Citizenship on the Margins: A Critique of Scholarship on Marginalized Women and Community Activism

This critical review essay addresses the underappreciation of citizenship inequalities in scholarship on marginalized women’s community activism in the United States. Although both students of citizenship and women’s grassroots resistance argue that neither citizenship nor lived experience is an individual‐level phenomenon or a public issue divorced from private troubles and that politics need not be formal and male, the two literatures do not break bread with each other. I contend that this lack of cross‐pollination owes to our fixation on the hallowed trifecta of race, class, gender intersectionality, but one that has elided the fact that the three have always constituted, and been constituted by, citizenship. Despite the fact that in recent decades immigrant women of color have taken the helm of community campaigns – such as in social reproduction (e.g. schools, churches, health), Environmental Justice, and immigration reform – few scholars mention citizenship and thus few analyze citizenship racism and its ties to other axes of inequality. I critique the existing scholarship by drawing on the contributions of the few works that analyze and intersect citizenship within women’s community resistance struggles. I then point to future research directions to underscore their importance in an age of more exclusionary and draconian citizenship paradigms.     

The Nature and Value of Sex - A BOOK REVIEW OF: Sex: A Philosophical Primer,Expanded Edition by Irving Singer

Heterosexual and homosexual males who erotically preferred physically mature partners were compared with respect to the erotic impact of the nonpreferred age groups (of the preferred gender) and the nonpreferred gender. Erotic impact was assessed by phallometric test of erotic gender and age preferences. This measures penile volume changes during the presentation of potentially erotic stimuli. Homosexual males who preferred physically mature partners responded no more to male children than heterosexual males who preferred physically mature partners responded to female children. Although heterosexual males showed a (slight) erotic aversion to the male stimuli, and homosexual males did not show an aversion to the female stimuli, this difference was minimal.     

The Stability of Facial Attractiveness: Is It What You’ve Got or What You Do with It?

Physical attractiveness is suggested to be an indicator of biological quality and therefore should be stable. However, transient factors such as gaze direction and facial expression affect facial attractiveness, suggesting it is not. We compared the relative importance of variation between faces with variation within faces due to facial expressions. 128 participants viewed photographs of 14 men and 16 women displaying the six basic facial expressions (anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness, surprise) and a neutral expression. Each rater saw each model only once with a randomly chosen expression. The effect of expressions on attractiveness was similar in male and female faces, although several expressions were not significantly different from each other. Identity was 2.2 times as important as emotion in attractiveness for both male and female pictures, suggesting that attractiveness is stable. Since the hard tissues of the face are unchangeable, people may still be able to perceive facial structure whatever expression the face is displaying, and still make attractiveness judgements based on structural cues.     

The Role of High School Connections to Colleges in Adolescents' Transitions to Higher Education

With most adolescents now aspiring to graduate from college, assisting students in making the transition has become a key institutional function of high schools. Information about the application process is especially important for college entrance as admissions criteria are localized. Gaining access to information is one of the most important benefits of social capital. This study asks whether high schools with more connections to colleges are more successful in helping their students gain admission to college and, in particular, to selective four-year colleges. This study investigates the effects of having connections to colleges at a high school on students' college entry. This study also shows that actions taken by individual families bring about a contextual effect of a high school on the college selectivity that students attended in the same high school. These effects also mediate the relationship between school socioeconomic composition and enrollment in selective colleges.     

An Examination of Older Immigrants' Use of Dental Services in the United States

The recent influx of immigrants aged 65 and older in the United States triggers an increasing need to understand older immigrants' dental services use. This paper uses data (n = 9,617) from the 2004 and 2006 waves of the Health and Retirement Study to examine the dental services use of older Americans. In particular, this study focuses on differences in dental services use between immigrants and natives and potential contributing factors. Multivariate logistic regression analyses showed, contrary to expectation, that older immigrants were more likely to use dental services than older natives despite numerous barriers (odds ratio = 1.30 in 2004). The results in 2006 confirmed these findings. The results from 2004 and 2006 analyses showed dental insurance coverage, sex, and marital status were associated differently with dental services use for immigrants and natives. Implications for current oral health policies and future research of older Americans are discussed, as well as methods for meeting older immigrants' growing dental services needs.     

The Economic Value of Career Counseling Services for College Students in South Korea

This study investigated college students’ perception of the monetary value of career counseling services by using the contingent valuation method. The results of a multivariate survival analysis based on interviews with a convenience sample of 291 undergraduate students in South Korea indicate that, on average, participants’ expressed willingness to pay (WTP) for such services ranged from U.S. $10.22 to $10.54 per hour of individual career counseling. Self‐stigma and attitudes toward counseling had positive effects on their WTP, whereas the year in college and social stigma had negative effects. The results provide policy makers with preliminary evidence of the monetary value of career counseling.     

Self-Neglect and Neglect of Vulnerable Older Adults: Reexamination of Etiology

Using assessment and investigation data from the reported APS cases in Texas, this study examines the types of elder self-neglect and neglect, including medical neglect. It then examines the association between self-neglect and neglect and individual economic resources as well as health care and social service programs for the poor. The findings show that elder self-neglect/neglect is, in large part, attributable to frail older adults' and their families' lack of resources to pay for essential goods and services and the inadequate healthcare and other formal support programs for the older adults and their caregivers. This inadequate public policy coverage, rather than individual and intrafamily risk factors per se, needs to be considered as a significant cause of elder self-neglect/neglect.     

Contributing Factors of Depressive Symptoms Among Elderly Korean Immigrants in Texas

This study examined various life stresses associated with relocation that may contribute to depressive symptoms among Korean immigrant elders in Texas. A sample of 120 elders was assessed using the Geriatric Depression Scale–Short Form and a 90-min face-to-face interview. Over 1/3 of respondents (37.5%) had symptoms of depression. Regression analyses (R² = .331) indicate that self-rated health, stressful life events, English language proficiency, satisfaction of visiting one's birth place, and watching TV were correlates of depressive symptoms among them. The findings of this observational study may be used as a baseline for designing service program for this population.     

A panel study to examine the impact of multidimensional poverty on Korean adolescents' health

The study aims to explore the changes in adolescents' health during this significant transition from childhood to adulthood, and examines the impact of multidimensional poverty on their health. The study used panel data drawn from Seoul Child Panel Study, from 8th to 11th grade, and analysed the 908 adolescents using hierarchical linear modelling. Having consistent poverty, single parents and food insufficiency were significant predictors of physical and mental health problems, and these findings varied significantly by specific grade level. Implications for policies and practice to promote the health of adolescents in multidimensional poverty are identified.