Congregations

Author(s):  
Mark Chaves

This chapter discusses six trends in congregational life: looser connections between congregations and denominations, more computer technology, more informal worship, older congregants, more high-income and college-educated congregants, and, what is perhaps most important, more people concentrated in very large churches. Taken together, these trends show that congregations are shaped by the same cultural, social, and economic pressures affecting American life and institutions more generally. The National Congregations Study (NCS), which began in 1998, is the primary source of information for several of the trends described in this chapter. As with change in American religion as a whole, trends in congregational life should be seen against the backdrop of substantial continuity, especially for the relatively brief period covered by the NCS.

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-19
Author(s):  
Tao Han ◽  
Jingwen Dong ◽  
Jiangtao Zhang ◽  
Chenxiao Zhang ◽  
Yuxuan Wang ◽  
...  

Abstract Objective: To clarify nutrient supplementation usage and primary source of information among pregnant women in China. Design: This cross-sectional study used information on nutrient supplementation and primary source of information collected via face-to-face interviews. Data on the usage of folic acid, calcium/vitamin D, iron, vitamins, docosahexaenoic acid, and other dietary supplements were collected. Primary source of information were categorized as family/relatives, friends/co-workers, the Internet, books/magazines, television/radio, doctors, other people, and oneself. Setting: Maternal and Child Health Hospital in Chengdu, China. Participants: 1081 Chinese pregnant women aged ≥ 20 years with singleton pregnancies. Results: In all three trimesters of pregnancy, usage was highest and most stable for folic acid (81.7%), followed by vitamins (vitamin A, B-group vitamins, vitamin C, and multivitamins; 75.0%), whereas calcium/vitamin D (51.4%) and iron (18.1%) usage was low, potentially indicating a deficiency risk. All supplementation usage percentages increased with pregnancy duration (p < 0.05). Notably, approximately 10% of the pregnant women in our study did not use any nutrient supplementation, and this was especially common in early pregnancy. More than 50% of the women reported getting information on nutrient supplementation from family members, and about 30% reported getting this information from doctors. Conclusions: Among pregnant women in China, awareness about nutrient supplementation increases as the pregnancy progresses, but some types of nutrient supplementation (such as calcium/vitamin D and iron) remain at low levels. It is necessary to pay more attention to the health education of pregnant women in China, and the influence of family members should be emphasized.


Author(s):  
Tom Thatcher

Discussions of the authorship of the Gospel of John must answer two questions: who is the Beloved Disciple who is portrayed as the book’s primary source of information, and how is this individual related to the author, John the evangelist? On the first question, scholars are divided on whether the Beloved Disciple is a real historical individual or an ideal symbolic figure. Data from the text itself and from social-science perspectives on the reputations of key figures from the past suggest that both are correct: the Beloved Disciple was a legendary associate of Jesus whose presentation reflects his reputation as a source of information that was critical to the Johannine theological outlook. On the second question, data suggests that the evangelist was not the Beloved Disciple but rather a disciple of that individual, perhaps basing his own book on an earlier document produced by the Beloved Disciple.


2021 ◽  
Vol 35 (4) ◽  
pp. 123-146
Author(s):  
Benjamin K. Couillard ◽  
Christopher L. Foote ◽  
Kavish Gandhi ◽  
Ellen Meara ◽  
Jonathan Skinner

The twenty-first century has been a period of rising inequality in both income and health. In this paper, we find that geographic inequality in mortality for midlife Americans increased by about 70 percent between 1992 and 2016. This was not simply because states like New York or California benefited from having a high fraction of college-educated residents who enjoyed the largest health gains during the last several decades. Nor was higher dispersion in mortality caused entirely by the increasing importance of “deaths of despair,” or by rising spatial income inequality during the same period. Instead, over time, state-level mortality has become increasingly correlated with state-level income; in 1992, income explained only 3 percent of mortality inequality, but by 2016, state-level income explained 58 percent. These mortality patterns are consistent with the view that high-income states in 1992 were better able to enact public health strategies and adopt behaviors that, over the next quarter-century, resulted in pronounced relative declines in mortality. The substantial longevity gains in high-income states led to greater cross-state inequality in mortality.


