Disaster Vulnerability and Social Capitals in the Gulf Coast and Flint, Michigan

In this dissertation, I explore the migration intentions, self-rated physical and mental health, and alcohol use of people living in regions facing environmental stressors. In my first chapter, I examine factors that predict willingness to move away from southeast Louisiana, a region threatened by land loss, hurricanes, and environmental pollution. Specifically, I assess the relationships risk perceptions, place attachment, and fishing employment have with willingness to move. I find that risk perceptions are positively related to willingness to move and that place attachment and fishing employment are negatively related to willingness to move. In my second chapter, I show the predictors of self-rated physical and mental health in Flint, Michigan, both before the Water Crisis and after. I pay special attention to the relationships race, perceived marginalization, and social capital have with self-rated health. The important takeaways from this paper are that perceived marginalization is a predictor of poorer physical and mental health before and after the Water Crisis, whereas social support predicts better health before the Water Crisis but loses much of its relationship with health after the announcement of the Flint Water Crisis. In my third chapter, I explore the relationships between resource networks, religious ecology, and alcohol misuse in the Gulf Coast. Here, I found that people in increasingly Catholic and Mainline Protestant counties tend to be at higher risk for potential alcohol misuse, and those with more local ties are at a greater risk for alcohol misuse than those with more extra-local ties. Together, these papers demonstrate how critical a person’s social life is. One consistent finding in these papers is that social capital, be it social support or community sentiments, does not always operate in the same way for different social groups. In a disaster context, social capital can be taxing on a person, especially if their close ties are also under stress

The Critical Role of Social Capital During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Lessons from Disaster Research

The COVID-19 pandemic is unlike any experience humanity has endured. While the pandemic is certainly biological in nature, through the transmission of the novel coronavirus, the experience of the pandemic is inherently social. Researchers may not yet conceptualize pandemics as disasters, but we are beginning to see evidence that they are playing out in some similar ways (widespread social disruption, job loss in particular industries, economic hardship, and illness and death). Disaster researchers emphasize the importance of what is known as social capital, or, the resources (social, economic, emotional) accrued through ones’ social ties

The Social Ecology Of Men\u27s Sexual Self-Efficacy In The Mississippi Delta

Mississippi often has some of the highest rates of teenage pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases and infections in the country. To combat this, the state uses abstinence-based sexual education in an attempt to discourage young people from having sex. I conducted 27 interviews and one focus group to talk with young men in the Mississippi Delta about their opinions on birth control. Using the social ecological model and self-efficacy framework, this thesis considers the influences on young men that shape their attitudes and behaviors regarding sexual health topics such as birth control. Primary findings include their learning from teachers, parents, and peers, coupled with a general mistrust of their female partners and female birth control methods. Additionally, young men seemed very confident in their perceived sexual self-efficacy, yet they demonstrated limited knowledge, and they expressed a desire to learn more about sexual health

Health Risks for COVID-19 in Mississippi Counties

Evidence suggests that individuals with preexisting health concerns may be more susceptible to becoming seriously ill from the novel Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19). Such co-morbidities include existing respiratory problems, cardiovascular issues, and immune function. A recent report found that Mississippi and many other southern states had among the highest rates of pre-existing conditions that could contribute to COVID19 complications. Within Mississippi, health outcomes vary spatially. To anticipate where there may be the greatest potential for Mississippians to become seriously ill from COVID-19, we developed a health risk index for each county

Space, Place, and COVID-19: Introduction to the Special Issue

The COVID-19 pandemic alerted the U.S. populace to spatial patterns of health outcomes. Trusted sources of information such as the Johns Hopkins University and The New York Times mapped COVID-19 indicators at the county-level, bringing widespread attention to the timing and clustering of case rates, mortality, and vaccine uptake. The severity of the pandemic has motivated the research community to share data and conduct analyses to illuminate and project trends that would be useful for healthcare providers and policy makers in their communities. This special issue of the Journal of Rural Social Sciences explores the roles space and place have on COVID-19 outcomes and experiences. The contributing authors consider the importance of context, individual-level factors within those environments, and what mitigation efforts might be most useful in improving health outcomes

