Bidirectional longitudinal associations of parent and child health following the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill

This study (1) assessed whether parent health mediated associations between exposures to the 2010 BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill (BP-DHOS) and child health, and whether child health mediated associations between BP-DHOS exposures and parent health; and (2) assessed bidirectional longitudinal associations between parent health and child health following the BP-DHOS. The study used three waves of panel data (2014, 2016, and 2018) from South Louisiana communities highly impacted by the BP-DHOS. Parents with children (aged 4–18 at the time of the interview) were interviewed based on a probability sample of households. Focal measures included economic and physical BP-DHOS exposures, self-reported parent health, and parent-reported child health. Health measures were gathered at three time points. The analyses included mediation analysis and estimating and comparing effect sizes of longitudinal cross-lagged effects between parent health and child health. Results showed that parent health partly mediated associations between BP-DHOS exposures and child health, and that child health partly mediated associations between BP-DHOS exposures and parent health. Paths from prior waves of parent health to subsequent waves of child health were positive and statistically significant as were paths from prior waves of child health to subsequent waves of parent health. The differences in size of the child-to-parent health effects and the parent-to-child health effects were not statistically significant. This study’s results extend evidence for the post-disaster effect of parent health on child health and the effects of child health on parent health. These findings support the contention that harm to the health of one’s family member following disasters operates as a form of resource loss deleterious to one’s health.

     

Occupational Social Class and Earnings Inequality in Europe: A Comparative Assessment

Social Indicators Research - While there is renewed interest in earnings differentials between social classes, the contribution of social class to overall earnings inequality across countries and...     

Lessons learned from children who have experienced homelessness: what services need to know

Children who accompany their parents or guardians during a period of homelessness make up 37% (more than one in three) of all people accessing the Supported Accommodation Assistance Program (SAAP) services. This paper describes an Australian qualitative study that explored the experiences of children who accompanied their families during periods of homelessness. It focuses particularly on what children and young people say they want from the services that they come in contact with; particularly specialised homelessness services such as housing support services and refuges. Key themes that emerged from the research include: the need for services to engage with children as individuals in their own right, to listen to and acknowledge their stories, to have services that meet their individual needs, to act and respond when children feel unsafe and for workers who can provide support to children to talk to parents about what is going on. Children and young people wanted workers to know that they felt their parents were doing their best to keep them safe. They focused on what their parents could do and did do rather than what they were not able to provide. They called on the human service system to do the same.     

Fairness Among Servers When Capacity Decisions Are Endogenous

We look at a simple service system with two servers serving arriving jobs (single class). Our interest is in examining the effect of routing policies on servers when they care about fairness among themselves, and when they can endogenously choose capacities in response to the routing policy. Therefore, we study the two‐server game where the servers’ objective functions have a term explicitly modeling fairness. Moreover, we focus on four commonly seen policies that are from one general class. Theoretical results concerning the existence and uniqueness of the Nash equilibrium are proved for some policies. Further managerial insights are given based on simulation studies on servers’ equilibrium/off‐equilibrium behaviors and the resulting system efficiency performance under different policies.     

Aboriginal Drinking: A Case Study in Inequality and Disadvantage

This paper examines an aspect of social inequality experienced by Aboriginal people living in a remote Queensland mining town. We contend that non-Aboriginal perceptions and attitudes of Aboriginal drinking behaviour contribute directly to structural inequalities within the Mount Isa community. Social drinking in the township is, for reserve-dwelling Aborigines, restricted mainly to one bar in one hotel and adjoining park and river bank area. The restrictions are preserved through both overt and covert discrimination. Aboriginal inebriation and excessive drinking are therefore more visible to the wider community and more accessible to police prosecution than that of any other ethnic group in the town. Although White folk tales concerning Aboriginal drinking often contain fear about acts of violence and crime directed towards the White community, soundly documented incidents are rare. This paper argues that the persistence of such attitudes is at the heart of a symbolic differential between the White and Black community in Queensland. Moreover, problems within the Aboriginal community that can be directly related to the excessive consumption of alcohol must also be seen as a product of these White reactions and perceptions.     

EMOTIONAL FEEDBACK AND AMPLIFICATION IN SOCIAL INTERACTION

This article develops an interactive, theoretical model of emotional feedback and amplification. Whereas the sociology of emotions typically examines how affect arises, this article focuses on the aftermath of an evoked emotion as it evolves in ongoing interaction. I argue that interactions serve as a stimulus to evoke emotional responses, but as interactions continue, these interactions provide an additional stimulus that feeds back into the initial emotion, amplifying it. I articulate two modes of emotional feedback and amplification: spontaneous and managed. Spontaneous amplification is a by-product of unplanned but continuous interactions. In contrast, managed amplification results from purposeful interactions and can be initiated through either surface acting or deep acting. The process of feedback and amplification is more likely under structural and cultural conditions that facilitate ongoing interactions. An empirical elaboration of the model is drawn from an ethnographic study of "TD's Restaurant." Examining how feedback and amplification occur in different settings is an ongoing task for sociologists interested in emotions, work and occupations, mental health, and social movements.