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Illness, Identity, and Influence: Health Stigma and Young Mexican American Men
Full text linkThis research project evaluated perceptions of health stigma among young men of Mexican American descent in the central Texas region. The project aimed to identify health conditions that were stigmatized, how stigma operated within the Mexican community, and how individuals understood how health stigma impacted their community. The literature review found that existing articles often assumed that stigma existed, did not evaluate generational influences, and tended to focus on a single health condition. By focusing on a single generation and not on one specific condition, this project aimed to explore how stigma impacted the growing and developing population of young Mexican American men. Seven semi-structured interviews were conducted with participants aged between 18 to 22, who were asked questions related to health, stigma, and community support. Drawing on Bruce Links and Jo Phelan's conception of stigma, the interviews were qualitatively coded into five categories: labeling, stereotyping, separation, status loss, and discrimination. In addition, the interviews were also coded in relation to Talcott Parsons' Sick Role Theory. In the project, stigma manifested through class-based labels, masculinity expectations, and religious messaging. Social institutions like families, peer groups, and faith communities created and reinforced ideas of acceptable behavior and conditions, often denying recognition and support for those with stigmatized conditions. Some individuals internalized messaging of illness as a personal failing, which in turn affected their sense of belonging within their own communities. Ultimately, this project contributed to expanding conversations and interests in the field of stigma research by taking a holistic perspective that accounted for individual perspectives and community factors. In doing so, it aimed to support the need for community-based interventions that will tackle health disparities originating from within communities and the need for networks of support for those with stigmatized conditions.Humanitie
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Social contexts, social relationships, and health
Full text linktextThe study of social relationships and health has been one of the main issues of sociology. A growing number of literatures have demonstrated the association between social relationships and health. The findings generally showed that people who were socially integrated, received social support, and participated in non-working social organizations tended to be physically and psychologically healthier than those who were not; however, less is known about the process and structure of social relationships in the sociological investigation of health. Studies were often limited in that they did not thoroughly investigate the determinants of social relationships in relation to health. In the present study, I suggest that social contexts will enlarge our understanding of the association between social relationships and health. I employ the term social contexts to refer to distinctive dimensions of social structures and institutions in which individuals are embedded. If social contexts are probable determinants of social relationships, social contexts appear to have an effect on health status as well as social relationships. Despite this proposition, few studies have examined the associations among social contexts, social relationships, and health in an integrated analytical framework. The main objective of this project is, thus, to examine the association among the distinctive layers of social contexts--family, workplace, and neighborhoods--, social relationships and health. Using the first and second wave of the Americans’ Changing Lives panel data, I test four main research questions. First, are social contexts associated with health outcomes? Second, are social contexts predictive of a variety of social relationships? Third, do social relationships account for the association between social contexts and health outcomes? Finally, do social contexts moderate the association between social relationships and health outcomes? Neighborhood contexts are associated with depression and self-rated health of the first wave net of controls. Neighborhood contexts are predictive of a variety of social relationships. Social relationships account for the associations between the percentage of households receiving public assistance, foreign-born residents, and female-headed households, and depression of the first wave. Some of the associations between social relationships and health outcomes are moderated by neighborhood contexts, and the moderating effects vary by the types of social relationships. Workplace contexts are generally associated with depression, but not largely associated with self-rated health. Workplace contexts are predictive of a variety of social relationships. Social relationships only moderately account for the effects of job decision latitude, physical demands, and psychological demands on depression of the second wave, and psychological demands on self-rated health of the first wave. The associations between social relationships and health outcomes are moderated by workplace contexts in some cases, and the moderating effects vary by the types of social relationships. Family contexts are generally associated with depression and self-rated health in both cross-sectional and longitudinal settings. Family contexts are predictive of a variety of social relationships. Social relationships mediate some of the associations between family context variables and health; the effect of family context variables on self-rated health of the second wave are explained by social relationships in models of having children, parental chronic stress, mother support, child support, and spouse support. Some of the associations between social relationships and health status are moderated by family contexts, and the moderating effects vary by the types of social relationships.Sociolog
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Age, SES, and health : old topic, new perspective (a longitudinal perspective about the relationship between SES and health)
