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In this paper, we demonstrate the ways in which the schooling of refugee youth in the United States reflects ongoing coloniality in education. Drawing on data collected in a case study, conducted between 2013 and 2016, as part of a larger ongoing ethnography of a Southwest United States District school's response to refugee students, we show how the enactment of policies, pedagogies, and practices within schools reinforce the government's control over refugee students and their families. In schools, the students are kept out of certain school spaces, marginalized in remedial courses, and denied academic opportunities and integrated support services. Using empirical data, we demonstrate how the restriction of the students' movement in and around schools is embedded within the larger limitations embedded in coloniality and assimilation. We situate our analysis within the tensions and interactions between coloniality, assimilation, and neoliberalism as articulated in studies within anthropology and sociology, migration studies, critical refugee studies, and cultural studies. We conclude with a call for the decolonization of education and offer a practical starting point in refugee education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper demonstrates the macro dynamics of housing and disability by comparing pressures on a broad range of issues related to housing and disability across states. Despite the growing population of adults with disabilities in the United States, research on the national-level relationship between housing and disability has been largely absent and little attention has been paid to accessibility, housing affordability, or the prevalence of involuntary movement and relocation for adults with disabilities. Using national data from the 2020 American Community Survey (ACS), we examine the multi-dimensional nature of housing, through cost burdens, upkeep, and maintenance, renting vs. ownership, and types of housing prevalent in the United States, and argue that this creates a paradox of livability vs. affordability for adults with disabilities. These state-level trends in the cost and livability of housing environments by state show that housing conditions and housing costs are inversely associated for adults with disabilities. These macro-level conditionalities are not uniform but vary by housing type and location across the country, creating specific paradoxes in each state. We assert that housing itself is one of the key mechanisms that can support or hinder the long-term well-being of persons with disabilities living in the community, through the presence or absence of both physical space and facilities in the home. Ultimately, housing conditions and affordability need to be considered primary factors in the study and support of persons with disabilities and these considerations must be tailored to state and local housing dynamics to meet persons with disabilities where they live. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper utilizes narrative inquiry to examine the effect of COVID-19 on political resistance, focusing on education as a key site. Based on survey and interview data the paper considers parents' perspectives about the impacts of COVID-19 and racial inequalities in their children's schooling. Two narrative types are constructed and analyzed: consensus narratives and parenting narratives that refute an overarching, manufactured political narrative in the United States of "divisiveness" about race and education, while also identifying the layers and complexities of individual parents' everyday lives raising and educating children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Researchers have long puzzled over suicidal behavior. In this paper, we posit that when people are unable to attract mates given unfavorable sex ratios, suicide rates increase. Sex ratio, the proportion of males in a population, is linked to a variety of behaviors, including marriage stability, violence, depression, and infidelity. We test whether suicide rates are associated with county-level sex ratios utilizing data from 1999 to 2018, controlling for a variety of factors known to be associated with suicide risk. We find that sex ratio is associated with suicide rates, where a greater proportion of males in a county (age 35–74) is associated with an increased rate of suicide for these males. Mediation analyses show that these effects are mediated by male marriage rates. Counter to predictions, male-biased sex ratios also tend to be associated with increased female suicide rates for women aged 35 to 74, and this effect is mediated by the unmarried sex ratio (i.e., when there are more unmarried men compared to unmarried women in a county, there is increased female suicide). Overall, these results suggest that male-biased sex ratios are associated with suicide rates for both men and women, but the mediators vary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The events of January 6th were a clear example of threats to American democracy. De-democratization is a process that preceded Trump's election and that can still be seen in the United States and around the world. Social theorist Charles Tilly wrote about how becoming a democracy is not a unidirectional, one-time event or goal, but a non-linear process. This paper analyzes developments in the United States that signal rises and falls in the level of democracy over the last several decades. It discusses Donald Trump's rise to power, the insurrection on January 6th, 2021, and the state of inclusion of ethnoracial minorities in the United States. It uses Tilly's proposed processes of democratization and de-democratization. This more nuanced understanding of democracy and state–society relations helps avoid celebratory stances about the promise of electoral politics as well as pessimistic assessments about the imminent arrival of fascism and authoritarianism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many believe religion has no place in modern medical and professional fields. Nevertheless, recent studies show that religion remains integral to many people's lives and professional practices, such as physicians. This study addresses the significance that American Muslim physicians (AMPs) attribute to their religious values in shaping their identity; and examines how the values held by self-identified Muslim physicians affect their medical practice, specialization, public roles, and civic engagement. This paper also discusses how complex lives may not be adequately addressed by theories of value derived from modernization theory and more normatively conceived Muslim ethical principles. Individual interviews were conducted with 62 AMPs. Grounded thematic analysis guided the processing of qualitative interview data. The results suggest that many of the AMPs' religious values converge with shared cultural and professional values in the United States and elsewhere. The authors suggest that focusing on how AMPs articulate their values will lead to more humane professional, community, and healthcare settings. Regardless of the religious beliefs of professional providers, they should not ignore the impact of religion on their medical practice, especially since religion is still a vital part of many patients' lives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines "Dear John", a public information campaign that ran from 2006-2008 in Atlanta, GA, to ask what narrative it conveys about commercial sex and those who engage in it, in order to understand the gendered (and other) discursive constructions it produces, reflects, and complicates about these activities and subjects. Drawing from both policy and sex work/trafficking scholarship, this paper argues that Dear John used symbolic images and direct and consequential text to convey a "male demand" narrative, which holds that men's demand for sexual services harms