An Analysis of Welfare Participation: Rational-Choice Perspective and Group-Threat Hypothesis

ABSTRACT

This secondary data analysis examined the impacts of human capital, child care, fringe benefits, child support, ethnicity, county economy, and county minority-population size on participation in Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) by parents living at or below the federal poverty threshold. Longitudinal records of 1,789 such parents were extracted from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (1996–2008). Multilevel mixed-effects linear regression showed that having personal/family problems, being African American, and residing in a county with widespread unemployment were associated positively with TANF receipt. TANF receipt was associated negatively with employment offering a retirement plan, full-time employment, part-time employment, and residence in a county with a large Hispanic population. Future research might explore the relationship between subpopulations’ sizes and states’ TANF policies.     

New Zealand's unique maternity system

This discussion paper describes New Zealand's maternity system. It includes a brief background of the country and its history, key aspects of the legislative and funding contexts and the framework for the woman centred and midwife-led maternity system itself.     

A longitudinal analysis of some risk and protective factors in marijuana use by adolescents receiving child welfare services

The present study sought to identify risk and protective factors in marijuana use by adolescents involved in child welfare services. Longitudinal records of 1797 adolescents were extracted from the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being data set. The obtained multivariate results from generalized estimating equations showed that an adolescent's likelihood of being a current marijuana user rose with prior lifetime use of the drug and was also associated with out-of-home child welfare services, perceived parental monitoring, perceived closeness to parent, engagement with school environment, and age. Implications for child welfare services are discussed.     

Indigenous (im)mobilities in the Anthropocene

ABSTRACT

This paper explores Indigenous (im)mobilities in the Anthropocene, and their relationship to Pacific Islands climate activism. In a context where Indigenous peoples and perspectives are poorly represented in global climate politics, it is important to understand how Pacific people represent their own interests and imagine their own futures as pressures to move due to climate change take hold. We examine political action outside of formal governance spaces and processes, in order to understand how Indigenous people are challenging state-centric approaches to climate change adaptation. We do so by studying the works of Pacific activists and artists who engage with climate change. We find that *banua – an expansive concept, inclusive of people and their place, attentive to both mobility and immobility, and distributed across the Pacific Islands region – is essential for the existential security of Pacific people and central to contemporary climate activism. We find that Pacific activists/artists are challenging the status quo by invoking *banua. In doing so, they are politicising (im)mobility. These mobilisations are coalescing into an Oceanic cosmopolitanism that confronts two mutually reinforcing features of contemporary global climate politics: the subordination of Indigenous peoples, perspectives and worldviews; and the marginalisation of (im)mobility concerns within the global climate agenda.     

Is Guardian Permission a Barrier to Online Sexual Health Research Among Adolescent Males Interested in Sex With Males?

Institutional review boards (IRBs) that refuse to grant waivers of guardian permission may hinder research to inform needed online sexual health interventions for adolescent males interested in sex with males (AMSM). Information on the challenges of obtaining (or waiving) guardian permission is imperative. In June and July 2017, AMSM (N = 206; ages 14 to 17) in the United States completed an online survey on sexual behaviors, sexually explicit media use, and sexual education exposure/needs. A mixed-methods approach assessed attitudes toward guardian permission for the current survey and future online sexual health intervention research. Logistic regression models assessed differences by “outness” to a guardian. A framework matrix analysis was conducted to summarize, then aggregate, qualitative responses. Findings indicated that most AMSM would not participate if guardian permission was required (current: 83%; future: 87%). Youth who were not out were more likely to say they would not participate (current: adjusted odds ratio [AOR] = 2.8, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.2 to 6.8); future: AOR = 4.7, 95% CI: 1.6 to 13.5). Participants reported that guardian permission would be an invasion of their privacy, lead to involuntary outing, and endanger participants. Overall, guardian permission appears to be a barrier to AMSM participation in online sexual health research. Investigators and IRBs should consider alternative practices and policies to facilitate such research.     

Unmet demand for short-acting hormonal and long-acting reversible contraception among community college students in Texas

Objective: To identify preferences for and use of short-acting hormonal (e.g., oral contraceptives, injectable contraception) or long-acting reversible contraception (LARC) among community college students in Texas. Participants: Female community college students, ages 18 to 24, at risk of pregnancy, sampled in Fall 2014 or Spring 2015 (N = 966). Methods: We assessed characteristics associated with preference for and use of short-acting hormonal or LARC methods (i.e., more-effective contraception). Results: 47% preferred short-acting hormonal methods and 21% preferred LARC, compared to 21% and 9%, respectively, who used these methods. A total of 63% of condom and withdrawal users and 78% of nonusers preferred a more effective method. Many noted cost and insurance barriers as reasons for not using their preferred more-effective method. Conclusions: Many young women in this sample who relied on less-effective methods preferred to use more-effective contraception. Reducing barriers could lead to higher uptake in this population at high risk of unintended pregnancy.     

Health social movements and the hybridisation of ‘cause regimes’: an ethnography of a British childbirth organisation

This article reports on an ethnographic study of the UK’s largest health advocacy organisation dedicated to pregnancy, childbirth and parenting, the National Childbirth Trust or NCT. Working from interview data, textual materials and fieldnotes, we articulate three key phases in the NCT’s historically shifting relationships to feminism, medicine, the state and neoliberal capitalism. The concept of folded cause regimes is introduced as we examine how these phases represent the hybridisation of the organisation’s original cause. We argue that for the NCT the resulting multiplicity of cause regimes poses significant challenges, but also future opportunities. The apparent contradictions between cause regimes offer important insights into contemporary debates in the sociology of health and illness and raises critical questions about the hybrid state of health advocacy today. Focussing on cause allows for a deeper understanding of the intense pressures of diversification, marketisation and the professionalisation of dissent faced by third-sector organisations under current social and economic conditions.     

Polysubstance use patterns in underground rave attenders: a cluster analysis

Drug use in mainstream rave parties has been widely documented in a large number of studies. However, not much is known about drug use in underground raves. The purpose of this study is to find out the polysubstance use patterns at underground raves. Two hundred and fifty-two young people between the ages of 18 and 30 who went to underground raves were interviewed. They were given a questionnaire to collect information on drug use at raves. Ravers used a mean of 4.9 different drugs at the last rave they had been to. Over 75% of them used tobacco, alcohol, cannabis, and amphetamine, and over half also used powder ecstasy. Two differentiated use patterns were found: one pattern concentrated more on the use of stimulants and the other on the use of hallucinogens. Underground ravers have a "standard" sociodemographic profile. The use of drugs is much higher than equivalent age group. Higher drug use prevalence than in mainstream rave parties is also observed. Different patterns of use appear which will be necessary to consider in designing preventions and risk reduction strategies,