Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Social disadvantage'
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Maxwell, Karen J. "Fatherhood in the context of social disadvantage : constructions of fatherhood and attitudes towards parenting interventions of disadvantaged men in Scotland." Thesis, University of Glasgow, 2018. http://theses.gla.ac.uk/9101/.
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Background: Research on men’s constructions of fatherhood has proliferated over the last three decades, but most studies have focused on middle-class men. There is a need for more research exploring how disadvantaged men conceptualise good fatherhood and relate to changing societal ideals of fatherhood. In addition, parenting interventions are particularly targeted at disadvantaged parents but little is known about how disadvantaged fathers feel about being targeted, and how best to engage them. This study set out to explore disadvantaged UK men’s constructions of fatherhood and attitudes towards parenting interventions. The THRIVE trial taking place in Glasgow, evaluating two antenatal parenting interventions for vulnerable parents, offered an opportunity to investigate these issues. Methods: Thirty-six fathers or fathers-to-be (aged 15-51) were recruited through their partner’s participation in the THRIVE trial or through community organisations working with families in economically-deprived areas. Men participated in in-depth interviews, incorporating elements of repertory grids method. Interviews focused on the men’s upbringings, current circumstances, understandings of good fatherhood, and attitudes towards parenting interventions. Findings: Socially-disadvantaged men’s constructions of good fatherhood were complex and multi-faceted. Men drew on multiple discourses in constructing fathering identities which combined ideas about ‘involved’ fathering with more ‘traditional’ ideas around provision, protection and responsibility. In doing so, these men worked hard to align themselves with socially-acceptable discourses of good fatherhood, demonstrating their awareness of, and engagement with, societally-dominant discourses of modern-day fatherhood. Barriers to the men enacting their visions of good fatherhood centred around: the legacy of their upbringings; difficult relationships with partners and ex-partners; desire to demonstrate an acceptable masculinity; and their disadvantaged circumstances, including the instability of their lives and lack of work. The majority of these men displayed positive attitudes towards attending a parenting intervention. Factors affecting their intentions to attend included: desire to support their partner and feel involved in her pregnancy, perceiving benefits for themselves and their partners, and the belief that the interventions were relevant and appropriate to their needs. Potential barriers were: fear of public scrutiny, perceived lack of information, perceived lack of ‘need’, and notions of acceptable masculinity. Conclusions: Findings suggest that disadvantaged men held normative ideas about good fatherhood but that there were significant challenges facing them in living up to these ideals. Parenting interventions targeting disadvantaged fathers should therefore: capitalise on men’s excitement and commitment to partner and baby in the antenatal period; emphasize the relevance of content to the needs of disadvantaged men; and bear in mind potential barriers such as perceived lack of ‘need’, overcoming social anxieties, and notions of acceptable masculinity.
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Warner, Steven. "Liberalism, disadvantage and deliberation : the search for solutions to social injustice." Thesis, University of Oxford, 1997. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.363781.
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Michael, Domna. "Educational disadvantage, triligualism and social change: the Pomaks of Greek Thrace." Thesis, London School of Economics and Political Science (University of London), 2004. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.417612.
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Tuck, Victor David. "Links between social deprivation and harm to children : a study of parenting in social disadvantage." Thesis, n.p, 1995. http://ethos.bl.uk/.
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Hutchings, Judy. "The personal and parental characteristics of preschool children referred to a child and family mental health service and their relation to treatment outcome." Thesis, Bangor University, 1996. https://research.bangor.ac.uk/portal/en/theses/the-personal-and-parental-characteristics-of-preschool-children-referred-to-a-child-and-family-mental-health-service-and-their-relation-to-treatment-outcome(bd60508c-5b03-4c6c-91ba-e74c45cfd081).html.
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Pell, Christopher W. "Neighborhood Social Interaction in Public Housing Relocation." Digital Archive @ GSU, 2012. http://digitalarchive.gsu.edu/sociology_diss/67.
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Nationwide, housing authorities demolish public housing communities and relocate the existing residents in an attempt to create more favorable neighborhood environments and to promote safer and more efficacious social interactions for public housing residents. Yet, studies of public housing relocation do not find strong evidence of beneficial social interaction occurring between relocated residents and new neighbors. Despite increased safety and relative increase in neighborhood economic standing, studies find relocated residents socialize outside of their new neighborhoods or else limit existing neighborhood interactions as compared to living in public housing communities. This raises the question of why relocated residents either do or do not choose to interact with their new neighbors within their new residential settings. In an effort to answer this question, I have conducted a study focused on neighborhood social interactions using public housing residents relocated from six of Atlanta, Georgia’s public housing communities.
As a backdrop to the study, I present relevant literature concerning both the study of neighborhoods and the study of prior relocation endeavors. I argue that neighborhoods do provide important social landscapes for attempting to benefit public housing residents, though more research and a different framework of analysis are needed in order to manifest theorized outcomes of relocation for all residents involved. I then employ the use of both quantitative survey data from 248 relocated residents and qualitative in-depth interview data from 40 relocated residents to provide further insight into social interaction patterns after relocation from Atlanta’s public housing. This research finds that prior to relocation residents in public housing communities differed in terms of their ideal zones of action and preferred levels of inclusion and engagement in the neighborhood setting and in terms of their surrounding community scene. By examining these different ideal-types of residents in detail, I argue that prior to moving the residents, a better fit between resident and neighborhood can be constructed by housing authorities such that more beneficial social interaction outcomes can be achieved overall in the relocation process.
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Vlahiotis, Anna. "Distance and disparity social disadvantage and the distribution of hazardous waste in America /." Diss., Columbia, Mo. : University of Missouri-Columbia, 2007. http://hdl.handle.net/10355/6269.
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Thesis (M.A.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2007.The entire dissertation/thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file (which also appears in the research.pdf); a non-technical general description, or public abstract, appears in the public.pdf file. Title from title screen of research.pdf file (viewed on January 15, 2008) Includes bibliographical references.
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Davidson, Gillian Moffat. "Poverty amidst plenty : a study of disadvantage, vulnerability and social exclusion in Singapore." Thesis, University of Liverpool, 1999. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.366394.
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Lawson, Suzanne. "Addressing Complex Problems: Spatial Targeting, Disadvantage and Urban Governance in Australia." Thesis, Griffith University, 2011. http://hdl.handle.net/10072/366655.
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Over the past 20 years governments in Australia have been experimenting with spatial targeting as a way to address disadvantage. Spatially targeted programs are distinct from traditional functional programs in that they are geographically based and focus on working with communities and across governments to address multiple problems at the local level.
In this context NSW and Queensland stand out as two states that adopted explicit spatial responses to urban disadvantage in the form of place management programs. Place management programs were cast as innovative attempts to address concentrated disadvantage in discrete local communities. Why these two states adopted spatial targeting is the central question of this research. The research uses in-depth case study analysis of place management programs in Western Sydney and Brisbane to uncover the multiple factors that led to this form of spatial targeting. Analysis of the decision-making and implementation process for these programs provides insights about the policy process in Australia and the prospects for spatial targeting to tackle complex social policy issues.
Place management programs are comparable with examples of spatial targeting in other Western democracies, for example area-based initiatives in the UK. Area-based initiatives sought to address the concentrated disadvantage that arose from restructuring and deindustrialisation, with targeted intensive interventions in local areas. Drawing on the international literature, this research extends the concept of spatial targeting by applying it to the Australian case. Whilst some of the international features are identifiable here, other aspects of spatial targeting are unique to the Australian institutional context. In this thesis it is argued that from the 1980s onwards, economic restructuring and urban redevelopment in Australian cities contributed to the emergence of complex problems. Existing governance arrangements were unable to respond to these problems and the capacity of the service system was undermined by increasing demand as well as public sector reforms and changing welfare policy. Spatially targeted programs were seen as a new way to respond to these issues.Thesis (PhD Doctorate)
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Griffith School of Environment
Science, Environment, Engineering and Technology
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Lindquist, Anthea Clare. "The impact of socioeconomic position on outcomes of severe maternal morbidity amongst women in the UK and Australia." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2013. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:3ec55671-e8b8-42c6-a777-fb7667b33e6e.
