Business Cycles,Medicaid Generosity,and Birth Outcomes

Birth outcomes influence many aspects of later life health and wellbeing, making healthcare access during pregnancy a policy priority. Low-income mothers often depend on Medicaid, for which eligibility is determined by their income relative to state eligibility thresholds. The prevalence of adverse birth outcomes is known to exhibit cyclical variation, due in part to changes in the composition of women giving birth in response to changing economic conditions. However, cyclical variation in adverse birth outcomes also varies with respect to Medicaid eligibility thresholds. Our analysis uses birth-records data for 2000 through 2013, aggregated into 173,936 county-by-quarter observations and linked to county-level unemployment rates and state-level parental Medicaid thresholds. Using fixed-effects negative binomial models, we examine the role of Medicaid generosity in influencing birth outcomes across business cycles. We test for interactions between Medicaid and unemployment, hypothesizing that the negative effects of recessions are worse where Medicaid thresholds are more restrictive. We find that higher Medicaid generosity dampens the negative effects of recessions on birth outcomes. The extent to which Medicaid interacts with unemployment also varies according to the age and race composition of mothers; in particular, Black mothers are both most affected by unemployment and most responsive to Medicaid generosity. Given current concerns about racial gaps in both infant and maternal mortality, our findings suggest that Medicaid may be an important feature of a strategy to close gaps in the prevalence of adverse birth outcomes across racial groups, especially during bust years.     

Grandparents providing care for grandchildren and employment status of grandparents in South Korea

This study examines the association between providing care for grandchildren and the economic status of grandparents, focusing on the employment status. This study asks two questions. First, is providing care for grandchildren related to Korean grandparents’ employment status? Second, are the intensities of providing care for grandchildren related to grandparents’ employment status? In examining these research questions, this study focuses on gender and caregiving intensity. The findings suggest that providing care for grandchildren was associated with Korean grandmothers’ employment status. In addition, there are different relationships between providing care for grandchildren and grandparents’ employment status according to the caregiving intensities.     

#iamafeminist as the “mother tag”: feminist identification and activism against misogyny on Twitter in South Korea

This article explores feminist activism via the hashtag #iamafeminist on Twitter in South Korea. This hashtag became an important platform for feminist identification and activism against misogyny following its start in 2015 as a way to resist prevailing anti-feminist sentiment in Korea. In addition to opposing stigmas regarding identifying as a feminist, #iamafeminist affords an inclusive frame that can promote feminist identification by sharing personal motives for and stories about being a feminist. Although critics dismiss the potential of hashtag activism due to its ephemeral nature, I argue that #iamafeminist—which I call the “mother tag”—was able to persist for three months by continuing to connect with real-time gender issues and by initiating activism against misogyny both online and offline.     

Using social support levels to predict sexual identity development among college students who identify as a sexual minority

This study examined the impact of five domains of social support (a campus group for individuals who identify as a sexual minority, family, friends, significant others, and faith communities) on eight aspects of sexual minority identity development (identity uncertainty, internalized homonegativity, identity affirmation, acceptance concerns, identity superiority, concealment motivation, identity centrality, and difficulty in the identity development process). Support from a sexuality-specific campus group was the strongest predictor, followed by support from family members. Supports from friends and significant others had no significant impact on any aspect of sexual minority identity development, while faith community support was not correlated with identity development. Identifying as lesbian, bisexual, or as another sexual minority compared to identifying as gay also impacted sexual minority identity development.     

Internet literacy and digital natives’ civic engagement: Internet skill literacy or Internet information literacy?

This study aims to show the role of Internet literacy in empowering digital natives’ civic engagement. Using a survey of 10th graders, we analyzed the effects of digital media use and Internet literacy on adolescents’ political and social interest, participation, and efficacy, controlling for their home and school environments. In doing so, we try to highlight the following points. First, we emphasize that there are two separate dimensions of Internet literacy: Internet skill literacy and Internet information literacy. Second, we adopt a broader concept of civic engagement reflecting the changing youth practices observed in the contemporary media environment. The study empirically found that Internet information literacy, not Internet skill literacy, is intricately related to adolescents’ civic engagement. It was also shown that adolescents’ Internet use contributed only to new and alternative forms of participation. Overall, the findings show that an adolescent who can critically understand and effectively evaluate online information is more likely to become an active civic participant than one who lacks such skills. The study concludes with a few policy suggestions.     

Bringing Productivity Back In: Rising Inequality and Economic Rents in the U.S. Manufacturing Sector, 1971 to 2001

Using data on earnings and productivity for U.S. manufacturing industries from 1971 to 2001, we investigate economic rents and rising income inequalities. The results suggest that rents are most significant for managers, professionals, middle‐aged workers, and older workers. Conversely, negative rents are evident for women, Hispanics, single men, and blue‐collar workers. The underpayment of Hispanics appears to have increased while African Americans have gone from being underpaid to being overpaid. Workers with a college degree have become overpaid (i.e., “credentialism”) while “gift‐exchange” efficiency wages have declined. The marginal productivity of labor input has increased but is increasingly underpaid.     

Structured Voluntary Youth Activities and Positive Outcomes in Adulthood: An Exploratory Study of Involvement in Scouting and Subjective Well-Being

This study explores whether youth involvement in Scouting has positive consequences later in life. We examine whether the number of years of participation in Scouting is positively associated with human and social capital and recreational lifestyles in adulthood, and whether these are linked to subjective well-being: relational, emotional, and physical health. To explore this potential relationship, we estimated a structural equation model, analyzing data from a national sample of adult males. We found that youth involvement in Scouting is positively related to subjective well-being indirectly via the positive adult outcomes.     

Implementation of comfort rooms to reduce seclusion, restraint use, and acting-out behaviors

The use of seclusion and restraint as methods to control acting-out behaviors by individuals with mental illness continues, despite deaths and other negative outcomes to both the clients themselves and the staff members applying these techniques. Additionally, client-to-client and client-to-staff assaults and self-injurious behaviors can lead to injury or possible fatalities to both parties.Thus, there is a need to find alternative approaches to mitigate or even eliminate some of these behaviors. The use of comfort rooms is one such approach. With the institution of comfort rooms, one small, rural, tertiary mental health hospital demonstrated a reduction in seclusion and restraint use and assaultive behaviors of clients. In addition, 92.9% of the clients who used these rooms found them to be helpful when they experienced increasing levels of distress. With the provision of an area for clients to go voluntarily to self-manage their distress,nurses play a role in promoting autonomy and person-centered care, while reducing environmental stress and potential negative outcomes.     

Examining the interplay of an organization's prior reputation,CEO's visibility,and immediate response to a crisis

In one of only a few crisis communication research studies taking a relational approach, examining the effects of a company's prior reputation in publics’ responses to a given crisis situation, Lyons and Cameron (2004) found that both reputation and response profoundly affected publics’ attitude and behavioral intentions toward an organization involved in a crisis situation, using hypothetical, fictitious organizations and crises. Using actual organizations and crises, our research team designed a 2 (reputation: good vs. bad) × 2 (crisis response: apologetic vs. defensive) × 2 (CEO visibility in immediate crisis response: visible vs. invisible) within-subjects experiment (N = 102) to examine the variances in stakeholders’ attitudes and behavioral intentions toward a company after being exposed to online video that delivered a corporate crisis response. Findings were counter-intuitive: a defensive response to a crisis is as acceptable to crisis stakeholders as an apologetic response if the CEO is visible (or audible) in the response and if the pre-crisis company-stakeholder reputation is positive. Good reputation, defensive crisis response and CEO visibility in immediate response to a crisis resulted in the best stakeholder attitudes and purchase intentions.