Sociology Commons^™

Farmers And Nature Conservation: What Is Known About Attitudes, Context Factors And Actions Affecting Conservation?, Johan Ahnström, Jenny Höckert, Hanna L. Bergea, Charles A. Francis, Peter Skelton, Lars Hallgren

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Farmers’ attitudes towards viability of specific conservation practices or actions strongly impact their decisions on adoption and change. This review of ‘attitude’ information reveals a wide range of perceptions about what conservation means and what the impacts of adoption will mean in economic and environmental terms. Farmers operate in a tight financial situation, and in parts of the world they are highly dependent on government subsidies, and cannot afford to risk losing that support. Use of conservation practices is most effective when these are understood in the context of the individual farm, and decisions are rooted in land and resource …

“It’S A Choice, Simple As That”: Youth Reasoning For Sexual Abstinence Or Activity, Rochelle L. Dalla

Department of Child, Youth, and Family Studies: Faculty Publications

This investigation was designed to fill gaps in the extant literature by examining reasons give by youth for refraining from or engaging in sexual intercourse, in addition to their perceptions regarding the advantages and disadvantages of premarital intercourse. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected from 103 graduating seniors; 60 self-identified as sexually abstinent and 43 as sexually active. Survey indices were used to assess parent-youth relationships, and parent and peer attitudes toward premarital sex, religiosity, and dating patterns; open-ended questions were used to assess reasons for either engaging in or refraining from sexual intercourse, and to identify benefits and problems …

Filastrocca Preschool In Pistoia, Italy: Promoting Early Literacy Through Books And The Imagination: A Conversation With Alga Giacomelli (Library Teacher),, Carolyn P. Edwards, Lella Gandini

Department of Child, Youth, and Family Studies: Faculty Publications

This manuscript is composed as if a ‘conversation,’ to let readers hear the different perspectives of the speakers. The chief source is the lecture prepared by Alga Giacomelli to accompany her presentation, The Space of Identity, 2005 Secondary sources are direct quotes from school documents and interviews (with approval and review of system administrators). The authors wish to acknowledge the children, families, and teachers of Filastrocca Preschool as the co-creators of this book. Special thanks to the Burchietti family who allowed the video team of Bambini: Early Care and Education in Pistoia, Italy, a Child-Friendly City (Video, 2003) to come …

Parent Engagement And School Readiness: Parent-Child Relationships In Early Learning, Carolyn P. Edwards, Susan M. Sheridan Dr., Lisa Knoche

Department of Child, Youth, and Family Studies: Faculty Publications

Parental behavior during a child’s first five years of life is critical for the development of important social and cognitive outcomes in children that set the stage for life-long adaptation and functioning. This chapter will review some of the key findings about the importance of parent-child relationships in early learning. Three dimensions of parent behavior will be described as “parental engagement”: (a) warmth and sensitivity, (b) support for a child’s emerging autonomy, and (c) active participation in learning. Cross-cultural variations in which the styles of these behaviors are expressed will also be considered.

Global Climate Change: Opinions And Perceptions Of Rural Nebraskans, Rebecca J. Vogt, Randolph L. Cantrell, Miguel A. Carranza, Bruce B. Johnson, David J. Peters

Publications from the Center for Applied Rural Innovation (CARI)

It is predicted that the earth’s climate will change because of the buildup of greenhouse gases. However, the exact effect of these gases on the climate is difficult to predict. Given these conditions, what do rural Nebraskans think about global climate change? Do they think global climate change will impact them? What are their opinions about the causes and effects of global climate change? This paper provides a detailed analysis of these questions.

This report details 2,496 responses to the 2008 Nebraska Rural Poll, the thirteenth annual effort to understand rural Nebraskans’ perceptions. Respondents were asked a series of questions …

Statistical Comparison Of Residential Soil Concentrations Of Pcdds, Pcdfs, And Pcbs From Two Communities In Michigan, Avery Demond, P. Adriaens, T. Towey, S.-C. Chang, B. Hong, Q. Chen, C.-W. Chang, A. J. Franzblau, D. Garabrant, B. Gillespie, E. Hedgeman, K. Knutson, C. Y. Lee, J. Lepkowski, Kristen M. Olson, B. Ward, L. Zwica, W. Luksemburg, M Maier

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

The University of Michigan dioxin exposure study was undertaken to address concerns that the industrial discharge of dioxin-like compounds in the Midland, MI area had resulted in contamination of soils in the Tittabawassee River floodplain and downwind of the incinerator. The study was designed in a rigorously statistical manner comprising soil measurements of 29 polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins (PCDDs), polychlorinated dibenzofurans (PCDFs), and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) from 766 residential properties, selected probabilistically, in the Midland area and in Jackson and Calhoun Counties (Michigan) as a background comparison. A statistical comparison determined that the geometric mean toxic equivalent (TEQ) levels in samples from …

Diagnostic Prevalence Rates From Early To Mid Adolescence Among Indigenous Adolescents: First Results From A Longitudinal Study, Les B. Whitbeck, Mansoo Yu, Kurt Johnson, Dan R. Hoyt, Melissa L. Walls

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

Objective: To investigate change in prevalence rates for mental and substance abuse disorders between early and mid-adolescence among a cohort of indigenous adolescents.