girls and young women and will not be tolerated. Yet, in so doing, Dear John also reinforced particularly gendered characterizations of individuals who trade sex, while de-emphasizing other factors that increase young peoples' vulnerabilities to and within sex work. The paper concludes by discussing Dear John's outcomes and significance for scholars concerned with sex work, policy, and social change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper seeks to shed light on the ways people of color, in the United States, are using social media to challenge racial bias. As part of this investigation, this paper draws on Critical Race Theory, Feminist Theory, and Digital New Media studies to examine the extent to which social media, while seen as a place for 'play' can also operate as a digital homespace, a space used as a tool for black women and men to (re)construct their bodies and identities, challenging the "controlling images" widespread in mainstream media and society at large. This paper employs the methods of content analysis and participant observation and find that these social media forums are not transformative by themselves but instead have little moments that make for resistance and a digital homespace. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prior research has examined the impact of community-oriented policing (COP) on crime extensively. While the implementation of community policing has been considered mainly within the context of large police agencies, there is a paucity of research on how COP impacts crime reduction efforts in smaller locales. This study explores the effects of the degree of community policing implementation within smaller agencies and cities on crime. As part of the discussion on the impact of COP implementation, this paper also considers the impact of social disorganization on crime in the United States. The aim is to gain further insight into what variables may be influencing crime rates in contexts that garner less attention from researchers. The findings indicate that COP implementation does not significantly explain the variation of crime rates. Still, the statistically significant results on several social disorganization factors reflect the need to incorporate social disorganization theory with practice in order to maximize community-policing success. The implications of these results for police practice as well as directions for future research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In response to growing concerns about the rising number of runaway and homeless youth (RHY) in the U.S., researchers have sought to improve the scientific understanding of health and mental health needs, as well as the social resources available to these youths. In this paper, we examine the relationship between personal support network resources and the mental health status of a sample of RHY (N = 693) surveyed in metro-Atlanta, Georgia. The results suggest that having more supportive network ties reduces the risk of youth experiencing significant symptoms of a severe mental illness. We also find that older youth and youth who have been homeless for six months or longer have fewer personal support network resources. We conclude with a discussion of the implications of our findings for future research and services for this exceptionally vulnerable population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The loss of the care infrastructure that occurred during the COVID-19 crisis exposed society's continued reliance on women and mothers as default caregivers. But less is known about how this crisis produced gendered mental health outcomes, especially in occupations characterized by intensive work cultures such as academia. Drawing on quantitative and qualitative responses from a May 2021 campus-wide survey of faculty at a large research university in the United States, we explore gendered patterns in faculty caregivers' time use, stress, and perceptions of institutional support. Our findings demonstrate that childcare responsibilities were not merely more substantial for women than men in terms of hours, but they were also qualitatively different, with women's hours being more unpredictable, interruptive, and mentally and emotionally demanding. We also show that the pandemic took a higher toll on women faculty's mental health compared to men's. This gap in mental health emerged not merely because women were spending more time caregiving on average, but also because the university's policies did not effectively support the most strained caregivers. This study contributes empirical evidence to research on academic caregivers during the pandemic and to work demonstrating how (1) gendered caregiving dynamics shape mental health and remote work experiences and (2) the reliance on individual solutions to balancing work and family has failed even relatively privileged workers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Migrant Asian massage workers in North America first experienced the impacts of COVID-19 in the final weeks of January 2020, when business dropped drastically due to widespread xenophobic fears that the virus was concentrated in Chinese diasporic communities. The sustained economic devastation, which began at least 8 weeks prior to the first social distancing and shelter in place orders issued in the U.S. and Canada, has been further complicated by a history of aggressive policing of migrant massage workers in the wake of the war against human trafficking. Migrant Asian massage businesses are increasingly policed as locales of potential illicit sex work and human trafficking, as police and anti-trafficking initiatives target migrant Asian massage workers despite the fact that most do not provide sexual services. The scapegoating of migrant Asian massage workers and criminalization of sex work have led to devastating systemic and interpersonal violence, including numerous deportations, arrests, and deaths, most notably the recent murder of eight people at three Atlanta-based spas. The policing of sex workers has historically been mobilized along fears of sexually transmitted disease and infection, and more recently, within the past two decades, around a moral panic against sex trafficking. New racial anxieties around the coronavirus as an Asian disease have been mobilized by the state to further cement the justification of policing Asian migrant workers along the axes of health, migration, and sexual labor. These justifications also solidify discriminatory social welfare regimes that exclude Asian migrant massage workers from accessing services on the basis of the informality and illegality of their work mixed with their precarious citizenship status. This paper draws from ethnographic participant observation and survey data collected by two sex worker organizations that work primarily with massage workers in Toronto and New York City to examine the double-edged sword of policing during the pandemic in the name of anti-trafficking coupled with exclusionary policies regarding emergency relief and social welfare, and its effects on migrant Asian massage workers in North America. Although not all migrant Asian massage workers, including those surveyed in this paper, provide sexual services, they are conflated, targeted, and treated as such by the state and therefore face similar barriers of criminalization, discrimination, and exclusion. This paper recognizes that most migrant Asian massage workers do not identify as sex workers and does not intend to label them as such or reproduce the scapegoating rhetoric used by law enforcement. Rather, it seeks to analyze how exclusionary attitudes and policies towards sex workers are transferred onto migrant Asian massage workers as well whether or not they provide sexual services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper takes as a reference, empirical analyses conducted in northern European countries and the United States