City officials are in the position to adopt and implement policies within their jurisdiction that can have lasting impacts for businesses, people, and the environment. Sustainability research has highlighted the need to protect the environment by adopting policies which support the three E's of sustainable development (environment, equity, and economy). Stepping aside from the traditional mechanisms for building a successful city focused on economy first can be challenging for policy makers. The problem city officials face is that changes towards environmental protectionism have long been considered harder on city economy than traditional development focused on economic prosperity. Additionally, sustainability planning is thought to mitigate potential negative impacts that planning for environmental protectionism and social equity may have on economic prosperity. To examine this problem faced by city officials, ordinal regression analyses was used to analyze (1) the possible effects of environmental protectionism and social equity on a city's economic prosperity, and (2) whether sustainability planning has a moderating affect between environmental protectionism, social equity, and economic prosperity. This analysis demonstrates that environmental protectionism and social equity are not associated with a decline in economic prosperity. Sustainability planning was directly associated with increased economic prosperity but did not moderate the relationship …

The appeal of moral panic studies, a once very popular sociological subfield, dropped precipitously around the turn of the century due in large part to debates about disproportionality, the notion a panicked group's concern about a perceived threat exceeds that warranted by its objective harmfulness. Classic theorists claim disproportionality is a panic's essential criterion and that it can be demonstrated by comparing a group's concerned reaction to the available facts. Critics argue it is a value-laden, ideologically tainted construct and often claim it cannot be demonstrated because there are no authoritative facts. These debates were and still are fraught with confusion. Perplexingly, both sides assume a shared definition despite clearly assessing the proportionality of different aspects of the relevant reaction. A typology differentiating the potential types of disproportionality either does not exist in the moral panic literature or remains shrouded in obscurity. In this paper, I review the classic theories, their critiques, and a new postmodern moral panic theory. By juxtaposing the different foci of the orthodox and contemporary theories, I derive a much-needed disproportionality typology. I also develop a new framework through which to assess moral panics predicated on this typology. My hope is these developments will stimulate a …

This dissertation examines how breastfeeding mothers develop distinct geographies due to the stigma, symbolic and structural violence they encounter while breastfeeding if different spaces. I utilize multiple in-depth semi-structured interviews, participant observation and photo elicitation to develop portraits of four urban mothers. My findings highlight the complexity of motherhood and demonstrate how distinct socio-spatial power dynamics situate and contextualize the experiences of breastfeeding mothers. I find that breastfeeding behaviors are influenced and maintained by broader social inequalities related to their social positions. Mothers seem caught in a paradoxical position, in which they must constantly discipline their bodies to maintain modesty while simultaneously ensuring their continued success breastfeeding. These issues are compounded by a mother's intersecting identities and their own social and cultural contexts.

This project examines refugees' experiences of insecure housing and perceptions of home in the U.S. Many scholars of migration have focused on the resettlement experiences of refugees, including access to housing, yet refugees' experiences with housing in the U.S. remain largely undocumented. The following analyzes a case study of an apartment fire that displaced 16 refugee families in Dallas, Texas. Based on 18 in-depth interviews with tenants and members of refugee support organizations and non-profits who responded to the fire, this study reconstructs the events surrounding the fire to explore refugees' perceptions of housing conditions in a low-income neighborhood. This case study contributes to research on housing in two important ways. First, insecure housing conditions preceded the fire at Oakland Place and overall perceptions of housing quality varied among respondents. I find that case managers and members of refugee support organizations identify refugees' housing conditions as insecure, yet refugees express positive feelings about their homes, emphasizing community relations over building quality. Additionally, members of refugee support organizations and non-profits blamed the property manager of Oakland Place for insecure conditions experienced by refugees and perceived the manager as a barrier in refugees' lives. Second, I find that understandings of housing insecurity …

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.

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.

The purpose of this study is to revisit the question of whether welfare benefit levels influence female headship, and whether the effect differs between the two main eras of welfare policy relevant to female headship, Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) and Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF). This study adds to the existing literature by including more up to date data allowing for a comparison between the AFDC and TANF eras. Results show that the effect of welfare benefits on female headship rates changes from negative to positive after welfare reform occurred among blacks, while no change occured among whites.