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Aims: The aims of this thesis were to investigate the risk of severe maternal morbidity amongst women from different socioeconomic groups in the UK, explore why these differences exist and compare these findings to the setting in Australia. Methods: Three separate analyses were conducted. The first used UK Obstetric Surveillance System (UKOSS) data to assess the incidence and independent odds of severe maternal morbidity by socioeconomic group in the UK. The second analysis used quantitative and qualitative data from the 2010 UK National Maternity Survey (NMS) to explore the possible reasons for the difference in odds of morbidity between socioeconomic groups in the UK. The third analysis used data from the Victorian Perinatal Data Collection (VPDC) unit in Austra lia to assess the incidence and odds of severe maternal morbidity by socioeconomic group in Victoria. Results: The UKOSS analysis showed that compared with women from the highest socioeconomic group, women in the lowest 'unemployed' group had 1.22 (95%CI: 0.92 - 1.61) times greater odds associated with severe maternal morbidity. The NMS analysis demonstrated that independent of ethnicity, age and parity, women from the lowest socioeconomic quintiJe were 60% less likely to have had any antenatal care (aOR 0.40; 95%CI 0.18 - 0.87), 40% less likely to have been seen by a health professional prior to 12 weeks gestation (aOR 0.62; 95%CI 0.45 - 0.85) and 45% less likely to have had a postnatal check with their doctor (aOR 0.55; 95%CI 0.42 - 0.70) compared to women from the highest quintile. The Victorian analysis showed that women from the lowest socioeconomic group were 21% (aOR 1.21 ; 95% CI 1.00 - 1.47) more likely and that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women were twice (aOR 2.02; 95%CI 1.32 - 3.09) as likely to experience severe morbidity. Discussion: The resu lts suggest that women from the lowest socioeconomic group in the UK and in Victoria have increased odds of severe maternal morbidity. Further research is needed into why these differences exist and efforts must be made to ensure that these women are appropriately prioritised in the future planning of maternity services provisio n in the UK and Australia.
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Kamruzzaman, Md. "Examination of activity spaces: Identifying transport disadvantage in rural Northern Ireland." Thesis, University of Ulster, 2010. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/103026/1/PhDThesis_Kamruzzaman.pdf.
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The reduction of transport related social exclusion is a key goal of transport policy in rural Northern Ireland although very little is known to date about the extent of this phenomenon in the region. This research identifies different drawbacks associated with the processes leading to transport disadvantage, patterns of transport disadvantage in space and time, and the consequences of being transport disadvantaged in rural Northern Ireland. Spatial analyses were conducted to select three case study areas (Moira, Saintfield, and Doagh) using criteria derived from the literature. The criteria are related to the differential levels of area accessibility and area mobility which are known to influence travel behaviour. 4 focus groups, 458 questionnaires, and 157 weekly activity-travel diary data were collected from individuals living in the selected case study areas and were analysed in this research.
Transport disadvantage is a function of a lack of transport and a lack of opportunities (land uses). Using d ata from the focus groups , a number of barriers associated with accessing transport and/or land use systems were identified in a qualitative way – an evaluation of the processes leading to transport disadvantage. On the other hand, individuals activity-travel behaviour patterns were visualised in a GIS environment using data from the questionnaires and activity-travel diaries . A model was developed and run using the ArcGIS ModelBuilder tool to derive scores associated with individual levels of mobility, accessibility, and participation in activities based on the concept of activity spaces for weekdays, weekends, and in a week . These indicators , therefore, measured the performance (outcome) of the processes of transport disadvantage in a quantitative way. However, the weaknesses associated with the traditional mobility, accessibility and participation based measures were identified using criteria derived from the literature and were addressed in this research through the incorporation of: socio-economic and spatio-temporal disaggregation; spatial relativity of the measures; interactions between different explanatory factors; and the partial contributions of different dimensional indicators (e.g. count, type, frequency, and duration of participation) used to measure participation through the development of a composite participation index (PI) measure.
This research found that the process based and outcome based measures are complementary and can be used to triangulate the findings from each measure. Also that the spatial relativity and non-relativity concepts are complementary to each other and that the interactions between different explanatory factors generated new patterns of transport disadvantage. These patterns of transport disadvantage were found to vary in space and time and the transport needs of different disadvantaged groups were found to be different. Based on the study findings and a review of existing policies, this research highlights the imperative of policy responses that are tailored to particular sets of circumstances in different areas.
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Roe, Miranda, and manroe@aapt net au. "FAMILIES AT RISK � A CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF IMPLICATIONS FOR POLICY AND SERVICES." Flinders University. Politics and International Studies, 2006. http://catalogue.flinders.edu.au./local/adt/public/adt-SFU20061025.100933.
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This thesis examines policy and service delivery issues in the development of health and support for families at risk. The research focuses on families with children less than 7 years of age living in some of the most disadvantaged neighbourhoods of metropolitan Adelaide. The thesis draws on evidence of (a) barriers to service support perceived by these families and (b) their strengths and resources in order to identify and develop arguments related to key issues of policy and service delivery.
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Baines, Susan. "Technological innovation and social innovation : women's disadvantage and the 'Technologisation' of home-based distance learning." Thesis, University of Newcastle Upon Tyne, 1993. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.332815.
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Seffrin, Patrick M. "Structural Disadvantage, Heterosexual Relationships and Crime: Life Course Consequences of Environmental Uncertainty." Bowling Green, Ohio : Bowling Green State University, 2009. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc%5Fnum=bgsu1245328845.
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Issa, Rania N. "The Impact of Structural Disadvantage on Homicides in Cleveland From 1990 to 2010." University of Akron / OhioLINK, 2017. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=akron1497298643696709.
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Boguslaw, Julia. "When the Kids Are Not Alright : Essays on Childhood Disadvantage and Its Consequences." Doctoral thesis, Stockholms universitet, Nationalekonomiska institutionen, 2017. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:su:diva-147718.
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This thesis consists of three self-contained essays on childhood disadvantage and its consequences in Sweden. A Longitudinal Look at Child Poverty Using Both Monetary and Non-monetary Approaches. In this paper, we broaden the analysis of child poverty by using both monetary and non-monetary measures of poverty and by comparing these over time. We use a composite of questionnaire answers from children regarding possession of socially perceived necessities and participation in social activities to develop two non-monetary child-centric concepts of disadvantage: material deprivation and social exclusion. The empirical analysis is based on two cross-sections and a panel of children in the Swedish Level-of-Living Survey matched with parental survey data and administrative income records. Consistent with previous findings, we find that relative income poverty among children increases significantly between the year 2000 and 2010. The fraction of children that is disadvantaged in two dimensions, monetary and non-monetary, is relatively small (0.9–7.0 percent) but increases significantly during the period of study. The modest size of the overlap suggests that our measures capture different dimensions of disadvantage, thereby pointing to the importance of alternative poverty indicators. We also find that income status in childhood is the best predictor of socio-economic outcomes in young adulthood. The Aspirations-attainment Paradox of Immigrant Children: A Social Networks Approach. Using two independent and nationally representative samples of Swedish children, I compare the university aspirations and expectations between children of immigrants and children of natives. In line with existing findings, I find that children with foreign-born parents have significantly higher aspirations and expectations than their native-majority peers with and without conditioning on school performance, academic potential and friendship networks. I do not find any evidence of a significant immigrant-non-immigrant aspirations-expectations gap; immigrant children's aspirations and expectations are not less aligned than those of their native-majority peers. This result suggests that immigrant-native disparities in school outcomes are not driven by an aspirations-expectations gap. Finally, the results reveal significant gender differences. Native-majority girls with academic potential are, for example, more likely to express an aspirations-expectations gap. Moreover, having only female friends makes one less likely to belong to the aforementioned category. The Key Player in Disruptive Behavior: Whom Should We Target to Improve the Classroom Learning Environment? In this paper, I address the question: Who is the individual that exerts the greatest negative influence on the classroom learning environment? To answer this question, I invoke the key player model from network economics and use self-reported friendship data in order to solve the methodological problems associated with identifying and estimating peer effects. I overcome the issue of endogenous group formation by using the control function approach where I simultaneously estimate network formation and outcomes. The results show that the typical key player scores well on language and cognitive ability tests and is not more likely to be a boy than a girl. I also find evidence that removing the key player has a significantly larger effect on aggregate disruptiveness in a network than removing the most disruptive individual, implying that policy aimed at the most active individual could be inadequate.
