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The article presents the response of the authors to the paper titled "The Legacy of Stress Research: The Course and the Impact of This Journal" which appeared in the September 1990 issue of the "Journal of Health and Social Behavior." The authors' principal concern has been to craft as effective and complete a statement as possible while remaining judicious stewards of the journal's scare page allocation. They made three brief comments on the general nature of the exchange and proceeded to commentary-specific responses.

The article is a commentary on the portrayal of the impact of the "Journal of Health and Social Behavior" (JHSB) by Robert J. Johnson and Frederic D. Wolinsky relative to other sociology and social sciences journals in the period of 1977 to 1987. It is agreed that the journal is in high standing and regard within the social science community. The major lessons cited by Johnson and Wolinsky are different from the thesis. It is confirmed that their analysis elucidates the dangers of relying much on impression and too little on factual investigation. Their data show little change in the proportion of stress articles over the 1990s period. The evidence presented does not sustain the general perception regarding the impact status of three other sociological journals relative to JHSB. The argument that the course of the impact of JHSB due to its identification with stress research is questioned based on the data presented. The data given is not organized efficiently to test the hypothesis.

This paper presents a critical overview of current concepts and analytic practices in stress research and considers how they can be changed to make the research more consistent with core sociological interests. An overarching concern of the paper is the analytic use of basic information about people's social and institutional affiliations and statuses. It is important that such information be treated not simply as data that need to be controlled statistically; we must examine the bearing of these data on each domain of the stress process: the exposure to and meaning of stressors, access to stress mediators, and the psychological, physical, and behavioral manifestations of stress. The conceptualization and measurement of stressors should move away from their focus on particular events or chronic strains and should seek instead to observe and assess over time constellations of stressors made up of both events and strains. Moreover, the effects of the mediators—coping and social support—are evaluated most fruitfully in terms of their effects in limiting the number, severity, and diffusion of stressors in these constellations. Finally, sociological stress researchers should not be bound to outcomes that better serve the intellectual interests of those who work with biomedical and epidemiological models of stress, nor should the research be committed exclusively to a single outcome. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The contention that retirement may have an adverse effect on health has become increasingly popular with the recent categorization of this phenomenon as a stressful "life event." The small number of empirical studies examining the health outcomes of retirement, however, appear neither to support nor to refute this hypothesis. Moreover, the serious methodological problems inherent in most of these studies caution against the generalization of findings. o This paper examines the existing research on the health and retirement relationship within the theoretical context of Atchley's process approach to retirement. Recent refinements in the study of life events (e.g., a focus on the timing of the event and the degree of control experienced) are seen as offering important potential contributions both to our understanding of retirement and to the development of more incisive and conceptually sound research in this area. At the same time, the inadequacy of existing life-events scales when applied to an older age group, and the genera/failure to view life changes within a broad sociostructural context are emphasized as weaknesses of the life-events approach that should be taken into account in future research on the complex retirement and health relationship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given the rapid aging of the U.S. population and reductions in federal funding, elder care has become a major issue for many families. This paper focuses on a long-term consequence of elder care by asking how caring for elderly parents affects women's subsequent risks of living in poverty. Using longitudinal data from the Health and Retirement Study, we examine whether and how caregiving for parents in 1991 increases women's risks of living in households with incomes less than the poverty threshold, receiving public assistance, and receiving Medicaid in 1999. Our findings illustrate that caregiving in earlier life raises women's poverty risks in later life by intensifying the negative effects of stopping work and declining health on women's economic well-being. