Sociology Publications

The Experiences of First-Generation University Students

Anna E. Spengen — Thu, 09 May 2013 12:25:29 PDT

As the enrollment of first-generation university students increases it becomes paramount to analyze their unique experiences. It is important not to dismiss these students as passively accepting of their lower-class positions, but rather recognize their potential for mobility. This paper works under the assumption that students have found a way to confront barriers to university access, and have already gained enrollment within an institution. Thus, the focus centers upon experiences within the university setting as they pertain to support systems, engagement within the university, and academic achievement. Such experiences are framed within the theoretical confines of Pierre Bourdieu and his cultural reproduction theory, which speaks to issues of capital. These arguments are enhanced through theories of cultural mismatch, as well as the works of Erving Goffman and his notes on stigma. Ideally, this paper seeks to inform university policy such that relevant programming and support may be established for first-generation students.

The Gendered Nature of Sexuality

Anna E. Spengen — Thu, 09 May 2013 08:40:44 PDT

This essay focuses on casual sex encounters, wherein the gendered nature of sexuality is thought to be most salient. Four specific areas of sexuality and its scripts are investigated as gendered within this essay: instigation, negotiation, the act of intercourse, and social repercussions of participation. These four categories are comparatively analyzed within the two dominant and competing perspectives of essentialism and social constructionism. This analysis seeks to highlight the superiority of a constructionist view in explaining the gendered nature of sexuality. The narrow minded view of essentialism, with its failure to acknowledge the influences of social and cultural factors, posits the perspective as inadequate by comparison.

United States: A Global Criminal

Adam T. Noxell — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 07:55:29 PDT

The paper was written to evaluate and discuss the crimes that the US committed during the decade long war on terrorism. It look specifically at the US invasion of Iraq, the nations motives for the attack and the process leading up to the attack. The paper argues the "super power" status that the US has allowed it to disregard domestic and international laws as well as human life to pursue its exploits in the middle east.

Predictors of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, Depression, and Suicidal Ideation among Canadian Forces Personnel in a National Canadian Military Health Survey

Charles Nelson et al. — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 17:40:26 PST

Despite efforts to elucidate the relationship between traumatic event exposure and adverse mental health outcomes, our ability to understand why only some trauma-exposed individuals become emotionally affected remains challenged. The aim of the current study is to determine the relations between social support, religiosity, and number of lifetime traumatic events experienced on past-12 month posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, and suicidal ideation (SI) in a nationally representative sample of Canadian Forces personnel. The current study used data from the Canadian Community Health Survey Cycle 1.2 – Canadian Forces Supplement. The impact of a number of predictive and mediating factors was assessed using structural equation modeling. Social support and number of lifetime traumatic events experienced were significant predictors of past-year PTSD, depression, and SI; however PTSD did not mediate the relationship between number of traumatic events and SI nor between social support and SI. Conversely, depression mediated the relationship between number of traumatic events and SI. Possible mechanisms for these findings and their implications are discussed.

The Social Distribution of Distress and Well-Being in the Canadian Aboriginal Population Living Off Reserve

Susan Wingert — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 18:43:25 PST

This article examines how the social structure distributes risk and protective factors and mental health outcomes within the off reserve Aboriginal population in Canada. It uses the stress process model, a prominent model in the sociology of mental health, to explore pathways between social status, stress, coping resources, and mental health outcomes. Path analyses are used to decompose total effects on distress and well-being into direct and indirect or mediating pathways. The results suggest that stress, mastery, and social support are important mediators between social status and mental health outcomes. Stress appears to be a stronger contributor to distress while mastery and social support are of higher relative importance to well-being.

Introductory Essay: An Rx for Indigenous Health Inequality: The Social Determinants of Health

Nicholas Spence — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 18:43:23 PST

It is with great pleasure that I am able to serve as the first Special Guest Editor (health) of the Inter-national Indigenous Policy Journal. This special edition is a compilation of some of the best research con-ducted on Indigenous populations. Moving beyond the disturbing trends so many of us are already well aware of, this body of research provides new theoretical, policy, and practical approaches for researchers, decision makers, and communities seeking to improve health outcomes for Indigenous populations.