The #noDAPL movement was an Indigenous-led environmental social movement occurring between 2015 and 2017, in which the Standing Rock Sioux and other American Indian tribes comprising the Oceti Sakowin garnered support to oppose the 1,172-mile Dakota Access Pipeline. Pipeline opponents agreed that the pipeline's construction posed a threat to the health and safety of tribal members and other residents of the area and that the pipeline's path crossed previously-designated tribal treaty boundaries, compromising tribal sovereignty. In this body of work, I utilize Facebook data from the Sacred Stone Camp Facebook page to locate and identify collective action frames and core framing tasks, adhering to social movement framing theory. Further, I provide insight into the movement's most used collective action frames and how their use enabled to movement to maintain occupation at protest camps along the Missouri River, garner resources from participants and gain international social support. I also draw on concepts of pan-Indianism and supratribalism to discuss indigenous collective identity, as well as concepts like relational values and Indigenous traditional knowledge to better assess the nuances of Indigenous environmental activism and how this movement evoked discussions of modern day settler colonialism.

This study set out to test the effects of relationship quality with a stepfather on other familial relationships, romantic relationships, and usual outcome measures for products of parental divorce. OLS regression tests were conducted using responses from over a thousand participants from the New Family Structures Study (N=1,696). Respondents were organized by self-reported level of relationship quality with their stepfathers. Various qualities of stepfather families were then regressed against other family types—single parent, intact, and others. Results show that respondents with high-quality stepfather relationships were able to develop relationships with their biological mothers at stronger levels than people from intact families. This supports resilience theory, which posits that the exposure to risk coupled with positive, promotive factors allows a person to grow beyond his or her original trajectory. The findings of this study assert stepfamilies that encourage good stepfather-stepchild relationships can assuage some of the negative outcomes typical for children of divorce.

In the last few years, the world has been gripped by a crisis of forced migration and displaced persons. Being forced migrants, asylum-seekers are a unique and diverse population, originating from many countries with different backgrounds and experiences. This makes fulfilling the information needs of the asylum community difficult. Online participatory platforms, such as blogs and discussion forums, are flexible, adaptive information resources that could be used to meet the diverse needs of this population. In this study, I compare two online resources used by asylum-seekers, a blog and discussion forum, using social network analysis and topic modeling techniques. Through these analyses, I have determined the conversational archetype the best reflects both websites and discovered the information needs expressed and, in many cases, resolved through conversations in these online spaces. The core finding of this study is that providing direct access to an expert, such as through an interactive blog, promotes dialogue on a greater variety of topics and increases the likelihood of a thorough response. Furthermore, blog posts may inform participants' comments by providing them with the necessary vocabulary to participate fully in the online setting.

The purpose of this research study was to conduct an exploration of the dating preferences of African American women and U.S. men between the ages of 30-74 years old. This research focuses on the dating preferences and desirability of African American women and if they are influential on the high unmarried rates of African American women. A weighted stratified sampling of 2,800 personal advertisements of African American, Asian, Latino and White men and women from Match.com were collected to conduct the research. The five research hypotheses of this study were tested using frequency and percentage distribution, logistic regression and cross-tabulation models. The findings partially support the hypotheses African American women are more likely to prefer a mate with a bachelor's degree or higher and African American women are more likely to prefer a mate of the same race compared to U.S. women of other races. The findings also suggested non-African American men are less likely to have an interest in dating African American women and non-African American men, who are interested in dating African American women, are less likely to prefer women with a bachelor's degree or higher or a more socially desirable body type.

With immigration controversies increasingly found at the forefront of the European public arena, understanding the social and cultural forces driving negative perceptions of immigrants becomes a pressing task of academic scholarship. Situated within the broader theoretical framework of group-conflict theories, human values theory and social identity theory encourage different interpretations of how our interest to the welfare of the people closest to us (benevolence) and the broader human community (universalism) can inform attitudes towards immigrants. Human values theory argues for a unidirectional, negative effect of benevolence and universalism on negative perceptions of immigrants, while social identity theory suggests that, unlike universalism, benevolence would increase such perceptions. The present study seeks to examine how self-transcending human values (a.k.a. benevolence and universalism) affect perceptions of immigrant threat and whether the locus of our value priority matters. Using nationally pooled data from the European Social Survey (ESS) for 15 European countries, the results provide robust evidence that benevolence and universalism affect perceived immigrant threat in opposite directions, generally aligning with the propositions of the social identity theory. The group we place our loyalty matters. At the same time, national context matters too suggesting that grand scheme interpretations of this phenomenon fall short. Theoretical …