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines how multiple roles affect the mental health of the elderly in Japan and the United States, two countries with vastly different cultures. Hypotheses were drawn based on the cultural differences in role experiences, and these hypotheses are tested by analyzing nationally representative samples of the elderly in these countries. The results show that Americans are more likely to be involved in roles related to family, work, and community, while the Japanese are more likely to be involved in only those roles related to family and work. Multiple roles are also found to be less beneficialfor the mental health of Japanese elderly compared to American counterparts. National differences in the effects of individual roles and role configurations on mental health are also documented. Overall, the results show the importance of broad cultural contexts for understanding the relationship between roles and mental health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The field of medical sociology has developed rapidly in recent years in sophistication of conceptualization and research techniques. Nonetheless, there remains a considerable amount of "unexplained variance" in knowledge about health and illness behaviors. This paper asserts that to grow further, medical sociology should become more interdisciplinary in conceptualization and design of research projects. The application of research findings from the field of psychoneuroimmunology to explain the effects of placebos as a form of magic is used as an illustration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In all of his work, as illustrated in the present paper, Leonard Pearlin brings a sociological perspective to the study of stress, conceptualizing stressors, mediators, and outcomes in terms of the social structural context that shapes them. In this commentary I suggest taking a more general approach than that proposed by Pearlin. This approach entails drawing upon past and recent developments in sociological theory that aim to explicate the linkages among individuals, groups, and social institutions, which some scholars call "micro-meso-macro" linkages. Pearlin asserts that one of our goals in the social study of stress is the acceptance of stress research by the sociological mainstream. I would add another goal: that of contributing to the testing and refinement of sociological theory both within and outside the mainstream. To accomplish these goals, we need to place our work explicitly within the theoretical frameworks of sociology, both classical theory and more recent theoretical developments and refinements. I would like to draw attention to the work of some contemporary sociologists who are formulating and refining theories that have applicability for the study of stress, and of others who are engaged in stress research from within two of these theoretical frameworks. As I will describe later in more detail, these sociologists have taken as their subject matter "the unities between social structure and the inner functioning of individuals" (Pearlin) and are concerned with many of the same questions faced by stress researchers. Because of space limitations, this review is cursory and is not meant to be a comprehensive overview. A number of contemporary sociologists engaged in "stress research" (broadly defined) use theoretical frameworks different from the structural functionalism (Merton 1968) that underlies Pearlin's work. Some examples are symbolic interactionism (Thoits 1983, 1985), network theory (Fischer, Jackson, Stueve, Gerson, and Jones 1977; Hall and Wellman 1985; Kadushin 1983), organizational theory (Litwak and Messeri 1989), and labeling theory (Link 1982, 1987). As a result, some of these sociologists do not frame their work in terms of the "stress process" paradigm that dominates Pearlin's own work and some of the work that he cites. Perhaps for this reason Pearlin underestimates the extent to which contemporary studies of stress are sociological. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper develops a perspective on the epidemiological approach to understanding schizophrenia by setting it within the more general domain of scientific inquiry. The related and critical problems of population representativeness and case identification are discussed and data are presented relative to the second of these issues. The more important and persistent of the findings produced by epidemiological research are reviewed and the pressing problem of interpretation is discussed. The product is a current appraisal of epidemiological knowledge in relation to schizophrenia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article provides a comment to the study by Robert J. Johnson and Frederic D. Wolinsky regarding their evaluation of the "Journal of Health and Social Behavior" relevant to the observations connected with the period from 1977 to 1987. Is is claimed that the decline of the the periodical's stature based on attempts to broaden its scope of journal coverage, reduction in subscription and changes in editorial policy. There is an implication that two committee reports caused a decline in citation which serves as the author's measure in stature. The frequency of citation of particular articles depends on many things including the content, quality of reported work, the author's reputation, the number of investigators and the visibility and reputation of a journal. It is argued that the change in the journal's image has lessened its visibility in the stress area and reduced the impact of some papers.

