Social Psychology and Interaction Commons^™

The Role Of Education In The Association Between Race/Ethnicity/Nativity, Cognitive Impairment, And Dementia Among Older Adults In The United States, Marc A. Garcia, Joseph Saenz, Brian Downer, Rebeca Wong

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

BACKGROUND—Older Black and Hispanic adults are more likely to be cognitively impaired than older White adults. Disadvantages in educational achievement for minority and immigrant populations may contribute to disparities in cognitive impairment.

OBJECTIVE—Examine the role of education in racial/ethnic and nativity differences in cognitive impairment/no dementia (CIND) and dementia among older US adults.

METHODS—Data comes from the 2012 Health and Retirement Study. A total of 19,099 participants aged ≥50 were included in the analysis. Participants were categorized as having normal cognition, CIND, or dementia based on the Telephone Interview for Cognitive Status (TICS) or questions from a proxy interview. We …

Life Expectancies With Depression By Age Of Migration And Gender Among Older Mexican Americans, Catherine García, Marc A. Garcia, Chi-Tsun Chiu, Fernando I. Rivera, Mukaila Raji

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

Background and Objectives: Prior studies examining depression among older Mexican Americans suggest both women and immigrants are at higher risk of depressive symptomatology than males and U.S.-born Mexican Americans. We use data from the Hispanic Established Populations for the Epidemiologic Study of the Elderly to examine whether life expectancy with depression and without depression varies by nativity, age of migration, and gender.

Research Design and Methods: Sullivan-based life tables were used to estimate depression life expectancies among Mexican Americans aged 65 years and older residing in the Southwestern United States. Depression is based on the 20-item Center for Epidemiological Studies …

Do Listeners Perceive Interviewers’ Attributes From Their Voices And Do Perceptions Differ By Question Type?, Nuttirudee Charoenruk, Kristen Olson

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

As an aural mode, an interviewer’s voice is an important part of telephone surveys. A speaker’s voice can convey information about his or her trustworthiness and confidence, among other attributes. Consequently, respondents may perceive attributes of interviewers from their voices. We evaluated how five perceived attributes of interviewers (expertise, confidence, reliability, trustworthiness, and easiness to understand) are associated with interviewer voice characteristics (pitch, intonation, speech rate, and disfluencies) and whether this varies by types of question and interviewer characteristics. Overall, listeners perceived interviewers’ attributes from their voices. Interviewers with higher pitched voices, moderate intonation, a faster pace, and fewer disfluencies …

A Comparison Of Full And Quasi Filters For Autobiographical Questions, Kristen M. Olson, Megumi Watanabe, Jolene Smyth

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

Some survey questions do not apply to all respondents. How to design these questions for both eligible and ineligible respondents is unclear. This article compares full filter (FF) and quasi filter (QF) designs for autobiographical questions in mail surveys. Using data from National Health, Wellbeing, and Perspectives Study, we examine the effect of type of filter on item nonresponse rates, response errors, and response distributions. We find that QF questions are more confusing to respondents, resulting in higher rates of item nonresponse and response errors than FF questions. Additionally, FF questions more successfully identify ineligible respondents, bringing estimates closer to …

Item Location, The Interviewer–Respondent Interaction, And Responses To Battery Questions In Telephone Surveys, Kristen Olson, Jolene Smyth, Beth Cochran

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

Survey researchers often ask a series of attitudinal questions with a common question stem and response options, known as battery questions. Interviewers have substantial latitude in deciding how to administer these items, including whether to reread the common question stem on items after the first one or to probe respondents’ answers. Despite the ubiquity of use of these items, there is virtually no research on whether respondent and interviewer behaviors on battery questions differ over items in a battery or whether interview behaviors are associated with answers to these questions. This article uses a nationally representative telephone survey with audio-recorded …

Choose The Method For Aggregating Religious Identities That Is Most Appropriate For Your Research, Conrad Hackett, Philip Schwadel, Gregory A. Smith, Elizabeth Podrebarac Sciupac, Claire Gecewicz

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

Some U.S. surveys measure many religious identities, including detailed Protestant affiliations. Researchers must decide how to aggregate these diverse identities. There are now a variety of options for aggregating religious groups into categories. Depending on the research question, it may be appropriate to use one of the existing options or to develop an aggregation strategy tailored to the project in question.

