Sociology Commons^™

Hope 2014 Health, Stephanie Collier, Kevin Fitzpatrick

Obesity

HOPE is a one day service outreach event for homeless and low income residents of Northwest Arkansas.

Hope 2014 Veterans, Stephanie Collier, Kevin Fitzpatrick

Obesity

HOPE is a one day service outreach event for homeless and low income residents of Northwest Arkansas.

The Changes In Mainland Chinese Families During The Social Transition: A Critical Analysis, Anqi Xu, Yan Ruth Xia

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

Modernization theory offers possible explanations for family changes related to advances in science and technology, and socio-economic development in industrial societies. Modernization impacts family structure, relationship, values and beliefs. Families become nuclear while people become mobile and the society becomes urban. Economic development provides employment opportunities outside the birthplace. Away from kinship network, a nuclear family is less influenced and controlled by elder members in the extended family in fulfilling its traditional roles and obligations (Parsons, 1943). The changes occur in all societies although they may vary in pace across societies (Goode, 1982). Modernization theory is criticized for valuing Western …

Family Policy In China: A Snapshot Of 1950–2010, Yan Ruth Xia, Haiping Wang, Anh Do, Shen Qin

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

The Chinese family policies are shaped by the country’s political, socioeconomic, and cultural contexts and have evolved over the years. China has passed its most significant family policies and laws in marriage; child rearing; child, women, and elderly protection; family planning; and health care in the past 60 years. This chapter will cover the most important laws and policies that affect Chinese families from 1950 to 2010. The discussion focuses on policy development, implementation and analysis, and the challenges China faces in relation to these policy issues.

The Cultural Contexts Of Children’S Prosocial Behaviors, Maria Rosario De Guzman, Kieu-Anh Do, Car Mun Kok

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

In 1976 Beatrice Whiting famously urged researchers to “unpackage” the concept of culture and related constructs. She highlighted the need in social and behavioral research to tease out the complex and often interwoven factors that might underlie superficial culture group differences in child outcomes and suggested looking more closely at the child’s learning environment, the details within which could provide important insight regarding children’s behaviors that could better explain how culture might be manifested in the developmental landscape (Whiting, 1976). Almost 40 years later, the importance of culture in children’s development is widely recognized, nonetheless researchers continue to wrestle with …

Head Start And Child Care Providers’ Motivators, Barriers And Facilitators To Practicing Family-Style Meal Service, Dipti A. Dev, Katherine E. Speirs, Brent A. Mcbride, Sharon M. Donovan, Karen Chapman-Novakofski

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

This paper presents a qualitative investigation of the motivators, barriers, and facilitators for practicing family-style meal service (FSMS) from the perspective of 18 child care providers serving preschool children in Head Start (HS), Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) funded, and non-CACFP child-care centers. Providers were selected based on maximum variation purposive sampling and semi-structured interviews were conducted until saturation was reached. Provider responses were systematically coded using thematic analysis. HS and CACFP providers reported being motivated to practice FSMS because it created pleasant mealtimes, opportunities to role model healthy eating, and healthful child development. CACFP and non-CACFP providers …

Scaffolding As A Tool For Environmental Education In Early Childhood, Alex Zurek, Julia C. Torquati, Ibrahim H. Acar

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

This paper describes the process of “scaffolding” as a teaching strategy in early childhood education, and demonstrates how scaffolding can promote children’s learning about the natural environment. Examples of scaffolding are provided from seventy-four running record observations made over a two-year period in a nature-based preschool program. Qualitative analysis examined the extent to which scaffolding was used to support children’s learning about nature; the types of scaffolding strategies used by teachers; whether high- and low-support strategies were used in specific types of situations; the effectiveness of scaffolding; and what children learned when teachers engaged them in scaffolding. Examples illustrate specific …

The Health And Nutrition Effects Of Snap: Selection Into The Program And A Review Of The Literature On Its Effects, Marianne Bitler

University of Kentucky Center for Poverty Research Discussion Paper Series

The goal of this paper is to assess the existing state of knowledge about whether SNAP improves health and nutrition outcomes, and if so, which ones and by how much.

