U.S.-Thailand Cooperative Research on Crowding, Family Relations, and Health.

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This proposal requests funds to permit Drs. Theodore D. Fuller and John N. Edwards, Department of Sociology, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, to pursue with Dr. Santhat Sermsri, Department of Social Sciences, and Dr. Sairudee Vorakitphokatorn, Institute for Population and Social Research, Mahidol University, Thailand, for a period of 12 months, a program of cooperative research on crowding, family relations, and health. The primary objective of the project is to determine whether, in the Thai context, high levels of household crowding have detrimental consequences for family relations and health and, if so, to investigate whether there is a "tipping point," or threshold beyond which crowding effects become greatly pronounced. Research on mammals, such as various types of rats and deer, has shown crowding to be associated with a variety of deleterious consequences for the overcrowded animals. In sociological theory, crowding has been thought to be associated with adverse social consequences. Bangkok, Thailand, is a highly appropriate site in which to conduct this research because of the extreme rates of crowding found in some Thai communities. The present project will enhance cooperative research under NSF Grant No. SES 8618157 by providing funds for the two Thai Co-PI's to visit the USA to collaborate with their US counterparts on the analysis phase of their research. This project is relevant to the objectives of the Science in Developing Countries Program which seeks to increase the level of cooperation between U.S. scientists and engineers and their counterparts in developing countries through the exchange of scientific information, ideas, skills, and techniques and through collaboration on problems of mutual benefit.