“I Didn't Leave Y'all on Purpose”: HIV-Infected Mothers' Videotaped Legacies for Their Children

The authors analyzed twelve videotapes made by HIV-infected women for their children. Using grounded theory methods the concept of eternal mothering provides a framework to study the interactive aspects of mothering, and the significance of impending maternal death from a stigmatizing illness. In creating these videotape legacies, the mothers drew on personal experiences of gender, class, race, ethnicity, family configurations, and other social conditions. There is tension between women's self-presentation in an attempt to control the impressions they make on their children, and their decision to disclose stigmatizing secrets with the potential consequential loss of maternal authority and children's loyalty, as well as inherited shame by association.     

Adult day care participation among impaired elderly

This study evaluates 35 impaired elderly clients of a social day care center and compares them with 116 impaired persons taken from a random sample of community elderly using the Duke Older Americans Resources and Services (OARS) functional assessment instrument. Multiple discriminant analysis is used to determine if factors exist which predict use of adult day care facilities. Results indicate that three domains distinguish day care participation; social resources, economic, and mental health. Discussion and implications center on the conclusion that day care clients are more likely labeled as dependent by their families than are impaired community elderly.Charles M. Barresi is Professor of Sociology and a Fellow in the Institute for Life Span Development and Gerontology at the University of Akron at Akron, Ohio. He earned his Ph.D. at the State University of New York at Buffalo. His research interests include ethnicity in aging, gender differences in widowhood and patterns of family care-giving. He is co-editor of the forthcoming book, Ethnic Dimensions of Aging.Donna J. McConnell is a graduate of the University of Akron, Department of Sociology. She holds the degree of M.A. Specialist in Gerontology, and Donna is currently serving as rehabilitation counselor for the Mahoning County Transitional Homes in Youngstown, Ohio.Direct all correspondence to: Charles M. Barresi, Department of Sociology, The University of Akron, Akron, OH 44325.Revision of a paper presented at the 37th Annual Scientific Meeting of the Gerontological Society of America, San Antonio, Texas, November 16–20, 1984. The authors would like to thank John Allen, Ronald Huiatt, and the Summit Senior's Team Corporation, for making the PISCES Project data available. Dennis Byrne and Geoffery Greer provided helpful suggestions with the analysis.     

The consequences of early marriage on marital dissolution

Research has been consistent in documenting the direct negative effect of early marriage on marital stability, while disagreeing over the level of influence of status attainment measures on divorce. However, the discipline has failed to come to consensus on the complexity of these relationships: that early marriage may operate indirectly through mediating variables to increase the likelihood of divorce. The focus of this paper is an analysis of a path model which includes the estimated effects of antecedents of early marriage, early marriage and education on the probability of divorce. Findings using the General Social Surveys support research that suggests that early marriage is the most important variable influencing divorce. Further, little influence of the early marriage measure through education was found.     

Is the male marriage premium due to selection? The effect of shotgun weddings on the return to marriage

In standard cross-sectional wage regressions, married men appear to earn 10 to 20% more than comparable never married men. One proposed explanation for this male marriage premium is that men may be selected into marriage on the basis of characteristics valued by employers as well as by spouses or because they earn high wages. This paper examines the selection hypothesis by focusing on shotgun weddings, which may make marital status uncorrelated with earnings ability. We compare the estimated marriage premium between white men whose first marriages are soon followed by a birth and other married white men in the United States. The return to marriage differs little for married men with a premarital conception and other married men, and the results suggest that at most 10% of the estimated marriage premium is due to selection. Received: 19 June 1998/Accepted: 10 July 2000     

A Barrenness or Body and Theory: An Analysis or Infertility

This essay tracks the vicissitudes of woman's analysis during her three year attempt to become pregnant, and in her own words, “to become a real mother”. As a lesbian daughter of heterosexual parents, she attempted to “cure” her infertility, and redress her self- perceived sexual sins through compliance with a fantasy of heterosexual completion. This fantasy came to be seen as a diversion from the more difficult task of re-engaging with a symbolic oedipal dilemma and bearing parricide guilt.     

Teaching Note—Partnering Macro Social Work Students and Agencies Addressing Youth Homelessness: A Model for Service Learning

In addition to direct practice skills, social work students need to become familiar and competent with macrolevel approaches to addressing youth and transgender youth homelessness. Service-learning courses provide an effective approach for students to learn the necessary knowledge and skills. In two sections of an upper-division social work macropractice course, teams of students worked with nonprofit organizations that addressed the needs of homeless youths and transgender youths. A three-pronged approach—community forum, fund-raising, and advocacy campaign—allowed a range of activities and learning experiences that benefited the students and agencies. This three-pronged service-learning model engaged the community, spread the message about youth and transgender youth homelessness, and consisted of projects that people can easily implement in their own communities.     

The Dickensian Occupational Structure

Twelve of the novels of Charles Dickens provide a sample of 349 characters whose occupational achievement and mobility are investigated. The mobility patterns indicate more inheritance than in the United States. This cannot be accounted for by education, material inheritance, or morality (being a good or bad person). A model of quasi-perfect mobility, taking all diagonal frequencies as given, more closely represents the patterns. Determinants of achievement considered are social origins, number of siblings, education, marital status, morality. The characters from large families do better occupationally than those from small. Education functions primarily to redistribute success. The married are superior to the unmarried, with marriage functioning not as a selective mechanism, but exerting causal impact of its own. The evil are rewarded in this life. The basic path model of the stratification system of Dickens is similar to that of the United States.     

Measuring Corporate Social Performance: A Review

This paper reviews the literature on corporate social performance (CSP) measurement and sets that literature into a theoretical context. Following a review of CSP theory development and the literature on relationships between CSP and corporate financial performance, Wood's CSP model ( Wood, D.J. (1991 ). Corporate social performance revisited. Academy of Management Review , 16, pp. 691–718) is used as an organizing device to present and discuss studies that use particular measures of CSP. Conclusions emphasize the need for CSP scholars to refocus on stakeholders and society, and to incorporate relevant literatures from other scholarly domains.