In this thoughtful paper, Mechanic discusses the differences between quantitative and qualitative researchers, focusing on health-related issues. It should, of course, be evident to readers that the issues he discusses have applicability far beyond medical sociology. The same issues arise in all kinds of social research and the excellent examples he gives can be expanded easily to examples in areas including education, criminology, industrial relations, social stratification, and others. In my reading of his paper, Mechanic discusses both differences between methods at a single point in time and differences in measuring process across time. As a quantitative survey researcher, I will comment on my perceptions of the similarities and differences between observational and survey methods for cross-sectional research. I then discuss some methods for bridging the gap that do not involve diaries. Finally, I discuss procedures for measuring process using observational and diary methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article comments on the piece by Robert J. Johnson and Frederic D. Wolinsky regarding the impact of the "Journal of Health and Social Behavior" publication on issues of identity, prestige and attribution. It is recognized that the magazine's status and stature is on the decline and that the fate of its contributing sociologists are affected. It is claimed that the article falls short within a broad patch of work known as the sociology of science. The author confines the observations to the fit between the Johnson and Wolinsky model and data presented, the identity of the periodical as a stress journal and the nature of scientific frontiers and the perspective nature of the article. The model and all its presented supporting arguments have been presented. The attempt to show the contrasting features of the periodical with another publication fails to place it in a focal publication status is stress research.

The Journal of Health and Social Behavior (JHSB) is examined to determine its relative stature and impact in the social science community. We conducted both empirical comparisons of average impact (based on the Social Science Citation Index) and content analysis. Over an 11-year period beginning in 1977, JHSB has maintained an enviable position among sociology journals, ranking significantly higher than the American Journal of Sociology and Social Forces. In addition, it ranks quite favorably when compared with the dominant journals of the allied social science disciplines. The preeminence of the JHSB is attributed to the legacy of stress research that was perceived to dominate this period. Ironically, the recently mandated change in editorial goals eschewing such an identification with stress research has begun to undermine the overall stature of the journal, primarily by reducing the impact of articles on stress that appear in it. We discuss the mechanisms that have influenced the course and the impact of this journal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents information on the sociology of mental illness. Research results will appear contradictory rather than complementary when these concepts are treated as alter- native ways of defining mental illness, as opposed to different aspects of a single process and theoretical synthesis of findings will be impeded. However, in the future, the researchers hope that these four conditions of conceptualizing mental illness will be represented as aspects of a single process, whereby the incapacity to deal with potentially stress-inducing circumstances increases the probability of the experience of severe and prolonged subjective distress, the experience of subjective distress will have necessarily personally undesirable consequences, individuals will respond both to their experiences of subjective distress and to the personally undesirable consequences of their distress in ways they consciously or unconsciously anticipate will relieve their distress, and both the consequences of their subjective distress and their more or less effective adaptations to their experiences of subjective distress will evoke responses from significant others in their environment which, in turn, will affect their own outcomes.

A study of the history and organization of medical research in Israel and the analysis of scientific productivity of 32 researchers in internal medicine has shown that the volume and pattern of research output is a function of institutionalization of research and of re-socialization, the main aspect of which is the induction of the practitioner into the international community of scientists. This last finding shows the problematic nature of the training of medical researcher. Having been trained and having worked for years as a practitioner, he has to assume the additional role of a researcher and to find a group of scientists which is willing to accept him in his new role. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using interviews and ethnography started in 2016 in rural and urban Kansas, we examine the consequences of an amplified immigration enforcement combined with a local limited health care infrastructure that reproduce legal violence manifesting on Latina immigrants' health, access to care, and community participation. We highlight the conditions rooted in place that generate short- and long-term negative impacts for Latina immigrants' health. Fear and anxiety about the deportation of themselves and their family members make them ill and also generate apprehension about contacting medical institutions, driving, and spending time in public spaces. These circumstances coalesce in women's lives to block access to medical care and undermine women's roles in their communities. Following gendered expectations, women turn to their informal networks to seek health care for their families. In the context that the enforcement regime has created, these ties can turn exploitative. