Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Making Space Behind The Veil: Black Agency Within A Predominantly White Religion, Michael Wood, Grace Ann Soelberg, Jacob Rugh

Faculty Publications

The work of W.E.B. Du Bois highlights the significance of Christian religion in Black American life. According to Du Bois, the Black Church serves as a site of self-formation and affirmation, and the White Church as a source of racist beliefs and justifications for inequality. In this paper, we expand Du Bois’ inquiry about the influence of religion with a study of Black Americans who belong to a predominantly White religion. For those whose religious experience is almost wholly within the “white world,” what role does religion play in their lives? We analyze a set of 52 public accounts by …

Financial Behaviors, Financial Satisfaction, And Goal Attainment Among College-Educated Young Adults: A Mediating Analysis With Latent Change Scores, Xiaomin Li, Melissa Curran, Joyce Serido, Ashley B. Lebaron, Soyeon Shim, Nan Zhou

Faculty Publications

The aim of the study is to investigate how 2,084 U.S. college-educated young adults (61.9% female, and 69.5% non-Hispanic White) navigated the goal attainment process during the transition to adulthood. Using four-wave data collected across eight years, we examined how financial behaviors (self-regulating behaviors) predicted both depressive symptoms (affective goal attainment evaluations) and financial obstacles to goal attainment (cognitive goal attainment evaluations) via financial satisfaction (resources). Given the variability in developmental trajectories (i.e., initial levels and rates of over-time changes) among young adults, we conducted an exploratory mediational analysis with Latent Change Scores. The results revealed indirect-only mediation patterns, and …

Adverse Childhood Experiences, Psychological Distress, And Fathering Behaviors, Kevin Shafer, Scott D. Easton

Faculty Publications

Objective

This study examines the relationship between adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), internalized and externalized psychological distress, and six measures of parenting behavior among fathers in the United States.

Background

Prior research on ACEs and parenting has focused almost exclusively on mothers, specific types of childhood adversity, and the intergenerational transmission of abuse, neglect, and other traumatic experiences. This study extends the literature by considering ACEs in fathers, using a multidimensional measure of ACEs, and multiple measures of positive and negative fathering behavior.

Method

Using the ecological model of father involvement, this study is based on a national sample of more …

How To Sell A Friend: Disinterest As Relational Work In Direct Sales, Curtis Child

Faculty Publications

Economic sociologists agree that monetary transactions are not necessarily antithetical to meaningful social relationships. However, they also accept that creating “good matches” between the two requires hard work. In this article, I contribute to the relational program in economic sociology by examining a common but understudied type of work in which one party to a relationship stands to benefit from it financially. I identify in these highly commercialized contexts a particular style of relational work anticipated, but not fully developed, in Pierre Bourdieu’s writings: disinterest. I argue that the disinterested style is manifest by economically implicated individuals who downplay their …

Perceived Family And Partner Support And The Work-Family Interface: A Meta-Analytic Review, Heather H. Kelley, Ashley B. Lebaron, E. Jeffery Hill, Diana Meter

Faculty Publications

This study employed meta-analytic techniques to elucidate the role of perceived partner and family support in four measures of the work-family interface. We extracted 183 effect sizes from 82 samples and a total of N = 36,226 individuals. We found perceived familial (partner and family) support was negatively associated with work-to-family conflict (r = -.099) and family-to-work conflict (r = -.178). It was positively associated with work-to-family enrichment (r = .173) and family-to-work enrichment (r = .378). Various sample-level moderators were investigated through meta regression and subgroup analyses, including whether the support measure was family or partner focused. Perceived family …

The Protective Role Of Couple Communication In Moderating Negative Associations Between Financial Stress And Sexual Outcomes For Newlyweds, Jocelyn S. Wikle, Chelom E. Leavitt, Jeremy B. Yorgason, Jeffrey P. Dew, Heather M. Johnson

Faculty Publications

This study longitudinally examined the sexual costs of economic distress in newlywed couple relationships. Family stress theory posits an association between economic pressure and family relationships. The ability of financial strain to contaminate non-financial aspects of a marriage is troubling considering that many newlyweds report difficulty with financial adjustments after marriage. Positive communication may be a skill that enables young couples to alleviate economic pressure, and the study evaluated the moderating roles of financial communication, sexual communication, and relational communication. Utilizing an actor-partner interdependence moderation model, hypotheses were tested using dyadic data from 2044 couples from a nationally representative sample …