Introductory Essay: Traditional Knowledge, Spirituality and Lands

Marc Fonda — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 18:36:16 PST

In times like ours, when people are inundated with notions of consumerist identities, culture is often seen mainly as a resource to be tapped into for economic development. This certainly is true of blatant consumerist culture produced by such economic behemoths as Hollywood, but it is a narrow view on the importance and functions of culture. The objective of this issue of the International Indigenous Policy Journal is to demonstrate the radical importance of culture and spirituality in not only defining a people and their society but also in affecting their well-being and how these things are all interrelated.

Are They Like Us, Yet? Some Thoughts on Why Religious Freedom Remains Elusive for Aboriginals in North America

Marc V. Fonda — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 18:33:32 PST

It is well-documented that European culture differs from that of Aboriginal culture. Perhaps one of the most striking differences is in the relationships and attitudes each group has towards land. For Europeans the land is a commemorative gift of the creator there to be exploited for economic benefit; for Aboriginal peoples, the land is also a gift but one that a continuing extension of the creator’s immanence in which all things are related to one another. The one is an economic relation, the other a spiritual relation that denotes family. When two very different cultural systems encounter one another, there are bound to be clashes. Regardless, it is the overriding interests of the state that take precedence in countries where religious freedoms are constitutionally guaranteed – but such guarantees apply only insofar as the religions seeking freedom mirrors that of the dominate society. This paper explores these differences in relationships to land and how Aboriginal religious freedom suffers as a result, which has significant impacts on well-being and cultural continuity.

Counting on Long-form Census Data

Roderic Beaujot et al. — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 17:20:13 PDT

Marriages with Foreign Women in East Asia: Bride Trafficking or Voluntary Migration?

Danièle Bélanger — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 18:08:49 PDT

A growing number of East Asian men marry a bride from a foreign country. In the late 2000s, marriages in which the wives were of foreign origin accounted for 15% of new unions in Taiwan, 8% in South Korea and 6% in Japan. The largest group of immigrant spouses in these countries come from the People's Republic of China. Vietnamese women are the second largest group of immigrant spouses in South Korea and Taiwan, and likewise for Filippino women in Japan.The quest for spouses abroad stems from the difficulties encountered by men in their own countries. Women are increasingly unwilling to accept the traditional role of wife and mother, with an unequal division of tasks between spouses and, in many cases, the obligation to leave their job.

Matchmaking agencies play a key role in the rapid increase of these marriages. A large majority of foreign spouses who migrate to get married do so of their own accord and not because of parental pressure. Their objectives are to marry and migrate. Like most migrants from developing countries, they hope that migration will enable them to send money back to their families and to improve their own lives.

‘Fundamental Causes’ of Health Disparities: A Comparative Analysis of Canada and the United States

Andrea E. Willson — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 18:41:52 PST

This article examines the relative impact of socioeconomic status as a `fundamental cause' of health disparities in Canada and the US. Fundamental cause theory suggests that persons of higher socioeconomic status have available a broad range of resources to benefit their health and therefore hold an advantage in warding off whatever particular threats to health exist at a given time. This leads to two predictions: (1) SES is more strongly associated with diseases that are more highly preventable than with less preventable diseases; and (2) SES has a stronger relationship to health in the US, where higher economic inequality and a lack of universal health insurance leads to a greater vying for resources. Findings indicate lower levels of SES increase the odds of experiencing a highly preventable disease relative to a less preventable disease in the US, but not in Canada, suggesting that social policies and level of economic inequality may buffer the relationship between socioeconomic resources and the incidence of preventable disease.

Family Structure and Children's Hyperactivity Problems: A Longitudinal Analysis

Donald W. Kerr et al. — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 17:56:38 PST

The current article analyzes 1994–2000 data from the Canadian National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth to examine the relevance of family structures to trajectories of parental reports on hyperactivity-inattention among elementary school aged children. We use a latent growth modelling approach to compare children living in intact families, lone-parent families, stepfamilies, and families where parents divorced or separated. The results highlight the apparent advantages to living in intact families and the slightly greater risks experienced by children living in stepfamilies. Children in lone-parent families, while experiencing an initial disadvantage, displayed a similar trajectory on hyperactivity to children in intact families over the 1994–2000 period. With regard to the children of divorce, the current study finds little evidence of a pre-disruption effect, as the children whose parents divorce or separate over 1994–2000 appear initially no worse off than children whose parents stay together.

