Rising drug overdose rates are a major social problem, but understanding of trends in the use of high-risk drugs is limited. The increasingly addictive potential of high-risk drugs, broader social changes, and the importance of peers and social contexts in shaping use may create conditions where some cohorts have elevated use further into adulthood than others. We use an age-period-cohort model that defines cohort effects as the differential influences of social events for individuals of different ages. We analyze cross-sectional nationally representative data from the 1979-2018 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) to study past-year (mis)use of prescription analgesics, heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine, and any of these drugs. Pre-1990 cohorts had either consistently lower-than-average odds or decreasing odds of use as they aged. The 1990s cohorts had higher-than-average odds of use, which increased as they aged. Early-2000s cohorts had increasing odds of use with age despite low odds in adolescence. High-risk drug use appears to be an important cohort differentiating mechanism, with implications for theories of deviance and stratification and for policy. The typical focus on period trends obscures the elevated odds of high-risk drug use in certain cohorts, whose members are entering the ages when overdose is most likely and consequences of substance use become most pronounced.

The dignity of workers has long been a central concern of social scientists, with existing research documenting the variety of job conditions that threaten worker dignity. However, the literature on dignity at work has important limitations, including an overwhelming focus on older models of work (e.g., manufacturing), to the exclusion of the job conditions that are pervasive in the contemporary low-wage labor market, such as unstable and unpredictable schedules. Drawing on individual-level survey data on 17,791 service sector workers from the Shift Project, I test the association between schedule instability and perceived worker dignity, which I operationalize as perceived respect and recognition from supervisors, as well as how this varies by gender. Overall, I find that workers' schedule instability is significantly and negatively associated with perceived worker dignity. This holds for five just-in-time scheduling practices and for a schedule instability index that captures the cumulative effect of exposure to unstable scheduling. I also document gender differences in the association between schedule instability and perceived worker dignity. Specifically, I show that the consequences of schedule instability for perceptions of supervisor respect are more negative for women than men, which is, in part, driven by work-family conflict.

Recent scholarship has advanced a concept of racism operating through omission. Omission captures both inaction and action, highlighting how systems of oppression rely on inertia in addition to discriminatory action to perpetuate inequality. Yet little is known about how laypersons understand the role of omission in propagating racism in the US. Building on this foundational premise, we employ an innovative mixed-methods approach to document and test folk theories of the racism of omission. We first interview diverse individuals (N=40) about their appraisals of racism, and then use these findings to design a vignette study which we fielded to a national sample (N=1,174). Interview data reveal that some Americans do understand omission to be a form of racism, highlighting (1) bystander inaction, (2) silencing of experiences of racism, (3) overfocus on White issues, and (4) disparities in positions of power as instances where inaction, exclusion, or inertia constitute a form of racism. Vignette data show that Americans are most likely to consider overfocus and silencing as forms of omission-based racism, and that racism appraisals depend on the race of the victim. We also find that political ideology, gender, income, race/ethnicity, and education shape appraisals of racism as omission. These findings have important implications for measures of perceived racism and discrimination.

Informed by Black feminist thought and intersectionality, Superwoman Schema (SWS) is a construct that captures a collective response of Black women to racial and gender marginalization by highlighting expectations that they exude strength, suppress emotions, resist vulnerability, succeed despite limitations, and help others to their own self-neglect. Using a sample of Black women (N = 390) in early-midlife (between 30 and 46 years old; = 37.54 years; = 4.29), this study integrates the intersectionality framework and the stress process model to examine the independent and interactive effects of SWS endorsement as well as socioeconomic status (SES) and financial strain on Black women's mental health. Study results reveal that SWS dimensions "emotion suppression" and "obligation to help others" are associated with elevated depressive symptoms. In addition, net worth and financial strain, but not traditional measures of socioeconomic status such as education and income, moderate the association between SWS endorsement and depressive symptoms. Specifically, the association between SWS and depressive symptoms is strongest among Black women reporting negative net worth or high financial strain (e.g., not being able to make ends meet). Broader implications and future research directions are discussed.

