Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Partner Influence In Diet And Exercise Behaviors: Testing Behavior Modeling, Social Control, And Normative Body Size, Brea Perry, Gabriele Ciciurkaite, Christy Freadreacea Brady, Justin Garcia

Sociology Faculty Publications

Previous research has documented social contagion in obesity and related health behaviors, but less is known about the social processes underlying these patterns. Focusing on married or cohabitating couples, we simultaneously explore three potential social mechanisms influencing obesity: normative body size, social control, and behavior modeling. We analyze the association between partner characteristics and the obesity-related health behaviors of focal respondents, comparing the effects of partners’ body type, partners’ attempts to manage respondents’ eating behaviors, and partners’ own health behaviors on respondents’ health behaviors (physical activity, fruit and vegetable consumption, and fast food consumption). Data on 215 partners are extracted …

Misalignment Of Career And Educational Aspirations In Middle School: Differences Across Race, Ethnicity, And Socioeconomic Status, Brea L. Perry, Elizabeth Martinez, Edward W. Morris, Tanja C. Link, Carl G. Leukefeld

Sociology Faculty Publications

Misalignment of educational and career goals (i.e., educational aspirations expressed are inadequate for attaining one’s desired occupation) is associated with lower educational attainment and a lack of college readiness, and may contribute to persistent educational and employment disparities. Drawing on data from 249 sixth graders in low-income schools, this research examines misalignment between educational and career aspirations across racial and ethnic and socioeconomic groups. Findings indicate that students in low-income schools aspire to middle and upper middle class careers, but sometimes lack an understanding of the educational degrees required to achieve their goals. Latinos are significantly more likely than other …

Reconsidering The Orphan Problem: The Emergence Of Male Caregivers In Lesotho, Ellen Block

Sociology Faculty Publications

Care for AIDS orphans in southern Africa is frequently characterized as a "crisis", where kin-based networks of care are thought to be on the edge of collapse. Yet these care networks, though strained by AIDS, are still the primary mechanisms for orphan care, in large part because of the essential role grandmothers play in responding to the needs of orphans. Ongoing demographic shifts as a result of HIV/AIDS and an increasingly feminized labor market continue to disrupt and alter networks of care for orphans and vulnerable children. This paper examines the emergence of a small but growing number of male …

African American Female Offender's Use Of Alternative And Traditional Health Services After Re-Entry: Examining The Behavioral Model For Vulnerable Populations, Carrie B. Oser, Amanda M. Bunting, Erin L. Pullen, Danelle Stevens-Watkins

Sociology Faculty Publications

This is the first known study to use the Gelberg-Andersen Behavioral Model for Vulnerable Populations to predict African American women's use of three types of health services (alternative, hospitalization, and ambulatory) in the 18 months after release from prison. In the multivariate models, the most robust predictors of all three types of service utilization were in the vulnerable theoretical domains. Alternative health services were predicted by ethnic community membership, higher religiosity, and HIV/HCV. Hospitalizations were predicted by the lack of barriers to health care and disability. Ambulatory office visits were predicted by more experiences of gendered racism, a greater number …

Decreasing Obesity And Obesity Stigma: Socio-Demographic Differences In Beliefs About Causes Of And Responsibility For Obesity, Christy F. Brady

Sociology Faculty Publications

Obesity is a stigmatized condition, and research has shown that obesity stigma varies based on the perceived cause of obesity. It is important that public health professionals develop policy and campaigns that resonate with specific populations while avoiding an increase in harmful stigma. This study identifies socio-demographic differences in causal attributions of obesity and beliefs about responsibility for obesity. Using data from a survey of 923 people in the United States conducted by ABC New/Time Magazine, attributions of cause and responsibility are analyzed using Ordinary Least Squares regression. Beliefs about cause and responsibility fall on a continuum from primarily individual …

From Athletes To Astrophysicists: Gender Differences In Patterns And Predictors Of Career Aspirations In Pre-Adolescence, Brea L. Perry, Edward W. Morris, Tanja C. Link, Carl G. Leukefeld

Sociology Faculty Publications

This paper adds to research on girls’ growing educational advantage by examining gender differences in career paths. Using baseline data from an intervention study (TRY-IT!) targeting 265 sixth-graders in Title I schools, our research traces adolescent career aspirations by gender, race and class. Additionally, we investigate whether girls and boys exhibit differential sensitivity to environmental risk and protective factors that shape career and educational aspirations. We find that the career choices of boys vary more widely by social context, including socioeconomic status, race, and academic resources. Specifically, among youth with fewer social and academic advantages, girls aspire to more practical …

Master Of None Lacks Class, Colby King

Sociology Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Atlanta Youth Count! 2015: Homeless Youth Count And Needs Assessment, Eric Wright, Erin Ruel, Morgan Justice Fuoco, Alex Trouteaud, Travis Sanchez, Ana Laboy, Halley Myers, Kara Tsukerman, Christopher Vidmar, Matthew Gayman, Nicholas Forge, Ciara Smalls-Glover, Courtney Anderson, Robin Hartinger-Saunders

Sociology Faculty Publications

In early 2015, researchers, community advocates, service providers, and students from across metro Atlanta joined together to plan and conduct the Atlanta Youth Count and Needs Assessment (AYCNA). The goals of the project were to: 1) provide metro-Atlanta service providers, policymakers, and youth advocates practical information on the size, nature, and needs of the homeless, precariously housed, and runaway youth in our community; 2) collect information that can be used to develop and refine policies, programs, and interventions to help these youth in our community; and 3) encourage a community-wide dialogue about the needs and social determinants of youth homelessness. …

You Say Bully, I Say Bullied: School Culture And Definitions Of Bullying In Two Elementary Schools, Brent D. Harger

Sociology Faculty Publications

Purpose

This chapter examines the definitions of bullying used by students and adults in elementary schools and the effects that these definitions had within the broader school culture.