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past decades, professional medical authority has been transformed due to internal and external pressures, including weakened institutional support and patient-centered care. Today's patients are more likely to resist treatment recommendations. We examine how patient resistance to treatment recommendations indexes the strength of contemporary professional authority. Using conversation analytic methods, we analyze 39 video recordings of patient-clinician encounters involving pediatric epilepsy patients in which parents resist recommended treatments. We identify three distinct grounds for parental resistance to treatments: preference-, fear-, and experience-based resistance. Clinicians meet these grounds with three corresponding persuasion strategies ranging from pressuring, to coaxing, to accommodating. Rather than giving parents what they want, physicians preserve their professional authority, adjusting responses based on whether the resistance threatens their prerogative to prescribe. While physicians are able to convert most resistance into acceptance, resistance has the potential to change the treatment recommendation and may lead to changed communication styles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cross-national empirical research about the link between income inequality and population health produces conflicting conclusions. We address these mixed findings by examining the degree to which the income inequality and health relationship varies with economic development. We estimate fixed-effects models with different measures of income inequality and population health. Results suggest that development moderates the association between inequality and two measures of population health. Our findings produce two generalizations. First, we observe a global gradient in the relationship between income inequality and population health. Second, our results are consistent with income inequality as a proximate or conditional cause of lower population health. Income inequality has a 139.7% to 374.3% more harmful effect on health in poorer than richer countries and a significantly harmful effect in 2.1% to 53.3% of countries in our sample and 6.6% to 67.6% of the world's population but no significantly harmful effect in richer countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prior research evaluates the health effects of higher status attainment by analyzing highly similar individuals whose circumstances differ after some experience a "status boost." Advancing that research, we assess health differences across organizational contexts among two national samples of lawyers who were admitted to the bar in the same year in their respective countries. We find that higher-status lawyers in large firms report more depression than lower-status lawyers, poorer health in the American survey, and no health advantage in Canada. Adjusting for income exacerbates these patterns-were it not for their higher incomes, large-firm lawyers would have a greater health disadvantage. Last, we identify two stressors in the legal profession, overwork and work-life conflict, that are more prevalent in the private sector and increase with firm size. Adjusting for these stressors explains well-being differences across organizational contexts. This study documents the role of countervailing mechanisms in health inequality research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Health lifestyles are important for health and social identity, yet little is known about their development in early life. We use data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten Cohort of 1998-99 (ECLS-K; N = 8,786) to track children's health lifestyles and assess a theoretical model of health lifestyle development. Latent class analyses identify health lifestyles at four time points from first to eighth grade, and multivariate models investigate their interrelationships and social contextual influences. Health lifestyles are multidimensional and dynamic, and children demonstrate distinct combinations of risks and protections. Family factors, such as resources and parenting, shape earlier health lifestyles, which influence later lifestyles. Results show that development and contexts drive changes in health lifestyles, as family factors decrease in influence with age while some school and peer influences appear to emerge. Policy makers and researchers interested in shaping health behaviors should consider the multidimensional and dynamic nature of health lifestyles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research from the United States has supported two hypotheses. First, educational gaps in health widen with age-the cumulative (dis)advantage hypothesis. Second, this relationship has intensified across cohorts-the rising importance hypothesis. In this article, we used 23 waves of panel data (Socio-Economic Panel Study, 1992-2014) to examine both hypotheses in the German context. We considered individual and contextual influences on the association between education and health, and we assessed gender differences in health trajectories over the life course (ages 23 to 84) and across cohorts (born between 1930 