The Role of Religious Socialization and Religiosity in African American and Caribbean Black Adolescents’ Sexual Initiation

Journal of Religion and Health - This study determined the nature of the associations between religious socialization, religiosity, and adolescent sexual initiation. Data originated from the...     

An item factor analysis and item response theory-based revision of the Everyday Discrimination Scale

The Everyday Discrimination Scale (EDS), a widely used measure of daily perceived discrimination, is purported to be unidimensional, to function well among African Americans, and to have adequate construct validity. Two separate studies and data sources were used to examine and cross-validate the psychometric properties of the EDS. In Study 1, an exploratory factor analysis was conducted on a sample of African American law students (N = 589), providing strong evidence of local dependence, or nuisance multidimensionality within the EDS. In Study 2, a separate nationally representative community sample (N = 3,527) was used to model the identified local dependence in an item factor analysis (i.e., bifactor model). Next, item response theory (IRT) calibrations were conducted to obtain item parameters. A five-item, revised-EDS was then tested for gender differential item functioning (in an IRT framework). Based on these analyses, a summed score to IRT-scaled score translation table is provided for the revised-EDS. Our results indicate that the revised-EDS is unidimensional, with minimal differential item functioning, and retains predictive validity consistent with the original scale.     

Intelligence: is it the epidemiologists' elusive "fundamental cause" of social class inequalities in health?

Virtually all indicators of physical health and mental competence favor persons of higher socioeconomic status (SES). Conventional theories in the social sciences assume that the material disadvantages of lower SES are primarily responsible for these inequalities, either directly or by inducing psychosocial harm. These theories cannot explain, however, why the relation between SES and health outcomes (knowledge, behavior, morbidity, and mortality) is not only remarkably general across time, place, disease, and kind of health system but also so finely graded up the entire SES continuum. Epidemiologists have therefore posited, but not yet identified, a more general "fundamental cause" of health inequalities. This article concatenates various bodies of evidence to demonstrate that differences in general intelligence (g) may be that fundamental cause.     

Challenges in Disseminating Model Programs: A Qualitative Analysis of the Strengthening Washington DC Families Program

This article discusses the challenges faced when a popular model program, the Strengthening Families Program, which in the past has been implemented on a smaller scale in single organizations, moves to a larger, multiorganization endeavor. On the basis of 42 interviews conducted with program staff, the results highlight two main themes that address program and organizational characteristics. The themes relate to the cultural relevance of the program, the accessibility of program partners, the organization of program services, and the coordination of program activities. The article also offers a discussion of how to better prepare sites for program delivery. This discussion focuses explicitly on the need for good communication among program partners, extensive community outreach, and the ability to secure additional resources.     

Units of analysis and item statistics for environmental assessment scales

Choice of units of analysis is a critical problem in evaluating environmental assessment items. The “Ecological Fallacy” involves interpreting results based on ecological entities, such as environmental settings, as applying to individuals. A less familiar error, the “Individual Differences Fallacy,” involves interpreting results based on individuals as applying to settings. Although this second error has been ubiquitous, little is known about the empirical consequences of using different units of analysis in item analysis. This study examined this issue when the units were (1) individuals, (2) observed settings, or (3) “artificial” or random settings. Neither item validities based on individuals nor item validities based on settings yielded unequivocal results. However, a measure developed specifically for environmental research, the Split-Sample Correlation, appeared useful for identifying environmental items. Researchers constructing environmental assessment scales should select items with both high Split-Sample Correlations and high setting-level item validities.     

Occupational differentiation among white men in the first decade after high school

Most research on career development is concerned with the fate of individuals, but portraits of the heterogeneity and development of whole populations or aggregates of individuals can also be useful for understanding the needs and development of different client populations. Two population-level concepts are proposed and defined: differentiation and distribution. This report then charts the rate at which occupational differentiation proceeds among 3730 young white men and investigates the personal and family attributes by which these men are distributed, or distribute themselves, to jobs. Data from the National Longitudinal (Parnes) Survey of the Labor Force Experience of Young Men are used to examine employment among men aged 16 to 28 in different levels and fields of work. Results suggest that the rate of labor force participation stabilizes in the early twenties, differentiation among men by education and the distribution of men among different broad levels and fields of work stabilize by the mid-twenties, and the sorting of men with different socioeconomic backgrounds into different occupational groups continues through the late twenties at which age it appears to have been largely completed. Discriminant analyses suggest that the distribution of men to jobs is primarily along an occupational status dimension, and secondarily according to field of work. Among the variables used in the analyses, academic achievement is the major dimension by which men are sorted or sort themselves to different jobs.     

Using a classification of occupations to describe age,sex, and time differences in employment patterns

Employment data from the 1960 and 1970 censuses were organized using Holland's occupational classification to examine age, sex, and level differences in employment, and to detect changes over the 10-year period. Data were organized in terms of both kind and level of work. Arranging information about the occupational structure of the workforce in terms of a classification that parallels the way psychologists describe people facilitates some psychological interpretations of employment patterns. For example, realistic work is becoming relatively less common and the sexual composition of the occupational categories may be changing. The results provide structured information about the workforce and its changing nature that can be communicated to people planning their careers, personnel workers and counselors, and to government agencies and planners.     

Intelligence and semen quality are positively correlated

Human cognitive abilities inter-correlate to form a positive matrix, from which a large first factor, called ‘Spearman's g’ or general intelligence, can be extracted. General intelligence itself is correlated with many important health outcomes including cardio-vascular function and longevity. However, the important evolutionary question of whether intelligence is a fitness-related trait has not been tested directly, let alone answered. If the correlations among cognitive abilities are part of a larger matrix of positive associations among fitness-related traits, then intelligence ought to correlate with seemingly unrelated traits that affect fitness—such as semen quality. We found significant positive correlations between intelligence and 3 key indices of semen quality: log sperm concentration (r = .15, p = .002), log sperm count (r = .19, p < .001), and sperm motility (r = .14, p = .002) in a large sample of US Army Veterans. None was mediated by age, body mass index, days of sexual abstinence, service in Vietnam, or use of alcohol, tobacco, marijuana, or hard drugs. These results suggest that a phenotype-wide fitness factor may contribute to the association between intelligence and health. Clarifying whether a fitness factor exists is important theoretically for understanding the genomic architecture of fitness-related traits, and practically for understanding patterns of human physical and psychological health.     

Communal schools and teacher victimization

Despite data showing that teacher victimization is at least as great a problem as student victimization, far less research exists regarding teacher victimization than student victimization and overall school crime, particularly with regard to the application of criminological theory to explain the victimization of teachers. We address this gap by examining the hierarchical relationship between communal school organization and teacher victimization in a nationally representative sample of 37,497 teachers from 7,488 public schools in the United States. Results showed that teacher experienced less victimization in schools that were more communally organized. We discuss these findings and present implications for school-based delinquency prevention.