Community-Based Research Commons^™

Nasis 2012: Nebraska Annual Social Indicators Survey Questionnaire, Bureau Of Sociological Research

Nebraska Annual Social Indicators Survey (NASIS)

We need your help to learn about how Nebraskans think, feel, and live. Researchers from the University of Nebraska and across the state are counting on your help to learn about a variety of issues. Your responses will help shape program and policy development in Nebraska now and into the future.

105 questions; 16 pages

Health Effects Associated With Foreclosure: A Secondary Analysis Of Hospital Discharge Data, Nancy Menzel, Sheniz Moonie, Melva V. Thompson-Robinson

Nursing Faculty Research

Objectives. The purpose of this study was to assess the health effects of high home foreclosure rates in an area of the United States of America and the utility of hospital discharge data for this purpose. Methods. We analyzed hospital discharge data from three postal zip codes using the principal diagnosis for 25 Diagnostic Related Groups associated with stress. Descriptive statistics were used to characterize hospital discharge rates for each condition by year and zip code. To test for differences across time, the Cochran-Armitage trend test was performed. Results. Most conditions did not demonstrate a statistical change between …

Sexual Education And Teens: A Study Of The Effectiveness Of Greater Lowell Area Public High Schools, Victoria Harkins

Undergraduate Review

In 2008, the teen birth rate for Lowell, Massachusetts was 142.3% higher than the teen birth rate for all of Massachusetts. The State of Massachusetts does not mandate sexual education or education about sexually transmitted disease (STD) and human immunodeficiency virus/ acquired immunodeficiency virus (HIV/AIDS), but instead provides curriculum recommendations. This study examines the health and sexual education curricula from nine public high schools in Greater Lowell, comparing their content to the recommendations of the Massachusetts Comprehensive Health Curriculum Framework. Data were collected using two methods: a survey of health educators, and a content analysis of 9th-12th grade health curricula. …

Immigration And Ethnic Diversity In Nevada, Thomas Wright, John P. Tuman, Maryam T. Stevenson

Social Health of Nevada Reports

In a few decades, non-Hispanic whites will constitute a bare majority in the United States. If current demographic trends continue, the Hispanic population will double or even triple in size by 2050, the Asian population will double, and the African-American population will grow at a faster pace than non-Hispanic whites, which are actually expected to begin declining by 2025. These developments promise to bring profound changes in the country’s ethnic and racial landscape.

Addressing The Learning Needs At Occupy Dc, Andrew J. Batcher

Capstone Collection

The purpose of this paper is to examine how learning can help the Occupy movement in Washington DC. It explores three questions. What are the learning needs of the movement? What educational content can help meet those needs? And how can education be practiced in a way that most effectively addresses the learning needs within the real world circumstances of the movement? Research methods include participant observation, surveys, interviews, focus groups, literature review, and primary document review. Data was coded into 11 outcome oriented learning needs and 3 educational orientations which are geared towards meeting those needs. This paper is …

High School Graduation And Dropout Rates In Nevada, Tiffany G. Tyler, Sandra D. Owens

Social Health of Nevada Reports

The causes and consequences of high school dropout rates are multifaceted and of great importance to society, and that is why this problem has been the subject of close scrutiny by educators, researchers, administrators, politicians and laypersons. Experts do not always agree on the nature of this social problem, but they have pinpointed its economic and social costs, identified key risk factors, and outlined most promising policy options for improving high school graduation rates in our society.

Crime And Delinquency In Nevada, Brooke M. Wagner, Andrew L. Spivak, Stephanie L. Kent, Deborah Koetzle

Social Health of Nevada Reports

Crime and justice system have received much attention from American scholars and politicians in the last than 50 years, with issues in adult criminality, delinquency, and penology emerging at the center stage of criminological inquiry. While scholarly literature now includes many studies focused on different regions and cities, there are no large-scale empirical examinations of crime and delinquency in Nevada. One exception is the Social Health of Nevada report issued in 2006 by University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) Center for Democratic Culture (CDC).

Teen Sexuality And Pregnancy In Nevada, Tiffany G. Tyler, Marie A. Wakefield, Sandra D. Owens, Lori Smith

Social Health of Nevada Reports

The proliferation of sexually explicit materials has been the hallmark of North American culture for decades. The arrival of the Internet made access to such materials all the easier, and not only for adults but also for teenagers who learn at ever-early age that romantic relations are exciting and sexual encounters are a welcome part of life. When such exposure to sensual images is not accompanied by appropriate sex education, the consequences could be dire for teenagers and society alike.

