A survey of recent research on race and residential location

This article reviews the post-1975 theoretical and empirical research on race and residential location in metropolitan areas of the United States. We interrelate the main themes of recent research, focusing on the causes and consequences of racial residential segregation. Racial prejudice and discrimination, black suburbanization, school segregation, labor market discrimination, and city/surburban environmental differentials are among the issues examined.     

Valuation of education and crime neighborhood characteristics through hedonic housing prices

This article studies households' valuation of neighborhood amenities through analysis of housing as a bundle of structural and neighborhood characteristics. Using statistical techniques, hedonic prices, or incremental values in the market, can be imputed to each element of the bundle. Twelve variables describe neighborhood crime; twenty-one variables describe neighborhood schools. Together with structural variables, they significantly and substantially explain house prices in the Baltimore metropolitan area. The technique is also shown to provide a market framework for approximating the benefits of localized neighborhood improvements.The authors wish to thank David Puryear, Ralph Taylor, and the two anonymous referees for their helpful comments on earlier drafts of this paper. We also thank Central Maryland Multiple Listing Service, the Baltimore City and Baltimore County Police Departments, and the Johns Hopkins Center for the Social Organization of Schools for house price, crime, and education data. None of the people or organizations listed is in any way responsible for the analyses or conclusions presented. Requests for reprints should be addressed to Dr. Allen C. Goodman, Center for Metropolitan Planning and Research, The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21218.     

Conducting Large‐Scale Surveys in Secondary Schools: The Case of the Youth On Religion (YOR) Project

There are few published articles on conducting large‐scale surveys in secondary schools, and this paper seeks to fill this gap. Drawing on the experiences of the Youth On Religion project, it discusses the politics of gaining access to these schools and the considerations leading to the adoption and administration of an online survey. It is concluded that successful research in schools has to be planned carefully in collaboration with key members of staff, and justified as an educational activity. Providing speedy feedback was helpful to ensure schools benefited from the research and to keep them engaged with the project. © 2011 The Author(s). Children & Society © 2011 National Children’s Bureau and Blackwell Publishing Limited     

The Impact of Social Connectedness and Internalized Transphobic Stigma on Self-Esteem Among Transgender and Gender Non-Conforming Adults

The transgender and gender non-conforming (TGNC) community continues to represent a notably marginalized population exposed to pervasive discrimination, microaggressions, and victimization. Congruent with the minority stress model, TGNC individuals persistently experience barriers to wellbeing in contemporary society; however, research uncovering resilience-based pathways to health among this population is sparse. This study aimed to explore the impact and interaction between internalized transphobic stigma and a potential buffer against minority stress—social connectedness—on the self-esteem of TGNC identified adults. Data were collected from 65 TGNC identified adults during a national transgender conference. Multiple regression analysis reveals that self-esteem is negatively impacted by internalized transphobia and positively impacted by social connectedness. Social connectedness did not significantly moderate the relationship between internalized transphobia and self-esteem. Micro and macro interventions aimed at increasing social connectedness and decreasing internalized transphobic stigma may be paramount for enhancing resiliency and wellbeing in the TGNC community.     

A Land of Milk and Honey? Breastfeeding and Identity in Lesbian Families

ABSTRACT

This article explores the relationship between breastfeeding and identity in lesbian-identified families based on a pilot study of qualitative interviews and a short survey of six lesbian families in Canada and the United States. Although breastfeeding is assumed to be “natural” and a biological function, we problematize the practice as both gendered and heteronormative. In our research we found that breastfeeding has a complex role to play within the construction of one's identity as a mother, of one's gender, and of one's sexual orientation. These women's experiences offer interesting insights into the nebulous boundaries of biology and the ways in which assumptions about what is “natural” are actually social and cultural constructions.     

Wiki-worthy: collective judgment of candidate notability

The use of socio-technical data to predict elections is a growing research area. We argue that election prediction research suffers from under-specified theoretical models that do not properly distinguish between ‘poll-like’ and ‘prediction market-like’ mechanisms understand findings. More specifically, we argue that, in systems with strong norms and reputational feedback mechanisms, individuals have market-like incentives to bias content creation toward candidates they expect will win. We provide evidence for the merits of this approach using the creation of Wikipedia pages for candidates in the 2010 US and UK national legislative elections. We find that Wikipedia editors are more likely to create Wikipedia pages for challengers who have a better chance of defeating their incumbent opponent and that the timing of these page creations coincides with periods when collective expectations for the candidate's success are relatively high.     

Assessment of an e-training tool for college students to improve accuracy and reduce effort associated with reading nutrition labels

Objective: Nutrition labels are often underutilized due to the time and effort required to read them. We investigated the impact of label-reading training on effort, as well as accuracy and motivation. Participants: Eighty college students (21 men and 59 women). Methods: The training consisted of a background tutorial on nutrition followed by three blocks of practice reading labels to decide which of two foods was the relatively better choice. Label-reading effort was assessed using an eye tracker and motivation was assessed using a 6-item scale of healthy food-choice empowerment. Results: Students showed increases in label-reading accuracy, decreases in label-reading effort, and increases in empowerment. Conclusions: The nutrition label e-training tool presented here, whether used alone or as part of other wellness and health programs, may be an effective way to boost students’ label-reading skills and healthy food choices, before they settle into grocery shopping habits.     

The impact of managed care on Massachusetts mental health and substance abuse providers

Medicaid managed care programs are becoming more widespread. To investigate the clinical, organizational, and financial impacts on service providers, a stratified, random sample of providers in the Massachusetts Managed Mental Health/Substance Abuse Program were surveyed by phone in Years 3 and 4 of the initiative. Providers reported that they were making widespread clinical changes such as more use of group, brief, and episodic therapies. They were increasing utilization review, Total Quality Management, and outcomes measurement. They were increasing in size, affiliating with other agencies, and providing a greater range of services. They were preparing for capitation. Compared to before the program and a year earlier, about 40 percent of providers were doing better financially and a quarter were doing worse. The study documents the hypothesis that a widespread and continuing transformation is taking place in response to managed care.     

Infant Discrimination of a Morphologically Relevant Word‐Final Contrast

Six‐, 12‐, and 18‐month‐old English‐hearing infants were tested on their ability to discriminate nonword forms ending in the final stop consonants /k/ and /t/ from their counterparts with final /s/ added, resulting in final clusters /ks/ and /ts/, in a habituation–dishabituation, looking time paradigm. Infants at all 3 ages demonstrated an ability to discriminate this type of contrast, a contrast that constitutes one phonetic cue for the English morphological concepts of plural, possession, and person. These results suggest that across a significant portion of the development of infants' speech perception, this type of final contrast is discriminable.