The issue of juvenile drug abuse and criminal career continuity has become a nationwide concern in the last 3 decades. Social scientists and policymakers alike are concerned with the plausible relationship between juvenile drug abuse and adult crimes of high seriousness. This study represents an effort to examine the connection between juvenile drug abuse and criminal career continuity. This study has been conducted to examine the life course of the individual. The data came from Lyle Shannon's longitudinal study of the relationship between juvenile delinquency and adult crime in three birth cohorts from the city of Racine, Wisconsin The traditional social control approach toward reducing the likelihood of criminal career continuity is deterrence. The deterrence model asserts that people engage in certain kinds of behavior only after rational calculation of the costs versus the benefits. People who obey the law strive for the rewards of conformity and try to avoid the costs of criminal behavior. The threat of punishment increases the potential costs of breaking the law. Punishment is one sanction inducing such compliance. It must be realized, however, that deterrence does not have a linear effect across all types of offenders. The degree of deterrent effect on future criminal …

In this study, I examine the relationship between national origin, nativity status, and favorability toward Donald Trump among Latinos in 2016. In particular, I examine the relationship between Cubans, Dominicans, and "other" Latinos to understand how differences in national origin and nativity status influence Trump favorability. The term "Latino" is a pan-ethnic term used to describe individuals with ancestry from Latin America who share a common language, religion and culture. However, studies have shown that Latinos are actually more diverse and political attitudes may differ based on factors like acculturation, national origin, and nativity status. Using data from the 2016 Collaborative Multiracial Post-Election Survey, I find that favorability for Trump differs by national origin and nativity status as immigrants of "other" national origins favor Trump than Cubans and Dominicans. This suggest that Latinos attitudes are not shaped by their pan-ethnic identity and are rather influenced by national origin and nativity status.

Using a logistic regression model, this dissertation employed a macro level Gateway Provider Model to explore eight factors that may influence community health center HIV testing approach. The logistic regression model indicated that three variables related to community health center HIV testing approach. First, all else equal, the odds of offering routine HIV testing for community health centers that perceived their patients and community to be at average risk for HIV were 3.676 times the odds for those centers that perceived their patients and community to be at low or no risk for HIV. Further, the odds of offering routine HIV testing for community health centers that perceived their patients and community to be at high risk for HIV were 4.693 times the odds for those centers that perceived the community to be at low or no HIV risk. Second, all else equal, the odds of offering routine HIV testing for community health centers in which an HIV testing policy exists were 2.202 times the odds for those centers in which an HIV testing policy does not exist. Third, all else equal, the odds of offering routine HIV testing for community health centers that received funding specifically for HIV testing …

Changes in income and representation in managerial occupations is explored separately for women and men among the United States' eight largest race/ethnic minority groups for each decennial census of 1960, 1970, 1980 and 1990 to determine how much change has occurred between 1960 and 1990 in race and ethnic inequality, and in gender inequality within each race/ethnic group. Insights from gender theory are applied to minority group inequality and insights from minority group theory are applied to gender inequality with some degree of success. Economic change is uneven among the groups, with the largest specific change being the movement of women into managerial jobs. A clear pattern also emerged indicating that the higher the average representation of a minority group in managerial jobs, the greater the gap between women and men. The income of all persons with income, however, did not exhibit such a clear pattern across the different groups.

This study provides a measurable model of the concept of place vulnerability for HIV/AIDS that incorporates both community and structural level effects using data provided at the ZIP code level from the Texas Department of State Health Services. Sociological literature on the effects of place on health has been growing but falls short of providing an operational definition of the effects of place on health. This dissertation looks to the literature in medical/health geography to supplement sociology’s understanding of the effects of place on health, to the end of providing a measurable model. Prior research that has recognized the complexity of the effects of place still have forced data into one scale and emphasized individual-level outcomes. A multilevel model allows for keeping the associated spatial unit data, without aggregating or parsing it out for convenience of model fit. The place vulnerability model proposed examines how exposure, capacity and potentiality variables all influence an area’s HIV/AIDS count. To capture the effects of place vulnerability at multiple levels, this dissertation research uses a multilevel zero-inflated poisson (MLZIP) model to examine how factors measured at the ZIP code and county both affect HIV/AIDS counts per ZIP code as an outcome. Furthermore, empirical Bayes …

The purpose of this study is to examine the work life balance negotiations of three distinct culture groups employed by South Korean conglomerates located within the southeastern United States. These three cultural groups are: Korean nationals, Korean Americans, and non-Korean Americans. It is proposed that each culture will negotiate work life balances in their own manner based upon their specific inherent cultural understandings. This study is a cross-cultural examination through thirty-two open-ended interviews of employees working for large multinational Korean companies with facilities in the southern United States. Korean nationals, Korean Americans, and Americans implement different work-life balance negotiation tactics in the workplace based upon each one’s cultural association. While all three cultural groups experience difficulty in obtaining a work-life balance working for a Korean company, the Korean Americans seem to suffer the most.