Design/methodology/approach

I combine interviews with 53 students and 10 adults and over 430 hours of participant observation with fifth grade students at two rural elementary schools.

Findings

Definitions of bullying held by those in these schools typically differed from those used by researchers. Even when individuals held definitions that were in line with those used by researchers, however, a focus on identifying bullies rather than on behaviors that fit definitions of bullying …

The Specter Of Discrimination: Fear Of Interpersonal Racial Discrimination Among Adolescents In Chicago, Daniel Herda

Sociology Faculty Publications

This analysis examines fear of interpersonal racial discrimination among Black, Hispanic, and White adolescents. The extent and correlates of these concerns are examined using survey data from the Project for Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods. Borrowing from the fear-of-crime literature, the contact hypothesis, and group threat theory, several hypotheses are developed linking discrimination fear to direct personal experience with discrimination, indirect or vicarious experience, and environmental signals of discrimination. Results show that about half of Blacks and Hispanics have feared discrimination in the past year. Multivariate results indicate that fear is most likely if one has experienced victimization first-hand and …

The Aids House: Orphan Care And The Changing Household In Lesotho, Ellen Block

Sociology Faculty Publications

HIV/AIDS has brought the connections between care and relatedness into sharp relief. In the midst of social change driven largely by the AIDS epidemic, the house has emerged as the most stable element connecting kin in Lesotho. Houses provide spaces that frame human actions, transform relationships, and reflect the social order. The house is a key crossroads for human movement. It is also the site where physical connections, emotional bonds, and feelings of love and affection are nurtured. Most significantly, it is the site where physical acts of caring take place. Based on extensive ethnographic research, I demonstrate that the …

Paternity Matters: Premarital Childbearing And Belonging In Nyanga East And Mokhotlong, Nolwazi Mkhwanazi, Ellen Block

Sociology Faculty Publications

In this article we discuss the role that fathers and paternal families play in acknowledging and caring for children born outside of a recognised union in two southern African communities – Nyanga East, South Africa and Mokhotlong, Lesotho. While these communities are geographically and culturally close, there are important differences in the responses to the care of children born outside of a recognised union. In Nyanga East, despite not paying damages, the genitor and the paternal family are increasingly becoming involved in the care of children, even when they are no longer in a relationship with the mother; whereas in …

Nonstandard Parental Employment Schedules And Father Involvement, Matthew Weinshenker

Sociology Faculty Publications

This study assesses the impact of nonstandard employment schedules (shift work) on parenting among U.S. fathers of young children in dual-earner couples. The outcomes examined include total caregiving, caregiving without the mother present, and the elements of father involvement proposed by Pleck: positive engagement, warmth, and control. Models with latent variables and with lagged dependent variables are estimated using three waves of nationally-representative data from the Early Child Longitudinal Study – Birth Cohort (ECLS-B). The results indicate that employment scheduling mainly shapes the context in which involvement takes place. Compared to dual-earner couples who are each employed during the day, …

Elderly Undocumented Latinos And Their Retirement Strategies, Alfredo Torres, Jose A. Munoz, Rubi Becerril

Sociology Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Carnival Mirror And Institutional Forms Of Deviance: A Reflexive Paper Assignment, Jose A. Munoz

Sociology Faculty Publications

The reflexive paper assignment presented here calls on students to reflect on their own family and/or personal experiences in order to answer the question, “From where does the greatest harm arise?” In The Rich Get Richer and the Poor Get Prison: Ideology, Class and Criminal Justice, Reiman and Leighton (2010) make the case that the criminal justice system presents to us a carnival mirror-like image of what causes the greatest harm to society. The criminal justice system, through its policies and procedures, leads the public to conceive of a typical sort of crime committed by the typical criminal. The …

Undergraduates’ Awareness And Perceptions Of Globalization: A Comparison Of U.S. And Chinese Students, Brett Zollinger, Fu Runfeng, Keith Campbell

Sociology Faculty Publications

Assessing current awareness of and attitudes toward predominant globalization processes among undergraduate students is helpful for future course design, particularly courses about globalization or those with substantial globalization components. Such assessments also provide research opportunities for understanding changing levels of awareness and attitudes among undergraduate students over time. This paper reports research about the knowledge and perceptions of globalization concepts and trends among undergraduate students. The analysis compares findings among U.S. undergraduates at a Midwestern university (Midwest U.) with those among Chinese undergraduates at a university (China U.) in an east-central province of the country. Findings from two years of …