Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Of Boys And Men: Why The Modern Male Is Struggling, Why It Matters, And What To Do About It, Richard Reeves

Brookings Scholar Lecture Series

Boys and men are struggling. Profound economic and social changes of recent decades have many losing ground in the classroom, the workplace, and in the family. While the lives of women have changed, the lives of many men have remained the same or even deteriorated. Our attitudes, our institutions, and our laws have failed to keep up. Conservative and progressive politicians, mired in their own ideological warfare, fail to provide thoughtful solutions.

The father of three sons, a journalist, and a Brookings Institution scholar, Richard V. Reeves has spent twenty-five years worrying about boys both at home and work. His …

The Persistent Southern Disadvantage In Us Early Life Mortality, 1965‒2014, Nathan T. Dollar, Iliya Gutin, Elizabeth M. Lawrence, David B. Braudt, Samuel H. Fishman, Richard G. Rogers, Robert A. Hummer

Sociology Faculty Research

Background: Recent studies of US adult mortality demonstrate a growing disadvantage among southern states. Few studies have examined long-term trends and geographic patterns in US early life (ages 1 to 24) mortality, ages at which key risk factors and causes of death are quite different than among adults. Objective: This article examines trends and variations in early life mortality rates across US states and census divisions. We assess whether those variations have changed over a 50-year time period and which causes of death contribute to contemporary geographic disparities. Methods: We calculate all-cause and cause-specific death rates using death certificate data …

A History Of Play In Print Board Games From The Renaissance To Milton Bradley, Kelli Wood

Occasional Papers

This essay considers how a historical legacy of printed games dating back to the sixteenth century in Italy laid the foundation for modern board games like those produced by Milton Bradley. The technology of print and the broad publics it reached enabled the spread of a common gaming culture- one built upon shared visual structures in game boards. Modern board games, of course, relied upon similar rules and replicated the ludic functions of their Renaissance progenitors. But perhaps more importantly, they built upon and perpetuated entrenched narratives about how fortune and morality contributed to lived experiences, presenting their viewers and …

Thing-Makers, Tool Freaks And Prototypers: How The Whole Earth Catalog’S Optimistic Message Reinvented The Environmental Movement In 1968, Andy Kirk

History Faculty Research

In the fall of 1968 a Stanford-trained biologist, organizer of the legendary Trips Festival and Merry Prankster named Stewart Brand published the first Whole Earth Catalog. Between 1968 and 1972, the Catalog reached millions of readers and won the National Book Award. The title and iconic cover image of this counterculture classic celebrated the first publicly released NASA photographs showing the whole planet Earth from space. These images profoundly changed the way humans thought about the environment. And the Catalog played an important role in that change.

In Praise Of Doing Nothing, Simon Gottschalk

Sociology Faculty Research

No abstract provided.

Aging Trends & Challenges In Nevada, Jennifer R. Keene, Jacqueline Ragin

Social Health of Nevada Reports

Societal aging is one of the most important social trends of the 21st century. It affects our political, social, and economic institutions and also the nature of our interpersonal and family relationships (Quadagno 2011). In the coming decades, both as individuals and as a society, we will have to make important decisions regarding the consequences of our aging population. Policy makers, families, businesses, local, state, and federal governments, health care providers will have to meet the growing needs of the older population in the U.S. and in Nevada.

By the year 2020, the percent of the U.S. population over age …

Family Life And Divorce In Nevada, Katherine Hertlein Ph.D., Anita Horvath, Julia Seyferth-Smith

Social Health of Nevada Reports

This chapter surveys family life and divorce in Nevada. Its main goal is to provide readers with a broad understanding of marriage patterns and divorce trends in the Silver State. After presenting history and marriage dynamics in the United Sates, the authors review wedding-related expenses and present data illuminating the differences between Nevada and other states, as well as provide cross-county comparisons.