which associate socioeconomic factors to the location patterns of immigrants. It has been suggested that the socioeconomic context of southern Europe could impact immigrants' location choices. We analyze data on the location of immigrants in municipalities of the Andalusian region in southern Spain with respect to the factors that most influence immigrants' location preferences as discussed in the literature: a pre-existing immigrant community, economic dynamism, population size and other scarcely investigated factors such as the territorial characteristics of the municipality and its productive structure. We conclude that immigrant location patterns in Andalusia are very similar to those found in geographical areas outside Spain, with the exception of specific characteristics related to the social and labor model of the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores the relationship between institutional trust and elements of religion in contemporary American society. Using a nationally representative survey, we utilize latent class and regression analyses to assess the contours of these relationships. Our findings reveal a diverse institutional trust profile, with pronounced distrust in democratic institutions, especially Congress, although the group with low institutional trust is the smallest one within the society. While trust in religious institutions, and to an extent broader institutional trust, predict religiosity, this is less so with the case of spirituality. Institutional trust similarly shows modest positive relationships to public religious practice, while a clear negative relationship to private religious practice. Interpreting these findings through the lens of secularization and privatization of religion, we hope to provide a strong empirical contribution to the literature regarding intersections of institutional trust and the evolving religious and spiritual orientations of today's American landscape. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Food insecurity (FI) is a pressing concern among university students in the United States, and the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated this issue. Providing food assistance for university students has become more challenging due to pandemic-related consequences and interventions. This study aims to (1) analyze social inequalities in FI among university students in a large public university during the pandemic, (2) investigate the association of their utilization of campus, community, and federal food assistance programs (FAPs) and FI, and (3) understand the barriers students face in accessing FAPs. Survey questionnaires were distributed to students to gather their socio-demographics, FI, and usage of FAPs. Logistic regression was utilized to assess the relationship between students' FI and their use of FAPs. Among the surveyed students (n = 282), 33.7% reported experiencing FI. Higher FI rates were observed among socially vulnerable student groups, for example, non-Hispanic Black (62.5%) and Hispanic students (38.7%), compared with non-Hispanic White students (32.1%). FAPs had a limited influence on students' FI due to low utilization. The primary barriers to FAPs were insufficient information, ineligibility, and social stigma. The findings suggest it is crucial to reduce barriers to using FAPs and develop targeted interventions for marginalized students to address inequalities in FI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite significant and increasing numbers of students studying internationally, there are few data about the experiences of study abroad for various marginalized students, including transgender and gender expansive (TGE) students. Therefore, 15 TGE adults from the United States were interviewed about navigating gender and culture during undergraduate study abroad programs. Interviews were analyzed using consensual qualitative research (CQR). Participants shared how they benefited from international study and navigated intersecting social identities, including gender, which was complex and nuanced. They discussed how they actively managed issues of disclosure and its consequences, explored their identities and the influence of their social setting, and dealt with anticipated, deliberate, and unintentional harm from others. Relationships and community were priorities for participants when studying internationally; they explained how they determined whether to invest in relationships or not. Participants also clarified what their relationships looked like during study abroad, as well as unique considerations that arose from their marginalized identities. These findings can help inform the development of more inclusive, safe, and satisfying study abroad experiences for all students, especially TGE individuals; implications for future research and study abroad interventions are provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Juvenile delinquency is a pressing problem in the United States; the literature emphasizes the importance of early interventions and the role of the family in preventing juvenile delinquency. Using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) framework, PudMed, and Scopus, we included 28 peer-reviewed articles in English between January 2012 and October 2022. We evaluated the existing literature regarding the risk factors, protective factors, and interventions related to juvenile delinquency. We searched articles that discussed reducing juvenile delinquency and recidivism in the U.S. and coded them into four overarching themes: 'family conflict and dysfunction', 'neglect and maltreatment', 'individual and family mitigating factors', and 'family- and community-based interventions. We found that family conflict and dysfunction and neglect and maltreatment were two primary predictors of juvenile delinquency. Notably, higher academic achievement and strong and positive parental relationships were factors that protected against delinquency amongst at-risk youth. Interventions that yielded optimal efficacy in curbing recidivism included family-based interventions, specifically family therapy, and community-based interventions. Considering multi-dimensional factors that affect delinquent behaviors, interventions should consider the influence of family, peers, neighborhood, schools, and the larger community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper reviews empirical literature on stress and social support relative to first-year post-secondary students, published between 1996 and 2020. Empirical studies included in the literature search focused on stress, coping, and social support specifically among first-year undergraduate students while studying in countries adopting North American higher education models comparable to the United States and Canada. This review examines contextual and psychological antecedents and correlates of stress, as well as associated demographic and achievement variables. Furthermore, this review extends to studies on social support categorized by source (peers, family, faculty, institution, and multiple sources of support). A synthesis and critique of the literature explores the themes in the empirical research presented, as well as considerations for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past decade, tiny houses and the lifestyle they promote have become a world-wide phenomenon, with the trend especially impactful in the United States. Given their broad appeal and increasing prominence within popular culture, it is surprising how little research exists on them. To help to better understand what motivates people to adopt this lifestyle, this paper presents insights from an exploratory study in the United States and offers the first contours of a new conceptual framework. Situating the lifestyle within the larger economic and cultural forces of our times, it argues that going "tiny" is seen by tiny house enthusiasts as a practical roadmap to the