Browse
Recent Submissions
Item The social stigma of hospice care in the context of cancer(Łódzkie Towarzystwo Naukowe, 2022) Kaminska, Weronika; Chittajallu, Supriya; Davis, Tiffini; Sociology, School of Liberal ArtsHospice care is designed to help individuals with pain, physical and psychological, that arises during the advanced stage of a disease so that the patient can face their impending death with dignity. Through the hospice lens, the patient is viewed as an entity that needs both medical and non-medical care, which differentiates hospices from other forms of care available. However, despite hospice care having been integrated into the medical sphere and its widespread availability to patients, it has begun to be met with social reluctance and fear. This article is a review of theories, concepts, and research in the context of the social construct of cancer, palliative treatment, and hospice care. The texts analyzed in this article have been selected to show both the time-changing approach to the issues discussed, as well as the indication of threads that are characteristic of the USA and Europe, including Poland. The aim of the article is to reflect on the social stigmatization of hospice care, changes in the identity of patients, especially the transition from oncological treatment to palliative and hospice care, and thus draw attention to the patient experience before the impending death.Item Aging With Incarceration Histories: An Intersectional Examination of Incarceration and Health Among Older Adults(Oxford University Press, 2024-12-31) Latham-Mintus, Kenzie; Deck, Monica; Nelson, Elizabeth; Sociology, School of Liberal ArtsObjectives: Experiences with incarceration are linked to poor mental and physical health across the life course. The purpose of this research is to examine whether incarceration histories are associated with worse physical and mental health among older adults. We apply an intersectionality framework and consider how the intersection of sexism and racism leads to unequal health outcomes following incarceration among women and people of color. Methods: We employ 2 measures of health (i.e., number of depressive symptoms and physical limitations) to broadly capture mental and physical health. Using data from Waves 11 and 12 of the Health and Retirement Study, we estimated a series of general linear models to analyze differences in health by incarceration history, gender/sex, and race/ethnicity. Results: Findings suggest that experiences with incarceration are associated with a greater number of physical limitations and more depressive symptoms among older men and women, net of sociodemographic characteristics, early-life conditions, and lifetime stressful events. Formerly incarcerated women, particularly women of color, had more physical limitations and depressive symptoms relative to other groups. Discussion: These findings suggest that incarceration histories have far-reaching health implications. Older women of color with incarceration histories experience markedly high levels of physical limitations and depressive symptoms in later life.Item Daily Experiences of Urinary and Fecal Incontinence in Young Adults with Spina Bifida: Preliminary Results from an Ecological Momentary Assessment Study(medRxiv, 2025-01-12) Hensel, Devon J.; Young, Audrey I.; Szymanski, Konrad M.; Sociology, School of Liberal ArtsBackground: Urinary (UI) and fecal (FI) incontinence are prevalent secondary chronic conditions among young adults with spina bifida (YASB). UI and FI decrease daily functioning for YASB, but no research has prospectively examined characteristics of UI and FI among YASB. We used ecological momentary assessment (EMA) over 30 days to describe the prevalence, episode-specific characteristics and negativity associated with UI and FI among a cohort of YASB. Method: Data were collected as part of a larger 30-day EMA study prospectively examining the daily prevalence and context of UI and FI in adults with SB. We drew an analytic sample of young adults (YASB) participants aged 18-27 years (N=23 [26.1% of all study-participants [N=88];). Participants completed an end-of-day EMA tracking the frequency, dry intervals, volume, activity avoidance, management, positive and negative mood, current UI (UIA) or FI (FIA) anxiety, past UIA and FIA and past number of UI or FI events. Results: YASB contributed a 643 daily EMAs. Nearly 60% (370/643) of all daily entries was associated with a general report of incontinence (UI: 54.1% [348/643]; FI: 20.8% [134/643]). Prevalence, characteristics and negativity associated with UI and FI varied significantly from day-to-day. Higher UI frequency, shorter dry intervals, greater UI volume, needing management help, avoiding activities because of UI, higher past median UIA, higher negative mood and fewer past UI events were associated with higher daily UIA. Shorter FI dry intervals, higher past median FIA, higher negative mood and fewer past FI events were associated with higher daily FIA. Discussion: Day-to-day experiences of UI and FI vary among adults with SB across multiple dimensions. Negativity about incontinence when it occurs varies not only based on individual- and episode-specific