Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Acculturation And Intimate Partner Violence Among Kenyans In The United States, Max J. Stein, Peter Ndiang’Ui, Eunice Menja

Journal of Social, Behavioral, and Health Sciences

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is abuse by a partner or spouse. This study focused on IPV among Kenyan immigrants to the United States. Several studies reported connections between IPV and cultural tensions experienced during the acculturation process. Scholars disagree whether acculturation buffers against IPV by exposing immigrants to adaptive social norms or heightens risk factors among those facing challenges acclimating to new settings. Whereas this association has been researched among Latinx and Asian communities in the United States, it is understudied among African and especially Kenyan diasporas. This descriptive study explored how acculturation and IPV among U.S. Kenyans were experienced …

Hardships, Motivations, And Resiliency: Case Study Of Health Implications Of 2022 Russian Invasion On Ukrainian Resistance Members, Jessi Hanson-Defusco

Journal of Social, Behavioral, and Health Sciences

The 2022 Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine caused millions of Ukrainians to flee. Yet most citizens continue to reside in the country, playing critical roles in the Ukrainian resistance. Today the Ukrainian fighting force includes trained military and police as well as citizens who either were conscripted or volunteered to take part in national war efforts. This mixed-method study conducted in Spring 2022 presents data collected from 79 respondents in a semistructured survey, using snowball sampling. Data analysis examined individual self-reported motivations, attitudes toward the conflict, resilience, quality-of-life hardships, and scaled perceived stress. Results indicated that Ukrainian resistance members face …

Positive Youth Development Sustainability Scale (Pydss): The Development Of An Assessment Tool, Michael Sieng, Scott Cloutier, Katherine Irimata

Journal of Sustainable Social Change

Our study details the development of the Positive Youth Development Sustainability Scale, a self-reporting tool to assess the impacts of positive youth development (PYD) programs. The Positive Youth Development Sustainability Scale provides practitioners a tool in the field of PYD both domestically and internationally, addressing the concern of global application and sustainability criteria (e.g., resilience and happiness). First, we conducted a detailed literature review on existing PYD program assessment techniques. Next, we conducted an exploratory factor analysis, via SPSS and AMOS software, to establish the number of factors in the scale. The constructs of the five-Cs model (Lerner, …

Happiness In Communities: How Neighborhoods, Cities And States Use Subjective Well-Being Metrics, Laura Musikanski, Carl Polley, Scott Cloutier, Erica Berejnoi, Julia Colbert

Journal of Sustainable Social Change

This essay, the fourth and last of a series published by the Journal of Social Change, is intended as a tool for community organizers, local policy makers, researchers, students and others to incorporate subjective well-being indicators into their measurements and management of happiness and well-being in their communities, for policy purposes, for research and for other purposes. It provides case studies of community-based efforts in five different regions (São Paulo, Brazil; Bristol, United Kingdom; Melbourne, Australia; Creston, British Columbia, Canada; and Vermont, United States) that either developed their own subjective well-being index or used the Happiness Alliance’s survey instrument …

Diminished Quality Of Life Among Women Affected By Ebola, Jessi Hanson, Alexis Decosimo, Megan Quinn

Journal of Social, Behavioral, and Health Sciences

This article analyzes data collected from Liberian women afflicted by the Ebola virus disease, survivors of the virus and noninfected persons living in Ebola-affected homes. This research is one of the first statistical analyses examining factors diminishing quality of life: negative experiences, stigma, and psychosocial symptoms among females affected by the virus after the outbreak. The research presents a thorough literature review, including research related to other infectious diseases like HIV/AIDS, to inform the gap in studies on Ebola’s effects on quality of life. Women who are Ebola virus disease survivors demonstrate significant differences in stigma and psychosocial stress when …

Measuring Happiness To Guide Public Policy Making: A Survey Of Instruments And Policy Initiatives, Laura Musikanski

Journal of Sustainable Social Change

This author examines subjective indicators of well-being as they relate to the happiness movement, a global effort to create a new economic paradigm. The essay focuses on the prominent international institutions that are developing happiness metrics as well as agencies exploring the use of happiness data for crafting supportive public policy. A definition of happiness metrics, based on international institutions, identifies the primary questions that compose perceived happiness and how this data can be used.

Book Review: New Age Globalization: Meaning And Metaphor By Aqueil Ahmad, Susan H. Jespersen

Journal of Sustainable Social Change

New Age Globalization examines interdependent and interconnected global society in terms of its structure, including both functional and process characteristics, with an underlying concern for global consciousness resulting in global social change for human welfare. The theoretical framework provides for analysis of history, culture, economics, demographics, political systems, conflicts, knowledge, and religions of regions throughout the world. This is a well-researched book with information on complex topics for the global researcher, corporate planning executive, human resource manager, and educator, among others seeking to understand social and organizational systems in our global world.

Happiness In Public Policy, Laura Musikanski

Journal of Sustainable Social Change

The happiness movement represents a new paradigm where social, economic, and environmental systems are structured to encourage human well-being in a sustainable environment. Bhutan has adopted Gross National Happiness (GNH) as a way of determining its society’s success in contrast to purely economic goals and the singular use of the gross domestic product indicator. Bhutanese policy promulgation includes use of a GNH screening tool. In the United Kingdom, happiness indicators are being used to collect data and the government is starting to explore their application to policy. The Bhutanese GNH policy screening tool has been adapted for the grassroots activists, …

A Geographical Analysis Of Hiv/Aids Infection In Nigeria, 1991-2001, Chinekwu Azuka Obidoa, Robert G. Cromley

Journal of Social, Behavioral, and Health Sciences

Abstract

Objectives: Within the gradually accumulating literature on the Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) in Nigeria, investigations concerning the spatial dimensions of the infection are virtually non-existent. An understanding of the spatial dimensions of the epidemic is central in the development and implementation of appropriate intervention strategies. This study is a geographic analysis of HIV/AIDS infection in Nigeria from 1991 – 2001. The three objectives of this study were: 1) to examine the geographic pattern of the epidemic, 2) to examine the spatial-temporal trend and diffusion pattern of the epidemic, and 3) to explore the factors associated with the spatial …