Reducing Prejudice Within Community-Based Organizations

ABSTRACT

Efforts to help community-based organizations (CBOs) develop interventions that reduce prejudice within the workplace and during service provision can be informed by social psychological prejudice reduction techniques, which tend to be successful in controlled laboratory settings but have limitations that inhibit utility in applied settings. Alternatively, the use of diversity training to reduce prejudice has increased within the for-profit sector, but is rarely applied to CBOs. This article discusses the overlap between the basic and applied literatures, and how community practitioners can use the information gained from both to support CBOs who encounter challenges with diversity.     

Transparent and Mysterious: On Collecting,the Photograph and Tomio Seike

In this article, the author puts theories about aesthetics, vision and looking into practice when considering Tomio Seike’s Untitled #3 (1995). The photograph’s subject (a bare arm, languidly stretched over a piece of furniture) draws the viewer to an initial assumption: that the photograph is of a nude woman. However, other visual clues in the photograph complicate that assumption, and help explain why, as a collector, the author was drawn to it and remains captivated by the image. Untitled #3 is part of an artistic conversation not only with other photographs in Seike’s oeuvre, but also with other artists (Japanese and non‐Japanese) who focus on the body. Seike’s work is both a part of the tradition which produced masters such as Imogen Cunningham in the West and Nobuyoshi Araki in the East, and a quiet rebellion against that same tradition. The intimate, lushly toned, contemplative work invites the viewer into a way of seeing influenced by the Japanese concept of matsuri, the balance between noise and stillness. By considering these seemingly disparate elements, the author untangles at least part of the mystery which makes up the meaning of Tomio Seike’s Untitled #3, and illustrates why, in the words of Susan Sontag, photographic messages are both “transparent and mysterious”.

If photographs are messages, the message is both transparent and mysterious. (Sontag 1999 Sontag, S. 1999. On Photography, New York: Anchor Books.  [Google Scholar], p. 111)     

Low Birth Weight and Parental Investment: Do Parents Favor the Fittest Child?

Do parents contribute to birth weight disparities in status attainment? This study uses a nationally representative sample of 8,550 children and 1,450 twins from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study–Birth Cohort to investigate whether, as recent studies have suggested, parents favor healthier children. Children with poor health are found to receive fewer parental investments, including breast‐feeding and quality parent–child interaction, but results from between‐ and within‐family regression models, using low birth weight as a proxy for child health, find no evidence that parents compensate for or reinforce child health endowments. Instead, birth‐weight disparities in parental investment are linked with observable family, maternal, and child sociodemographic characteristics. Our results raise doubts about the utility of human capital models to explain health disparities in parental investment and shed new light on the broad spectrum of disadvantage faced by children with poor health.     

Sexual Identity Disclosure and Awareness of HIV Prevention Methods Among Black Men Who Have Sex With Men

Black men who have sex with men (BMSM) are disproportionately affected by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) epidemic, yet we know little about how HIV-negative BMSM of different sexual orientations access HIV prevention strategies. Identity development, minority stress, and disclosure theories suggest that for people of different sexual orientations, disclosure of sexual identity may be related to health behaviors. We performed a latent class analysis on a sample of 650 BMSM (M_age = 33.78, SD = 11.44) from Atlanta, Georgia, to explore whether sexual orientation, disclosure of sexual identity, and relationship status were related to HIV prevention strategies, including awareness of PrEP (pre-exposure prophylaxis) and PEP (post-exposure prophylaxis) and frequency of HIV testing. We found three distinct BMSM classes referred to as (1) closeted bisexuals, (2) sexual identity managers, and (3) gay, out, and open; all classes primarily engaged in casual sex. Classes differed in their awareness and access to HIV prevention strategies. The closeted bisexual class was least aware of and least likely to access HIV prevention. Findings have important implications for future research, namely the consideration of sexual identity and disclosure among BMSM. With this knowledge, we may be able to engage BMSM in HIV/sexually transmitted infection (STI) prevention services.     

