Do Y'all Say Gay or Trans?: The Impact of Gender and Sexuality on College Students' Experiences in the Rural South.

While national trends indicate improvement in campus climates for LGBTQ+ students, these patterns may not exist on campuses in the Southeast region of the United States, particularly given conservative backlash in the region. Drawing from focus group and survey data, we investigated how students in a rural Southern location perceive campus and community space with regard to safety and support, and how the intersections of gender and sexual orientation affect those perceptions. We found LGBTQ+ students had a mostly positive perception of their campus experience, despite reports of harassment, perceptions of unsafe spaces, and some lack of awareness of resources.

Migration and psychological well-being among older adults: a growth curve analysis based on panel data from the Health and Retirement Study, 1996-2006.

Purpose: A vibrant body of research examines migration among older adults. Existing research, however, grants scarce attention to the implications of later-life migration for the migrants themselves. Our research focuses on the impacts of migration on depressive symptomatology among older U.

Individual actual or perceived property flood risk: did it predict evacuation from Hurricane Isabel in North Carolina, 2003?

Individual perception of risk has consistently been considered an important determinant of hurricane evacuation in published studies and reviews. Adequate risk assessment is informed by environmental and social cues, as well as evacuation intentions and past disaster experience. This cross-sectional study measured perceived flood risk of 570 residents of three coastal North Carolina counties, compared their perception with actual risk determined by updated flood plain maps, and determined if either was associated with evacuation from Hurricane Isabel in 2003.

Environmental stressors: the mental health impacts of living near industrial activity.

A growing literature examines whether the poor, the working class, and people of color are disproportionately likely to live in environmentally hazardous neighborhoods. This literature assumes that environmental characteristics such as industrial pollution and hazardous waste are detrimental to human health, an assumption that has not been well tested. Drawing upon the sociology of mental health and environmental inequality studies, we ask whether industrial activity has an impact on psychological well-being.

The race gap in support group participation by breast cancer survivors: real or artifact?

Addressing methodological weaknesses of previous research, this study assesses whether African American women are, in fact, less likely to participate in breast cancer support groups than are White women. Of the breast cancer survivors, 958 (26% African Americans, 73% Caucasian) completed interviews concerning demographic characteristics, other support networks, effects of illness on home and spiritual life, and support group participation. Contrary to previous research, no race difference was found in support group participation.