and 1969). For women, we found no support for either hypothesis, as educational gaps in self-rated health remained stable with age and across cohorts. Among men, we found support for both hypotheses, as educational gaps in self-rated health widened with age and increasingly in newer cohorts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The onset of disability is believed to undermine social connectedness and raise the risk of social isolation, yet spatial environments are seldom considered in this process. This study examines whether unruly home and neighborhood conditions intensify the association between disability onset and several dimensions of social connectedness. I incorporate longitudinal data from the National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project, which contains environmental evaluations conducted by trained observers ( N = 1,558). Results from Poisson, ordinal logistic, and linear regression models reveal heterogeneous consequences of disablement: disability onset was associated with reduced core network size, fewer friends, lower likelihood of social interaction, and less overall social connectedness-though mainly when accompanied by higher levels of household disorder. There was limited evidence that neighborhood disorder moderated consequences of disability. Findings point to the importance of the home as an environmental resource and underscore important contextual contingencies in the isolating consequences of disability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study combines multiple-hierarchy stratification and life course perspectives to address two research questions critical to understanding U.S. young adult health. First, to what extent are racial-ethnic inequalities in body mass index (BMI) gendered and/or classed? Second, do racial-ethnic, gender, and socioeconomic inequalities in BMI widen or persist between adolescence and early adulthood? Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 cohort and growth curve models, results suggest that among white, black, and Hispanic American men and women ages 13 to 31, racial-ethnic inequality in BMI is greatest among women. Black women experience the highest adolescent BMI and the greatest increases in BMI with age. Furthermore, socioeconomic resources are less protective against weight gain for blacks and Hispanics, with the nature of these relationships varying by gender. Findings present a more nuanced picture of health inequality that renders visible the disproportionate burden of poor health experienced by marginalized groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We assess how divorce through midlife affects the subsequent probability of work-limiting health among U.S. women. Using retrospective marital and work disability histories from the Survey of Income and Program Participation matched to Social Security earnings records, we identify women whose first marriage dissolved between 1975 and 1984 (n = 1,214) and women who remain continuously married (n = 3,394). Probit and propensity score matching models examine the cumulative probability of a work disability over a 20-year follow-up period. We find that divorce is associated with a significantly higher cumulative probability of a work disability, controlling for a range of factors. This association is strongest among divorced women who do not remarry. No consistent relationships are observed among divorced women who remarry and remained married. We find that economic hardship, work history, and selection into divorce influence, but do not substantially alter, the lasting impact of divorce on work-limiting health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adolescents from poor versus nonpoor neighborhoods are more likely to become obese during the transition to adulthood. It is unclear whether this pertains to all adolescents from poor neighborhoods or only those who remain in disadvantaged settings. Further, it is unknown how neighborhood poverty entries and exits are associated with obesity. Using census and interview data from 12,164 National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health participants, I find that those who consistently live in poor neighborhoods are more likely to become or remain obese by adulthood than those who never live in poor neighborhoods. Exiting severe neighborhood poverty curtails this risk, while entering and remaining in neighborhood poverty in adulthood increases it. These patterns are more pronounced for young women and robust to adjustments for health behaviors and selection bias. Findings support accumulation of risks and social mobility perspectives and highlight how previous and current neighborhood contexts are relevant for health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents a listing of publications received by the editors of the periodical "Journal of Health and Social Behavior," for the September 1967 issue. "International Bibliography of Research in Marriage and the Family," by Joan Aldous and Reuben Hill; "Practical Management of the Elderly," by Ferguson W. Anderson; "Clinical Management of Behavior Disorders in Children," by Harry Bakwin and Ruth Morris Bakwin; "Public Provision for Epileptics in the United States," by Harry Best; "The Psychology of Learning," by R Borger and A.E.M. Seaborne; "The Psychology of Human Aging," by D.B. Bromley; "The Human Perspective in Sociology," by Severyn T. Bruyn; " Tough Times and Tender Moments in Child Care," by Eva Burmeister; " Slums and Community Development: Experiments in Self-Help," by Marshall B. Clinard.

