Family, Life Course, and Society Commons^™

Connecting Cultures: Msmcbj’S Alternative Methods To Mental Health Therapy Within The Aldeia Indigenous Reserve And The Bom Jardim Favela, Emily Rasowsky

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

For my Independent Research Project I observed how community integration and connecting individuals back to the indigenous cultural idea of community work together to improve upon the mental health of individuals in the Favela of Bom Jardim, Fortaleza and the Pitaguary Indigenous Reserve or Aldeia. I examined how the Movimento de Saude Mental Comunitara do Bom Jardim (MSMCBJ) organization provides individuals within Bom Jardim a space to build a supportive community, based in indigenous ideals, while simultaneously providing professional and social opportunities for the Pitaguary tribe to create a sense of cultural valorization and how both of these aspects lead …

Discourses Around Social Welfare Grants As Antipoverty Policy: Effectiveness And The Potential For Reform, Sarah Maniates

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

In a South Africa where many still live in poverty, the government has chosen an extensive system of social grants as one of the primary methods by which it attempts to reduce this poverty. Research has generated substantial quantitative evidence that the system is successful, but there has been little analysis of public opinion around this costly policy, its effectiveness, and the need for its reform. This study explores discourses around the grants, both within government and among everyday people, in order to gain insight into such opinions. This insight is important in a South Africa that is now democratic, …

‘Boys Boys’ Talk, ‘Girls Girls’ Talk: Gendered Approaches And Strategies Towards Modern Contraceptive Use In Urban Kumasi, Yasmin Boakye

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Objective: The objectives of this project were three-fold:

1. How do men and women in the urban area of Kumasi come to understand the major forms of contraception available in Ghana?

2.Are there significant differences in the ways that men and women come to understand contraceptive methods, and are these differences influenced by region, religious affiliation, age, and socioeconomic level?

3. How are these understandings either reinforced, shifted, or broken down by the Ghanaian government’s reproductive health efforts, the work of NGO’s focused on family planning, religious beliefs, and social relationships?

Methodology: During the 30 day long research period I …

Conocimientos Y Conductas Sexuales En Trabajadores Migrantes (Arica, Chile), Anna Conley

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Background: The HIV/AIDS epidemic continues to be prevalent and to expand in Chile, as in many other regions of Latin America and around the world. Furthermore, it continues to concentrate in distinct, vulnerable populations. Migrant workers represent one such vulnerable population. The HIV/AIDS epidemic disproportionately impacts migrant workers because of the social, economic, and psychological factors that are involved in both migratory behaviors and disease construction.

Aim: This study identified sexual health knowledge and sexual health behavior in the migrant laborer population of Arica, Chile. More specifically, it identified risk factors for HIV/AIDS and explored possible strategies for a preventative …

Empowered Minds And Sterilized Bodies: The Decisions And Lived Experiences Of Surgically Sterilized Women In Santo Antonio De Jesus, Leah Smith

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

During the last several decades, Brazil has experienced a rapid fertility decline from 6 births per woman in 1965 to 1.8 births per woman in 2006. Though Brazil lacks a significant and organized family planning program, this fertility decline has been caused in large part by an extremely high rate of female sterilization. Of the 81 percent of women living in union who use birth control, 29 percent are surgically sterilized, placing Brazil at the third highest rate of female sterilization in the world. This research analyzes the sterilization narratives of 10 women from the city of Santo Antonio de …

Land Rights, Cultural Hybridization, And Self-Determination Of First Peoples A Case Study Among The Ngöbe Of Western Panama, Clancy Jandreau

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Hydroelectric and mining projects driven by Panama’s prosperous growth, have come into collision with the country’s largest indigenous population, the Ngöbe. Recently, the Ngöbe took to the streets in a large-scale indigenous rights mobilization that brought their struggle the international scene. Threats to the Ngöbe land and livelihood are nothing new to this group, but the scale and nature of these projects are testing the Ngöbe in an unprecedented fashion. They have had to organize and mobilize to defend their self-determination, using methods well outside their traditional way of life. This article examines the impact of this type of cultural …

Tradition And Change In Marriage Payments In Vietnam, 1963-2000, Bussarawan Teerawichitchainan, John Knodel