Cross-National Variation In The Social Origins And Religious Consequences Of Religious Non-Affiliation, Philip Schwadel

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

I argue that the social implications of religious non-affiliation vary across cultural contexts, leading to differences across nations in both who is likely to be unaffiliated and the religious consequences of such non-affiliation. I test these propositions by examining cross-national variation in associations with non-affiliation using multilevel models and cross-sectional survey data from almost 70,000 respondents in 52 nations. The results indicate that: 1) both individual characteristics (gender, age, and marital status) and nation-level attributes (GDP, communism, and regulation of religion) strongly predict religious non-affiliation; 2) differences in non-affiliation by individual-level attributes—women vs. men, old vs. young, and married vs. …

Memory Gaps In The American Time Use Survey. Investigating The Role Of Retrieval Cues And Respondents’ Level Of Effort, Antje Kirchner, Ana Lucía Córdova-Cazar, Robert F. Belli, Robert F. Belli

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

Unaccounted respondent memory gasp- i.e., those activity gaps that are attributed by interviewers to respondents' memory failure- have serious implications for data quality. We contribute to the existing literature by investigating interviewing dynamics using paradata, distinguishing temporary memory gaps, which can be resolved during the interview, from enduring memory gaps, which cannot be resolved. We investigate factors that are associated with both kinds of memory gaps and how different response strategies are associated with data quality. We investigate two hypotheses that are associated with temporary and enduring memory gaps. The motivated cuing hypothesis posits that respondents who display more behaviors …

Bibliography For Interstices 2018: Beyond Human: Emotion And Ai, Kristin Laughtin-Dunker

Library Displays and Bibliographies

An annotated list of materials in the Leatherby Libraries to accompany the Interstices 2018: Beyond Human: Emotion and AI event held at Chapman University in February 2018. The event featured Lisa Joy, co-creator and executive producer of HBO’s Emmy winning hit series Westworld, Jon Gratch, Director for Virtual Human Research at the University of Southern California’s (USC) Institute for Creative Technologies and Caroline Bainbridge, a Professor of Psychoanalysis and Culture in the Department of Media, Culture and Language at the University of Roehampton London. The Leatherby Libraries also hosted two book club discussions of The Positronic …

Psychosocial Interventions For Individuals With Infertility, Margaret Bach

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

Over one-fifth of individuals diagnosed with infertility or undergoing infertility treatment show symptoms of depression, anxiety, distress, and relationship discord. Psychosocial interventions are often offered to these individuals. This literature review was conducted to determine if psychosocial interventions have an impact on anxiety, depression, and relationships in individuals with infertility. An electronic search was performed using keywords in relevant search engines. Studies were identified based on their titles and abstracts and then further reviewed for inclusion. Studies were included if they had a sample population of infertile individuals or couples, men and/or women, and where outcomes of psychosocial interventions or …

The Experience Of Microaggressions Within Cross-Racial Videoconferencing Supervision: A Case Study, Jamie Hedin

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

Technology has contributed to a smaller, more connected world. The United States has also become increasingly diverse, necessitating a more well-versed counseling profession to serve the needs of diverse clients and communities. One way of augmenting clinical supervision for counselors-in-training is through the use of videoconferencing. Cross- racial dynamics between supervisor and supervisee can present due to the power differential and evaluative capacity of the supervisor. The misuse of this power can result in unintended racial insults from the supervisor, directed at the supervisee. This case study examined the experience of three participants who experienced a racial microaggression in a …

A Study Of The Soft Skills That Contribute To The Success Of Newly Graduated Business Students In The Workplace, Promeet Jaswant Singh

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

This quantitative study is focused on assessing the soft skills that newly graduated business students possess. Using the first and only skills inventory in the United States that has been endorsed by Department of Labor, the study seeks to determine what sets employees apart based on their level of performance on the job. The main purpose was to assess and interpret the soft skills that employees bring to the workplace soon after graduating. The population for the current study was human resources professionals from a variety of industry sectors in the state of Minnesota. The businesses represented a range of …