The Road to the Top: A Qualitative Comparative Analysis of Mobility in the Elite Labor Market of College Basketball Coaching

We examine how career paths, job performance, affiliation ties, and race combine to affect who secures top jobs in an elite labor market. Using Qualitative Comparative Analysis, we show that examining these traits in conjunction, rather than in isolation, reveals novel insights into how one reaches the top of an occupation. Specifically, we document how factors coalesce in various ways to propel a coach to or from the top of NCAA Division I basketball. Results are particularly informative regarding race and social ties, as the importance of these conditions depend on signs of success. These findings illustrate the importance of context and perception in occupational advancement and suggest the analytic benefit of viewing job applicants as attribute clusters when examining advancement at the highest levels of an occupation.     

From Road Rage to Everyday Automotive Incivility: A Routine Activities Approach to Low‐Level Deviance

Classic sociological theory emphasizing human ecology and the convergence of persons in time and space motivated the “routine activities” approach in criminological research. Empirical work in this tradition focuses on predatory offending, and it has rarely been considered as a theoretical basis for the study of more common, low‐level (mostly nonviolent) deviance. Using commonplace “automotive incivility” as a test case, the present work draws on the routine activities approach in precisely this manner to answer recent theoretical calls for an empirical sociology of familiar encounters and situations. Using data from a nationally representative sample of Australians, this article looks at the time/space distribution, situational commonalities, and emotional consequences of vehicular incivilities. Risk factors consistent with the routine activities paradigm include everyday driving activity and microsituations involving mixed speeds, crowded conditions, and blocked flows. Results also suggest that automotive incivility is more likely than other types of incivility to incite feelings of fear and anger.     

HIGHER EDUCATION AND CRIMINAL OFFENDING OVER THE LIFE COURSE

Educational attainment and school bonding are established predictors of delinquent behavior. In spite of an abundance of research on the relationship between education and delinquency, there is little research that examines the impact of education on stability and change in criminal offending over the life course. This dearth of research is surprising given the increasing significance of post-secondary education in contemporary society and the prominence of the life course approach in the study of crime. The current study uses seven waves of data from the National Youth Survey to examine the impact of higher education on criminal offending over the life course. Findings indicate that college attendance and investment in higher education are negatively associated with criminal offending in adulthood. In addition, the protective effect of higher education is stronger for individuals who were more delinquent during adolescence. Study limitations and future research needs are discussed.     

Supply and demand: A study of labour market trends and the employment of new social work graduates in victoria

Abstract

At a time of significant restructuring in the community services labour market, it is particularly pertinent to analyse the current labour market opportunities available to new social work graduates. In 1995, using a small RMIT-funded (Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology) research grant, five schools of social work in Victoria collaborated to pilot a survey of the employment paths of the previous year's social work graduates. The survey was repeated in 1996. A complementary project which analysed the job advertisements for social work and social work-related positions during six months in both 1995 and 1996 provided further insight into the employment opportunities being advertised. Survey results showed a high rate of employment among new graduates with a decreasing number of graduates being employed in designated “social work” positions. This trend was reflected in the requirements for the positions advertised. The implications of this diversity of jobs and the decrease in designated “social work” positions are discussed, particularly in terms of broader changes in the world of work.     

The Relationship Between Culture,Geographic Region,and Gender on Body Image: A Comparison of College Students in the Southeast and Pacific Northwest Regions of the United States

Body image is a significant predictor of important psychological and physical outcomes. The current study sought to expand on previous research on cross-cultural differences in body image across countries by exploring differences in body image based on geographic region within the United States. A sample of 1,365 participants was recruited from universities in the Southeast and Pacific Northwest regions of the United States. Participants completed a survey that assessed their gender, geographic region, and body image. Women reported poorer body image than men, and young adults from the Southeast reported poorer body image than young adults from the Pacific Northwest. There were significant interaction effects for gender and geographic region with women from the Southeast reporting the poorest body image of any group. The authors suggest that sociocultural differences in standard of beauty in the Southeast as well as differences in dress related to climate may contribute to the findings.