As school choice opportunities have become more prevalent and information about schools more readily available, there is still a lack of understanding of how parents use information to evaluate schools. The discussion around school judgment-making predominately focuses on whether parents know about school choice and the constraints parents face which limit choice, but I investigate, using 91 interviews of parents living in a low socio-economic community, how parents make judgments and evaluate schools past the discussion of what schools are available to parents and the constraints those parents face. The results of this study are that parents use heuristics—specifically familiarity, endorsement, and representativeness—to help them make judgments about schools. Knowing that parents use heuristics, policy-makers and educators can better address these parents needs and provide information that is more beneficial to them for making judgments about schools.

The constructivist paradigm was used in the research study to focus on the challenges with affordable housing and concentrations of Housing Choice Voucher recipients in a county in Southern California. Viewed through the lens of Social Stratification posed by Max Weber, ones opportunities in life are based on his/her position of class, status and power, where by those with lower positions are excluded from opportunities. The literature discusses the goal of the Housing Choice Voucher Program is to deconcentrate poverty and provide opportunities to move to higher income areas in order to provide opportunities for social upward mobility. Residential socioeconomic segregation has considerable consequences for public health. Keeping in mind the sensitivity of this controversial topic, the researcher protected and maintained confidentiality through the research process. Thus, the member‑checking meeting in which the joint construction is shared with the study participants was held on a secured internet website. Data was gathered by interviewing a diverse group of participants from various levels of agency, including government agencies. This qualitative data was analyzed by identifying “units” of information that were then grouped into categories of topics relevant to the research focus. The result of the final data analysis was a formulation of sixteen categories which was then interpreted in the form of a social construction which concludes that there is a lack of affordable housing in the county, and concentrations of subsidized housing in lower income cities versus affluent cities is due to the demographics of cities as well as exclusion brought on by NIMBY occurrences. Implications for macro Social Work practice included community organizing and policy advocacy at various governmental levels. The termination of the study did not result in the study participants planning to move forward with the solutions that were formed during the research process. A “Thank you” email was sent to the participants with the final joint construction attached as well as the instructions on where to find the final report. The researcher invited the study participants to contact her in the future regarding any opportunities related to affordable and public housing in the County.

HIV/AIDS is a global pandemic with critical demographic, economic, and social implications. The pandemic is widespread in poor regions of the world, including Southeast Asia where its long-term effects are potentially catastrophic. Despite the major impacts of the epidemic being already felt at the household level in many countries, a lack of recognition of the socioeconomic determinants of HIV infection and the economic and social impacts of HIV/AIDS and their relationship with poverty persists. This is due in part to the lack of systematic studies at the household, community, sectoral, and macro levels. The thesis describes a 'vicious circle' between HIV/AIDS, poverty and high-risk behaviour at the individual level. In the poverty-HIV/AIDS cycle, HIV-infected individuals are especially vulnerable to poverty, the poor are more likely to engage in high-risk behaviour such as commercial sex work, and high-risk behaviour in turn makes people susceptible to HIV infection. The thesis examines whether rural Northeast Thailand exhibits characteristics that support the existence of such a cycle. Four key relationships are considered and tested: (i) the relationship between previous HIV infection and current wealth or poverty; (ii) the relationship betweem wealth or poverty and HIV/AIDS knowledge; (iii) the relationship between previous wealth or poverty and current HIV infection; and (iv) the relationship between previous migration and current HIV infection. All four relationships are shown to hold using survey data from Khon Kaen province in Northeast Thailand. Poverty is shown to increase susceptibility to HIV infection, and HIV/AIDS is shown to reduce wealth and hence increase poverty. Under the circumstances, the hypothesis that rural Northeast Thailand exhibits characteristics that would suggest the existence of a poverty-HIV/AIDS cycle cannot be rejected. This thesis also provides several key contributions to the literature on HIV/AIDS and poverty. First, it provides quantitative and qualitative empirical analysis of the impacts of HIV/AIDS on households in a moderately affected region of Thailand. Second, it provides empirical analysis both on whether wealth and poverty affect the risk of HIV infection, and whether HIV infection affects wealth and poverty. The results from this thesis also provide significant empirical evidence of the importance of rural-urban migration in the spread of HIV in Asia. Finally, the thesis investigates the potential effects on the poverty-HIV/AIDS cycle of an ongoing socio-economic intervention, namely breaking the poverty-HIV/AIDS cycle via intensive rural development.

Thesis (Ph.D. (Ethics))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2007.

