Contesting meaning: Newfie and the politics of ethnic labelling

The ethnic label Newfie is a site of ideological dispute: for some, it is simply an informal term for residents and expatriates of the Canadian province of Newfoundland, for others it may function as an in–group term of solidarity which takes on negative connotations when used by non–Newfoundlanders, and for still others it is the equivalent of a racial slur. In this study we first trace the history of the term, a fairly recent innovation. We then examine present–day attitudes as expressed in (provincial and national) media discourse and in self–report data. We argue that debate over Newfie is part of a larger ideological struggle concerning the commodification of an ‘invented’ Newfoundland culture, which itself must be understood in terms of Newfoundland’s socioeconomic position as Canada’s poorest province. Finally, we compare the Newfie case to other instances of contested group labelling.     

Current Manifestations of Racism: An Exploratory Study of Social Distance and White Racial Identity

Abstract

White racial identity theory postulates that White individuals differ in their psychological orientation to race. However, the racial attitudes research has not examined how these differences impact the degree of social contact an individual is likely to have with members from other racial groups. The authors assessed participants' White racial identity and social distance towards White, Asian, Black, Native, and Latino Americans. The nature of the relationship was examined with a canonical correlation analysis. The analysis revealed a significant canonical variate, which indicated that more developed White racial identity status attitudes were related to less social distance towards members of other racial groups, while less developed racial identity status attitudes were related to greater social distance preference. The authors discuss the results in terms of the implications for psychology and offer recommendations for future research     

Variations of Sexual Scripts Relating to Concurrency by Race,Class, and Gender in South Africa

It is unclear whether higher rates of sexual partner concurrency in Black South Africans are due to socioeconomic or cultural factors. We used a nationally representative sample of 9,728 individuals aged 16 to 55 from a study conducted in 2009 to examine how the norms pertaining to concurrency and the practice of concurrency vary by race, class, and gender. The percentage of men reporting point concurrency was 14%, 6.5%, and 2.5% in Blacks, coloreds, and Whites, respectively (p < 0.001). These percentages increased to 45.7%, 24.7%, and 11.7%, respectively, for those reporting lifetime concurrency (p < 0.001). In all the racial groups, men exhibited more favorable attitudes toward concurrency than women did. For a range of indicators, White men and women had less favorable attitudes toward concurrency than Black men and women. These differences remained after controlling for a range of confounding variables. In the adjusted logistic regression model, reported concurrency in men was associated with a younger age, Black race, being in the lowest income tertile, not being in a stable relationship, and expressing various positive attitudes toward concurrency.     

The Injurious Relationship Between Racial Microaggressions and Physical Health: Implications for Social Work

ABSTRACT

In recent years, the study of racial microaggressions (or subtle forms of racial discrimination) has increased significantly in the social sciences, particularly highlighting the negative impact of racial microaggressions on individuals’ mental health. Despite this, there is a dearth of literature that has examined the relationship between racial microaggressions and physical and psychological health. Using two self-reported measures—the Racial and Ethnic Microaggressions Scale (REMS) and the RAND 36-Item Short Form Health Survey—with a diverse group of participants (N = 277), results suggest that racial microaggressions are significantly correlated with poorer health conditions. Furthermore, racial microaggressions were found to predict various types of physical health conditions, such as general health problems, pain, lower energy levels, and fatigue. Finally, different types of microaggressions (e.g., microaggressions in school or the workplace, environmental microaggressions) were found to be predictors of specific health issues. Implications for social work are discussed.     

Race/Ethnicity,Attitudes, and Living With Parents During Young Adulthood

Non‐White young adults are more likely to live with their parents throughout their 20s, more likely to return home after going away to college, and less likely to leave again after returning. Scholars have speculated that subcultural differences in attitudes toward marriage and family play a key role in generating racial/ethnic differences in rates of coresidence with parents among young adults. Data from the National Education Longitudinal Survey of 1988 (N = 11,228) were analyzed in order to test this hypothesis. Attitudes toward marriage and family were significantly associated with coresidence, especially among young men, but did not substantially account for racial/ethnic differences in living arrangements. Among young non‐White women and young Black men, higher rates of coresidence were related to differences from Whites in socioeconomic or marital status (and sometimes both) that were largely independent of differences in attitudes toward marriage and family.     