This report discusses legal grounds for divorce in Nevada, the no-fault procedures governing the divorce process, the custody issues facing the divorcing spouses, and the circumstances under which alimony may be due to parties involved in a divorce …

Child Abuse And Neglect In Nevada, Ramona W. Denby-Brinson, Hanna Haran

Social Health of Nevada Reports

Child maltreatment in Nevada reflects the general social, economic, and health conditions within the state and its local communities. This chapter starts with various definitions of child abuse and neglect, focusing on the approach adopted by Nevada legislators and comparing it with competing definitions. Next, this report examines child abuse and neglect rates in Nevada and tracks the progress the state has made toward achieving its goals related to child welfare outcomes, including child protection and safety, child permanency, and child well-being. The discussion then moves to the most promising child welfare intervention practices and approaches. Finally, the chapter outlines …

America’S New Demography: Rising Minorities, Aging Boomers, And Emerging Cultural Gaps, William H. Frey

Brookings Scholar Lecture Series

There are major demographic changes occurring in the United States right now. As the number of whites is declining among children and in many communities, we are seeing growth in other racial groups, particularly the Hispanic population. In fact, estimates are that by 2043 the United States will be “majority-minority." The Brookings Institution’s William Frey will discuss how these population shifts will impact different different parts of the country, their politics, and related policies. He will explore how the changes will continue to affect Americans for decades to come.

Awareness And Beliefs Regarding Intimate Partner Violence Among First-Year Dental Students, Rhonda J. Everett, Karl Kingsley, Christina A. Demopoulos, Edward E. Herschaft, Christine Lamun, Sheniz Moonie, Timothy J. Bungum, Michelle Chino

Environmental & Occupational Health Faculty Publications

Intimate partner violence (IPV) may affect one to four million individuals per year in the United States, with women accounting for the majority of both reported and unreported cases. Dental professionals are in a unique position to identify many types of IPV because injuries to the head and neck may be indicators or predictors of IPV abuse. Fewer than half of dental programs surveyed have reported having IPV-specific curricula, and most dental students surveyed have reported having little experience or training to recognize IPV. Based on this information, this pilot study sought to assess the awareness and beliefs regarding IPV …

Parent And Family Engagement: The Missing Piece In Urban Education Reform, Sonya D. Horsford, Tonia Faye Holmes-Sutton

Lincy Institute Reports and Briefs

Parent and family engagement in the educational lives of children and youth positively influence student learning and achievement. While this connection may seem obvious, varying ideals of parent engagement limit the ways in which school communities understand, encourage, and benefit from meaningful school‐home‐community interactions. This is frequently the case in culturally diverse, urban communities where education reform has focused heavily on high‐stakes testing, teacher accountability, and school choice, but less on the fragile connections that often exist between schools and the families they serve. The purpose of this policy brief is to review selected research on parent involvement and expand …

Child Abuse And Neglect In Nevada, Ramona W. Denby

Social Health of Nevada Reports

Child maltreatment in Nevada reflects the general social, economic, and health conditions within the state and its local communities. This chapter starts with various definitions of child abuse and neglect, focusing on the approach adopted by Nevada legislators and comparing it to competing definitions. Next, this report examines child abuse and neglect rates in Nevada and tracks the progress the state has made towards achieving its goals related to child welfare outcomes, including child protection and safety, child permanency, and child well-being. After that, the discussion moves to the most promising child welfare intervention practices and approaches. Finally, the chapter …

Prenatal Care And Infant Mortality In Nevada, Douglas L. Garner, Roger Cleveland, A. Dexter Samuels, Tiffany G. Tyler

Social Health of Nevada Reports

The U.S. outspends all other industrial countries on health care, and yet Americans hardly enjoy better health (Gorman 2010). An American baby born in 2006 can expect to live 78 years – two years less than a baby born across the Canadian border. The U.S. ranks 28th in infant mortality out of the 30 major industrial countries (Gorman 2010). A large part of the gap in infant mortality can be traced to high infant death rates in certain populations, particularly African-Americans who make up about 13% of the total population. In 2005, infant mortality for non-Hispanic blacks in the U.S. …

Aging Trends And Challenges In Nevada, Jennifer Reid Keene, Kathryn Mcclain, Jacqueline Ragin

Social Health of Nevada Reports

Societal aging is one of the most important social trends of the 21st century. It affects our political, social, and economic institutions and also the nature of our interpersonal and family relationships (Quadagno 2011). In the coming decades, both as individuals and as a society, we will have to make important decisions regarding the consequences of our aging population. Policy makers, families, businesses, local, state, and federal governments, health care providers will have to meet the growing needs of the older population in the U.S. and in Nevada.

