We propose a model of family conflict and coercion that links economic stress in family life to adolescent symptoms of internalizing and externalizing emotions and behaviors. The 180 boys and 198 girls in the study were living in intact families in the rural Midwest, an area characterized by economic decline and uncertainty. Theoretical constructs in the model were measured using both trained observer and family member reports. These adolescents and their parents were interviewed each year for 3 years during the seventh, eighth, and ninth grades. Our theoretical model proposes that economic pressure experienced by parents increases parental dysphoria and marital conflict as well as conflicts between parents and children over money. High levels of spousal irritability, coupled with coercive exchanges over money matters, were expected to be associated with greater hostility in general by parents toward their children. These hostile/coercive exchanges were expected to increase the likelihood of adolescent emotional and behavioral problems. Overall, results were consistent with the proposed model. Moreover, the hypothesized processes applied equally well to the behavior of mothers and fathers, as well as sons and daughters.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/1131401.pdf

Economic Stress, Coercive Family Process, and Developmental Problems of Adolescents

The implications of exposure to acute and chronic stressors, and seeking mental health care, for increased psychological distress are examined. Research on economic stress, psychological distress, and rural agrarian values each point to increasing variability within rural areas. Using data from a panel study of 1,487 adults, a model predicting changes in depressive symptoms was specified and tested. Results show effects by size of place for men but not for women. Men living in rural villages of under 2,500 or in small towns of 2,500 to 9,999 people had significantly greater increases in depressive symptoms than men living in the country or in larger towns or cities. Size of place was also related to level of stigma toward mental health care. Persons living in the most rural environments were more likely to hold stigmatized attitudes toward mental health care and these views were strongly predictive of willingness to seek care. The combination of increased risk and less willingness to seek assistance places men living in small towns and villages in particular jeopardy for continuing problems involving depressed mood.

/pdf/psychological-distress-and-help-seeking-in-rural-america-2vjfloybuj.pdf

Psychological Distress and Help Seeking in Rural America

There has been a dramatic increase in recentyears in the number of papers, reports, etc.,which have been published concerning MarineProtected Areas (MPAs). This overview of theobjectives, selection, design and management ofMPAs aims to provide a basis for discussionregarding possible ways forward by identifyingemerging issues, convergences and divergences. Whilst the attributes of the marine environmentmay limit the effectiveness of site-specificinitiatives such as MPAs, it is argued that itwould be defeatist in the extreme to abandonMPAs in the face of these limitations. Ten keyobjectives for MPAs are discussed, includingthat of harvest refugia, and it is argued thatwhilst these objectives may be justifiable froma preservationist perspective, they may beobjected to from a resource exploitationperspective. MPAs generate both internal(between uses) and basic (between use andconservation) conflicts, and it is argued thatthese conflicts may be exacerbated whenscientific arguments for MPAs are motivated bypreservationist concerns. It is reported thata minority of MPAs are achieving theirmanagement objectives, and that for themajority insufficient information was availablefor such effectiveness evaluations. Structureand process-oriented perspectives on marineconservation are discussed. It is argued thatthere are two divergent stances concerningoptimal MPA management approaches: top-down,characterized as being government-led andscience-based, with a greater emphasis onset-aside; and bottom-up, characterized asbeing community-based and science-guided, witha greater emphasis on multiple-use. Given thedivergent values of different stakeholders, thehigh degree of scientific uncertainty, and thehigh marine resource management decisionstakes, it is concluded that a key challenge isto adopt a ``middle-ground'' approach whichcombines top-down and bottom-up approaches, andwhich is consistent with the post-normalscientific approach.

/pdf/marine-protected-area-strategies-issues-divergences-and-the-bd1i4uwia3.pdf

Marine protected area strategies: issues, divergences and the search for middle ground

The late 2000s Great Recession brought rising neighborhood poverty in the midst of affluence, and the reemergence of a racial and ethnic “underclass” living in inner-city neighborhoods. Our approach redirects attention to a level of geography–cities, suburbs, and small rural towns–where local political and economic decisions effectively exclude the poor and minority populations. It uses newly released poverty data from the 2005–2009 American Community Survey to provide evidence of changing macro patterns of spatially concentrated poverty. We show that roughly one in four U.S. places had poverty rates exceeding 20 percent in 2005 through 2009, up 31 percent since 2000. Roughly 30 percent of America's poor reside in poor places, and concentrated poverty is especially high among poor African Americans. Overall increases in place-based poverty nonetheless were muted over the decade by declines in concentrated poverty among poor Hispanics (a pattern that reflects spatial diffusion to new destinations). We also show that America's poor were sorted unevenly from place-to-place within local labor markets (i.e., counties); poor-nonpoor segregation rates between places increased from 12.6 to 18.4 between 1990 and the 2005–2009 period. Segregation was especially high among disadvantaged blacks and Hispanics. Our empirical results make a case for more scholarly attention on newly emerging patterns of concentrated poverty at the place level.

