Using an existential perspective, the researcher investigated the world views of 155 people divided first by ethnic group and then (n = 144) by generation. African Americans and White Americans, Baby Boomers and Generation Xers completed the Scale to Assess World Views (Ibrahim & Owen, 1994) at a grocery store in the Midwest. Results indicate significant differences between African Americans and White Americans on the Pessimistic, Traditional, and Here and Now world views but no difference in rank order. Coefficient alphas for the subscales ranged from (.42) to (.67) with an overall value of (.82) for the scale. A confirmatory factor analysis was also calculated for the scale. The potential applications for therapeutic relationships are discussed.

In this study I examine the perceptions and attitudes of black students attending a predominantly white institution (PWI) concerning student support services designed to assist them in achieving social and academic success. PWIs have established minority retention programs with an overall mission of recruiting and retaining black students; however, program use is minimal and black students continue to depart college prematurely. This research seeks to assess the perceptions and attitudes of black students to determine if program ambiguity, lack of faculty involvement or available mentoring, campus affiliation, racism, or time taken away from academic pursuits has a role in whether or not students will utilize minority retention programs. The data analysis revealed that students felt there was a need for better marketing of minority retention programs. A large number of students were working 20 or more hours per week limiting the amount of time for academic activities. Perceptions of the racial climate indicate the existence of discrimination, but it was not viewed as adversely affecting black students' educational experience. However, black students perceived the university as not fulfilling its social and cultural needs as the majority of respondents tended to socialize among themselves. Perceptions about faculty involvement indicate that most of the respondents had limited contact and interactions with minority faculty, and the majority indicated the need for more accessibility to minority faculty.

Although sexual harassment has received a considerable amount of publicity since the Clarence Thomas confirmation hearings, current literature lacks an abundance of studies examining the outcome of sexual harassment cases. The researcher sought to examine the effect of an extralegal (legally irrelevant) factor and the amount of evidence on jury decision making. Specifically, the race of the defendant served as the extralegal factor, while the amount of evidence presented was determined in relation to how many variables (0, 2, or 4 sources of evidence) were included in a particular sexual harassment scenario. (The four variables used were: the presence of an eyewitness, the victim's reaction, the use of coercion, and the type/form of sexual harassment.) Accordingly, a 2 x 3 design was used: race of defendant (black or white) and number of variables (0 variables or 2 variables or 4 variables). The sample consisted of 475 college students, and results showed that the amount of evidence played a crucial role in jury decision-making. Specifically, as the amount of evidence increased, the tendency of the juror to find the defendant guilty increased as well. Contrary to what the author proposed, it was also found that the white defendant received significantly more guilty verdicts than the black defendant when less evidence was presented. Basis for the findings are discussed, and practical implications and future research directions are offered.

The purpose of this thesis is to study the influence of social, economic, occupational, cultural, educational, and demographic factors among African American communication professionals on their career choices. A quantitative research design was chosen for this research. The 300-member Black Caucus of the Speech Communication Association was chosen as the survey population. Each member was mailed a 17-item questionnaire. Of the 141 members who responded, 83 were African American; their responses were used in all data analyses. The major findings of this study are the following: (1) interest in or knowledge of the communication field was a significantly more important influence than job security, prestige, financial benefits, or social interaction with peers; (2) two-parent households increase the likelihood of success in college thereby increasing the likelihood of African American students choosing college teaching as a career; (3) African American role models and mentors have a strong influence on African American students and their career choices.

