The Local,The Regional,And The Global In Southeast Asian Transgender Subcultures

Mark Johnson. Beauty and power: transgendering and cultural transformation in the southern Philippines. Oxford: Berg. 1997. 264 pp. £34.99 (hardback); £14.99 (paperback).     

Disadvantaged through discrimination? The role of employers in social stratification1

Sociologists have consistently demonstrated that a rather strong association exists between an individual's social class origin and their social class destination, even after controlling for educational attainment. One explanation for this persisting association which is rarely addressed in research in social stratification and mobility is the extent to which class inequalities in access to advantaged class positions are due to discrimination by employers. I set up a field experiment to test whether employers discriminate on the basis of class origin characteristics. I sent letters of job application for professional and managerial occupations to 2560 large UK companies, so as to compare the prospects of equally matched potential employees differing on a range of characteristics, some related to class of origin. The six treatment conditions in the experiment were: the name of the candidate, the type of school attended, the candidate's interests outside work, their sex, the university that they attended and their achieved degree class. Results suggest that employers do pay attention to the class origin characteristics tested here, and that candidates with a name, school type and interests associated with the social elite are more likely to receive a reply to their application than candidates with the equivalent non‐elite characteristics. However, the treatment conditions do not, on the whole, have significant effects on the employers' responses in and of themselves. Instead, employers appear to favour particular combinations of characteristics while penalising others.     

Single Parenting and Child Behavior Problems in Kindergarten

Two waves of data from a sample of 89 poor and near-poor single black mothers and their preschool children were used to study the influences of parenting stress, physical discipline practices, and nonresident fathers’ relations with their children on behavior problems in kindergarten. The results indicate that higher levels of parent stress, more frequent spanking, and less frequent father–child contact at time 1 were associated with increased teacher-reported behavior problems at time 2. In addition, more frequent contact between nonresident biological fathers and their children moderated the negative effect of harsh discipline by mothers on subsequent child behavior problems. Specifically, when contact with the father was low, maternal spanking resulted in elevated levels of behavior problems; with average contact, this negative effect of spanking was muted; and with high contact, spanking was not associated with increased behavior problems in kindergarten. The implications of these findings for future research and policy are discussed.     

Disproportionality in education and employment outcomes of adult foster care alumni

Racial similarities and disparities in the education and employment of 134 African American and 574 White adults placed in foster care as children were examined. Logistic regression was used to compare differences among these young adult alumni who were served by a voluntary foster care agency in 23 U.S. communities. When controlling for demographic background, risk factors, and foster care experiences, race/ethnicity was a significant factor only in the increased odds of White alumni having income at or above poverty level, three times poverty level, and home/apartment ownership compared to African Americans.     

Improved Outcomes Following a Single Session Web-Based Intervention for Problem Gambling

Research suggests online interventions can have instant impact, however this is yet to be tested with help-seeking adults and in particular those with problem gambling. This study seeks to determine the immediate impact of a single session web-based intervention for problem gambling, and to examine whether sessions evaluated positively by clients are associated with greater improvement. The current study involved 229 participants classified as problem gamblers who agreed to participate after accessing Gambling Help Online between November 2010 and February 2012. Almost half were aged under 35 years of age (45 %), male (57 %) as well as first time treatment seekers (62 %). Participants completed measures of readiness to change and distress both prior to and post-counselling. Following the provision of a single-session of counselling, participants completed ratings of the character of the session (i.e., degree of depth and smoothness) post-counselling. A significant increase in confidence to resist and urge to gamble and a significant decrease in distress (moderate effect size; d = .56 and .63 respectively) was observed after receiving online counselling. A hierarchical regression indicated the character of the session was a significant predictor of change in confidence, however only the sub-scale smoothness was a significant predictor of change in distress. This was the case even after controlling for pre-session distress, session word count and client characteristics (gender, age, preferred gambling activity, preferred mode of gambling, gambling severity, and preferred mode of help-seeking). These findings suggest that single session web-based counselling for problem gambling can have immediate benefits, although further research is required to examine the impact on longer-term outcomes.     

Conceptualizing color-evasiveness: using dis/ability critical race theory to expand a color-blind racial ideology in education and society

Abstract

Color-blind racial ideology has historically been conceptualized as an ideology wherein race is immaterial. Efforts not to ‘see’ race insinuate that recognizing race is problematic; therefore, scholars have identified and critiqued color-blindness ideology. In this paper, we first examine Gotanda’s (1991) identification and critique of color-blind racial ideology, as it was crucial in troubling white supremacy. We then explore literature in both legal studies and education to determine how scholars have built upon Gotanda’s intellectual theoretical foundations. Finally, using a Dis/ability Critical Race Theory (DisCrit) framework, we end by expanding to a racial ideology of color-evasiveness in education and society, as we believe that conceptualizing the refusal to recognize race as ‘color-blindness’ limits the ways this ideology can be dismantled.