Families,Resources, and Suicide: Combined Effects on Mortality

Important resources from family support systems, employment, and educational attainment inhibit the risk of death. Independently, these factors are particularly salient for suicide, but how they combine to affect mortality is less clear. Analyses of National Health Interview Survey data from 1986 to 2004 (N = 935,802), prospectively linked to mortality through 2006 (including 1,238 suicides), reveals a process of compensation in the way work status and family combine to affect adult suicide: Individuals who are not working experience more suicide defense from more protective family support systems than do working adults. But a process of reinforcement occurs in the combination of education and family: More education associates with more protection from the family than does less education. The findings demonstrate how families and resources combine to affect mortality in unique ways.     

Child Obesity and the Interaction of Family and Neighborhood Socioeconomic Context

Population Research and Policy Review - The literature on neighborhoods and child obesity links contextual conditions to risk, assuming that if place matters, it matters in a similar way for...     

Family and Household Formations and Suicide in the United States

Family support systems have been theoretically linked to suicide risk. But no research to date has investigated the effects of detailed living arrangements on individual risk of suicide. Using data on 825,462 adults from the National Health Interview Survey Linked Mortality File reveals that living in families with stronger sources of social support and integration decreases risk of suicide. These effects persist despite controls for important individual level characteristics. Risk of suicide decreases for persons in married as well as unmarried families when children are present and risk increases for persons living with unrelated adults. These results reveal the structural importance of family formation on the social integrative forces that contribute to an individual's risk of suicide.     

Fear,Human Rights and New Labour Policy Post‐9/11

New Labour's domestic and foreign policy have been driven by a complex and contradictory precautionary logic. Fear management appears to have replaced coherent principles in the development of some areas of policy. The preoccupation with fear and anxiety has provided a rationale for the suspension of liberty and the adoption of measures that Western democracies have only usually seen in times of war. Fear‐based policy has also created a more exclusivist, segmented society.     

Anti-racism and the Limits of Equal Opportunities Policy in the Criminal Justice System

In this paper some of the evidence relating to the incidence of racial discrimination in the criminal justice system will be critically examined. It will be argued that equal opportunities policies have been adopted in the British case with the stated aim of tackling the exclusionary effects of racial discrimination. The notion of equal opportunities has been contested not least by those who have advocated anti-racist approaches towards discrimination. Anti-racism has been represented by some of its advocates as reflecting a critique of the authentic source of racism which is loosely defined in terms of social structure and capitalist social relations. The case for reconstituting anti-racism in such a way as to make it relevant to the lives of black offenders will be made. Finally, a framework for developing policies based upon the implementation of specific and clearly stated rights will be made.     

Neighborhood Concentrated Disadvantage and Adult Mortality: Insights for Racial and Ethnic Differences

While racial and ethnic differences in mortality are pervasive and well documented, less is known about how mortality risk varies by neighborhood socioeconomic status across racial and ethnic identity. We conducted a prospective analysis on a sample of adults living at or below 300% poverty with 8 years of the National Health Interview Survey (N = 159,400) linked to 11,600 deaths to examine the association between neighborhood disadvantage and mortality for non-Hispanic whites, non-Hispanic blacks, and U.S.- and foreign-born Hispanics. Using multilevel logistic regression, we find that the probability of death from any cause for lower-income adults is higher in more-disadvantaged neighborhoods, compared to less-disadvantaged neighborhoods, but only for whites. The adjusted likelihood of death for blacks and foreign-born Hispanics is not associated with neighborhood disadvantage, and the likelihood of death for U.S.-born Hispanics is lower in more-disadvantaged neighborhoods. While future research and policy should focus on improving health-promoting resources in all communities, care should be given to better understanding why race/ethnic groups have differential mortality returns with respect to area-specific socioeconomic conditions.     

The pinney sexual satisfaction inventory

The purpose of the present investigation was to (a) develop a reliable self‐report questionnaire that assesses women's sexual satisfaction and (b) investigate the correlates of sexual satisfaction in women. A total of 275 college‐aged women completed the Pinney Sexual Satisfaction Inventory (PSSI) and were also assessed on a variety of sexual behaviors, experiences, and attitudes. The results supported the internal reliability of the PSSI, and evidence of covergent validity was provided by strong positive correlations between the PSSI and other measures of sexual satisfaction. A factor analysis revealed two underlying dimensions of the PSSI: General Sexual Satisfaction and Satisfaction with Partner. The variables that were most highly correlated with the PSSI were relationship commitment, orgasm consistency, frequency of intercourse, and effectiveness of contraceptive device. These findings have implications for further use of the PSSI in research and clinical practice.