Sociology Commons^™

Integrating Adolescent Livelihood Activities Within A Reproductive Health Program For Urban Slum Dwellers In India, Dale Huntington, Mary Philip Sebastian, Barbara Mensch, Wesley H. Clark, Aditya Narain Singh, Sohini Roychowdhury, M.E. Khan, Nirmala Selvam, Bella C. Patel, Sandhya Barge, Y.P. Gupta, Lovleen Johri, Gita Biswas, Manohar Shenoy

Reproductive Health

The Population Council’s Frontiers in Reproductive Health (FRONTIERS) program and Policy Research Division, in collaboration with CARE India, conducted an operations research study in Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh to examine the feasibility and impact of adding livelihood counseling and training, savings formation activities, and follow-up support to an ongoing reproductive health program for adolescents. The short-term objective of the study was to foster development of alternative socialization processes for adolescent girls that encourage positive sexual and reproductive health behaviors. The study also aimed to produce a replicable model for CARE and other agencies to use in adding livelihood activities to adolescent …

Promotion Of Lactation Amenorrhea Method Intervention Trial, Kazakhstan, Shamil Tazhibayev, Toregeldy Sharmanov, Ayan Ergalieva, Oksana Dolmatova, Orynkul Mukasheva, Aina Seidakhmetova, Raikhan Kushenova

Reproductive Health

In order to expand the benefits of breastfeeding as a birth spacing option for women in the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Kazakh Academy of Nutrition at the Academy of Preventive Medicine in Almaty conducted an operations research study to test the effectiveness of lactational amenorrhea method (LAM) promotion among women in Kazakhstan, as part of the Population Council’s Frontiers in Reproductive Health Small Grants Program. Results show that the intervention programs implemented in experimental baby-friendly hospitals (BFHs) and ordinary hospitals (OHs) improved women’s knowledge, skills, and desire to breastfeed The report concludes that training activities should be strengthened and all …

Developing A Supervision Instrument For Postabortion Care In Guatemala, Bolivia And Mexico, Carlos Brambila

Reproductive Health

The main objective of this project was to develop and test a supervision instrument and corresponding guidelines to collect information about postabortion care (PAC) services and to provide constructive feedback to service providers and program managers. The instrument and guidelines were designed to be used by technical supervisors to monitor performance and engage providers in continuous quality improvement of PAC services. As part of the project activities, existing postabortion care supervision practices were reviewed and analyzed, and, during a one-week workshop in December 2002, an international technical committee produced a first version of the instrument and guidelines. These materials were …

Youth Behavioral Risks And Psychosocial Resources In Peru's Alternative-Development Zones, Federico R. Leon, Mary L. Claux

Reproductive Health

Alternative-development programs are being offered to the population of seven regions of central-eastern Peru involved in coca cropping. The youth of these regions are above the national average in risk of pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections, use of alcohol and drugs, and violence against women. This study sought to identify and describe protective factors expected to function as counterforces to such risks; develop reliable indicators and provide a baseline concerning the risk behaviors and protective factors; compare youth by gender, developmental stage, urbanization, and geography to determine whether segmented interventions are required; and recommend specific intervention strategies. The results of …

Culturally Appropriate Information, Education And Communication Strategies For Improving Adolescent Reproductive Health In Cusco, Peru, Marco Florez-Arestegui Cornejo, Rosalinda Barreto Silva

Reproductive Health

The project Culturally Appropriate Information, Education and Communication Strategies for Improving Adolescent Reproductive Health in Cusco, Peru was designed in response to the evident lack of information and education on adolescent reproductive health in the country and, in particular, in the rural areas of the department of Cusco. Research revealed that a great need for sexual and reproductive health information still exists among indigenous adolescents in the rural areas of the region and that sexual education programs have to be sustainable. This report recommends that the Ministry of Education train more teachers in sexual and reproductive health topics, taking into …

Improving Health Care Providers' Knowledge, Attitudes, And Practices In Reproductive Health In Rural Romania, Elaine Claire Himelfarb

