Reasoning Together Through Telling Stories: How People Talk about Social Controversies

Qualitative Sociology - We use focus groups of ordinary citizens talking about social controversies to analyze the role of storytelling in collective reasoning. Prior research has emphasized...     

Appropriating Care and Hijacking Desire: Thought and Praxis in Human Services Under 21st Century Capitalism

In this article, we trace the rise of neoliberalism and its impacts on the historical role of human services within the academy and the community. We ask whether we can re-think and re-envision a 21st century academy rooted in the material actualities of daily living and connected in very real ways to the struggles of those Human Services was designed to serve. Finally, we propose that Human Services could have a significant role to play in developing new modes of value that could lead to new modes of thought and new avenues of praxis.     

Adolescent Personality as Risk and Resiliency in the Testosterone–Externalizing Association

Previous investigations of testosterone and externalizing behavior have provided mixed findings. We tested the hypothesis that self‐regulatory personality moderates the testosterone–externalizing behavior association in adolescence. Parents reported on their 13‐ to 18‐year‐old (N = 106, M_age = 16.01, SD = 1.29) children's personalities and psychopathology. Testosterone was measured via drool samples. As hypothesized, personality moderated the testosterone–externalizing behavior association. High testosterone predicted higher levels of externalizing behaviors, but only for adolescents low in Agreeableness and Conscientiousness. Also, personality acted as a resiliency factor: high levels of Conscientiousness, in the presence of high testosterone, predicted lower levels of rule breaking. Results highlight how endogenous factors, such as personality, may interact with testosterone, and emphasize the relevance of including personality moderators in future research.     

Social influences on sorority and fraternity member smoking

Objective: To understand how the Greek system uniquely influences smoking attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors among college students who belong to a social sorority or fraternity. Participants: Active members of sororities (n = 16) and fraternities (n = 17) were interviewed between February 2013 and October 2015. Methods: In-depth interviews were conducted examining the social influences of the Greek system on member smoking. Transcribed interviews were coded and analyzed for themes. Results: Sorority and fraternity members experienced different social influences on smoking. Sorority stigmatization of smoking outside bars or parties caused sorority members to hide their smoking. Fraternity members had no social penalties for smoking and allowed smoking at the fraternity house. Fraternity members influenced both fraternity members and sorority members to smoke by sharing cigarettes and smoking at parties. Conclusions: Sororities and fraternities have created social environments that both promote smoking and stigmatize it, presenting unique challenges in college student smoking prevention and cessation efforts.     

Using In Vitro High‐Throughput Screening Data for Predicting Benzo[k]Fluoranthene Human Health Hazards

Today there are more than 80,000 chemicals in commerce and the environment. The potential human health risks are unknown for the vast majority of these chemicals as they lack human health risk assessments, toxicity reference values, and risk screening values. We aim to use computational toxicology and quantitative high‐throughput screening (qHTS) technologies to fill these data gaps, and begin to prioritize these chemicals for additional assessment. In this pilot, we demonstrate how we were able to identify that benzo[k]fluoranthene may induce DNA damage and steatosis using qHTS data and two separate adverse outcome pathways (AOPs). We also demonstrate how bootstrap natural spline‐based meta‐regression can be used to integrate data across multiple assay replicates to generate a concentration–response curve. We used this analysis to calculate an in vitro point of departure of 0.751 μM and risk‐specific in vitro concentrations of 0.29 μM and 0.28 μM for 1:1,000 and 1:10,000 risk, respectively, for DNA damage. Based on the available evidence, and considering that only a single HSD17B4 assay is available, we have low overall confidence in the steatosis hazard identification. This case study suggests that coupling qHTS assays with AOPs and ontologies will facilitate hazard identification. Combining this with quantitative evidence integration methods, such as bootstrap meta‐regression, may allow risk assessors to identify points of departure and risk‐specific internal/in vitro concentrations. These results are sufficient to prioritize the chemicals; however, in the longer term we will need to estimate external doses for risk screening purposes, such as through margin of exposure methods.     

Amassing rural power in the fight against fracking in Maryland: A report from the field

ABSTRACT

Social workers can mobilize vulnerable populations to shape policy decisions about industrial practices that could have adverse impacts on their wellbeing. One such practice is hydraulic fracturing or “fracking” to extract oil and natural gas from shale rock deposits. There is scant social work literature on mobilizing opposition to fracking despite a proliferation of literature from other disciplines. This article documents the campaign in Maryland that led to the adoption of the first legislative ban on fracking in a U.S. state with shale gas reserves, using social movement theory to identify factors that led to this successful outcome.     

Digital Strategies for Building Spiritual Intimacy: Families on a “Wired” Camino

Qualitative Sociology - Researchers have explored the role that information and communication technologies (ICTs) play in mediating both religious practice and intergenerational family...