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Kim, SEOK-JOO. "Effects of Job Access and Neighborhood disadvantage on Employment Success of Female Former Welfare Recipients." Case Western Reserve University School of Graduate Studies / OhioLINK, 2013. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=case1365167240.
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Gatlin, DeAngelo C. "Relations Between Family Cohesion and Social Competence Among Youth Living in Poverty." Miami University / OhioLINK, 2017. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=miami1501152557822966.
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Nicholson, Lisa M. "Racial and ethnic disparities: an examination of social control and contagion mechanisms linking neighborhood disadvantage and young adult obesity." The Ohio State University, 2007. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1189631745.
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Lane, Erin C. "Urban disadvantage, social disorganization, and racial profiling an analysis of ecology and police officers' race-specific search behaviors /." [Gainesville, Fla.] : University of Florida, 2005. http://purl.fcla.edu/fcla/etd/UFE0012660.
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Isaacs, Alexe Saless Averidite. "Stress, coping strategies and social support amongst grade 11 students in historically disadvantaged schools." Thesis, University of the Western Cape, 2008. http://etd.uwc.ac.za/index.php?module=etd&action=viewtitle&id=gen8Srv25Nme4_6418_1263430276.
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Mohamed, Mohd Afzan Bin. "Development and testing the validity of a methodological framework to assess transport-related social exclusion." Thesis, Queensland University of Technology, 2019. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/133368/2/Mohd_Afzan_Bin_Mohamed_Thesis.pdf.
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Transport-related social exclusion describes a situation where there are transport barriers or limitations for individuals to access basic needs, such as essential goods and services. It, hence, puts individuals at risk of being socially excluded. This thesis develops a methodology to build a comprehensive framework to assess common causes of transport barriers. The study also identifies the individuals that are part of the transport-related social exclusion population.
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Nicholson, Lisa Marie. "Racial and ethnic disparities an examination of social control and contagion mechanisms linking neighborhood disadvantage and young adult obesity /." Columbus, Ohio : Ohio State University, 2007. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc%5Fnum=osu1189631745.
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Bazyler, Alina. "Race, Social Disorganization and Delinquency." Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University, 2013. https://dc.etsu.edu/etd/2283.
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The overrepresentation of racial and ethnic minorities in crime has been an issue of debate. Some evidence, however, has shown that racial differences in offending are largely accounted for by economic disadvantage. Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (n = 4,290), the relationship between race and delinquency was examined looking at social disorganization factors. It was hypothesized that there would be racial and ethnic differences in delinquency and that these differences would be accounted for by social disorganization factors, specifically collective efficacy and economic disadvantage. The results show that compared to White adolescents Hispanic adolescents have increased odds of nonviolent and violent delinquency, and Black adolescents have increased odds of violent delinquency. Contrary to expectations, social disorganization factors did not account for the racial and ethnic differences in delinquency. Unexpectedly, higher levels of collective efficacy actually increased the odds of violent delinquency.
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Robus, Donovan. "Discourses surrounding 'race', equity, disadvantage and transformation in times of rapid social change : higher education in post-apartheid South Africa." Thesis, Rhodes University, 2005. http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1007196.
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Since the dismantling of Apartheid in South Africa in 1994, the South African socio-political and economic landscape has been characterised by rapid change. In the ten years since the 'new' democratic South Africa emerged, transformation has become a dominant discourse that has driven much action and practice in a variety of public areas. One of the areas of focus for transformation has been Higher Education whereby the Department of Education aimed to do away with disparity caused by Apartheid segregation by reducing the number of Higher Education institutions from 36 to 21. This research draws on Foucauldian theory and post-colonial theories (in particular Edward Said and Frantz Fanon), and the concept of racialisation in an analysis of the incorporation of Rhodes University's East London campus into the University of Fort Hare. Ian Parker's discourse analytic approach which suggests that discourses support institutions, reproduce power relations and have ideological effects, was utilised to analyse the talk of students and staff at the three sites affected by the incorporation (viz. Rhodes, Grahamstown, Rhodes, East London and Fort Hare) as well as newspaper articles and public statements made by the two institutions. What emerged was that in post-Apartheid South Africa, institutional and geographic space is still racialised with virtually no reference to the historical and contextual foundations from which this emerged being made. In positioning space and institutions in this racialised manner a discourse of 'white' excellence and 'black' failure emerges with the notion of competence gaining legitimacy through an appeal to academic standards. In addition to this, transformation emerges as a signifier of shifting boundaries in a post-Apartheid society where racialised institutional, spatial and social boundaries evidently still exist discursively.
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Tam, Hau Lin. "A discourse analysis on the construction of 'youth-at-disadvantage' in the context of outreaching social work service in Hong Kong." online access from Digital Dissertation Consortium, 2008. http://libweb.cityu.edu.hk/cgi-bin/er/db/ddcdiss.pl?3348908.
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Hein, Willius Andreas Alexander. "The influence of space and place characteristics on juvenile antisocial behaviour development : an analysis of the effect of contextual disadvantage in Santiago de Chile." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2015. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:f8a96ec7-c87b-4a5e-8e0f-2dcb67df291a.
