Sociodemographic and health-related risk factors among African-American,Caucasian and Hispanic homeless men: A comparative study

Data from a 1989–1990 cross-sectional survey of homeless adults in California were stratified by ethnicity to examine whether adverse childhood events and adult medical disorders preceding homelessness differed between 269 African-American, 599 Caucasian, 201 foreign-born Hispanic, and 136 native-born Hispanic men. Although African-Americans were overrepresented (21%) compared with their presence in local (3%) and state (7%) populations, within the homeless they were better educated and more likely to have held white collar jobs than Caucasians or Hispanics. In addition, despite being more likely to grow up in poverty, African-Americans reported lower prevalences of alcohol and drug abuse, overnight psychiatric hospitalizations, placement in foster care, and physical or sexual abuse than Caucasians. Foreign-born Hispanics were the most likely to have low levels of education and job skills, but were least impaired by adult medical disorders. Native-born Hispanics reported lower rates of adverse childhood events, illegal drug use, and psychiatric hospitalizations than Caucasians, but were most likely among the three ethnic groups to suffer from alcohol abuse. The lower prevalences of adverse childhood events, addictive disorders, and psychiatric hospitalizations among homeless African-Americans, despite their higher representation in absolute numbers, suggests that factors such as childhood poverty may play a disproportionate role in homelessness among this ethnic minority group.     

Attitudes toward adoption and child-bearing by American and Brazilian students

A 2 × 2 × 2 factorial design with country of origin (U.S. or Brazil), education (high school or college), and sex (male or female) as independent variables was used to investigate cross-national differences concerning: the number of natural children wanted and expected, the number of adopted children wanted and expected, and concern about overpopulation. Subjects were 67 American and 74 Brazilian high school students, and 64 American and 78 Brazilian college students. Several interesting findings emerged. For one thing, Americans reported thinking more about adopting children and expected to have more adopted children than did Brazilians. Also, concern about overpopulation was more predictive of the number of children wanted and expected in the U.S. than in Brazil. The implications of these and other findings for population planners was discussed.     

Interpersonal contact experiences with gay men: a qualitative investigation of "fag hags" and gay-supportive heterosexual men

The purpose of this investigation was to understand how "fag hags" and gay-supportive heterosexual men (GSHM) describe the nature and quality of their interpersonal contact experiences with gay men. Eight archival interviews were analyzed using the methodologies outlined in Hill, Thompson, and Williams (1997); i.e., consensual qualitative research. The results yielded suggest that the nature of contact experiences relates to direct contact with gay men in institutional or social settings or via indirect, formative experiences. The possible roles that contact plays in attitudes formation include: (1) normalizing homosexuality, (2) challenging previously held myths and stereotypes, and (3) increasing a person's likelihood of having contact experiences with gay men and developing gay-supportive attitudes. Participants described the quality of the contact as taking place in the context of a friendship that developed between them and a gay male that strengthened after the gay friend came out. Furthermore, the impact of these contact experiences did not change fag hags' sense of morality, but "improved" their attitudes toward gay men. The results from this study have broader social implications in that they contribute to the much-needed discourse, from a qualitative perspective, on the ways in which people form gay-supportive attitudes. Future research should focus on describing the transformational nature of contact between gay men and heterosexuals in order to uncover any processes or stages that heterosexuals go through in developing gay-supportive attitudes.     

Coital debut: the role of religiosity and sex attitudes in the Add Health Survey

Recent reviews suggest that religiosity is associated with the delay of adolescent coital debut (Rostosky, Wilcox, Wright, Randall, in press; Wilcox, Rostosky, Randall, Wright, 2001). Few studies, however, have examined this association using longitudinal data to test theoretically driven models. We analyzed data from 3,691 adolescents (ages 15-21), testing the hypothesis that adolescent religiosity and sex attitudes (at Wave 1) predict later coital debut (at Wave 2) and that these predictive relationships vary by gender. Findings indicated that beyond demographic factors and number of romantic partners, religiosity reduced the likelihood of coital debut for both males and females. After accounting for the effects of religiosity, anticipation of negative emotions after coital debut (sex attitude factor 1) further reduced its likelihood for females and males. Finally, adolescent girls - but not boys - who anticipated positive emotions following sexual intercourse (sex attitude factor 2) were more likely to debut. While virginity pledge status was associated with coital debut for boys and girls, more conservative beliefs about sex appeared to mediate its effect. Finally, a significant interaction between race and religiosity indicated that African American adolescent males who had either signed a virginity pledge or were more religious were significantly more likely to debut than both White non-Hispanic males and African American males who were less religious and/or who had not signed a pledge. The implications of these results for adolescent pregnancy prevention programming are discussed.     

Partner influence on noncondom use: gender and ethnic differences

This study investigates gender and ethnicity differences in the experience of not using a condom due to a partner s influence (unwanted noncondom use). Analysis of 247 anonymous questionnaires from students at urban community college campuses revealed that 46.7% had experienced unwanted noncondom use since age 16, and 37% had experienced unwanted noncondom use with their current or most recent partner. Males and females reported equal levels of unwanted noncondom use. However, African-American and Latino participants reported higher levels of unwanted noncondom use than Whites. The findings indicate that females, males, and people from ethnic groups at high risk for HIV infection need support to carry out their safer sex intentions.     

Tracing the development of deficit perspectives in family programs

A historical review of parent involvement in kindergarten, day nurseries, nursery school, Head Start and subsequent at-risk early childhood programs from 1856–1995, and family literacy programs from 1986–1995 reveals that attitudes toward poverty, language and developmental ideology are major factors in the development of deficit perspectives of low-income, non-mainstream families. The authors assert that both overt and covert deficit perspectives toward low-income families have prevented early intervention programs from fully serving the needs of families. Theoretical and practical implications for those involved in family programs are included.     

Information systems project failure – analysis of causal links using interpretive structural modelling

The analysis of the root causes of information systems project failure has been the subject of intense scrutiny for some time within industry and the academic community. Researchers have developed various models, notions of failure and categorisations to succinctly classify project failure into a set of key factors for organisations and project managers to focus on in their attempts to avoid failure. This study incorporates a technique titled: interpretive structural modelling as the methodology to formalise the relationships between the selected failure factors. This approach is positioned as a mechanism that can yield greater insights into the relationships between the factors surrounding project failure, thereby developing a better understanding of how these relationships can have a bearing on project outcomes. The findings identify key driving variables that are presented as having significant impact on the other factors within the model. A number of variables are also identified as being heavily dependent on other connected factors highlighting that a failure in one or more of these connected factors is likely to result in a failure in one or more of the dependent factors unless timely steps are taken to address these key issues. This research details a number of practical implications for senior management and project managers as well as the academic community. These considerations form an underlying thread within this study as specific practice-related implications are highlighted and discussed throughout the study.