Suchergebnisse

How do students make judgments about their future behaviors involving the use of alcohol? The present study advances deterrence theory by introducing elements of attribution theory while examining the perceived deterrent effects of a newly instituted dry policy on a college campus. A phone survey of 508 full-time undergraduate students between the ages of 18 and 26 was conducted 1 year following the ban on alcohol. Hypotheses are presented in two models and predict that deterrence (surveillance and enforcement) and blame explain intentions to violate the alcohol policy. These relationships are expected to be mediated by problem attribution and shame and are moderated by gender. Results show that perceived peer surveillance does reduce intentions to violate the policy in the future but formal enforcement does not. Findings further indicate that attributing blame acts to increase the likelihood of experiencing shame, therefore, reducing intentions to violate the alcohol policy. Gender conditioned the effects of surveillance and shame (stronger for females) on future policy violations. Problems that arise from drinking can be understood as another form of attribution that acts to mediate surveillance. Surveillance and blame contribute to the judgment process as students think about violating the alcohol policy, and shame emerges as the key link between deterrence and attribution.

We explore patterns and correlates of gun ownership in the United States, with a particular focus on differentiating those who will never own a gun ("nevers") and those who are open to ownership in the future ("maybes") from current‐owners. We use the Guns in American Life Survey (GALS), collected in September of 2018 (n = 3,103), to explore the role of several classes of factors in shaping experiences and attitudes, including socialization, fear and victimization, ideology (confidence in the police, punitiveness, justifiable violence, and gun "science" research), and preparedness. Descriptive findings suggest that maybe‐owners are similar to never‐owners in some ways in background factors (e.g., tending to be women, lower‐income, and not living in a rural area) and more like owners in other ways (e.g., conservative, Republican, and with children in the home). Regression results reveal some anticipated patterns and other unexpected ones. For example, past victimization differentiates the maybes from the nevers but not from the owners. Worry about mass and school shootings leads one away from gun ownership, while worry about terrorist attacks leads toward it. Curiously, greater confidence in the police is highest for the maybes. They are solidly in the middle on other ideological issues, including beliefs in justifiable violence and gun "science" research. We find different ideological issues come together as a continuum of gun ownership status. Finally, those most likely to buy a gun have owned one previously and cycle in and out of gun ownership. They have also used agency by taking other steps to protect themselves. Our findings identify a new subset of occasional owners and illuminate the process of moving toward gun acquisition.

Mentors for adolescents are widely believed to improve life chances and reduce problem behavior. Using 42 retrospective qualitative interviews with undergraduate former high school athletes and social learning theory as a framework, we investigate what it means to adolescents to matter to their school‐based natural mentors. Findings indicate that natural mentors represent a fundamental social connection that helped participants feel like they mattered. We identify three structural domains of social identity in which mattering operates: relationship, gender, and athletic. Natural mentoring led to connecting with non‐kin, feeling important, and creating accountability to significant others. Mentorship and mattering were deeply gendered; in reinforcing attributes of athletic success and physical or mental growth, mentor relationships both contributed to and helped subvert the structure of traditional gender roles and provide insight into the ways men and women navigate the contested and gendered space of sport. Finally, these mentoring relationships demonstrated the intersectional nature of sport and its physicality by linking the body and soul. Mattering is the mechanism for social learning that facilitates these crucial relationships. The implications of these findings are discussed, along with suggestions for future research.

The authors examine the organizational transformation of Prevention Point, the San Francisco-based syringe exchange program. Their purposes are to explore the processes of organizational change, focus on the impact of formalization on members and organizational goals, and contextualize these in light of belonging to an underground organization. They highlight the volunteers' motivation and commitment, and their responses to the organizational changes. Drawing on qualitative interviews with 56 service providers, conducted from 1993 to 1995, the authors document the changes in the organization and the members' perceptions of it as it moved from an illegal, deviant group to a socially sanctioned service organization. This transition is shown to have ultimately undermined much of the basis for volunteer commitment, reinforcing the shift in responsibility from the membership to a new management structure. These findings have implications for the larger problem of maintaining volunteer engagement in volunteer work.

