Women’s Experiences with Infertility: The Fluidity of Conceptualizations of ‘Family’

In this study, I examine women’s experiences with infertility and the impact upon their conceptualizations of ‘family.’ Active interviews with 32 women revealed most women started out with conceptualizations that reflected a traditional ideology of family. Participants who conceived biological children through medical assistance expressed a broader conceptualization of family through a greater appreciation for their children and family life in general. Women who did not conceive, despite medical assistance to do so, also discussed broadening their conceptualizations so that ‘family’ took on new meanings, structures, and/or significance. Conceptually, the analysis shows how notions of family are not static, but rather a fluid process subject to interpretation and re-evaluation as a result of life events, in this case, encounters with infertility.     

Prevalence of victims of violence among ethnically diverse Asian/Pacific Islanders

The present research project is the first large-scale study (N = 5,051) that investigated the prevalence of victims of violence for an ethnically diverse Asian/Pacific Islander sample. The rate for the adolescent respondents of "was a victim of violence (was physically harmed by someone)" within the past 6 months was 3.33%. Over twice that rate was found for family members (6.97%) and over three times the adolescent-respondent rate was obtained for close friends (10.75%). Only partial support was found for the hypothesis that Asian groups would have the lowest rates, and Polynesian, African American, Hispanic, and Native American Indian/Alaska Native groups would have the highest rates. Higher rates were found for Whites (adolescent respondents, close friends) and the Portuguese (family members, close friends), suggesting a "minority" effect. There is a need to disaggregate ethnicity, engage in further research that considers risk and protective factors, and investigate culturally appropriate interventions.     

Structural Determinants of Consensus and Cohesion in Complex Organizations*

Les réactions collectives, à l'occasion de tensions qui se manifesteraient dans des sous-unités d'organisation sociale complexe, varieraient en nombre et en caractère selon le niveau du consensus et la puissance relative des sousunités. Le niveau de consensus et le degré de cohésion, ce dernier étant associé au consensus, seraient fonction de la différentiation des rôles et la fréquence des interactions au sein des sous-unités. A mesure que la différentiation des rôles et que le taux des interactions sont déterminés par la technicité, ce type d'organisation même influence les réactions collectives en face de tensions. Des données recueillies dam une firme industrielle canadienne indiquent que le consensus s'associe à la densité des effectifs plutôt qu'à la différentiation des rôles, alors que le degré de cohésion s'associe plus à la différentiation qu'à la densité des effectifs. Le consensus et la cohésion semblent s'interposer dans les rapports entre la satisfaction au travail et le rendement, l'absentéisme et le roulement du personnel.     

CASAWORKS for Families. A new treatment model for substance-abusing parenting women on welfare

This article provides a brief overview of CASAWORKS for Families (CWF), an innovative intervention designed to help substance-abusing parenting women on welfare. CWF was developed in response to the passage of welfare reform legislation in 1996. Factors that provided a background and context for the development of CWF are considered. The rationale, key elements, and the conduct of a pilot demonstration of CWF are described. Evaluation findings that serve to guide the next steps to improve the intervention are reviewed. Finally, new welfare policy priorities emerging around the importance of addressing behavioral health problems among welfare recipients are highlighted.     

Immigrant closets: tactical-micro-practices-in-the-hyphen

The theoretical and material moves within this essay suggest that culturally hybrid agents use the "closet" as a space to negotiate the intersections of sexuality and ethnicity in everyday life. Discussing some conclusions of my ethnographic research project with the Russian Gay and Lesbian Group of West Hollywood, this essay applies Michel de Certeau's notion of tactics to the daily micro-practices of queer identified immigrants as they move between the demands of overlapping and contradictory cultures. Examining the circumstances in the Russian-American-immigrant-imagined community shared by the informants in this site, I argue that, contrary to a popularized valorization of queer "outness," there is a great deal of power in the oscillation between visibility and invisibility.     

Occupational and spatial mobility of temporary Mexican migrants to the U.S.: a comparative analysis

"U.S. job and spatial mobility are compared here for recent returnee migrants from two Mexican areas--Rio Grande, Zacatecas, in the interior; and Nueva Rosita-Muzquiz, Coahuila, near the U.S. border. Results suggest that the interior migrants fit a hierarchical migrant model: they move up the urban hierarchy from U.S. rural areas to towns and cities, experiencing substantial job mobility at first, but little after reaching the urban sector. Border migrants fit a shuttle migrant model: they return to the same job and place year after year, experiencing little or no spatial and occupational mobility, although they tend to hold somewhat higher status jobs."     

Age at immigration and education: further explorations

Trends in the relationship between age at immigration and educational attainment are examined using age- and sex-specific data for Canada, 1881-1973. "Although initial analyses of data, collected for the [1973] Canadian Mobility Study, reveal a weak relationship between age at immigration and educational attainment, inclusion of a measure of periodicity in educational attainment models reveals age at immigration to have an effect comparable to that of family size on educational attainment. Given the strong periodicity effect, when age at immigration is excluded from the analysis, it is argued that the status attainment model, which best accounts for the educational attainment of native-born Canadians, also accounts best for the educational attainment of the foreign-born."