Full text linktextSocioeconomic disparities in health are well documented in the United States in that the higher socioeconomic status (SES) a person is the lower level of incidence and the prevalence of health problem, disease and death will be. Researchers have argued that SES disparities in health are found in different races, across countries, and throughout life. Furthermore, some researchers have argued that high SES persons enjoy their active life expectancy until quite late in life, while low SES persons start to suffer morbidity and functional limitation through middle and early old age. As a result, socioeconomic disparity in health becomes increasingly differential at middle age, while it diminishes until later old age due to physical fragility of human being and declining effect of SES. This study extends previous research by applying the Multi Level Model for Change (MLMFC) and Multi Cohorts Accelerate Longitudinal Design (MCALD) to explore SES disparities in health over the life course. Functional limitation and chronic diseases are used as measurements of health status over time. This study introduces a new way to measure health status over time by combining number and duration of chronic diseases. The results suggest that using a combination of number and duration of chronic diseases as measurement of health over time is more optimal than only using the number of chronic diseases. Both time variant and invariant independent variables are used to explore health trajectory. Findings from this study indicate that people from different SES groups have different health trajectories over the life course. Low SES people tend to age faster than their high SES counterparts. The process of aging in the United States is largely segregated according to individuals’ SES. Financial stress and health risk behaviors are two major mediators of SES disparities in functional limitation. However, SES (measured by income) is consistently a significant predictor of chronic diseases after controlling financial stress and health risk behaviors. Findings of this study suggest that the mechanisms through which SES impacts functional limitation may be different from its impact on chronic diseases.Sociolog
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
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Religious involvement, mortality, and functional health status : an analysis of elderly Mexican Americans
No full texttextCurrent research regarding the relationship between religious involvement
and health outcomes is limited by the use of cross-sectional data and/or restrictive
samples (e.g., non-Hispanic Whites). Yet, the general conclusion drawn by
researchers is that individuals who regularly engage in religious activities live
longer and report fewer difficulties in physical function. This relationship may be
particularly salient among older, Hispanic adults who are faced with the risks of
aging and minority group status. In order to overcome these limitations, this
study analyzes data from the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) and the
Hispanic Established Populations for the Epidemiologic Study of the Elderly
(HEPESE) with the following specific aims: (1) to determine whether or not
religious involvement is independently related to transitions in functional health
status over time, (2) to investigate the possibility that the reverse causal ordering
(i.e., declines in functional health status affect religious involvement) is
responsible for the association between religious involvement and functional
health status, (3) to evaluate the role of potential mediators including, health
behaviors, social integration, and psychological resources on the relationship
between religious involvement and mortality, and religious involvement and
functional health status, and (4) to examine whether or not the relationship
between religious involvement and mortality, and religious involvement and
functional health status differ according to gender. Cox proportional hazards
models are used to estimate mortality risk. Multinomial logistic regression, which
adjusts for the competing risks of death and nonresponse, is used to model the
effect of religious service attendance on the probability of transitions in functional
state over time. The findings provide some evidence that those who attended
religious services less frequently were more likely to die over the 10-year follow
up. In addition, more frequent religious service attendance predicted better ADL
and IADL functioning at baseline, controlling for sociodemographic factors,
health behaviors, degree of social integration, and psychological resources. This
effect persists over time, although it is no longer significant at the final wave.
Nevertheless, religious participation is clearly of significance in the lives of
elderly Mexicans, particularly women.Sociolog
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Familial religious involvement and children's mental health outcome
Full text linktextThese three studies use two waves of the National Survey of Families and Households to investigate the influence of parents’ religious commitment and involvement on children’s internalizing and externalizing problems over time. In addition, the analyses will examine of different forms of family instability and parenting practices mediates this relationship. Furthermore, does parental religiosity moderate the relationship between instability and children’s mental health problems? The first study shows that children whose parents are both religiously unaffiliated, exhibit elevated internalizing problems compared to children from mixed-faith households. Evangelical Protestant affiliation moderated the relationship between parents’ frequent arguments and internalizing problems. In addition, children whose mothers are more theologically conservative than the fathers show elevated levels of internalizing problems. In addition, theological dissimilarity (mothers more conservative) plays a moderating role between frequent arguments and internalizing problems. The second study shows that children from religiously homogamous households, exhibit lower than average externalizing problems. In addition, fathers’ religious involvement protects their children from externalizing problems, even when accounting for various forms of family instability and parenting practices. Furthermore, children whose mothers are more theologically conservative than fathers, show elevated levels of some externalizing problems. Structural equation modeling analyses show that parents’ socioeconomic status is related to parental religious dissimilarity, parental divorce and parental praise of children. When mothers are more theologically conservative than fathers, these couples are at higher likelihood of frequent parental arguments. As a consequence, their children are at an elevated likelihood of difficulty concentrating, internalizing problems, and externalizing problems. Frequency of parental arguments is also positively related to divorce. If high conflict marriages end, children are at a reduced likelihood of externalizing problems. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.Sociolog
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Full text linkWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
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