Modern patients walk a tightrope between respecting medical authority and acting as knowledgeable advocates regarding health issues, with the agency and responsibilities that come with this. This article uses conversation analysis to explore this balance in relation to patient disclosures of medical misdeeds in video-recorded primary care medical visits (e.g., taking another’s prescription medication or failing to adhere to a healthy lifestyle or prescription regimen). We focus on patient-initiated disclosures. We show that disclosures are used (1) where patients are seeking physician assessment of their behavior, (2) where patients are proposing the etiology of a health problem, and (3) where patients are lobbying for a particular treatment outcome. We argue that disclosures of medical misdeeds are an important but understudied domain of conduct in which patients show awareness of their own agency over, and responsibility for, their healthcare and respect for the physician’s medical authority. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article addresses a potentially serious problem with the widely used self-rated health (SRH) survey item: that different groups have systematically different ways of using the item’s response categories. Analyses based on unadjusted SRH may thus yield misleading results. The authors evaluate anchoring vignettes as a possible solution to this problem. Using vignettes specifically designed to calibrate the SRH item and data from the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study (WLS; N = 2,625), the authors show how demographic and health-related factors, including sex and education, predict differences in rating styles. Such differences, when not adjusted for statistically, may be sufficiently large to lead to mistakes in rank orderings of groups. In the present sample, unadjusted models show that women have better SRH than men, but this difference disappears in models adjusting for women’s greater health-optimism. Anchoring vignettes appear a promising tool for improving intergroup comparability of SRH. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Epidemiological research typically focuses on the intensity, frequency, or duration of physical activity, without consideration of the socially meaningful dimensions of exercise. The authors use data from the 1998 National Health Interview Survey (N = 17,455) and information on participation in 15 exercise behaviors to examine educational differences in exercise among non-Hispanic whites, non-Hispanic blacks, and Mexican Americans. Factor analysis identifies three types of exercise: team sports (e.g., basketball, football), fitness activities (e.g., running, weight lifting), and activities that require the use of specialized facilities (e.g., golf, tennis). Cultural capital and human capital perspectives offer insight into different dimensions of the relationship between education and exercise. Whites disproportionately undertake facility-based exercise, blacks tend toward team and fitness activities, and Mexican Americans gravitate toward team sports. Our findings offer insight into the social stratification of health and can aid the design of public health interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Using twin pairs from the National Survey of Midlife Development in the United States, we estimate that 35 percent of the variance in regular smoking is due to additive genetic influences. When we disaggregate the sample by birth cohort we witness strong genetic influences on smoking for those born in the 1920s, 1930s, and 1950s, but negligible influences for those born in the 1940s and 1960s. We show that the timing of the first Surgeon General’s Report coincides with an increase in the genetic influences on regular smoking, but subsequent legislation prohibiting smoking in public places has significantly reduced these influences. These results are in line with existing gene-environment interaction theory, and we argue that variation in genetic influences across cohorts makes it difficult and potentially misleading to estimate genetic effects on health behaviors from data obtained from a single point in time. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Individual and household-level characteristics that influence sexual behavior have been extensively studied in South Africa, but community characteristics have received limited attention. We use multilevel discrete time hazard models and multilevel logistic regression models to analyze data from a representative sample of young people in KwaZulu Natal, and from several sources of community data. Results suggest that, net of individual and household characteristics, higher levels of community concentrated disadvantage are associated with increased hazard of sexual initiation and higher risk of unprotected sex. Social disorder increases the hazard of sexual initiation, while greater community social cohesion is associated with delayed sexual debut, although the latter association appears stronger for young men than for young women. We discuss these results and the ways they vary from predictions based on US. theory in light of conditions prevailing in contemporary South Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Granovetter's theory on the strength of weak ties motivates hypotheses on the difusive nature of suicidal thoughts in the friendship networks of adolescents. Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, the effects of friends-of-friends attempting suicide on the suicidal thoughts of respondents are estimated. A focus on friends-of-friends permits a test of the weak-ties thesis because respondents are indirectly linked to friends-of-friends by "open ties" that are both structurally weak and used as bridges. Results for "at-risk" respondents--or those with certain behaviors, statuses, and experiences that create psychological predispositions to suicide-are consistent with Granovetter's theory and thus reveal the "dark side" of the strength of weak ties as at-risk respondents are more likely to seriously think about committing suicide when a friend-of-a-friend attempts suicide, controlling for past suicidal thoughts by the respondent and attempts by friends, family, and students in the respondent's school, among other control factors. Barriers to diffusion are also considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using data from a 2005 national survey of working adults in the United States, we examine the effects of the gender composition of the superordinate-subordinate role-set on mental and physical health measures. Subordinates' and superordinates' genders are important determinants. Men who work in gender-mixed superordinate contexts (i.e., with one male and one female superior) report lower levels of distress and physical symptoms than men who work with one male superior. Women who work with one male superior report less distress and fewer physical symptoms compared to women who work with one female superior or in gender-mixed superordinate contexts. With a few exceptions, these observations generally hold net of occupation, job sector, and an array of work-related conditions. We discuss the implications of these findings in light of predictions derived from the similarity-attraction and role congruity theories. We also outline ways that theoretical development in relational demography can be refined by a more specific focus on the demographic characteristics--especially gender--of the superordinate-subordinate role-set. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examine whether racial/ethnic/language-based variation in measured levels of patients' trust in a physician depends on the survey items used to measure that trust. Survey items include: (1) a direct measure of patients' trust that the doctor will put the patient's medical needs above all other considerations, and (2) three indirect measures of trust asking about expectations for specific physician behaviors, including referring to a specialist, being influenced by insurance rules, and performing unnecessary tests. Using a national survey, we find lower scores on indirect measures of trust in a physician among minority users of health care services than among non-Hispanic white users. In contrast, the direct measure of trust does not differ among non-Hispanic whites and nonwhites once we control for potential confounding factors. The results indicate that racial/ethnic/language-based differences exist primarily in those aspects of patients' trust in a physician that reflect specific physician behaviors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using a life course framework, we examine the early life origins of the race gap in men's all-cause mortality. Using the National Longitudinal Survey of Older Men (1966-1990), we evaluate major social pathways by which early life conditions differentiate the mortality experiences of blacks and whites. Our findings indicate that early life socioeconomic conditions, particularly parental occupation and family structure, explain part of the race gap in mortality. Black men's higher rates of death are associated with lower socioeconomic standing in early life and living in homes lacking both biological parents. However these effects operate indirectly through adult socioeconomic achievement processes, as education, family income, wealth, and occupational complexity statistically account for the race gap in men's mortality. Our findings suggest that policy interventions to eliminate race disparities in mortality and health should address both childhood and adult socioeconomic conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Calls have been issued for understanding the "contexts" or "environment" shaping the causes and consequences of health and health care. Existing efforts raise concerns about how a panorama of influences can be considered simultaneously. Sociology's view of contexts as social network structures that shape and are shaped in social interaction offers one key to resolving this dilemma. Because social networks have become central in the social, natural, and physical sciences, this perspective provides a common platform for bringing in sociology's rich theoretical and methodological insights. Yet, to do this well, three conditions must shape our response. First, all levels relevant to health and health care must be considered, separated out, and linked by network mechanisms. The genetic-biological level, perhaps the most foreign level to sociologists, represents the greatest need and best prospect for advancing a sociologically based solution. Second, room must be made to tailor models to populations, whether defined socially or medically. Third, sociologists must find a voice within "big science " to address problems from social construction to social causation that contribute to basic social processes as well as health. I trace developments in the Network-Episode Model as one theoretical starting point. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Does psychological distress increase mortality risk? If it does, are women more vulnerable than men to the effect of distress on mortality? Drawing from cumulative disadvantage theory, these questions are addressed with data from a 20-year follow-up of a national sample of adults ages 25-74. Event history analyses were performed to examine mortality from general and specific causes for men and women. Findings reveal that the effect of psychological distress on all-cause mortality was nonlinear for men. Moderate amounts of distress were associated with lower mortality risk, but high levels of distress raised men's mortality risk. Moreover the curvilinear relationship between distress and mortality varied by cause of death for men and women. Men with high levels of psychological distress were more vulnerable to ischemic heart disease mortality. Women with high