Youth Studies Comes of Age

James Côte — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 17:47:59 PST

Daniela Del Boca and Cecile Wetzels, eds., Social Policies, Labour Markets and Motherhood: A Comparative Analysis of European Countries

Mehmet Faith Aysan et al. — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 17:42:02 PST

Pursuit of University Education among the Children of Immigrants in Canada: The Roles of Parental Human Capital and Social Capital

Teresa Abada et al. — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 17:24:55 PST

Using the 2002 Ethnic Diversity Survey, this article examines the roles of parental human capital and social capital in the pursuit of university education among immigrant youth in Canada. We find segmented patterns across the largest minority groups in Canada, with the Chinese and the south Asians, such as Indians, Pakistanis and Bangladeshis, obtaining the highest levels of education, while Blacks show the lowest rate of university education. Our study highlights the need to go beyond human capital models by assessing the benefits of and downsides to social capital. Minority language retention at home is beneficial for post-secondary education while language usage with friends outside the minority community entails the need to be proficient in one of the official languages of Canada, English or French. Having a strong sense of trust is crucial for the pursuit of university education, especially for Blacks. Our findings underscore the importance of examining what forms of social capital are unique to each minority group and the various ways these different forms of social capital are utilised in achieving success in the educational sphere.

Measuring Social Cohesion: An Experiment using the Canadian National Survey of Giving, Volunteering, and Participating

Fernando Rajulton et al. — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 17:12:26 PST

Social cohesion is a concept difficult to define and to measure. As there can be many definitions, so there can be many measurements. The main problem, either in defining or measuring the concept, is its multilevel and multidimensional nature. At one extreme, country is the most commonly used level to view social cohesion but measurement at this level is of little use for any interventions. At the other extreme, community is the most useful level but it is a social construct for which data are difficult to get, given the administrative boundaries used in social surveys. As an initial attempt to measure social cohesion at a subcountry level, this study focuses on census metropolitan areas for which data on several dimensions of social cohesion are available. We use the information gathered by the National Survey on Giving, Volunteering and Participating (NSGVP) on three dimensions of social cohesion: political (voting and volunteering), economic (occupation, income, labour force participation) and social (social interactions, informal volunteering). Using statistical techniques including factor analysis and standardization, we create an overall index of social cohesion for each CMA. We point out use of this measure for further analysis of social dynamics.

Ageing, Disability and Workplace Accommodations

Julie Ann McMullin et al. — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 17:12:25 PST

In most western nations, laws discourage discrimination in paid employment on the basis of disability, but for these policies to be of benefit, individuals must define their functional limitations as disabilities. There is a strong relationship between age and disability among those of working age, yet it is unclear whether older workers attribute their limitations to disability or to ‘natural ageing’. If the latter is true, they may not believe that they need or qualify for workplace accommodations (i.e. adaptations or interventions at the workplace). Similarly, if an employer ascribes a worker's limitation to ‘natural ageing’, rather than to a disability, they may not offer compensatory accommodation. Using data from the Canadian 2001 Participation and Activity Limitation Survey, this paper asks whether workers who ascribe their functional limitation to ageing are as likely as those who do not to report a need for a workplace accommodation. It also addresses whether those who identify a need for compensatory accommodations and who ascribe their limitation to ageing have unmet workplace-accommodation needs. The findings suggest that, even when other factors are controlled, e.g. the type and severity of disability, the number of limiting conditions, gender, age, education, income and occupation, those who made the ageing attribution were less likely to recognise the need for an accommodation; and among those who acknowledged a need, those who ascribed their disability to ageing were less likely to have their needs met.

Demographic Decisions and Demographic Well-Being

Fernando Rajulton — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 10:16:17 PST

Parental Preferences for Work and Childcare

Roderic Beaujot — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 10:00:16 PST

Data from the 1988 Child Care Survey are used to compare the actual and preferred work and childcare patterns in families with children under six years of age. Not only do parents manage work and childcare in a variety of ways, but preferences differ considerably from daily experiences. A variety of models are operating, with some preferring more public childcare situations while others prefer part-time work or other arrangements that permit parents to look after children themselves. This suggests that policy should be flexible in supporting three types of childcare: by the immediate family, by the formal sector, and by the informal sector.

The Language Crisis: An Exchange of Views

Roderic P. Beaujot — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 10:00:15 PST