U.S. Attitudes toward Terrorism and Counterterrorism: Report to the Resilient Systems Division, Science and Technology Directorate, U.S Department of Homeland Security

Existing survey data do not provide comprehensive baseline information about U.S. beliefs and attitudes on terrorism and counterterrorism. Improved understanding of public attitudes can inform programs and tools related to managing public risk perception, increasing effectiveness of pre- and post-event communication by Federal, state, and local officials, and building and supporting more resilient social networks within and across communities.In this project, systematic survey data was collected from a sample of Americans in response to a range of newly developed survey questions. The survey was developed by two leading survey methodologists, following consultations with a research team of experts who study the dynamics of terrorism, counterterrorism, and community resilience, as well as with practitioners and officials from throughout the homeland security community. The questions were administered to members of a web panel by the on-line survey firm Knowledge Networks, and a second wave of the survey will be issued approximately six months after the first wave to allow for analysis of attitudes over time.The first wave of the questionnaire was completed, from September 28, 2012 to October 12, 2012, by 1,576 individuals 18 years of age and older. The first section of the questionnaire assessed the salience of terrorism by asking respondents whether they had thought about terrorism in the preceding week, how likely they thought a terrorist attack in the United States was in the next year, and whether they had done anything differently in the past year because of the possibility of such an attack. The second section of the questionnaire posed questions about how likely respondents would be to call the police in response to various actions potentially related to terrorism and how concerned respondents felt the government should be about these actions. Respondents who said they had thought about a terrorist attack in the last week were more likely than other respondents to say they were likely to call the police in response to the various situations described to them. The survey then assessed respondents' awareness and evaluation of government efforts related to terrorism in the United States. A large majority of the respondents said that the U.S. government has been very effective (33 percent) or somewhat effective (54 percent) at preventing terrorism; less than 13 percent characterized the government as not too effective or not effective at all.In a final section of the survey, we asked respondents about two specific programs focused on increasing communication between members of the public and the government on topics related to terrorism

Re-evaluate your Library Website using card sorts

posterPoster explaining how members of the Web Content Team used card sorts to evaluate the current organization of the library website. Responses from the participants helped us make adjustments to the site's hierarch, improving its usability

Racial/Ethnic Differences in the Provision of Health-related Programs among American Religious Congregations

Using national data from the Faith Communities Today 2000 survey, the current study builds upon Lincoln and Mamiya\u27s (1990) argument of the civically active Black Church. Originally used to assess the relative activism of Black and White congregations, the current study suggests that Black congregations are more likely to provide health programs than are predominantly White, Hispanic and Asian congregations. The greater involvement of Black congregations in the provision of health programs likely has much to do with the historical and continued cultural, spiritual, and political role that churches play in Black communities

Religion as a Micro and Macro Property: Investigating the Multilevel Relationship Between Religion and Abortion Attitudes Across the Globe

In many countries abortion is the most contested issue being publicly discussed, in part, because it has implications for gender equality, health, family formation, and politics. Personal religious beliefs are often seen as having an important role in shaping disapproving attitudes. However, little attention has been given to the country religious context for understanding public opinion about abortion. Drawing on ideas from cultural sociology, the anti-ascetic hypothesis, and moral communities hypothesis, this study investigates the individual and country religious associations with abortion attitudes. Using hierarchical modeling techniques and survey data from over 70 nations, representing the majority of the world’s population, the multilevel roles of religion are investigated. Both personal and country-levels of religious importance are associated with disapproval of abortion, but there are few differences across religions. Laws allowing for abortion are marginally associated with attitudes and there is no moral communities effect, whereby overall levels of religious importance have a moderating influence on the personal religiosity and attitudes’ relationship. However, individual religious importance appears to have a greater association with disapproval in richer, rather than poorer, countries, providing novel insight into why abortion has remained controversial in many countries, especially those with higher levels of economic development

Online or In-Person? Examining College Decisions to Reopen during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Fall 2020

When coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) became a major impediment to face-to-face college instruction in spring 2020, most teaching went online. Over the summer, colleges had to make difficult decisions about whether to return to in-person instruction. Although opening campuses could pose a major health risk, keeping instruction online could dissuade students from enrolling. Taking an ecological approach, the authors use mixed modeling techniques and data from 87 percent of two- and four-year public and four-year private U.S. colleges to assess the factors that shaped decisions about fall 2020 instructional modality. Most notably, the authors find that reopening decisions about whether to return to in-person instruction were unrelated to cumulative COVID-19 infection and mortality rates. Politics and budget concerns played the most important roles. Colleges that derived more of their revenue from tuition were more likely to return to classroom instruction, as were institutions in states and counties that supported Donald Trump for president in 2016

Unpacking the Influence of Islamic Religious Culture and Individual Religious Affiliation on Testing HIV-Positive

The distribution of HIV cases varies cross-nationally. We separate the influences of Islam at the macro-and micro-levels to understand the role of religion in shaping the spread of HIV. Drawing on biomarker data from the Demographic and Health Surveys, we construct a multilevel database (Individual N= 568,476; Country N= 30). We examine a series of national-and individual-level predictors that may mediate the relationship between Islam and testing HIV-positive. Individual religious affiliation and proportion Muslim retained their risk-reducing effects even when accounting for a range of mediators and suppressors. Islam has a sui generis effect on testing HIV-positive

Education and Religion in Shaping Support for Same-sex Relations: Considering Differences over Time and across Geographical Areas

Across the world, attitudes about same-sex relationships have become rapidly more supportive. While education is typically viewed as a liberalizing force, religious beliefs are often seen as restricting more tolerant perspectives and contributing to more conservative attitudes in general. Focusing on the United States this study examines the roles of religion and education, as individual and group properties, for understanding disapproval of same-sex relationships. Drawing on restricted information that makes it possible to identify where General Social Survey respondents lived, we find that graduating from college is associated with more support, but has less of an effect on Evangelicals and more religiously engaged people. Moreover, we find that residents in areas with higher overall levels of education became liberal faster, irrespective of whether or not they had a college degree. Our findings speak to the power of education and religion, as micro and macro forces, for understanding public opinion about same-sex relations over time

Examining Public Opinion about LGBTQ-related Issues in the United States and across Multiple Nations

Over the last three decades many countries across the world, including the United States, have experienced major increases in support for LGBTQ individuals and related issues. In part related to these changes a number of studies have examined the factors shaping public opinion. In this review we focus on four major areas of research on public opinion in this field of study. We first assess the terms that scholars typically use when examining attitudes and highlight the areas of public opinion research that have received the most attention. We then focus on the data and measurement challenges related to examining attitudes in the United States and across many nations. Next, we look at how and why attitudes and related laws have changed over time and across nations. Finally, we discuss the major micro and macro empirical forces and theoretical explanations for why there are differences in support. We end by offering several suggestions for future research

Examining Public Opinion about Abortion: A Mixed-Methods Systematic Review of Research over the Last 15 Years

Although abortion became legal four decades ago, Americans remain staunchly divided over its acceptability. While researchers have been interested in the factors shaping abortion attitudes, there are almost no reviews of this work. We examine the factors shaping Americans’ abortion attitudes and assess the state of published peer-reviewed articles in this area over the last 15 years. Using a mixed-methods systematic review, we analyze and critique the findings from 116 journal articles that have examined attitudes about abortion between 2001 and 2016. Amongst the many predictors and outcomes examined, we show that religion is by far the most utilized statistically significant independent variable, followed by education and income/employment. In addition to examining the factors that are statistically associated with attitudes, we provide insight into the characteristics of this published work. We offer several suggestions for improving research on this important topic, including a better utilization of social science theory, examining the attitudes of teens, increasing the use of mixed methods studies, and drawing on longitudinal data and analyses that consider the influence of the larger context for shaping attitudes

Assessing the Benefits of College Internships at a Hispanic Serving Institution

Few studies have investigated the usefulness of internships at Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSI). Focusing on a 4-year public university (HSI), this study examined differences between the internship and the non-internship students, and changes across the semester for development. A structured internship appears to have some value; including increased interaction with faculty outside the classroom, confidence in verbally expressing ideas, and class presentations