo

Neoliberal Forms of Capital and The Rise of Social Movement Partyism in Central America

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

Historical shifts in global economic formations shape the strategies of resistance movements in the global South. Neoliberal forms of economic development over the past thirty years in Central America have weakened traditional actors sponsoring popular mobilization such as labor unions and rural cooperatives. At the same time, the free market reforms produced new threats to economic livelihood and well-being throughout the region. The neoliberal measures that have generated the greatest levels of mass discontent include rising prices, privatization, labor flexibility laws, mining projects, and free trade. This article analyzes the role of emerging anti-neoliberal political parties in alliance with popular movements in Central America. Countries with already existing strong anti-systemic parties in the initial phases of the global turn to neoliberalism in the late twentieth century resulted in more efficacious manifestations of social movement partyism in the twenty-first century...

Movimientos sociales la estructura de la acción colectiva

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

This book arises from an academic and political concern: the collective actions of ordinary citizens in the most diverse regions of the world could be decisive in slowing down global warming, in the fight against racism and gender violence, ...

The building blocks of community participation in local climate meetings

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

Abstract: To make greater strides in reducing city-level greenhouse gas emissions, more collaboration between civil society and local governments is necessary. Participation in neighborhood and town meetings about climate change sets the stage for enduring community involvement in resiliency and mitigation planning. This study examines the correlates of individual interest in attending local climate meetings. The work is based on a random sample of 1950 registered voters in Fresno, California (the fifth-largest city in the state). The findings suggest that those individuals with ties to capacity-building organizations in the labor and community sectors were the most willing to attend meetings about climate change. The types of civic engagement activities encouraged by labor unions and community-based organizations (CBOs) were also associated with a greater willingness to participate in gatherings about global warming. Increasing public participation in local climate programs...

The forms of climate action

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

Abstract: Scientific research on the mechanisms to address global warming and its consequences continues to proliferate in the context of an accelerating climate emergency. The concept of climate action includes multiple meanings, and several types of actors employ its use to manage the crisis. The term has evolved to incorporate many of the suggested strategies to combat global warming offered by international bodies, states, nongovernmental organizations, the private sector, and social movements. The present work offers a classification scheme to build a shared understanding of climate action through a lens of environmental justice and just transitions developed by sociologists and others. The classification system includes major institutional and noninstitutional forms of climate action. By identifying the primary forms of climate action, analysts, scholars, policymakers, and activists can better determine levels of success and how different forms of climate action may or...

Climate Justice and Sustained Transnational Mobilization

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

Samir Amin’s final essay called for the creation of a new international organization of progressive social forces. This essay provides evidence from twenty-first century transnational movements on the likelihood of the emergence of such an international organization and the issues and sectors most likely to facilitate coalitional unity. More specifically, the ecological crises identified by Amin in the form of global warming and climate change create an unprecedented global environmental threat capable of unifying diverse social strata across the planet. The climate justice movement has already established a global infrastructure and template to coordinate a new international organization to confront neoliberal forms of globalization. Pre-existing movement organizing around environmental racism, climate justice in the global South, and recent intersectional mobilizations serve as promising models essential to building an enduring international organization representing...

Climate Action Movements in Latin America: Templates for a Just Transition

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

Climate Action Movements in Latin America: Templates for a Just Transition

Second-Class Care: How Immigration Law Transforms Clinical Practice in the Safety Net

Wed, 31 Jul 2024 00:00:00 +0000

This article examines how U.S. immigration law extends into the health care safety net, enacting medical legal violence that diminishes noncitizens' health chances and transforms clinical practices. Drawing on interviews with health care workers in three U.S. states from 2015 to 2020, I ask how federal citizenship-based exclusions within an already stratified health care system shape the clinical trajectories of noncitizens in safety-net institutions. Focusing specifically on cancer care, I find that increasingly anti-immigrant federal policies often reshape clinical practices toward noncitizens with a complex, life-threatening condition as they approach a "specialty care cliff" by (1) creating time penalties that keep many noncitizens in a protracted state of injury and (2) deterring noncitizens from seeking care through threats of immigration enforcement. Through these processes, medical legal violence also creates the potential for moral injury among health care workers, who...

