Frontiers in Sociology最新文献

Introduction: Domestic Violence and Abuse (DVA) is a growing public health and safeguarding concern in the UK, compounded by long-standing data quality issues in police records. Incomplete or inaccurate recording of key variables undermines the ability of police, health services, and partner agencies to assess risk, allocate resources, and design effective interventions.

Methods: We evaluated two machine learning models (Random Forest and DistilBERT) for classifying the type of victim/offender relationship (ex-partner, current partner, and family) from approximately 19,000 DVA incidents recorded by a UK police force. Models were benchmarked against a static rule-based classifier and assessed using precision, recall, and F1-score. To reduce false positives in the most challenging relationship categories, we implemented a selective classification strategy that abstained from low-confidence predictions.

Results: Both machine learning models outperformed the baseline across all metrics, with average absolute gains of 11% in precision and 16% in recall. Ex-partner cases were classified most accurately, while current partner cases were classified with the least accuracy. Selective classification substantially improved precision for underperforming categories, albeit at the expense of reduced coverage.

Discussion: These findings demonstrate that computational tools can enhance the completeness and reliability of police DVA data, provided their use balances predictive accuracy, interpretability, and safeguarding risks.

Objective: This study aims to explore the mechanisms through which the multidimensional reconstruction of childbearing values in the post-pandemic era influences fertility intentions among Chinese individuals of reproductive age, while elucidating the interplay between economic rationality and cultural norms in fertility decision-making, thereby providing theoretical foundations for targeted fertility policy formulation.

Methods: Utilizing data from the 2022 China Family Panel Studies (CFPS), we analyzed a sample of 1,758 individuals of reproductive age. Factor analysis was employed to extract three dimensions of childbearing values-psychological affection, economic utility, and familial responsibility. A logistic regression model incorporating control variables (gender, household registration, education, etc.) was constructed, followed by heterogeneity analyses across demographic subgroups.

Results: All three dimensions of childbearing values exhibited significant positive effects on fertility intentions, with familial responsibility demonstrating the strongest impact (coefficient = 0.249, p < 0.01). Heterogeneity analysis revealed that psychological affection predominantly influenced females (coefficient = 0.316, p < 0.05) and rural populations, while economic utility exerted a pronounced effect on high-income groups (coefficient = 0.306, p < 0.05). Educational attainment consistently enhanced fertility intentions (coefficient = 0.206, p < 0.01).

Conclusion: Fertility decisions emerge as a dynamic interplay between cultural values and resource endowments. Sustainable enhancement of fertility intentions necessitates differentiated policy interventions that reinforce familial responsibility, alleviate economic constraints, and address emotional needs.

Introduction: Humanitarian actors have been slow to address child marriage, despite evidence that it is particularly common in conflict-affected contexts. This article explores the child marriage decision-making process among refuges living in Jordan, using a gender and generational lens.

Methods: Data used in this paper was collected between 2018 and 2022 and focuses on refugee girls (and young women) who live in Jordan and who married prior to age 18. Survey data was collected from 152 young Syrian brides. In-depth interviews were conducted with 45 Syrian and Palestinian brides-as well as their parents, in-laws, and husbands.

Results: Our research finds that girls' parents, grooms' parents, grooms, and girls themselves operate under deeply constrained conditions resulting from the legal and economic precarity experienced by refugee communities, and that these disadvantages reinforce gender norms and commitments to clan and culture. Girls' fathers are often beholden to their brothers to provide brides for their nephews; mothers prefer child marriage because of expectations that they will vouchsafe their children's behavior and the family's honor; grooms view marriage to girls as way of achieving adult masculinity and girls who married as children report that they felt like active agents in the process-albeit because they have so few other options.

Implications: Given the importance of economic precarity, ending child marriage in contexts of forced displacement will require expanding girls' access to education and improving refugees' access to work, which will provide a route through which fathers and young men can demonstrate their adult masculinity, and to allow girls and women some measure of financial independence. Given that displacement now often lasts for decades, the humanitarian sector also needs to focus on addressing the gender norms that leave girls at risk of child marriage.