Method: The data are from a lagged, sequential study of 651 indigenous adolescents from a single culture in the northern Midwest United States and Canada. At waves 1 (ages 10-12 years) and 4 (ages 13-15 years), one adult caretaker and one tribally enrolled adolescent completed a computer-assisted personal interview that included Diagnostic Interview Schedule for Children- Revised assessment for 11 diagnoses. Multivariate analyses investigate effects of wave 1 adolescent diagnosis and wave 1 biological mother diagnosis (University …

Energy Use And Concerns Of Rural Nebraskans, Rebecca J. Vogt, Randolph L. Cantrell, Miguel A. Carranza, Bruce Johnson, David J. Peters

Publications from the Center for Applied Rural Innovation (CARI)

Energy prices have steadily increased during the past year. Rural residents are now faced with higher costs to drive and heat and cool their homes. Given these conditions, how much of a problem have rising energy costs been for rural Nebraskans? What are their opinions on future energy sources? What changes have they made or do they plan to make due to the price increases? This paper provides a detailed analysis of these questions.

This report details 2,496 responses to the 2008 Nebraska Rural Poll, the thirteenth annual effort to understand rural Nebraskans’ perceptions. Respondents were asked a series of …

Does The Corn/Soybean Farmer Have Time For Alternative Crops? [Abstract], Lori A. Hoagland, Laurie Hodges, Glenn A. Helmers, James R. Brandle, Charles A. Francis

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Diversification of traditional row-crop farming in the Corn Belt is seen as advantageous in providing a wider economic base, decreasing economic risk associated with the link between commodity grain and cattle, increasing net farm income, and increasing biodiversity in the region. As farm size has increased to provide sufficient farm income, farm operations during the critical planting and harvesting windows are seen as limits to additional on-farm enterprises.

The Importance Of Motherhood Among Women In The Contemporary United States, Julia Mcquillan, Arthur L. Greil, Karina M. Scheffler, Veronica Tichenor

Bureau of Sociological Research: Faculty Publications

We contribute to feminist and gender scholarship on cultural notions of motherhood by analyzing the importance of motherhood among mothers and non-mothers. Using a national probability sample (N = 2,519) of U.S. women ages 25-45, we find a continuous distribution of scores measuring perceptions of the importance of motherhood among both groups. Employing OLS multiple regression, we examine why some women place more importance on motherhood, focusing on interests that could compete with valuing motherhood (e.g., education, work success, leisure), and controlling for characteristics associated with becoming a mother. Contrary to cultural schemas that view mother and worker identities …

Trafficking In Persons Report, June 2008, Us Department Of State

Human Trafficking: Data and Documents

The Department of State is required by law to submit a Report each year to the U.S. Congress on foreign governments’ efforts to eliminate severe forms of traffi cking in persons. This Report is the eighth annual TIP Report. It is intended to raise global awareness, to highlight efforts of the international community, and to encourage foreign governments to take effective actions to counter all forms of traffi cking in persons.

Contents
Introduction 4-37 The 2008 Trafficking in Persons Report 5-18
Purpose 5
Human Trafficking Defined 6
The Scope and Nature of Modern-Day Slavery 7
Focus of the 2008 TIP …

Social Network Characteristics And Risky Sexual And Drug Related Behaviors Among Homeless Young Adults, Kimberly A. Tyler

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

Although research finds high rates of risky sexual and drug related behavior among homeless young people, little research had examined how the characteristics of their social networks encourage or constrain risky behaviors. Based on a sample of 145 homeless young adults in the Midwestern United States, results revealed that having used alcohol with at least one of their network members and the presence of more conflict was associated with engaging in a greater number of sexual risk taking behaviors. Correlates of engaging in a greater number of substance use related behaviors included having older peers within the network, having used …

Exploiting A Research Underclass In Phase 1 Clinical Trials, Carl Elliott, Roberto Abadie

