LGBT Religious Activism: Predicting State Variations in the Number of Metropolitan Community Churches, 1974–2000

Armstrong and Bernstein (2008) critique the emphasis movement scholars place upon activism within the formal political sphere, proposing, instead, a multi‐institutional approach which argues that protest can occur within any social institution and that the desired outcomes of activism can include cultural outcomes. The goal of this article is to expand the range of social movement targets studied through an examination of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) activism within the institution of religion. In the United States, religion, particularly Christianity, is used as the primary justification for defining same‐sex sexuality as undesirable and denying LGBT individuals full citizenship. The LGBT community challenges these traditional Christian definitions of same‐sex sexuality in numerous ways, including through the creation of LGBT‐affirming congregations. I examine the development and spread of congregations affiliated with the United Federation of Metropolitan Community Churches (UFMCC), an LGBT‐affirmative denomination, across all 50 states from 1974 to 2000. Drawing upon organizational ecology, resource mobilization, political opportunity, and theories of religious switching, I find that the distribution of UFMCC congregations challenges the usefulness of traditional explanations for activism.     

Online readiness assessment for Smoke- and Tobacco-free campus policies

ABSTRACT

Objective: Develop and test an online survey to assess campus readiness to adopt smoke- and tobacco-free (SF/TF) policies. Participants: Key informants (N = 18) at four campuses in Kentucky without a SF/TF policy recruited April 2015. Methods: Cross-sectional design. The survey assessed six dimensions: knowledge about SF/TF policies; leadership for campus policy; resources for policy development; campus climate surrounding tobacco issues; existing tobacco policies; and political climate for campus policy development. Dimension raw scores were rescaled to range from 0–1 and summed to determine overall stage of readiness (0–6). Results: Political climate was highest dimension across all campuses (0.83–1.0). Knowledge dimension ranked lowest (0.0–0.50). Overall readiness scores ranged from 2.53–3.94; two campuses in preplanning and two in preparation. Conclusions: Development of the online measure is timely considering the impetus to implement SF/TF policies. Findings reinforce that campuses are at varying stages of implementing these policies, and stage-based interventions are necessary.     

Prevalence of Human Immunodeficiency Virus Testing and Associated Risk Factors in College Students

Abstract

Objective: This study documents the prevalence of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) testing in a sample of college students and examines associated demographic and behavioral characteristics. Participants: College students aged 18 or older were randomly selected to participate in a health behavior survey at a southeastern university in September 2011. Methods: Only sexually active students were included (N = 905). Relationships between demographic and sexual behavior characteristics were explored using logistic regression and classification regression tree (p ≤.05). Results: Only 36.2% reported having been tested for HIV. Age was the most significant factor associated with testing. Factors associated with those least likely to be tested were race and anal sexual activity. Unsafe sexual behaviors were also associated with lower rates of HIV testing. Conclusions: Findings support the need for targeted HIV interventions on college campuses. Such interventions need to be tailored for at-risk students and take into consideration factors likely to contribute to HIV testing.     

Furloughs and Faculty Management of Time: Maintaining Quality in an Economic Crisis

An anonymous Web-based survey was used to gather the perceptions and experiences from 114 faculty members teaching in 16 social work programs in the California State University system about the effect of severe budget cuts on their educational activities. Most respondents reported they worked on their furlough days and maintained the same or larger workload that they had before the furlough. Larger workloads, diminished feelings of personal accomplishment, and stressful interactions with students were associated with higher levels of emotional exhaustion. Implications of these findings are discussed.     

The Initiation of Dating in Adolescence: The Effect of Parental Divorce. The TRAILS Study

This study examined the effect of parental divorce on the time it took adolescents to initiate their first romantic relationships. Individual differences in temperament and pubertal development and the age of the adolescent at the time of divorce were also taken into account. Hypotheses were tested using event history analysis with a sample of 1,487 Dutch adolescents. Results indicated that divorce sped up the transition to first relationship only when experienced in early adolescence. Findings are discussed in light of research on the heightened sensitivity to stress during transition periods such as the entry into adolescence.     