Factors influencing college women's contraceptive behavior: An application of the integrative model of behavioral prediction

Objective: This study investigated variables within the Integrative Model of Behavioral Prediction (IMBP) as well as differences across socioeconomic status (SES) levels within the context of inconsistent contraceptive use among college women. Participants: A nonprobability sample of 515 female college students completed an Internet-based survey between November 2014 and February 2015. Methods: Respondents were asked about their contraception use, knowledge and information sources, demographic information, and IMBP factors, including attitudes, norms, and perceived behavioral control (PBC). Results: While overall attitudes, norms, PBC, and intentions for contraceptive use were high, only 46.8% of women used contraception consistently. Data also revealed only moderate levels of knowledge about contraception. While there were no differences across SES levels for attitudes, PBC, norms or knowledge, SES levels did differ in sources used to acquire contraceptive information. Conclusions: This study highlights the need to consider where college women acquire contraceptive information which is associated with SES.     

Racial and Sexual Identities of Asian American Gay Men

ABSTRACT

This paper reports results of two studies about the racial and sexual identities of Asian American gay men. In the first study, 32 Asian American gay men completed measures assessing racial and sexual identity attitudes. Results suggested that Assimilationists had the most negative sexual identity attitudes, followed by Marginalists and Separationists, with Integrationists having the most positive sexual identity attitudes. Study 2 was a qualitative study based on interviews with 10 of the participants in Study 1. Twenty-nine themes were identified and grouped under five domains (personal background, coming out, being Asian in the U.S., being gay in the U.S., and multiple identities). Most themes were related to the parallel and interactive processes between participants' racial and sexual identity development. Practical and research implications are discussed.     

“Everyone Knows It's a Social Construct”: Contemporary Science and the Nature of Race

Abstract

Sociological literature frequently claims that scientists across the disciplinary spectrum have arrived at the common conclusion that race is socially constructed, not biologically anchored. I investigate contemporary scientific thinking about race by interviewing more than 40 biologists and anthropologists at four northeastern universities. Contrary to sociologists' expectations, racial constructionism is revealed to be a minority viewpoint. Moreover, this research shows that the usual “constructionist” versus “essentialist” dichotomy a blunt tool for characterizing the debate about race; a third platform—“antiessentialism”—must be taken into account. Recognizing antiessentialist discourse calls for a reevaluation of prior research that emphasizes socioeconomic status and professional affiliation as influences on interviewees' concepts of race; this project demonstrates that such tectors do little to distinguish essentialist from antiessentialist veiwpoints.     

Status Discrepancy and the Radical Rejection of Nonviolence

Interviews with Negro members of the Congress of Racial Equality during 1961–1963 show that the commitment to nonviolence was both extensively and intensively weak. Cross tabulation of attitudes on nonviolence with attitudes toward war indicates no consistent pacifism, but a tendency for radicals to reject military service while accepting violence in the movement, and for moderates to accept military service while rejecting violence in the movement. Radicalism was associated with inconsistent status experiences: Northern upbringing and the combination of high occupational and educational status with low racial status. Exposure to radical ideas was also a strong factor. The connection between the verbal, ideological radicalism of the CORE activists and actual ghetto insurrections is complex. The predominantly middle class CORE members are unlikely to engage in such class-alien behavior, but they do produce an ideology which politicizes lower class Negro youths and legitimates spontaneous violence as a form of protest.     

The Educational Expectations of South African Youth

Abstract

Educational expectations, in particular the relationship between race/ethnicity and educational expectations, have been understudied in less developed countries. We use data from the Cape Area Panel Study (CAPS) to examine the educational expectations of black (African), coloured (mixed race), and white (European ancestry) youth in Cape Town, South Africa. The educational expectations of all three racial groups are high, although coloured youth are less likely than black and white youth to expect to complete postsecondary or postgraduate schooling. Supporting research on educational expectations in the United States and other more developed countries, our findings indicate that socioeconomic status and academic performance matter for educational expectations in South Africa, although their importance varies by racial group. In contrast to U.S. studies that have found effects of family composition for whites only, we found virtually no effects of family composition on the educational expectations of whites or nonwhites. Our findings suggest possible similarities and differences across social contexts in the processes shaping the educational expectations of youth from disadvantaged groups.     

