health
Fathers have a greater impact on the health of their children than most of us realize. Research from sociology and other fields has shown that men's attitudes and behavior have both direct and indirect effects on their kids' health. Factors influencing their children's health included the men's reproductive health, risky employment, masculine ideals of body image, and care-giving roles. Given the potential for men to influence children's health for better or for worse, efforts are needed to educate and encourage fathers to engage in healthier behaviors. Read More
A new generation of sociologists are using genetic data to advance sociological research, leaving behind age-old assumptions about the opposition of nature v. nurture. Geneticists have learned that the social environment often interacts with genetic factors and may even be able to alter genes Read More
This commentary argues that smokers have been wrongly stigmatized and condemned in modern societies as the result of a too-cozy relationship among epidemiology, medicine, and public health policy. Castro-Santos argues that sociologists have a responsibility to recognize, analyze, and (perhaps even) disrupt the public attack on smoking and smokers. Read More
Because disability sports are segregated from able-bodied sports, they’re typically relegated to second-class status, as if only “natural” bodies play natural sports and “unnatural” bodies play unnatural sports. A closer look at the sport of wheelchair basketball suggests new conceptions of sport and bodies may be in order. Read More
An undergraduate writes about the social causes and consequences of eating disorders among girls and young women, including her personal struggle with anorexia nervosa. Read More
Though sometimes reluctant to study genetic disabilities, sociologists are beginning to make important contributions to both public and medical understandings of autism. New understandings of … Read More
My parents adopted my brother Carl from Thailand six years before I was born. Read More
Family planning programs in sub-Saharan Africa haven’t succeeded in reducing population growth as elsewhere in the world. The authors argue this is because a central … Read More
The role prisons play in the spread of infectious disease among prisoners is well appreciated. But the health problems of prisoners extend far beyond prison … Read More