Happiness Around The World: The Paradox Of Happy Peasants And Miserable Millionaires, Carol Graham

Brookings Scholar Lecture Series

For centuries the pursuit of happiness was the preserve of philosophers. More recently there is a burgeoning interest in the study of happiness in the social sciences. Can we really answer the question what makes people happy? Is it grounded in credible methods and data? Is there consistency in the determinants of happiness across countries and cultures? Are happiness levels innate to individuals or can policy and the environment make a difference? How is happiness affected by poverty and by progress? This presentation introduces a line of research which is both an attempt to understand the determinants of happiness and …

Creating An Opportunity Society, Ron Haskins

Brookings Scholar Lecture Series

America presents citizens and immigrants with great opportunity to get ahead. Even so, there is less mobility in America than in other industrialized nations and perhaps less than in the past. Individuals, parents, communities, and governments at all levels can do a lot to promote mobility and opportunity. Specific proposals for increasing opportunity, many supported by good evidence, will be presented.

Las Vegas Metropolitan Area Social Survey 2010 Highlights, Robert Futrell, Christie D. Batson, Barbara G. Brents, Andrea Dassopoulos, Chrissy Nicholas, Mark J. Salvaggio, Candace Griffith

Reports (USI)

UNLV sociologists conducted the Las Vegas Metropolitan Area Social Survey (LVMASS) to identify the socio-spatial distribution of attitudes and attributes relevant to urban sustainability in the Las Vegas Valley. The project goal is to understand how Las Vegas residents think about urban sustainability issues across three dimensions: 1) natural environment; 2) community and quality of life; 3) economy.

Gendered Disparities In Take-Ups Of Employee Health Benefits, Jennifer Reid Keene, Anastasia H. Prokos

Sociology Faculty Research

Using a sample of 2,271 workers from the 2002 National Study of the Changing Workforce whose employers offered personal health insurance, this article investigates the gendered nature of health insurance benefit take-ups. These analyses include family and employment characteristics in addition to employers’ contributions to health insurance premiums, a measure that is unexamined in sociological analyses of health benefits. Progressive logistic regression models predict the effects of gender and family characteristics. Results indicate that women with employed spouses are less likely to take up their own health benefits than are comparable men, net of basic employment characteristics. Gender differences disappear, …

Widowhood And The End Of Spousal Caregiving: Wear And Tear Or Relief?, Jennifer Reid Keene, Anastasia H. Prokos

Sociology Faculty Research

This paper analyses the impact of spousal care-giving on survivors’ depressive symptoms six months into widowhood, and examines the applicability of a ‘ relief model’ of spousal adjustment during bereavement. We examine several aspects of the care-giving situation, including care-giver stress, care-giving demands, and type and duration of care and how these affect survivors’ depressive symptomatology. The sample is drawn from two waves of the Changing Lives of Older Couples (CLOC) survey, which was conducted in the United States in the Detroit Metropolitan Area, Michigan. The first wave of data was collected from couples and the second from the surviving …

Unlv Magazine, Grace Russell, Gian Galassi, Shane Bevell, Karyn S. Hollingsworth, Jennifer Lawson, Lori Bachand, Cate Weeks, Erin O'Donnell, Peter Starkweather

UNLV Magazine

No abstract provided.

Inside Unlv, Diane Russell, Cate Weeks, Shane Bevell, Mamie Peers, Lori Bachand

Inside UNLV

No abstract provided.

Child Abuse And Neglect In Nevada, Denise Tanata, Susan Klein-Rothschild

Social Health of Nevada Reports

Child maltreatment is a critical issue facing our nation and our state. Child abuse and neglect impacts the lives of thousands of children and families every day.

• In 2003, an estimated 906,000 children were determined to be victims of child abuse and neglect in the United States. This equates to a victimization rate of 12.4 per 1,000 children in the population.
• These figures, however, only represent the number of substantiated cases of abuse and neglect. In 2003, approximately 2.9 million referrals concerning the welfare of an estimated 5.5 million children were made to child protective service agencies in 2003.

