Direct observation of neighborhood stressors and environmental justice in the South Bronx,New York City

Neighborhood environments are believed to contribute to negative health outcomes; however, accurately measuring area attributes remains challenging. The objective of this research is to quantify the presence of (or lack of) environmental injustices characterized by the geographic distribution of neighborhood stressors related to the built and social environment in the South Bronx that may contribute to poor health outcomes. Objective environmental audits were collected and coded for over 2,000 block faces. Physical and social indices were calculated. Bivariate correlations and spatial regressions revealed potential environmental injustices related to the distribution of social and physical environmental stressors at the local level. This novel dataset has many future applications in the effort to understand the connection between health, environmental justice, and location.     

Factors Associated With Involvement in Nonmetropolitan LGBTQ Organizations: Proximity? Generativity? Minority Stress? Social Location?

Little is known about involvement in LGBTQ organizations. Factors associated with involvement in nonmetropolitan LGBTQ organizations were examined using logistic regression and survey data from 426 LGBTQ individuals residing in a nonmetropolitan region. Involvement was examined in five types of organizations (professional, social/recreational, religious, political, and community center/charity). The same model testing proximity, generativity, minority stress, and social location hypotheses was repeated for each organization type. Results demonstrate that the generativity hypothesis is most strongly supported. Indeed, emotional attachment to the LGBTQ community significantly increased the odds of involvement in every type of organization. However, the factors associated with involvement otherwise differed by organization type. Implications for organizational leaders are discussed.     

International Transitions: Generating Subjective Sense and Subjective Configuration in Relation to the Development of Identity

This article provides an in-depth examination of the emerging identity of a 5-year-old child during her international transition from Saudi Arabia to Malaysia. Observations of the child’s everyday life at home and school, alongside interviews with the child’s mother and teacher, enabled an understanding of the dynamic relation between past, current, and future events. The process of forming a new friendship foregrounded shared motives, emotions, and actions that ameliorated a transitional crisis and supported the child during this international transition.     

Barriers to involvement in nonmetropolitan LGBTQ organizations

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) organizations are spaces in which LGBTQ individuals can access support and community, yet they have received little empirical attention, particularly outside urban areas. Given the benefits of LGBTQ community involvement, this study examined the barriers to involvement in nonmetropolitan LGBTQ organizations. Three qualitative methods were employed: interviews, focus groups, and participant observation sessions. Thematic analyses identified eight barriers originating within the individual (managing one's LGBTQ identity, individual characteristics), organization (lack of diversity, group dynamics, lack of awareness of programs, workplace/school climate), and community (size, hostility). Implications for reducing barriers in nonmetropolitan LGBTQ organizations are discussed.     

Quality of life indicators and health: Current status and emerging conceptions

Quality of life is an increasingly common theme in the health status and health promotion literatures. Six approaches that consider quality of life and health are reviewed. These are (a) health-related quality of life; (b) quality of life as social diagnosis in health promotion; (c) quality of life among persons with developmental disabilities; (d) quality of life as social indicators; (e) the Centre for Health Promotion (University of Toronto) model, and (f) Lindstrom's quality of life model. Each approach is considered as to its emphasis on objective or subjective indicators, individual or system-level measurement, value-laden or value-neutral assumptions, and potential relationship to social policy and social change goals. The links among the social indicators, quality of life, and health promotions areas are examined.     

Comparative labor market performance of visaed and non-visaed migrants: Pacific islanders in Sydney

Using survey data for Tongan and Samoan migrants in Sydney the effects of visa restrictions on labor market performance of migrants are assessed. Univariate analysis suggests a positive association between unemployment and the unrestricted entry of Samoan step-migrants from New Zealand. A probit model of the determinants of unemployment is estimated with controls for human capital and demographic variables. While human capital endowments are important, visa restrictions do not have a significant effect on either group‘s employability. Implications for policy are discussed highlighting the complementarities between host country immigration policies and foreign aid programs. Received: 13 August 1997 / Accepted: 5 March 1998     

Emergy Measures of Carrying Capacity to Evaluate Economic Investments

This paper outlines a method for determining carrying capacity for economic investments based on an emergy evaluation of the environmental resources of a region. Using data from tourism development in Mexico and Papua New Guinea, the concept of carrying capacity is related to intensity of development, environmental support area, and the fit of economic development in local environments and economies.Emergy, a unit of resource use and work potential, is used to quantitatively evaluate intensity of development. Emergy evaluation is briefly described and the evaluations of tourism used to further explain the methodology. The total annual resource use for the tourist resorts and the economies in which they are embedded (including inputs of renewable and nonrenewable resources and purchased goods and services) was calculated and converted to emergy units. The renewable resource base and an Environmental Loading Ratio (ELR), are proposed as a means for determining both long term and short term carrying capacity respectively. The concept of sustainable development is related to the net emergy benefits that result from development. Expressed as a ratio of the amount of emergy received by the local economy to the amount that is exported (embodied in tourists), sustainability is suggested to result from a positive emergy trade balance.     

Spatial Variation In Migration Processes And Development: A Costa Rican Example Of Conventional Modeling Augmented By The Expansion Method

The ways in which migration and development have been linked in previous research in Third World settings are reviewed. Intercantonal migration in Costa Rica is analyzed, first in terms of a conventional model and then in terms of a paradigm of migration that focuses on place-to-place variations in development milieu. The results show there is spatial variation in the role of most variables and that these variations follow a reasonably consistent pattern with regard to development conditions. A series of maps graphically illustrates the importance of a spatial frame of reference.     

Students' of Color and European American Students' Stigma-Relevant Perceptions of University Instructors

In classrooms students of color may experience stigma (i.e., concern about being stereotyped) because negative stereotypes of their intellect are salient. Two studies included African American, European American, and Latina/Latino female and male undergraduates. Study 1 ( n = 86) demonstrated while students of color generally had positive expectations of teachers, their expectations declined when imagining class with a European American instructor who would repeatedly versus never evaluate their work or an ethnically matched instructor across conditions. Study 2 ( n = 136) revealed all students had more positive expectations of culturally tolerant versus culturally intolerant instructors. Students of color more than European American students perceived that intolerant instructors could grade them unfairly. We discuss implications for ethnically diverse classrooms .     

WHO BUYS HEALTH INSURANCE? A SURVEY OF TWO LARGE ORGANISATIONS

Despite the importance of private insurance in the financing of Australia's health care system, there have been few studies of health insurance choice. A survey was carried out of employees of two large organisations to serve as a reference group for middle-income people in secure employment. Insurance was associated with income, age, marital status and history of medical costs; but not dependents or hospital expenses. Main determinants of level of cover were income and medical costs. In making decisions, information search was low and decisions seem to be made on the basis of simple risk aversion, influenced by insurers' advertising.