The U.S. Destinations of Contemporary Mexican Immigrants1

Although U.S. Latinos continue to be concentrated in particular places, many have shifted to “new” locations around the country. This study employs data from the Mexican Migration Project (MMP107) to examine the relationship between individual‐level characteristics and diverse U.S. destinations chosen by post‐1965 Mexican immigrants. Multinomial logistic regression analyses confirm the importance of human capital, social networks, and temporal context in directing immigrants to particular U.S. sites. The findings also suggest that employing a typology of U.S. destinations is useful for understanding the spatial distributions of contemporary Mexican immigrants.     

Population growth and environmental quality in California: An american laboratory

Rapid population growth, industrial and military activity, agriculture, and motor vehicles have had severe, quantifiable adverse impact on California's environment and social fabric. Cumulative impact of ground and surface water contamination will take decades to remedy at costs that may prove politically unbearable. The state's educational and welfare systems are approaching insolvency, due to factors associated with population growth, largely fueled by immigration. Increasingly severe restrictions on motor vehicles will be necessary to remediate degraded air, while number of vehicles will double before 2020.The cumulative impact of these processes may prove a severe test to consensus-based American representative government.     

User Beware: Concerning Findings from the Post 2011–2012 U.S. Internal Revenue Service Migration Data

Population Research and Policy Review - The U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) makes publicly and freely available period migration data at the state and county levels. Among their uses, these...     

Disability-based inequity in youth subjective well-being: current findings and future directions

This selective, critical literature review synthesizes recent research exploring disability-based disparities in the subjective well-being and living conditions of youth in high-income countries. Compared with their non-disabled peers, disabled youth report lower levels of happiness, lower global life satisfaction and higher rates of suicidal ideation. Emerging evidence suggests that the relatively poor subjective well-being of disabled youth reflects, at least in part, differential access to material and social resources rather than the presence of chronic conditions or impairment per se. These findings indicate that disability-based disparities in youth subjective well-being are socially patterned and preventable.     

The Effect of Negative Campaign Advertising on Vote Choice: The Mediating Influence of Gender*

Objective. Some studies of negative campaign advertising's impact argue that a backlash or “boomerang effect” exists. However, the appropriate conceptualization of a boomerang effect might not be an immediate backlash against the sponsor but a delayed response that comes after repeated exposure to negative campaign advertisements. Method. We conducted an experiment using a variation of the pretest‐posttest control group design in which treatment groups were exposed to varying numbers of negative campaign advertisements. Results. There is a parabolic effect of repeated exposure to negative advertisements that is gender specific. Among women, the sponsor initially benefits from an enhanced image but suffers a decline in image when the voters become overexposed to negative advertisements. Conclusion. A reconceptualization of the “boomerang effect” of negative campaign advertising is in order.     

Benefit-finding or finding benefits? The positive impact of having a disabled child

This study investigated the positive impact of having a disabled child. The question addressed is whether the positive impacts reported by parents are better characterised as artefacts of stress-processing or transformational outcomes. A total of 538 parent-carers in Alberta, Canada completed a survey. Most parents reported benefits. Their reports were corroborated by measures of family cohesion and social support. Reported benefit had no observed stress-buffering effects. The findings suggest that reported benefits are not merely perceived for the sake of coping. These are better viewed as outcomes of a transformational life-learning process. When parent-carers report benefits, we should take them at their word.     

Home Equity of New Legal Immigrants in the United States: An Evaluation of Three Key Theoretical Perspectives

Housing in the U.S. is a substantial expenditure, but possessing equity in a home also represents an important source of wealth. This study employs 2003 data from the New Immigrant Survey to examine the home equity of legal immigrants who have come to the U.S. from around the world. We empirically test the relevance of three key theoretical frameworks for predicting immigrants' home equity and evaluate each framework's ability to account for differences in home equity among origin groups. We find strong support for the assimilation and the segmented assimilation frameworks, and little support for the place stratification perspective, net of other factors. Substantial differences in the home equity between origin groups persist even in the presence of multiple controls, with implications for legal immigrants' current economic position and future well‐being in the U.S.     

Determining skill transferability of action games as a method to reduce in-vehicle phone distractions

Distracted driving has been shown to be a safety issue in numerous studies. To combat this problem, in-vehicle technology, legislation, media interventions, and other methods have been proposed and attempted. However research indicates that the drivers themselves may circumvent, ignore, or not be able to react in time for these interventions to be effective. Therefore research into training programs for drivers may improve reaction time under distraction. Research indicates that action game players have faster reaction times and more attentional resources than non-players on paper-based tests. However, transferability to driving has not been studied yet. This paper outlines a study to determine if action game players perform better at a driving task based on frequency of game-play. Participants will be placed into two groups of play (high vs. low) and tested against two levels of distraction (none vs. phone conversation). It is expected that participants who play higher frequency of action games will perform better under distraction than lower frequency players. Driver performance, conversation recall, frequency and durations of eye fixations will be analyzed based on previous research which has validated those variables as a measure of distraction and higher workload.