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The fact that social problems cluster in space is not new. Spatial clustering of social problems has been described for several issues such as low educational achievement, crime and drug use, among others. One key factor that has been linked to those problems is the geographical concentration of contextual disadvantage. It has been argued that this observed correlation is only to be attributed to the fact that housing and labour markets create incentives for vulnerable people to cluster in space. Some believe that this clustering generates additional effects leading to poorer outcomes that would not have been observed in the absence of spatial clustering. The literature is unclear on the question of whether there is a "neighbourhood effect" of contextual disadvantage on problems like antisocial behaviour, and how this effect might be transmitted. Neighbourhood studies have been subject to persistent methodological and conceptual shortcomings. These may be partly related to the high costs involved in producing new datasets with adequate spatial measures. The availability of datasets with contextual data is scarce, thus many of the published papers on the subject have drawn on a low number of different studies (usually from the US and Europe). Consequently, the possibility to generalize their findings seems to be limited. In addition, the availability of high quality data (e.g. longitudinal datasets) that can help to rule out known methodological problems is even more restricted. In order to contribute to improving the understanding of how contextual characteristics might influence adolescent antisocial behaviour, firstly, a systematic review of longitudinal neighbourhood effects studies was conducted. In the first part of the thesis, results from the review suggest that the evidence supporting the existence of a direct neighbourhood effect of poverty and concentrated disadvantage on antisocial behaviour is mixed. Contextual effects of concentrated disadvantage also seemed to be highly dependent on model specification, whereby most studies finding significant main effects usually failed to include potentially relevant confounders in regression models. Commonly omitted confounders were related to baseline antisocial behaviour, parenting and peer differential association. Furthermore, evidence was generally unsupportive of the idea that neighbourhood level residential instability, neighbourhood disorder and incivility, social capital and collective efficacy or exposure to violence may have a direct effect on antisocial behaviour. Regarding institutional resources, mixed results were found. Some evidence pointed to the idea that "subcultural" variables (e.g. community level tolerance to deviance) may have an effect on reduced individual level violence. At times, it seemed that more complex models regarding how neighbourhood influences may influence behavioural outcomes might be needed. In the second part of the thesis, data from a longitudinal study, representative of the school population of Santiago de Chile, was merged with independent contextual level information (Census tract, schools and police records) and analysed. By examining the case of Santiago de Chile, a series of ideas regarding how contextual characteristics of activity spaces might relate to the growth of antisocial behaviour diversity over time were explored and tested. Specific attention was paid to examine and discuss how contextual effects might operate, in particular, how contextual disadvantage may influence criminogenic processes of strain, social control and contagion (peer effects). In order to test the proposed hypotheses, a series of hierarchical linear growth models were estimated. No evidence supporting the idea that different types of activity spaces (home based or school based activity spaces) may have differential effects on antisocial behaviour was found. However, results suggest that higher levels of contextual concentrated disadvantage across activity spaces significantly predicted a steeper growth of antisocial behaviour diversity over time. In spite of this, no support was found for the existence of a direct contextual effect once other covariates (i.e. baseline antisocial behaviour, strain, family level social control, contagion effects, among others) had been controlled for. The effect of concentrated disadvantage on antisocial behaviour appears to be mainly indirect; that is, mediated by other covariates. Baseline antisocial behaviour and contagion effects (peer effects) seem to play a relevant role in explaining away the effect of contextual concentrated disadvantage on the growth of antisocial behaviour scores over time. Only partial support for the idea that strain indicators may predict growth in antisocial behaviour diversity over time was found. Additionally, mediation analysis suggests that it may seem unlikely that the effect of contextual concentrated disadvantage on antisocial behaviour would be mediated by increased levels of strain. In spite of this, the effect of family level SES on the growth of antisocial behaviour diversity does seem to be partially mediated by some of the measured strain indicators. Measurement limitations (antisocial behaviour scale could only increase or remain stable) made it difficult to interpret some unexpected findings regarding strain effects. Regarding social control variables, evidence suggested that, even though family level monitoring predicts antisocial behaviour, neither parental attachment nor monitoring seemed to mediate the effect of contextual disadvantage on antisocial behaviour. In relation to school level social control, none of the relevant measures (school value added education and school attachment) significantly predicted antisocial behaviour in the fully specified model. Moreover, none of the hypothesized mediation effects held up, after controlling for other covariates. Regarding contagion effects (measured using peer variables), macro level concentration of juveniles with arrest records failed to predict individual level growth in antisocial behaviour diversity over time. Nevertheless, micro level concentration of antisocial peers in school and/or in activity spaces did predict growth in antisocial behaviour diversity. Results on micro level concentration of antisocial peers where subject to multicollinearity problems and thus were assessed separately. The effect of both variables (concentration in schools and concentration in activity spaces) was partially mediated by best friend's antisocial behaviour. Furthermore, concentrated disadvantage and concentration of deviant schoolmates in activity space interacted to predict a stronger relationship between affiliation to deviant peers and antisocial behaviour . Results are consistent with both geographic propinquity and co-offending process. , because of a low ecometric reliability found for "concentration of antisocial peers in activity space", results regarding this variable are regarded as tentative. An explanatory hypothesis of observed effects was proposed. Results may suggest that the effect of contextual disadvantage on antisocial behaviour is mainly indirect. Contextual disadvantage might be regarded as an expression of spatial clustering (social sorting) of low SES families due to housing and other governmental policies. In average, low SES families display poorer parenting skills, which might provide at least a partial explanation as regards to why higher concentration of antisocial peers (in school or activity spaces) and increased baseline antisocial behaviour scores are observed in disadvantaged contexts. In turn, higher concentration of deviant peers may be facilitating contagion effects. Results suggest that effects of concentrated disadvantage on antisocial behaviour might be due to simultaneous occurrence of compositional and contextual effects.Study limitations, policy implications, and recommendations for future research are discussed.
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Onwuameze, Nkechi Catherine. "Educational opportunity and inequality in Nigeria: assessing social background, gender and regional effects." Diss., University of Iowa, 2013. https://ir.uiowa.edu/etd/2598.
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This study investigated educational stratification in Nigeria to determine how socioeconomic status, gender, and regional differences influence achievement in education using the nationally representative 2010 Nigeria Education Data Survey (NEDS). These cross-sectional data are among the first quality household survey data available for assessing aspects of education in Nigeria. In the last four decades, Nigeria has experienced dramatic expansion of its educational system. Following the introduction of educational policies and programs, growth in enrolment at the primary and secondary levels has largely been sustained. For instance, enrolment of pupils in primary education increased from 3,515,827 in 1970 to 14,383,487 in 1985 and to 20,080,986 in 2010. However, this impressive gain was followed by dwindling quality in the educational system, which has reported differing educational outcomes for different groups.
Prior research in Nigeria has not examined how socioeconomic status influences achievement in education using large scale representative data. In this study, I primarily focused on assessing socioeconomic status to determine how it predicts achievement in reading and numeracy in Nigerian school children, ages 5 to 16 years. Nigeria is also known to have wide gender and regional gaps in education. Thus, I assessed gender and region variables to determine how much they contribute to the variance in educational achievement. I analyzed NEDS 2010 data and reported the findings of the descriptive and multivariate regression statistics. Descriptive statistics show the frequencies and distribution of the variables in the study. The multivariate regression analyses were employed to determine the relationship of socioeconomic status, gender, and region (the main predictor variables) with achievement in reading and numeracy (outcome variables). Given the use of survey data, both the descriptive and regression statistics were based on weighted statistics.
This study found a significant wealth gap in reading and numeracy achievements among Nigerian children. I also found that family wealth, parental education, and region explain differences in academic achievement. Family wealth was found to be the most important variable influencing achievement in reading and numeracy, followed by mother's education and then region.
Overall, the findings in this study suggest no significant differences in reading and numeracy achievement for boys and girls. Although gender was not found to be consistently associated with academic achievement in this study, it should not be assumed to mean that gender equality in education exists in Nigeria. It is widely reported elsewhere that gender-biased educational opportunity plays a major role in influencing educational attainment and achievement. More research, preferably using a longitudinal study design, is needed to identify the trends and patterns of gender roles in Nigerian educational attainment and achievement. The findings in this study provide the foundation for making further investigations on the association of social, economic, and cultural factors with academic achievement and to assess inequality in education in Nigeria.
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Pierce, Kathleen P. "Asymmetrical perceptions of group-based employment disparities: differences in subjective evaluations of advantage-based and disadvantage-based discrimination." The Ohio State University, 2006. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1150217547.
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Kroeger-D'Souza, Rhiannon Alexis. "UNION FORMATION, PARENTHOOD, AND HEALTH RISK INDICATORS AMONG THE SOCIALLY DISADVANTAGED." The Ohio State University, 2012. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1343072019.
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Gethin, Anni. "Poor suburbs and poor health : exploring the potential of a locational approach to reducing health disadvantage in Australian cities." Thesis, View thesis, 2007. http://handle.uws.edu.au:8081/1959.7/19088.
