An Ecological Framework for Sexual Minority Women’s Health: Factors Associated With Greater Body Mass

In recent years, many studies have focused on the body of sexual minority women, particularly emphasizing their larger size. These studies rarely offer theoretically based explanations for the increased weight, nor study the potential consequences (or lack thereof) of being heavier. This article provides a brief overview of the multitude of factors that might cause or contribute to larger size of sexual minority women, using an ecological framework that elucidates upstream social determinants of health as well as individual risk factors. This model is infused with a minority stress model, which hypothesizes excess strain resulting from the stigma associated with oppressed minority identities such as woman, lesbian, bisexual, woman of color, and others. We argue that lack of attention to the upstream social determinants of health may result in individual-level victim blaming and interventions that do not address the root causes of minority stress or increased weight.     

An Institutional Contingency Perspective of Interlocking Directorates

Interlocking directorates, in which companies are linked by the directors that serve on their boards, exist globally. It is an expression of hegemonic power exercised by the elites of a society, and has been studied with great interest by organizational sociologists, management scholars and financial economists. The interest emanates from the effect that interlocks have on wealth creation and distribution, and from the perspective that interlocks can tell us how elites in a society are networked. Although diverse theoretical perspectives have informed the research on interlocking directorates, this review shows that the Anglo‐American perspective dominates. This dominance is notable not only in the volume of Anglo‐American studies, but also in theories employed by international studies. For example, most international studies use agency theory to investigate the welfare implications of interlocks, but many countries do not use the Anglo‐American legal regime, which is the basis for agency theory. This paper expands the theoretical basis of the review to include class hegemony and resource dependence, to articulate better the causes and consequences of interlocks in the international context. The paper also extends theory by showing that institutions have an important influence on interlocks, so that the latter can be welfare‐depleting in one institutional setting, while welfare‐enhancing in another. The review concludes by discussing the implication for future research.     

Latent profiles of health and reproductive risk and protective factors among women in Appalachia

ABSTRACT

Women who use opiates and are involved in the criminal justice system in Appalachia may be prone to adverse health outcomes. In this study, we performed a latent class analysis of risk and protective factors on 400 drug-using women recruited from rural, Appalachian jails. A two-profile solution best fit the data. Both profiles evinced low levels of condom use, reproductive and physical health screens, and STD history. However, the primary substantive difference between the profiles was partner risk behavior: the higher risk class had main male partners with histories of injection drug use and incarceration. Results suggest that interventions need to be tailored to unique profiles of risk and protective factors, which should include taking partner risk into consideration.     

A sustainable urban regeneration project to protect biodiversity

Urban Ecosystems - The sustainable urban redevelopment project to protect biodiversity was developed to regenerate the external spaces of an ancient rural farmhouse, Villa Framarino, in the...     

The association between discrimination and violence among Somali Canadian youth

Analyses were conducted with a sample of 18–30-year-old Somali Canadians to test the association between discrimination and violence-related beliefs and behaviours, whether this association differs by the source of the discrimination, and whether there is a different pattern of effects for men and women. Results indicate that discrimination from within one’s own community is not associated with attitudes towards violence, anti-violence behaviours or criminal violence. By contrast, out-group discrimination is associated with more anti-violence behaviours by women, although these effects are not strong. Out-group discrimination is also related to criminal violence among men but not women.     

An Approach to Asset Pricing Under Incomplete and Diverse Perceptions

We model a dynamic, competitive market, where in every period, risk‐neutral traders trade a one‐period bond against an infinitely lived asset, with limited short‐selling of the long‐term asset. Traders lack structural knowledge and use different “incomplete theories,” all of which give statistically correct beliefs about next period's market price of the long‐term asset. The more theories there are in the market, the higher is the equilibrium price of the long‐term asset. Investors with more complete theories do not necessarily earn higher returns than those with less complete ones, who can earn above the risk‐free rate. We provide two necessary conditions for a trader to earn above the risk‐free rate.     

Criminal Victimization and Crime Risk Perception: A Multilevel Longitudinal Study

In a national sample of the Italian population, surveyed four times between October 2002 and January 2007 (N = 2,008), we performed a multilevel longitudinal study aimed at predicting the increase in crime risk perception as a function of three families of independent variables, respectively lying at the within individual level (direct victimization and indirect victimization), at the between-individuals level (being a woman, being an older person, being a poorly educated person and size of area of residence) and at the ecological level (county’s crime rate, unemployment rate and immigration rate). Direct and indirect victimization, being a woman, being an older person, living in a large town and in a context characterized by high crime and unemployment rates positively influenced the change in crime risk perception, while the other individual and ecological predictors we used in our predictive model did not. Strengths, limitations, implications and future developments of this research are discussed.     

Hugh Cunningham: the reputation of philanthropy since 1750: Britain and beyond

VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations -     

Precursors of Running Away During Adolescence: Do Peers Matter?

Although peer influence is a salient predictor of delinquency, how it operates in the etiology of runaway behavior is not fully understood. Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, this study demonstrates the importance of taking peers into account in understanding the etiology of running away. The findings suggest that peer deviance is strongly associated with adolescents’ decision to run away, independent of social network characteristics and their own deviant and conventional behavior, parental attachment, and school bonding. However, the causal process that links peer characteristics and running away remains unclear. More studies are needed to disentangle the underlying reciprocal and interactional relationships among peers, individual behavior, and social contexts such as family and school.     

Trafficking,Exploitation and Migration on the Thailand‐Burma Border: A Qualitative Study

Migrant workers from Burma 1 often experience exploitation, abuse and violations at various stages of travel to and within Thailand and in workplaces in Thailand. Guided by Zimmerman et al.'s conceptual framework, which identifies the potential risks associated with trafficking process, this article presents findings from in‐depth interviews with 61 migrant workers living and working in and around Mae Sot, Thailand, on the Thailand‐Burma border, to describe the broader context of irregular migration from Burma to Thailand, and trafficking‐related risks in this context. Results demonstrate that use of transporters (“carries”) and brokers in order to travel to Thailand and find employment can enable trafficking. Moreover, migrant workers are exposed to a range of exploitative experiences in workplaces in Thailand, including violence, coercion, and economic exploitation. This article explores dynamics of migration that can enable trafficking in this context, as well as exploitative working conditions consistent with forced labour.