Reproductive Health

To support new health reform initiatives undertaken by the Romanian Ministry of Health and Family, and in support of the USAID Romania strategy for improving women’s reproductive health, Project Concern International/Romania (PCI/R) was awarded a two-year grant to implement a reproductive healthcare project, Healthy Parents-Healthy Children (HP-HC). This project trained family physicians and nurses in rural dispensaries in techniques to improve pre- and postnatal care, including training on modern contraception, cervical and breast cancer screening, treating menopause and its symptoms, and the encouragement of healthy lifestyles. The goal of this OR project was to test the efficacy of interventions to …

Involving Men In Maternity Care: South Africa, Busi Kunene, Mags Beksinska, Simphiwe Zondi, Nobuhle Mthembu, Saiqa Mullick, Emma Ottolenghi, Immo Kleinschmidt, Susan E. Adamchak, Barbara Janowitz, Carmen Cuthbertson

Reproductive Health

The Reproductive Health Research Unit University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa, in partnership with the FRONTIERS Program of the Population Council, and the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Health conducted a three-year operations research study titled “Men in Maternity” in the Ethekwini district. The intervention was clinic-based and included two broad strategies: improving antenatal care services by strengthening the existing antenatal package and service monitoring and supervision; and introducing couple counseling by providing training to health providers, inviting partners of antenatal women to attend counseling twice during pregnancy and once post delivery, and providing information to couples with a new antenatal booklet. …

Tulane University Final Report, M. Celeste Marin, Anastasia J. Gage, Suhaila Khan

Reproductive Health

The Frontiers in Reproductive Health (FRONTIERS) program is a 10-year cooperative agreement between the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Population Council in partnership with Family Health International and Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine. This report summarizes the main activities undertaken by Tulane University under its subagreement with the Population Council on the FRONTIERS project from 1998–2004. As a partner, Tulane furthered progress toward all three of the program’s intermediate results: contributing innovative interventions tested to improve reproductive health through the small grants program; helping research staff take a more proactive approach to …

Testing The Effectiveness Of Integrating Community-Based Approaches For Encouraging Abandonment Of Female Genital Cutting Into Care's Reproductive Health Programs In Ethiopia And Kenya, Jane Chege, Ian Askew, Susan Igras, Jacinta Muteshi-Strachan

Reproductive Health

CARE International, with technical support from the Frontiers in Reproductive Health Program completed a study in Ethiopia and Kenya designed to test the effectiveness of education activities using behavior change communication (BCC) approaches and advocacy activities by religious and other key leaders to abandon female genital cutting (FGC). In Ethiopia, the increased knowledge of harmful FGC effects and human rights issues translated to a positive attitude in support of FGC abandonment and an intention not to cut their daughters in the future. In Kenya, the analysis indicated mixed results in attitude and intended behavior change.

Experience From A Community-Based Education Program In Burkina Faso: The Tostan Program, Djingri Ouoba, Zakari Congo, Nafissatou J. Diop, Molly Melching, Baya Banza, Georges Guiella, Inge Baumgarten

Reproductive Health

This study describes a project that tested the feasibility and effectiveness of replicating the village empowerment program (VEP) developed by the Senegalese NGO, TOSTAN, in Burkina Faso. Although originally developed for empowering women, the program implemented in Burkina Faso also involved men because of their key role in such decisions. Frontiers in Reproductive Health, with funding from USAID and the GTZ Supra Regional Project for the Elimination of FGC, supported the adaptation, implementation, and evaluation of the VEP model in 23 villages in the province of Bazega/Zoundwéogo. In the existing social climate among the Burkinabé, where there is widespread awareness …

The Tostan Program: Evaluation Of A Community Based Education Program In Senegal, Nafissatou J. Diop, Modou Mbacke Faye, Amadou Moreau, Jacqueline Cabral, Helene Benga, Fatou Cisse, Babacar Mane, Inge Baumgarten, Molly Melching

Reproductive Health

This operations research project evaluated the effect and impact of a basic education program, developed by TOSTAN, a nongovernmental organization based at Thiès, Senegal. The basic education program consisted of four modules: hygiene, problem-solving, women’s health, and human rights. Through these four themes, emphasis was placed on enabling the participants, who were mostly women, to analyze their own situation more effectively and thus find the best solutions for themselves. The GTZ Supra Regional Project for the Elimination of Female Genital Cutting funded implementation of the program in 90 villages in Kolda Region, and the Population Council’s Frontiers in Reproductive Health …

