The Role of School Contexts in Adolescents' Weight‐loss Behaviors and Self‐perceptions of Overweight

Using the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health and multilevel modeling, this study investigates the role high school social contexts play in the development of adolescents' weight‐loss behaviors and overweight self‐perceptions. Overall, the results indicate that there is an important association between adolescents' weight‐loss behaviors and self‐perceptions of overweight and the weight‐related context of their school. For example, both adolescent boys and girls are less likely to engage in weight‐loss behaviors when overweight is prevalent among their same‐sex schoolmates. However, gender differences are also found. For example, while adolescent boys' self‐perceptions of overweight are significantly associated with their same‐sex schoolmates' characteristics and behaviors, this is not the case for adolescent girls. Overall, these findings suggest that meso‐level social contexts—such as schools—may be particularly important to how individuals incorporate macro‐level beliefs or values—such as gendered body ideals—into their own behaviors and self‐concepts.     

The 2020 US Census Differential Privacy Method Introduces Disproportionate Discrepancies for Rural and Non-White Populations

Population Research and Policy Review - The recently finalized changes to the disclosure avoidance policies of the US Census Bureau for the 2020 census, grounded in differential privacy, have faced...     

Cost of Living Variation,Nonmetropolitan America,and Implications for the Supplemental Poverty Measure

Population Research and Policy Review - Poverty scholarship in the United States is increasingly reliant upon the Supplemental Poverty Measure (SPM) as opposed to the Official Poverty Measure of...     

A More Complete Picture: Rural Residents’ Relative Support for Seven Forms of Natural Resource-Related Economic Development

Understanding rural resident support for various forms of natural resource-related economic development has been a common research topic in rural sociology. However, the vast majority of research has only evaluated support for one form of natural resource use at a time. The little research that has explored support for a wide variety of uses has found that residents are likely to support many of the suggested forms of development. We assessed rural resident support for seven forms of natural resource development: commercial logging, natural gas, mining, real estate, wind energy, tourism, and outdoor recreation. Using social exchange theory, this study examines the influence of perceived impacts of development, industry trust, and perceived industry power on general support for the seven forms of natural resource-related economic development using a fixed effects generalized linear model among a sample of residents of rural Pennsylvania communities. Additionally, we use mixed logit discreet choice modeling to evaluate the drivers of relative support, meaning a stated preference for one form of development over other possible options. The drivers of general support and relative support were similar, with trust in industry and impacts to quality of life emerging as the primary drivers of both.     

Distributive Justice Evaluations in Two Cultural Contexts: A Comparison of U.S. and South Korean Teachers

The justice literature suggests, but has nottested, a positive relationship between met expectationsabout multiple workplace rewards and distributivejustice evaluations (the individual's assessment of whether s/he has been treated fairly). Datafrom samples of teachers in South Korea (N = 649) andthe U.S. (N = 810) are used to examine thisrelationship. In addition, U.S.-South Korea culturalvalue differences in individualism, seniority, and hierarchicalauthority are the basis for hypothesizing that certainreward-specific met expectations will be linkeddifferently to justice evaluations across the twosocieties. As hypothesized for both societies, the moreone's expectations about job-related rewards are met,the greater the perception of just treatment. Also ashypothesized, several societal differences based on cultural differences are found. Metexpectations about autonomy are more important inexplaining justice evaluations in the U.S., whereas metexpectations about advancement opportunities are moreimportant in South Korea.     

South African NGOs and the public sphere: between popular movements and partnerships for development

This article examines the widespread notion that post‐apartheid democracy can be deepened and civil society strengthened by NGO activities in the sphere of public debate and participation. I focus on a number of interrelated processes which I argue may compromise NGOs' ability to expand the public sphere: first, donors' overwhelming focus on NGOs as the sole representative of civil society may contribute to a homogenous and institutionalised public sphere; second, the tendency for NGOs to be drawn into partnerships with government bodies and corporate sponsors casts doubt on their ability to open up spaces for critical public debate. By directing attention to popular movements as potentially offering a site for the production of critique, NGOs' relationships to such movements are examined. It is argued that attention must be paid to the processes of NGO‐isation and reformism by which NGOs themselves come to define what civil society should be and may consequently contain counterpublic spheres.     

The Effects of Target Attractiveness on Men's Sexual Arousal in Response to Erotic Auditory Stimuli

Previous research on sexual arousal resulting from auditory stimuli indicates that visual imagery acts as a mediator between stimulus input and resulting arousal. This leads to the question of whether imagery, and subsequent arousal, can be manipulated by providing differing information to hold in semantic memory. This research hypothesizes that attractive images, held within semantic memory and pattern matched with an erotic auditory stimulus, facilitate higher and more rapid self-reported arousal than do unattractive images. Participants in an unattractive condition experienced slower rates and lower mean levels of arousal in response to an auditory stimulus compared with participants in an attractive or no picture condition. No differences existed between groups in maximum arousal scores or the tendency to visualize the target during the listening task. Implications for the role of imagery in sexual response, possible measurement issues, and suggestions for future research are addressed in the discussion.     

Climate-induced cross-border migration and change in demographic structure

Population and Environment - As climate change threatens livelihoods in Bangladesh, migration to neighboring countries in South Asia may accelerate. We use multiple types of data to predict how...