Mismatched Identities: Experiencing White Womanhood And White Motherhood As An Exotic Dancer, Phoenicia S. Sweeney-Summers

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

In this paper I examine the work of exotic dancers in the Rocky Mountain West, focusing on their identities, identity conflict, identity threat, and overcompensation. In over twelve hours of recorded interviews, I asked ten exotic dancers working in Montana about their work, families, and communities as well as their perceptions of themselves and their work. I found that this marginalized group that resides in places that have rural characteristics, often face identity threat because their identities are known within their communities. The identity threat arises as a result of expectations and stereotypes of dancers, and in order to deal …

“Well, Don’T Walk Around Naked... Unless You’Re A Girl”: Gender, Sexuality, And Risk In Jamtronica Festival Subcultural Scenes, Kaitlyne A. Motl

Theses and Dissertations--Sociology

The purpose of this study was to explore emerging issues surrounding gendered fear, threat, and violence perpetration at music festivals – particularly events that feature a synthesis of jam band and electronic dance music acts – a genre termed jamtronica by its fans. Though gendered violence perpetration and prevention have been widely studied within other party-oriented settings (i.e., sexual violence perpetration on college campuses), very little research exists to address how wider disparities of gender and sexuality permeate a community whose members frequently claim the scene’s immunity from external inequalities.

In this three-year multi-sited ethnography, I incorporate participant observations, group …

Age Of Migration Differentials In Life Expectancy With Cognitive Impairment: 20-Year Findings From The Hispanic-Epese, Marc A. Garcia, Joseph L. Saenz, Brian Downer, Chi-Tsun Chiu, Sunshine Rote, Rebeca Wong

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

Background and Objectives To examine differences in life expectancy with cognitive impairment among older Mexican adults according to nativity (U.S.-born/foreign-born) and among immigrants, age of migration to the United States.

Research Design and Methods This study employs 20 years of data from the Hispanic Established Populations for the Epidemiologic Study of the Elderly to estimate the proportion of life spent cognitively healthy and cognitively impaired prior to death among older Mexican adults residing in the southwestern United States. We combine age-specific mortality rates with age-specific prevalence of cognitive impairment, defined as a Mini-Mental Status Exam score of less than 21 …

Social Support Theory, Lisa Kort-Butler

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

In the study of crime and delinquency, what has come to be called social support theory has. its origins in Cullen’s (1994) presidential address to the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences. In the address, entitled “Social support as an organizing concept for criminology,” Cullen argued that the notion of social support is threaded through many theories of crime and delinquency. Cullen distinguished between macro-level and interpersonal-level effects of social support, emphasizing how supportive societies and supportive relationships, respectively, can lessen crime rates and individual crime. He also implicated social support in the processes of social control and criminal justice, arguing …

Sharing-Based Social Capital Associated With Harvest Production And Wealth In The Canadian Arctic, Elspeth Ready

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

Social institutions that facilitate sharing and redistribution may help mitigate the impact of resource shocks. In the North American Arctic, traditional food sharing may direct food to those who need it and provide a form of natural insurance against temporal variability in hunting returns within households. Here, network properties that facilitate resource flow (network size, quality, and density) are examined in a country food sharing network comprising 109 Inuit households from a village in Nunavik (Canada), using regressions to investigate the relationships between these network measures and household socioeconomic attributes. The results show that although single women and elders have …

Self-Rated Health Trajectories Among Married Americans: Do Disparities Persist Over 20 Years?, Terceira A. Berdahl, Julia Mcquillan

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

The purpose of this study is to understand self-rated health (SRH) trajectories by social location (race/ethnicity by gender by social class) among married individuals in the United States. We estimate multilevel models of SRH using six observations from 1980 to 2000 from a nationally representative panel of married individuals initially aged 25–55 (Marital Instability Over the Life Course Study). Results indicate that gender, race/ethnicity, and social class are associated with initial SRH disparities. Women are less healthy than men; people of color are less healthy than whites; lower educated individuals are less healthy than higher educated individuals. Women’s health declined …