/pdf/the-geography-of-exclusion-race-segregation-and-concentrated-5cjrw2g05k.pdf

The Geography of Exclusion: Race, Segregation, and Concentrated Poverty

An important part of a science aimed at the prevention of human dysfunction involves the development of empirically based models that identify processes of risk for or protection from emotional distress or behavioral problems over time. The present study developed and evaluated such a model that proposed two pathways through which family economic pressure was expected to influence change in adolescent internalizing symptoms (depression and anxiety) during the period from the eighth to the tenth grades. A total of 377 rural families in a midwestern state provided data for the analyses. The results were generally consistent with the conceptual model in that family economic pressure increased adolescent perceptions of family economic hardship, which, in turn, reduced the adolescent's sense of control or mastery over time. Lowered mastery was associated with increases in emotional distress. Also consistent with the model, prior levels of mastery appeared to reduce the magnitude of economic stress experienced by the adolescent, whereas prior emotional distress intensified the economic stress process. Although gender differences were found in these processes, the overall pattern of results suggests that girls and boys are both at risk for internalizing problems when families experience economic pressure. Implicatios of the findings for the dvelopment of effective preventive interventions with financially stressed families in rural areas are discussed.

Pathways of economic influence on adolescent adjustment.

Between 1940 and the mid 1980s, farm production expenses in America's Heartland tripled, capital purchases quadrupled, interest payments jumped tenfold, profits fell by 10 percent, the number of farmers decreased by two-thirds, and nearly every farming community lost population, businesses, and economic stability. Growth for these desperate communities has come to mean low-paying part-time jobs, expensive tax concessions, waste dumps, and industrial hog farming, all of which come with environmental and psychological price tags. In "Broken Heartland, " Osha Gray Davidson chronicles the decline of the Heartland and its transformation into a bitterly divided and isolated regional ghetto. Through interviews with more than two hundred farmers, social workers, government officials, and scholars, he puts a human face on the farm crisis of the 1980s.In this expanded edition Davidson emphasizes the tenacious power of far-right-wing groups; his chapter on these burgeoning rural organizations in the original edition of "Broken Heartland" was the first in-depth look six years before of the Oklahoma City bombing at the politics of hate they nurture. He also spotlights NAFTA, hog lots, sustainable agriculture, and the other battles and changes over the past six years in rural America."

Broken Heartland: The Rise of America's Rural Ghetto

Originally published in 1993, Under Fire was widely hailed as the first objective examination of the NRA and its efforts to defeat gun control legislation. Now in this expanded edition, Osha Gray Davidson shows how the NRA's extremism has cost the organization both political power and popular support. He offers a well-reasoned and workable approach to gun control, one that will find many supporters even among the NRA membership.

Under Fire: The Nra and the Battle for Gun Control

C P Ellis grew up in the poor white section of Durham, North Carolina, and as a young man joined the Ku Klux Klan Ann Atwater, a single mother from the poor black part of town, quit her job as a household domestic to join the civil rights fight During the 1960s, as the country struggled with the explosive issue of race, Atwater and Ellis met on opposite sides of the public school integration issue Their encounters were charged with hatred and suspicion In an amazing set of transformations, however, each of them came to see how the other had been exploited by the South's rigid power structure, and they forged a friendship that flourished against a backdrop of unrelenting bigotry Rich with details about the rhythms of daily life in the mid-twentieth-century South, "The Best of Enemies" offers a vivid portrait of a relationship that defied all odds By placing this very personal story into broader context, Osha Gray Davidson demonstrates that race is intimately tied to issues of class, and that cooperation is possible - even in the most divisive situations - when people begin to listen to one another

The Best of Enemies: Race and Redemption in the New South

THE SOUL OF THE SEA. "Who Has Known the Ocean?" Animal, Mineral, Vegetable. Darwin in Paradise. The Rise of Corals. The Heart of Lightness. The Outer Strands. A Song of Love and Death. Fish Stories. Neither Brethren nor Underlings. HUMAN/NATURE. The Jakarta Scenario. "Either We Go Deep or We Starve." The Apo Scenario. Return to Oceanus. Disasters, Catastrophes, and Tragedies. Unweaving the Outer Braids. Once More to the Keys. Notes. Bibliography. Acknowledgments. Index.

The Enchanted Braid: Coming to Terms with Nature on the Coral Reef

A scientific detective story, grippingly told by an award-winning journalist: A mysterious, deadly infection is killing off one of the ocean's most beloved and ancient creatures. Why? And what does it mean about the fate of the oceans?. Sea turtles have existed since the time of the dinosaurs. But now they are dying, ravaged by a gruesome plague that some biologists consider the most serious epidemic now raging in the natural world. What is happening to the sea turtle, and how can it be stopped? Osha Gray Davidson tracks the fervent efforts of extraordinary scientists, marine biologists, veterinarians, and others racing against the clock to unravel this complicated biological and environmental puzzle and keep the turtles from extinction. He dives with Ursula Keuper-Bennett, a schoolteacher whose relationship with a Hawaiian turtle changed her life and led to major discoveries about turtle social life and communication, and visits eminent sea turtle scientist George Balasz. He follows the fates of particular turtles, revealing their surprisingly distinct personalities and why they inspire an almost spiritual devotion in the humans who come to know them. He also explores through vivid historical examples the history of our relationship to the sea, opening a window onto the role humans play in marine die-offs and extinctions. Beautifully written, intellectually provocative, ultimately terrifying, Fire in the Turtle House reveals how emerging diseases wreaking havoc in the global ocean pose an enormous, direct threat to humanity. This is science journalism at its best.

Osha Gray Davidson

Papers

Broken Heartland: The Rise of America's Rural Ghetto

Under Fire: The Nra and the Battle for Gun Control

The Best of Enemies: Race and Redemption in the New South

The Enchanted Braid: Coming to Terms with Nature on the Coral Reef

Fire In The Turtle House: The Green Sea Turtle and the Fate of the Ocean