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Poor urban Australians face a substantial health disadvantage: on average, they can expect to die earlier and suffer more physical disease, mental illness and injuries than wealthier Australians. This thesis examines the potential of one approach to reducing the problem of health disadvantage, namely, systematically intervening in disadvantaged locations. Such an approach is gaining support, especially in the United Kingdom and Australia; there is therefore a need to determine its possibilities and limitations. The thesis is written from the theoretical perspectives of critical social science and political economy of health. The research synthesises empirical data and critical analysis, combining findings from the health inequalities literature and analyses of contemporary political and economic contexts. It also includes two original studies: a quantitative analysis of the patterning of socio-economic disadvantage in Sydney suburbs, and a qualitative case study of a disadvantaged location: Mt Druitt, NSW. The health inequalities research shows that reducing health disadvantage is largely a question of reducing socio-economic disadvantage. A model of social exclusion is used to show how socio-economic disadvantage develops in capitalist societies. Following from this analysis, it is argued that a locational approach can have little impact on the macro political and economic antecedents of socio-economic and health disadvantage. Given these macro constraints, the thesis examines the possible ameliorative impact of a locational approach to health disadvantage here too, there are many limitations. A locational approach would have a limited population reach as most health disadvantaged people do not live in identifiably disadvantaged locations. Location itself creates only a modest independent burden on health, thus improving the amenity of disadvantaged locations will contribute little to reducing health disadvantage. In Australia, the creation of the most visibly disadvantaged urban locations is almost entirely a consequence of policies to concentrate public housing. Although it can be expected that locational interventions will be focused in these locations, there are substantial policy barriers to addressing the major socioeconomic determinants of health , low income, unemployment and sole parent poverty, in public housing estates,
Location based policies to alleviate aspects of health and socio-economic disadvantage are assessed. In general locational policies and interventions have had a disappointing track record in buffering populations against issues such as poverty, unemployment and childhood disadvantage. Four specific policies are examined. There is a case to provide improved health services in disadvantaged locations. Measures to improve social capital or change the social mix of locations will have a very small, if any, impact on health. Early intervention in disadvantaged locations is rational in that the precursors of health and socioeconomic disadvantage occur in early life; however, population reach is limited and only the most expensive and intensive of these programs have produced good results. The case study of Mt Druitt shows that agencies are willing to implement a wide range of interventions to alleviate location based socio-economic and health disadvantage. Some of these interventions can be expected to have good results for some individuals. However, there is a lack of a systematic approach to problems in this location, and substantial barriers exist to creating widespread positive change. Overall, despite growing interest in a locational approach to addressing health disadvantage, and evidence of considerable energy at grass root level, a locational approach can be expected to contribute little to improving the health of socio-economically disadvantaged urban Australians.
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Gethin, Anni. "Poor suburbs and poor health exploring the potential of a locational approach to reducing health disadvantage in Australian cities /." View thesis, 2007. http://handle.uws.edu.au:8081/1959.7/19088.
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Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Western Sydney, 2007.A thesis submitted to the University of Western Sydney, College of Health and Science, School of Biomedical and Health Sciences, in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Includes bibliography.
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Zhang, Jing. "Community Characteristics and Trajectories of Adolescent Internalizing and Externalizing Behaviors: The Cumulative Advantage/Disadvantage and Subjective Appraisals of Social Support as Mechanisms." Diss., Virginia Tech, 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/39389.
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Studies examining neighborhood effects on adolescent outcomes have indicated that adolescents growing up in low-income neighborhoods are at higher risk of developing internalizing and externalizing behaviors. However, knowledge of the long-term effects of neighborhood disadvantages on internalizing and externalizing behaviors and the involved mechanisms across adolescence is limited. Using family life course theory and the cumulative advantage/disadvantage perspective, this study examined how community disadvantages in early adolescence accumulate over time to influence later internalizing and externalizing behaviors and the protective effects of subjective appraisals of social support by adolescents and their primary caregivers. I estimated a two-level growth curve model using three waves of data from the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods (PHDCN). Results indicated subjective appraisals of social support by both adolescents and caregivers played a protective role to buffer the negative effects of community disadvantages on internalizing and externalizing behaviors across adolescence. These results provide insight for the development of intervention programs at both family and government levels to improve adolescent outcomes.Ph. D.
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Magana, Gloria Jean. "REACTIONS TO THE PRIVILEGE WALK: AN EXPLORATORY STUDY." CSUSB ScholarWorks, 2017. https://scholarworks.lib.csusb.edu/etd/581.
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Those who hold multiple disadvantaged identities (i.e., women of color) are subject to inequalities that are not experienced by those who harbor privileged identities. Those with multi-disadvantaged identities have additive disadvantages due to holding multiple subordinate identities and as a result face many barriers. It is critical to recognize these differences in society by raising awareness of privilege. Previous studies have targeted privilege awareness, but have inconsistent findings. However, methods that incorporated experiential learning have shown promising results; an intervention that integrates experiential learning to target privilege may be effective in raising privilege awareness. The Privilege Walk exercise is an experiential learning activity intended to elicit awareness of privilege; it was utilized in this study, integrating racism and microaggressions of gender, race, and ethnicity. However, there are few assessment tools to effectively measure Privilege Walk interventions. In this study, we aim to develop initial Privilege Walk items that we anticipate will improve the effectiveness of the Privilege Walk. The purpose of this study is to qualitatively explore college students’ reactions to the Privilege Walk. This study will allow us to develop items in service of developing a measure that will be used as an assessment element of a larger study. Results revealed that the qualitative data captured participants’ awareness and beliefs in response to the Privilege Walk that helped researchers develop potential Privilege Walk items. Future studies should incorporate balancing gender, race, and ethnicity, develop items that are inclusive of intersectional identity experiences, and track participants’ movements during the activity.
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Barnhart, Sheila. "Social Capital and Child Health: Does Maternal Social Capital Moderate the Relationship between Poverty and Early Child Health Outcomes among Single Mothers?" The Ohio State University, 2017. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1491846638380667.
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Lee, Hedwig Harris Kathleen Mullan. "Race, ethnicity and the social context of disadvantage and its links to obesity and physical activity in adolescence and the transition to adulthood." Chapel Hill, N.C. : University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2009. http://dc.lib.unc.edu/u?/etd,2536.
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Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2009.Title from electronic title page (viewed Oct. 5, 2009). "... in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Sociology." Discipline: Sociology; Department/School: Sociology.
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Richardson, Lindsey A. "When work is more than a job : employment among people who inject drugs." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2012. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:4aadb1b8-4ba3-48d1-a7ee-fd2ee0416b55.
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This thesis explores employment among people who inject drugs (IDU). It seeks identify what differentiates IDU who work from those who do not, barriers to labour market participation, and how employment is perceived and experienced by IDU. Using longitudinal data from the Vancouver Injection Drug User Study (VIDUS), it conducts this research through a detailed examination of the implications of missing data, quantitative analyses of transitions into employment and qualitative, in-depth interviews. Missing data analyses identified differences between those that those that do and do not have missing data, as well as predictors of observation gaps and how individuals end their study participation (either right-hand censorship, attrition, or death). Differences were observed along individual, behavioural and contextual dimensions. Analytical approaches to the relationship between data structure and content gleaned useful information for longitudinal studies with marginalized populations. Discrete time event history analyses of work transitions revealed complex relationships between drug use, drug-related activities, situational risk factors, and transitions into employment. While most IDU did not make transitions into employment, some did, and while some statistical relationships were expected, others were surprising. Novel findings included mode-specific addiction treatment impacts on employment (methadone vs. non-methadone) and the importance of the broader risk environment over and above even high-intensity substance use. Finally, qualitative interviews identified heterogeneity in individual motivations toward and experiences of work. Those who maintained concurrent drug use and formal labour market involvement utilized strategies to spatially and temporally separate the two activities. Individual capacities to employ these strategies were facilitated by material, vocational and temporal motivations, and interfered with by health conditions, catastrophic events and institutional relationships that operated as barriers to employment. This study provides insight into what is a known social determinant of health in the general population among injection drug users.
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Loh, Hui Yee. "The Contribution of the Neighbourhood Environment to the Relationship Between Neighbourhood Disadvantage and Physical Function Among Middle-Aged to Older Adults." Thesis, Australian Catholic University, 2018. https://acuresearchbank.acu.edu.au/download/f874dd1116560426fc11fffab625631c655ea1a636cb03fb913415437e2378c7/11526170/LOH_2018_The_contribution_of_the_neighbourhood_environment.pdf.
