Impact of Culture on Lactation Policies: The Case of United States and Liberia

ABSTRACT

Programs or policies that are effective in reducing social problems have several things in common: They acknowledge the realities of culture, respect the sociocultural underpinnings of the community, and are often built on an innovative understanding of the issues. Policies that are created without regard for the culture in which they are to operate are destined to fail. This study discusses cultural attributes of different motivations, benefits, and approaches to breast-feeding, depending on the development of their infrastructure, scientific understanding, reliance on myths to understand their environment, and social norms. It argues that in some cases ignorance and lack of scientific information result in policies (both formal and informal) that negatively impact breast-feeding, whereas in other cases cultural or social norms drive policy decisions. Three examples of policies that impact breast-feeding negatively are discussed in this article. Two of them relate to developing nations and the third occurred in the United States, although it could also occur anywhere people lack basic information about the impact of hormones on normal human physiology and human sexual response.     

The next trans-atlantic frontier: examining the Impact of Language Choice on Support for Transgender Policies in the United Kingdom and the United States

As American and British gay, lesbian, and bisexual individuals have made major wins for “pinnacle rights,” such as same-sex marriage, attention has increasingly moved to a previously overshadowed part of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community: transgender (trans) people. Alongside more visibility in popular culture, trans people have been the subject of policy debates and proposals in both countries, seeking to both restrict and expand their rights. In this article we examine the extent to which language choice affects public support for policies pertaining to trans people in the United States and United Kingdom. We draw upon two survey experiments conducted in the United States and United Kingdom in July 2016 and find that, in general, different ways of referring to the trans population do not affect policy opinions. This study has implications for both understandings of the effectiveness of framing in increasingly media savvy environments and for the future of trans-related policies in the United States and United Kingdom.     

The Impact of Anti‐Immigration Policies and Perceived Discrimination in the United States on Migration Intentions among Mexican Adolescents

This exploratory study examined whether higher levels of perceived discrimination against Mexican immigrants in the United States (USA) were related to the migration intentions of Mexican adolescents. I drew the data for this study from a sample of 755 from a total of 980 adolescent students surveyed in Tijuana, Mexico in February 2009, who indicated they had some interest to migrate to the USA to either live or work in the USA. There were 392 male participants (51.9%) and 363 female participants (48.1%), with a mean age of the participants of 16 years. Over 65 per cent of the participants were born in Tijuana, Mexico and over 62 per cent of the participants indicated that their families had very low to average socio‐economic status, as measured by an SES scale. The majority of participants' mothers (74.2%) and fathers (68.6%) had less than a high school education. Multivariate OLS regressions were run controlling for gender, age and socio‐economic status. Results indicated that higher levels of perceived discrimination in the USA were a moderately significant predictor of lower migration intentions among Mexican adolescents who identified that they wanted to live or work in the USA, but higher levels of perceived discrimination did not significantly predict lower migration intentions among participants, who indicated that they felt they had to move to the USA to work and support their families.     

美国青年基层就业政策的变迁及启示

美国罗斯福新政时期以来青年基层就业政策发展主要经历了三个阶段:以政府为主导的初始阶段;以州政府为主导,社会各界广泛参与下的转型阶段;多方参与,共同协作下的完善阶段。借鉴美国青年基层就业政策的发展经验,我国政府及相关部门应制定更为细化、更为因地制宜的基层就业政策;进一步增加财政投入,加大优惠力度;更加鼓励社会各界广泛参与、相互协作等。     

The Impact of Religious Homogeneity on the Rate of Divorce in the United States

This study extends the understanding of the relationship between religious homogeneity, that is, the extent to which formal religious groups are concentrated at the county level, and the rate of persons currently divorced in those counties. Linking the research question to Durkheimian precepts of religion as an integrative force in social life, the essential question is, “At the county level, does the rate of currently divorced vary inversely with more concentrated affiliation with formal religious organizations?” We investigate this relationship using data from the 1990 U.S. Census and from the Glenmary Research Center that encompasses 621 counties in the U.S., that is, a 20 percent random sample of counties from each state. As hypothesized, the divorced rate is inversely related to religious homogeneity, even after controlling for a series of factors that have been shown to be correlated with divorce in other studies.     

Unintended Consequences: The Impact of Welfare Reform in the United States on NGOs

The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) of 1996 dramatically transformed the structure and goals of the public welfare system in the United States. The vast body of research and evaluation generated by the 1996 welfare reforms largely overlooked nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) despite their substantial historical and contemporary involvement in the delivery of social services to low-income populations. Therefore, this paper presents a unique assessment of PRWORA's implications based on the perspective of 90 social service NGOs operating in the Detroit metropolitan area. Examination of their services, staffing, budgets, and clients reveals many changes experienced by NGOs between 1996 and 2000 related to the welfare reforms. Overall, the findings suggest an increased role for social service NGOs in the public welfare system as well as concerns regarding their capacity to adequately fulfill this growing responsibility in the future.     