Intersections of hate: Exploring the transecting dimensions of race,religion, gender,and family in Ku Klux Klan Web sites

ABSTRACT

The United States has a historical legacy of oppression and subjugation spanning an array of social locations, including class, gender, race/ethnicity, sexual orientation and others. Contemporary research has documented a growth in themes of prejudice and racism present in popular media, such as the Internet. This study fills a gap in the literature by exploring Internet manifestations of a social group that has been historically organized around an ideology of intolerance, prejudice, and hatred: The Ku Klux Klan. Findings from an intersectional content analysis of KKK Web sites reveal that prejudice exists on multiple axes of hate. Major themes include emphases on white solidarity, the cult of Aryan Christianity, Aryan Klan masculinity and heteronormative nuclear family values. These dimensions intersect to create a complex picture of the Klan’s self-proclaimed social supremacy. Implications regarding the use of the Internet as a vehicle of hate are considered.     

Status and Solidarity: A Reformulation of Early Durkheimian Theory*

Previous scholars have charged that Durkheim provides an inadequate theory of inequality, that the concept of organic solidarity is not well supported, and that egoistic and anomic suicide cannot be adequately distinguished. Although these problems appear distinct, they each arise because Durkheim naturalized inequality and ignored social status. Introducing a concept of status permits a reconceptualization of the types of suicide and creates new analytic connections between The Division of Labor and Suicide. Social solidarity and status hierarchies are presented as variations in the relationship between social integration and social regulation. The interplay between status and solidarity influences the expression of social practice, power, belief, and justice.     

Older Adults and Emerging Digital Service Delivery: A Mixed Methods Study on Information and Communications Technology Use,Skills, and Attitudes

Based on data from a survey (n = 3291) and 14 qualitative interviews among Danish older adults, this study investigated the use of, and attitudes toward, information communications technology (ICT) and the digital delivery of public services. While age, gender, and socioeconomic status were associated with use of ICT, these determinants lost their explanatory power when we controlled for attitudes and experiences. We identified three segments that differed in their use of ICT and attitudes toward digital service delivery. As nonuse of ICT often results from the lack of willingness to use it rather than from material or cognitive deficiencies, policy measures for bridging the digital divide should focus on skills and confidence rather than on access or ability.     

Safer sex in a digital world: A Web-based motivational enhancement intervention to increase condom use among college women

ABSTRACT

Objective: This study is a randomized trial of a Web-based intervention to increase condom use among college women. Participants: From October 2012 to March 2013, N = 422 completed baseline questionnaires and intervention procedures. n = 216 completed 3-month follow-up. Methods: Participants completed a decisional balance exercise examining their sex acts over the past 3 months and wrote an essay encouraging young girls to use condoms. All procedures were conducted online. Results: The intervention improved intentions to use and attitudes towards condoms for 3 subscales of condom attitudes. Attitudes following the intervention significantly predicted condom use at 3-month follow-up, and this relationship was mediated by condom intentions immediately post intervention. The relationship between intentions and condom use was moderated by group. Conclusions: The intervention improved condom attitudes and intentions immediately post intervention, and immediately post intervention intentions had a greater impact on condom use at 3-month follow-up among those in the condom intervention compared with those in the control group.     

Sexual Orientation Differences in Whites’ Racial Attitudes

Historical and anecdotal accounts present a contradictory image of predominantly white lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, and queer (LGBTQ ) communities in the United States: a unique celebration of racial and other forms of diversity, yet pervasive racial discrimination and exclusion that mirrors racism of the broader society. However, no study to date has compared the racial attitudes of white heterosexual and white LGB Americans. Using nationally representative data from the American National Election Survey 2012 Times Series Study, I investigate the effect of sexual orientation on whites’ racial attitudes in the domains of symbolic, color‐blind, and old‐fashioned racism. Compared to white heterosexuals, white LGB people hold more favorable attitudes toward black people, most notably in the domain of symbolic racism. On average, over 40% of sexual orientation gaps in whites’ racial attitudes is explained by white LGB respondents’ more liberal political ideology; their greater awareness of homophobic discrimination explains, on average, one‐fifth of these sexual orientation gaps. These findings suggest that white LGB racial attitudes must be examined at the intersection of their privileged racial and disadvantaged sexual identities.     