Studies about young Black members of the LGBTQIA population tend to focus on health disparities related to HIV/AIDS among Black Men Who Have Sex with Men (BMSM). Although important, this emphasis often ignores diverse sexual identities as well as the late adolescent experience, including sentiments about their lives and futures as they navigate dynamics associated with race, sexuality, gender, age. This mixed-methodological study considers the experiences of 123 late adolescent Black members of the LGBTQIA population 18-22 years old. Informed by emerging adulthood theory, survey and in-depth interview data are examined using content and multivariate analyses. Qualitative themes document the plans, problems, and processes individuals associate with future aspirations and expectations. Quantitative findings show the importance of age and sexual identity, as well as racial and spiritual wellbeing in explaining healthy sexual decision-making known to affect their lives and futures. The importance of multi-faceted developmental strategies, people, practices, and programs to help individuals who embrace varied sexual identities remain adaptive and resilient is discussed.

Scholars and practitioners position health disparities research as an important tool for redressing race-based inequities and re-conceptualizing racialized health outcomes in non-essentialist terms. Given this context, we explore a peculiar phenomenon, which is the circulation of such research among white nationalists. We discover that white nationalists incorporate and respond to health disparities research not solely to defend racist and essentialist reasoning, but also to project a discourse that indicts the science establishment for ostensibly incorporating liberal politics, corrupting inquiry, and obfuscating understanding of biology in the name of anti-racism or social constructionism. We term this practice "lay agnotology," as it involves white nationalists capitalizing on their role as non-specialists to charge the health disparities field and its expert contributors with an alleged set of institutionalized biases that produce ignorance about the 'truth' of race. We connect this finding to the literature on racialized ignorance, as it demonstrates how stories about the institutional nature of science can be as central to myth-making about race as stories about the scientific nature of people.

Recent surveys reveal declines in the U.S. public's confidence in different institutions. Although some studies link these declines to religious factors, few disaggregate these patterns across racial and ethnic groups. Here, we focus on Latinos-a growing segment of the U.S. population and an increasingly religiously diverse part of the electorate. Using original, nationally representative survey data (N=4,321), we compare Latino evangelicals and Catholics to their white counterparts in their confidence in five institutions (religious organizations, higher education, the scientific community, Congress, and the press). We find that Latino and white Catholics consistently show high levels of confidence across institutions relative to white evangelicals. Our findings suggest that there may be more similarities in institutional confidence among those of different racial and ethnic groups who share a similar religious tradition than those who are of the same race or ethnicity but share different religious traditions. Patterns observed highlight the importance of examining institutional confidence through an intersectional lens that considers religious diversity and racial and ethnic groups.

Despite decades of crime decline, police surveillance has continued to expand through a range of tactics oriented towards policing social disadvantage. Yet, despite attention to the linkages between residential inequality and policing, few studies have accounted for two intertwined structural developments since the turn of the 21st century: (1) the shift away from spatially concentrated patterns of racial segregation within urban centers towards sprawling patterns of economic segregation and (2) the turn from reactive policing towards proactive surveillance. Using the case of big data policing, we create a new measure of big data surveillance in metropolitan areas to examine how changes in segregation have affected the expansion of proactive police surveillance. In contrast to theoretical accounts emphasizing the role of police surveillance in governing economic inequality and perpetuating racial segregation, we do not find evidence that racial segregation or income inequality increase big data surveillance. Instead, much of the recent rise in big data policing is explained by increases in sprawling patterns of income segregation. These results provide new insight into the linkages between policing and residential inequality and reveal how changes in metropolitan segregation influence criminal justice surveillance in the era of big data.