Marriage And Family Life In Nevada, Stephen M. Wilson, Jeanne Hilton

Social Health of Nevada Reports

For almost twenty years, Nevada has been the fastest growing state in the country. Much of this growth is due to numerous immigrant and retiree families moving in every day, creating unique challenges to the state. On the other hand, Nevada ’s families, like families in the rest of the United States , are changing in predictable ways. Over the last century, families have become smaller and more diverse. Today, families are not only smaller, but they move more often, have more family members living into old age, enjoy better health, and have more education and wealth than has been …

Environment And The Quality Of Life In Nevada, Robert Futrell

Social Health of Nevada Reports

When the first environmental decade was launched in the U.S. more than thirty years ago with the inaugural Earth Day, protecting our air, water, land and other natural resources seemed a relatively simple task. Environmental polluters and exploiters would be brought to heel by tough laws. The U.S. and other industrialized nations responded to quality of life concerns associated with the degradation of the natural environment by adopting dozens of major environmental and resource policies and creating new institutions such as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to manage environmental programs. With a sense of urgency Congress passed the Clean Air …

Conclusion: Social Capital And The Quality Of Life In Nevada, Craig Walton

Social Health of Nevada Reports

Our contributors have presented data and analyses which bring up questions Nevadans need to raise when they talk about the kind of home we want Nevada to be. We must take seriously their findings, their recommendations, and their pleas for help. These social indicators must be re-visited periodically. We make a beginning today, but we need to sustain public discussion of these problems of poor social capital in our home town and home state. Aristotle mentioned that a large number of people in one place does not make a community – practices, customs, institutions, and a shared moral culture change …

Inside Unlv, Lanelda Rolley, Shane Bevell, Carol C. Harter, Lanelda Rolley, Mamie Peers, Diane Russell

Inside UNLV

No abstract provided.

2005- 2008 Unlv Mcnair Journal, Valerie Avery, Shana Bachus, Karmen K. Boehlke, Andrea Flores, Alden Kelly, Erick Lopez, Carol Preussler, Heather Shay, Ava Bookatz, Shaun Elsasser, Veronica Hicks, Shaida A. Jetha, Anthony Quinn, Thurithabhani Seneviratne, Teddy Boado Sim Jr., Liza Ward, Amris Henry-Rodgers, Jacquelynn Kaaa-Logan, Jason Orozco, Juan C. Plata, Bonnie Bartlett, Kathleen Bell, Vacheral M. Carter, Nydia Diaz, Kimberly Hackstock, Julio A. Luna, Charles Mao, Sandra Ramos, Precious Rideout, Benjamin Lee Watrous, Chet R. Whitley

McNair Journal

Journal articles based on research conducted by undergraduate students in the McNair Scholars Program

Table of Contents

Biography of Dr. Ronald E. McNair

Statements:

Dr. Neal J. Smatresk, UNLV President

Dr. Juanita P. Fain, Vice President of Student Affairs

Dr. William W. Sullivan, Associate Vice President for Retention and Outreach

Mr. Keith Rogers, Deputy Executive Director of the Center for Academic Enrichment and Outreach

McNair Scholars Institute Staff

Predictors Of Perceived Work-Family Balance: Gender Difference Or Gender Similarity?, Jennifer Reid Keene, Jill Quadagno

Sociology Faculty Research

This article uses the 1996 General Social Survey (GSS) and the 1992 National Study of the Changing Workforce (NSCW) to examine two issues: the relationship of work characteristics, family characteristics, and work-family spillover to perceptions of work-family balance; and models of “gender difference” versus “gender similarity.” The GSS analysis supports the gender similarity model. It demonstrates that work demands such as the number of hours worked per week and work spillover into family life are the most salient predictors of feelings of imbalance for both women and men. The NSCW includes subtler measures of family spillover into work as well …

The Right To Die: An Old Woman's Formula, Mary Guinan

Public Health Faculty Publications

On December 26, 1990, Nancy Cruzan died, 12 days after her feeding tube was removed. She had been in an irreversible coma for seven years and her parents had sued for the right to remove the feeding tube that was keeping her alive. The pain and suffering of her family in coming to this decision was certainly compounded by those who disagreed with them and tried to prevent the extubation. Whether one agrees with this particular decision or not, most of us will not be faced with such clear alternatives, ie, leave the tube in or take it out in …

Domestic Violence: Physicians A Link To Prevention, Mary Guinan

Public Health Faculty Publications

Domestic violence may result in more injuries and fatalities for women than automobile crashes, muggings, and rapes combined, but according to a recent editorial, physicians largely ignore the problem. Evidence showed that a majority of women treated at an emergency facility for injuries resulting from violent acts of spouses or other persons known to the victims were discharged without any arrangement being made for their future safety. Physicians rarely inquired about an injury victim's past sexual or physical abuse, living arrangements, or future prospects of safety.