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

In November 1996, the Wall Street Journal reported that Eli Lilly was paying homeless alcoholics from a local shelter to participate in safety testing of new drugs at its trial site in Indianapolis.1 “These individuals want to help society,” asserted Lilly’s director of clinical pharmacology. The subjects, however, said they took part for easy money and free room and board. Although Lilly reportedly offered the lowest per diem in the business, it managed to attract poor subjects from all over the country.1 The medical director of the local Homeless Initiative Program said Lilly had created a “shadow economy” of paid …

A Longitudinal Study Of Early Adolescent Precursors To Running Away, Kimberly A. Tyler, Bianca Bersani

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

Although previous research has examined correlates of running away among samples of currently homeless and runaway adolescents, little is known about what factors will predict the likelihood that a housed adolescent with no prior history of running away will leave home. As such, the current study uses the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth to examine predictors of running away among a diverse sample of housed adolescents ages 12 through 13. Results indicate that socioeconomic status, being African American or Hispanic, and monitoring were significantly predictive of a decrease in the mean rate of running away in midadolescence. In contrast, being …

Analyzing Service Barriers For Trafficked Persons In The Context Of The U.S. Refugee Program: Strategies To Improve Service Delivery And Program Management, Hoa Duong, Tanya Ghani, Myra Valenzuela

Human Trafficking: Data and Documents

Research Question: The goal of this research study is to examine the specific barriers and needs of refugees and trafficked persons in the context of federal benefits and programs. The study asks the following questions:
• Are there differences in the needs of refugees and trafficked persons?
• What services exist for both groups and are there gaps in service delivery?
• How can program management within ATIP help improve service delivery?

Findings: The research study’s main findings indicate that although refugees and trafficked persons are similar in many ways, the latter have unique ongoing needs that require a more …

An Affordable, Practical Eco-House, Dave Fitzpatrick

Department of Environmental Studies: Undergraduate Student Theses

An eco-house or zero-energy house is not a new concept- houses with extremely low impact on their surroundings and good use of local resources have been around for centuries. This particular eco-house is designed to offer full modern services and comforts while consuming very low energy and few expensive building materials. Ideally, someone would be able to use this thesis as a blueprint for actual construction.

Branding Your Community, Milan Wall

Heartland Center for Leadership Development Materials

Connections: Using a Brand Creation Approach to Community Identity

Origins of the Branding Concept

Even far back in the middle ages when artists and artisans began to form guilds or associations together, many hallmarks or identifying symbols were used as a signatures by artisans to lay claim to the result of his or her work. Another important, and American reference, comes from the days before fences divided up the frontier and cattle owners found a way to mark and identify their own cattle by branding them with a personalized symbol. Even today, many purebred horses are carefully inspected and only …

Branding Your Community, Milan Wall

Heartland Center for Leadership Development Materials

Branding Your Community

Table of Contents:

Connections: Using a Brand Creation Approach to Community Identity

Case Study: Superior, Nebraska

Mapping Community Assets: An Overview

SOAR Analysis

About Appreciative Inquiry

The Marketing Process: Attention, Attraction and Action

Marketing Your Community

Back Home Ideas

Tips for Creating Community Brands

Workshop Evaluation

Parental Divorce, Marital Conflict And Children’S Behavior Problems: A Comparison Of Adopted And Biological Children, Paul R. Amato, Jacob Cheadle

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

We used adopted and biological children from Waves 1 and 2 of the National Survey of Families and Households to study the links between parents’ marital conflict, divorce and children’s behavior problems. The standard family environment model assumes that marital conflict and divorce increase the risk of children’s behavior problems. The passive genetic model assumes that parents’ and children’s behavior are linked because of genetic transmission from parents to children. The child effects model assumes that parents’ marital distress is the result of (rather than the cause of) children’s behavior. Our analysis shows that the associations between parents’ divorce and …

Review Of When Sex Became Gender, By Shira Tarrant., Mary Jo Deegan

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

Shira Tarrant’s book, When Sex Became Gender, analyzes the intellectual work of five women between the first and second waves of feminism (i.e., between 1920 and 1965). Tarrant specifically “confronts the bonds of ideology” surrounding feminist theory that were created in the cold war years in the United States, Britain, and France. She does so in an in-depth examination of five women who wrote about women’s social location: Margaret Mead, the anthropologist who studied sex roles and socialization; Mirra Komarovsky, the functionalist sociologist who interrogated sex roles, paid labor, and marriage; Viola Klein, the sociologist and sociology of knowledge theorist …

A Dimensional Model Of Psychopathology Among Homeless Adolescents: Suicidality, Internalizing, And Externalizing Disorders, Kevin A. Yoder, Susan L. Longley, Les B. Whitbeck, Dan R. Hoyt

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

The present study examined associations among dimensions of suicidality and psychopathology in a sample of 428 homeless adolescents (56.3% female). Confirmatory factor analysis results provided support for a three-factor model in which suicidality (measured with lifetime suicidal ideation and suicide attempts), internalizing disorders (assessed with lifetime diagnoses of major depressive episode and post-traumatic stress disorder), and externalizing disorders (indicated by lifetime diagnoses of conduct disorder, alcohol abuse, and drug abuse) were positively intercorrelated. The findings illustrate the utility of a dimensional approach that integrates suicidality and psychopathology into one model.