Medicalization Of Female Genital Cutting Among The Abagusii In Nyanza Province, Kenya, Carolyne Njue, Ian Askew

Reproductive Health

This study sought to understand the role that health providers play in the medicalization of female genital cutting (FGC) among the Abagusii community in western Kenya, among whom the practice continues to be almost universal. Interviews with service providers and their clients revealed an overwhelming belief that FGC fulfills a traditional cultural obligation among the Abagusii, and that it limits a woman’s sexual desire and confers respect on girls. New approaches are needed within this community to present FGC as violating human rights and national laws, as well as threatening girls’ and women’s health. The study recommends measures such as …

Female Circumcision In Indonesia. Extent, Implications And Possible Interventions To Uphold Women's Health Rights, Meiwita P. Budiharsana, Lila Amaliah, Budi Utomo

Reproductive Health

In Indonesia, the practice of female circumcision (FC) has long existed, but information concerning where and how it is carried out has been limited. The specific aims of the study conducted by the Population Council Jakarta were to provide research-based information on FC customary practices and their socio-cultural determinants, and if possible, to assess any long-term physical and psychological consequences. Study findings indicate that in general Muslim communities support the continuation of FC practice, because they perceive it as both a societal custom and a religious duty. The report strongly recommends that key donor agencies pressure the Ministry of Health …

Safe Motherhood Demonstration Project, Western Province: Final Report, Charlotte E. Warren, Wilson Liambila

Reproductive Health

Since March 2000, the Population Council and the University of Nairobi have been assisting the Kenya Ministry of Health to implement Safe Motherhood activities in Western Kenya. The purpose of this project was to increase utilization of quality maternal services in the selected districts and, in an effort to improve pregnancy outcomes, focused on improving quality of antenatal care, essential obstetric care, clean and safe delivery, postpartum care, postabortion care, and management issues at all levels. In addition, the project focused on strengthening referral practices and addressing factors responsible for delays by pregnant women in making decisions on when, where, …

Maternal Employment And Adolescent Self-Care, Leonard M. Lopoo

Center for Policy Research

Mounting evidence shows that self-care produces deleterious consequences for adolescents in the U.S. Since descriptive evidence suggests that maternal employment is the primary explanation for adolescent self-care, maternal employment, it is frequently argued, is harming children. Heretofore, very little empirical research has actually investigated the impact of maternal employment on adolescent self-care, however, calling into question this assertion. This paper aims to fill this gap. The author uses the National Education Longitudinal Survey of 1988 supplemented by the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth-1979 to estimate the relationship between maternal employment and adolescent self-care. Unlike prior research, the author employs a …

Assessing Perception Of Family Nutrition Program Characteristics And Nutrition Education Needs Of Low Socioeconomic Status Individuals, Denise Marie Holston

LSU Master's Theses

The Louisiana Family Nutrition Program (FNP) reaches up to 120,000 food-stamp recipients and other low SES individuals per year through direct and indirect nutrition education methods. To be effective in eliciting behavior change, a nutrition education program must be developed to be consistent with the needs, motivations, and concerns of the target audience; therefore, it is important that the needs, motivations, and concerns are being met by FNP. The purpose of this study was to determine, through the use of focus group discussions (FGD), whether nutrition education needs of FNP participants are being satisfied by the program. Nutrition education needs …

Juvenile Recidivism: An Analysis Of Race And Other Socio-Demographic Predictors Within Three Intervention Modalities In The State Of Louisiana, Jospeter M. Mbuba

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Owing to the increasingly growing problem of juvenile crime and the recognition that adult criminals begin their criminal careers in their juvenile years, the need to contain juvenile offending has never before been so glaring. Delinquency of young offenders can be predicted and prevented. But the methods most often used to predict juvenile recidivism typically derive from stereotypical conceptions, which often yield very low accuracy levels. This study is an attempt to make up for this shortfall. It tracks one year recidivism of 2,810 juvenile offenders released from state custody of Louisiana between July 1999 and June 2000. Of these …