2015 ◽  
Vol 44 (3) ◽  
pp. 31-44 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kamila Fačevicová ◽  
Karel Hron

Recent experiences with interpretation of orthonormal coordinates in compositionaldata show clearly a necessity of their better understanding in terms of logratios that formthe primary source of information within the logratio methodology. This is even morecrucial in the special case of compositional tables, where both balances and coordinateswith odds ratio interpretation are involved. The aim of the paper is to provide a decompo-sition of covariance structure of orthonormal coordinates in compositional tables in termsof logratio variances that could serve for this purpose. For their better interpretability,the formulas are also accompanied with appropriate comments and graphical illustrations,and implications for the prominent case of 2 2 compositional tables are discussed.


2018 ◽  
Vol 37 (6) ◽  
pp. 621-631 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roofia Galeshi ◽  
Jyotsna Sharman ◽  
Jinghong Cai

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to understand the behavior diversities that exist among young millennials’ subgroups in ways they seek health-related information. Design/methodology/approach The authors ran several sets of analyses on the 2012–2014 US Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) Data using Stata. The population was stratified into four specific subgroups based on their gender, ethnicity—blacks, Hispanics and whites—immigration status, college status—whether they were enrolled in a program of study at the time of the survey. The outcome variables were sources of health information including print (books/magazines/brochures), traditional media (Radio/TV), internet, family/friends/co-workers and health professionals. The independent variables were gender, ethnicity, educational status and immigration status. The authors utilized the appropriate sample weight derived by Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development so the findings can be generalized to the populations. The analysis included several descriptive statistics and χ2 test of independence. Findings Despite similarities, young adults’ health seeking behavior is complex influenced by gender, ethnicity, immigration status and education. The results indicated that while the internet is the primary source of health-related information for all young adults, there are subtle differences in utilizing other available resources. For example while more educated young adults seek help from their family members, the less educated peers use the media to obtain health-related information. Ethnicity has also an effect on young adults’ information seeking behavior. The number of Hispanics and blacks that obtain their information from traditional media is significantly higher than their white counterparts. Research limitations/implications This study has several limitations. First, the authors did not consider the effect of young adults’ digital literacy skills, problem solving skills and numeracy skills on their health seeking approach. Including these cognitive skills could reveal key information about young adults approach to information seeking that is not apparent by race, ethnicity and gender only. Another limitation of this study is the lack of the ability to claim causation, PIAAC data are designed strictly for cross-sectional analysis. Practical implications Although, behaviors often do not change simply by presenting information, trying to change behavior without improving individuals’ understanding of the issue by providing accurate information is likely to fail. Providing standardized health-related information sources that are accessible to all is vitally important. The results indicate that while the majority of young adults use the internet as their primary source of information only a few percentage of young adults seek information from health professional. Consequently, there is a need for an easily accessible and standardized online health-related source of information. Social implications Healthcare facilities and health related industries have the resources and the ability to develop a reliable infrastructure that could potentially provide reliable information that is easy to understand and navigate for adults with a variety of literacy and skills to use. Perhaps adopting the Universal Design for Learning approach and providing information that is accessible to a variety of individuals regardless of their education, learning skills and language skills. Flexible learning resources provided within a standard infrastructure accessible to all can help individuals find trustworthy and consistent information that they can trust. Originality/value Despite the unique characteristics of the millennials and the profound change in the way young adults seek information, there is a paucity of research on the ways young adults seek health-related information. Most existing literature is based on locally developed surveys and convenient sampling with limited reliability and validity information. Consequently making a sweeping statement based on their findings is considered as hasty generalization. The PIAAC, on the other hand, is a nationally representative data, extensively examined for its validity and reliability.


2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Hunter M. Hampton

[ACCESS RESTRICTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI AT AUTHOR'S REQUEST.] "Man Up: Muscular Christianity and the Making of 20th-Century American Religion," examines the history of muscular Christianity in 20th-century America. Specifically, I analyze how liberal Protestants, Catholics, Mormons, fundamentalists, and evangelicals used muscular Christianity to navigate the cultural waters from religious outsiders into the mainstream. My project began by asking why millions of Americans hear sermons filled with sports analogies, attend Bible studies that follow a basketball game, and read books written by NFL quarterbacks? I discovered that over the course of the 20th century religious institutions, particularly religious colleges, used muscular Christianity to attract, convert, and retain men. By using student newspapers from Notre Dame, BYU and Wheaton College as a primary source base, my research provides a grassroots perspective on how the laity lived this religious message preached by religious authorities. I conclude that these communities used muscular Christianity to solidify their distinct religious identities and dissolve barriers with outsiders. Though its iterations shift over time and within each religious community, the blend of masculinity, sports, heroic-savagery, and homosocial community remained the remedy for the next generation to man up. My project expands the interpretation of 20th-century American history in three ways. First, I illustrate that muscular Christianity is one of the primary shapers of 20th-century American religion. Second my research explicates the larger cultural trends of therapeutic and consumer culture on American religion. Finally, my project helps fill the void in the history of religion and sports.