Good Life: A simpler life characterized by more security, autonomy, relationships, and meaningful experiences. The paper ends with a brief discussion of broader implications and directions for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Relocation as a result of a job opportunity or as part of a current job has increased in recent years in the United States. The frequency with which employees are relocating makes exploring employees' perception of the costs and benefits of technology for maintaining family relationships useful. The purpose of this qualitative descriptive study was to explore how employees who have relocated for employment opportunities perceive the costs and benefits of video technology as an option for maintaining family relationships, for employees working in a company located in the United States. The sample consisted of 25 employees at a healthcare facility in the state of Florida who had relocated for employment opportunities and had used video technology to maintain relationships with family members in another location. Data collected from semi-structured interviews, open-ended questionnaires, and a focus group were analyzed through thematic analysis. Findings provided evidence that relocated employees perceived video technology to be an important tool to help maintain work–life balance when they were away from their family. The employees' perception of the benefits of video technology in maintaining family relationships included closeness despite distance and tangibility of the person. These findings have implications for employees who have relocated, employees considering relocation, and families of employees, as well as organization leaders and human resource departments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Parent–child relationships are increasingly central in family life due to the delayed transition to adulthood. Methods: Using data from Add Health and the Add Health Parent Study from 1994–2018, we examine changes in parent–child relationships reported by the child and the parent across gender, race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status (SES) from ages 12–43 years old. We examine three broad categories of intergenerational solidarity: Affectual (closeness, relationship quality, and emotional support), associational (satisfaction with communication), and functional (financial and instrumental support). Results: For the overall sample, parent–child closeness remains high but decreases from ages 12–43. By gender, we find that daughters report lower relationship quality with their mothers and fathers in adolescence. By race and ethnicity, we find that parent–child closeness is highest among Black respondents. By SES, we find that respondents whose mothers attained less than a high school degree report the greatest mother–child closeness. Conclusions: Overall, parents remain an important source of emotional, instrumental, and financial support in the transition to adulthood, especially for Black and low-SES adolescents. It is important to pay attention to the intersectional nature of the parent–child relationship with regard to the timing of the life course and race, ethnicity, gender, and SES. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In high-income, low-fertility (HILF) settings, the mother's partner is a key provider of childcare. However, it is not clear how mothers without partners draw on other sources of support to raise children. This paper reports the findings from a survey of 1532 women in the United Kingdom and the United States, in which women described who provided childcare for a focal child and how frequently they did so. We use multivariate Bayesian regression models to explore the drivers of support from partners, maternal kin, and other allomothers, as well as the potential impact of allomothering on women's fertility. Relative to mothers who are in a stable first marriage or cohabitation, mothers who are unpartnered rely more heavily on fewer maternal kin, use more paid help, and have networks which include more non-kin helpers. Repartnered mothers received less help from their partners in the UK and less help from maternal kin in both countries, which US mothers compensated for by relying on other helpers. While repartnered mothers had higher age-adjusted fertility than women in a first partnership, allomaternal support was not clearly related to the mother's fertility. These findings demonstrate the importance of partners but also of allomothering more broadly in HILF settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper assesses how ongoing historical racism and nativism as embedded within U.S. culture requires new and important dialogues about the omnipresence of White supremacy and its interconnected mechanisms that divide communities along the lines of race and perceived in-group status. To assess the role of immigration as it is understood through paradigms of White supremacy and systemic racism, the current study examines individual-level predictors of indifference to the BLM movement based on nativity status among Asian Americans—a racialized pan-ethnic group that is comprised of predominantly foreign-born members. Using the 2016 Collaborative Multiracial Post-Election Survey, one of the few nationally representative surveys that include detailed information about the Black Lives Matter movement, our study includes 1371 Asian immigrants (i.e., foreign-born Asian Americans) and 1635 U.S.-born Asian Americans. Results demonstrate that reporting indifference to the BLM movement differ by nativity such that foreign-born Asian Americans were significantly more likely to report indifference to the BLM movement compared to their U.S.-born Asian American counterparts. However, the impact of nativity disappears once we account for sense of belonging and acknowledgement of anti-Black racism. The sense of belonging was significant in predicting indifference to the BLM movement among U.S.-born Asian Americans only. The findings contribute to our understanding of racial sense making for Asian Americans as well as an understanding of how White supremacy translates to anti-Black racism through multiple and interconnected mechanisms for the maintenance of White supremacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Advocates for a Universal Basic Income (UBI) argue that it would provide citizens with a basic foundation for financial security, boost the economy, alleviate poverty, encourage entrepreneurship, reduce crime, and insulate the employment sector against job losses due to automation. Still, the idea lags in popularity in the United States compared to existing cash policies such as the annual Earned Income Tax Credit and one-time COVID-19 relief packages. We hypothesize that this disparity is related to predicted uses of a UBI in comparison to annual or lump sum cash programs. In this survey of 836 Americans, we explore whether predicted behavioral responses to four randomly assigned hypothetical cash transfer scenarios vary across the domains of amount and frequency. Respondents are more likely to associate monthly payments with work disincentives and lump-sum transfers with debt repayment. Implications for UBI advocates include the need to continue educating the public on the empirical associations between UBI, employment, and expenditures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the effect of international trade on strike activity within the United States since World War II. Globalization may influence strike activity through its effects on the bargaining position of labor. Alternatively, if labor and management take their changed bargaining positions into account, the rate of change in openness could create greater uncertainty in negotiations between them and lead to more strikes as a result. Empirical analysis of strike activity in the 50 states over this period supports the argument concerning uncertainty in the bargaining process. Import competition may also indirectly reduce strike activity by decreasing union density. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