Nursing assistants (NAs) provide the majority of daily care to older adults in nursing homes (NHs); NAs working in NHs are the focus of this study. This study examined the influence of participatory management (the independent variable), and mediating variables, burnout – measured as emotional exhaustion, task performance, and affective organizational commitment, on NA withdrawal behaviors (the dependent variables absenteeism and turnover). Most of the data come from a 113-item self-administered questionnaire designed to measure NAs' perceptions of their job and work environment. Turnover data were collected from the NA's NH, on average about 16 months later. The two dependent variables were examined in separate analyses with the samples consisting of 246 participants for the absenteeism analysis and 244 for the turnover analysis. Data were analyzed using SPSS 25 and PROCESS 3.3, an SPSS macro add-in. Both ordinary least squares and logistic binary regression were used to examine the associations between variables. The results indicated that participatory management had statistically significant indirect effects on both outcomes. There were two significant mediation results for absenteeism: 1) participatory management increased NA task performance, which, in turn, decreased absenteeism and, 2) participatory management also decreased NA burnout, which, in turn, increased their performance …

As social interactions increasingly become exclusively online, there is a need for research on the role of identity and social identity in online platforms. Drawing on Symbolic Interactionist approaches to identity, namely Social Identity Theory and Identity Theory, as well as Signaling Theory, this study argues that actors will selectively use religious language to signal their credentials to an audience for the purpose of garnering prosocial behavior in the form of donations to their fundraising campaign. Using latent semantic analysis topic models to analyze the self-presentations of crowdsourcing campaigners on GoFundMe.com, this study found evidence for the presence of signaling to a religious identity online as well as a significant difference in the presentation of need for campaigns originating in areas with high reported religiosity compared to campaigns from areas of low religiosity. In comparison to other campaigns, campaigners engaging in religious signaling were significantly increasing their donations. I suggest that strategically chosen religious topics in online crowdfunding is an example of low-cost identity signaling and provides insight into how signaling happens online and the potential outcomes resulting from this cultural work.

This research examined two interrelated issues relevant to maternal and neonatal health in Pakistan, namely, the rising rates of C-section delivery and low rates of exclusive breastfeeding. By using the Andersen's health behavioral model to frame two empirical studies, the data from the Pakistan Demographic and Health Survey (PDHS) 2012-13 was used. The first empirical study examined the correlation between place of delivery and the odds of cesarean section in Pakistan. Not all Pakistani women have an equal chance of delivering at a health facility where C-section delivery takes place; therefore, the study modeled mode of delivery as a two-step process. In the first step, place of delivery was a function of medical indications and various sociodemographic and community factors. Women who delivered at a health facility were included in the second step, where C-section was a function of medical indications and type of facility (private, public). It is found that women who delivered at a private health facility were more likely to have a C-section, even after controlling for the effects of medical/clinical factors, which is concerning. Findings suggest that the private maternal health sector in Pakistan may be over-medicalizing childbirth. The second study examined this paradox of low …

Prior research supports the relationship between education and status attainment, mobility, and occupational attainment. Today, within an increasingly bifurcated labor market, where education is important for occupational attainment and the associated income and benefits, understanding the processes of status attainment is important. Educational expectations shape educational attainment, while educational attainment influences occupational attainment and satisfaction. Utilizing the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, this study investigated the moderating effects of expectations on the relationship between education and occupational satisfaction. The results of this study partially support the moderating effects of expectations on the relationship between degree earned and career satisfaction, finding that expectations moderate this relationship for individuals who earned a bachelor's degree.

Throughout history, the Black Diaspora has used fashion as a form of protest. The element of fashion is often overlooked when considering the history and struggle for Black equality, because it is less tangible or definable in terms of its influence and effect, but it is still important because Black males resist the dominant culture via dress by dressing in military uniforms, creating their own style, and using different colors in their dress. Studying the Black struggle in American history during specific periods is one way to better understand opposition to the majority culture through fashion. We should also consider the mood of a social system when examining the dress of a particular group during conflicts. Hence, the purpose of this study is to investigate the role of fashion as a protest tool against the majority culture, and the social mood that affects the fashion choices of Black males. The study focuses on Black fashion from 1910 to 2015. Text data were collected and analyzed from articles published in The Crisis magazine, and men's fashion was specially examined. Additionally, images were studied via visual ethnography and images were coded based on color choice, fit, and accessories. For conducting sentiment analysis, …

The aim of this study was to describe the dimensions of Turkish Gazis' transition to civilian life, to explore the main factors that make this process easier or more difficult, and their psychological integration, that is, specifically, satisfaction with their life. To that end, this study examined the impact of combat-related traumatic stressor (e.g., functional limitations), personal resources (social support, sense of mastery), perceived mental health on Turkish veterans' adjustment into civilian life and their psychological integration. The data was collected in Turkey in 2015 by the researcher with the help of Türkiye Harp Malulü Gaziler Şehit Dul ve Yetimler Derneği, a non-profit veteran organization. The final sample included 240 Turkish Gazis. The level of perceived transition into civilian life and veterans' life satisfaction were the dependent variables in this study. A series of ordinary least squares (OLS) regression was conducted. Hayes' PROCESS macro 3.0 was utilized to measure the direct, indirect and moderation effects of variables on transition and life satisfaction among Gazis. The results demonstrated that perceived available social support, perceived sense of mastery and mental health partially mediated the association between Gazis' functional limitations and transition into civilian life and they fully mediated the association between functional …