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Background
With the continuing increases in life expectancies in developed countries, an important public health goal is to ensure successful ageing—morbidity compression, maintenance of physical functioning and active engagement in life. It is well established that the onset of physical function decline begins in mid-life, and functional capacity is critical to maintaining mobility, independence and quality of life. A growing body of literature has found that residents of more disadvantaged neighbourhoods have significantly poorer physical function, independent of individual-level factors. However, the mechanisms through which neighbourhood environments are associated with this relationship remain largely unknown.
The overarching aim of this thesis was to investigate the contributions of the neighbourhood environment to the relationship between neighbourhood disadvantage and physical function among middle-aged to older adults: this was accomplished in three studies. First, I examined the relationship between neighbourhood disadvantage and physical function in the Australian context (Study One). Second, I investigated if this relationship is explained by neighbourhood-level perceptions of safety from crime and walking for recreation (Study Two). Third, I examined the contribution of neighbourhood walkability and walking for transport to the relationship between neighbourhood disadvantage and physical function (Study Three).
Methods
This program of research utilized secondary data from the How Areas in Brisbane Influence HealTh and AcTivity (HABITAT) study. HABITAT is a multilevel longitudinal study underpinned by a social ecological framework. It was conducted in Brisbane among adults aged 45-70 years living in 200 neighbourhoods. HABITAT commenced in 2007 and had subsequent data collection waves in 2009, 2011, 2013 and 2016. For this thesis, the 2013 data were utilised as physical function was first collected in 2013 (n= 6,520). The measure of neighbourhood disadvantage was derived from the Australian Bureau of Statistics’ (ABS) Index of Relative Socioeconomic Disadvantage (IRSD) scores. Physical function was measured using the Physical Function Scale (0 – 100), a component of the Short Form-36 Health Survey, with higher scores indicating better function. In Study Two, participants self-reported their perceptions of safety from crime using items from the Neighbourhood Environment Walkability Scale (NEWS) questionnaire, which were subsequently aggregated to the neighbourhood-level. Walking for recreation (minutes per week) was self-reported by participants. In Study Three, neighbourhood walkability measures (street connectivity, dwelling density and land use mix) was objectively measured and provided by the Brisbane City Council (the local government authority responsible for the jurisdiction covered by the HABITAT study). Walking for transport (minutes per week) was self-reported by participants.
The data were analysed using multilevel regression models (linear, binomial or multinomial). In instances where multilevel categorical models are undertaken, Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) simulation will be employed to estimate odds ratio and 95% credible intervals. All data were prepared in STATA SE 13 and analyses were conducted using MLwiN version 2.35.
Results
Findings from Study One found that residents of more disadvantaged neighbourhoods had significantly poorer physical function. These associations remained significant after adjustment for individual-level socioeconomic position (SEP). Moving forward from the descriptive findings, Study Two found that neighbourhood-level perceptions of safety from crime and walking for recreation partly explained (24% in men and 25% in women) neighbourhood differences in physical function. In Study Three, I found that neighbourhood walkability and walking for transport did not explain the relationship between neighbourhood disadvantage and physical function.
Conclusion
Given the growing proportion of the ageing population in Australia and the resultant increasing pressure on neighbourhood and city infrastructure in Australia, it is important to understand the contributions of the neighbourhood environment in the relationship between neighbourhood disadvantage and physical function. Despite the complexity in understanding neighbourhood socioeconomic differences in physical function, the findings of this thesis suggest that the neighbourhood in which we live is important to physical function. To reduce neighbourhood inequalities in physical function, attention needs to be given to improve the perceptions of safety from crime in more disadvantaged neighbourhoods to encourage more walking for recreation. Living in a walkable neighbourhood is important to support more walking for transport, but may not be sufficient to reduce neighbourhood inequalities in physical function. A multi-faceted intervention is needed to create a healthy, liveable and equitable community for successful ageing.
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Danley, S. "Neighbourhood negotiations : network governance in post-Katrina New Orleans." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2013. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:69eea895-aa8d-40fe-94d7-03b33a27d687.
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This inquiry into informal networks and policy negotiations is set in the theoretical framework of network governance. It builds theory to explain informal networks by examining neighbourhood associations in post-Katrina New Orleans through a variety of qualitative methodologies including interviews, document analysis, surveying and ethnography. In New Orleans, neighbourhood associations do not engage in social-service delivery, they prioritise neighbourhood protection and neighbourhood change. They represent their neighbourhoods through a system of intensive volunteering not elections. That system burns out neighbourhood leaders and leaves associations constantly looking for new volunteers. These associations partner with non-profits, work with politicians, and engage in fierce conflict when excluded from policy negotiations. Finally, they set their agenda based upon the physical characteristics of their neighbourhoods, investing in local institutions. These findings contribute to network governance theory. New Orleans’ democracy of volunteers introduces a new form of democratic anchorage to governance theory. Actors in informal networks have varying priorities. This demonstrates the importance of early involvement by these actors in policy creation and the ways in which policy construction can ignore community. Neighbourhood associations blackmail, bribe and coerce to create their own power, showing how power at the micro-level includes not only resources and decision-making, but also interest. These findings fit into a broader theme. Negotiations with multiple actors improve policy by incorporating complex priorities and neighbourhood context into the policy system. This wider theme of how to address complexity is the policy equivalent of the wisdom of crowds. Policy-makers can either incorporate complexity such as local context and differing priorities or face the conflict and consequences of ignoring it.
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Bhatta, Tirth. "Sociohistorical Changes in the Education–Health Gradient: A Five-Cohort Comparative Study of Black and White US Adults." Case Western Reserve University School of Graduate Studies / OhioLINK, 2017. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=case1499191304195011.
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Callahan, Kristin Leigh. "Disrupting the impact of socio-contextual disadvantage on school readiness skill attainment among preschool children: The role of Head Start attendance." ScholarWorks@UNO, 2010. http://scholarworks.uno.edu/td/1130.
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Created in 1965, Head Start is the longest running national school readiness program in the United States. Head Start was developed to improve children's social and academic readiness for kindergarten and to reduce the academic achievement gap between impoverished and more affluent children. However, questions about the effectiveness of Head Start have trouble the program since its inception. Head Start children often experience considerably more sociocontextual risk, specifically in the form of more economic disadvantage, maternal psychological distress, and dangerous neighborhoods. The goal of the present study was to evaluate the extent to which attending Head Start buffers children from some of the harmful effects of sociocontextual risk on their acquisition of academic and social school readiness skills. Socio-contextual risk factors were largely unrelated to the school readiness skills. Only mothers' reports of anxiety were significantly associated with slower rates of increase in children's PPVT scores, suggesting that mothers who are more anxious have children who are not developing receptive vocabulary scores as quickly as children whose mothers have fewer anxiety symptoms. Head Start did not buffer the impact of socio-contextual risk on children's attainment of school readiness skills. A secondary goal of the present study was to validate mothers' reports of neighborhood danger with interviewer impressions of neighborhood safety and objective crime reports. Interviewer impressions correlated significantly with mothers' reports of neighborhood danger and official crime statistics. Interestingly, official crime statistics were not correlated with mothers' reports of neighborhood danger, but were correlated with interviewer impressions. Interviewers may provide a valuable objective perspective of characteristics of the neighborhood. This sample was not intended to explore the effects of natural disasters on household structures, maternal psychopathology, or children's academic development. However, results clearly highlighted the need to empirically consider the specific challenges associated with lowincome families after a natural disaster. Study implications and promising directions for future research are discussed.