Marginal Gentrification and Racial Capitalism in a Post-chocolate City

Wed, 8 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Researchers have found that gentrification is less likely in Black neighborhoods than in White or Latinx neighborhoods, and that gentrification looks different in Black neighborhoods. For example, researchers have found that Black neighborhoods experience marginal gentrification—changes in the educational level but not the income of residents. This study uses Census and National Historical Geographic Information System (NHGIS) data to explore the relationship between gentrification and racial change in Washington, DC between 2000 and 2019. We measure gentrification using four distinct but related measures: change in home value, rent, average educational level, and household income. The results show a positive association between changes in the percentage of residents with college degrees and the percentage of White residents in neighborhoods that were majority Black in 2000. We also find a positive association between changes in the percentage of Latinx residents and the average...

Questioning the Dietary Acculturation Paradox: A Mixed-Methods Study of the Relationship between Food and Ethnic Identity in a Group of Mexican-American Women

Sat, 4 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000

BACKGROUND: Epidemiological studies have described an "acculturation paradox." Increased acculturation to the United States is associated with increased consumption of dietary fat and decreased consumption of fruits/vegetables. OBJECTIVE: To expand understanding of the dietary acculturation paradox, this study examined how bicultural Mexican-American women construct ethnic identity and how these identities and identity-making processes relate to perceptions of health and nutrition. DESIGN: We utilized embedded mixed methods (in-depth interviews; survey). PARTICIPANTS/SETTING: We analyzed a purposive sample of English-speaking Mexican-American women aged 18 to 29 years (n=24) in rural California to assess ethnic identity and diet beliefs. RESULTS: Participants described food as central to expressing cultural identity, usually in terms of family interactions. Mexican food traditions were characterized as unhealthy; many preferred American foods, which were seen as healthier. Specifically,...

Public charge, legal estrangement, and renegotiating situational trust in the US healthcare safety net

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

Abstract: US immigration law increasingly excludes many immigrants materially and symbolically from vital safety-net resources. Existing scholarship has emphasized the public charge rule as a key mechanism for enacting these exclusionary trends, but less is known about how recent public charge uncertainty has shaped how noncitizens and healthcare workers negotiate safety-net resources. Drawing on ethnographic observations and interviews with 80 safety-net workers and patients in three US states from 2015 to 2020, I argue that intensifying anti-immigrant rhetoric surrounding public charge has extended a sense of surveillance into clinical spaces in previously unexamined ways. Drawing on theories of medical legal violence, system avoidance, and legal estrangement, I demonstrate how these dynamics undermined immigrants' health chances and compromised clinic workers' efforts to facilitate care. I also reveal how participants responded to this insinuation of legal violence in healthcare...

A Qualitative Evaluation of Transgender and Gender-Nonconforming Patients' Experiences in Southern California's Inland Empire

Wed, 18 Oct 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Purpose: To evaluate negative and positive health care experiences within the racial-ethnically diverse transgender and gender-nonconforming (TGNC) community in the Inland Empire, California. Methods: Three focus groups were conducted with a racial-ethnically diverse sample of 20 TGNC-identified individuals in California's Inland Empire. The rigorous and accelerated data reduction (RADaR) technique was used to systematically analyze the qualitative data and identify salient themes. Results: Key themes included the following: a lack of TGNC cultural competency among providers, interpersonal barriers to health care, perceived systemic barriers to health care, and the effects of improper care on TGNC patients' health. Lack of cultural competency included providers' conflations of gender and sexuality and unawareness of nonbinary gender identities. Interpersonal barriers included patient experiences of being misgendered, refused treatment, and referred to by their deadnames. Perceived...

Getting by with a little help from friends and colleagues: Testing how residents social support networks affect loneliness and burnout.

