Browsing by Author "Department of Sociology, School of Liberal Arts"

Now showing 1 - 8 of 8
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    A Comparison of Network Sampling Designs for a Hidden Population of Drug Users: Random Walk vs. Respondent-Driven Sampling
    (Elsevier, 2016) Bell, David C.; Erbaugh, Elizabeth B.; Serrano, Tabitha; Dayton-Shotts, Cheryl A.; Montoya, Isaac D.; Department of Sociology, School of Liberal Arts
    Both random walk and respondent-driven sampling (RDS) exploit social networks and may reduce biases introduced by earlier methods for sampling from hidden populations. Although RDS has become much more widely used by social researchers than random walk (RW), there has been little discussion of the tradeoffs in choosing RDS over RW. This paper compares experiences of implementing RW and RDS to recruit drug users to a network-based study in Houston, Texas. Both recruitment methods were implemented over comparable periods of time, with the same population, by the same research staff. RDS methods recruited more participants with less strain on staff. However, participants recruited through RW were more forthcoming than RDS participants in helping to recruit members of their social networks. Findings indicate that, dependent upon study goals, researchers' choice of design may influence participant recruitment, participant commitment, and impact on staff, factors that may in turn affect overall study success.
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    Does neighborhood disorder predict recovery from mobility limitation? Findings from the Health and Retirement Study
    (Sage, 2015-05) Latham, Kenzie; Williams, Monica M.; Department of Sociology, School of Liberal Arts
    Objective: This research explores whether perceptions of physical neighborhood disorder predict recovery from mobility limitation over a 2-year period and examines whether psychosocial factors (i.e., depressive symptomology and mastery) and physical activity are salient mediators. Method: Using data from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS): Participant Lifestyle Questionnaire (2008-2010), odds ratio estimates of recovery were ascertained using binary logistic regression, and post hoc Sobel tests were conducted to formally assess mediation. Results: Net of demographic characteristics and socioeconomic status, increased neighborhood disorder was associated with lower odds of recovery. However, both psychosocial indicators and physical activity were significant individual partial mediators, which suggest neighborhood disorder influences recovery from physical impairment via psychosocial processes and barriers to physical activity. Discussion: Reducing neighborhood disorder may enhance older residents’ psychosocial well-being and improve participation in physical activity, thus increasing recovery from mobility limitation and preventing subsequent disability.
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    “It’s About Time!”: Company Support for Fathers’ Entitlement to Reduced Work Hours in Sweden
    (Oxford, 2016) Haas, Linda; Hwang, C. Philip; Department of Sociology, School of Liberal Arts
    Fifteen nations offer fathers the right to reduce work hours to care for children. Incorporating a gender perspective, this study uses a mixed-methods approach to examine the implementation of this policy in the first nation to offer it, Sweden. It investigates whether the institutional and cultural environment exerts pressure on companies to facilitate fathers' hours reduction, companies' levels of support for fathers' use of this entitlement and correlates of company support. The persistence of the “male model of work” appears to be an important barrier to implementation of a policy that offers promise in offering fathers time to care.
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    The "long arm" of childhood health: linking childhood disability to late midlife mental health
    (2015-01) Latham, Kenzie; Department of Sociology, School of Liberal Arts
    A growing body of research underscores the early origins of health in later life; however, relatively little is known about the relationship between childhood physical health and adult mental health. This research explores the relationship between childhood disability and depressive symptoms among a nationally representative sample of late midlife adults (N = 3,572). Using data from Waves 8-10 (2006-2010) of the Health and Retirement Study, a series of ordinary least squares regression models were created to assess the number of depressive symptoms. Childhood disability was significantly associated with higher levels of depressive symptoms; however, late midlife social and health factors accounted for differences between those with and without childhood disability. Late midlife physical health appeared to be a particularly salient mediator. Individuals who experience childhood disability may accumulate more physical impairment over the life course, thus experiencing worse mental health such as greater depressive symptoms in late midlife.
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    Reasons People Give for Using (or not Using) Condoms
    (Springer, 2016) Farrington, Elizabeth M.; Bell, David C.; DiBacco, Aron E.; Department of Sociology, School of Liberal Arts
    Study participants (N = 348) were asked about 46 reasons that have been suggested for why people use or do not use condoms. Participants were asked which of these reasons motivated them when they were deciding whether to use condoms in 503 sexual relationships. Participants were classified into one of three roles based on their HIV status and the status of each sexual partner: HIV+ people with HIV− partners; HIV− people with HIV+ partners; and HIV− people with HIV− partners. Motivations were looked at in the context of each of these roles. Of the 46 reasons, only 15 were selected by at least 1/3 of the participants, and only seven were selected by at least half. Frequently reported reasons primarily concern protecting self and partner from STDs including HIV. Less frequently reported reasons involved social norms, effects of condoms on sex, and concern for the relationship. These findings have implications for clinical interventions.
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    Social Norms: Do We Love Norms Too Much?
    (Wiley, 2015-03) Bell, David C.; Cox, Mary L.; Department of Sociology, School of Liberal Arts
    Social norms are often cited as the cause of many social phenomena, especially as an explanation for prosocial family and relationship behaviors. And yet maybe we love the idea of social norms too much, as suggested by our failure to subject them to rigorous test. Compared to the detail in social norms theoretical orientations, there is very little detail in tests of normative theories. To provide guidance to researchers who invoke social norms as explanations, we catalog normative orientations that have been proposed to account for consistent patterns of action. We call on researchers to conduct tests of normative theories and the processes such theories assert.
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    Under the influence of genetics: how transdisciplinarity leads us to rethink social pathways to illness
    (University of Chicago Press, 2008) Pescosolido, Bernice A.; Perry, Brea L.; Long, J. Scott; Martin, Jack K.; Department of Sociology, School of Liberal Arts
    This article describes both sociological and genetic theories of illness causation and derives propositions expected under each and under a transdisciplinary theoretical frame. The authors draw propositions from three theories -- fundamental causes, social stress processes, and social safety net theories -- and tailor hypotheses to the case of alcohol dependence. Analyses of a later wave of the Collaborative Study on the Genetics of Alcoholism reveal a complex interplay of the GABRA2 gene with social structural factors to produce cases meeting DSM/ICD diagnoses. Only modest evidence suggests that genetic influence works through social conditions and experiences. Further, women are largely unaffected in their risk for alcohol dependence by allele status at this candidate gene; family support attenuates genetic influence; and childhood deprivation exacerbates genetic predispositions. These findings highlight the essential intradisciplinary tension in the role of proximal and distal influences in social processes and point to the promise of focusing directly on dynamic, networked sequences that produce different pathways to health and illness.
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    Who Cares for the Kids? Parenting and Caregiving in Disney Films
    (Sage, 2015-12) Holcomb, Jeanne; Latham, Kenzie; Fernandez-Baca, Daniel; Department of Sociology, School of Liberal Arts
    Disney is recognized as producing powerful cultural products that make major contributions to many forms of children’s media. While it has been suggested that mothers are marginalized in Disney films, there has been no extensive research exploring alternate caregivers, including other-parents. Given the minimal roles of mothers in Disney films and the cultural relevance of biological mothers as primary caregivers, we ask “who cares for the kids?” in these carefully crafted family films with adolescent protagonists. Utilizing a feminist approach, this study explores narrative subtexts surrounding parenting and caregiving by systematically examining feature-length, animated Disney films. A sample of 15 films was analyzed; the films were purposefully sampled using specific family-related criteria. Results reiterate that mothers are marginalized either through their absence or their relatively minor roles. However, fathers and other-parents are significant caregivers in the majority of the films. The use of created kinship was particularly striking.