Fossil fuel companies hold enormous political, economic, and knowledge production power. Recently, industry operators have pivoted from pushing climate denialism to campaigns aimed at individualizing responsibility for climate crisis. In this paper, we focus on one related outcome of such efforts - people's experiences of - here in the context of unconventional oil and gas (UOG) production. We ask: How do mobilized activists experience fossil fuel scapegoating, and what does it mean for their goals as they organize against UOG production? We show that even activists fighting UOG production feel complicit in fossil fuel production, and these feelings of complicity diminish their demands for UOG accountability. We argue that these outcomes have been especially pernicious in cultural contexts like that of the United States, where neoliberal ideologies are normalized, centering personal responsibility, individualization, and identification as consumers rather than citizens. We marshal an extensive qualitative dataset and advance a theory of as a way to understand: a) how social movements intersect with neoliberalized patterns of life; b) how experiences of complicity affect activism; and c) how this may contribute to fossil fuel firms' goals of undercutting organizing. We end by examining how a sub-set of activists works to dismantle this complicity narrative.

Real house prices in the United States have risen by 55 percent over the last four decades, driving substantial wealth benefits to homeowners. However, research has not explored how this rise in house prices has affected White-Black wealth gaps, or the mechanisms that may underlie this relationship. Using geocoded longitudinal household-level wealth data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics and tract-level house price index data, I estimate that housing market appreciation between 1984 and 2021 explains 70 percent of the increase in the median White-Black wealth gap over this period. I find that most of this effect is due to White-Black gaps in homeownership, with White-Black gaps in house values playing a smaller role. In contrast to recent findings about racialized housing markets, I do not find that gaps in neighborhood house price appreciation between White and Black homeowners contributed to White-Black wealth gaps in the 2000s and 2010s. These results highlight the importance of cumulative advantage processes in driving wealth inequalities and demonstrate how the legacies of institutional racism contribute to contemporary racial wealth gaps.

Many LGBTQ adults have ongoing relationships with their parents that are ambivalent, typified by both solidarity (e.g., frequent contact, emotional or financial exchange) as well as conflict (e.g., parents' heterosexism and cissexism). Yet, why LGBTQ people remain in-rather than end-their ambivalent intergenerational ties is underexplored. We analyze qualitative in-depth interview data with 76 LGBTQ adults to answer this question. We find that LGBTQ adult children deploy narratives that privilege intergenerational solidarity over strain-what we call "solidarity rationales"- to explain why they remain in their ambivalent intergenerational ties. Four solidarity rationales were identified: 1) closeness and love, 2) parental growth, 3) the unique parent-child role, and 4) the importance of parental resources. Identifying LGBTQ adults' solidarity rationales pulls back the curtain on the compulsory social forces driving persistent intergenerational relationships. This study also advances our thinking about how socially marginalized people cope with complex social ties that include interpersonal discrimination and stigma.

Fatherhood has become an achieved status among complex, disadvantaged families. Stepfathers may have an advantage over nonresident biological fathers in earning the father role; in-depth interview studies reveal that nonresident fathers are often stripped of the father label while stepfathers commonly achieve it instead. This stepfather advantage is surprising given extant institutionalization theory, which suggests that the stronger institutionalization of the biological father role should benefit nonresident fathers over stepfathers. Drawing on 55 in-depth interviews with adolescents and their primary caregivers, we recenter youth agency in family theory by exploring how some men and not others earn the father role from the perspective of their adolescent children. We find that the strongly institutionalized role obligations of biological fathers impeded rather than aided nonresident father-child engagement. When nonresident fathers did not meet institutionalized expectations, adolescents experienced psychological trauma and usually resisted their attempts to become more involved. In contrast, the incomplete institutionalization of the stepparent role benefited stepfather-stepchild relations by allowing stepfathers to flexibly adapt to complex family dynamics. Further, stepfathers more easily met, and even exceeded, their stepchildren's limited expectations of them. Thus, stepfathers may face a lower cultural bar for and gain greater satisfaction from fulfilling the father role than nonresident biological fathers.

