Social Problems最新文献

Though lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ+) youth face increased risk for mental health problems, research suggests that protective state-level legislation and school-level supports can reduce this risk. However, the effectiveness of state laws and school policies may depend on how they are enacted in schools, and particularly whether they are contested by local communities. To examine this idea, we compare ethnographic and interview data from 2019-2023 from two Colorado public school districts in different community contexts. We find that despite shared state laws, these districts construct LGBTQ+ inclusivity differently and that this difference is shaped, in part, by community politics. In the more liberal Ensley Public Schools, protective state laws are integrated into district policy and practices, and school staff are intentional and consistent about creating inclusivity for LGBTQ+ students. In the more conservative Field Public Schools, we find similar district policies, but staff are more constrained in cultivating LGBTQ+ inclusion due to community attitudes that contest support for LGBTQ+ students. We leverage these findings to consider how external community contexts shape the experience of state laws and associated policies for LGBTQ+ youth in schools, with implications for sociological theory and policy.

The dignity of workers has long been a central concern of social scientists, with existing research documenting the variety of job conditions that threaten worker dignity. However, the literature on dignity at work has important limitations, including an overwhelming focus on older models of work (e.g., manufacturing), to the exclusion of the job conditions that are pervasive in the contemporary low-wage labor market, such as unstable and unpredictable schedules. Drawing on individual-level survey data on 17,791 service sector workers from the Shift Project, I test the association between schedule instability and perceived worker dignity, which I operationalize as perceived respect and recognition from supervisors, as well as how this varies by gender. Overall, I find that workers' schedule instability is significantly and negatively associated with perceived worker dignity. This holds for five just-in-time scheduling practices and for a schedule instability index that captures the cumulative effect of exposure to unstable scheduling. I also document gender differences in the association between schedule instability and perceived worker dignity. Specifically, I show that the consequences of schedule instability for perceptions of supervisor respect are more negative for women than men, which is, in part, driven by work-family conflict.

Studies about young Black members of the LGBTQIA population tend to focus on health disparities related to HIV/AIDS among Black Men Who Have Sex with Men (BMSM). Although important, this emphasis often ignores diverse sexual identities as well as the late adolescent experience, including sentiments about their lives and futures as they navigate dynamics associated with race, sexuality, gender, and age. This mixed-methodological study considers the experiences of 123 late adolescent Black members of the LGBTQIA population 18-22 years old. Informed by emerging adulthood theory, survey and in-depth interview data are examined using content and multivariate analyses. Qualitative themes document the plans, problems, and processes individuals associate with future aspirations and expectations. Quantitative findings show the importance of age and sexual identity, as well as racial and spiritual wellbeing in explaining healthy sexual decision-making known to affect their lives and futures. The importance of multi-faceted developmental strategies, people, practices, and programs to help individuals who embrace varied sexual identities remain adaptive and resilient is discussed.

Recent surveys reveal declines in the U.S. public's confidence in different institutions. Although some studies link these declines to religious factors, few disaggregate these patterns across racial and ethnic groups. Here, we focus on Latinos-a growing segment of the U.S. population and an increasingly religiously diverse part of the electorate. Using original, nationally representative survey data (N=4,321), we compare Latino evangelicals and Catholics to their white counterparts in their confidence in five institutions (religious organizations, higher education, the scientific community, Congress, and the press). We find that Latino and white Catholics consistently show high levels of confidence across institutions relative to white evangelicals. Our findings suggest that there may be more similarities in institutional confidence among those of different racial and ethnic groups who share a similar religious tradition than those who are of the same race or ethnicity but share different religious traditions. Patterns observed highlight the importance of examining institutional confidence through an intersectional lens that considers religious diversity within and across racial and ethnic groups.

Real house prices in the United States have risen by 55 percent over the last four decades, driving substantial wealth benefits to homeowners. However, research has not explored how this rise in house prices has affected White-Black wealth gaps, or the mechanisms that may underlie this relationship. Using geocoded longitudinal household-level wealth data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics and tract-level house price index data, I estimate that housing market appreciation between 1984 and 2021 explains 70 percent of the increase in the median White-Black wealth gap over this period. I find that most of this effect is due to White-Black gaps in homeownership, with White-Black gaps in house values playing a smaller role. In contrast to recent findings about racialized housing markets, I do not find that gaps in neighborhood house price appreciation between White and Black homeowners contributed to White-Black wealth gaps in the 2000s and 2010s. These results highlight the importance of cumulative advantage processes in driving wealth inequalities and demonstrate how the legacies of institutional racism contribute to contemporary racial wealth gaps.

Many LGBTQ adults have ongoing relationships with their parents that are ambivalent, typified by both solidarity (e.g., frequent contact, emotional or financial exchange) as well as conflict (e.g., parents' heterosexism and cissexism). Yet, why LGBTQ people remain in-rather than end-their ambivalent intergenerational ties is underexplored. We analyze qualitative in-depth interview data with 76 LGBTQ adults to answer this question. We find that LGBTQ adult children deploy narratives that privilege intergenerational solidarity over strain-what we call "solidarity rationales"- to explain why they remain in their ambivalent intergenerational ties. Four solidarity rationales were identified: 1) closeness and love, 2) parental growth, 3) the unique parent-child role, and 4) the importance of parental resources. Identifying LGBTQ adults' solidarity rationales pulls back the curtain on the compulsory social forces driving persistent intergenerational relationships. This study also advances our thinking about how socially marginalized people cope with complex social ties that include interpersonal discrimination and stigma.