National parks have been called "America's best idea", but their creation and management never fail to stir controversy. On September 12, 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the bill creating Canyonlands National Park (CANY). Instead of a preservation climax, however, the establishment of CANY simply opened a new chapter in the long-term effort to protect a much greater percentage of southeastern Utah's canyon country. Over the next several decades, park enthusiasts and wilderness advocates sought to expand the boundaries of CANY, while agricultural interests and extractive industries lobbied vigorously to limit the influence of the National Park Service. In this paper, we use archival data and methods to reconstruct the story of CANY's creation and review attempts since then to extend protections beyond the original park's borders, seeking to understand the different social, political, and economic forces that aligned to propose—as well as the forces that rallied to contest—these expansion efforts. While our findings indicate that the stakeholders involved and the issues that drive them have changed little over the past sixty years, we also cite several examples of successful collaboration that could serve as guideposts for future conservation efforts, both in the U.S. and elsewhere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Refugee community members who have experienced domestic violence in the U.S. face complex challenges in seeking help which may ultimately impact their ability to leave violent relationships. When domestic violence organizations are not prepared to serve them in culturally responsive ways, these challenges are exacerbated. This study surveyed 70 executive directors of domestic violence agencies in U.S. resettlement cities about the extent to which their organization's practices reflected cultural responsiveness in serving refugee populations. The results showed promising indicators of organizational cultural responsiveness but uncovered numerous areas for growth. In particular, the study results underscore the need for organizations to improve their language supports and take active steps to outreach to, hire, and engage refugee communities in order to better serve them. This paper makes recommendations for how DV agencies can be more culturally responsive as they support refugee individuals who are seeking safety from violent relationships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Marriage formation is deeply embedded in societal context. This study documents trends towards lower marriage rates and delayed marriage in Europe and the US. Using time series analyses, it shows the relevance of economic and gender context in understanding marriage formation. The study extends previous work by including more countries, a longer time period, and by examining changes in predictors of marriage patterns over time. Analyses show that the association between economic context and marriage rates weakens over time, but the role of gender equality and policy context remain stable. Differences in age at first marriage across policy clusters are diminishing. Although greater gender equality is consistently linked to later marriage entry, the link between economic context and age at first marriage is changing. Changes in predictors of cross-national marriage patterns over time strongly suggest the institution of marriage itself is changing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Concern around nonmedical opioid use (NUPO) among student-athletes in the United States abounds, yet research around NUPO in this population is mixed. While some studies have identified athletic participation and related injury as risk factors for NUPO, the balance of research has found the inverse, or no association. This study represents the first qualitative inquiry into college student-athletes' history of injury, medical and nonmedical opioid exposure, and pain management practices. Drawing on surveys (n = 280) and interviews (n = 30) with less-elite (i.e., non-NCAA Division I) athletes attending a large state university, our analyses documented little NUPO in this population, despite significant rates of injury and opioid prescription. Interview participants evinced little knowledge, but high fears, around opioid use, while describing potentially harmful levels of over-the-counter drug use. Overall, this study suggests the need for the development of broad, evidence-based curricula concerning pharmacological pain management within this population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores empirically Edward T. Hall's assertion about the role of musical elements, including rhythm recognition and what are called "ear worms" in popular culture. To test Hall's assertion, data were collected from the United States, Germany, Tanzania, and Thailand in 2015–2017 using a 26 brief "song intros." Data were also collected from exchange students from South Korea and Turkey. Survey responses were analyzed using factor analysis in order to identify patterns of recognition. It was found that there were indeed patterns of recognition apparently reflecting national boundaries for some song recognition, but others crossed boundaries. A separate analysis of patterned recognition comparing American youth under thirty, with elders over 60 indicated that there were also boundaries between age groups. Such experiments in music recognition are an effective methodology for Culture Studies given that musical elements are tied to issues of identity, culture, and even politics. Music recognition can be used to measure elements of such subconscious habitus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What can be learned from the process of community-engaged research (CER) on refugee resettlement? In the following, we share experiences, reflections, and lessons from implementing such a project. We begin with background on refugee resettlement and recent resettlement dynamics in the United States and Wisconsin, as well as literature on the study of refugees and this type of research more generally. Results and discussion are presented though our understanding of, and involvement with, the process via a framework of CER desired process outcomes, which we both propose and utilize to encourage effective efforts with marginalized populations going forward. CER is challenging and must be undertaken thoughtfully. One of the paper's primary contributions is to share successes and failures in a transparent and unvarnished fashion. In particular, researchers need to share power and listen deeply, actions that will reverberate throughout such a process. Doing so comes with certain risks, and may be tangled, but also has strong potential to produce useful data, deep learning for researchers and participants, as well as empowerment of marginalized populations and relationship building that can yield future collaboration towards resilience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores inequality along the path to college through an analysis of college admissions essays and institutional documents that shape admissions expectations in the United States. The research considers how successful applicants from two different universities and students who are the first in their families to go to college compared to those who are not, approach the college essay in relation to the presented institutional expectations. The sample consists of institutional materials from two universities, one a small private university and one a large public institution. Institutional materials also include documents from college preparatory agencies (such as Kaplan and Khan Academy). Thirty-five student essays were collected from the same two universities mentioned above. Through values analysis, a