Navigating The Hidden Assumptions Of The Introductory Research Methods Text., David Baronov

Sociology Faculty/Staff Publications

This essay explores undergraduate exposure to alternative ways of knowing. At issue is whether undergraduate students are encouraged to analyze and challenge fundamental underlying premises, assumptions and beliefs of their discipline. Given the ongoing methodological debates within the social sciences, particularly concerning neo-positivists and interpretivists, the thrust of the current project is to suggest that the instruction of introductory research methods courses should offer students an opportunity to explore underlying premises, assumptions and beliefs related to such courses to ensure that a deeper sort of learning occurs. It is further argued that greater exploration of the divide between neo-positivists’ and …

Making Motherhood Safer In Egypt, Karima Khalil, Farzaneh Roudi-Fahimi

Reproductive Health

Fewer Egyptian women die of maternal causes today than they did 10 or 15 years ago, due in large part to the national safe motherhood program. Nevertheless, maternal mortality is still relatively high, and the country faces challenges in reducing it further. Many of these challenges involve addressing the delays women face when they need essential obstetric care. In Egypt and other countries, most maternal deaths could be avoided if women had timely access to high-quality emergency obstetric services. Although Egypt’s level of maternal mortality is relatively high by international standards, recent evidence suggests that a woman’s lifetime risk of …

Social Surveys, Mary Jo Deegan

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

Social surveys are the systematic collection of data on a specific subject. From approximately 1890 to 1935, social surveys in the United States often encompassed broad topics, a whole city, or a very large sample of a target population. After World War II, surveys increasingly became more quantitative, narrower in their definition of populations, and more focused. Surveys were initially relatively infrequent events and were conducted face-to-face, but surveys now permeate daily life and increasingly occur over the telephone.

The earliest social surveys were done by governments taking a census of their people. Great Britain conducted an early count of …

Hull-House Maps And Papers, Mary Jo Deegan

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

Hull-House Maps and Papers (HHMP) was a groundbreaking text published in 1895 by the residents of Hull House, led by Jane Addams and Florence Kelley. They described and measured group patterns associated with immigrants, working conditions, specific laborers, labor unions, social settlements, and the function of art in the community. Women's moral agency was central to their use of social science to improve democracy and the lives of the disenfranchised.

The mapping of social and demographic characteristics of a population within a geographical area became the core methodology of sociologists at the University of Chicago during the 1920s and 1930s. …

Victims And Offenders: Accounts Of Paybacks, Invulnerability, And Financial Gain Among Homeless Youth, Kimberly A. Tyler, Katherine Johnson

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

Previous research has suggested that “victim” and “offender” are not mutually exclusive categories but rather represent a homogeneous pool in which offenders are victimized and victims also offend. Little is known, however, about the specifics of the victim and offender process. The current study formally addresses the following research questions: why are some individuals at higher risk for victimization compared to others; why do some young people offend while others do not; and finally, why are criminal victims likely to retaliate? Given that homeless young people generally have high rates of offending and are also exceedingly vulnerable to crime, they …

An Analysis Of The Reflection Component In The Epics Model Of Service Learning, Lynne A. Slivovsky, Frank R. Derego Jr., Carla B. Zoltowski, Leah H. Jamieson, William C. Oakes

Evaluation/Reflection

Service learning is a pedagogy providing a structured environment for students to link service with course learning objectives. Key to the service learning experience is critical reflection. This gives students the opportunity to examine their coursework in the context of the service they provide to their community and, in a broader sense, the impact they can have on the world. Research has shown that students participating in service learning have a higher comprehension of the course material and also develop an awareness of their local community and the issues it faces. In engineering, there are many examples of service-learning programs …

Organizational Barriers To Inclusion: Perspectives From The Recreation Professional, Dan K. Hibbler Ph.D.