Tue, 19 Sep 2023 00:00:00 +0000

OBJECTIVE: To determine how residents relationships with their sources of social support (ie, family, friends, and colleagues) affect levels of burnout and loneliness. DESIGN: Cross-sectional survey. SETTING: Faculty of Medicine at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. PARTICIPANTS: A total of 198 physician-trainees in the universitys postgraduate medical education program. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Residents personal and work-related burnout scores (measured using items from the Copenhagen Burnout Inventory); loneliness (measured using a 3-item loneliness scale); and social support (assessed with the Lubben Social Network Scale, version 6). RESULTS: Of the 234 respondents who completed the Internet-based survey (a 22% response rate), 198 provided complete information on all study variables and thus constituted the analytic sample. Seemingly unrelated regression analyses indicated that loneliness was significantly (P < .01) and positively associated with both personal...

Socioeconomic and Racial-ethnic Disparities in Prosocial Health Attitudes

Mon, 18 Sep 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Research on prosocial attitudes, social networks, social capital, and social stratification suggest that lower-socioeconomic status (SES), Hispanic, and nonwhite individuals will be more likely than their higher-SES and non-Hispanic white counterparts to engage in health behaviors that serve a social good. Analyzing data from the University of North Carolina Human Papillomavirus (HPV) Immunization in Sons Study, we test whether SES and race-ethnicity are associated with willingness to vaccinate via prosocial attitudes toward HPV vaccination among adolescent males (n = 401) and parents (n = 518). Analyses revealed that (a) parents with lower education and (b) black and Hispanic parents and adolescent males reported higher prosocial vaccination attitudes, but only some attitudes were associated with higher willingness to vaccinate. We discuss these findings in terms of how prosocial attitudes may motivate certain health behaviors and serve as countervailing mechanisms in the (re)production...

Promoting vaccination during rapid HIV testing: Recommendations from men who have sex with men in California

Sat, 16 Sep 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Community-based rapid HIV testing is effective for reaching racial-ethnically diverse men who have sex with men (MSM), offering an opportunity for bundled health promotion interventions. Given MSM experience a heightened prevalence of human papillomavirus (HPV) and meningococcal disease, we examined their preferences for bundling rapid HIV testing with an intervention to promote vaccination against these infections. In 2020, we conducted five virtual focus groups (N = 25 participants) in English and Spanish with MSM in Southern California's Inland Empire. Participants discussed their knowledge about HPV and meningitis vaccination and attitudes toward receiving vaccination information and referrals during rapid HIV tests. We used the rigorous and accelerated data reduction technique to systematically analyse the data. Participants had a mean age of 30, were socioeconomically diverse, and predominantly (68%) Hispanic. 96% had ever been tested for HIV, while only 28% were...

Barriers and facilitators to HPV and meningococcal vaccination among men who have sex with men: a qualitative study

Wed, 21 Jun 2023 00:00:00 +0000

BackgroundMen who have sex with men (MSM) have suboptimal uptake of human papillomavirus (HPV) and meningococcal vaccines. This study examines barriers and facilitators to HPV and meningococcal vaccination among MSM in a large, racially/ethnically diverse, and medically underserved U.S. region.MethodsIn 2020, we conducted five focus groups with MSM living in the Inland Empire, California. Participants discussed (1) their knowledge about and attitudes toward HPV, meningococcal disease, and related vaccines; and (2) factors that would encourage or discourage vaccine uptake. Data were systematically analyzed to identify salient barriers and facilitators to vaccination.ResultsParticipants (N = 25) had a median age of 29. Most were Hispanic (68%), self-identified as gay (84%), and had college degrees (64%). Key barriers to vaccination included: (1) limited awareness and knowledge about HPV and meningococcal disease, (2) reliance on mainstream healthcare providers for vaccine information,...