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This study analyses data from the Vietnam Study of Family Change to document trends and determinants of marriage payments in Vietnam from 1963 to 2000. We investigate the extent to which structural and policy transformations influenced the practice of payments, and estimate how societal changes indirectly impacted payments via their effects on population characteristics. Results indicate that marriage payments surged following market reform, but also reveal nuanced trends during earlier years. While the socialist attempts to eradicate brideprice appear to have been successful in the North before economic renovation, they were unsuccessful in the South. Structural and policy change explained …

Superstars And Misfits: Two Pop-Trends In The Gender Culture Of Contemporary Evangelicalism, Kelsy Burke, Amy Mcdowell

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

This paper examines gender in two forms of mediated contemporary Protestant evangelicalism in the United States: a male-dominated punk network, called Misfits United, and a women’s group studying Beth Moore’s Bible study, It’s Tough Being a Woman (ITBAW). While the appearance and performance styles of these two groups are drastically different, both support gender hierarchies in similar ways. Misfits United and Moore’s ITBAW present the gender of their Christian God as flexible, even transformative, and in effect open up discursive space to conceptualize gender on non-traditional grounds. Paradoxically, however, both reinforce traditional gender roles by emphasizing what distinguishes God from …

Social Capital And Violence Across Racial And Ethnic Samples Of Adolescents, Darlene R. Haff, Kevin M. Fitzpatrick, H. H. Floyd

Journal of Health Disparities Research and Practice

Using a national sample of adolescents, results of this study demonstrate the important role family and school social capital plays in protecting both White and selected non- White students against violent outcomes. For example, parent-child relationship was associated with reduced violence for Black and White adolescents but not for Hispanics. School affiliation was significant in models for Hispanic and White adolescents but not in models for Black students. Sports participation was associated with greater violence among Hispanics and Whites, but not Blacks. Interestingly, club participation was significant for Whites, but, like sports, it was associated with greater violence. Parental monitoring …

Does This Marriage Make Me Look Fat? Marital Quality As A Predictor Of Body Weight, Activity Level, And Eating Habits, Lori C. Schade, Jonathan Sandberg, Dean Busby

FHSS Mentored Research Conference

Survey data from married couples (N=374) was analyzed for effects of marital quality on weight as a problem in the marriage, activity level and eating habits. Results indicate that wife marital quality was positively associated with weight being a problem for wives, while husband marital quality was negatively associated with weight being a problem for both husbands and wives in the relationship. Wife marital quality was also positively associated with husband activity level, while husband marital quality was negatively associated with husband activity level. Implications of findings are discussed.

Sexual Satisfaction And Differentiation, Anthony A. Hughes, James Harper

FHSS Mentored Research Conference

Using questionnaires, self report, and partner report of spouse, this investigation examined the relationship between differentiation of self and sexual satisfaction of each partner for a sample size of 681. The data was collected from a large northwestern city and was part of the Flourishing Families Project. Actor and partner effects were both examined. Findings showed that both husbands and wives were impacted by both actor and partner effects of differentiation of self. The latent variable of differentiation of self measured the lack of differentiation, while the latent variable of sexual satisfaction measured the lack of sexual satisfaction within the …

Wandering In The Wilderness: A Grounded Theory Study Of The Divorce Or Reconciliation Decision-Making Process, Tamara A. Fackrell

Theses and Dissertations

In this study, I present grounded-theory analyses of the decision-making process surrounding divorce or reconciliation based on in-depth interviews with 31 individuals thinking about divorce. The overall model of the divorce decision-making process included negative experiences leading to a bad relationship or an unsustainable marriage, the wilderness crossroads, the vast wilderness, and a development of an exit strategy. Repair attempts that were made are what helped the couple move towards a sustainable marriage or closer to divorce. The findings of the present study suggest that the decision-making process to divorce or reconcile can be a chaotic and confusing one—a wilderness—yet …

The Effects Of Parentification, Attachment, Family-Of-Origin Dysfunction And Health On Depression: A Comparative Study Between Gender And The Ethnic Groups Of South Koreans And Caucasian Americans, Sunnie Giles

Theses and Dissertations

Parentification is a process where children or adolescents assume adult roles before they are emotionally or developmentally ready, which, in turn, disrupts the development of healthy, secure attachment in childhood. Using 1,001 men and women from South Korea and the United States with equal division between males and females and multiple group comparison technique in structural equation modeling, this paper examined the relationship between parentification during childhood and depression during adulthood. It explores the cross-sectional long-term effects of parentification into adulthood, using a retrospective survey technique. This study also confirmed previous research findings that attachment, physical health and family-of-origin dysfunction, …