In an era of fiscal crisis, knowing whether SNAP has any significant causal effect on health and nutrition is crucial for informing policy decisions and policy makers. In this review, I pay particular attention to the challenges researchers face in overcoming selection bias and identifying causal effects of the program, and I will assess the literature through that lens. The fundamental challenge in program evaluation in general and in assessing …

Innovating Without A Brief: Tackling Urban Poverty Through Anthropology, Data, Design And Lean Methods, Bernise Ang

Social Space

Social innovation labs are witnessing a new entrant in an unexpected form: civic initiatives reflecting the rigour of social sciences, the analytical power of data, the innovation frameworks from design, and the agility to span the innovation of Silicon Valley to grassrootsdriven change. Bernise Ang deconstructs a composite methodology blended with a complexity that matches the issues the method seeks to tackle.

Contextualising The New National Narrative: Building On The Social And Emotional Capital Of Singaporeans, Tong Yee

Social Space

Singapore commemorates 50 years of nationhood in 2015. What’s next? Tong Yee discusses how understanding and building on the social and emotional capital in our people can direct us towards building a new inclusive narrative for the nation.

Are We Really Making A Difference?: Lessons From Nesta’S Innovation Lab, Philip Colligan

Social Space

Are public and social innovation labs achieving impact? Philip Colligan from Nesta’s Innovation Lab looks at how we can answer the most important question of whether labs are indeed making a difference to societies.

Are We Really Making A Difference?: Lessons From Nesta's Innovation Lab, Philip Colligan

Social Space

Are public and social innovation labs achieving impact? Philip Colligan from Nesta's Innovation Lab looks at how we can answer the most important question of whether labs are indeed making a difference to societies.

Deciding On Leave: How Us Women In Dual-Earner Couples Decide On Maternity Leave Length, Medora W. Barnes

Sociology

This research contributes to the dialogue on maternity leave policy in the United States through analysing how pregnant school teachers with access to extended maternity leave decide how long a leave to take. The lived experiences of new mothers are examined through a series of longitudinal interviews with 16 public school teachers conducted at three points over the course of the transition to parenthood (pregnancy through first year). Findings indicate that although financial reasons played a large role in women deciding to return to work more quickly, issues of professional identity and personal happiness were also meaningful. Additionally, holding gendered …

Contraceptive Sabotage, Leah A. Plunkett

Law Faculty Scholarship

This Article responds to the alarm recently sounded by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists over “birth control sabotage”—the “active interference [by one partner] with [the other] partner’s contraceptive methods in an attempt to promote pregnancy.” Currently, sabotage is not a crime, and existing categories of criminal offenses fail to capture the essence of the injury it does to victims. This Article argues that sabotage should be a separate crime—but only when perpetrated against those partners who can and do get pregnant as a result of having sabotaged sex. Using the principle of self-possession—understood as a person’s basic right …

Faculty Newsletter (Vol. 2, Iss. 1), Office Of Service-Learning, Lingnan University

Faculty Newsletters 教職員通訊

No abstract provided.

The Great Sustainability Challenge, Isidor Wallimann

Sociology - All Scholarship

"The balance between society and nature is askew. The age of industrialization and the subsequent era of consumerism are large culprits for pollution and the degradation of the environment. Human activity on Earth has undeniably affected the planet and has contributed colossal levels of carbon emissions that are pushing global temperatures to keep rising. Significant ecological risks to human survival may result from not taking more pressing action. Governments have a role to play in moving more rapidly and effectively towards more sustainable practices – “how to be more sustainable?” is a question that must be integrated in all decision-making …

The Role Of Public Relations In Social Capital And Civic Engagement, Weiwu Zhang, Alan Abitbol

Communication Faculty Publications

Public relations scholars have increasingly argued for the broader role of public relations and strategic communication in society (e.g., Taylor, 2010). That is, how can knowledge of public relations be used to make society better rather than simply making organizations more effective? This study examines how different types of public relations and strategic communication efforts contribute to citizens’ social capital and civic engagement. Specifically, this study uses data from the 2010 Pew Internet and American Life Project ‘Social Side of the Internet’ survey to examine the relationship between various strategic communication efforts by social, civic, professional, and religious organizations and …