This study is concerned with social factors related to neighborhood interaction and disengagement among elderly persons controlling for race. Utilizing a scale of neighborhood cohesion as an index of disengagement, it was hypothesized that racial groups would not differ significantly as to their respective levels of neighborhood cohesiveness and local interest. It was also hypothesized that age groups would not differ significantly as to their respective levels of neighborhood cohesiveness and local interest.

This study examined changes between 1950 and 1970 in women's aggregate occupational position in 168 Standard Metropolitan Statistical Areas. Specifically, the research was designed to study three aspects of women's occupational position. First, women's distribution across occupational categories (absolute position) was examined. Absolute position was defined as the percent of working women in professional and managerial occupations. Second, women's occupational position compared to men (relative position) was examined. This involved women's share of the total jobs in each occupational category. Third, the statistical relationship between women's occupational position and their labor force participation rate was investigated using zero-order correlations.

With the proliferation of gender identity labels in the last twenty years, more individuals are identifying outside of a binary understanding of gender. Agender individuals are among this group, but we know very little about their experiences. Gender theorists have examined the ways that gender is performative and structural, but present theory does not provide the tools to understand the experiences of those outside of the binary, and even more so those who identify outside of gender altogether. To address this gap, I ask how agender individuals define their experience and how they navigate a binary gendered world. To answer these questions, I draw on 14 in-depth interviews with agender individuals as well as data from the 2015 U.S. Transgender Survey. First, I show the ways that agender individuals can understand this identity and how it shapes their experiences. Second, I develop a framework of four strategies (avoidance, advocacy, performance, and acquiescence) to analyze how agender individuals navigate gendered space. I concluded with a discussion of theoretical and empirical contributions as well as implications for future research.

This study examines the relationship between oil development and social change in Iran. The research focused on the years since 1953 examining the economic structure through the five development plans which were the major vehicles of social transformation. Within this framework the importance of oil, industrialization, land reform,, the labor force, education and health are discussed. Demographic and stratification changes are covered such as changingpopulation patterns, migration, minorities, social classes, and the distribution of wealth. Cultural and social values are then treated with emphasis on the Shah and arms, social control and social behavior. The paper concludes: oil revenues were frequently squandered without real socio-economic benefit to the masses. Economic's mismanagement and rigid social control increases pressures in society causing the 1978 revolution.

One of the major issues concerning old age security is the adequacy of support systems for the aged population. Population aging and economic development in the People's Republic of China have raised the question about the ability of the family to take care of the elderly. Using the latest data collected by the Research Center on Aging in China of a national representative sample of the aged population, this study develops a model to examine the effectiveness of family support for the elderly during the current socio-economic transition of the society. The model also examines the adequacy and effectiveness of state welfare systems on the aged population and the effect of select socio-demographic factors on the well-being of the elderly in China. The investigation into the social, economic, and health aspects of the life of the elderly provides the background knowledge for understanding the support systems for the elderly in China. The multivariate analyses of the effects of the elderly support systems within the framework of shared functions of the primary groups, and the bureaucracy in achieving social goals, identify the important effects of the economic conditions of the family and the state income maintenance programs on the sense of …

This study was designed to examine the opinions of Turkish immigrants living in the Houston metropolitan area about the conflict between secularism and Islam in Turkey. The study examined the role of the practice of religion on the opinions about the clash between secularism and Islam. A final sample consisted of 40 immigrants recruited through purposeful and snowball sampling. In-depth interviews and a survey including screening questions were conducted. The results indicated that practice of religion has a partial impact on the opinions of Turkish immigrants about the conflict between secularism and Islam. Future research should further examine if the experience of living abroad for a long period influence Turkish immigrants' opinions about the same issue.