Lessons learned in co‐creating a Virtual Village for people ageing with HIV

Wed, 21 Jun 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Lessons learned in co‐creating a Virtual Village for people ageing with HIV

Conceptualizing Ethnicity: How Dimensions of Ethnicity Affect Disparities in Health Outcomes Among Latinxs in the United States.

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

Methods: Using regression methods to analyze data from the 2006 Portraits of American Life Study, we examined how attributional and relational dimensions of ethnicity affect: 1) intragroup differences in Latinx mental and physical health status, as measured by feelings of worthlessness and self-rated health, respectively; and 2) intergroup differences between Latinxs and non-Hispanic Whites in these health outcomes. Results: Latinxs have higher odds of feelings of worthlessness and lower odds of self-reporting good/excellent health compared with non-Hispanic Whites. Additionally, intragroup differences in health are observed among Latinxs, conditioned on attributional or relational dimensions of ethnicity. Conclusion: Multidimensional measures of ethnicity that distinguish between characteristics associated with ethnicity (attributional) or race (relational) offer a nuanced explanation of health disparities by revealing aspects of ethnicity that shape health outcomes differently,...

Bringing Produce to the People: Implementing a Social Marketing Food Access Intervention in Rural Food Deserts

Sat, 6 May 2023 00:00:00 +0000

This study describes and evaluates the process of implementing a social marketing food access intervention for food desert communities in rural California. A case study approach used mixed-methods data from nationwide market comparisons, environmental assessment, and community informants. Lessons learned demonstrate room for improvement in implementing such strategies and underscore the importance of involving community in decision making; the strategic importance of operational decisions relating to intervention design, site and product selection, and distribution models; and the need to reconsider the problem of access in rural areas.

A regional approach to militarized riskscapes: An environmental justice analysis of military proximity and air pollution in United States Environmental Protection Agency's regions

Thu, 30 Mar 2023 00:00:00 +0000

A regional approach to militarized riskscapes: An environmental justice analysis of military proximity and air pollution in United States Environmental Protection Agency's regions

“If People Were Told About the Cancer, They’d Want to Get Vaccinated”: Knowledge, Attitudes, and Beliefs About HPV Vaccination Among Mid-Adult Men

Wed, 15 Mar 2023 00:00:00 +0000

In 2018, nine-valent human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine eligibility expanded to include adults aged 27 to 45. This study aimed to identify knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs (KABs) about HPV and HPV vaccination among newly eligible mid-adult men, for whom uptake in adolescence and younger adulthood remains suboptimal. We conducted six virtual focus groups (N = 34 participants) with unvaccinated men aged 27 to 45 living in Southern California's Inland Empire. Data were systematically analyzed to identify emergent themes using the rigorous and accelerated data reduction technique. The sample of men was diverse (79% Hispanic, non-Hispanic Black, Asian, or mixed race/ethnicity; 26% gay or bisexual) and captured participants from across the socioeconomic spectrum. Eighty-eight percent of participants had never received a provider recommendation to be vaccinated against HPV. Many had unanswered questions about HPV and HPV vaccination, could not recall any HPV-related cancers that...

Creditor Colleges: Canceling Debts that Surged during COVID-19 for Low-Income Students

Thu, 15 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Creditor Colleges: Canceling Debts that Surged during COVID-19 for Low-Income Students

Trends and Disparities in Suicidality Among Heterosexual and Sexual Minority/Two-Spirit Indigenous Adolescents in Canada

Tue, 11 Oct 2022 00:00:00 +0000

PURPOSE: To explore trends in sexual orientation group differences in suicidality among Indigenous adolescents and evaluate whether gaps between heterosexual and sexual minority/Two-Spirit adolescents have changed over time. METHODS: Leveraging pooled school-based population data from five waves of the British Columbia Adolescent Health Survey (1998-2018), we used age-adjusted logistic regression models, separately for boys and girls, to examine 20-year trends and disparities in past year suicidal ideation and suicide attempts among heterosexual and sexual minority/Two-Spirit Indigenous adolescents (N = 13,788). RESULTS: Suicidal ideation increased among all sexual orientation groups in 2018 compared to previous survey waves. Suicide attempts spiked for heterosexual girls in 2003, remained stable for heterosexual boys, and decreased for sexual minority/Two-Spirit boys and girls over time. Compared to their heterosexual peers, sexual minority/Two-Spirit boys had higher odds...