A substantial body of research focuses on racial disparity in the criminal justice system, with mixed results due to difficulty in disentangling differential offending from racial bias. Additionally, some research has demonstrated that victim characteristics can exacerbate racial disparity in outcomes for offenders, but little research has focused on the arrest stage. We use a quasi-experimental approach that examines incidents involving co-offending pairs to isolate the influence of offender race on arrest, beyond any characteristics of the incident itself, and we test for moderating effects of victim race and sex on racial disparities in arrest. Our findings reveal that, on average, when two offenders of different races commit the same offense together against the same victim, Black offenders are significantly more likely to be arrested than their White co-offending partners, especially for assault offenses. More importantly, this effect-for both assaults and homicides-is particularly strong when the victim is a White woman. Because these differences are between two offenders who commit the same offense together, we argue that the most plausible explanation for the differences is the presence of racial bias or discrimination.

In 2016, only one in five eligible U.S. households received rental assistance and waiting lists averaged two years nationally. The gap between available rental assistance and need requires systems to allocate this scarce resource. The way potential rental assistance recipients experience and navigate these systems is likely to shape who ultimately receives assistance. We draw on repeated qualitative interviews (N=238) with low-income New Haven residents (N=54) to examine how participants understand and navigate rental assistance applications and waiting lists. Participants encountered multiple challenges in their search for rental assistance. They described an opaque and complex application and waiting process requiring significant knowledge to navigate. They also described considerable labor associated with monitoring waiting lists, a challenge made more difficult for some by their lack of a stable address. Additionally, participants described significant labor and knowledge required to strategically navigate prioritization systems that often required them to advocate for their deservingness of scarce housing resources. Our findings suggest that the allocation of rental assistance through complex processes that depend on applicant knowledge, labor, and advocacy may create barriers to housing, particularly for more vulnerable and marginalized housing seekers.

A family systems perspective suggests the repercussions of adolescent police contact likely extend beyond the adolescent to proliferate to the broader family unit, but little research investigates these relationships. I used data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, a longitudinal survey of children who became adolescents during an era of proactive policing, to examine the relationship between adolescent police contact and four aspects of family life: mothers' parenting stress, mothers' monitoring, mothers' discipline, and the mother-adolescent relationship. Adolescent police contact, especially invasive police contact, is associated with increased parenting stress, increased discipline, and decreased engagement, net of adolescent and family characteristics that increase the risk of police contact. There is also suggestive evidence that adolescent police contact is more consequential for family life when mothers themselves experienced recent police contact. These findings suggest the repercussions of police contact extend beyond the individual and proliferate to restructure family relationships.

Guided by the intersectionality framework and social stress theory, this study provides a sociological analysis of Black women's psychological health. Using data from the National Survey of American Life (N=2972), we first examine U.S. Black women's psychological health through the intersections of their ethnicity, nativity, and socioeconomic status. Next, we assess the extent to which stress exposure (e.g., discrimination, financial strain, and negative interactions with family members) explains any discovered status differences in psychological health among Black women. Results reveal that foreign-born Afro-Caribbean women living in the United States experience a mental health advantage vis-á-vis their U.S.-born African American female counterparts. In addition, college-educated African American women experience fewer depressive symptoms but similar rates of lifetime PTSD relative to African American women without a college education. Last, though stress exposure was associated with poor mental health, it did not explain status differences in mental health. Overall, this study reveals that Black women, despite shared gendered and racialized oppression, are not a monolithic group, varying along other dimensions of stratification. The results suggest that other stress exposures and psychological resources should be explored in future work examining status differences in mental health among Black women.

This study examines how Temporary Protected Status (TPS) may shape immigrants' integration trajectories. Building on core themes identified in the immigrant incorporation scholarship, it investigates whether associations of educational attainment with labor market outcomes and with civic participation, which are well established in the general population, hold for immigrants who live in the "liminal legality" of TPS. Conducted in 2016 in five U.S. metropolitan areas, the study is based on a unique survey of Salvadoran and Honduran TPS holders, the majority of immigrants on this status. The analyses find that TPS holders with higher levels of educational attainment do not derive commensurate significant occupational or earnings premiums from their education. In contrast, the analysis of the relationship between educational attainment and civic engagement detects a positive association: more educated TPS holders are more likely to be members of community organizations and to participate in voluntary community service, compared to their less educated counterparts. These findings illustrate the contradictions inherent to TPS as it may hinder certain aspects of immigrant integration but not others. This examination contributes to our understanding of the implications of immigrants' legal statuses and of immigration law and policy for key aspects of immigrant integration trajectories.