School of Continuing and Professional Studies Faculty and Staff Works

Recreation professionals continually strive to serve a host of diverse program constituents, while leisure researchers attempt to uncover barriers to leisure participation. Much of the barriers or constraints research has come from the perspective of program participants. This study identified, from the perspectives and experiences of 18 recreation professionals, the issues and barriers that they perceive inhibit recreation program access and availability to diverse constituents, particularly ethnic minority populations. Co-cultural theory, which integrates the concepts of muted group theory and standpoint theory, was utilized as the study’s theoretical framework. In-depth interviews were utilized. Five primary barriers were identified that related …

Neighborhood Characteristics And Crime: A Test Of Sampson And Groves' Model Of Social Disorganization, Ivan Y. Sun, Ruth A. Triplett, Randy R. Gainey

Sociology & Criminal Justice Faculty Publications

In 1989 Sampson and Groves proposed a model of social disorganization. In this model, neighborhoods with low socioeconomic status, high residential mobility, racial heterogeneity, and family disruption were predicted to have sparse local friendship networks', low organizational participation, and unsupervised youth groups. These, in turn, were predicted to increase neighborhood crime rates. Although Sampson and Groves' work represents the most complete model of social disorganization to date, it has only been tested twice and then on the same data set. Using data from 36 neighborhoods from 7 U.S. cities, this study examines extensions of Sampson and Groves' model suggested by …

Cultural Adaptability Of Dental Hygiene Students In The United States: A Pilot Study, Katrina W. Magee, Michele L. Darby, Irene M. Connolly, Evelyn Thomson

Dental Hygiene Faculty Publications

Dental hygiene students should prepare to competently provide services to culturally diverse patients; therefore, this study was conducted as a baseline to determine the cross-cultural adaptability of dental hygiene students. The sample consisted of 188 dental hygiene students attending four culturally diverse dental hygiene programs (N=108) and four non-culturally diverse dental hygiene programs (N=80). The culturally diverse programs randomly selected were located in the southwest, southeast and mid-Atlantic regions of the U.S., and the non-diverse programs were located in the northwest, northcentral, central, and southern regions of the U.S. Any dental hygiene program with students representing four of the five …

The Use Of Children In The Production, Sales And Trafficking Of Drugs: A Synthesis Of Participatory Action-Oriented Research Programs In Indonesia, The Philippines And Thailand, Emma E. Porio, Christine Crisol

Sociology & Anthropology Department Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Women's Perceptions Of Safety : Cctv In An Inner City Setting, Kate Hancock

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

To date, most research on closed circuit television (CCTV) has come out of the United Kingdom (UK) where the growth of CCTV has reached immense proportions with wide support and funding from the Home Office. There are 33 systems operating in Australia, with the focus of this research on the first system installed in Perth, Western Australia in 1991. There is a dearth of information on CCTV in Australia, and little research looking at the link between CCTV, women’s safety and fear of crime. The literature on fear of crime shows that women are more fearful than men even though …

Investigation Of Biodegradable Nonwoven Composites Based On Cotton, Bagasse And Other Annual Plants, Xiaoqun Zhang

LSU Master's Theses

In this study a new method of preparing biodegradable all-cellulosic composite nonwoven materials composed of cotton and kenaf or cotton and bagasse has been developed. Alkaline extracted kenaf or bagasse fibers were used as the main component of composite nonwovens. Recyclable or low value cotton fibers were used to entangle coarser kenaf or bagasse fibers in a web on which the nonwoven architecture was based. The novel adhesive system developed in this work for the web bonding was cellulose from a solution, in N-methyl morpholine N-oxide monohydrate. The completely biodegradable composite nonwovens were obtained by sandwiching and hot-pressing the cellulosic …

Developmentally Appropriate Practice: A Case Study Of Mentoring For Teacher Change, Judi Martin Mccaslin

LSU Master's Theses

This project was a qualitative case study that recorded and analyzed the professional development of one certified elementary teacher as she studied developmentally appropriate practice (DAP) and pursued her Pre-K and Kindergarten add-on certification. It focused on the changes in her classroom practice from mostly developmentally inappropriate practice (DIP) at the beginning of the project towards mostly DAP at the end of the project. The project recorded her acquisition of concrete knowledge about DAP, and her beliefs regarding DAP as she taught young children over the course of one year, June 2003 through May 2004. It included study of the …