Neighborhood disadvantage, stress, and drug use among adults

This paper explores the relationships among neighborhood disadvantage, stress, and the likelihood of drug use in a sample of adults (N = 1,101). Using the 1995 Detroit Area Study in conjunction with tract-level data from the 1990 census, we find a positive relationship between neighborhood disadvantage and drug use, and this relationship remains statistically significant net of controls for individual-level socioeconomic status. Neighborhood disadvantage is moderately associated with drug related behaviors, indirectly through increased social stressors and higher levels of psychological distress among residents of disadvantaged neighborhoods. A residual effect of neighborhood disadvantage remains, net of a large number of socially relevant controls. Finally, results from interactive models suggest that the relationship between neighborhood disadvantage and drug use is most pronounced among individuals with lower incomes.     

'Clinton faces nation': a case study in the construction of focus group data as public opinion

This paper analyses the way in which a particular newspaper report constructs ‘public opinion’ based on data from small‐scale qualitative research. Using as a case study a report of a focus group discussion of Clinton's grand jury testimony, we show how these data are ‘worked up’ as representative, generalisable, and valid. By capitalising on the advantages of focus group data, while attending to and countering their disadvantages, the newspaper report is able to suggest that the views of ten people in San Francisco offer an authoritative indication of public opinion about Clinton across the USA. Finally, we sketch out some of the implications of this case study in relation to the construction of facticity more generally.     

Knowledge, Consequences, and Experience: The Social Construction of Environmental Problems

Perhaps one of the most obvious yet difficult questions confronting sociologists concerned with large-scale environmental problems is an epistemological one: How do we know what we know about the state of the environment? This paper explores the realist and constructionist approaches to environmental-social problems and finds both inadequate as currently formulated. A case is made for a phenomenological constructionism that moves beyond relativism and simple definitional constructionism by exploring how we actually experience the world. This approach recognizes the existence of a natural world independent of our constructions, yet suggests that our knowledge of it is always mediated, indirect, and pragmatically motivated.     

Human Relations Training in Schools and Elsewhere

Human relations training in many forms, the best known of which are encounter groups, enjoys wide popularity in industry, government and education. Some ‘professional’ objections to the running of such groups are raised, and it is proposed that these objections may be partially answered if there is a non-profit-making national association of group leaders whose function would be to provide a code of ethics to members and information to the public. As well as these professional objections involving the areas of leadership, screening and casualties, there are also objections to the 'process' of groups itself; to these latter objections arising out of an individual's sensibility and subjective interpretations of events, no compelling reply can be given. Affirmation of the interactions in encounter groups is likewise a subjective matter.     

Light and Heavy Heterosexual Activities of Young Canadian Adolescents: Normative Patterns and Differential Predictors

The objectives of this research were to explore patterns of heterosexual activity in early adolescence and to examine the differential pathways to light and heavy heterosexuality. We utilized the National Longitudinal Survey of Canadian Children and Youth (NLSCY) in which heterosexual behaviors, as well as puberty, parenting processes, peer self‐concept, and problem behaviors were examined. The heterosexual activities of the majority of 12‐ and 13‐year‐old adolescents were largely confined to light activities of hugging, holding hands, and kissing. Heavy activities such as petting and sexual intercourse were reported less often. Using predictor variables from Cycle 1 of the NLSCY when participants were 10‐ and 11‐year‐olds, SEM analyses indicated that puberty and higher peer self‐concept shared significant direct pathways to both light and heavy heterosexuality. Heavy sexual activity, however, was uniquely associated with the risk factors of adolescent problem behaviors. Positive and hostile parenting styles were indirectly associated with light sexual activity through peer self‐concept. Positive and hostile parenting styles were also indirectly associated with heavy sexual activity through both peer‐oriented self‐concept and problem behaviors. Results support differential patterns and predictors of light and heavy sexuality in early adolescence.     

Nonprofit sustainability during times of uncertainty

Nonprofit organizations in the United States depend on a diverse set of funding streams to sustain their operations. This study examines the ability of nonprofits to leverage funds from the private sector during the current economic downturn within four areas receiving federal funding for community and economic development. Both survey research and individual interviews were used to examine how nonprofits within these areas are incorporating their board members and community leaders to continue services during a time of resource scarcity.     

An Examination of the Relationship Between Gambling and Antisocial Behavior

Problem gambling is significantly more prevalent in forensic populations than in the general population. Although some previous work suggests that gambling and antisocial behavior are related, the extent and nature of this relationship is unclear. Both gambling and antisocial behavior are forms of risk-taking, and may therefore share common determinants. We investigated whether individual differences in personality traits associated with risk-taking, the Big Five personality traits, and antisocial tendencies predicted gambling and antisocial behavior among 180 male students recruited for a study of gambling (35.0% non-problem gamblers, 36.7% low-risk gamblers, 21.7% problem gamblers, and 6.7% pathological gamblers). All forms of gambling and antisocial behavior were significantly correlated. Personality traits associated with risk-acceptance explained a significant portion of the variance in problem gambling, general gambling involvement, and all forms of antisocial behavior. Antisocial tendencies (aggression and psychopathic tendencies) explained a significant portion of additional variance in severe antisocial behavior but not moderate or minor antisocial behavior. When controlling for personality traits associated with risk-acceptance, the relationship between gambling and antisocial behavior was greatly diminished. The results are consistent with the hypothesis that gambling and antisocial behavior are associated because they are, in part, different manifestations of similar personality traits.     

Minimum wage effects by gender

Recent criticisms have led some to dismiss time-series analyses in the debate over the minimum wage. We investigate previous time-series studies showing that raising the minimum wage has a smaller impact on females than males. We reanalyze the data in light of recent developments in time-series methods and find that the minimum wage has a similar significant negative impact on both males and females. We conclude that, following a 10 percent increase in the minimum wage, both male and female employment drops from between 2 and 4 percent over a two-year period. This employment decrease slowly erodes as economic growth and inflation cause the minimum wage to fall below the market-clearing wage. We thank David Card and Alan Krueger for generously providing the data.     

Youth-Subcultural Studies: Sociological Traditions and Core Concepts

The study of youth subcultures has rich histories in the USA and UK, yet has remained a marginal subfield within cultural sociology. In this article, I begin by reviewing the significance of the Chicago school, strain theory, Birmingham school and post-subcultural studies traditions of youth-cultural and youth-subcultural research. I then conceive of a series of significant analytic concepts that over time have proven themselves to be core components of youth-subcultural studies. These analytic concepts include subcultural style, resistance, subcultural space and media, societal reaction, and identity and authenticity. In each analytic section, I explore major conceptual frames and discuss significant empirical research, on youth subcultures including punk goth, straightedge, riot grrrl skateboarding, rave and club cultures, among others.     

Which Children Will Go to Secondary School? Factors Affecting Parents' Decisions in Rural Thailand1

Abstract This study examines parents' decisions about educating some or all of their children beyond primary school in rural Thailand. Their strategies often involve choices between sons and daughters and between older versus younger children. We find that the more children there are in a family, the lower the proportion who are sent to secondary school. Parents send more sons than daughters and more youngest than eldest children. The decision is sometimes associated with a specific “investment” strategy, but it may also reflect parents' ability to afford to send children beyond primary school. Important economic factors include children's perceived earning potentials, anticipated opportunity costs, and parents' poverty status. However, the issues of access to schools and the safety of children, particularly girls, are also critically important. These concerns are often weighed as heavily, or more heavily, than economic considerations.