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Uphoff, Eleonora P. M. M. "Are social connections associated with health and wellbeing in a context of social disadvantage and ethnic diversity? : a study of Pakistani and White British women and infants in the 'Born in Bradford' cohort." Thesis, University of York, 2015. http://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/9341/.
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Social disadvantage extends beyond a lack of income and basic necessities, to being deprived of the material and social resources required to lead a happy, healthy and fulfilling life. The focus of this study is on the role of social connections in relation to health, in a context of social disadvantage and ethnic diversity. In this thesis I aim to study the associations between ethnic density, social capital and health for Pakistani and White British mothers and infants in the Born in Bradford study. Data from the Born in Bradford cohort were linked with area-level data to create a multilevel dataset of 4,357 Pakistani and 3,869 White British mother-infant pairs. While own ethnic density was not associated with birth weight or preterm birth, higher South Asian density was associated with lower odds of smoking for both Pakistani and White British women. Although levels of social capital seemed to be low and levels of social disadvantage were high, different indicators of social capital were associated with health outcomes for Pakistani and White British mothers and infants. There was some evidence to suggest that social capital provides health benefits especially to those in disadvantaged circumstances. Social disadvantage for Pakistani women and infants in particular proved hard to capture with measures of individual socioeconomic status and area deprivation, and social gradients in health were attenuated for Pakistani women and infants in the Born in Bradford study and the Millennium Cohort Study. The associations between social resources and health vary by ethnic group, social status, and health outcome, and there is no strong evidence that the promotion of social capital is a useful public health strategy. Greater social equality together with the social inclusion of minority groups are likely to provide the ideal context in which social capital can thrive, regardless of the social or ethnic composition of neighbourhoods.
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Löfman, Jimi. "Straining work and psychological well-being : A quantitative study examining the effects of straining work on psychological well-being over a lifetime of work." Thesis, Stockholms universitet, Sociologiska institutionen, 2018. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:su:diva-157311.
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Previous research has shown that work-related stress is associated with various types of negative health outcomes. With work being a large part of individuals’ lives, looking at the effects of straining work over a lifetime of work is therefore relevant in order to understand how the work environment affects health. This study will investigate the work environment by the demands and control individuals have at their workplace. Life course theory combined with the theory of cumulative advantage/disadvantage will help to create a framework for studying long-term and cumulative effects of the work environment on psychological well-being. Thus, the aim of the study is a) to understand how job strain affects psychological well-being and b) to provide knowledge on long-term effects of job strain on psychological well-being. The findings are based on panel data from the Swedish Level-of-Living Survey from the years 1981-2010, with 9-10 years between the measurement periods. High strain jobs (high demands and low control) are shown to have the most damaging effects on psychological well-being, whereas low strain jobs (low demands and high control) are shown to be the least damaging work environment. No significant long-term effects are found.
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Surendranath, Anup. "Judicial discourse on India's affirmative action policies : the challenge and potential of sub-classification." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2013. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:69493f4c-a6e3-48df-bee1-08bc3c8f4a41.
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This thesis is primarily concerned with the distribution of quotas in higher education and public employment within identified beneficiary groups. In a system of quotas based on preferential treatment of groups, the question about which members of the group must benefit over others is a crucial one. One of the main themes in the thesis is to critically analyse the judicial understanding about the nature of these groups. The homogeneity (in backwardness) that is attached to beneficiary groups in differing degrees is challenged in the thesis using the examples of Scheduled Castes and Muslims within the Other Backward Classes category. The differences within beneficiary groups have great significance for the fairness of India’s reservation policies. By ignoring internal differences, the most marginalised groups are left behind in terms of accessing the benefits of reservations. I have argued that any attempt to address the issue of sub-classification must begin by recognising multiple axis of marginalisation within the framework of intersectionality. This lack of sufficient engagement with the issue of sub-classification highlights the failure of the Supreme Court of India to develop a normative framework within which reservations might be viewed. This lack of normative clarity informs spheres of reservations like higher education and public employment along with according homogenous treatment to beneficiary groups internally. The Supreme Court has viewed reservations in higher education and public employment as essentially performing the same function. I have argued that reservations in these spheres perform different functions and the resulting obligations on the state in terms of constitutional justifications must also differ. While the demands for sub-classification present an opportunity to make distribution of reservations fairer, it also exposes the limitation of reservations as a tool of social transformation.
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Davies, Amanda Catherine. "A case of community safety : displacing complex ‘social’ problems in Fortitude Valley." Thesis, Queensland University of Technology, 2011. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/50961/1/Amanda_Davies_Thesis.pdf.
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Public dialogue regarding the high concentration of drug use and crime in inner city locations is frequently legitimised through visibility of drug-using populations and a perception of high crime rates. The public space known as the Brunswick Street Mall (Valley mall), located in the inner city Brisbane suburb of Fortitude Valley, has long provided the focal point for discussions regarding the problem of illicit drug use and antisocial behaviour in Brisbane. During the late 1990s a range of stakeholders in Fortitude Valley became mobilised to tackle crime and illicit drugs. In particular they wanted to dismantle popular perceptions of the area as representing the dark and unsafe side of Brisbane. The aim of this campaign was to instil a sense of safety in the area and dislodge Fortitude Valley from its reputation as a =symbolic location of danger‘.
This thesis is a case study about an urban site that became contested by the diverse aims of a range of stakeholders who were invested in an urban renewal program and community safety project. This case study makes visible a number of actors that were lured from their existing roles in an indeterminable number of heterogeneous networks in order to create a community safety network. The following analysis of the community safety network emphasises some specific actors: history, ideas, technologies, materialities and displacements.
The case study relies on the work of Foucault, Latour, Callon and Law to draw out the rationalities, background contingencies and the attempts to impose order and translate a number of entities into the community safety project in Fortitude Valley.
The results of this research show that the community safety project is a case of ontological politics. Specifically the data indicates that both the (reality) problem of safety and the (knowledge) solution to safety were created simultaneously. This thesis explores the idea that while violence continues to occur in the Valley, evidence that community safety got done is located through mapping its displacement and eventual disappearance. As such, this thesis argues that community safety is a =collateral reality‘.
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Hong, Chia. "AN INVESTIGATION OF WHETHER DIFFERENTIAL EFFECTS EXIST FOR STUDENTS WITH PARENT-REPORTED MENTAL HEALTH DISORDERS PARTICIPATING IN THE SUCCESS PROGRAM." Miami University / OhioLINK, 2019. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=miami1559757743171656.
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Vélu, Anne-Elise. "Donner moins à ceux qui ont moins : Une sociologie de dispositifs de prise en charge des difficultés scolaires d'élèves en âge primaire." Thesis, Paris Sciences et Lettres (ComUE), 2017. http://www.theses.fr/2017PSLED079.
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Cette thèse propose d'étudier les effets de dispositifs de lutte contre la difficulté scolaire sur les carrières scolaires d'élèves en âge primaire (4-11 ans). L'observation ethnographique nous permet d'appréhender l'échec des catégories d'élèves les plus défavorisés en mettant en avant les processus par lesquels nous pouvons constater une dégradation des carrières scolaires lorsque ces difficultés sont prises en charge. Il s'agit de mettre en relation les parcours des élèves avec l’activité des agents de la lutte contre l'échec scolaire (les professionnels de l’éducation nationale, mais aussi les professionnels extérieurs de la prise en charge) et les mécanismes par lesquels ils contribuent au renforcement des inégalités scolaires. L’observation montre les logiques par lesquelles l’aide scolaire va se transformer en processus de production des inégalités (appréhendé par les parcours), mais aussi d’encadrement des classes populaires. Cet encadrement se donne à voir au quotidien dans les classes et les prises en charge au sein de l'école, mais aussi par l’émergence de nouveaux dispositifs qui sont précisément entre ce qui est de l’ordre de la prise en charge de la difficulté scolaire et du travail social (équipes éducatives, dispositifs de réussite éducative et informations préoccupantes). Il s'agit d'observer cette interpénétration des sphères entre le travail social et le scolaire en étudiant le rapprochement de ces dispositifs avec des instances de contrôle social. Le regard sera porté sur les acteurs et les dispositifs qui participent à cet effacement des frontières entre le scolaire et le travail social et leur poids dans les contraintes qui s'exercent sur les classes populairesThis thesis aims to study the effects of measures aiming to tackle educational disadvantage on the school careers of pupils (4-11 years).This ethnographic study shows how these measures are going to disadvantage pupil from modest background. To approach this process, we focused on the school professional’s activity and the way their practices reinforces school inequalities. Rather than reducing school inequities, these devices are instead focusing on their socially controlling function by stigmatising the working-class educational practices. This can be seen in the classroom, but also by the emergence of new devices that are a boundary between educationnal remediation and social work
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Bruckauf, Zlata. "Parental human investment : economic stress and time allocation in Russia." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2013. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:99cf2f7a-7bd0-4931-9efa-14f67bf85cc1.