Family Implicit Rules, Child Self Regulation, And Observed Child Emotional Responsiveness To Parents, Mark J. Mauzy

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine how implicit family process rules are related to observed child emotional responsiveness with child self regulation as a possible mediating variable. Data from Wave 1 of the Flourishing Families project was used and included 337 two parent families and a target child between the ages of 10 and 13. Mother and father perception of family implicit rules were used to measure family implicit rules; child and mother report of the child's self regulation were used to measure self regulation, and child's emotional responsiveness to mother and father were taken from coding data. …

Research Brief: "The Children Of Military Service Members: Challenges, Supports, And Future Educational Research", Institute For Veterans And Military Families At Syracuse University

Institute for Veterans and Military Families

This brief summarizes an analysis on how the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have led to concerning psychological, behavioral, and academic outcomes for children in military families.

The Changing Meaning Of Marriage: An Analysis Of Contemporary Marital Attitudes Of Young Adults, Nicole Margaret Kay

Theses and Dissertations

An interesting paradox in the literature about marriage is that despite the substantial changes to marriage over the last half century, young adults remain committed to the ideal of marriage. While changes to marriage as a social institution have been well documented, research concerning the contemporary attitudes of young adults about marriage has been limited. Even less research has focused on how these contemporary attitudes may cluster young adults into groups that have different perceptions of marriage. This study explores young single adult attitudes about marriage, and group differences in these attitudes. A quota sample (n=700) of 18-35 year-old young …

Youth At Risk: Part 1, 2012 Massachusetts Family Impact Seminar, Lisa M. Jones, Ramon Borges-Mendez, Janis Wolak, Denise Hines, Michelle E. Collett, Lillian Denhardt, Lindsay A. Evans, Rashmi Nair, Stephanie L. Nguyen

Mosakowski Institute for Public Enterprise

The youth of Massachusetts are of primary concern to legislators and citizens. This briefing report features three essays by experts – Lisa Jones, Ramon Borges-Mendez, and Janis Wolak – who focus on three aspects of youth wellbeing: youth victimization and other indicators of psychological health, youth unemployment, and online sexual predators of youth. Although youth well-being is of primary concern, the worrisome stories about crimes against children that regularly fill the media have unfortunately obscured some more positive news from statistical reports on these same issues. Child victimizations of various types – i.e., child sexual abuse, witnessing domestic violence, child …

Family Structure And Family Instability: Evaluating Their Influence On Adult Outcomes, Hsin-Yao Chiu

Theses and Dissertations

Family structure is a widely used independent variable. However, in recent years researchers have questioned its predicting power. They also strive to improve its use. This study drew on Holman's (2001) theoretical model and examined the association between the family structure independent variables (Family Structure, Family Instability, and Parental Romantic Partners) and the outcome variables (Coming to Terms, Self-esteem, Maturity, and Depression). The analysis was conducted with a sample of 3,705 individuals (2,316 females and 1,389 males) randomly selected from the entire population that completed the Relationship Evaluation Questionnaire (RELATE). Results showed that Family Instability was a stronger predictor than …

An Exploratory Analysis Of Factors Associated With Participation In Self-Directed And Traditional Marriage And Relationship Education, Shelece Mcallister

Theses and Dissertations

Although self-directed marriage and relationship education (MRE) has the potential to reach a larger or different audience than traditional MRE, little has been done to examine the characteristics of those who access self-directed materials. This study examined individual, couple, family, and sociocultural context variables that predicted participation in both self-directed and traditional MRE programs. A series of logistic regressions were conducted using SPSS 19.0. Different factors predicted participation for each intervention. For self-directed programs, those who were older, more educated, more religious, less materialistic, whose partners were more neurotic, who had been dating for a shorter amount of time, and …

Don't Worry....Be Happy: The Influence Of Parental Anxiety On Adolescent Self-Esteem, Holly Olson Coutts

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of the current study was to explore the direct and indirect influences of both paternal and maternal anxiety on adolescent self-esteem as mediated by parental criticism and autonomy allowance. Participants included 331 parent-child triads with a child between the ages of 12 and 15 from the Flourishing Families Project. Findings suggested that maternal anxiety had a significant negative influence on adolescent self-esteem while paternal anxiety did not. Also, the influence of maternal anxiety on adolescent self-esteem was carried directly rather than indirectly through autonomy allowance and parental criticism; however, this influence was only significant prior to adolescent gender …