characteristics, but also on incontinence in the preceding days. Operationalizing these insights into potential clinical interventions warrants further investigation. Discussion and implications: Young people with SB (YASB) experience day-to-day differences in the characteristics of urinary (UI) and fecal (FI) incontinence (e.g. frequency, self-management) events and the way they felt (e.g. affect) about UI and FI. The unique relationship of these factors to UI and FI anxiety suggest novel potential points of intervention.Item The Greensburg Race Riot of 1907: Race and a Sundown Town(Indiana University, 2023) White, Robert W.; Sociology, School of Liberal ArtsIn April 1907, John Green, a Black resident of Greensburg, Indiana, was accused of robbing and raping white widow Caroline Sefton. Unable to lynch Green, who had been removed from the town, white residents rioted, attacking and injuring several Black men and threatening at least one Black family. Some accounts claim that in response to the riot African Americans fled Greensburg, and it became a sundown town. Author Robert White examines the history of racism in Greensburg and Decatur County and demonstrates that the riot was a symptom of a broader racial intolerance. Racism, which existed prior to the riot and persisted after the riot, drove African Americans from Greensburg, Decatur County, and surrounding counties. Racism created an almost entirely white area of southeastern Indiana that persisted as a sundown region for decades.Item Risk Of Diabetes Among Adults Aging With Vision Impairment: The Role Of The Neighborhood Environment(Oxford University Press, 2022) Clarke, Philippa; Khan, Anam; Mintus, Kenzie; Ehrlich, Joshua; Sociology, School of Liberal ArtsExperiencing vision loss as a result of the aging process may be different from aging with vision impairment (VI) acquired earlier in life. Adults aging with VI may be at risk for Type-2 Diabetes (T2DM) due to community barriers in accessing health care, healthy food, and recreational resources. We examined the relationship between neighborhood characteristics and incident diabetes in 22,719 adults aging with VI (without prevalent T2DM) in a private medical claims database (2008-2019). The primary outcome was time to incident T2DM diagnosis over 3+ years of enrollment. Cox models estimated hazard ratios (HRs) for incident diabetes (adjusted for age, sex, and comorbidities). Residence in neighborhoods with greater intersection density (HR=1.26) and traffic (HR=1.22) increased risk of T2DM, while broadband internet access (HR=0.67), optical stores (HR=0.62), supermarkets (HR=0.78), and gyms/fitness centers (HR=0.63) were associated with reduced risk. Results emphasize the importance of neighborhood context for aging well with VI.Item Network recall among older adults with cognitive impairments(Elsevier, 2021) Roth, Adam R.; Peng, Siyun; Coleman, Max E.; Finley, Evan; Perry, Brea; Sociology, School of Liberal ArtsAlthough it is widely accepted that personal networks influence health and illness, network recall remains a major concern. This concern is heightened when studying a population that is vulnerable to cognitive decline. Given these issues, we use data from the Social Network in Alzheimer Disease project to explore similarities and discrepancies between the network perceptions of focal participants and study partners. By leveraging data on a sample of older adults with normal cognition, mild cognitive impairment, and early stage dementia, we explore how cognitive impairment influences older adults’ perceptions of their personal networks. We find that the average individual is more likely to omit weaker, peripheral ties from their self-reported networks than stronger, central ties. Despite observing only moderate levels of focal-partner corroboration across our sample, we find minimal evidence of perceptual differences across diagnostic groups. We offer two broad conclusions. First, self-reported network data, though imperfect, offer a reasonable account of the core people in one’s life. Second, our findings assuage concerns that cognitively impaired older adults have skewed perceptions of their personal networks.Item Supporting the Development of Grassroots Maternal and Childhood Health Leaders through a Public-Health-Informed Training Program(MDPI, 2024-04-09) Latham-Mintus, Kenzie; Ortiz, Brittney; Irby, Ashley; Turman, Jack, Jr.; Sociology, School of Liberal ArtsThe purpose of this research was to assess leadership growth (i.e., changes in personal capacity and social capital) among women living in high-risk infant mortality zip codes who completed a grassroots maternal and childhood health leadership (GMCHL) training program. We used semi-structured qualitative interviews and thematic analysis. Three major themes associated with the training program experience were identified: (1) building personal capacity and becoming community brokers; (2) linking and leveraging through formal organizations; and (3) how individual change becomes community change. Although many of the grassroots leaders were already brokers (i.e., connecting individuals to information/services), they were able to become community brokers by gaining