Ideology and Polarization Among Women State Legislators

In early work on women in Congress, scholars consistently identified a tendency among women legislators to be more liberal roll‐call voters than male copartisans. Recent changes in Congress point to the polarization of women, where Democratic women remain more liberal than Democratic men but Republican women are no different from, or more conservative than, Republican men. We use newly available state legislative roll‐call data to determine whether women state legislators are more liberal or polarized than male copartisans. We find that while Democratic women state legislators remain consistently more liberal than male copartisans in most state chambers, Republican women legislators are growing more conservative. Thus, women state legislators are increasingly polarized in most U.S. states. Legislator replacement and increasing polarization among state legislators in office contribute to this effect. We argue that polarization among women legislators has implications for the representation of women in the states.     

Action Research at the Intersection of Structural and Family Violence in an Immigrant Latino Community: a Youth-Led Study

The current study addresses the lack of research exploring the social and emotional impact of anti-immigrant policy on Latino communities, and the intersection of anti-immigrant climates with other family stressors, like domestic violence (DV). In this paper we describe a qualitative study led by the participatory action research group La Voz Juvenile de Caminar Latino. Youth researchers conducted semi-structured interviews with Latino men, women, and youth participating in a domestic violence program. Using an inductive approach to thematic analysis, researchers identified themes that reflect how Latino families with histories of DV experience an increasingly anti-immigrant climate. All participants in this study described emotional stress, fear, and restrictions in their day-to-day life attributed to the anti-immigrant sociopolitical climate, and adults also spoke to work-related stress and economic insecurity. Both adults and children described harassment by strangers, coworkers, and/or peers. With regard to DV, women tended to describe immigration stress as exasperating family conflict, while men viewed these external stressors as discouraging DV. Distrust of police and other formal supports was a key theme underlying adult and youth perceptions of help-seeking for DV. The findings of this study suggest that anti-immigrant sentiment and policy creates undue stress for Latino families and barriers to formal help-seeking for DV. The participatory research process provided a corrective experience for youth witnesses of DV and prioritizes the voices of those most affected by immigration policies and violence.     

COMMODIFICATION OF HOUSING WITH CHINESE CHARACTERISTICS

In its attempt to reform the housing system, China has rapidly marketized but not privatized the housing production process and system. In contrast, the consumption of housing is privatized quickly but marketized slowly. Yet, the housing allocation process still largely relies on the old system of heavy subsidization. Nonetheless, housing subsidy has been curtailed and the growth in home ownership and the future pegging of rent and price with household income would dwarf the housing provider role of the government. The commodification process necessitated new government roles since government support in infrastructure and superstructure is essential for the healthy functioning of the newly emerged housing market. Overall, retention of the public ownership of the development companies and the housing financiers differentiate the Chinese housing reform process from those of other market and post‐socialist economies.     

The interaction between single mothers' living arrangements and welfare participation

This article examines the interaction between single mothers' living arrangements and their welfare participation, taking into account the endogeneity embedded in the two decisions. Using data from the 1990 Survey of Income and Program Participation, I estimate a two‐stage instrumental variables model and simulate the effects of partial‐ and full‐family benefit reductions on both the distribution of living arrangements and the rate of welfare participation. Tabulations show that 62 percent of single mothers live independently, 16 percent live in the home of their parents, 12 percent cohabit with an unrelated man, and 11 percent share with others. Reductions in combined AFDC and food stamp benefits increase mothers' probability of living with their parents relative to living independently, cohabiting, or sharing with others. Benefit reductions also decrease the probability of welfare receipt. The resulting drop in the participation rate is even more pronounced once the simultaneous effect on the distribution of living arrangements is taken into account. The implication of these findings is that policies aimed at reducing welfare caseloads may have the unanticipated effect of shifting families' living arrangements, potentially confounding the impacts of policy changes in either positive or negative ways. © 2000 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management.     

Weight-Based Victimization Among Adolescents in the School Setting: Emotional Reactions and Coping Behaviors

Weight-based victimization is a frequent experience for adolescents, but little is known about their emotional reactions and coping strategies in response to weight-based teasing and bullying. The present study examined the ways that adolescents cope with experiences of weight-based victimization at school. An initial sample of 1,555 students from two high schools in central Connecticut completed a comprehensive battery of self-report measures to assess their experiences of weight-based teasing and bullying at school, affective responses to these experiences, and coping strategies used to deal with incidents of weight-based victimization. Only those students who reported experiencing weight-based victimization (N = 394) were included for the purposes of the present study. Of this sub-sample, 56% were females, 84% were Caucasian, and the mean age was 16.4 years. Weight-based victimization resulted in 40–50% of adolescents feeling sad and depressed, worse about themselves, bad about their body, angry, and some feeling afraid. Gender differences emerged with respect to how boys and girls react to experiences of weight-based victimization. However, structural equation model estimates demonstrated that both boys and girls who reported negative affect in response to weight-based victimization were more likely to use coping strategies of avoidance (e.g., avoiding gym class), increased food consumption, and binge eating. Binary logistic regressions showed that the odds of students skipping school or reporting that their grades were harmed because of weight-based teasing increased by 5% per teasing incident, even after controlling for gender, age, race, grades, and weight status. To our knowledge, this study is the first systematic examination of affective reactions and coping strategies among overweight adolescents in response to weight-based victimization. These findings can inform efforts to assist overweight youth to cope adaptively with weight-based victimization.     

Research integrity — it's about more than misconduct

The definition of integrity is "the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles that you refuse to change" (meaning in the Cambridge English Dictionary). Yet research integrity is frequently discussed through the lens of misconduct or concerns around reproducibility. However, as we can see from this quote, integrity is about more than that. It is about who you are as a person and your behaviour. Your behaviour in terms of how you do your work, towards your immediate colleagues and towards those with whom you communicate; whether across the research and innovation (R&I) system or the general public.     

Norm Proxy War and Resistance Through Outsourcing: The Dynamics of Transnational Human Rights Contestation

A great deal of constructivist international relations research on norms focuses on the diffusion of liberal human rights values. In contrast, this article analyzes how critics seek to undermine human rights principles in contexts where human rights norms are increasingly hegemonic. It argues that when norm challengers are frustrated by the institutionalization of human rights, they engage in transnational strategies to pursue their agendas. In norm proxy war, actors patronize surrogates in locales where norms are weak in the hope that victories abroad will reverberate internationally and at home. This dynamic is illustrated by American evangelical sponsorship of political homophobia in Uganda, culminating in that country’s draconian anti-LGBT legislation. When norms are resisted through outsourcing, actors contract out human rights violations in an effort to erode norms through practice, as evidenced by patterns of extraterritorial detention and extraordinary rendition to torture in the post-9/11 “Global War on Terror.” Identifying these patterns broadens understanding of potential pathways of norm contestation.