levels of distress were more vulnerable to cancer mortality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Are occupational and work conditions associated with work-to-home conflict? If so, do those associations vary by gender? Among a sample of adults in Toronto, Canada, we found that men and women in higher-status occupations reported higher levels of work-to-home conflict than workers in lower-status jobs. In addition, we observed higher levels of work-to-home conflict among workers who are self-employed and among those with more job authority, demands, involvement, and longer hours. The only significant gender-contingent effect was found for nonroutine work, which is associated positively with work-to-home conflict among men but not women. Higher levels of job demands, involvement, and hours among individuals in higher-status occupations significantly contribute to occupation-based differences in work-to-home conflict. Moreover, despite some overlap, these work conditions have largely independent associations with work-to-home conflict. Results generally support the "stress of higher status " hypothesis among both women and men. Although higher-status positions yield many rewards, such positions are not impervious to inter-role stress, and this stress may offset those rewards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article recommends several approach on how social scientists can conceptualize and measure the dependent variable they employ in their research. Social scientists must accept that they are not going to be able to sit down, scratch their heads and conjure a valid answer to the challenge of the dependent variable. Accepting uncertainty will be very, very important, because without such an acceptance sociologists might become too cowed., too preoccupied, or too frustrated to attend to the critical task of gathering the evidence they need to advance their field. It's no guarantee that everything will fit together in the end, but if they can accept uncertainty they can proceed, and by proceeding at least have the possibility of adequately addressing the issues they confront. It will be difficult to solve the challenge of the dependent variable in the absence of accurate assessment of the phenomena they wish to study. Both the nearly routine use of the CES-D and claims that the reliability and validity of the CIDI are good might lead one to believe that high standards of measurement have been achieved. With regard to the CES-D, even if social scientists put aside its reputation in some circles as simply a mediocre screening scale, they must acknowledge that it in no way covers the range of psychic suffering that people experience.

We examine the growing number of studies of survey respondents' global self-ratings of health as predictors of mortality in longitudinal studies of representative community samples. Twenty-seven studies in U.S. and international journals show impressively consistent findings. Global self-rated health is an independent predictor of mortality in nearly all of the studies, despite the inclusion of numerous specific health status indicators and other relevant covariates known to predict mortality. We summarize and review these studies, consider various interpretations which could account for the association, and suggest several approaches to the next stage of research in this field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Why is it that quantitative and qualitative researchers on health issues often have divergent findings and conclusions? Exploration of such differences can be a useful way of bringing separate intellectual enclaves in medical sociology together and also can stimulate future inquiries. Some differences can be resolved by more precise definitions, by comparable frequency and timing of measurement, and by careful evaluation of meaning contexts. The triangulation of methods, using diaries as a bridge between surveys and qualitative measurement, offers particular promise. Improved theory on the relationships of method to data, and more attention to behavioral sequences and the social context of measurement, can serve as a stimulant to innovative solutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study contributes to the growing body of research on situational determinants of coping. Based on a general population sample of 1556 married men and women, it goes beyond previous efforts in two ways. First, it presents the first large-scale analysis of situational determinants of coping effectiveness in response to a wide variety' of stressful life events and chronic difficulties. This analysis documents that previous aggregate analyses overlooked a number of specifications which, when observed, provide insights into the mechanisms of coping effectiveness. Second, it assesses the importance of two empirically generated multivariate coping profiles, passivity and versatility. The study's findings suggest that these profiles are associated significantly with adjustment to stress, that these associations differ across situations, and that they help to interpret the effects of separate coping strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Established frames of reference employing health-relevant content with public health professionals as subjects yield effects consistent with laboratory research. Studies illustrate the interplay of field structured and internally structured sets under varying experimental conditions. As one observes the ways frames of reference influence judgments of professional subjects regarding familiar content, the significance of the concept to health action becomes more apparent. Primary factors underlying the acceptance or rejection of established frames of reference were found to be the meaning given by the respondent to the communication, its personal or professional relevance, and the soundness or validity assigned to it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]