Labor force exit decisions of new mothers

Using unique administrative data from the state of Georgia, this paper investigates women’s decisions to exit the labor market upon the birth of a child. Exits rates and their changes over time varies dramatically between married and single women giving birth. Only the pattern among single, less educated women can be considered consistent with changing labor force participation rates of women over the period of analysis. Potential policy implications of these changes are discussed.     

Experimental Labour—Offshoring Clinical Trials to China

The State Food and Drug Administration of China has reported a dramatic increase in multicentre, multinational clinical trials over the past several years. This is in keeping with a growing trend towards the off-shore outsourcing of clinical trials from North America and Western Europe to ‘nontraditional locations’ such as Eastern Europe, China, and India. Within China, the post-socialist reform of health care, internal divisions of labour and the politicization of the healthcare system have all created the conditions under which contract clinical trial work is becoming an imperative both for hospitals and the growing number of working uninsured. The paper brings together a critical insight into current theories of bioeconomic innovation with new political economies of informal labour and offshoring. It argues that the clinical trial phase in the production of bioeconomic value is routinely overlooked in scholarly accounts but is key to understanding the speculative overinvestment and translational difficulties of the pharmaceutical industries today. As a way of reformulating the problem, the paper suggests that human subject experimentation would be more fruitfully reconfigured as a form of labour—experimental or clinical labour. The research hospital clinic therefore emerges as an export labour zone in ‘experimental body work.’

Using the Internet and Email for Health Purposes: The Impact of Health Status*

Objective. Increasingly, people use the Internet and email for health purposes; however, we know little about whether this varies by health status. This study examines whether sick or healthy people are more likely to access the Internet, conduct online health searches, and exchange emails regarding health issues. Methods. We conduct multivariate analysis on a random sample of 2,038 adults. Results. Despite greater Internet access, respondents in excellent/good health are less likely to say they conduct online health searches because they have no health concerns or are satisfied with other health sources. In contrast, sick and disabled respondents are more likely to seek medical information online, and do so more frequently. They are also more likely to exchange health emails with friends and physicians. Conclusions. Practitioners especially need to educate their sicker patients about the uneven quality of online health information since they are more likely than healthier patients to conduct online health searches.     

Step-Down Multiple Comparison Procedures Using Medians and Permutation Tests

Richter and McCann (2007 Richter , S. J. , McCann , M. H. ( 2007 ). Multiple comparisons using medians and permutation tests . Journal of Modern Applied Statistical Methods 6 ( 2 ): 399 – 412 . [Google Scholar]) presented a median-based multiple comparison procedure for assessing evidence of group location differences. The sampling distribution was based on the permutation distribution of the maximum median difference among all pairs, and provides strong control of the FWE. This idea is extended to develop a step-down procedure for comparing group locations. The new step-down procedure exploits logical dependencies between pairwise hypotheses and provides greater power than the single-step procedure, while still maintaining strong FWE control. The new procedure can also be a more powerful alternative to existing methods based on means, especially for heavy-tailed distributions.     

Implementation fidelity in a teacher-led alcohol use prevention curriculum

There is now ample evidence that teachers tend to make substantial modifications to both the prescribed content and methods of the curricula they administer, and that such modifications are likely to attenuate curricula effects. We examine the fidelity with which teachers implement "Protecting You, Protecting Me," an underage alcohol use prevention curriculum. Findings suggest that while teachers attempted to implement most sections of a lesson, the lessons taught were consistently--and often extensively--adapted. We conclude that since teachers are likely to continue to modify lessons, curriculum developers and trainers should enhance their understanding of how prevention curricula are taught under real world conditions, help teachers to reinforce key curriculum concepts, and consider modifying those curricular sections that teachers are adapting with greatest frequency.