Addiction And Substance Abuse Among Nevada Youths, An-Pyng Sun, Chih-Hsiang Ho, Larry Ashley

Social Health of Nevada Reports

Adolescence is a critical stage for substance abuse initiation, as well as for substance abuse prevention, intervention, and treatment. This report presents tobacco product use, alcohol use, and illicit drug use rates of Nevada’s youths (aged 12-17) compared with youths nationwide as a whole. Most data were retrieved from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), including the 2008--2009 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) data and Treatment Episode Data Set (TEDS), supplemented with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)’s 2009 Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) data. Substate data were taken from SAMHSA’s 2006-2008 …

Health Care Access And Insurance Availability In Nevada, Douglas L. Garner, Marie A. Wakefield, Tiffany G. Tyler, A. Dexter Samuels, Roger Cleveland

Social Health of Nevada Reports

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (2012) defines healthcare access as “the timely use of health services to achieve the best health outcomes.” The Department specifies that efficient health care access is contingent on several steps, including (1) entry into the healthcare system, (2) availability of needed services, and (3) accessibility of providers with whom individuals can establish relationships founded on mutual communication and trust.

Suicide Trends And Prevention In Nevada, Matt Wray, Tatiana Poladko, Misty Vaughan

Social Health of Nevada Reports

Suicide is a leading cause of death in the United States. In 2007, nearly 35,000 Americans took their own lives, a rate of 11.5 suicides per 100,000 (Xu et al. 2010). Among 15-24 year olds, suicide is the third leading cause of death and for those aged 25-34, it is the second leading cause (CDC WISQARS 2007).

Academic Achievement And School Resources, Tiffany G. Tyler, Douglas L. Garner, Marie A. Wakefield, Roger Cleveland, Sandra D. Owens

Social Health of Nevada Reports

This chapter examines the national and local trends in educational policy, focusing in particular on Nevada’s academic achievement, standardized test performance, available school resources, and unmet needs. The discussion begins with the concept of academic achievement and the ways it is measured. After that, we analyze the policies impacting academic achievement, most notably the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act. Next, we suggest the strategies to improve academic performance in the Nevada K12 System and make recommendations to increase parental involvement in education and encourage culturally competent policies of bringing together children, families, and schools. Finally, we discuss the resources …

Child Abuse And Neglect In Nevada, Ramona W. Denby

Social Health of Nevada Reports

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

Disease Prevalence And Behavioral Risk In Nevada, Shannon M. Monnat

Social Health of Nevada Reports

Throughout the last several years, people living in the United States have engaged in intense debates about health care reform, costs, and mandates. What is often missing from these debates is arguably the key issue in American health: What is making us sick in the first place?

Disability Rights And Services In Nevada, Janet S. Belcove-Shalin

Social Health of Nevada Reports

For ages, people with disabilities faced hardship and condescension from the general public. As recently as the 19th century, individuals with serious physical or mental issues were singled out for pity, shunned by society, and urged to accept their afflictions as God’s will. The government offered no assistance to the impaired, relying instead on almsgiving by religious institutions and philanthropic organizations.

Environment And Sustainability In Nevada, Mark J. Salvaggio, Robert Futrell

Social Health of Nevada Reports

When the inaugural Earth Day launched the first environmental decade in the U.S. more than forty years ago, protecting our air, water, land and other natural resources seemed a relatively straightforward task. Environmental polluters and exploiters would be brought to heel by tough laws. The U.S. and other industrialized nations responded to quality of life concerns associated with environmental degradation by adopting dozens of major environmental and resource policies and creating new institutions such as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to manage environmental programs. Following these national developments, states and local communities began systematic efforts to address environmental problems.

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

Social Health of Nevada Reports

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

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

Social Health of Nevada Reports

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

Income Distribution And Poverty In Nevada, Danielle Ely, Christina Morales, David R. Dickens Jr.

Social Health of Nevada Reports

In his famous visit to the U.S. early in the nineteenth century, the French observer Alexis de Tocqueville was surprised by what he saw as “an equality of condition” in his travels around the country. Although he commented on the existence of wealth in the new nation, he was impressed by what he saw as its relative lack of concentration (de Tocqueville 1969). Recent studies by social historians, however, discovered that de Tocqueville was mistaken. Further research suggests that a pattern of highly unequal distributions of wealth and income persisted from the time of the Revolution up through the end …

Nonprofit Sector And Philanthropy In Nevada, Jessica K. A. Word, Shauna Davis

Social Health of Nevada Reports

Many scholars and community organizers believe that nonprofit organizations embody the collective will of the community and reflect the measure of support communities provide their members (Saxton & Benson 2005). The overall strength of the nonprofit sector reflects the health of the society that nurtures these organizations (Salamon 2002; DeVita, Flemming, & Twombly 2001). Since nonprofits are vital to service delivery in the United States, by studying nonprofits practices we can better understand the nature and intensity of the social problems in a given area and the effective ways by which resources could be allocated to address those problems (Gronbjerg …