Variation In Masculinities And Fathering Behaviors: A Cross-National Comparison Of The United States And Canada, Kevin Shafer, Richard J. Petts, Casey Scheibling

Faculty Publications

Research continues to examine the barriers to and facilitators of positive fathering behaviors. One area recently addressed by researchers focuses on the relationship between masculine norm adherence and father involvement. Yet, little work has examined cross-national variability in this relationship—despite differences in gender norms, fathering expectations, and social policies across countries. The present study considers possible differences in the relationship between masculine norm adherence and fathering behaviors in the United States and Canada—two rich, multiethnic countries with many similarities but some distinct policy and family support differences. Using data from fathers in Canada (n = 2057) and the United …

Father-Adolescent Relationship Closeness: A Path Analysis Of Family Factor Associates With Father-Adolescent Engagement And Relationship Quality, Mark H. Trahan, Richard H. Morely, Kevin Shafer

Faculty Publications

Father-adolescent child relationship quality has been identified as key to adolescent health outcomes. While factors have previously been identified associated with father-adolescent closeness, a comprehensive model of understanding the influence of these factors is needed. Using cross-sectional data from the Study of Contemporary Fatherhood (SCF), this analysis of father-adolescent relationship closeness evaluated responses of nine hundred (N = 900) father surveys to investigate historical factors, including own father relationship quality, biological fathering, family transitions, and ACEs along with current factors, including co-parenting, depression, parenting stress, knowledge of adolescent, warmth, and engagement, on father-adolescent relationship closeness. Path analysis results indicate that …

A Qualitative Look At College Students Perceptions Of Social Interactions In College Physical Activity Classes, David C. Barney, Teresa Leavitt

Faculty Publications

Physical activity (PA) has been found to benefit a person in many ways. One of the benefits of being physically active is the social component. This deals with interacting with someone before, during or after the activity. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of social interactions effects on college-aged students during their PA class. Participants for this study included 408 college-aged students (272 males & 136 females) who were surveyed regarding their interactions during their PA class. The survey contained Likert scale questions and open-ended questions, requiring the students to respond with written answers. In short, …

The Louisiana Community Oil Spill Survey (Coss) Dataset, Michael R. Cope, Tim Slack, Troy C. Blanchard, Matthew R. Lee, Jorden E. Jackson

Faculty Publications

This article presents an overview of the Louisiana Community Oil Spill Survey (COSS), the dataset used in “Community Sentiment following the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Disaster: A Test of Time, Systemic Community, and Corrosive Community Models” [1] as well as elsewhere [2–6]. The COSS, administered by the Louisiana State University's Public Policy Research Laboratory, consists of five waves of cross-sectional trend data attuned to the characteristics and effects of the 2010 BP Deepwater Horizon (BP-DH) oil spill on those coastal Louisiana residents most affected by the disaster. Respondents were randomly drawn from a list of nearly 6,000 households in the …

The Manifestation Of Neighborhood Effects: A Pattern For Community Growth?, Michael R. Cope, Jorden E. Jackson, Scott R. Sanders, Lance D. Erickson, Tippe Morlan, Ralph B. Brown

Faculty Publications

Neighborhood effects, or the development of community by neighborhoods, are often studied in an urban context. Previous research has neglected to examine the influence of neighborhoods in nonurban settings. Our case study, however, contributes to the existing literature as it takes place in a small, rural-to-urban town at an important point in time where the town was urbanizing. We find that neighborhood effects also influence community satisfaction and attachment in Creekdale, an urbanizing town. Using survey data (N = 1006) drawn from the Creekdale Community Citizens Viewpoint Survey (CCVS), we find that, contrary to conventional wisdom, population size and density …

Community Sentiment Following The Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Disaster: A Test Of Time, Systemic Community, And Corrosive Community Models, Michael R. Cope, Tim Slack, Jorden E. Jackson, Vanessa Parks