According to Alphonso Pinkney, religion has been important to black people. He writes: Religion has traditionally played an important role in the life of black Americans. The character of their religion is a reflection of their uncertain status in the larger society. Denied the opportunity to participate as equals in the religious life and other institutions of the larger society, black people organized their own religious denominations as a means of coping with the social isolation which they encountered. As the opportunities for social, economic, and educational advancement became feasible for the black however, he became less satisfied with his religion and began to look in other directions for finding religious satisfaction. It appears that a significant number of blacks who were dissatisfied with their affiliation with the black Protestant denominations turned to Catholicism. For the past quarter of a century, researchers have speculated over the reasons for blacks converting to Catholicism. Except in passing references in larger studies, little research of a sociological nature has been completed on the topic. Daniel F. Collins and Joe R. Feagin provide the two exceptions. Collins studied black converts to Catholicism in Durham, North Carolina; and attempted to understand their conversion through reference to characteristics of the black Protestant churches.2 Feagin traced the historical background of black Catholicism and then presented membership data for the years 19*1-7, 1957, and 196?, indicating dramatic increases in numbers of black Catholics. Lacking attitudinal data, Feagin speculated that four explanations might be employed in understanding black adult conversion: "... the educational, status, ritual, and civil rights attractiveness of the American church ..." Using Feagin1s perspective, the author will attempt to provide a greater understanding of why black conversion to Catholicism occurs. More specifically, the researcher will attempt to determine whether conversion to Catholicism is related to social status strivings, viewing parochial educational systems as being more likely to provide integrated schooling and high quality education, preferring the more formal ritualistic worship service found in the Catholic church, and viewing the Catholic church and clergy as being more helpful in the civil rights cause.

The moderating effects of ethnicity and acculturation on three relationships: media exposure and awareness of sociocultural appearance norms, awareness of social ideals and thin-ideal internalization, and thin-ideal internalization and body dissatisfaction were examined. European American students and African American participants from both predominantly White and historically Black colleges and universities completed measures of media exposure, awareness of socicultural attitudes towards appearance, internalization of appearance norms, body dissatisfaction, and acculturation. The LISREL 8.5 program was used to perform structural modeling analysis using the Satorra-Bentler scaled chi-square and associated robust standard errors to test the relationship between ethnic groups. The results support previous findings regarding the mediational effect of internalization on the relationship between awareness and body dissatisfaction, and also provided evidence for the relationship between media exposure and awareness of sociocultural norms. The relationship between media exposure and awareness, and awareness and internalization were similar for both groups, while relationship between internalization and body dissatisfaction was stronger for European American women than for African American women. These results indicate ethnicity may serve to protect some women against the development of eating disorder symptoms, as well as the role of acculturation as a moderator between media exposure and awareness and between internalization and body dissatisfaction in African American women.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--York University, 2008. Graduate Programme in Sociology. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references. Also available on the Internet. MODE OF ACCESS via web browser by entering the following URL: http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&res_dat=xri:pqdiss&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:dissertation&rft_dat=xri:pqdiss:NR46016

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oregon, 2000. / Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 105-116). Also available for download via the World Wide Web; free to University of Oregon users.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Queensland, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references.

Background: In Sweden, the breastfeeding rate has decreased in recent years. Breastfeeding provides short-term and long-term health effects of the child and the woman. Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate planning and duration of breastfeeding, and examine whether there were differences between Swedish-born and foreign-born women regarding duration of breastfeeding during the child's first year. Design / Methodology: This is a survey in which 3390 women responded to a questionnaire at enrollment prenatal, 2581 women responded to a questionnaire in late pregnancy and 1257 women responded one year after pregnancy. The material was analyzed with descriptive statistics. Results: There were 1135 women who responded to both questionnaires regarding planning and duration of breastfeeding. A significant difference was found between the planned breastfeeding and duration of breastfeeding. There were 260 women who breastfed for a shorter period and 265 who breastfed for a longer period than they had planned. This issue included all women regardless of country of birth. A large proportion of women who breastfed the child at the age of 12 months wanted to continue breastfeeding until the baby was 1-1.5 years or as long as the child himself wanted. It showed no difference regarding duration of breastfeeding between Swedish-born and foreign-born women. The most common reasons why women chose not to breastfeed was that the woman or the child did not want to. The most common reasons that women choose to stop breastfeeding was that the child did not get satisfied or that the child did not want to suckle. Conclusion: Differences were observed regarding breastfeeding planning and duration of breastfeeding. Care needs to focus on providing support and education to women in order to increase motivation to breastfeeding.