Exploring intergenerational communication and stress in refugee families

More than half of the refugees who have resettled to the United States in recent years have been youth. Refugee youth have often witnessed or experienced violence and family separation prior to resettlement and face barriers to successful resettlement such as language and educational challenges. These factors elevate risk for mental and emotional distress, and protective factors like strong familial relationships are important to promoting mental well‐being. This study utilized focus groups with 36 refugees ages 18 to 25 from four ethnic groups to explore conceptualizations of and communication about mental and emotional distress within and outside of family systems. Youth reported a nuanced conceptualization of their premigration and postmigration stressors and their patterns of communication about distress in three domains: (a) exposure to traumatic stress prior to resettlement, (b) stressful experiences in resettlement, and (c) communication about mental health inside and outside of family groups.     

A Content Analysis of Intake Paperwork: An Exploration of How Clinicians Ask About Gender,Sex, and Sexual/Affectual Orientation

In the United States, the transgender and gender nonconforming (TGNC) population has increased twofold since 2011. Although counseling professionals are called to provide competent services to TGNC clients, no empirical studies exist that examine one of the first points of contact: Intake paperwork. The authors conducted a content analysis (N = 128) of intake paperwork and assessed how and if clinicians asked for gender, sex, and sexual/affectual orientation, and whether they conflated these constructs. Findings indicate adjustments need to be made for intakes to be more inclusive of these constructs. The authors offer clinical implications and avenues for future research.     

A Study of Interval Censoring in Parametric Regression Models

Parametric models for interval censored data can now easily be fitted with minimal programming in certain standard statistical software packages. Regression equations can be introduced, both for the location and for the dispersion parameters. Finite mixture models can also be fitted, with a point mass on right (or left) censored observations, to allow for individuals who cannot have the event (or already have it). This mixing probability can also be allowed to follow a regression equation.Here, models based on nine different distributions are compared for three examples of heavily censored data as well as a set of simulated data. We find that, for parametric models, interval censoring can often be ignored and that the density, at centres of intervals, can be used instead in the likelihood function, although the approximation is not always reliable. In the context of heavily interval censored data, the conclusions from parametric models are remarkably robust with changing distributional assumptions and generally more informative than the corresponding non-parametric models.     

Sociology’s <Emphasis Type="Italic">Suicide</Emphasis>: A Forensic Autopsy?

For decades Durkheim’s theory of suicide has been tested and found wanting. Yet, rather than being consigned to the dust-bin of history, it lives on and is pointed to as an exemplar of the powers of sociological theory and research. If this rationalizing and/or dismissal of so many falsifications of the theory were an isolated phenomenon, it might be evidence of some lemming-like propensity for suicide or a disciplinary death-wish, among a few sociologists. But it appears to be a much more widespread and common occurrence. In this paper we explore some possible explanations of this ‘falsification denial’—‘The Social Misconstruction of Reality’ (Hamilton 1996), ‘When Prophecy Fails’ (Festinger et al. 1956), ‘Underdetermination’ (Duhem 1954; Quine Journal of Philosophy 67:178–183, 1970, Erkenntnis 9:313–328, 1975; Lakatos 1970), and ‘Boundary Maintenance’ (Erikson 1966), and we outline some of the more important and pernicious consequences of this falsification denial for the discipline and future of sociology.     

Waning vigilance and the disposition effect: Evidence from Thailand on individual investor decision making

We argue that existing explanations for the stock-market investor's disposition to “ride losers too long” are unsatisfactory because they abstract from any role for information processing. We propose instead that the disposition effect is a special case of “waning vigilance:” investors pay less attention to new information and analysis when making decisions about loss makers and are therefore slower to sell them when arguments in favor of holding cease to be valid. Results from a Thai individual investor survey are presented as empirical evidence in support of the hypothesis that vigilance is reduced following losses.     

The impact of place? A reassessment of the importance of the South in affecting beliefs about racial inequality

Research shows that individuals living in the southern part of the United States express more negative racial attitudes than those living outside the South. Using data from The American National Election Study (NES), the purpose of this paper is to assess whether key factors often associated with the Southern attitude distinction are indeed more potent in the South than elsewhere. Drawing data from the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s, we further assess whether the impact of the South has increased or decreased over time. Results indicate that the impact of the South is negligible at best. Findings do show that place does matter for conservatives. However, in this case, non-South location matters more than the South. Relative to their liberal counterparts, conservatives in the non-South espouse more individualistic beliefs than do their Southern counterparts. These findings are discussed within the dominant theoretical framework in this area.     

Ask and you shall receive: Social network contacts’ provision of help during the job search

Social network contacts—the people who are asked to help with others’ job searches—are key players in the job networking process. Before job seekers can become employed with the help social networks, contacts must first be able and willing to share the social resources job seekers need for their search. Little is known about the factors that affect contacts’ ability and willingness to do this. Analyses of a unique dataset of contacts show that they typically have access to resources and help job seekers by sharing them. Still, contacts are better able to help when they are male, employed, and better educated than job seekers. They are more willing to help when they perceive job seekers to be “good” workers. In identifying the conditions in which contacts provide social resources, this study illustrates how social networks are a productive job search strategy for some, but not all, job seekers.     

Characterizing Mother’s Dating After Divorce

Mothers dating after divorce is a dynamic process, where not all mothers date the same way after divorce. However, few studies have examined the different ways that mothers date after divorce, which should influence maternal well-being, risk behaviors, and the quality of their relationships. This study characterizes four different approaches to mothers’ repartnering (referred to as repartnering histories): no dating, dating one partner monogamously, dating multiple partners serially, and dating multiple partners simultaneously. Each repartnering history is characterized by demographic variables, relationship quality, and maternal well-being. Implications of the study are discussed.