Faculty Publications

A fundamental concern in the social science scholarship on disasters is understanding community impacts and recovery as a social process. This study examines community sentiment in the aftermath 2010 BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill (DHOS), including the influence of time and the explanatory utility of two major theoretical perspectives—the systemic community model and the corrosive community model—in predicting community sentiment in the context of this disaster. Specifically, our objectives are to assess how community sentiment in the wake of the DHOS: 1) changes over time; 2) is related to the systemic model; and 3) is related to the corrosive model. …

Childhood Adversity, Mental Health, And The Perpetration Of Physical Violence In The Adult Intimate Relationships Of Women Prisoners: A Life Course Approach, Melissa S. Jones, Stephanie W. Burge, Susan F. Sharp, David A. Mcleod

Faculty Publications

Background: Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are common, with nearly two-thirds of adult samples reporting exposure to at least one and one-quarter reporting exposure to three or more distinct types of ACEs. ACEs have been linked to various negative outcomes across the life course, including mental health problems, and the perpetration of physical violence in intimate relationships. However, little is known about the relationships between ACEs, PTSD symptomology, and use of physical violence against an adult intimate partner among incarcerated women.

Objective: The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationships between ACEs, PTSD symptoms, and the perpetration of the …

To Move Home Or Move On? Investigating The Impact Of Recovery Aid On Migration Status As A Potential Tool For Disaster Risk Reduction In The Aftermath Of Volcanic Eruptions In Merapi, Indonesia, Jonathan A. Muir, Michael R. Cope, Leslie R. Angeningish, Jorden E. Jackson

Faculty Publications

Disasters are associated strongly with forced migration. Indeed, migration is a standard survival strategy for those facing disruptions of this kind. Such is the case with Mt. Merapi, Indonesia, where a series of eruptions occurred in 2010. Mechanisms related to forced migration in such scenarios are fairly well understood, yet it remains less clear what factors may influence return migration. Given local interest in facilitating resettlement out of hazardous areas as a means of risk reduction, our objective in this study is to explore the extent to which recovery aid may create incentives for households to move on rather than …

Parent Financial Socialization Scale: Development And Preliminary Validation, Ashley B. Lebaron, Melissa A. Curran, E. Jeffery Hill, Margaret E. Freeh, Russell B. Toomey, Katherine E. Speirs

Faculty Publications

A theoretically-grounded, validated measure of parent financial socialization is needed. This paper describes the development and validation process of three new scales: the Parent Financial Modeling Scale (eight items), the Parent-Child Financial Discussion Scale (nine items), and the Experiential Learning of Finances Scale (three items). These may be treated as subscales of a multidimensional latent construct: the Parent Financial Socialization Scale (20 items). The three scales measure the three primary methods of family financial socialization. The scales are designed to be retrospective, with target participants being U.S. emerging adults (age 18-30). A rigorous development process was undertaken: an initial pool …

The Lengthening Transition To Adulthood: Financial Parenting And Recentering During The College-To-Career Transition, Joyce Serido, Ashley B. Lebaron, Lijun Li, Emily Parrot, Soyeon Shim

Faculty Publications

Using longitudinal data collected from a college cohort in the United States (N = 922), we examined the associations between systemic and structural factors (gender, race/ethnicity, family SES, and first-generation college status), financial parenting (teaching, and modeling behavior), and emerging adults’ financial behavior. We conducted a series of one-way repeated measure ANOVA analyses (GLM) to assess patterns of average change in financial parenting and financial behavior in the first year in college, fourth year in college, and two years after college and found evidence suggestive of recentering—a gradual transfer of responsibility during emerging adulthood from parent-directed behavior to self-directed behavior; …

Covenant Language In Biblical Religions And The Book Of Mormon, Noel B. Reynolds

Faculty Publications

In this essay I have tried to provide a broad survey of the concept of covenant for Latter-day Saint students of the Bible and the Book of Mormon. I began with a sketch of the history of covenant theology in the Christian tradition showing how the early New Testament idea of a baptismal covenant was soon replaced by the Christian institution of sacraments. Although the covenant idea played little role in the historical developments of Christian theology, it did resurge in the Reformation, but without widespread theological impact.

