Professional Self‐regulation in North America: The Cases of Law and Accounting

Professional and expert work holds the potential for misconduct that can harm clients or the public. According to the traditional model of professional self‐regulation, developed during the “golden age” of the professions in the mid‐20th century, societies grant professional communities freedom from external regulation in return for their commitment to regulate their members' conduct. Professions were said to cultivate distinctive ethical norms, socialize new practitioners, and engage in social control of deviant behavior. In light of dramatic changes in the professional world since that time, this essay reviews research on the legal and accounting professions in North America to assess the extent to which this traditional model still holds. The two professions continue to resemble the traditional model in some respects but diverge from it in others, and on some points, there is insufficient evidence to draw a conclusion. The traditional model of self‐regulation is probably best viewed as an ideal type that can serve as a standard of reference, not as an accurate representation of social reality. This conclusion opens up new topics for research and opportunities to inform policy.     

Accelerometry analysis of physical activity and sedentary behavior in older adults: a systematic review and data analysis

Accelerometers objectively monitor physical activity and sedentary patterns and are increasingly used in the research setting. It is important to maintain consistency in data analysis and reporting, therefore, we: (1) systematically identified studies using accelerometry (ActiGraph, Pensacola, FL, USA) to measure moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) and sedentary time in older adults, and (2) based on the review findings, we used different cut-points obtained to analyze accelerometry data from a sample of community-dwelling older women. We identified 59 articles with cut-points ranging between 574 and 3,250 counts/min for MVPA and 50 and 500 counts/min for sedentary time. Using these cut-points and data from women (mean age, 70 years), the median MVPA minutes per day ranged between 4 and 80 min while percentage of sedentary time per day ranged between 62 % and 86 %. These data highlight (1) the importance of reporting detailed information on the analysis assumptions and (2) that results can differ greatly depending on analysis parameters.     

HIV testing,perceptions of AIDS risk,and condom use motivation among US women

As STD infections including HIV increase in the United States, it has become increasingly important to policy makers to ascertain the extent to which knowledge and perceptions of AIDS risk affect an individual's probability of altering their sexual or contraceptive behavior to avoid infection. This paper examines the extent to which women's perceptions of their own and their partners' risk of HIV infection affects the probability of using a condom for protection against sexually transmitted diseases. This paper also examines the extent to which HIV testing may affect motivation for condom use. Crosstabulations reveal that prophylactic condom use is more prevalent among women who have been tested for HIV and increase as perceptions of their chance (and their partner's chance) of being positive increases. The multivariate results from this study indicate that having an HIV test significantly predicts the likelihood of using a condom for STD prevention for US women. Furthermore, women who perceive themselves to be at least somewhat likely to be HIV positive have a higher probability of using a condom to prevent sexually transmitted disease, and women who perceive their partners to be HIV positive are twice as likely as other women to use a condom for STD prevention. However, women who consider themselves likely to be HIV positive are no more likely to use a condom than those who consider themselves not at risk.     

Developmental well-being among low and normal birth weight U.S. Puerto Rican children

Low birth weight is a more common occurrence among Puerto Rican children than among children from most other racial and ethnic groups in the United States, and they are more likely to experience the added risk of living in poverty. This study addresses what is protective for the development 602 normal birth weight and 554 low birth weight children from the Puerto Rican Maternal and Infant Health Study. The results presented in the current analysis identify several protective influences for development (particularly maternal social support, medical insurance, and paternal employment) among low birth weight children (who are at a high risk for developmental problems), and almost none for normal birth weight children. The results largely support the contention that protective factors emerge, or increase in strength, only in the presence of risk, indicating the use of targeted child health programs based on birth weight are an effective and efficient way to improve the developmental well-being of young Puerto Rican children in the United States.     

Biology,Social Environment,and Health: How Family History and Social Conditions Affect Adult Asthma*

Objective. We examine how multiple measures of both biological (family history of asthma) and social risk factors (home environment quality, socioeconomic status, and demographic characteristics) influence asthma risk among U.S. adults. Method. Using logistic regression models, we analyze data from a sample of 6,337 adults from the 2003–2004 National Asthma Survey. Results. Prevalence rates of current asthma are four times higher among adults with a family history of asthma, and the odds of having asthma are influenced most strongly by having asthmatic parents or grandparents (and, to a lesser extent, asthmatic siblings). We also find that social factors, especially characteristics of the home environment, significantly increase the odds of suffering from asthma as an adult. Conclusion. Our results show that all measures of family history are strongly linked to adult asthma prevalence, even when social factors are controlled. Social factors are also important, but very little of this is as a mediating influence that links family history and adult asthma; rather, family and social conditions have mostly independent effects.     

The Epileptic: A Study in Status-Role Relationships

The status-role of the epileptic in the United States and elsewhere is such that he is handicapped in gaining employment and education. In fact, it is not epilepsy per se which prevents epileptics from adequately participating in our society, but the beliefs about epilepsy. These beliefs have a long history and are derived from ancient and mythical sources. They have no validity in the light of medical advances made in this field over the past thirty years. Hence it is now necessary to give epileptics those educational and vocational opportunities which others have and of which epileptics have been unjustly deprived.     

Does Multiracial Matter? A Study of Racial Disparities in Self-Rated Health

How do self-identified multiracial adults fit into documented patterns of racial health disparities? We assess whether the health status of adults who view themselves as multiracial is distinctive from that of adults who maintain a single-race identity, by using a seven-year (2001–2007) pooled sample of the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS). We explore racial differences in self-rated health between whites and several single and multiracial adults with binary logistic regression analyses and investigate whether placing these groups into a self-reported “best race” category alters patterns of health disparities. We propose four hypotheses that predict how the self-rated health status of specific multiracial groups compares with their respective component single-race counterparts, and we find substantial complexity in that no one explanatory model applies to all multiracial combinations. We also find that placing multiracial groups into a single “best race” category likely obscures the pattern of health disparities for selected groups because some multiracial adults (e.g., American Indians) tend to identify with single-race groups whose health experience they do not share.     

Gender, acculturation, and health among Mexican Americans

This study examines whether the relationship between acculturation and physical health varies by gender among Mexican Americans, and if the mechanisms that mediate the acculturation-health relationship operate differently by gender. Using the 1998-2007 National Health Interview Study, we construct a composite measure of acculturation and estimate regression models for the total number of health conditions, hypertension, heart disease, and diabetes. Immigrants with the lowest levels of acculturation are the healthiest, but this association is stronger for men. Medical care plays a central role in accounting for gender and acculturation differences across health outcomes-increased access to and utilization of medical care is associated with worse health, which suggests that better health among recent arrivals (particularly men) partially results from their lack of knowledge about their own poor health.     

How organizational characteristics shape gender difference and inequality at work

Why should students and scholars who are interested in gender difference and inequality study organizations? In recent years, as research on organizations has migrated to business schools and become less connected to other subfields of the discipline, the value of organizational sociology has become less evident to many. Yet characteristics of organizations contribute in important ways to producing different experiences and outcomes for women and men, by constraining certain individual actions and enabling or bringing about others. In this essay, we trace the consequences of four categories of organizational characteristics—the formal structure of work, employment practices, informal structure and culture, and organizational networks and fields—for gender inequality in three areas: workplace experiences, work–family conflict, and career outcomes. We close with some brief reflections on future directions for research linking organizations and gender.