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Sexual and Gender Minority College Student Retention: The Unique Effects of Mental Health and Campus Environment on the Potential for Dropout
No full textBackground: While limited data has been collected, some findings show that sexual and gender minority (SGM) students are at higher risk for dropping out of college than their peers. Research on issues such as campus connectedness and mental health among this population indicates both may affect retention.
Aim: This study examined how mental health and perceptions of campus connectedness may mediate the relationship between SGM identification and intentions to drop out of college.
Methods: Survey data collected from 1,793 randomly selected students across eight different public universities in Mississippi were used to conduct a parallel mediation analysis.
Results: Mediation analyses indicated that there was a significant direct effect of SGM identity on intentions to drop out, and that both mediators had a significant indirect effect. Psychiatric symptoms had a relatively larger indirect effect than campus connectedness.
Conclusions: These results contribute to the limited quantitative literature on SGM student retention, supporting previous work indicating these students are at higher risk of attrition. The results suggest that student retention may be bolstered if access to SGM-competent mental health services is provided. Additionally, campuses should continue to support SGM-friendly policies and create inclusive spaces as a protective resource for students
Mules and Madmen: On the Disabling Habitats of Zora Neale Hurston and Jean Toomer
No full textThis essay reads the work of two major Harlem Renaissance authors as underacknowledged sites of disability politics and aesthetics, situating this moment in African-American artistic innovation as integral to the literary history of disability and illuminating the theories of disability that shaped these authors' experiments in literary form. Specifically, it argues that texts by Jean Toomer and Zora Neale Hurston were attuned to the intertwined vulnerabilities of Black people disabled by early-20th-century labor exploitation and more-than-human ecologies debilitated by the same industries. These works represent a serious challenge to the long-running myth in white disability studies that claims nonwhite authors have historically distanced themselves from disability for fear of racist pathologization. Toomer’s story “Box Seat,” for instance, positions its protagonist's atypical mental state—represented by voiceover-like internal monologues—as both aesthetically generative and materially responsive to the commercialization of racialized, disabled, and nonhuman spectacle. Meanwhile, Their Eyes Were Watching God’s oft-cited “mule of the world” metaphor finds literal representation in the form of a work-disabled mule, whose appearance in the narrative occasions one of Hurston’s most memorable aesthetic innovations: the incorporation of folklore into the realist novel. For both of these authors, disability represents not only vulnerability to the machinations of racial capitalism, but also creative invention and formal resistance to white-dominated narrative norms. They show that a capacious, ecologically oriented disability politics is central to the history of Black cultural production
Plain Believers in Ukraine
No full textIn the early 2000s, a Ukrainian television broadcast identified a Christian group about 175 kilometers southwest of Lviv in western Ukraine as “Ukrainian Amish,” due to their plain dress, simple lifestyle, and rejection of motorized vehicles. North American Amish and Plain Mennonites working in Ukraine with Christian Aid Ministries and Master’s International Ministries then made contact with the group, curious about its origins and beliefs. In this article, Edward A. Kline reports on his time among the Plain believers in the Ukrainian village of Kosmirin. Kline describes both the similarities and differences in belief and practice between these Ukrainian Plain believers and traditional Amish and Plain Mennonites
Reducing Overdoses Among African American Individuals in Ohio: An Emerging Public Health Crisis
No full textThe drug overdose death rate is a major public health crisis with overdoses now being considered a leading cause of death within the United States, including in Ohio. Currently, opioid overdoses primarily involve heroin, fentanyl, and other drugs such as cocaine and MDMA laced with fentanyl. Of particular concern has been the recent demographic shift regarding those who overdose. Opioid overdoses are increasing at a disproportionately higher rate among African American individuals as compared to individuals in other racial and ethnic populations. A public health approach is needed to address the rising epidemic of opioid overdoses impacting African American individuals. Such an approach would comprise a comprehensive and coordinated strategy in providing prevention, intervention, treatment, and recovery services to achieve a sustainable public health impact
Policing Farm Crime in the United States: A Research Note
Get PDFThough research on farm-related offending and victimization still lags behind most other crime-related topics, recent years have seen an increase in scholarly attention to the topic. These studies have provided insight into the prevalence of victimization and the impact of various security measures on it. However, virtually all of these studies have relied upon data collected from farm operators. While beneficial, it is also imperative to explore the experiences and perceptions of those tasked with investigating these crimes. The current study sought to fill this gap in the literature through qualitative interviews with agricultural crime investigators in the United States. Specifically, interviewees were asked to elaborate on topics such as the referral of cases, how they are typically processed, and perceptions regarding the prevalence of victimization and characteristics of both victims and offenders. Themes emerging from their responses are discussed. In addition, both policy implications and potential directions for future research are highlighted
Acquisitive Crime Trends: Unpacking the Unemployment-Crime Relationship in a Rural Context
No full textTests of criminological theory are conducted almost exclusively about urban spaces. In urban areas, rates of property and acquisitive crime are often tied to economic structural health through institutional anomie and market society theories. Examinations of the connection between economic structures and acquisitive crime in rural spaces are lacking in the literature. This study uses United States’ NCVS data from 1993-2005 examine trends in acquisitive crime over time from a macro level economic theoretical perspective in rural United States counties. Implications for additional rural theory tests will be addressed
Is Melody “Dead?”: A Large-scale Analysis of Pop Music Melodies from 1960 through 2019
No full textIn this paper we theorize that there are specific musical features that contribute to a melody’s character which we define as melodiousness and conduct a large-scale corpus analysis to examine whether there are differences in the melodiousness of popular hit songs from the 1960s compared with present-day pop songs. To carry out the corpus analysis, we use a new approach for generating symbolic data for popular music melodies to overcome the lack of preexisting symbolic data. In addition, we attempt to answer the question of whether any key characteristics of melodiousness appear to have changed or shifted in notable ways over time
It’s time to open your ears to world music: Commentary on Quan et al. (2022)
No full textThis is a commentary on Quan et al. (2022) about their paper on world music open earedness and functional uses of music in relationship with psychological and sociocultural adaptations in student sojourners in Australia. The strengths of the paper, including the significance of cross-cultural music research and its applications for mental well-being, are discussed. Additionally, comparing responses through control groups and providing clear definitions of “novel and unfamiliar” musical excerpts for future replications are suggested in more detail in this commentary