Doctoral Dissertation Research: Low Income Youth and Perceptions of Mortality

SES-1031612米歇尔·拉蒙特·内森·福斯哈佛大学作为对市中心文化的文化赤字模型的纠正，并从对穷人更细致的文化分析中汲取经验，这个项目通过纳入低收入男性来考察冒险行为？他们对自己的死亡的看法。主要的研究问题是：如何在即将死亡的信念通知低收入男性的性行为？当他们相信即将死亡时，低收入男性的生活中有哪些方面是他们所借鉴的？在对即将到来的死亡的看法上，种族和民族的差异是什么？使用NLSY 97（1997年全国青年纵向调查）数据集的死亡率信念的数据，以及从波士顿低收入男性的深入访谈，这项研究提供了第一个全面的研究检查的显着性和预测价值的信念即将死亡的性风险。相比之下，所有以前的研究要么是横截面或限制在一个地理状态或邻里;没有研究探讨死亡率的看法是如何纳入低收入男性？性的主观体验。此外，也没有任何研究调查过相信即将死亡的种族和族裔差异。初步证据表明，在即将死亡的信念是由家庭社会经济背景和年轻人预测？种族，它是一个强大的预测风险。该项目的研究结果将有助于理解城市贫困的原因和后果。这项研究有助于了解健康方面的种族和社会经济差异，特别是暴露于暴力可能会增加性风险倾向的方式。通过依赖于风险和弹性框架，这项研究从一个？赤字？风险模型，一个研究弱势男性行为的多样性，有助于研究是什么造就了社会和个人？成功“这项研究还通过经验性地纳入低收入男性的观点，为心理和人口健康研究提供了信息。

SES-1031612Michele LamontNathan FosseHarvard University As a corrective to the cultural deficit models of inner-city culture, and drawing from more nuanced cultural analyses of the poor, this project examines risk-taking by incorporating low-income men?s perceptions toward their own mortality. The main research questions are: How does belief in imminent mortality inform low-income men's sexual behavior? What are the aspects of low-income men's lives that they draw upon when accounting belief in imminent mortality? and What are the racial and ethnic differences in perceptions of imminent mortality? Using data on belief in mortality from the NLSY97 (National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997) data set, as well as from in-depth interviews with low-income men in Boston, this study provides the first comprehensive study examining the salience and predictive value of belief in imminent mortality on sexual risk taking. In contrast, all previous research has either been cross-sectional or restricted to one geographic state or neighborhood; no research has examined how perceptions of mortality are incorporated into low income men?s subjective experiences of sexuality. In addition, no research has examined racial and ethnic differences in belief in imminent mortality. Preliminary evidence suggests that belief in imminent mortality is predicted by both family socioeconomic background and by youths? race, and that it is a robust predictor of risk-taking. The findings from this project will have relevance for understandings the causes and consequences of urban poverty. The research contributes to understanding racial and socioeconomic disparities in health, in particular the ways in which exposure to violence may increase the propensity to engage in sexual risk. By relying on a risk and resilience framework, this study moves from a ?deficit? model of risk, to one that examines the diversity of behaviors among disadvantaged men, contributing to research on what makes societies and individuals ?successful." This research also informs psychological and demographic studies of health, by incorporating empirically the perspectives of low-income men.