Decades of significant crime declines and recent reductions in the number of people confined in prisons and jails in the United States have been accompanied by the emergence of new, and the resurgence of old, forms of punishment. One of these resurgent forms is the assessment of fines, fees, and costs to those who encounter the criminal legal system. Legal financial obligations (LFOs) have become widespread across the United States and are levied for offenses from alleged traffic violations in some states to felony convictions in others. Their emergence has been heralded by some as a less punitive alternative to spending time in prison or jail but recognized by others as uniquely consequential for people without the means to pay. Drawing on data from 254 counties in Texas, this article explores the emergence and enforcement of LFOs in Texas, where LFOs play a particularly prominent role in sanctions for alleged misdemeanor offenses and serve as an important source of revenue. Enforcement of LFOs varies geographically and is related to conservative politics and racial threat. We argue that LFOs are a defining feature of a contemporary punishment regime where racial injustice is fueled by economic inequality.

Despite the importance of including diverse populations in biomedical research, women remain underrepresented as healthy volunteers in the testing of investigational drugs in Phase I trials. Contributing significantly to this are restrictions that pharmaceutical companies place on the participation of women of so-called childbearing potential. These restrictions have far-reaching effects on biomedical science and the public health of women. Using 191 interviews collected over 3 years, this article explores the experiences of 47 women who navigate restrictions on their participation in U.S. Phase I trials. Women in this context face a number of contradictory criteria when trying to enroll, which can curtail their participation, justify additional surveillance, and deny pregnant women reproductive agency. The pharmaceutical industry's putative protections for hypothetical fetuses exacerbate inequalities and attenuate a thorough investigation of the safety of their drugs for public consumption. We use the framework of "anticipatory motherhood" within a gendered organizations approach to make sense of women's experiences in this context.

South Africa's Constitution is among the world's most ambitious in promoting gender equality, but the country continues to be marked by inequality and gender-based violence. Given this context, we analyze 43 interviews with Black women aged 18-55 in rural South Africa to explore how the constitutional ideal of gender equality-or "50/50"-has been interpreted and applied in women's intimate relationships. Overall, we found that inequality and gender hierarchy were common in relationships. Women relied on two logics to explain the persistence of inequality in their relationships. First, women offered ideological support for gender norms supporting hierarchy by linking 50/50 to the abandonment of culture, tradition, and respect. Second, women viewed reaffirmation of gender inequality within relationships as a pragmatic way to avoid men's violence and infidelity, thus protecting women from abandonment and HIV. Women's views about equality in relationships were shaped by dominant gender norms, precarity in the local political economy, and the risks of violence and HIV/AIDS. Our findings expand theories of social change by highlighting how not only longstanding social norms, but also local political-economic and health conditions can influence views of equality and ultimately the local adoption or dismissal of international standards of rights and equality.

Working parents must arrange some type of care for their young children when they are away at work. For parents with unstable and unpredictable work schedules, the logistics of arranging care can be complex. In this paper, we use survey data from the Shift Project, collected in 2017 and 2018 from a sample of 3,653 parents who balance work in the retail and food service sector with parenting young children 0 to 9 years of age. Our results demonstrate that unstable and unpredictable work schedules have consequences for children's care arrangements. We find that parents' exposure to on-call work and last-minute shift changes are associated with more numerous care arrangements, with a reliance on informal care arrangements, with the use of siblings to provide care, and with young children being left alone without adult supervision. Given the well-established relationship between quality of care in the early years and child development, just-in-time scheduling practices are likely to have consequences for child development and safety and to contribute to the intergenerational transmission of disadvantage.