The Role of Perceived Racial Discrimination in the Marriage Gap Between Black and White People

Abstract

Many explanations offered for the gap in marriage rates between Black and White people are economic and cultural. Less often considered are how racial social psychological factors influence marriage rates. In this study, we use critical race theory and the life course perspective to investigate how perceived racial discrimination impacts the likelihood of marriage for Black and White people. Data for the study are taken from the Portraits of American Life Study (N?=?678). The results of logistic regression analyses show that among people who report perceived racial discrimination, White people generally have a higher probability of being married compared to Black people. Analyses by age demonstrate that among younger adults, Black people who perceive racial discrimination are equally likely to be married as White people and have a higher probability of being married than Black people who do not report perceptions of racial discrimination. A negative influence on the odds of marriage related to perceived racial discrimination for Black people becomes clearer as respondents age. The findings highlight the importance of considering perceptions of racial discrimination to better understand the marriage gap between Black and White people across the life course.     

Class,race, and the disposal of urban waste: Locations of landfills,incinerators, and sewage treatment plants

This study compared the socioeconomic status, racial composition, and ethnic composition of 49 randomly selected U.S. cities with those of the census tracts containing the solid waste disposal facilities and sewage treatment plants for those cities. Contrary to the environmental racism and classism hypotheses, residents of tracts with landfills or incinerators had higher incomes and were less likely to be minority group members than residents of the cities that generated the refuse—although they did have somewhat lower education levels. There were few differences between the population characteristics of the cities and the census tracts that contained their sewage treatment plants. Possible explanations for these findings are discussed.     

A longitudinal study of the effects of a university human sexuality course on sexual attitudes

This study tested the hypotheses that students taking a university human sexuality course will have different attitudes over a 2‐year period than students not taking such a course, and more accepting attitudes toward the sexual behaviors of others, over a 2‐year period, than toward their own sexual behavior. Sexual attitudes of 127 human sexuality class students and 114 control class students at the University of Northern Iowa were measured at the beginning of class (pretest), the end of class (posttest), and 2 years after the end of class (follow‐up). There were no pretest differences between the treatment and control groups in university classification, marital status, political affiliation, religious affiliation, sex, age, grade point average, or sexual attitudes. Both hypotheses were supported. Human sexuality students developed more accepting attitudes and became more accepting of behaviors for others compared to behaviors for self. Control group students developed less accepting attitudes and became less accepting of behaviors for others compared to behaviors for self. The sex of the students and the session they attended class were also found to influence sexual attitudes.     

Attributions of Blame among Victims of Child Sexual Abuse: Findings from a Community Sample

ABSTRACT

According to the attribution theory, negative outcomes of child sexual abuse (CSA) are thought to vary depending on whether CSA victims attribute the abuse to internal or external factors, respectively, self-blame and perpetrator-blame. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to identify abuse characteristics and attitudes that influence blame attributions among CSA victims from a community sample. Data from respondents with a history of CSA (N = 1,496) have been used in predicting blame attributions; perpetrator-blame, self-blame, or both. Results from a multinomial logistic regression analysis showed that attitudes toward gender roles had a significant effect on blame: victims were more likely to blame themselves when they endorsed more conservative gender attitudes than victims with more liberal attitudes. Implications for this finding are discussed.     

Racial/ethnic differences in body weight perception among U.S. college students

Objective: To examine racial/ethnic differences in weight perception by sex among U.S. college students. Participants: a national sample (N = 70,267) of college students selected from 2- and 4-year postsecondary institutions (N = 62) during the Fall semester from 2011 to 2014. Methods: This is a secondary data analysis using 4 years of American College Health Association-National College Health Assessment IIb data. Sex-stratified multinomial logistic regression was performed to investigate racial/ethnic differences in body weight perception. Results: Compared with non-Hispanic whites, non-Hispanic black men and women were more likely to underestimate their body weight (p < .01). Asian men and women were more likely to overestimate their body weight than non-Hispanic whites (p < .001). Conclusions: Weight-related interventions should take into account racial/ethnic differences in body weight perception.