narrative analysis method, I ask how students with less exposure to the culture of college (taken for granted knowledge about college that is passed down from families) perform the college essay genre. Findings show that students with less exposure to the culture of college focus more on challenges and narrate less expression of their "true selves" in their college admissions essays. Findings can help stakeholders create a more equitable college admissions process that more clearly illuminates institutional expectations for students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is growing awareness that a substantial share of undergraduates are food insecure, potentially undermining investments in higher education and hindering upward social mobility. This mixed-methods paper uses survey and interview data from low-income students at 42 public colleges and universities in Wisconsin to illuminate the day-to-day experiences of food insecurity and examine how food security status varies across background characteristics. Results indicate that students who grew up in food insecure homes, self-identify as a racial/ethnic minority, live off-campus, and attend college in an urban area are significantly more likely to report the lowest level of food security, often associated with hunger. Students explain that challenges stemming from the interrelationship of lack of time and inadequate money are their biggest barriers to food security. Most rely on friends or family for support, but few students draw on the social safety net, in part due to eligibility restrictions. In recognition of the diversity of students' experiences, we discuss the need for a multi-faceted response to promote food security and student success. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While the scale and scope of the criminal legal system is often discussed with attention to racial disproportionalities, the fact that disabled people are overrepresented at all points in the system is less discussed by social workers. Disabled people come into contact with the criminal legal system as suspects, defendants, incarcerated persons, victims, and witnesses. Compared to people without disabilities, disabled people are more likely to experience victimization, be arrested, be charged with a crime, and serve longer prison sentences once convicted. These trends are even more profound for disabled people with intersecting marginalized identities, such as people of color, women, poor people, and those who identify as LGBTQ. This article provides an overview of the connections between disability, law enforcement, and practices of imprisonment in the United States. We provide a historical overview of the involvement of disabled people in the criminal legal system, review the prevalence of disability in the criminal legal system, and then discuss the unique ways in which disabled people are impacted by the criminal legal system. We conclude by providing recommendations for social work practice and advocacy based in disability justice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the United States (US), citizens' political participation is 15%. Contemporary psychological models explaining political participation are based on education and socioeconomic status, which are unable to explain the overall low political participation figures. The study suggests a holistic approach, with two societal tendencies: increasing work-related stress and diminishing offline social leisure, together with a mediating effect of participatory efficacy to assess associations with the political participation of US voters. The quantitative correlational study uses structural equation modelling (SEM) analysis on the General Social Survey representative sample of US voters (N = 295, Mage = 44.49, SD = 13.43), controlled for education and socioeconomic status. Work-related stress was not significantly associated with political participation (β = 0.08, p = 0.09). Offline social leisure was positively associated with political participation (β = 0.28, p < 0.001). The mediating effect of participatory efficacy on the relationship between offline social leisure and political participation was positive and significant (β = 0.05, p < 0.001). Additional analyses, regression and SEM on the European Social Survey sample (N = 27,604) boosted internal and external validity. Results indicate that offline social leisure is more predictive than education and socioeconomic status, showing that examining societal trends leads to a better understanding of political participation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multiracial identities in Brazil, South Africa, and the United States all formed within White supremacist, White racist, and anti-Black social orders. Brazil and South Africa historically acknowledged multiracials in ternary racial orders with a structurally intermediate status somewhat higher than that of other nonWhites, particularly Blacks, but significantly lower than that of Whites. In contrast, in the United States, multiracial identities have historically been prohibited due to hypodescent and the monoracial imperative, which categorize multiracials according to their most subaltern racial background and necessitate single-racial identification. In the 1980s and 1990s, a U.S. multiracial movement challenged these norms. This article compares the multiracial phenomenon in the United States with historical formations in Brazil and South Africa using data from published literature, censuses, written correspondence with activists, and observations of public behavior in the United States. The objective is to theorize whether and to what extent U.S. multiracial identities function in ways similar to the historical formations of Brazil and South Africa, particularly with regards to questions of collective identity, anti-Blackness, and White adjacency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Where do people meet? And how does their region's wealth effect where they meet? Investigating these patterns across the United States, we explore community organization and association venues based on data provided from Meetup.com. Examining how individuals associate for business, social, and cultural reasons, we discover that a region's median income significantly affects the type of venue for the meeting. However, certain types of associations centered on a select group of topics mitigate that effect. We discover that in the United States, personal social capital that is built and maintained "in person" is deeply embedded in commercial activities. As a result, access to various types of community is often limited to economically advantaged geographies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Police violence is a multidimensional issue that requires consideration of the violent events and how these events reflect systemic oppression. Violence and policing practices are influenced by race and ethnicity, place/neighborhood, structural inequality, and racism. We performed an integrated literature review to critically evaluate the current evidence, focusing on the racial composition of communities and neighborhoods and its association with police-involved violence and fatal shootings between 2000 and 2022. We used Scopus and Web of Science to include peer-reviewed articles in English that studied racial/ethnic differences in police-involved violence in the United States between January 2000 and February 2022. We excluded prior systematic reviews, meta-analyses, and articles on drug-related arrests. Using a PRISMA approach from 651 identified articles, we included 37 articles. Our findings showed that racial/ethnic minorities are disproportionately stopped, experience a higher probability of arrest, and are more commonly subjected to police-involved fatal shootings. Victims are more likely to live in neighborhoods with lower income and distressed communities of color, higher poverty ratios, and the highest levels of criminal violence. Citizens reporting of negative interactions with police is strongly associated with race/ethnicity. Maintaining the highest standards of professional practice consistent with the law and protections guaranteed by the Constitution may reduce police violence. In addressing police violence, policymakers not only need to consider the multidisciplinary nature of vulnerability to address the needs of vulnerable populations and create a collaborative environment but also to control police violence. Considering community-based approaches, encouraging training to interact with minority individuals, and adjusting the racial composition of the police officers by the racial composition of communities are other strategies; more importantly, prioritizing strategies to reduce social inequality and structural racism are crucial. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study of multiracial people in the United States has typically focused on the experiences of Black–White racially-mixed individuals. In this article, we review and analyze the theoretical and evidence base for the White-leaning characterization of Asian–White multiracials. Historically, Asian Americans have been positioned as a "racial middle" group in relation to White and Black Americans. In line with this perceived racial position, Asian–White multiracials have been generally characterized as being more White than Black–White multiracials, as well as "leaning White" in terms of self-identification. While there is growing recognition of the variability of experiences among Black–White multiracials, the depiction of Asian multiracials as White-leaning—though based on limited empirical evidence—continues to be prominent, revealing the tendency to view Asian–White individuals through a "White racial frame." The racial identifications and experiences of Asian–White multiracials are far more complex than such a view suggests. We argue for the need to advance studies on Asian mixed-race people to accurately capture their racial positioning within a system of White supremacy, including the diversity of their identifications, political views, and racialized experiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Among science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) disciplines, the percentage participation of women in engineering has shown significant gains over the past few decades. However, women are still largely absent (or exist in very small numbers) in tenured academic ranks in several engineering sub-fields. In this study we present female and male engineers' varying understandings of 'scientific success' as a potential contributor to women's retention and success in their (sub)fields. Using in-depth interviews conducted among engineering graduate students and faculty at two U.S. Northwest land-grant research universities, this study demonstrates the 'dual' nature in accounts of scientific success, where formal measures of success operate in tandem with informal measures. While both men and women attribute their success to formal and informal measures, gender-based variations tend to be more prevalent among informal measures. By examining these informal measures, this study highlights the context surrounding success. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The U.S. has been waging a War on Drugs for the last forty years. But in the mid-2010s, a series of reforms have rejected this militant approach. How did these policies manage to break through a gridlocked Congress? What is the nature of these reforms, and what are their political implications? Using critical discourse analysis, I demonstrate that a new policy framework of "addiction recovery" defines the political crises of the opioid epidemic, the failure of the War on Drugs, and mass incarceration in terms of disease, attributing DrugWar injustices to prejudice against "addiction," rather than a constellation of institutional racism, sexism, nativism, and economic exploitation enacted through drug policy. I conclude that characterizing recent reforms as a decisive break with theWar on Drugs obscures the ways in which drug policy continues to perpetuate injustice by offering a personal, rather than political, solution in the "hope" of recovery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1980, China implemented one of the most controversial population policies in modern times. China's one-child policy shaped population politics for thirty-five years until its dissolution in 2015. During this time, many women were subjected to routine gynecological examinations, pregnancy testing, abortions, and sterilizations, which were often forced upon them by family planning officials. Some women fled China and sought refuge in the United States after having experienced a forced abortion or forced sterilization or feared that they would be subjected to a forced abortion or forced sterilization. This article focuses on how the U.S. government responded to China's one-child policy through the passage of immigration laws and policies that made asylum a viable option for Chinese nationals who had been persecuted or feared persecution because of coercive population control policies. Based on observations of asylum hearings and interviews with immigration judges and immigration attorneys, this article uses feminist ethnographic methods to show how China's one-child policy and U.S. asylum laws shape the gender politics of reproduction and migration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

African Americans disproportionately experience psychological distress, such as feelings of sadness, hopelessness, and worthlessness and are disproportionately exposed to risk factors associated with mental illness, such as racial discrimination, violence and poverty. To effectively address African Americans' mental health needs, it is imperative to identify who African Americans turn to when they experience stressors. The purpose of this study was to assess the extent to which emotional support is provided within African Americans' social networks and determine the characteristics of social network members who African Americans rely upon for emotional support. Results indicate that African Americans rely on social network members for spiritual and physical health support more so than emotional support. Among both male and female participants, social network members were significantly more likely to be relied upon for emotional support if they were a non-familial network contact, had a close relationship to the participant, and if they also were someone the participant spoke to about his or her physical health. Findings have implications for the development of culturally-sensitive strategies for increasing emotional support provision within African Americans' social networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examine factors contributing to the gender gap in employment in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) among men and women with bachelor's degrees in computer science and engineering, the two largest and most male-dominated STEM fields. Data come from the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Scientists and Engineers Statistical Data System (SESTAT) from 1995 to 2008. Different factors are associated with persistence in STEM jobs among computer science and engineering degree holders. Conditional on receiving a degree in computer science, women are 14 percentage points less likely to work in STEM than their male counterparts. Controlling for demographic and family characteristics did little to change this gender gap. Women with degrees in engineering are approximately 8 percentage points less likely to work in STEM than men, although about half of this gap is explained by observed differences between men and women. We document a widening gender gap in STEM employment in computer science, but this gender gap narrows across