This thesis focuses on the role of different psychosocial factors in the course of pain over time in a general population sample of women in Sweden. The main aim was to identify and quantify such factors as predictors of pain, pain-related disability and quality of life within a biopsychosocial framework for the understanding of the pain experience over time.  The studies were based on baseline (BL) and follow-up (FU) measures with 12 months apart among 2,300 women living in Sweden, and included physical and psychological health and socio-economic status. Study I investigated associations between socio-economic status (SES) at baseline and pain and pain-related disability at follow-up, and additionally a possible mediating role of depressive symptoms in such associations. The results indicated that educational level, financial strain and occupational level were associated with pain over time. Symptoms of depression were related to all pain-and SES factors, and might be understood as a mediating factor within this context. The results of Study II showed a link between symptoms of burnout at baseline and several pain-locations. Additionally, among women with pain, the characteristics of the pain experience and pain-related disability were associated with level of burnout over time. Study III focused on the sub sample of women reporting pain at follow-up, and examined possible predictors of their perceptions of quality of life (QOL). Several psychosocial factors were associated with QOL, and seemed to be more important predictors than the characteristics of pain in terms of intensity and frequency. These factors were burnout, emotional distress, and social support. Study IV was an attempt to sum up the results of the previous studies by analysing predictors of the course of pain, i.e. by comparing women that developed pain from BL to FU with those that remained pain-free and to compare women with sustained pain with those who recovered from pain during the assessment period. These analyses showed symptoms of posttraumatic stress (PTSD) to be associated with reporting emerging pain, while pain variables, educational level and social support were related to sustained pain. The results of the four studies in this thesis indicate that psychosocial factors and their interplay with the characteristics of pain can be identified and described in a female sample, with a broad definition of pain, and that these factors play a central role in the experience of pain and its impact on the everyday life of these women. There may be several possible paths leading to the development of persistent pain among women and the identification of risk factors is complicated by never-ending interactions between biological, psychological and social processes. At an early stage, prior to pain development, several risk factors may cluster together (e.g. SES, depression), and work as indicators of, e.g. dysfunctional coping in relation to pain. In the first contact with health care and among primary care personnel the identification of such indicators is crucial so as to find women at risk for prolonged pain conditions. General indicators might then be more easily distinguishable than certain individual behaviour characteristics widely accepted as risk factors for pain and disability (e.g. fear-avoidance). To spread the knowledge of general factors in the first line of health care is therefore of great importance in preventive work. Finally, the results demonstrated that many women report pain with characteristics that to a great extent affect their lives and through interactions with psychological and social health might have grave consequences for perceptions of quality of life.

This thesis uses a panel of Swedish counties over the years 1976-2007 to investigate the relationship between suicide and a range of socio-economic determinants. Moreover, the thesis is combining sociology and economics in order to understand the part of suicide that can be considered as rational. In addition, suicide is studied separately for total, male and female suicide rates. Contrary to prior research in the field of suicide, this study formally tests for gender differences. Applying a fixed effect model, we managed to uncover a statistically significant gender difference for female labor force participation relation to suicide. When applying fixed effect models most of our results were in accordance with the socio-economic theory of suicide. We found a significant u-shaped relationship between suicide and the level of alcohol sales (consumption). We also found a statistically significant positive relationship between the total suicide rate and female labor force participation. Moreover, we found that higher population density significantly leads to fewer suicides in the total and male model. Furthermore, we found that unemployment increases the male suicide rate. In some cases, however our results contradicted the theory. Our results give evidence that divorce has a negative and significant effect on total and male suicide rate. These findings are not only violating the theoretical framework but previous research as well. We can thus conclude that the socio-economic theory of suicide, in most cases, assistances us to understand suicide.

The aim and purpose of this report is to describe how the domestic tobacco industry is affectingsustainable development in Malawi. This is done by describing the environmental and socio-economic effects ofthe cultivation and selling of tobacco leaves. Together with an outlook on the future developments of the industry,this information is used to describe how the Malawian tobacco industry corresponds to sustainable developmentand how it can be changed to improve sustainability in the country. The report is based on a literature study andtwo interviews. Theories on sustainable development and developmental concepts form the theoreticalbackground for the report. The conclusion of the report is that the situation regarding the Malawian tobaccoindustry is a complex one, where direct economic benefits are the main motive, but various socio-economic andenvironmental effects combine to make the situation unsustainable in a number of aspects. The suggestion of thisreport is to turn away from the current high dependence on tobacco to a more diversified agriculture, wheredifferent types of food crops substitute tobacco as the main source of income, while at the same time providingmore food in a country where poverty and malnutrition are problematic issues.

