The Welfare Poor: Patterns of Association and Interaction in Discretionary Time

The welfare poor in America are classified into a subterranean\u27 strata not solely because of economic inequality but entrenched by racial ethnicity, age disadvantages, physical and psychological impairment, and broken family structures. While the misery and plight of the poor are often recognized in basic terms in which the survival necessity of food, clothing, health care, and shelter are real concerns, seemingly other less important cultural considerations are glossed over as trivia. Leisure participation continues to be neglected by researchers and because of this low priority, little or nothing is known of the leisure life style of the poor. Less still is known about how leisure or the absence of it affects the status of the poor. And of even greater interest are questions about lost autonomy, undifferentiation, and social isolation resulting from leisure patterns. Every one of these issues deserves further treatment but this research will be limited to probing the question of whether the poor have either a restrictive or multiple pattern of association in their leisure. The comparison is solely limited to testing the range of association among the poor and no comparisons are made either implicitly or explicitly on how higher status groups associate against the pattern of the poor. Before that task can be accomplished, it is necessary to determine exactly where the poor rank and the examination in some detail of that position in society may help to reveal how they associate in their leisure

Recipients\u27 Attitudes Toward Welfare

While the general plight of welfare recipients has long been recognized, little or nothing to date has been ascertained concerning their views toward the system that largely determines their lives. Many recipients find themselves manipulated by a less than personalized bureaucracy but few researchers have sought to examine the experiences and attitudes of these recipients toward that system. Given the recent figures which indicate a welfare explosion (Piven and Cloward, 1971), and the vast expenditures for public assistance programs (Skolnick and Dales, 1969:5), the lack of systematic empirical research in this area is disconcerting. Such information should be of considerable value to the practioner within the social welfare context. Differing policy orientations frequently are implemented without the guidance of relevant baseline information. Further inquiry into the strains inherent in the system would certainly lend itself to a more efficient and workable model. Our purpose here is to carry out such an analysis

Indigenous and Non-Indigenous Paraprofessionals: An Empirical Comparison

This paper provides a comparative description of indigenous and nonindigenous paraprofessionals who were employed in a social service capacity in a large urban setting. Personal interviews were conducted with 88 paraprofessionals employed by the Fulton County Department of Family and Children Servives (Atlanta, Ga.). The primary variables discussed include an assessment of the respondent\u27s background, their present employment situation, experience with and attitudes toward welfare and general attitudinal measures. The results provide a basic demographic profile of the indigenous and non-indigenous paraprofessional and indicate their differing characteristics. Briefly, the indigenous respondents were less anomic, felt more efficacious in terms of helping clients, had a less favorable stance toward welfare, had less training and were considerably more more satisfied with their job than were their non-indigenous counterparts. Additionally, the implications of these findings and considerations which need to be explored in future research are discussed

Initial Smoking Experiences and Current Smoking Behaviors and Perceptions among Current Smokers

. Purpose. We examine early-onset cigarette smoking and how, if at all, it is related to subsequent smoking practices. Methods. From 2004 to 2007, face-to-face interviews were conducted with 485 adult cigarette smokers residing in the Atlanta metropolitan area. Data analysis involved a multivariate analysis to determine whether age of smoking onset was related to current smoking practices when the effects of gender, age, race, marital/relationship status, income, and educational attainment were taken into account. Results. The mean age for smoking onset was 14.8, and more than one-half of all smokers had their first cigarette between the ages of 12 and 16. Most people reported an interval of less than one month between their first and second time using tobacco. Earlier onset cigarette smoking was related to more cigarette use and worse tobacco-related health outcomes in adulthood. Conclusions. Early prevention and intervention are needed to avoid early-onset smoking behaviors. Intervening after initial experimentation but before patterned smoking practices are established will be challenging, as the interval between initial and subsequent use tends to be short

The social organization of transvestite prostitution and AIDS

This paper reports on the social organization of 53 transvestite prostitutes in Atlanta (GA), U.S.A. The central focus of the paper is on the relationship between social organization, social networks, and HIV risk behaviors in three geographic areas. In one of the areas the HIV infection rate was significantly higher than in the other two areas (81.1% vs 62.5% and 12.5%). Transvestites from the high prevalence area are strongly committed to transvestism and, consequently, are socially isolated. They report the lowest income, engaged in passive anal sex, have a history of syphilis and report inconsistent condom use with paying sex partners. Transvestite prostitutes in the other two areas are less committed to transvestism and more integrated into non-transvestite networks. In the area with the lowest HIV rate the transvestites are integrated into the non-transvestite male prostitute social organization so are discouraged from engaging in receptive anal sex, especially without condoms. The differences in HIV seroprevalence as well as related behavioral differences are linked to social organization among the transvestite prostitutes and to their participation in risky sex such as receptive anal intercourse.prostitutes transvestites HIV networks