Community-Campus Partnership Effectiveness For Nursing Faculty Curricula In Rural Virginia, Adriana Myers

VA Engage Journal

Nursing schools state that faculty shortages caused by low faculty salaries are a primary reason for nursing shortages. In a Shenandoah University graduate survey, many nurses wanted to teach but could not leave their higher-paying clinical jobs. Shenandoah University’s Graduate Program in Winchester, VA received funding from the Virginia Health Workforce Development Authority to use rural community-campus partnerships to plan a nursing faculty residency program to increase the number of nursing faculty. The program’s planning partners were economic development, business, academic, and philanthropic organization leaders in seven rural planning districts. Community Based Participatory Research was used to assess the effectiveness …

Bankruptcy Stigma: A Socio-Legal Study, Michael D. Sousa

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

For as long as the institution of bankruptcy has existed, legal commentators have debated whether it is appropriate for debtors to experience some social stigma upon filing for personal bankruptcy--that is, whether it serves the goals of bankruptcy law for debtors to feel shame. While this issue has been extensively discussed as a theoretical matter, to date no legal commentator or scholar has examined the question as an empirical matter: do debtors in fact associate feelings of shame with filing for bankruptcy, and, if so, why (or why not)? This article, for the first time, undertakes precisely this inquiry. Specifically, …

Frequency Of Communication On Facebook As A Factor In Four Dimensions Of Perceived Social Support, Granger E. Petersen

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation explored relationships between the frequency of public communication on the social networking website Facebook and the level of social support an individual perceives. Students in the Graduate School of Social Work and the Emergent Digital Practices program were surveyed. Correlation and regression analyses were used to examine the relationship between the variables. Findings from the analysis indicated that the frequency of posting statuses on Facebook and the frequency of responding to other's status updates on Facebook was significantly and negatively associated with a perception of tangible social support. The frequency of these types of communication were not significantly …

Earning A Living In Nonmetropolitan Nebraska: 2014 Nebraska Rural Poll Results, Rebecca J. Vogt, Cheryl A. Burkhart-Kriesel, Randolph L. Cantrell, Bradley Lubben

Nebraska Rural Poll

Most rural Nebraskan households have full-time employment and many employed households derive part of their household income from self-employment. Self-employment is more prevalent in smaller communities. Most rural Nebraskans living in or near the smallest communities have self-employment in their household.

Some rural Nebraska households also have multiple job holding by members of the household. Again, this is more likely to occur in the smallest communities.

Most self-employed rural Nebraskan households get less than one-half of their total household income from self-employment. However, over one-quarter (29%) of self-employed rural Nebraskans get almost all of their household income from self-employment. Many …

Homogeneity And Heterogeneity As Situational Properties: Producing – And Moving Beyond? – Race In Post-Genomic Science, J. K. Shim, K. W. Darling, M. D. Lappe, Laura Katherine Thomson, Sandra Soo-Jin Lee, R. A. Hiatt, S. L. Ackerman

Sociology

In this article, we explore current thinking and practices around the logics of difference in gene–environment interaction research in the post-genomic era. We find that scientists conducting gene–environment interaction research continue to invoke well-worn notions of racial difference and diversity, but use them strategically to try to examine other kinds of etiologically significant differences among populations. Scientists do this by seeing populations not as inherently homogeneous or heterogeneous, but rather by actively working to produce homogeneity along some dimensions and heterogeneity along others in their study populations. Thus we argue that homogeneity and heterogeneity are situational properties – properties that …

