Journal of Health and Social Behavior最新文献

Citizen science with particulate matter sensors at home increases awareness of pollution exposures and can inform health-protective actions, yet little research explores the emotional dimensions of sensing, especially across economic divides. This study shows that participatory air quality sensing is not emotionally neutral. We included 26 parents of asthmatic children in 10 weeks of participatory sensing with indoor and outdoor sensors to understand their exposure experiences. Drawing from weekly surveys and postproject interviews, we found that sensors often generated positive emotions (e.g., empowered, happy) across income levels, underscoring their potential as inclusive tools for asthma management. Parents less often reported negative emotions (e.g., stress, worry); when they did, those were spurred from checking outdoor readings (versus indoor) because outdoor exposures were less controllable. Parents managed emotions by creating contingent boundaries between indoor and outdoor spaces. We recommend expanding access to sensors and air purifiers to promote individual-level environmental health benefits.

Public trust in science and scientific authorities is pivotal to effective vaccine policy and public health. This article develops a cultural-cognitive model to explain how ideological identity structures trust in vaccine-related authorities. Drawing on a novel survey instrument, it examines how partisanship shapes perceptions of scientific authority and the legitimacy of science in public health. Findings reveal that conservatives consistently express lower trust in scientific authorities regarding vaccination while expressing greater trust in religious and political figures. These partisan effects are magnified among scientifically literate individuals, suggesting that vaccine skepticism is structured less by knowledge deficits than by political identity. This underscores how public health attitudes are anchored in social institutions-particularly trust in experts and the perceived role of science in policymaking-clarifying the institutional foundations of vaccine polarization.

Although structural sexism in state-level institutions is harmful to women's and men's health, less is known about how micro-level structural sexism relates to well-being. Using the 2017 and 2021 Gallup Values and Beliefs of the American Public surveys (N = 1,501 in 2017; N = 1,248 in 2021), we investigate diverse approaches to internalized sexism. Although we find no significant associations with self-rated health, gender traditionalism is linked to greater depressive and anxiety symptoms for women and men, providing the first population evidence for its universal harm in the United States. Although benevolent sexism shows no associations with mental well-being, hostile sexism is linked to greater symptoms among men. A diminished sense of mastery consistently accounts for these relationships, showing promise as a potential mechanism. These findings are suppressed by political conservatism and religious involvement, both of which lead to reporting greater-rather than diminished-well-being.

In recent decades, naturalization rates among U.S. immigrants have surged as many seek citizenship to regain lost rights and protections. However, the impact of naturalization on immigrants' life outcomes, such as health, remains underexplored in academic research. Challenges arising from selection processes complicate the interpretation of any observed health disparities between naturalized citizens and noncitizens. To address this gap, we link restricted-use data from the 2000 U.S. census to individual Social Security records on citizenship change and death, enabling a 20-year observation of naturalization and mortality. Results from discrete-time hazard analysis of mortality risk reveals a significant protective health effect from naturalization, which increases in magnitude among long-term naturalized citizens. The effect is particularly strong across older ages and among groups with lower education, refugee entry status, Hispanic origin, and health limitations. These findings suggest that naturalization represents an important but stratifying source of institutional support for socially vulnerable immigrants.

During the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, the success of public health authorities' strategies to curb the spread of the virus hinged on individuals' voluntary compliance with their directives. This study considers how two components of the cultural authority of public health influenced compliance with health guidelines during the pandemic: (1) individuals' views of public health officials as legitimate and (2) the shared value of health. I also examine the influence of other basic values, alongside health, on pandemic behavior. Data come from an original survey of 1,356 U.S. adults collected online in spring 2022. Findings reveal the pivotal role of perceived legitimacy of public health authorities in motivating compliance, even when considering perceived threat of the virus, political orientation, and other contextual factors. Results provide insight into why people complied with health guidelines by indicating how variation in individuals' value priorities influenced behavior.