In contrast, over the last century, the role of the covenant idea …

The Language Of Repentance In The Book Of Mormon, Noel B. Reynolds

Faculty Publications

Efforts to understand the doctrine of repentance in the Book of Mormon have long been hampered by linguistic considerations—and especially the traditional translation provided in the King James Version of the Bible. Twentieth century studies provide a needed correction to this situation and open a wealth of potential new understandings of Book of Mormon discourse on repentance. Further, the discovery that the Book of Mormon uses the common biblical figure of speech of hendiadys repeatedly to expand and enrich the concept of repentance beyond biblical usage helps readers appreciate the ways in which repentance can be seen as the most …

Faith And Faithfulness In The Book Of Mormon, Noel B. Reynolds

Faculty Publications

The concept of covenantal faithfulness toward Yahweh that Old Testament scholars have recognized and defined over the last century turns out to be a far better account of the Book of Mormon understanding of faith in the Lord, in Jesus Christ, than are any of the competing concepts of faith that have grown out of the Christian tradition over the last two millennia. For the Nephite prophets, faith was an active concept, better understood as faithfulness—as diligent obedience to the commandments the Lord has given to those who have accepted the gospel covenant through repentance and baptism. The divine …

Migration And Mental Health In The Aftermath Of Disaster: Evidence From Mt. Merapi, Indonesia, Jonathan A. Muir, Michael R. Cope, Leslie R. Angeningsih, Jorden E. Jackson, Ralph B. Brown

Faculty Publications

Migration is a standard survival strategy in the context of disasters. While prior studies have examined factors associated with return migration following disasters, an area that remains relatively underexplored is whether moving home to one’s original community results in improved health and well-being compared to other options such as deciding to move on. In the present study, our objective is to explore whether return migration, compared to other migration options, results in superior improvements to mental health. We draw upon data from a cross-sectional pilot study conducted 16 months after a series of volcanic eruptions in Merapi, Indonesia. Using ordinal …

Association Between Exposure To Air Pollution And Hippocampal Volume In Adults In The Uk Biobank, Dawson W. Hedges, Lance D. Erickson, Jackie Kunzelman, Bruce L. Brown, Shawn D. Gale

Faculty Publications

Background: The hippocampus is important for memory processing. Several neuropsychiatric diseases including Alzheimer’s disease are associated with reduced hippocampal volume, and further the hippocampus appears vulnerable to environmental insult. Air pollution has been associated with cardiovascular disease, abnormal brain structure, and cognitive deficits.

Objective: Because of hippocampal vulnerability to environmental insults and based on the association between exposure to air pollution and cognitive function and brain structure, we evaluated the association between exposure to toxins in air pollution and left and right hippocampal volume using brain-imaging and air-pollution data from the UK Biobank, a large community-based dataset.

Methods …

Examining Religious Commitment, Personality, And Well-Being Among Latter-Day Saints, Kawika Allen, Ofa Hafoka, Lane Fischer

Faculty Publications

This study examined religious commitment, the big five personality traits, social interaction anxiety, and anger among 110 members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS). Results suggest the majority of the participants are religious, score high on agreeableness and conscientiousness, and low on social interaction anxiety and anger. Agreeableness mediated the relationship between religious commitment and anger, and extraversion moderated the relationship between religious commitment and social interaction anxiety. Counseling strategies are discussed for social work providers. Implications and future directions are discussed.

Vanishing Wealth, Vanishing Votes? Latino Homeownership And The 2016 Election In Florida, Jacob Rugh

Faculty Publications

In this article, I explore how race, class, and migration influence Latino household wealth, and uncover important implications for the close 2016 US presidential election outcome in Florida. I follow over 11,000 homeowners in the Orlando area of Orange County, Florida from 2004 to 2016. To proxy for immigrant incorporation, I leverage matched voter registration records and direct observation of borrower identification – driver’s license, green card/passport, or undocumented identification. Documented immigrants appear least vulnerable to foreclosure; multivariate analyses show that Latinos with undocumented identification are most vulnerable. Foreclosure and negative equity predict decreases in voter activity among Latino Democrats …

Supbrime Lending/Foreclosure Crisis, Jacob Rugh

Faculty Publications

Subprime mortgage lending in the USA rose alongside home prices and lasted about 15 years, ending abruptly in late 2007, setting off a national foreclosure crisis. Between 2007 and 2012 there were 9 to 12 million foreclosures filings and 4 to 5 million completed foreclosures. The ensuing foreclosure crisis stemmed more from falling home prices but its unequal distribution across society by race and space was also the product of legacies of exclusion and a shared consensus on the expansion of mortgage credit and home ownership. Modest federal interventions to buffer communities and homeowners from the crisis likely reinforced the …

