Sociology and Anthropology Electronic Theses and Dissertations (UMKC)
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The items in this collection are the theses and dissertations written by students of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology. Some items may be viewed only by members of the University of Missouri System and/or University of Missouri-Kansas City. Click on one of the browse buttons above for a complete listing of the works.
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Item The Impact of COVID-19 on Care Work and Paid Work in the United States(2022) Anderson, Kaydee Corbin; Jackson, Shannon M.Informed by disaster literature, the current study offers a quantitative, social structural analysis that reveals the inadequacy of the market to provide care during the COVID-19 Pandemic in 2021. This thesis focuses specifically on the impact that the COVID-19 Pandemic has had on both unpaid care work and paid work in the United States across gender, race, ethnicity, education, and age categories. This study seeks to address the following question: Which demographic factors significantly impact paid work and care work during the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States? Participants in the current study (N=2,848) completed questions in the Household Pulse Survey regarding both paid work and unpaid care work and identified their gender, age, education, and race and ethnicity. Binary logistic regression models were used to determine the likelihood of the demographic variables impacting responses to questions regarding paid and care work. It was found that female participants, Black participants, and younger participants in the sample were more likely to indicate a care work related reason for not working for pay or profit during the COVID-19 Pandemic than male participants, white participants, and older participants respectively. Female participants were significantly less likely to report using unpaid leave, paid leave, cutting hours, losing a job, and supervising children while working remotely than male participants. Black participants were more likely than white participants to report losing a job due to care work responsibilities. Asian and Black participants were less likely to report supervising children while working remotely than white respondents. Those with an associate’s degree or below were more likely to take unpaid leave and lose a job and were less likely to use paid leave, cut hours, not look for a job, and supervise children on the job compared to those with a bachelor’s degree or higher. Younger participants were more likely to report taking unpaid leave, cutting hours, losing a job, leaving a job, and not looking for a job compared to older participants.Item Retirement Satisfaction of Married Individuals in the Health and Retirement Study(2020) Stewart, Jara Karmel; Smith, Deborah B.High levels of satisfaction in retirement are as much a guarantee as promising immigrants to the United States happiness in their new American life. The authors of the United States Constitution understood this concept and placed the guarantee only on the freedom to pursue happiness and not in happiness itself. No one can guarantee happiness or satisfaction for all people. The factors influencing a happy American experience are as complex as those that influence retirement satisfaction, but the reality is the same: both can be achieved. Drawing on previous literature and the life course perspective to construct the conceptual model, this paper answers the research question “What factors influence retirement satisfaction among retired married individuals”? Using the 2012 Health and Retirement Study dataset, I identified 3,801 respondents who were both married and fully retired. Using the life course perspective as a framework I test several hypotheses through bivariate and multivariate analyses to determine the influence of gender, education, household income, self-reported health, and age at retirement on retirement satisfaction among retired married individuals. Of these, gender was found to lack a statistical relationship with retirement satisfaction among retired married individuals. All others, education, household income, self-reported health, and age at retirement (in the full model only), are statistically significant in their relationship with retirement satisfaction among retired married individuals which is in line with previous literature studies. Self-reported health held the largest explainable variance; however, previous literature suggests caution be taken before singling out health, as both health and wealth are shown to have an influence on age’s impact on retirement satisfaction. This paper includes a discussion on the current and future state of social security (a financial resource for those in retirement), as well as limitations, and future research.Item Whitewashing or amnesia: a study of the construction of race in two Midwestern counties(2019) Taylor, Debra K; Torres, Theresa L.This inter-disciplinary dissertation utilizes sociological and historical research methods for a critical comparative analysis of the material culture as reproduced through murals and monuments located in two counties in Missouri, Bates County and Cass County. Employing Critical Race Theory as the theoretical framework, each counties’ analysis results are examined. The concepts of race, systemic racism, White privilege and interest-convergence are used to assess both counties continuance of sustaining a racially imbalanced historical narrative. I posit that the construction of history of Bates County and Cass County continues to influence and reinforces systemic racism in the local narrative. Keywords: critical race theory, race, racism, social construction of reality, white privilege, normality, interest-convergenceItem Adding Insult to Injury: How Neoliberal Ideology Convinces the Disadvantaged to Blame Themselves for Poor Health(2019) Robertson, Elise; Smirnova, MichelleHealth outcomes are strongly tied to social class. Childhood environment, level of education, income, and even neighborhood characteristics are strongly correlated with negative health outcomes such as obesity, diabetes, hypertension, stress, and others. Despite extensive research chronicling these structural factors, federal, state, and community initiatives to combat these issues target individuals as actors responsible for enacting change through their personal choices, ignoring the systemic barriers that many people face to make healthy decisions. Tying Bourdieu’s theory of class distinction, system justification, and neoliberal theory, I conducted and analyzed 11 qualitative, semi-structured interviews with Americans of varied class backgrounds. These were analyzed to understand whether individuals perceive health outcomes as the result of neoliberal choice or of structural conditions of socioeconomic positioning, which for the purposes of this study is measured primarily as a combination of income and education. The results suggest that individuals with lower income and education characterize obstacles to health as a result of their personal choices, reflecting a subscription to neoliberal ideology which mandates rational choice and personal responsibility. Individuals with lower socioeconomic status were also more likely to state positive attitudes of doctors and medical professionals despite negative experiences with them, reflecting the structural limitations of low capital. In contrast, those with higher income and education tend to characterize obstacles to health as a result of deficiencies in the health care system, class advantages, and the economic cost of a healthy lifestyle, as well as hold more negative views of doctors, reflecting the high capital that allows them mitigate poor medical care. This study did not find race, gender, or age to have a meaningful systemic effect on either individuals’ subscription to neoliberal ideology or their trust in doctors, but these variables may have effects that could be observed in a larger sample.Item Surveilling Women’s Bodies in Pursuit of Fetal Anatomical Normality: Framing Risk and Responsibility in American Print News Coverage of the Zika Virus(University of Missouri -- Kansas City, 2019) Thompson, Catherine; Smirnova, MichelleIn 2015, the mosquito-borne Zika virus made international news as it spread rapidly across northeastern Brazil. These stories were not fundamentally concerned with Zika virus infection itself. The primary focus of the news coverage in 2015 into 2016 was upon the prenatal transmission of Zika virus due to an association between maternal infection and congenital neurological disorders, specifically microcephaly. For many, scientific and medical literacy and understanding comes from press coverage. As such, it is important to understand risk communication because it can persuade individuals to direct attention and concern towards certain contexts and modify behavior in order to reduce risks. Given this, this thesis discusses the impact of health communication regarding the Zika virus. Specifically, I conducted a paired content and discourse analysis of media frames in order to answer the following broad questions: (1) What threats does Zika pose and to whom? (2) What are the organizational-level responses to Zika?; and (3) What are the suggested individual-level responses and to whom are they oriented. I coded 50 articles from American print news coverage of the Zika virus using seven frames: conflict; uncertainty/new evidence; metaphors; human impact; strategy/action; attribution of individual-level responsibility; and morality. Based on this analysis, I found that the majority (58%) of articles focused on the impacts of Zika on fetal development rather than the impact on human health in general. Yet when journalists construct four primary risk groups (people in general, various categories of women, travelers, and offspring), women are almost twice as likely to be described as victims of a Zika virus infection than fetal or juvenile subjects. Regulatory power is enacted through coercion in the form of approach- or avoidance-based instructions for self-regulation. As anticipated, women are the primary target for both medically-oriented and reproductive instructions, and the majority of these directives are concerned about what women as maternal bodies should or should not do.