The State of Surveying Cell Phone Numbers in the United States: 2007 and Beyond

By the late 1970s, household telephone coverage grew to exceed90 percent in the United States, and by the mid-1980s telephonesurveying of the general public had become commonplace. Nevertheless,20 years later, the ability of researchers to reach representativesamples of the U.S. public via landline (wired) telephone surveysand gather reliable data is being seriously challenged for manyreasons, especially those related to cell phones and the growthof the "cell phone only" population. However, at present thereexists no widely accepted set of Cell Phone Surveying "bestpractices" for U.S. survey researchers to follow. Despite whatsome appear to believe, surveying persons reached on cell phonenumbers in the United States currently is a very complex undertakingif one wants to do it "right," i.e. to do it legally, ethically,and in ways that optimally allocate one's finite resources togather the highest quality data, and to analyze and interpretthose data accurately. This final "wrap-up" article in the specialissue provides a review of the empirical articles in the issuewith a focus on their practical implications for the decisionsthat researchers need to make regarding sampling, coverage,nonresponse, measurement, and weighting in surveys that includeinterviews with persons reached on cell phones. The articlealso highlights the practical implications of a number of legal,ethical, and other issues that relate to surveys in the UnitedStates that include cell phone numbers. Surveying the U.S. cellphone population is possible, if at a higher cost than surveyingtheir landline counterparts, and if with less precision thancurrently can be done surveying the landline population. Thenext five years should see a considerable growth in the methodologicaland statistical know-how that the survey community uses to plan,implement, and interpret cell phone surveys. There is a greatdeal that still must be learned.     

The Impact of Migration on Poverty Concentrations in the United States, 1995–2000

Poverty is frequently conceptualized as an attribute of either people or places. Yet residential movement of poor people can redistribute poverty across places, affecting and reshaping the spatial concentration of economic disadvantage. In this article, we utilize 1995 to 2000 county‐to‐county migration data from the 2000 United States decennial census to explore how differential migration rates of the poor and nonpoor affect local incidence of poverty, and how migration reconfigures poverty rates across metropolitan, micropolitan, and noncore counties. We further examine the impact of differential migration rates on African American and Latino poverty rates, two groups that have experienced higher than average poverty rates and have a sizable presence in rural areas. Our analysis indicates that during the 1990s the poor moved at rates equal to or greater than the nonpoor, and that, especially in micropolitan counties, this movement tended to deepen existing poverty concentrations. Both African American and Latino migration patterns tended to reinforce existing poverty concentrations, a result similar to that of the population as a whole, although the migration patterns of both groups more severely exacerbated poverty in high‐poverty noncore counties.     

Are the Effects of the Macroeconomy and Social Policies on Poverty Different in Nonmetro Areas in the United States?*

Abstract The macroeconomy and social policies can have substantial influences on poverty in the United States. In this paper, I investigate whether these influences differ across metro and nonmetro areas. To do so, using a 16‐year panel of state‐level data, I estimate state and year fixed effects models separately for metro and nonmetro areas to see if the effects of the macroeconomy and social policies differ between these two areas. These models are estimated using two measures—the poverty rate and the squared poverty gap—and by family type. I find that cyclical forces have a much stronger effect on the poverty rate in nonmetro areas in comparison to metro areas, but the effects are similar for the squared poverty gap; wage growth has a pronounced effect on poverty in metro areas but no effect in nonmetro areas; and state‐level social policies have slightly larger effects in nonmetro areas, but the effects are small.     

Rights of Love: the State and Intimate Relationships in Canada and the United States

This article puzzles through the contrasts and paradoxes arisingfrom state practices of relationship recognition in Canada andthe United States. In the Canadian case, the focus is on theassignment of legal status to common-law relationships, regardlessof whether the parties to the relationship desire that status.In the United States, in contrast, legislative attention hasbeen directed at the reinforcement of heterosexual marriage.These differing postures provoke questions regarding the rolesof intimate relationships in governing projects. In particular,what do these postures mean for the autonomy of individualsto construct their personal lives and how do they complicatethe designation "neoliberal" to Canadian and US regimes of governance.     

The Impact of the Rural Population Component on Homicide Rates in the United States: A County-Level Analysis

Abstract Using 3,130 U.S. counties or county equivalents, this paper provides a test of the impact of rural population on the violent crime of homicide, while controlling for the effects of other correlates. The results indicate that the traditional bond of group cohesion assumed to be associated with the rural environment and its residents continues to have an inhibiting effect on homicide for counties in the United States.     

Abortion Policy and Vulnerable Women in the United States: A Call for Social Work Policy Practice

Repressive abortion policy in the United States creates undue burdens for groups of vulnerable women, including adolescents, women of color, women living in rural areas, and women with economic disadvantages. Repressive abortion policy creates a two-tiered system of access to reproductive health care that is a particular disadvantage to vulnerable women. In this study, current policy is discussed with examples of such policies outlined in three areas: insurance coverage and Medicaid restrictions, mandatory waiting periods, and mandated state counseling. Social workers' role in policy practice is emphasized in regard to advocacy and abortion policy.     

The Impact of New Treatments and Other Trends on HIV Prevention for Gay and Bisexual Men in the United States

SUMMARY

This paper details how HIV prevention workers in the United States are being! impacted by advances in HIV/AIDS treatments and a changing HIV prevention paradigm. Approximately sixty participants attending the 1997 National Lesbian and Gay Health Conference and AIDS Fprum in Atlanta, GA, provided observations about how HIV prevention targeting men who have sex with men is changing in the United States. While new treatments may be the most noticeable change impacting HTV prevention, radical change due to the synergistic effects of several factors, not only recent medical advances, is seen as propelling a paradigm shift. Twelve challenges were identified and suggestions for facilitating progress in the changing paradigm enumerated. The future of HIV prevention is discussed.