In this article, I consider whether and to what extent the concept of social pathology can serve to better understand relatively long-term disruptions of the social order. I compare the findings present in practically oriented studies on types of social pathology and attempts to explain it grounded in the body of sociological/social theory and social philosophy, serving the critique of society. I understand social pathology as a structured process. I try to indicate its conditionalities and to what extent the dynamics of this process affect the quality of social existence of individuals and collectivities. I show the emergence of relatively durable assemblages that "preserve" negatives in the form of pathological behaviors and their (often ideological) justifications. Seeking the possibility of theoretical synthesis in the thick approach formula, I indicate two positions that can be a starting point for further analyses: the concept of Vytautas Kavolis (set in the tradition of studies on social problems) and the concept of forms of life by Rahel Jaeggi (fitted in the formula of critical theory). I begin by recalling and criticizing the "classical" approaches to social pathology. Then, I reveal the connections between normativity and normality, and attempts to theoretically explain out-of-order phenomena. In the next part, I refer to the concepts of Kavolis and Jaeggi, portraying their relationships with critical theory. The final part is a tentative balance and an indication of issues worth taking up in the name of theoretical codification of knowledge about social pathology.

Gender inequality in contemporary organizations persists despite decades of policy initiatives, partly because many barriers have shifted from overt exclusion to subtle, often invisible, mechanisms embedded in everyday practices. Existing models-whether grounded in economics, sociology, or social psychology-tend to focus on either the "supply" of candidates or the "demand" of organizations, reify gender categories, and overlook the active role of dominant groups in defining competence standards. This article introduces the Gender Projection Model (GPM), an identity-structural framework that explains how dominant-group members project their own attributes, life patterns, and interactional styles onto the prototypes of valued organizational roles such as leaders, experts, or the "ideal worker." These prototypes, presented as neutral, are in fact historically situated and power-sensitive, shaping both evaluation criteria and the aspirations of those perceived as non-prototypical. The GPM predicts that projection is strongest when the gender hierarchy is perceived as legitimate, stable, and impermeable, and that it operates as a feedback loop: prototypes influence evaluations and opportunities, which in turn reinforce status beliefs and prototype stability. By reframing "supply" as a product of organizational demand, the model unifies phenomena often treated separately-glass ceiling, sticky floor, glass cliff, backlash, tokenism-within a single identity-driven mechanism. Beyond its theoretical integration, the model generates testable predictions about when projection strengthens or weakens and offers an empirical and diagnostic framework for organizational analysis. This article thus outlines testable implications, proposes a cumulative research agenda, and discusses practical and organizational interventions aimed at redefining prototypes to foster equitable access to valued roles.

Introduction: Breastfeeding is one of the core pillars of the so-called "First Thousand Days" (FTD) discourse. By mobilising neuroscience, the Developmental Origins of Health and Disease (DOHaD), and epigenetics, this contemporary narrative establishes a causal link between various pre-natal and early-life lifestyle factors and health across the lifespan. By framing parental choices as social determinants of children's health, it aligns with broader contemporary parenting trends, such as scientific motherhood and intensive parenting, the expectation that parents, particularly mothers, devote significant time and energy to raising their children according to the latest scientific advice.

Methods: A qualitative analysis of health information guides and policy papers circulating in Italy over the last 6 years was conducted following the principles of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA). The aim was to explore how the promotion of breastfeeding within the FTD framework normalises biomedical imaginaries of childrearing and increases social pressure on mothers.

Results: The analysed texts emphasise individual behavioral prescriptions for mothers, focusing on nutrition, bodily techniques, and information gathering, while largely overlooking structural barriers such as inadequate parental leave or poor work-life balance. Biomedical and epigenetic narratives portray the mother as a vector for the child's gene expression, development, and health. She is positioned as dependent on expert guidance, while embodied maternal knowledge is marginalised.

Discussion: This discourse blends social and biological determinism, reinforcing intensive mothering ideals rooted in healthism, and underestimating the structural constraints that hinder full adherence to these expectations. In the Italian context, characterized by weak parental support policies and limited implementation of breastfeeding promotion, this narrative may contribute to a perception of motherhood as anomic, where the ideal of raising healthy children is promoted without providing the necessary means to achieve it.