Prosocial Behaviors In Context: Examining The Role Of Children’S Social Companions, Maria Rosario De Guzman, Gustavo Carlo, Carolyn P. Edwards

Department of Child, Youth, and Family Studies: Faculty Publications

This study examines the role of immediate social companions in the prosocial behaviors of children from two cultural communities from the USA and the Philippines. Materials for this study comprised behavioral observations drawn from the Six Cultures Study—with 612 five-minute observations of 23 children (12 girls, 11 boys) from Orchard Town, MA, and 570 observations of 24 children (12 girls, 12 boys) from Tarong, Philippines, ranging in age from 3 to 11 years. Data were coded for instances of prosocial behaviors, as well as characteristics of social companions (age and relationship to actor). Results revealed several interesting findings. First, frequency …

Attorney General’S Annual Report To Congress And Assessment Of The U.S. Government Activities To Combat Trafficking In Persons Fiscal Year 2007, U.S Department Of Justice

Human Trafficking: Data and Documents

Trafficking in persons (TIP), or human trafficking, is a regrettably widespread form of modern-day slavery. Traffickers often prey on individuals, predominantly women and children in certain countries, who are poor, frequently unemployed or underemployed, and who may lack access to social safety nets. Victims are often lured with false promises of good jobs and better lives, and then forced to work under brutal and inhuman conditions. It is difficult to accurately estimate the extent of victimization in this crime whose perpetrators go to great lengths to keep it hidden. Nonetheless, the United States has led the world in the fight …

Views Of Community Life In Rural Nebraska, Rebecca J. Vogt

Nebraska Rural Poll

Global Climate Change: Opinions and Perceptions of Rural Nebraskans

Television Signal Changes And Rural Nebraskans, Rebecca J. Vogt

Nebraska Rural Poll

Perceptions of Individual and Community Well-Being Among Rural Nebraskans

Energy Use And Concerns Of Rural Nebraskans, Rebecca J. Vogt

Nebraska Rural Poll

Rural Nebraskans and Health Care in Retirement

Global Climate Change: Opinions And Perceptions Of Rural Nebraskans, Rebecca J. Vogt

Nebraska Rural Poll

Where Do Rural Nebraskans Plan to Retire?

Documentary Film Presentation Local Colors: Natural Dyeing In A Milas Carpet Weaving Village, Ulara Tamura, John Wells

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

This documentary, filmed in 2006, examines the process of naturally dyed carpet production in a village in the Milas region of Muğla Prefecture in southwest Turkey, a region well known as a traditional Turkish carpet production area. In large numbers of villages of this region, carpet weaving is the household based work of every woman who lives there.

In this paper, I aim to add more detailed information and discussion specifically on the colors and dyes of the carpets shown in this film. First I will introduce the varieties of the natural dye materials the villagers use one by one. …

Occupational Racial Composition And Nonfatal Work Injuries, Terceira A. Berdahl, Julia Mcquillan

Bureau of Sociological Research: Faculty Publications

Is there an association between occupational racial composition and nonfatal workplace injuries? Guided by several labor market theories (queuing, social closure, devaluation, poor market position, and human capital), we use occupational data from the U.S. Census and Dictionary of Occupational Titles combined with individual data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth to answer this question. Hierarchical generalized linear models of individuals within occupations show that there is an association between occupational racial composition and workplace injuries, but this association is only statistically significant for white men in the model controlling for relevant occupational and individual level characteristics. A 10 …

Views Of Community Life In Rural Nebraska, Rebecca J. Vogt, Randolph L. Cantrell, Miguel A. Carranza, Bruce B. Johnson, David J. Peters

Publications from the Center for Applied Rural Innovation (CARI)

Most of the smaller communities in rural Nebraska have experienced population decline since 2000 while most of the larger communities have experienced population growth. Given these conditions, how do rural Nebraskans feel about their community? Are they satisfied with the services provided? Are they planning to move from their community next year? How do they view the quality of life in their community? What factors are important in contributing to the quality of life in their community? Do their perceptions differ by community size, the region in which they live, or their occupation? This report details 2,496 responses to the …