From a process evaluation, participants in San Francisco's syringe exchange program (SEP) are described. Three groups, primary, secondary, and nonexchangers, were interviewed for a total of 244 study participants recruited from eight needle exchange sessions. Fifty percent of all primary exchangers exchanged for one or more injecting drug user(s) (IDUs). Three general routes of syringe distribution were identified between primary and secondary exchangers: between close friends and lovers; for people who lived in close proximity to them; and with customers who bought drugs from them. Focusing on why some go to SEPs and why some rely on others to go for them, findings are summarized primarily as the barriers for not attending SEPs, including exposure, legal status, illness, drug lifestyle, and conflicts with service provision. The secondary exchangers had similar risk reduction profiles to the SEP users that overall were better than the nonexchangers. For example, they shared syringes and cookers significantly fewer times than nonexchangers. The results demonstrate that these client-provided exchanges enable the SEP to overcome injection drug users' obstacles to program attendance, thereby reaching even hard to access members of IDU populations. We found the effects of these client-provided services to be positive for the larger IDU population.

AbstractObjectiveDo veterans of the U.S. armed forces, a population with unique knowledge of and experience with guns, have distinctive views of gun control policies? While veterans are commonly assumed to be conservatives and Republicans, an emerging body of work has begun to explore the complexities of their policy opinions, partisanship, and voting behaviors. Such work provides needed nuance about this symbolically and politically important group.MethodsUsing the Guns in American Life Survey (2018, n = 3103), we test whether veterans (with combat and noncombat experiences), family members of veterans, and nonveterans have different perspectives, even after taking into account factors such as gun ownership and partisanship.
ResultsThe findings indicate that veterans (and particularly combat veterans) are more supportive than nonveterans of expanding civilians' gun carrying rights. On the other hand, veterans with and without combat experience are more likely to favor banning AR15 and military‐style rifles and high‐capacity ammunition clips. Veterans are also more likely to favor a 14‐day waiting period for all gun purchases, but they do not have unique positions on mental health screening for gun purchases.ConclusionTaken together, these findings appear to reflect a veteran population that is positively disposed toward guns in general but also understands the destructive power of military‐style weapons.

We investigate the relationships between violence, drug use and methadone maintenance treatment (MMT) for women injection drug users (IDUs). The data presented here come from a longitudinal study of 233 IDUs both in and out of MMT in the San Francisco Bay Area. Each was interviewed five times over a period of three years, both qualitatively and quantitatively. Using grounded theory principals, we analyze 55 women's accounts of violence. We find that violence acts both as a barrier to entry to treatment and to successful treatment outcomes. Violence is related to drug use and treatment in several ways, primarily in that violence is a traumatic experience to which some women respond by using drugs. Violence may include forced drug use or methadone diversion. Violence may cause women to interrupt or postpone treatment. Finally, two women experienced violence from their treatment providers, which forced them to leave their programs. We suggest that in order to maximize successful treatment outcomes and reduce drug‐related harm for women, violence must be addressed in the treatment process.

Our objective is to expand upon the emerging literature that examines the role of multiple forms of racism in gun ownership and gun control attitudes among non‐Latino whites. While some of these studies, using standard measures of racial resentment, speculate about the color‐coded nature of crime and whether this partially motivates gun ownership, here we specifically consider whether cognitive and apathetic types of racism along with explicit racism are associated with gun ownership and attitudes. In doing so, we advance the literature by using novel measures of racism and focus on generalized racial attitudes, not just anti‐black views. We use data from the Guns in American Life Survey, an online survey using a national sample of adult respondents, and apply regression techniques to assess whether general racial attitudes, including fear of non‐whites, are associated with gun ownership and gun control attitudes net of control variables. The multivariate results suggest that racism, including fear of other races, is not associated with gun ownership. However, cognitive and apathetic indicators of racism influence gun control attitudes for at least some whites. The implications are that racism in various forms needs to be considered in all studies involving gun‐related issues.