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 …

Suicidality is an important problem among adolescents. This study compares Durkheim's and Tarde's perspectives on suicide. While the Durkheimian perspective alleges that integration, regulation, and anomie play the major role on adolescent suicidality, Tarde's theory considers imitation as the most important factor affecting suicidality. Durkheim suggests that individuals with higher integration and regulation are less likely to commit suicide. Individuals with less integration and regulation, on the other hand, are more likely to experience anomie and higher suicidality. Tarde claims that individuals with suicidal peers are more likely to commit suicide. In particular, the effects of school integration, family integration, peer integration, religious integration, neighborhood integration, family regulation, anomie, and suicide imitation on adolescent suicidality in Turkey are examined using binary logistics regression in the current attempt. The results indicate that school integration, family integration, and religious integration have significant negative effects on adolescents' suicidality whereas suicide imitation has a positive effect. The results of the study are expected to help to prevention programs purposed at reducing suicidality among adolescents.

Little is known about the mechanisms by which extracurricular participation in high school influences educational attainment in young adulthood. Also limited is an understanding of the different types of extracurricular participation and how various activities may manifest within the relationship. The purpose of this study was to examine the link between high school extracurricular participation and educational attainment, with social capital, parental expectations, and academic achievement presented as mediators. Additionally, the present study will explore socioeconomic differences in the proposed relationships. The sample consisted of 5,239 ninth through twelfth graders from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health). Structural equation modeling (SEM) and multiple-group SEM were used to test pathways. Extracurricular participation was categorized into sports participation, non-sport participation, mixed participation (including both sport and non-sport), and no participation. Social capital, a latent factor, was measured by the latent variables of family and school capital. Various indicators of family closeness and inclusion of school culture from survey items operationalize social capital. Parental expectations, another latent factor, was measured by one survey indicator using the question of how disappointed would your resident father and mother be if you did not graduate from college. Academic achievement was measured by grade …

It has been well established, in the literature, the association between low health literacy rates and poor health outcomes. With the increase of technology dependence, more people are using the internet to look up health information. Research has shown that shared decision making between providers and patients can improve patients' health outcomes. This research aims to examine whether electronic health (eHealth) literacy impacts patient-provider relationships. This research will also examine how geography specifically state residency impacts eHealth literacy rates. Data collected from a national sampling of online health and medical information users who participated in the Study of Health and Medical Information in Cyberspace (N=710) is used to construct structural equation models from SPSS AMOS v. 20.0. After path analysis, the results shown that white males with higher education were more likely to have higher eHealth literacy rates and that eHealth literacy rates are associated with better self-care, higher patient satisfaction and increased trust in provider. Also, state residency does not have an impact on eHealth literacy rates. eHealth literacy will be significant in patient-provider relationships. Program development should be established on focusing on eHealth literacy across the lifespan. Also, it will be important to review federal policy on technology …

The purpose of this research is to explicate the relationship between commuting behavior, stress, and mental health. The overall results from the regression analysis turned out to be inconclusive given the researcher's initial hypothesis. The commute time reported by respondents did not have a statistically significant bearing on mental health outcomes. This was true for both the normal sample, and the sample that was split by gender.

The purpose of this qualitative study was to understand the social, cultural, and structural factors that contribute to or inhibit alcohol use and abuse in the Army among young males, unmarried or married without a present spouse. Seventeeen single, or separated, young male soldiers stationed at Fort Bragg Army Base were interviewed to provide insight into the research questions. Soldiers were largely located through face-to-face canvassing. The interviews, which lasted from 45 to 90 minutes, took place face-to-face and were then transcribed. Interviews were analyzed using grounded theory approach by locating patterns, themes and relationships to come to generalizations. The themes that emerged from the interviews include: 1) stresses of army work/life; 2) social/entertainment use; 3) tradition/brotherhood/entitlement; 4) fear/consequences; 5) impressionable youth; 6) treatment. While the themes which emerged were reported in discrete terms, there was overlap in them. The functional aspect of alcohol use to these soldiers mixed with the impact of social interaction influencing their use served to encourage and further the use of alcohol. The drinking patterns of young male soldiers can be seen to exist on a continuum of either social integration or social stress, in line with Durkheim's conception of suicide, with the existence of …