The portrayals of mothers and fathers in children's literature as companions, disciplinarians, caregivers, nurturers, and providers were documented in this research. The impact of time of publication, sex of author, award-winning status of book, best-selling status of book, race of characters, and sex of characters upon each of the five parental roles was assessed using descriptive statistics, cross-tabulation, and multinomial logistic regression techniques. A survey instrument developed for this study was completed for each of the 300 books randomly selected from the list of easy/picture books in the Children's Catalog (H.W. Wilson Company, 2001). To ensure all time periods were represented, the list was stratified by decades before sampling. It was expected that parental role portrayals would become more egalitarian and less traditional in each successive time period of publication. Male authors were expected to portray more egalitarian parental roles, and the race and sex of the young characters were not expected to influence parental portrayals. Award-winning books were expected to represent more egalitarian parental roles. Books that achieved the Publisher's Weekly all-time best-selling status were expected to portray parents in less egalitarian roles. Secondary analyses explored the prevalence of mothers' occupations, parental incompetence, and dangerous, solo child adventures. While …

Saudi Arabia is affected by the dominant culture of the Arabic Islamic nations, and Islam exerts a strong influence on all. aspects of Saudi society, including women's participation in the kingdom's labor force. Chapter I of this thesis deals with Arabian women in general, and Chapter II surveys the past and present roles of Saudi women. Chapter III enumerates obstacles hindering women's full participation in the Saudi labor force; Chapter IV presents information on the people of Saudi Arabia, concentrating upon its large population of foreign workers; and Chapter V surveys the women currently employed in the kingdom's public, private, and agricultural sectors. Chapter VI suggests means for increasing the employment of women, in accordance with Islamic tenets and mores.

Hispanic American Catholics are a growing immigrant population in the United States, with Hispanic cultures and Catholicism woven together in unique ways. This situation presents a window through which can be examined the dynamic between individualism and religiosity. Four logistic regression models were estimated utilizing data from the Pew Research Center 2013 Survey of U.S. Latinos, in order to investigate the correlates of Hispanic American Catholic support for women in the Catholic priesthood. Religious individualism (self-determination) was measured in two dimensions, while cultural individualism (acculturation) was measured in one dimension. The first three regression models test three hypotheses related to religious and cultural individualism, while the fourth model factors in all of the variables used. Findings generally supported the saliency of religious individualism over against the hierarchal dogma of the Catholic Church, but not the saliency of cultural individualism. However, findings also exposed the complexities inherent in both Catholic religiosity and acculturation among Hispanic American Catholics.

The study attempts to determine the degree of powerlessness and the deferment of gratification among children as measured by instruments designed for this purpose. An effort will be made to test whether the deferred gratification pattern exists in inverse relationship to the feeling of powerlessness among the lower classes; and to determine whether children who feel they are estranged from society have a psychological need for an impulsive release of feelings.

The world has experienced a tremendous growth in its elderly population. With the aging of the population, policy makers are concerned about the health of these elderly as well as their utilization of health care and social services and perceived need for additional services. The Canadian elderly population is similar to other elderly populations in that a few tend to be the heaviest users of the available services. The predictors of this utilization behavior and perceived need primarily include need variables, such as the number of limitations of daily living -- both ADLs and IADLs, and functional limitations. In addition, enabling variables, such as income, work activity and geographic region of residence were also found to be significant.

This study examines race differences and the relationship between religiosity/ spirituality and social support on quality of life (QOL) among people living with HIV/AIDS in Dallas/Ft. Worth, TX. The data were obtained from the Project VOICES research study conducted by the Center of Psychosocial Health Research at University of North Texas in 2003. This study explores the hypotheses that religiosity/spirituality and social support positively influences quality of life among people living with HIV/AIDS. The current study uses a diverse, gender-balanced sample consisting of African Americans (n = 156), aged 20-68, 47% male, 52% female and 1% transgendered) and Non-African Americans (n = 131), aged 19-65, 50% male, 46% female and 3% transgendered) (Caucasian, Latino, & others) to evaluate the relationship among variables of interest. Multiple regression analyses revealed that social support was a significant factor explaining quality of life (QOL) for African Americans when controlling for medical variables but did not for non-African Americans. Religiosity/spirituality was not found to be significant in this study. The implications of the findings are discussed.