Ua12/2/2 2014 Talisman: Reckoning, Part Ii, Wku Student Affairs

WKU Administration Documents

2014 Talisman yearbook.

• Hutchins, Seth. A Cut Above – Chris Page, Barbers
• Rogers, Shelby. Out with the Old – Thompson Science Complex
• Melcher, Jaclyn. East Meets Western – Shima Alessa, Saudi Arabia, International Students
• Swanson, Kayla. Deep End: Tim Slattery – Swimming
• Swanson, Kayla. Tackling Time: Jim Meyer – Football
• Swanson, Kayla. Beyond the Basket: Kami Howard – Basketball, Class of 1986
• Moster, Brittany. Right Kind of Writing – Walker Rutledge, English
• Smith, Mary-Kate. A Bug’s Life – Keith Philips, Biology
• Kirz, Lindsay. Honors with Par – April Butler, Golf
• Belknap, Abby. Setting the Tone – Greek Week, Spring Sing …

Ua19/16/1 Hilltopper Basketball 2014-15 Media Guide, Wku Athletic Media Relations

WKU Administration Documents

2014-15 men's basketball media guide produced by WKU Athletic Media Relations, includes athletic records and statistics, photographs, schedule and information regarding opponents.

Remembering The Schleswig War Of 1864: A Turning Point In German And Danish National Identity, Julie K. Allen

The Bridge

Every country tells itself stories about its origins and the moments that define its history. Many of these stories are connected to wars, for example the tale of how George Washington and his troops crossed the frozen Delaware river to surprise the British and turn the tide of the Revolutionary War, or the way the American public rallied after the attack on Pearl Harbor to retool the American economy and support American troops in the fight against fascism. Not surprisingly, the stories we tell about our own country are most often ones about wars from which we emerge victorious, rather …

Front Matter

The Bridge

No abstract provided.

Daily Life In Denmark In The 19th Century, Sofie Krogh Nielsen

The Bridge

The 19th century entailed a lot of change in Denmark. For instance, industrialization broke through and changed the landscape, society, and conditions of life; the 1849 Constitution abolished absolute monarchy so that the political scene was changed. The 19th century was also the century where nationalism started to blossom and the idea of one nation with one people and one language developed. Moreover, Denmark was reduced from a great power to a small state with the loss of Norway in 1814 and the duchies of Slesvig, Holstein, and Lauenburg in 1864. Finally, it was also a century of emigration, especially …

"I Long To Hear From You": The Hardship Of Civil War Soldiering On Danish Immigrant Families, Anders Bo Rasmussen

The Bridge

In 1917 the Danish American minister and immigrant historian Peter S0rensen Vig published Danske i krig i og for Amerika (Danes Fighting in and for America). Vig had taken it upon himself to take a deeper look into the Danish Civil War experience, at a time when Norwegian American immigrants had already published several books about their war service. Vig, however, discovered that the information available was not quite as substantial as he had assumed when writing Danske i Amerika (Danes in America) back in 1907, nor was it "compiled in one place." Vig's Danske i Kamp i og for …

Strategies Employed By Inner-City Activists To Reduce Alcohol-Related Problems And Advance Social Justice, Laurie Drabble, Denise Herd

Faculty Publications

This study explored strategies employed by activists engaged in efforts to change policies and laws related to selling and promoting alcoholic beverages based on in-depth interviews with 184 social activists in seven U.S. major cities. Nine strategies aimed at improving local conditions and influencing policy were described by activists across regional contexts. Grassroots mobilization was central to all other strategies, which included the creation or enforcement of laws, meeting with elected officials, media advocacy, working with police/law enforcement, education and training, direct action, changing community norms, and negotiating with store owners.

Strengthening Services For Lgbtq Clients: Best Practice Recommendations For Rural Low-Income Service Providers, Elizabeth Holman, Ramona Oswald, Dina Izenstark, Shawn Mendez, Kimberly Greder

Faculty Publications

People who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or queer (LGBTQ), are more likely to be poor than heterosexualpeople. While they face the same general risk factors for poverty as others, LGBTQ people may experienceadditional discrimination in hiring, employment, and compensation, as well as face rejection from friends and family members who potentially could provide financial support in times of need. For LGBTQ people who live outside of large cities, the risk for poverty is even greater7. Thus, it is important that low-income service providers in rural communities provide culturally competent services to sexual minorities and their families.The purpose of this …