Fundamentals of socialstatistics

xii, 563 p. ill.23 cm

Smoke and mirrors: the perceived benefits of continued tobacco use among current smokers

Despite 50+ years of public health efforts to reduce smoking rates in the United States, approximately one-fifth of the adults living in this country continue to smoke cigarettes. Previous studies have examined smokers’ risk perceptions of cigarette smoking, as well as the perceived benefits of quitting smoking. Less research has focused on the perceived benefits of smoking among current cigarette smokers. The latter is the main focus of the present paper. Questionnaire-based interviews were conducted with a community-based sample of 485 adult current cigarette smokers recruited from the Atlanta, Georgia, metropolitan area between 2004 and 2007. Active and passive recruiting approaches were used, along with a targeted sampling strategy. Results revealed that most current cigarette smokers perceive themselves to experience benefits as a result of their cigarette use, including (among others) increased relaxation, diminished nervousness in social situations, enjoyment of the taste of cigarettes when smoking, and greater enjoyment of parties when smoking. Perceiving benefits from cigarette smoking was associated with a variety of tobacco use measures, such as smoking more cigarettes, an increased likelihood of chain smoking, and overall negative attitude toward quitting smoking, among others. Several factors were associated with the extent to which smokers perceived themselves to benefit from their tobacco use, including education attainment, the age of first purchasing cigarettes, the proportion of friends who smoked, hiding smoking from others, being internally-oriented regarding locus of control, and self-esteem

The Prevalence of and Factors Associated with Alcohol-Related Problems in a Community Sample of African American Women

Purpose. This study examines the prevalence of alcohol-related problems, the factors underlying these problems, and whether or not there is evidence of syndemic effects in a community population of southern, urban African American women. Methods. Questionnaire-based interviews were conducted with 817 women, all African American, from 80 targeted census block groups in Atlanta, Georgia. Results. Most of the alcohol users (67.8%) experienced at least one problem as a result of their alcohol (ab)use, with most women experiencing two or more such problems. Eight factors were found to be associated with experiencing more alcohol problems: being aged 30 or older, having had no recent health insurance, lower levels of educational attainment, self-identifying as lesbian or bisexual, experiencing greater amounts of childhood maltreatment, greater impulsivity, perceiving one’s local community or neighborhood to be unsafe, and having a larger number of criminally involved friends. Conclusions. Drinking-related problems were prevalent in this population. Numerous factors underlie the extent to which African American women experienced problems resulting from their alcohol use. There is strong evidence of syndemic-type effects influencing drinking problems in this population, and future efforts to reduce the negative impact of alcohol (ab)use ought to consider the adoption of programs using a syndemics’ theory approach

The Relationship between Sexual Coping & the Frequency of Sexual Risk among 'At Risk' African American Women

This study examines the relationship between one specific type of avoidant coping behavior–namely, having sex to cope with one’s worries or problems–and the frequency with which ‘at risk’ women engage in risky sexual relations. Face-to-face interviews were conducted with 221 African American women drug abusers in the Atlanta, Georgia metropolitan area. The community identification process was used for recruitment, with additional recruitment done via targeted sampling. A variety of demographic characteristics, background and experiences measures, childhood maltreatment experiences, substance use-related measures, psychosocial and attitudinal items, and relationship characteristics were examined for their influence both on the frequency of engaging in risky sex and the extent to which women had sex to cope. Multivariate analysis revealed that having sex to cope was a statistically-significant predictor of the frequency with which women engaged in risky sexual behaviors. A separate analysis of the predictors of having sex to cope yielded seven items that were important for understanding the extent to which women engaged in sexual coping: age, number of health information sources, amount of physical abuse, reasons for not using condoms, overall attitudes toward condom use, level of partner communication, and the amount of help available from one’s support network. The intervention-related implications of these findings are discussed, emphasizing the needs: to target younger women, to target and help survivors of childhood maltreatment to deal with unresolved issues, to make attitudes toward using condoms more conducive, to improve partner communication, and to bolster support network relationships

Baby Boomer Drug Users: Career Phases, Identity, Self-Concept, and Social Control

No abstract is currently available