This study evaluated the relative association of socioeconomic, minority group and housing characteristics of census tracts with the racial composition of residential areas within one southwestern city between 1950 and 1980. The unit of analysis was the census tract; the data were taken from the U.S. Census of Population and Housing 1950-1980 for the Fort Worth, Texas SMSAs. The Index of Dissimilarity compared racial segregation in the Fort Worth urbanized area for blacks with all others (1950-1980) and for Spanish and non-black minorities with all others (1960-1980). The data show little change in the extent of residential segregation over 30 years. The multiple regression showed that the degree of segregation in census tracts became increasingly predictable based on past minority concentration in the same neighborhood. Lagged social status and minority group variables significantly predicted the percent of the population that was black or Spanish in census tracts ten years later. Beta weights for percent black or percent Spanish were always the strongest in each tract regression and largely determined the level of segregation that existed in tracts ten years later. This paper asserts that social status characteristics must approach more equal levels between minority and majority groups before integrated neighborhoods …

Research has described and many clinicians have reported the anorectic patient as socially disconnected, having a disembodied sense of self, perfectionist expectations, and inadequate and shameful feelings. The more intense the internal war, the more food-focused and self-defeating behavior ensues, thwarting one's ability to receive value, self-acceptance, and love. Addressing the anorexia phenomenon, this study considered, from a sociological perspective, the dynamics of attachment and shame. On the basis of 4 propositions and using a multi-method, case-replication design, attachment and shame patterns for 5 restrictive and 5 normal eaters were compared, as determined by scores from the Parental Bonding Instrument, Inventory of Parental and Peer Attachment, Internalized Shame Scale, and personal interviews. Analysis was progressive, as propositions were tested by pattern-matching steps of rating, comparing, and interpreting recurring responses to self-report and interview questions. All anorectics reported a dominant mother, with whom 4 were over attached and struggled ambivalently for autonomy, and a quiet, inexpressive father, whom 4 considered frequently absent or unavailable. As compared to normal eaters, anorectics' trust and communication scores were lower for both parents and peers. Generally, anorectics showed markedly higher internalized shame. Findings indicated that nonoptimal parental bonding patterns were related to shame. The maternal …

Intergroup relations and the factors affecting them constitute a subject of recurring interest within the academic community. Social identity theory suggests that group membership and the value we assign to it drives the expression of in-group favoritism and outgroup prejudice, among other intergroup phenomena. The present study examines how (ir)religious identities are related to topic-sentiment polarization in the form of positive in-group and negative outgroup bias during interreligious debates in YouTube commentaries. Drawing from the propositions of social identity theory, six hypotheses were tested. The data for the study, a product of a natural experiment, are comments posted on YouTube commentary sections featuring videos of interreligious debates between (a) Christian and atheist or (b) Christian and Muslim speakers. Using topic-sentiment analysis, a multistage method of topic modeling with latent semantic analysis (LSA) and sentiment analysis, 52,607 comments, for the Christian - atheist debates, and 24,179 comments, for the Christian - Muslim debates, were analyzed. The results offer support (or partial support) to the hypotheses demonstrating identity-specific instances of topic-sentiment polarization to the predicted direction. The study offers valuable insights for the relevance of social identity theory in real-world interreligious interactions, while the successful application of topic-sentiment analysis lends support for …

This dissertation examines correlations between religiousness and spirituality, to moral orientations using moral foundations theory as a framework. Using the 2012 Measuring Morality dataset, which provides a representative sample of the population of the United States, I create linear regressions which test associations between religiousness, spirituality, and each of the five moral foundations ((harm/care, fairness, in-group loyalty, respect for authority, and purity). I find that religiousness is negatively associated with concern for harm, and positively associated with respect for authority, a finding which implies that the moral behavior of religious people is rooted in respect for authority more than in any other moral concern. Spirituality is positively associated with concern for fairness. The implications of all findings are discussed, as well as limitations and recommendations for future research.

Research on immigration in the United States has commonly studied the employment experiences of refugees. Few studies on refugees have focused on both, refugees' employment and unemployment experiences in the United States. This article draws on twenty in-depth interviews with refugees, along with ethnographic observation at a local refugee resettlement agency, to investigate how refugees make sense of their employment and unemployment experiences in the United States. I find that refugee men and women experience different employment trajectories in the United States, which are shaped by gender inequality in the public and domestic spheres. I further find that refugees' navigation with work in the United Stated influences their unemployment experiences and work in the informal sector. My study extends previous literature on refugee incorporation by conceptualizing refugees' employment as a gendered process, which includes periods of formal paid work, informal paid work, and unemployment in the United States.

It is hypothesized that Rex Hopper's model for the development of a South American political revolution will apply equally to the development of a social movement which is not a South American political revolution, namely, the Ku Klux Klan. The general purpose of this study was to test the generalizability of Hopper's model.