PMLA ◽  
1946 ◽  
Vol 61 (1) ◽  
pp. 229-238
Author(s):  
Edwin Harrison Cady

Since the death of William Dean Howells in 1920 it has become a commonplace of criticism to remark that he failed to carry his theories of realism into an artistic practice adequate to all of the central facts in American life. He did not treat what William James called “the slaughter-houses and indecencies without end on which our life is founded” and which formed much of the content of the novels of such Howells proteges as Crane, Garland, and Norris. There can hardly be room to challenge this. Howells never truly faced the violent and sordid facets of reality. Mention and object to them as evil he could; leave the abstract and deal with them intimately, personally, objectively, or even imaginatively he could not. I should like here to suggest that the primary source of that inability was simply that life-long psychological difficulties left Howells with a neurotic condition which literally made it impossible for him to know and understand as realities the portions of pain and filth and terror in human living with which a major writer must be at least vicariously intimate. How much the production of the mass of autobiographical material which he produced during the latter decades of his life might represent an attempt to purge himself of the neurotic influences which seem to have haunted his mind throughout the peak years of his fecund artistic career I am not competent to say. But it seems clear that he shrank neurotically from the imaginative absorption of painful reality which truly searching American novels would have necessitated.


Author(s):  
Victoria Chen

The purpose of this study is to examine whether Multimedia learning theory (Mayer, 1997; Schnotz & Kürschner, 2007) holds true when images are the primary source of information and text information is secondary. I will test how temporal arrangement of audio and image presentations affects quality of learning in this situation. I hypothesize that when audio is played before or after the image participants will require increased cognitive processing to mentally integrate the two sources of information resulting in deeper learning and transfer of learning. On the other hand when audio is played while the image is shown, I hypothesize that participants with high prior knowledge of the subject will score lower than participants with low prior knowledge, because prior knowledge will interfere with knowledge from the two sources causing a redundancy effect. This experiment will lead to greater understanding of multimedia teaching and learning in classrooms as well as how it affects deeper learning.


Author(s):  
Alan Pritchard

As a society we are turning increasingly to the Internet as a source of information concerning a very wide range of topics. There is, at the very least, an expectation that use will be made of computer technology in teaching and learning. Naturally this includes use of the Internet.


2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (5) ◽  
pp. 164
Author(s):  
Salah Abunar ◽  
Mohammad Zulfeequar Alam

Background/Objectives: Global warming, contamination and climate change are some of the problems that have become an increasingly concerning issue internationally. Buyers' concerns about environmental protection have led to the diversification in consumer buying approach towards a green lifestyle. Therefore, firms are taking action to develop potential ecological strategies in the green market industry. This paper aims to explore and determine the insight of Saudi shoppers regarding sustainable (Green) product packaging to maintain a sustainable and green environment.Material and methods: A sample survey of 232 consumers of Saudi Arabia. Descriptive statistical tools were used, for hypothesis testing, Chi-square test/ Chi-Square Goodness of fit test was applied at Alpha 0.05 with 95% of confidence level.Findings: The result conveys that the knowledge and information towards green product packaging are not favorable, the product labels as a source of information for sustainable packaging considered the primary source for the green product.Conclusion: The marketers, and stakeholders having environmental concern, need to have a great call to the campaign of sustainable/ green product packaging. Besides, it is recommended that the marketer of an eco-friendly product need to consider product labels as a good source of information for sustainable packaging at a priority level.Significance of the study: This research will contribute to the related stakeholders to realize the insight of sustainable (green) products packaging. Besides, it will give a better understanding of consumers' behavior regarding sustainable/ green packaging that will lead to achieving their goals in a suitable approach.


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