Browsing by Author "Pescosolido, Bernice A."

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    Gender-specific gene-environment interaction in alcohol dependence: the impact of daily life events and GABRA2
    (Springer, 2013-09) Perry, Brea L.; Pescosolido, Bernice A.; Bucholz, Kathleen; Edenberg, Howard; Kramer, John; Kuperman, Samuel; Schuckit, Marc Alan; Nurnberger Jr., John I.; Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, IU School of Medicine
    Gender-moderated gene-environment interactions are rarely explored, raising concerns about inaccurate specification of etiological models and inferential errors. The current study examined the influence of gender, negative and positive daily life events, and GABRA2 genotype (SNP rs279871) on alcohol dependence, testing two- and three-way interactions between these variables using multi-level regression models fit to data from 2,281 White participants in the Collaborative Study on the Genetics of Alcoholism. Significant direct effects of variables of interest were identified, as well as gender-specific moderation of genetic risk on this SNP by social experiences. Higher levels of positive life events were protective for men with the high-risk genotype, but not among men with the low-risk genotype or women, regardless of genotype. Our findings support the disinhibition theory of alcohol dependence, suggesting that gender differences in social norms, constraints and opportunities, and behavioral undercontrol may explain men and women's distinct patterns of association.
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    The role of stigma in writing charitable appeals
    (2018-04-26) Hansen, Ruth K.; Benjamin, Lehn M.; Burlingame, Dwight F.; Konrath, Sara; Lindahl, Wesley E.; Pescosolido, Bernice A.
    This study investigated choices made by fundraisers when crafting appeals to unknown potential donors. Specifically, it asked if and how fundraisers’ choices vary depending on whether they were raising money for a population that faced societal stigma. Research on fundraising often focuses on donor behavior, without considering the type of the beneficiary and the discretionary decisions made by fundraisers. This study drew on literature about stigma and literature about fundraising communication. It employed mixed methodologies to explore this research question. The first part of the study used an online experimental survey, in which 76 practicing fundraisers wrote an acquisition appeal letter for a nonprofit after random assignment to benefit either clients with mental illness (stigmatized population) or older adults (non-stigmatized population), then answered attitudinal questions about the beneficiary population. Participants believed individuals with mental illness were more stigmatized than older adults. Analysis of the letters using linguistic software showed that fundraisers used more humanizing language when writing about the non-stigmatized population, compared to the stigmatized population. Several aspects of the appeal letters, identified through existing theory, were examined but did not vary at statistically significant levels between the groups. Exploratory factor analysis showed several patterns of elements recurring within the letters. One of these patterns, addressing social expectations, varied significantly by client group. In the second part of the study, semi-structured interviews with fifteen participants showed that writing for the stigmatized client population raised special concerns in communicating with potential donors: many interviewees described identifying client stories and evidence to justify helping stigmatized clients in a way that wasn’t thought as necessary for non-stigmatized clients. They also attempted to mitigate threatening stereotypes to maintain readers’ comfort levels. Fundraisers regularly evaluated how readers were likely to think of different kinds of clients. Fundraisers’ own implicit assumptions also came into play.
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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.