The Effects Of Respondent And Question Characteristics On Respondent Answering Behaviors In Telephone Interviews, Kristen Olson, Jolene Smyth, Amanda Ganshert

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

In a standardized telephone interview, respondents ideally are able to provide an answer that easily fits the response task. Deviations from this ideal question answering behavior are behavioral manifestations of breakdowns in the cognitive response process and partially reveal mechanisms underlying measurement error, but little is known about what question characteristics or types of respondents are associated with what types of deviations. Evaluations of question problems tend to look at one question characteristic at a time; yet questions are comprised of multiple characteristics, some of which are easier to experimentally manipulate (e.g., presence of a definition) than others (e.g., attitude …

The Effects Of Mismatches Between Survey Question Stems And Response Options On Data Quality And Responses, Jolene Smyth, Kristen Olson

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

Several questionnaire design texts emphasize a dual role of question wording: the wording needs to express what is being measured and tell respondents how to answer. Researchers tend to focus heavily on the first of these goals, but sometimes overlook the second, resulting in question wording that does not match the response options provided (i.e., mismatches). Common examples are yes/no questions with ordinal or nominal response options, open-ended questions with closed-ended response options, and check-all-that apply questions with forced-choice response options. A slightly different type of mismatch utilizes a question stem that can be read as asking for two different …

Bullying At School And On The Street: Risk Factors And Outcomes Among Homeless Youth, Kimberly A. Tyler, Rachel Schmitz

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

Though rates of bullying among general population youth are high, there is elevated prevalence among certain subgroups, in particular sexual minority homeless youth. Enduring bullying can have devastating consequences, including poor mental health, revictimization, and substance abuse. The current study compares risk factors (i.e., sexual orientation, gender, and child abuse) for being bullied both at school and on the street among homeless youth. We also examine the associations of both contexts of bullying (i.e., at school and on the street) with physical and sexual victimization while on the street, with illicit drug use. From July 2014 to October 2015, we …

Logics Of Freedom: Debating Religious Freedom Laws And Gay And Lesbian Rights, Emily Kazyak, Kelsy Burke, Mathew Stange

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

In the wake of marriage equality for same-sex couples, many states have introduced and passed laws that provide religious exemptions for certain services and benefits for LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer) persons. The authors use data from a general population survey of Nebraskans as a mixed-methods case study to examine public opinion of religious freedom laws. Drawing on data from both closed-ended (n = 1,117) and openended (n = 838) questions, the authors show that opposition to religious freedom laws is quite high, as 64 percent of respondents report that they oppose laws that would allow business owners …

A Demands And Resources Approach To Understanding Faculty Turnover Intentions Due To Work–Family Balance, Megumi Watanabe, Christina Falci

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

Using data collected on tenure-line faculty at a research-intensive Midwestern university, this study explored predictors of faculty job turnover intentions due to a desire for a better work–family balance. We adopted Voydanoff’s theoretical framework and included demands and resources both within and spanning across the work and family domains. Results showed that work-related demands and resources were much stronger predictors of work–family turnover intentions than family-related demands or resources. Specifically, work-to-family negative spillover was positively associated with work–family turnover intentions, and two work-related resources (job satisfaction and supportive work–family culture) were negatively associated with work–family turnover intentions. On the other …

Does Insulin Therapy Matter? Determinants Of Diabetes Care Outcomes, Jennifer A. Andersen, Larry Gibbs

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

Objective: To evaluate adherence to care standards for people with diabetes (PWDs) on insulin therapy versus PWDs who are not on insulin therapy, controlling for social determinants.

Research design and methods: Utilizing the United States 2015 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System Survey, this study used logistic regression analyses to estimate differences in self-care behaviors, healthcare provider quality of care, and diabetic complications for individuals on insulin therapy and individuals not on insulin therapy.

