Social Inequalities

Dr. Joan Morris and doctoral student Debra Marshall are looking at how gender ideology is portrayed in modern romance novels. They argue that, besides becoming increasingly more erotic, there has been little change in either the portrayal of gender roles or the mechanisms by which traditional ideology is reinforced in the romance novel over the last thirty years.

Dr. Tracy Dietz is in the beginning stages of developing a book on Aging in the Mexican American community. The book will be based upon quantitative data and will explore topics such as family, health status and health care utilization, social services utilization, religion and religiosity, social class and finances as well as work and reitirement issues, living arrangments, etc. In addition, she is working on a project examining the cohort and period effects of attitudes associated with welfare state programs.

Central Florida and the entire gulf coast were hit hard by hurricanes in the past year and Dr. Fernando Rivera thinks that by understanding the an individual's social networks he may be able to better understand their ability to cope. He is looking at social support networks among Florida residents with a special emphasis on Latino groups to see how they change or function during and after the disaster and whether they help in reducing PTSD symptoms.