Dismantling institutional racism: theory and action

Despite a strong commitment to promoting social change and liberation, there are few community psychology models for creating systems change to address oppression. Given how embedded racism is in institutions such as healthcare, a significant shift in the system's policies, practices, and procedures is required to address institutional racism and create organizational and institutional change. This paper describes a systemic intervention to address racial inequities in healthcare quality called dismantling racism. The dismantling racism approach assumes healthcare disparities are the result of the intersection of a complex system (healthcare) and a complex problem (racism). Thus, dismantling racism is a systemic and systematic intervention designed to illuminate where and how to intervene in a given healthcare system to address proximal and distal factors associated with healthcare disparities. This paper describes the theory behind dismantling racism, the elements of the intervention strategy, and the strengths and limitations of this systems change approach.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/116935/1/ajcp9117.pd

Many Labs 5:Testing pre-data collection peer review as an intervention to increase replicability

Replication studies in psychological science sometimes fail to reproduce prior findings. If these studies use methods that are unfaithful to the original study or ineffective in eliciting the phenomenon of interest, then a failure to replicate may be a failure of the protocol rather than a challenge to the original finding. Formal pre-data-collection peer review by experts may address shortcomings and increase replicability rates. We selected 10 replication studies from the Reproducibility Project: Psychology (RP:P; Open Science Collaboration, 2015) for which the original authors had expressed concerns about the replication designs before data collection; only one of these studies had yielded a statistically significant effect (p < .05). Commenters suggested that lack of adherence to expert review and low-powered tests were the reasons that most of these RP:P studies failed to replicate the original effects. We revised the replication protocols and received formal peer review prior to conducting new replication studies. We administered the RP:P and revised protocols in multiple laboratories (median number of laboratories per original study = 6.5, range = 3?9; median total sample = 1,279.5, range = 276?3,512) for high-powered tests of each original finding with both protocols. Overall, following the preregistered analysis plan, we found that the revised protocols produced effect sizes similar to those of the RP:P protocols (?r = .002 or .014, depending on analytic approach). The median effect size for the revised protocols (r = .05) was similar to that of the RP:P protocols (r = .04) and the original RP:P replications (r = .11), and smaller than that of the original studies (r = .37). Analysis of the cumulative evidence across the original studies and the corresponding three replication attempts provided very precise estimates of the 10 tested effects and indicated that their effect sizes (median r = .07, range = .00?.15) were 78% smaller, on average, than the original effect sizes (median r = .37, range = .19?.50)

Health and social impacts of open defecation on women: a systematic review

Background The significance of sanitation to safeguard human health is irrefutable and has important public health dimensions. Access to sanitation has been essential for human dignity, health and well-being. Despite 15 years of conjunctive efforts under the global action plans like Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), 2.3 billion people have no access to improved sanitation facilities (flush latrine or pit latrine) and nearly 892 million of the total world’s population is still practicing open defecation. Methods The study provides a systematic review of the published literature related to implications of open defecation that goes beyond the scope of addressing health outcomes by also investigating social outcomes associated with open defecation. The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) was used to frame the review, empirical studies focusing upon open defecation in women aged 13–50 in low and middle income countries were included in the review. Research papers included in the review were assessed for quality using appropriate critical appraisal tools. In total 9 articles were included in the review; 5 of these related to health effects and 4 related to social effects of open defecation. Results The review identified 4 overarching themes; Health Impacts of open defecation, Increased risk of sexual exploitation, Threat to women’s privacy and dignity and Psychosocial stressors linked to open defecation, which clearly present a serious situation of poor sanitation in rural communities of Lower-Middle Income Countries (LMICs). The findings of the review identified that open defecation promotes poor health in women with long-term negative effects on their psychosocial well-being, however it is a poorly researched topic. Conclusion The health and social needs of women and girls remain largely unmet and often side-lined in circumstances where toilets in homes are not available. Further research is critically required to comprehend the generalizability of effects of open defecation on girls and women

Number: Notes for Editor 2 GLOKALde is official e-journal of UDEEEWANA STUDENT ENGAGEMENT, E-CONNECTIVITY, AND CREATING RELATIONSHIPS IN THE ONLINE CLASSROOM: Emerging Themes

ABSTRACT As complex as it is for traditional on ground students to return to school, online adult learners have difficulties engaging with other students, faculty, and administrators. With an emphasis on anytime, anywhere learning, students tend to isolate themselves and do not reach out for assistance. As more and more students take online courses, curriculum could be designed with the student in mind when it comes to learning, objectives, and outcomes of the objectives. Considering all the factors of student engagement (points to engage students) is difficult, yet, the researchers engaged in a deep review of peer-reviewed literature on the topic