Background and objective: The World Health Organization has promoted the concept of Age-Friendly Cities and Communities (AFCC) as a response to global population aging. This approach aims to adapt physical and social environments to the needs of older adults, particularly in the context of ongoing urbanization. The Age-Friendly Cities and Communities Questionnaire (AFCCQ) was designed to assess older adults' perceptions of age-friendliness in their communities but has not yet been validated in Arabic. This study aimed to translate, culturally adapt, and evaluate the psychometric properties of the Arabic version of the AFCCQ (AFCCQ-Arabic), and to assess how older Arabs in Israel perceive the age-friendliness of their communities. This population is an ethnic minority facing dual challenges given its age and minority status.

Methods: A cross-sectional sample of 202 Arab adults aged 60 and above was recruited through convenience sampling. Data were collected through face-to-face interviews using the AFCCQ-Arabic, which includes 23 items across nine domains.

Results: The AFCCQ-Arabic demonstrated overall acceptable psychometric properties among older Arabs in Israel. Face and content validity were supported. Construct validity was assessed using Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA). The original model demonstrated good fit indices (CFI = 0.922; TLI = 0.900; RMSEA = 0.064; SRMR = 0.072). Most domains showed acceptable Composite Reliability (CR) values, indicating good internal consistency. However, item 3 demonstrated a low factor loading and reduced the CR value of the social participation domain. Additionally, the civic participation and employment domain showed low reliability (CR = 0.28). Domain-level scores revealed diverse perceptions of age-friendliness: high scores in respect and social inclusion, housing, civic participation and employment, and community support and health services; moderate scores in social participation, and communication and information; and low scores in transportation, outdoor spaces and buildings, and financial situation.

Conclusion: Despite some psychometric limitations, the AFCCQ-Arabic was found to be reliable, valid, and culturally appropriate for use among older Arab adults in Israel. The variation in domain scores indicates service, infrastructure, and economic security gaps in Arab communities, underscoring the need for targeted policy interventions to promote equitable aging.

Introduction: Adinkra symbols, deeply embedded in Ghanaian culture, serve as potent non-verbal communicative tools that convey philosophical, religious, and sociopolitical meanings.

Methods: This study explores the sociological, religious, and fashion interpretations of the Adinkra symbols incorporated into the 2025 inaugural outfit of Ghana's President. Anchored in a qualitative research design and aligned with a constructivist research philosophical position, the study draws on insights from 28 purposively selected participants, including traditional leaders, fashion designers, museum curators, and cultural preservatists.

Results and discussion: The findings reveal that "Sankofa", "Gye Nyame", "Nyame Dua", and "Dwennimmen", key symbols present in the attire, collectively signify governance introspection, divine authority, ethical leadership, and humility in power. Through the lens of Symbolic Interactionism and the Semiotic Theory of Fashion, the study demonstrates how these symbols serve as ideological markers, reinforcing national identity, political philosophy, and ethical governance. The results highlight the critical role of indigenous symbolism in shaping public perceptions of leadership, fostering national unity, and maintaining cultural continuity in Ghana's political landscape. The study calls for the integration of traditional symbols into governance, education, and leadership training to strengthen national identity and ethical governance.

The present article aims to understand how public policies for the protection of endangered children/youngsters and juvenile justice work together or, on the contrary, in a disjointed way, and its impacts on the reproduction of gender stereotypes, namely in the construction of rigid masculinities of youngsters in detention and the adoption of violence as an adaptive strategy. Youth Detention Centers (YDC) were chosen as a backdrop since young people at risk are a particular fringe of society who, similar to other vulnerable groups (e.g., migrants, refugees, etc.), face more significant risks of GBV, since they are displaced from their families and communities when they are admitted at Portuguese YDCs and their paths have invariably been marked by having witnessed or been exposed to violence, and often, as we shall see, to protective institutionalization at an early stage in their journey. To this end, the role of YDC's will be traced within the framework of public policies on juvenile justice in Portugal, exploring the evolution of public policies aimed at both the risk and the social danger of children and young people, namely the effects of the separation that has taken place in Portugal of these two domains in the face of the effects of the promiscuity between the domain of danger and that of social risk. Results of the X-MEN Project, namely the youngsters' narratives on their life trajectories until entering the YDC, will be used to illustrate the relationship between gender socialization (particularly of boys), the interpenetration between protective institutionalization and its predictor of a pre-delinquent path and, finally, how gender can be the basis for differentiated treatment by the systems that work with young people in danger (Child Protection System) and at risk (Juvenile Justice System).