Intersectional inequalities in industrial air toxics exposure in the United States

Mon, 10 Oct 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Environmental justice and health research demonstrate unequal exposure to environmental hazards at the neighborhood-level. We use an innovative method-eco-intersectional multilevel (EIM) modeling-to assess intersectional inequalities in industrial air toxics exposure across US census tracts in 2014. Results reveal stark inequalities in exposure across analytic strata, with a 45-fold difference in average exposure between most and least exposed. Low SES, multiply marginalized (high % Black, high % female-headed households) urban communities experienced highest risk. These inequalities were not described by additive effects alone, necessitating the use of interaction terms. We advance a critical intersectional approach to evaluating environmental injustices.

Scarier than the flu shot? : The social determinants of shingles and influenza vaccinations among U.S. older adults

Mon, 10 Oct 2022 00:00:00 +0000

BACKGROUND: Although more than half of older adults receive the annual influenza vaccine (flu shot), only about one-third have ever been vaccinated for shingles. With this in mind, our study examines how the associations between sociodemographic characteristics, health behaviors, and vaccine uptake differ between these two viruses. In doing so, it also investigates whether the social predictors of shingles vaccination changed after the rollout of a new vaccine in 2017. METHODS: Data come from the 2017 and 2020 waves of the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System survey, using a subset of older adults aged 60-plus (N = 389,165). We use logistic regression models to test for associations between individual-level characteristics and vaccine uptake. RESULTS: One, when compared to Whites, Black respondents had approximately 30 % lower odds of having received the annual influenza vaccine (Odds Ratios  [OR] = 0.72 [95 % CI 0.66-0.78] in 2017, and 0.66 [0.60-0.72] in 2020). For the...

Self-identified race, socially assigned skin tone, and adult physiological dysregulation: Assessing multiple dimensions of “race” in health disparities research

Mon, 5 Sep 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Despite a general acceptance of "race" as a social, rather than biological construct in the social sciences, racial health disparities research has given less consideration to the dimensions of race that may be most important for shaping persistent disparities in adult physical health status. In this study, we incorporate the social constructionist view that race is multidimensional to evaluate the health significance of two measures of race, racial self-identification and the socially perceived skin tone of black Americans, in a sample of black and white adults in the Nashville Stress and Health Study (N=1186). First, we use the approach most common in disparities research-comparing group differences in an outcome-to consider self-identified racial differences in allostatic load (AL), a cumulative biological indicator of physical dysregulation. Second, we examine intragroup variations in AL among blacks by skin tone (i.e. light, brown, or dark skin). Third, we assess whether...

Transgender and Gender Nonconforming Patient Experience in the Inland Empire, California

Mon, 11 Jul 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Analyzing secondary data from a 2015 survey of 90 transgender and gender nonconforming individuals in California's Inland Empire, this study reports frequencies of physical and mental health and health care access and discrimination outcomes and differences by age, race/ethnicity, and sex assigned at birth. Nearly three-quarters of respondents reported positive physical health, yet only about half reported positive mental health-an outcome poorer for respondents <50 years. Lesser than 50% found it very easy to find providers for routine care and only 16% found it very easy to find a transgender-competent provider, underscoring the need for more health professional training.

How do patient-provider relationship continuity, gender, and language affect pediatric HPV vaccine acceptance?