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A decade of growth and wealth generation in Russia ended in 2009 with the collapse in GDP and rising unemployment. This Great Recession added new economic challenges to the ‘old’ problems facing children and families, including widening income inequalities and the phenomenon of social orphanage. One question is how the new and existing material pressures affect parent–child relationships. This research contributes to the answer by examining, in aggregate terms, the role poverty plays in the allocation of parental time in this emerging economy. Utilising a nationally representative sample of children, it explores how child interactions with parents are affected by aggregate and idiosyncratic shocks. Drawing on the rational choice paradigm and its critique, we put forward the Parental Time Equilibrium as an analytical guide to the study. This theoretical approach presents individual decisions concerning time spent with children over the long term as the product of a defined equilibrium between resources and demands for involvement. We test this approach through pooled cross-sectional and panel analyses based on the Russian Longitudinal Monitoring Survey dataset from 2007 to 2009. Children in low-income households face the double disadvantage of a lack of money and time investments at home, with both persistent and transient poverty being associated with lower than average parental time inputs in the sample. Moreover, while on average, we find that children do maintain the amount of time they spend with their parents under conditions of severe financial strain, low–income children lose out on play time with the mother. Material resources cannot be considered in isolation from structural disadvantages, of which rural location in particular is detrimental for parent–child time together. The study demonstrates that the cumulative stress of adverse macro-economic conditions and depleted material resources makes it difficult for parents to sustain their human investment in children. The evidence this study provides on the associations between economic stress and pa-rental time allocations advances our knowledge of the disparities of in the childhood experience in modern Russian society. The findings strongly support the equal importance of available resources and basic demand for involvement, thus drawing policy attention to the need to address both in the best interests of children.
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Ustek, Funda. "Invisibility, struggle and visibility : women workers' strategies of survival in the informal sector." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2015. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:643e1d6f-6c32-4ae6-ac75-221d9dcb1b89.
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Across the world, women constitute the bottom segments of the informal labour market hierarchy, and the story is no different for Turkish women, except they are further constrained by a patriarchal family culture and corporatist welfare state structure which favours high-skilled workers in full-time employment. A reading of the literature on the reasons for participating in the informal sector suggested that workers either end up in the informal sector as a result of structural factors, such as high unemployment, horizontal and vertical labour market discrimination and limited job opportunities for the low-skilled and low-educated, or they actively chose to participate in the labour market to seize the opportunities it provides, such as evading tax and/or bureaucratic costs, or testing out business ideas. However, this dichotomous understanding provided little scope, if any, to understand why women also entered the informal sector, in ever growing numbers and what the gender-specific constraints and opportunities in the informal sector are. Against this background, this thesis aims to show that this dichotomous theorisation of the informal sector is an exaggeration of reality, and that women workers position presents a middle ground, in which they recognise the constraints on their ability to improve their lives but they are also not powerless. Hence, by focusing on the variety of survival strategies used by women workers in the informal sector, the thesis attempts to show the choice among these strategies, including the conditions in which these strategies can be adopted and the barriers to do so.
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Vasco, Daniela. "Statistical Modelling for Students in the Margins of Educational Testing." Thesis, Griffith University, 2022. http://hdl.handle.net/10072/413318.
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As an investigation into statistical modelling and its application, this research was motivated by questions about fairness in educational testing, and illustrated using case studies comprising real data. Education is often considered ‘a way out of poverty’, as it enhances knowledge and job opportunities. Many policies in education aim to ‘close the gap’ so that ‘no children are left behind’. These policies are often informed by standardised tests that aim to measure the proficiency of students in domains such as literacy and numeracy. This thesis considers educational testing, paying particular attention to students ‘in the margins’ of social and educational disadvantage. These margins comprise students who may not participate or achieve low scores in educational tests that inform policy or teaching. The thesis develops statistical methodology that investigates the research question: How does statistical modelling behind educational test results account for students in the margins? in two parts: I. For students who do not participate in the test, what is their socio-educational profile? II. For those who do participate, how can scoring (and underlying statistical modelling) better account for students in the margins? To support statistical modelling, the second chapter reviews and probes concepts and terminology discussed within the sociology of education, finding that the meaning of statistical models and results subtly shifts with perspectives on fairness in educational testing. To illustrate statistical methodology, Australian case studies are considered during 2014–2017, for a large-scale summative test (NAPLAN) and a formative test (PAT). The focus is on Year 7, where low literacy is problematic yet malleable. Data were sourced for the Northern Territory, which of all Australian jurisdictions has: more low-achieving students on NAPLAN, more students in socio-educational margins, many remote areas, and lower socio-economic status. Rather than aiming for the representativeness of all students nationwide, concentrating on the NT: supports the research focus on students in the margins, redresses a paucity of analyses about this jurisdiction, and is consistent with the project’s concern with students experiencing disadvantage. Part I investigates how student participation relates to socio-educational disadvantage. In the NAPLAN, case study, the data were imbalanced, with high participation and substantial missingness (for parental education and occupation). Hence this thesis introduced penalised classification trees (CTs) into educational testing. To facilitate evaluation and comparison of tree models, Chapter 4 first developed “raindrop plots" as a novel and compact visualisation of penalised-CTs and model diagnostics. Analysing NAPLAN data using these penalised-CTs and raindrop plots, Chapter 5 found that many factors relating to socio-educational disadvantage were associated with non-participation, especially Indigeneity in the NT, and previous low scores Australia-wide. Socio-educational profiles were most complex in the NT, with several distinct profiles relating to participation that was near-perfect, on or below average. Part II reformulates Item Response Theory (IRT) models to better account for students in the margins. This work begins with a new, comprehensive and cohesive review of binary IRT models with pseudo-guessing (Chapter 3). A subsequent simulation study (Chapter 6) compares properties and model diagnostics for two promising models: the 3-parameter logistic (3-PL) and Ramsay’s quotient (Q) model. Graphical diagnostics revealed that summary statistics, typically relied on for model evaluation may hide poor estimation. For 3-PL, although estimation of item parameters was unstable (corroborating other studies), the estimated distribution of student proficiency was here quite robust to prior distributions and sample sizes. Chapter 7 proposed to expand a 3-PL with a mixture-of-proficiency, to relax the somewhat controversial assumption that student proficiency follows a ‘Bell Curve’. Employing a more extensive suite of eight diagnostics (with modern information criteria like WAIC and tail-fit via posterior analysis and posterior predictive checks), both the NAPLAN and PAT case studies effectively identified a much larger concentration of students in the lower margins. Thus, by reorienting statistical modelling to focus on students in the margins, this thesis provides new statistical methodology to assist test developers to better evaluate test fairness, providing policymakers with better information to redress socio-educational disadvantage.Thesis (PhD Doctorate)
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
School Educ & Professional St
Arts, Education and Law
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