Living Arrangements During Childrearing Years and Later Health of African American Mothers

Using longitudinal data from the Woodlawn Project (N= 680), this study examined how patterns of living arrangements among a community cohort of African American mothers were associated with later physical and emotional health. We identified eight patterns of stability and transition in living arrangements during the childrearing years. Health outcomes include SF‐36 Physical Functioning, SF‐36 Bodily Pain, depressed mood, and anxious mood. Specific patterns of living arrangements were related to later health, controlling for age, earlier health, education, and poverty. Poverty explained many, but not all, of the relationships between living arrangements and health. Findings underscored the benefits of social support and social integration and highlighted the negative effects of marital dissolution on health.     

THE EFFECT OF YOUTH ALCOHOL INITIATION ON HIGH SCHOOL COMPLETION

The social environment inherent in schools impacts both alcohol consumption onset and high school completion. The results reported here, based on data from the 1979–96 NLSY panels, show that the social coincidences between alcohol consumption and education are important determinants of both education completion and alcohol onset. Ignoring the social nature of these simultaneous decisions underestimates the impact of alcohol onset on education. After correcting for the presence of an endogenous positive relationship between schooling and alcohol consumption, we find that alcohol initiation before age 14 significantly reduces the probability of timeously completing high school by between 7% and 22%. (JEL I18 , I21 )     

Using Intersectionality to Examine the New Complexities of Work Identities and Social Class

This article explores how the concept of intersectionality is useful for examining how class location and gender intersect in the workplace. Intersectionality foregrounds the complex ways that work identity is negotiated and achieved and how formations of identity constitute complex affiliations, solidarities and tensions in the workplace. I use data from oral histories of railway workers to illustrate the usefulness of intersectionality as an approach to analysing work. Intersectionality and the concept of structures of feeling are important tools for examining how work shapes social identity and action. These concepts have been central to an important research project conducted at the Working Lives Research Institute, part of the wider ESRC Identities programme.     

Complex trauma treatment in the Republic of Georgia: Stemming the contagion of psychopolitical trauma across the continuum of care

Clinical social workers in the United States increasingly have become involved as consultants in countries besieged by psychopolitical trauma. These workers face complex challenges as they provide therapy to torture survivors or consultation to indigenous mental health professionals. Workers must refine their understanding of trauma to encompass the often less familiar practice of providing treatment in the context of torture. Mental health professionals practicing in war‐torn environments must deal with their own intense reactions such as secondary traumatic stress, vicarious trauma, countertransference, and projective identification as they address the ripples of torture's devastation across the continuum of care. The author will present a case study from the Republic of Georgia in order to elucidate some subtleties of clinical practice in the context of psychopolitical trauma.     

Evaluating the Potential for a Helicobacter pylori Drinking Water Guideline

Helicobacter pylori is a microaerophilic, gram‐negative bacterium that is linked to adverse health effects including ulcers and gastrointestinal cancers. The goal of this analysis is to develop the necessary inputs for a quantitative microbial risk assessment (QMRA) needed to develop a potential guideline for drinking water at the point of ingestion (e.g., a maximum contaminant level, or MCL) that would be protective of human health to an acceptable level of risk while considering sources of uncertainty. Using infection and gastric cancer as two discrete endpoints, and calculating dose‐response relationships from experimental data on humans and monkeys, we perform both a forward and reverse risk assessment to determine the risk from current reported surface water concentrations of H. pylori and an acceptable concentration of H. pylori at the point of ingestion. This approach represents a synthesis of available information on human exposure to H. pylori via drinking water. A lifetime risk of cancer model suggests that a MCL be set at <1 organism/L given a 5‐log removal treatment because we cannot exclude the possibility that current levels of H. pylori in environmental source waters pose a potential public health risk. Research gaps include pathogen occurrence in source and finished water, treatment removal rates, and determination of H. pylori risks from other water sources such as groundwater and recreational water.     

Union patterns and children’s living arrangements in Latin America

This article analyzes how union patterns in Mexico and Colombia affect the lives of children. The proportion of children affected by a disruption by the age of 15 is estimated by using life table methods. The factors that contribute to a child's risk of experiencing a disruption are investigated by using proportional hazard models. Finally, the living arrangements of children by the mother's marital status, the urban status, and the mother's educational attainment are explored. The findings indicate that about one-fifth of Mexican children and one-third of Colombian children spend some time with an unmarried mother by the age of 15. In addition, those who experience a disruption or are born outside of a union spend a considerable length of time in the single-parent state. Most children of an unmarried mother live in an extended-family household, often with a grandparent.     

Social infrastructure and community economic development strategies: the case of self-development and industrial recruitment in rural Iowa

This research examines the relationship between features of community social organization and the existence of two contrasting types of economic development, self-development and industrial recruitment in rural places. Self-development is an endogenous form of development relying primarily on entrepreneurism and local resources. Industrial recruitment is an exogenous form of development that seeks outside investors and firms to locate in the community. Using data collected in a statewide sample of 99 Iowa communities, we hypothesize that social infrastructure, the group-level interactive aspects of community organizations and institutions, is more strongly related to the existence of self-development than industrial recruitment. A key finding is that social infrastructure, measured by the existence of active community organizations, businesses that support local community projects, community-wide fund-raising capacity, and extra-local linkages to peer communities and state government, is positively associated with the existence of self-development. The relationship between social infrastructure and industrial recruitment is also significant but more modest. Findings indicate that a community's social organization can be a resource for development, but may be more appropriate for endogenous development efforts than exogenous ones.     

Assessing the educational achievements of adults who were formerly placed in family foster care

Case records and interviews concerning educational achievements of 1087 foster care alumni are presented. Youth were served by a voluntary agency in 23 communities across the USA between 1966 and 1998. Because the alumni were older than most foster care follow‐up studies, a more extensive picture of educational achievement was possible. High school graduation and college enrolment rates were comparable to or even greater than those of the general population, but the number of alumni completing high school with a Graduate Equivalency Diploma and the college dropout rates were a concern. Predictors of high school completion while in foster care, such as fewer placement changes, extracurricular activities and independent living training, are presented, along with recommendations for improving educational and vocational preparation.     

Female crack users and their sexual relationships: The role of sex‐for‐crack exchanges

This study challenges the image of female crack users as exchangers, or women who exchange sex for crack. Between June 1997 and February 1999, quantitative interviews were conducted with 150 active female crack users, one half of whom also completed a qualitative interview. Data analysis involved contingency analysis, bivariate logistic regression analysis, and the constant comparison method. Exchangers (n = 65) were younger, and were more likely to have been homeless and to be single than were nonexchangers (n = 85). Exchangers also were more likely to report infidelity and less likely to communicate with their most recent steady partner about the partner's relationship expectations. Sexual behaviors differed by partner type among the exchangers and nonexchangers. These findings provide a comprehensive picture of female crack users. Additionally, the findings indicate the importance of designing interventions that capture the complexities of the women's sexual relationships.