college cohorts among those with degrees in engineering. Among recent computer science graduates, the gender gap in STEM employment for white, Hispanic, and black women relative to white men is even larger than for older graduates. Gender and race gaps in STEM employment for recent cohorts of engineering graduates are generally small, though younger Asian women and men no longer have an employment advantage relative to white men. Our results suggest that a one-size-fits-all approach to increasing women's representation in the most male-dominated STEM fields may not work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Does media exposure to salient criminological events exacerbate racialized perceptions of injustice? We examine whether closely following media coverage of the fatal encounter of George Zimmerman's shooting of Trayvon Martin moderates racial and ethnic differences in opinion surrounding the event and the U.S. criminal justice system. Our analysis addresses several key aspects of the case: Whether Zimmerman would have been arrested sooner if Martin had been white, whether respondents felt Zimmerman's acquittal was justified, and whether there is racial bias against African Americans in the criminal justice system. Relying on national opinion surveys before and after Zimmerman's trial verdict, our findings support the racial gradient thesis by demonstrating that sustained exposure to racialized framing of the incident in the media affects Hispanics the most and hardens entrenched attitudes among African Americans relative to whites. The analysis supports the continuing relevance of the mass media in attitude formation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the realm of representational politics, research exploring the relationship between descriptive representation and substantive representation is conflicted with some scholars finding policy outcomes influenced by the presence of women in office and others displaying a complicated or null relationship. We enter the discussion by investigating the effect of increased representation of women across state legislatures on state health care spending for poor children, the disabled, and elders, issues which disproportionately affect women. Using a 50-state dataset spanning from 1999 to 2009 we find that spending is indeed more generous when the number of women representatives is substantial, regardless of party. This generosity, however, is conditional upon the presence of considerable aggregate need. The findings suggest that contextual factors must be considered when exploring the influence of women on policy outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the United States, girls and boys have similar science achievement, yet fewer girls aspire to science careers than boys. This paradox emerges in middle school, when peers begin to play a stronger role in shaping adolescent identities. We use complete network data from a single middle school and theories of gender, identity, and social distance to explore how friendship patterns might influence this gender and science paradox. Three patterns highlight the social dimensions of gendered science persistence: (1) boys and girls do not differ in self-perceived science potential and science career aspirations; (2) consistent with gender-based norms, both middle school boys and girls report that the majority of their female friends are not science kinds of people; and (3) youth with gender-inconsistent science aspirations are more likely to be friends with each other than youth with gender normative science aspirations. Together, this evidence suggests that friendship dynamics contribute to gendered patterns in science career aspirations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The nascent literature on prison proliferation in the United States typically reveals negative impacts for communities of color. Given that Southern rural communities were the most likely to build during the prison boom (1970-2010), however, a more nuanced understanding of prison impact is warranted. Using a dataset matching and geocoding all 1663 U.S. prisons with their Census-appointed place, this study explores the countervailing consequences of the prison boom on rural towns across multiple periods. For example, locales that adopted prisons at earlier stages of the prison boom era received a short-term boom compared to those that did not, but these effects were not lasting. Furthermore, later in the boom, prison-building protected towns against additional economic decline. Thus, neither entirely pariah nor panacea, the prison functions as a state-sponsored public works program for disadvantaged rural communities but also supports perverse economic incentives for prison proliferation. Methodological, substantive, theoretical, and policy implications regarding the intersection of race and punishment are explored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The well-being of children and non-human animals (subsequently referred to as animals) is often intertwined. Communities are unlikely to be able to best protect humans from abuse and harm unless they are working to ensure the safety of animals who reside there as well. This study is the first to utilize U.S. animal control report data and narratives to explore how children are involved in cases of animal cruelty. Children engage in abusive acts toward animals, alone, or along with peers and/or adults. Children were found to inflict abuse most often with their hands or feet as opposed to with a weapon or other object. A total of 85% of animal cruelty perpetrated by children was toward a dog or cat. Key differences between how children are involved in acts of cruelty to companion animals compared with acts involving wild animals are described and warrant further study. The cases of animal abuse or neglect reported by children were among the most severe in the study, and often involved an adult perpetrator known to the child. Neighbors rarely report child abuse or intimate partner violence in the United States, but 89% of the animal cruelty cases involving children in this study were reported by a neighbor or passerby. Although children involved in reports as a perpetrator or reporter were most often in early adolescence, children involved in cross-reports between child welfare and animal control were often under the age of 5. Improved cross-reporting and stronger partnerships between human and animal welfare agencies may provide opportunity for earlier intervention and is likely to better many human and animal lives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In emerging adulthood, when many young people are away from their families for the first time, mobile phones become an important conduit for maintaining relationships with parents. Yet, objective assessment of the content and frequency of text messaging between emerging adults and their parents is lacking in much of the research to date. We collected two weeks of text messages exchanged between U.S. college students (N = 238) and their parents, which yielded nearly 30,000 parent-emerging adult text messages. We coded these text message exchanges for traditional features of parent-emerging adult communication indexing positive connection, monitoring and disclosures. Emerging adults texted more with mothers than with fathers and many messages constitute parental check-ins and emerging adult sharing regarding youth behavior and well-being. Findings highlight that both the frequency and content of parent-emerging adult text messages can be linked with positive (perceived text message support) and negative (perceived digital pressure) aspects of the parent-emerging adult relationship. The content of parent-emerging adult text messages offers a valuable, objective window into the nature of the parent-emerging adult relationships in the digital age of the 21st century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]