Results: PWDs on insulin therapy are more likely to adhere to self-care measures (self-glucose checks [OR: 7.57], self-foot checks [OR: 1.27], diabetes class participation [OR: 1.96]), adherence …

Book Review: Savin-Williams, Ritch C. 2017. Mostly Straight: Sexual Fluidity Among Men, Trenton M. Haltom

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

In his book Mostly Straight: Sexual Fluidity among Men, Savin-Williams offers an analysis of new shifts in millennial men’s not-so-heterosexual sexual identities. Some “mostly straight” men admit romantic crushes on close male friends, while others attest to fantasizing about sex with other men. All the while, they maintain that their primary sexual and romantic attraction is to women. Bisexuality is not on the table for these men; they are straight—well, mostly. ...

An easy-to-read work, Mostly Straight consists of a number of substantive chapters broken up by individual interviews. The intended audience for Mostly Straight varies from the academically inclined …

Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis And A ‘‘Death With Dignity’’, Jennifer A. Andersen

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

The Oregon ‘‘Death With Dignity’’ Act (DWD Act) allows a terminally ill patient with 6 months to live to ask a physician for medication to end their life. To receive the medication, the DWD Act requires the patient to verbally request the prescription twice 2 weeks apart as well as in writing. Patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis have three main barriers to using DWD: (a) the ability to communicate their informed consent as the disease progresses further, (b) the possibility of dementia which may affect their decisional capacity, and (c) given the nature and speed of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, limited …

Framing And Cultivating The Story Of Crime: The Effects Of Media Use, Victimization, And Social Networks On Attitudes About Crime, Lisa Kort-Butler, Patrick Habecker

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

The current study extended prior research by considering the effects of media, victimization, and network experiences on attitudes about crime and justice, drawing on the problem frame, cultivation, real-word, and interpersonal diffusion theses. Data were from a survey of Nebraska adults (n = 550) who were asked about their social networks; beliefs about media reliability; use of newspaper and news on TV, radio, and the Internet; and exposure to violence on TV, movies, and the Internet. Results indicated that viewing TV violence predicted worry and anger about crime. Believing the media are a reliable source of information about crime predicted …

Public Support For The Death Penalty In A Red State: The Distrustful, The Angry, And The Unsure, Lisa Kort-Butler, Colleen M. Ray

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

Set against the backdrop of Nebraska’s 2015 legislative repeal of the death penalty and the 2016 electoral reinstatement, we examined public support for capital punishment. Using two years of statewide survey data, we compared respondents who preferred the death penalty for murder, those who preferred other penalties, and those who were unsure, a respondent group often excluded from research. To understand what distinguishes among these groups, we examined media consumption, instrumental and expressive feelings about crime, and confidence and trust in the government regarding criminal justice. Results revealed that those who preferred the death penalty expressed more anger about crime …

Examining The Effects Of A Service-Trained Facility Dog On Stress In Children Undergoing Forensic Interview For Allegations Of Child Sexual Abuse, Cheryl A. Krause-Parello, Michele Thames, Colleen M. Ray, John Kolassa

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

Disclosure of child sexual abuse can be a stressful experience for the child. Gaining a better understanding of how best to serve the child, while preserving the quality of their disclosure, is an ever-evolving process. The data to answer this question come from 51 children aged 4–16 (M = 9.1, SD = 3.5), who were referred to a child advocacy center in Virginia for a forensic interview (FI) following allegations of sexual abuse. A repeated measures design was conducted to examine how the presence of a service-trained facility dog (e.g. animal-assisted intervention (AAI) may serve as a mode of lowering …

Child Abuse, Mental Health And Sleeping Arrangements Among Homeless Youth: Links To Physical And Sexual Street Victimization, Kimberly A. Tyler, Rachel Schmitz

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

Physical safety is a primary concern among homeless youth because they struggle to secure basic necessities and a permanent place to live. Despite this, studies have not fully examined the numerous linkages that might explain risk for victimization within the context of material insecurity. In this study, we examine multiple levels of both proximal and distal risk factors at the individual (e.g. mental health), family (e.g. child abuse), and environmental levels (e.g. finding necessities) and their associations with physical and sexual street victimization among 150 Midwestern homeless youth. Results from path analyses show that child physical abuse is positively associated …