Mon, 11 Jul 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Increasing human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine uptake remains a challenge. We compared reasons for HPV vaccine acceptance between two Southern California pediatric clinics serving diverse populations: an academically affiliated resident clinic that offered little continuity of care (n = 53) and a private-practice clinic with well-established physician-patient relationships (n = 200). We found strong doctor recommendation and information dissemination about the importance of HPV vaccination were the most important drivers of acceptance across these distinct settings. The top-cited reasons for vaccine acceptance also varied by gender, language (English vs. Spanish), and clinic type. Findings point to the need for (1) robust provider education on vaccines, vaccine-preventable diseases, and vaccine hesitancy and (2) increased efforts to raise public awareness of the importance of HPV vaccination.

Getting by with a little help from friends and colleagues: Testing how residents' social support networks affect loneliness and burnout.

Mon, 11 Jul 2022 00:00:00 +0000

OBJECTIVE: To determine how residents' relationships with their sources of social support (ie, family, friends, and colleagues) affect levels of burnout and loneliness. DESIGN: Cross-sectional survey. SETTING: Faculty of Medicine at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. PARTICIPANTS: A total of 198 physician-trainees in the university's postgraduate medical education program. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Residents' personal and work-related burnout scores (measured using items from the Copenhagen Burnout Inventory); loneliness (measured using a 3-item loneliness scale); and social support (assessed with the Lubben Social Network Scale, version 6). RESULTS: Of the 234 respondents who completed the Internet-based survey (a 22% response rate), 198 provided complete information on all study variables and thus constituted the analytic sample. Seemingly unrelated regression analyses indicated that loneliness was significantly (P < .01) and positively associated with both...

Socioeconomic and Racial-ethnic Disparities in Prosocial Health Attitudes

Wed, 13 Apr 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Evaluating the Impact of Incentives on Clinical Trial Participation: Protocol for a Mixed Methods, Community-Engaged Study

Wed, 13 Apr 2022 00:00:00 +0000

BACKGROUND: Monetary incentives in research are frequently used to support participant recruitment and retention. However, there are scant empirical data regarding how researchers decide upon the type and amount of incentives offered. Likewise, there is little guidance to assist study investigators and institutional review boards (IRBs) in their decision-making on incentives. Monetary incentives, in addition to other factors such as the risk of harm or other intangible benefits, guide individuals' decisions to enroll in research studies. These factors emphasize the need for evidence-informed guidance for study investigators and IRBs when determining the type and amount of incentives to provide to research participants. OBJECTIVE: The specific aims of our research project are to (1) characterize key stakeholders' views on and assessments of incentives in biomedical HIV research; (2) reach consensus among stakeholders on the factors that are considered when choosing research incentives,...

Attitudes Toward Payment for Research Participation: Results from a U.S. Survey of People Living with HIV

Wed, 13 Apr 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Little is known about how payment affects individuals' decisions to participate in HIV research. Using data from a U.S. survey of people living with HIV (N = 292), we examined potential research participants’ attitudes toward payment, perceived study risk based on payment amount, and preferred payment forms, and how these factors vary by sociodemographic characteristics. Most respondents agreed people should be paid for HIV research participation (96%) and said payment would shape their research participation decisions (80%). Men, less formally educated individuals, and members of some minoritized racial-ethnic groups were less likely to be willing to participate in research without payment. Higher payment was associated with higher perceived study risks, while preferences for form of payment varied by age, gender, education, race-ethnicity, and census region of residence. Findings suggest payment may influence prospective research participants’ risk–benefit calculus...

Analyzing the Military's Role in Producing Air Toxics Disparities in the United States: A Critical Environmental Justice Approach

Mon, 11 Apr 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Abstract: The negative environmental, health, and social effects arising from U.S. military action in communities both domestically and abroad suggest that the military represents an understudied institutional source of environmental injustice. Moreover, scholars and activists have long argued that the state is an active or a tacit contributor to environmental inequality, thus providing an opportunity to link U.S. military activity with approaches to the state developed under critical environmental justice. We build on these literatures to ask: Does the presence of domestic military facilities significantly increase carcinogenic risks from air toxics? And do communities of color face additional military-associated carcinogenic risks? Multilevel analyses reveal that locales in closer proximity to a military facility and those exposed to greater military technological intensity, independent of each other, experience significantly higher carcinogenic risk from air...