During the last few decades Central Asia has experienced widespread changes in land cover and land use following the socio-economic and institutional transformations of the region catalyzed by the USSR collapse in 1991. The decade-long drought events and steadily increasing temperature regimes in the region came on top of these institutional transformations, affecting the long term and landscape scale vegetation responses. This research is based on the need to better understand the potential ecological and policy implications of climate variation and land use practices in the contexts of landscape-scale changes dynamics and variability patterns of land surface phenology responses in Central Asia. The land surface phenology responses - the spatio-temporal dynamics of terrestrial vegetation derived from the remotely sensed data - provide measurements linked to the timing of vegetation growth cycles (e.g., start of growing season) and total vegetation productivity over the growing season, which are used as a proxy for the assessment of effects of variations in environmental settings. Local and regional scale assessment of the before and after the USSR collapse vegetation response patterns in the natural and agricultural systems of the Central Asian drylands was conducted to characterize newly emerging links (since 1991) between coupled human and natural systems, e.g., socio-economic and policy drivers of altered land and water use and distribution patterns. Spatio-temporal patterns of bioclimatic responses were examined to determine how phenology is associated with temperature and precipitation in different land use types, including rainfed and irrigated agricultural types. Phenological models were developed to examine relationship between environmental drivers and effect of their altitudinal and latitudinal gradients on the broad-scale vegetation response patterns in non-cropland ecosystems of the desert, steppe, and mountainous regional landscapes of Central Asia.The study results demonstrated that the satellite derived measurements of temporal cycles of vegetation greenness and productivity data was a valuable bioclimatic integrator of climatic and land use variation in Central Asia. The synthesis of broad-scale phenological changes in Central Asia showed that linkages of natural and human systems vary across space and time comprising complex and tightly integrated patterns and processes that are not evident when studied separately.

In 1996, socio-economic rights were included in the Constitution of South Africa as fundamental human rights. The state is thus compelled to give attention to the protection of people's socioeconomic rights. The question is: Is it the duty of the state alone, or does the church also have a calling with regard to socio-economic rights? In this study, the calling of the church with regard to the protection of socio-economic rights in South Africa is researched. Firstly, socio-economic rights as ethical principle are evaluated in the light of the Scripture. The conclusion is that socio-economic rights are important human rights that can be grounded as fundamental human rights. Thereafter, the history of the origin of socio-economic rights is researched and evaluated. In the history of socio-economic rights, it is grounded in the natural dignity of a human being. However, the Bible teaches that God gave people dignity. The history of socio-economic rights in South Africa is also researched and evaluated. South Africa has a long history of colonialism, segregation and apartheid, and the church has not always been an effective advocate for socio-economic rights. To understand the calling of the church with regard to socio-economic rights, the calling of the church in society is researched. Views of different church and theological traditions are researched and evaluated. The reformed view focuses on the kingdom of God, and the calling of the church with regard to socio-economic rights is described as worship, fellowship, testimony and service. In conclusion, concrete guidelines of how to be an advocate for socio-economic rights are given to the church. / Thesis (Ph.D. (Ethics))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2007

Socio-economic status form a big part of each person's physical development. Socio-economic status is defined by house income, house standards, family size, physical activity level and parents education level and occupation. Socio-economic status influence posture as well as physical activity levels of adolescents. Adolescents living in low socio-economic areas show delayed growth with an influence on posture. Posture is mainly influenced by genetics as well as some socio-economic variables such as diet, malnutrition en obesity. Posture development is also related to physical activity. A sedentary lifestyle is more common under adolescence in low socio-economic areas than those in high socio-economic areas. This incidence can be due to the fact that a lack of equipment and safety are more common in low socio-economic areas, subsequently the lack of organised physical activity. The benefits of physical activity are endless and should be integrated as part of our daily living. Different studies of socio-economic status, physical activity and posture deformities were found although none compared all three valuables with each other. Literature is only used as a guideline and not for a comparison with this study. The goal of this study was firstly to determine the influence of socio-economic status on posture deformities on black African adolescence and secondly to determine the influence of socio-economic status on physical activity levels of black African adolescence. A total of 251 pupils participated in the study. Questionnaires were completed on socio-economic status as well as on physical activity levels. Posture screening was done according to the New York posture test and a posture grid. Pupils were evaluated from anterior, posterior and lateral sides together with evaluation of foot deformities and a more defined scoliosis screening by the Adams forward bending test. The prevalence of posture deformities and insufficient organised physical activity are high in black African adolescence. The most common posture deformity is lordosis (84%) and a protruding abdomen (67%). These deformities are closely correlated to socio-economic status especially diet because it influences growth and development of children. Physical activity levels are influenced by a lack of transport and organised physical activities. A total of 87,5% of pupils use walking as transport, based on which can conclude that little time is left for organised physical activity. Socio-economic status does have an influence on posture and participation in physical activity. / Thesis (M.Sc. (Human Movement Science))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2009.