new skills and knowledge about strategies to reduce adverse birth outcomes in their community. In particular, joining and participation in formal organizations aimed at improving community health led to the development of linking or vertical ties (e.g., “people in high places”). The grassroots leaders gained access to people in power, such as policymakers, which enabled leaders to access more resources and opportunities for themselves and their social networks. We outline the building blocks for supporting potential grassroots leaders by enhancing personal capacity and social capital, thus leading to increases in collective efficacy and collective action.Item Toll of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Primary Caregiver in Yazidi Refugee Families in Canada: A Feminist Refugee Epistemological Analysis(Brock University, 2022) Banerjee, Pallavi; Chacko, Soulit; Korsha, Souzan; Sociology, School of Liberal ArtsExisting discourse on refugee resettlement in the West is rife with imperialist and neoliberal allusions. Materially, this discourse assumes refugees as passive recipients of resettlement programs in the host country denying them their subjectivities. Given the amplification of all social and economic inequities during the pandemic, our paper explores how Canada's response to the pandemic vis-a-vis refugees impacted the everyday of Yazidis in Calgary - a recently arrived refugee group who survived the most horrific genocidal atrocities of our times. Based on interviews with Yazidi families in Calgary and with resettlement staff we unpack Canada's paternalistic response to COVID-19 toward refugees. We show how resettlement provisions and social isolation along with pre-migration histories have furthered the conditions of social, economic, and affective inequities for the Yazidis. We also show how Yazidi women who were most impacted by the genocide and the subsequent pandemic find ways of asserting their personhood and engage in healing through a land-based resettlement initiative during the pandemic. Adopting a Feminist Refugee Epistemology and a southern moral imaginary as our discursive lenses, we highlight the need to dismantle the existing paternalistic structures and re(orient) resettlement practices and praxis to a social justice framework centering the voices of refugee women and families in their resettlement process.Item The Devil That You Know: Christian Nationalism and Intent to Change One’s Voting Behavior For or Against Trump in 2020(Cambridge University Press, 2022-06) Perry, Samuel L.; Whitehead, Andrew L.; Grubbs, Joshua B.; Sociology, School of Liberal ArtsChristian nationalist ideology was among the strongest predictors of Americans voting for Trump in 2016 and remained a strong predictor of intent to vote for him prior to the 2020 election. This study uses national data to examine whether Christian nationalism could potentially convert the previously-unconverted to supporting Trump or, conversely, prevent apostatizing from Trump. Among Americans who did not vote for Trump in 2016, Christian nationalism increased the likelihood that they intended to vote for Trump in 2020, but only those who earlier did not vote at all or voted third party. Conversely, among Americans who did vote for Trump in 2016, Christian nationalism reduced the likelihood that they planned on voting for a Democratic or third party candidate. Christian nationalism thus potentially inclined Americans who previously did not vote for Trump in 2016 to vote his way in 2020 and inoculated previous Trump-voters from considering other candidates in 2020.Item Disney and Disability: Media Representations of Disability in Disney and Pixar Animated Films(Society for Disability Studies, 2022-08-18) Holcomb, Jeanne; Latham-Mintus, Kenzie; Sociology, School of Liberal ArtsSince the merger of Walt Disney Animation Studios and Pixar Animation Studios, Disney has been lauded for creating more progressive content that includes representations of main characters from diverse backgrounds. However, progressive representations of disability (both physical and mental disability) have been slow to emerge in most mediums. The objective of this research is to examine whether portrayals of illness and disability in recent animated feature films produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios or Pixar Animation Studios depict progressive (or multicultural) narratives of disability versus traditional narratives of disability. We analyzed 20 of the most recent (i.e., 2008-2018) animated films from both studios with 9 films from Walt Disney Animation and 11 films from Pixar Animation Studios. Using thematic content analysis, a combination of pre-identified and emergent disability- and illness-related themes are described. Overwhelmingly, disability portrayals were traditional, with disability used to elicit pity or humor from the viewer and to indicate that characters were evil or old. Out of the 20 films, few progressive portrayals of disability were observed. Although Disney has been lauded for being more inclusive in their representations of characters, disability representations continue to perpetuate and reaffirm the stigmatization of disability.