Paternal Self-Efficacy: A Parenting Resilience Factor For Fathers With Depression, Mark Herrick Trahan, Kevin Shafer

Faculty Publications

Parental depression has a negative effect on child development including mental and physical health, language and development, and externalizing and internalizing behavior. This quantitative research study examined the relationship between paternal self-efficacy (PSE) and parenting behaviors often associated with paternal depression. Data from the Survey of Contemporary Fathers were used and responses from self-identified fathers (n = 1,156) on paternal involvement, warmth, harsh parenting practices, and parenting self-efficacy were analyzed to assess the association between depression and PSE on fathering behavior. Ordinary least squares regression analysis indicated that depression was associated with harsh parenting and parenting warmth, while parenting self-efficacy …

Parental Influence On Mate Selection In Modern Chinese Society, Szu-Yu Lin, Richard B. Miller, Li Ping Su-Kubricht, Jason Whiting, Roy Bean, Chih-Han Hsieh, Tsui-Shan Li

Faculty Publications

Traditional patterns of mate selection in Chinese societies involving arranged marriages by parents have been changing towards individual choice of a marriage partner. However, it is unclear to what extent this transition has occurred in Chinese society. The values and experiences of contemporary Chinese adults about parental influences on mate selection were addressed by conducting six focus groups in Taipei, Taiwan, which included a total of 51 participants. The results from qualitative analysis indicated that most participants did not feel obligated to have their parents' influence who they would marry. However, most of them wished for their parents to approve …

The Language Of The Spirit In The Book Of Mormon, Noel B. Reynolds

Faculty Publications

This study provides students of the Book of Mormon with the first comprehensive analysis of the many ways in which the word spirit is used in that volume of scripture. It demonstrates how the titles Holy Ghost, Spirit of God, Spirit of the Lord, Holy Spirit, and the Spirit are used interchangeably to refer to the third member of the God. It also shows that the Holy Ghost was understood to be a separate being. The analysis is thoroughly integrated with scholarly studies of references to the spirit ( rûah ) in the Hebrew Bible. The functions of the Holy …

Associations Of Ambivalent Leadership With Distress And Cortisol Secretion, Wendy C. Birmingham, Raphael M. Herr, Frenk Van Harreveld, Bert N. Uchino, Adrian Loerbroks, Joachim E. Fischer, Jos A. Bosch

Faculty Publications

Ambivalent social ties, i.e., whereby a relationship is evaluated simultaneously in positive and negative terms, are a potential source of distress and can perturb health-relevant biological functions. Social interactions at the workplace, in particular with supervisors, are often described in ambivalent terms, but the psychological and psychobiological impact of such interactions has received little scientific attention. The current study examined associations between ambivalent attitudes towards one’s supervisor, perceived distress (general and work-related), and diurnal dynamics of the stress hormone cortisol. 613 employees evaluated their supervisor in terms of positive and negative behaviors, which was combined into an ambivalent index. Higher …

The Pornography Debate: Religiosity And Support For Censorship, Brian A. Droubay, Robert P. Butters, Kevin Shafer

Faculty Publications

Pornography has become an increasingly salient topic in public discourse. We sought to better understand the role of religiosity in shaping people’s support of policy stances against pornography, in the form of censorship, using nationally representative data from the 2014 General Social Survey (n = 1676). Results from logistic regression indicate that high religiosity significantly increases odds of supporting censorship. Holding control variables at their sample means, the least religious persons had a predicted probability of 0.09 of supporting censorship, compared to 0.57 for the most religious respondents. We discuss these findings within the context of the current public …

The Great Recession And The Destruction Of Minority Wealth, Douglas S. Massey, Jacob S. Rugh

Faculty Publications

It seems obvious now, but there was a time when social scientists paid little attention to wealth as a factor in America's system of racial stratification. For many years, researchers focused primarily on black-white differentials in education, employment, and earnings; and in these dimensions progress was clearly being made. From 1963 (just before the passage of major civil rights legislation) to 2001 (just after the economic boom of the 1990s), the ratio of black-to-white median household income rose from 33 percent to 64 percent. Over the same period, the black-white ratio for high school graduates climbed from 51% to 89%, …