Editorial Board:
Editor:
George H. Conklin,
 North Carolina
 Central University

Board:
Bob Davis,
 North Carolina
 Agricultural and
 Technical State
 University

Richard Dixon,
 UNC-Wilmington

Ken Land,
 Duke University

Miles Simpson,
 North Carolina
 Central University

Ron Wimberley,
 N.C. State University

Robert Wortham,
 North Carolina
 Central University

® 
Volume 6, Number 2

Fall 2008

Outline of Articles

1. How Are the Kids Doing?  How Do We Know?  Recent Trends and International Comparisons in Child and Youth Well-Being: A PowerPoint Presentation 
   by Ken Land
   In his 2008 Presidential Address to the North Carolina Sociological Association, Ken Land discussed the Child and Youth Well-Being Index, an annual time series of 28 social indicators of well-being.  It is shown that, after dipping in the 1980s, the index of well-being of children rises through the 1990s.  This is a PowerPoint presentation suited to use in the classroom.
2. Mortality Patterns in the Southern Black Belt: Regional and Racial Comparisons  
   by Dale W. Wimberley
   W. E. B. Du Bois coined the term The Black Belt to indicate an area of extreme structural inequality.  The Southern Black Belt is a set of U.S. counties with proportionately high African American populations and the Plantation South's social legacy. Previous research revealed the region's serious socioeconomic disadvantages. This article presents the first comprehensive analysis of Black Belt mortality.  Both Blacks and Whites in the Black Belt experience substantially worse infant mortality and shorter life expectancy compared to their counterparts in the rest of the South and the rest of the U.S. The study also examines the region's leading causes of death and cause-specific "excess" deaths by race, and considers the findings' policy implications.
3. Health Care Services Used by Appalachians in Southwest Virginia 
   by Marion R. Manton and Gwendolyn B. Thornton
   The purpose of this research was to study the healthcare services used by Appalachians in southwest Virginia.  The study finds that emergency room users are likely to be never married and male.  On the other hand, those with a diagnosed medical condition are likely to choose a physician as their primary healthcare provider.   The results underscore the critical role of insurance in health care.  Individuals with no health coverage are more likely to use emergency room services.  The study finds no difference in healthcare services in terms of private or public insurance.  Both groups are equally likely to use a physician as their primary healthcare provider. 
4. Services Delivery for Displaced Rural Workers: A North Carolina Case Study of the Theory and Reality of One-Stop 
   by Leslie Hossfeld, Donnie Charleston and Michael Schulman
   The United States has felt the brunt of a number of natural and economic crises that are taking a devastating toll on many rural communities, especially in the South.  Congress passed the WIA which required the formation of locally based one-stop service systems to deliver the majority of employment and training services funded by the federal government .  The one-stop career system was envisioned as a system that would consolidate programs, resources, and services such as unemployment insurance, state job services, public assistance, training programs, and career services.  Four principles guided the system's development:  1) Universal access to all population groups including both job seekers and employers; 2) Customer choice based on the consumers’ evaluation of his/her needs; 3) Service integration and; 4) Performance-based accountability.  One-stop does not seem to be working very well.  Suggestions for improvement are discussed.
5. Fictive Kin and Helping Behavior: A Social Psychological Exploration Among Haitian Immigrants, Christian Fundamentalists, and Gang Members 
   by Eric K. Shaw 
   This paper is primarily about why individuals choose to help others.  Kinship is an important concept in research on helping behavior with common distinctions made between kin, non-kin, and fictive kin. Unrelated individuals become "adopted" family members who accept the affection, obligations and duties of "real" kin.  Understanding more about the subjective nature of fictive kin relations is important for understanding individual motivations for engaging in various helping behaviors.  Gang members are found to use fictive kin terminology and gangs are a substitute family for members. 
6. Students' Mentoring Relationships in Social Work Education  
   by Terri Moore Brown, Chester Dilday, Oliver Johnson, Delma Jackson and Debra Brown
   Does mentoring help students stay in school?   Do students seek out mentors in the higher educational system?  127 graduate and undergraduate students from selected social work education programs were surveyed. An 80-item questionnaire was used to determine if and how graduate and undergraduate social work students were engaged in mentoring relationships. The types of activities mentors perform with students were examined. Of those graduate and undergraduate students, 52% of students reported having mentors. Of the remaining non-mentored students, nearly 40% were interested in having mentors.  Significant differences were found in the types of mentoring activities Black and White mentors performed with their mentees. Faculty interested in mentoring students, students interested in receiving mentorship and academic administrators who are contemplating establishing mentoring programs may have interest in this study. 
7. Book Review of The Social Context View of Sociology by Marty Zusman, David Knox and Tracie Gardner: Two Views and "Meet the Authors." 
   •  Meet the Authors
     Marty Zusman, senior author, describs why they wrote the book and why they think it is important for professors to use this book and not others.
   •  Review 1 by Joseph Kaminski  
   •  Review 2 by Kathryn Schmidt 
   The Social Context View of Sociology is a textbook for the principles of sociology market.  

   ©2008 by the North Carolina Sociological Association