“I Thought It Was Just For Teenagers”: Knowledge, Attitudes, and Beliefs about HPV Vaccination Among Women Aged 27 to 45

Wed, 30 Mar 2022 00:00:00 +0000

PURPOSE: We aimed to identify human papillomavirus (HPV) and HPV vaccine-related knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs among women aged 27-45 years, who became eligible for HPV vaccination in 2018. METHODS: Eight virtual focus groups were conducted with 52 unvaccinated cisgender women aged 27-45 years living in Southern California's Inland Empire. Themes related to women's knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs were systematically identified using the rigorous and accelerated data reduction technique. RESULTS: The sample was diverse: 62% of participants were Hispanic, Black, or Asian; 17% identified as lesbian or bisexual; and annual household incomes ranged from $0 to $260,000 (median, $60,500). Key qualitative themes centered on 1) questions about HPV and HPV vaccination, 2) knowledge and beliefs about HPV and HPV vaccination, 3) concerns about vaccine side effects and safety, 4) low perceived benefits of vaccination, and 5) social factors influencing vaccine acceptance....

The impact of school-entry mandates on social inequalities in human papillomavirus vaccination

Wed, 30 Mar 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Fundamental cause theory (FCT) is influential for explaining the enduring relationship between social position and health, yet few empirical studies test FCT's contention that policy supporting the equal distribution of interventions across populations can help reduce health inequalities. Following human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine approval, complex socioeconomic and racial-ethnic inequalities emerged in distinct stages of the diffusion of this health innovation. Virginia and the District of Columbia were the first U.S. jurisdictions to implement school-entry HPV vaccination mandates for sixth-grade girls, offering an opportunity to test whether inequalities in HPV vaccination are mitigated by policy that seeks to standardize the age of vaccine administration and remove barriers to knowledge about the vaccine. Using data from the 2008, 2009, 2011, 2012, and 2013 National Immunization Survey-Teen (N = 4579) and a triple-difference approach, this study tests whether vaccine...

Structural Racism as an Environmental Justice Issue: A Multilevel Analysis of the State Racism Index and Environmental Health Risk from Air Toxics

Mon, 10 Jan 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Communities of color and poor neighborhoods are disproportionately exposed to more air pollution—a pattern known as environmental injustices. Environmental injustices increase susceptibility to negative health outcomes among residents in affected communities. The structural mechanisms distributing environmental injustices in the USA are understudied. Bridging the literatures on the social determinants of health and environmental justice highlights the importance of the environmental conditions for health inequalities and sheds light on the institutional mechanisms driving environmental health inequalities. Employing a critical quantitative methods approach, we use data from an innovative state racism index to argue that systematic racialized inequalities in areas from housing to employment increase outdoor airborne environmental health risks in neighborhoods. Results of a multilevel analysis in over 65,000 census tracts demonstrate that tracts in states with higher levels of state-level...

Military as an Institution and Militarization as a Process: Theorizing the U.S. Military and Environmental Justice

Wed, 6 Oct 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Military as an Institution and Militarization as a Process: Theorizing the U.S. Military and Environmental Justice

“Trauma Makes You Grow Up Quicker”: The Financial & Emotional Burdens of Deportation & Incarceration

Sat, 24 Jul 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Research on the impacts of incarceration and deportation describes the negative consequences for children and young people. But how these events impact adults and members of extended families has not been broadly considered. And no study has directly compared incarceration with deportation. The study described in this essay, based on interviews with 111 adult individuals with a family member deported (57) or incarcerated (54), reveals how these experiences have long-lasting emotional and financial impacts and considers the similarities and differences between incarceration and deportation. The deportation or incarceration of parents is devastating; yet the absence of other relatives such as sons, sisters, brothers, aunts, cousins, grandchildren, and other household members also translates into severe sentimental and economic hardships not only for the immediate but also for the extended family.

