Training Bodies,Building Status: Negotiating Gender and Age Differences in the U.S. Fitness Industry

What role does the body play in facilitating interaction across status differences? Whereas previous scholarly work has focused on “roles” and “specialized knowledge,” I investigate how bodies, appearances, and physical abilities are also consequential in these exchanges through the concept of “bodily capital.” Coined by Bourdieu, bodily capital provides a way to understand why individuals invest time, energy, and resources into their bodies, and what they expect to receive in return. As a concept, bodily capital is necessarily broad as it encompasses a variety of forms, including athletic prowess, attractiveness, physique, muscle tone/strength, agility, and other modes of embodiment. Because the body is integral to a variety of status distinction-making processes, individuals invest in and exchange bodily capital to increase their relative status in specific fields. Drawing on interviews with 26 personal trainers and 25 clients, as well as more than one year of participant observation, I find that trainers and clients use bodily capital to negotiate gender and age differences, either by re-arranging interactional power dynamics or resisting stereotypes. The type of bodily capital that allows for such negotiations to take place, however, is the hegemonic thin-toned ideal—a classed and largely raced form of bodily capital that has purchase in the U.S. fitness industry. Although individuals in the study were able to use this form of capital to enable successful cross-status interactions, doing so reified the dominance of middle-class, white bodily aesthetics. Thus, while bodily capital may challenge some status hierarchies, it reinforces others.     

Widening the social context of disablement among married older adults: Considering the role of nonmarital relationships for loneliness

Utilizing the stress process and life course perspectives, we investigated the influence of non-spousal social support on the associations between marital quality, physical disability, and loneliness among married older adults. Using data from the National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project (NSHAP), we found that the association between physical disability and loneliness was partially accounted for by the fact that physical disability was associated with less supportive nonmarital relationships. While physically-disabled older adults in higher-quality marriages were buffered from loneliness, supportive non-martial relationships did not offset elevated loneliness among those in low-quality marriages. These associations were largely similar for men and women. Thus, although both marital and nonmarital relationships are important for loneliness, when confronted with a stressor such as disablement it is the marital relationship alone that matters.     

A KNOWLEDGE-BASED DSS FOR MANAGERIAL PROBLEM DIAGNOSIS

A knowledge-based system supporting managerial problem diagnosis is described. The system provides the capability to monitor values of selected variables for problem situations. When problems are located, a list of problem symptoms is delivered to a problem processor for structuring and diagnosis. Problem structuring is based on a combination of concepts from expert systems and structural modeling. User assertions about cause-effect relationships between pairs of variables are maintained in a semantic network. Problem diagnosis uses the relationships in the semantic network to construct causation trees, the branches of which represent potential explanations of the problem symptoms. Mathematical models are constructed based on causation-tree branches, and values from the data base are used to test whether the model confirms the diagnosis. If so, the source of the problem has been located and it is then up to the user to resolve the problem. If the model fails to explain the problem, the model apparently is deficient and the user may perform “what if…” type scenarios in attempts to improve the model and search for problem causes. Realistic applications in the accounting and health care areas are discussed.     

EMPIRICAL AND JUDGMENT-BASED SALES-FORCE DECISION MODELS: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS*

Multiple-predictor empirical and single-predictor judgment-based models represent the two basic types of sales-force decision models (SDMs). The important similarities and differences between the two modeling approaches are identified and discussed. The SDM literature is reviewed to determine how each model type has been applied and to evaluate previous attempts at model validation. A research study designed to compare the normative sales-call allocations generated from each modeling approach is presented. Study results indicate that empirical and judgment-based SDMs would produce similar normative guidelines. The implications of this finding are discussed.     

Work–family conflict: The importance of differentiating between different facets of job characteristics

This review study clarifies the relationships between job characteristics and work–family conflict (WFC) by differentiating among three facets of job characteristics: latent, perceived, and enacted. To date, research linking job characteristics to WFC has not distinguished the facets of job demands and job resources in this way. Such distinctions are important as a means of understanding the affective, behavioural, and cognitive processes involved in determining how and when job characteristics relate to WFC. Our review of 115 studies showed that perceived job characteristics have been most commonly explored in relation to WFC, whereas latent and enacted job characteristics have been hardly examined. While these findings may not be surprising, our contribution lies in reviewing the literature through the lens of these categories. Based on the findings, and through highlighting examples in the extant literature, we argue that understanding job characteristics in terms of both how they are perceived and enacted by workers will provide a deeper insight into the mechanisms underlying the relationship between job characteristics and WFC. In order to inform evidence-based interventions, future research must uncover the dynamic mechanisms underpinning the connection between job characteristics and WFC through a focus on enacted job facets and the cognitive, affective, and behavioural processes involved.     

The Role of Coping Strategies in Understanding the Relationship Between Parental Support and Psychological Outcomes in Anxious Youth

The current study examined the moderating role of coping strategies on psychological outcomes at varying levels of parental support in a sample of clinically anxious youth. Youth (N?=?174, mean age 11.89) completed the Children’s Coping Strategies Checklist, Child and Adolescent Social Support Scale, Multidimensional Anxiety Scale for Children and Children’s Depression Inventory. Data was gathered at a large, university-based anxiety disorders treatment clinic. This nonexperimental design analyzed the use of active and avoidant coping strategies as a moderator of anxiety and depression, while controlling for parental support. Results revealed active coping strategies did moderate the relationship between parental support and anxiety, however, not as expected while the significant moderation role of avoidance coping was mixed. Findings showed that anxious youth with more parental support and more active coping were at risk for higher levels of anxiety, yet protected from higher depression. Avoidant coping strategies did moderate in a manner that was predicted for higher anxiety symptoms. Results suggest increased need for parental involvement in the treatment of anxiety disorders in youth.