Coerced Care: Thomas Thistlewood's Account of Medical Practice on Enslaved Populations in Colonial Jamaica, 1751–1786

This essay uses the Thistlewood family papers as a health record for the enslaved population in Jamaica. It examines the medical aspects of Thistlewood's journals, contextualising them in the social, political and cultural environment in the latter half of the eighteenth century. Examples of his provisions for medical care throughout his life are investigated systematically. Through counts from the original documents, the author identifies a seasonal pattern of disease and mortality on large and small Jamaican plantations and estimates an infant mortality rate of approximately 420 per 1000 births for Jamaican infants born into slavery.     

DETERMINANTS OF TECHNOLOGY ADOPTION: PEER EFFECTS IN MENSTRUAL CUP TAKE‐UP

We estimate the role of peer effects in technology adoption using data from a randomized distribution of menstrual cups in Nepal. Using individual randomization, we estimate causal effects of peer exposure on adoption. We find strong evidence of peer effects: two months after distribution, one additional friend with access to the menstrual cup increases usage by 18.6 percentage points. Using the fact that we observe both trial and usage of the product over time, we examine the mechanisms that drive peer effects. We show evidence that peers impact learning how to use the technology, but find less evidence that peers impact an individual desire to use the menstrual cup.     

Psychometric Evaluation of the Affect Regulation Checklist: Clinical and Community Samples,Parent-Reports and Youth Self-Reports

The Affect Regulation Checklist (ARC) was designed to capture affect dysregulation, suppression, and reflection. Importantly, affect dysregulation has been established as a transdiagnostic mechanism underpinning many forms of psychopathology. We tested the ARC psychometric properties across clinical and community samples and through both parent-report and youth self-report information. Clinical sample: Participants included parents (n = 814; M_age = 43.86) and their child (n = 608; M_age = 13.98). Community sample: Participants included independent samples of parents (n = 578; M_age = 45.12) and youth (n = 809; M_age = 15.67). Exploratory structural equation modeling supported a three-factor structure across samples and informants. Dysregulation was positively associated with all forms of psychopathology. In general, suppression was positively associated with many forms of psychopathology, and reflection was negatively associated with externalizing problems and positively associated with internalizing problems.     

Knowledge and beliefs about national development and developmental hierarchies: The viewpoints of ordinary people in thirteen countries

Scholars and policy makers have for centuries constructed and used developmental hierarchies to characterize different countries. The hypotheses motivating this paper are that such social constructions have been circulated internationally, are constructed similarly in various countries, and follow the social constructions of elite international organizations, such as the United Nations. This paper uses data from 15 surveys in 13 diverse countries to study how developmental hierarchies are understood in everyday life. Our research shows that most people have constructions of developmental hierarchies that are similar across countries and are similar to the developmental hierarchies constructed by the United Nations. These findings suggest that developmental hierarchies are widely understood around the world and are widely available to ordinary people as they make decisions about many aspects of life.     

The Kingdom of Kongo and Palo Mayombe: Reflections on an African-American Religion

Historical scholarship on Afro-Cuban religions has long recognized that one of its salient characteristics is the union of African (Yoruba) gods with Catholic Saints. But in so doing, it has usually considered the Cuban Catholic church as the source of the saints and the syncretism to be the result of the worshippers hiding worship of the gods behind the saints. This article argues that the source of the saints was more likely to be from Catholics from the Kingdom of Kongo which had been Catholic for 300 years and had made its own form of Christianity in the interim.     

Marital dissolution,remarriage, and childbearing

Earlier models of fertility hypothesize that marital dissolution and remarriage influence subsequent childbearing. This issue is examined by comparing the fertility of those in disrupted marriages with that of those in stable marriages. The results indicate that, by transferring women into a nonmarried status, marital dissolution decreases childbearing. The data also suggest that discord reduces fertility even before separation occurs—separated women had reduced fertility during the two years just before separation. It was found that marital dissolution without remarriage operates to truncate childbearing, thus decreasing family size. Dissolution followed by remarriage, however, lengthens the childbearing span of whites and has no influence on average family size; remarrying white women are able to make up for the childbearing lost between marriages. For nonwhites, we found that dissolution and remarriage increase the average time to childbirth, but, even more importantly, these events greatly decrease the number of children born.     

Disability and employment: towards an understanding of discourse and policy

This article explores the nature of disability employment policy drawing on evidence from fifteen countries. In line with earlier sociological approaches to disability it describes two ways of framing policy in the area. These two paradigms are developed and used to critically evaluate employment policy under the headings: legislative measures, open employment-financial employment support services and sheltered/supported provision. The dilemmas that may arise during implementation of policy are discussed and the consequences for the construction of an emancipatory employment policy. Finally, the article suggests some themes or dimensions that a coherent disability policy should have.     

Cohabitation and marriage in the 1980s

Using cohabitation and marriage histories collected in 1985 from 23-year-old women and men, this study investigates the process of union formation, considering transitions from single life into cohabitation and marriage. The outcomes of cohabitation are also considered--both the dissolution of unions and the transformation of cohabiting unions into marriage. These data indicate that large proportions of men and women experience cohabitation fairly early in the life course. At the same time, many cohabiting unions are dissolved fairly quickly and numerous others are soon transformed into marriages. Thus even though cohabitation will be experienced by many, most people will continue to spend substantially more time in marital unions than in cohabiting unions.