The Parallels between Mass Incarceration and Mass Deportation: An Intersectional Analysis of State Repression

Wed, 14 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0000

In the spring of 2014, President Obama’s administration reached a landmark of over 2 million deportations—more in under six years than the sum total of all deportations prior to 1997. Mass deportation has not affected all communities equally: the vast majority of deportees are Latin American and Caribbean men. Today, nearly 90 percent of deportees are men, and over 97 percent of deportees are Latin American or Caribbean. This article explores the global context under which mass deportation has occurred and draws parallels with mass incarceration. Whereas other scholars have characterized mass deportation as a tool of social or migration control, this article argues that mass deportation is best understood as a racialized and gendered tool of state repression implemented in a time of crisis. I argue that the confluence of four factors has created the conditions of possibility for mass deportation from the United States: (1) nearly all deportees are Latin American and Caribbean...

Intersectional environmental justice and population health inequalities: A novel approach

Tue, 15 Dec 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Drawing on the traditions of environmental justice, intersectionality, and social determinants of health, and using data from the EPA's NATA 2014 estimates of cancer risk from air toxics, we demonstrate a novel quantitative approach to evaluate intersectional environmental health risks to communities: Eco-Intersectional Multilevel (EIM) modeling. Results from previous case studies were found to generalize to national-level patterns, with multiply marginalized tracts with a high percent of Black and Latinx residents, high percent female-headed households, lower educational attainment, and metro location experiencing the highest risk. Overall, environmental health inequalities in cancer risk from air toxics are: (1) experienced intersectionally at the community-level, (2) significant in magnitude, and (3) socially patterned across numerous intersecting axes of marginalization, including axes rarely evaluated such as gendered family structure. EIM provides an innovative approach...

The Immigration Industrial Complex: Why We Enforce Immigration Policies Destined to Fail

Wed, 28 Oct 2020 00:00:00 +0000

The Immigration Industrial Complex: Why We Enforce Immigration Policies Destined to Fail

Does Whitening Happen? Distinguishing between Race and Color Labels in an African-Descended Community in Peru

Wed, 28 Oct 2020 00:00:00 +0000

This article explores how race and color labels are used to describe people in an Afro-Peruvian community. This article is based on analyses of 88 interviews and 18 months of fieldwork in an African-descended community in Peru. The analyses of these data reveal that, if we consider race and color to be conceptually distinct, there is no "mulatto escape hatch," no social or cultural whitening, and no continuum of racial categories in the black Peruvian community under study. This article considers the implications of drawing a conceptual distinction between race and color for research on racial classifications in Latin America. © 2010 by Society for the Study of Social Problems, Inc.

A Confluence of Interests in Immigration Enforcement: How Politicians, the Media, and Corporations Profit from Immigration Policies Destined to Fail

Wed, 28 Oct 2020 00:00:00 +0000

A Confluence of Interests in Immigration Enforcement: How Politicians, the Media, and Corporations Profit from Immigration Policies Destined to Fail

Social, Human and Positive Psychological Capital in the Labour Market Re‐integration of People Deported to the Dominican Republic

Wed, 28 Oct 2020 00:00:00 +0000

More than six million people have been deported from the United States since 1996. The Dominican Republic is one of the top ten countries to which deportees are sent. Most scholarship on deportation focuses on the challenges deportees face post-deportation. There is also a long history of scholarship on how migrants draw from social, human and financial capital to integrate into host societies. This article thus asks what forms of capital are useful for deportees’ re-integration and focuses on the forms of capital deportees draw from to survive in the aftermath of deportation. An analysis of 60 in-depth interviews with Dominican deportees reveals how deportees’ combination of limited human capital, fractured social capital and positive psychological capital assists in their re-integration. Results also show that access to employment is not only an important step in social and economic integration, but that it also helps deportees to achieve emotional stability.

‘Had They Been Polite and Civilized, None of This Would Have Happened’: Discourses of Race and Racism in Multicultural Lima