POLARIZATION,SECULARIZATION, OR DIFFERENCES AS USUAL? The Denominational Cleavage in U.S. Social Attitudes Since the 1970s

Scholarly debates over modernization and social change in the late twentieth century have raised far-reaching questions about the possible consequences for religious group conflict and differences in behavior, identity, and opinion. Three general theoretical interpretations—polarization, secularization, and stable influence—have been asserted in the relevant literatures, yet which interpretation might best capture the effects of religious group memberships during the past three decades remains unresolved. We seek to advance research and debate on the changing influence of religion by investigating questions about the magnitude of, and trends in, religious groups differences in attitudes toward issues relating to gender, abortion, and sexuality during the past three decades. Building from past research, our analyses make use of three innovations: we apply a new typology of religious group memberships; we evaluate main versus interaction effect models to gauge evidence of change in the magnitude of religious influence; and we use indices that enable comparisons of the magnitude of group-based differences in attitudes across distinct issues and over time. Of the seven different issues we analyze, two reveal evidence of growing group-based differences, while the remaining five are characterized by a pattern of stability. We discuss the significance of these results for understanding limits of secularization theory, considering in conclusion how our results contribute to ongoing debate over the effects of religious group memberships.     

Suggestions for management training of residents

In addition to having medical expertise, physicians must possess managerial skills to deal with the ever-changing business environment of the practice of medicine. This article addresses the need for management training of physicians and calls for management training during residency and medical school. It also describes one residency program's efforts to provide comprehensive management training to its residents in pathology.     

Call My Bluff: Multiple Interpretations of an Organizational Process

This paper attempts to illustrate the value of interpreting organizational processes from a variety of perspectives. It demonstrates that this approach reflects the natural richness of organization and avoids the rather blinkered search for single-paradigm explanations. It does not seek to offer the answer, but rather some possible insights. By combining both actor and researcher frames, it sheds light upon a particular process of social interaction within an organization. Both the context, an NHS trust hospital, and the content, a significant change scenario, brings richness and relevance to the debate.
The paper outlines the macro and micro context before focusing on the interpretative methodological approach. The research involved collecting and analysing over thirty hours of taped, semi-structured interview discourse with senior and middle management and some junior staff. After describing the change initiative, an attempt at multi-skilling and the response of recipient actors to the proposals, the paper outlines three readings which seek to explain the events that occurred. The reader is invited to play the game 'Call my Bluff' and to choose the scenario that represents the most plausible explanation. The three interpretative frames employed are a managerial, a cultural and a political perspective. The paper concludes by raising some important issues in research, organizational change and the NHS.     

Residential Instability,Family Support,and Parent–Child Relationships Among Ethnically Diverse Urban Families

From a social disorganization standpoint, neighborhood residential instability potentially brings negative consequences to parent–child relationship qualities, but family social support and racial/ethnic identity may modify this association. Using data (n = 3,116) from the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods, this study examines associations between neighborhood residential instability and parent–child warmth and conflict, whether family social support moderates associations between residential instability and parent–child relationships, and variation by race/ethnicity. Multilevel models reveal that residential instability undermines parent–child relationship qualities, particularly for non‐White individuals. Family support is a protective factor for families in less stable neighborhoods and specifically buffers the association between neighborhood residential instability and reduced parent–child warmth. Among Hispanics, family support mitigates the association between residential instability and heightened parent–child conflict. Findings highlight residential instability as a detriment to parent–child relationships; families in unstable neighborhoods may benefit from family social support.     

Correlates of Depressive Symptoms among Homebound and Semi-Homebound Older Adults

ABSTRACT

This study aimed to provide a national profile of homebound and semi-homebound older adults with depressive symptoms and to compare risk factors of depressive symptoms by homebound status. A sample of 1,885 homebound and semi-homebound older adults was selected from Round 1 of the National Health and Aging Trends Study (NHATS). The prevalence of depressive symptoms was 43.9% in homebound older adults and 28.1% in semi-homebound older adults, representing over 830,000 and 1.4 million individuals in the population, respectively. Nearly two-thirds of homebound and over half of semi-homebound older adults with clinically significant depressive symptoms also had significant anxiety symptoms. Results from logistic regression showed that younger age, certain medical morbidities, severity of functional limitations, and pain were common risk factors for depressive symptoms among homebound and semi-homebound older adults. Some differences in the risk factor profile emerged between the homebound and the semi-homebound populations. Alleviating the burden of depression in the semi-homebound population may focus on early prevention that considers the diversity of this population. Home-based, integrated programs of health and mental health services that simultaneously address the medical, psychiatric, and neurologic comorbidities and disabilities of homebound older adults are needed to meet the complex needs of this population.     

Challenging the Myth of Urban Regeneration: Raising the Profile of Problem Gambling with a Media Campaign

This paper is an examination of discourses challenging the myth of ‘gambling’ as a form of urban regeneration in Great Britain. The focus is primarily on the Daily Mail, which has continually waged a successful media campaign to “Kill the Casino Bill” and constructed a powerful public condemnation of gambling as regenerative. From an analysis of 156 gambling articles from January 2004 to December 2010 common and recurring themes emerged to dismiss gambling as a form of regeneration. These were gambling as immoral, criminal and pathological. These helped shaped discourses around which the debate on gambling was framed and structured.     

Effects of Network Approval on Accounts of Commitment Trajectories in Intraracial and Interracial Relationships

The current study used dyadic data to investigate the impact of relationship type and social support on the retrospective accounts of commitment trajectories of romantic relationships. Past research suggests that social support is a positive contributor to relationship stability and commitment, which may be especially true for partners in interracial relationships who face broader societal opposition than intraracial couples. Using multilevel modeling, we investigated the effects of sex, relationship type, and social support on reports of commitment. Results showed differences in trajectories of commitment based on couple type (interracial vs. intraracial) for both men and women. Social support was found to have an especially strong impact for women in interracial relationships compared with women in intraracial relationships, but there was no differential impact among men.     

Negotiating Gendered Subjectivity in the Enterprise Culture: Metaphor and Entrepreneurial Discourses

An enterprise culture is one in which ‘certain enterprising qualities — such as self reliance, personal responsibility, boldness and a willingness to take risks in the pursuit of goals — are regarded as human virtues and promoted as such’. Work is not seen as a constraint upon the individual but rather as an opportunity for self‐fulfilment. The pervasiveness of enterprise culture has led to observations that it influences aspects of social life beyond the workplace. However, the kind of self that is imagined in enterprise culture is also a male self, with female entrepreneurship measured against a male norm. In this article, then, we present evidence of metaphor as a strategy for coping with the gendered expectations embodied by life in enterprise culture. We show how metaphor is simultaneously an index of and a resource for understanding gendered subjectivities in enterprise culture.