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Medicalization is the increasing social control of the everyday by medical experts. It is a key concept in the sociology of health and illness because it sees medicine as not merely a scientific endeavor, but a social one as well. Medicalization is a “process whereby more and more of everyday life has come under medical dominion, influence, and supervision” (Zola, 1983, p. 295); previously these areas of everyday life were viewed in religious or moral terms (Conrad & Schneider, 1980; Weeks, 2003). More specifically, medicalization is the process of “defining a problem in medical terms, using medical language to describe a problem, adopting a medical framework to understand a problem, or using a medical intervention to ‘treat’ it” (Conrad, 1992, p. 211). Sociologists have used this concept to describe the shift in the site of decision-making and knowledge about health from the lay public to the medical profession.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between African–American undergraduate students, racial microaggressions (RMAs) and college retention rates.

Data were obtained from a survey given out to African–American undergraduate students, recruited from a large, midwestern, predominantly white public university (n = 53).

The results indicate that students did experience a wide range of microaggressions. Furthermore, the data revealed a statistically significant relationship between the participants’ perceptions that others viewed them as if they were foreigners and did not belong to the place and the participants’ thoughts about dropping out during the ongoing semester [r(51) = 0.338, p = 0.05]. The results suggest that African–Americans frequently experience RMAs while on campus but these experiences are not significantly tied to their intentions to complete the ongoing semester or return for the subsequent semester.

This study shows that African–American students felt disconnected from the campus that they attend. This information may allow for faculty and staff members to assist in making students feel more welcomed and included in the classroom and on campus.

This is one of the few studies to provide evidence of the relationships between African–American undergraduate students, RMAs and college retention rates. In addition, most studies looking at the relationship between RMAs and retention are qualitative in nature. The use of a quantitative approach helps us eliminating possible observer bias and increasing sample size.

This volume of Sociological Studies of Children and Youth showcases the timely and important work of active, early career sociologists, who are helping to define the direction of the sub-field. Their work shares basic premises and concerns, and these underlie and provide cohesion to this diverse collection of chapters. Children and youth are active agents in their own “socialization,” producing meaning and action collaboratively with their peers, and they struggle for agency and control in various social contexts – these are the themes that, both explicitly and implicitly, shape essentially all of the contributions. The underlying concern of our own introduction above, and of many of the chapters, is that the current processes and practices may stifle children's creativity and undermine their potential to collaboratively construct innovative solutions to societal problems.

Julie E. Artis, Associate Professor of Sociology at DePaul University, received her Ph.D. in Sociology from Indiana University in 1999. Her research interests include family, law, and child well-being. Her recent work has appeared in Journal of Marriage and Family, Law and Society Review, and Violence Against Women. She is currently investigating how family structure and parental resources influence child cognitive and psycho-social outcomes.

The current study examines the effects of race, agency and environment on traffic stops in rural and non-rural spaces.

Using traffic stop data collected in a Midwest US County from January 1, 2020 to December 31, 2021, the current study uses logistic regression to examine racial disparities in traffic stops.

The results indicate that police decision-making in traffic stops may be influenced by other factors besides a driver’s race or ethnicity. In other words, the police officer’s decision making in a traffic stop varies between small and large agencies as well as rural and non-rural places.

This study provides one of the few examinations of racial disparities in traffic stops in rural places.

Public schools operate in a changing and dynamic environment evident in technological innovations, increased social heterogeneity and competition, all contributing to school leaders’ uncertainty. Such changes inevitably influence schools’ inner dynamic and may therefore undermine schools’ organizational health. School leaders have a crucial role in buffering these external influences and promoting schools’ organizational health. The purpose of this paper is to assess the role transformational school leaders play in mediating the relationship between perceived environmental uncertainty and schools’ organizational health in a context characterized by uncertainty and instability which follow political instability.

The researchers administered questionnaires to 954 teachers coming from 191 randomly sampled public elementary schools in Israel.

Results indicate a negative impact that perceived environmental uncertainty has on schools’ organizational health evident in the degree of academic emphasis and staff affiliation with the school, in the school’s institutional integrity, and in the principal’s ability to both secure resources for the school and demonstrate collegiality toward teachers. Findings also show that transformational school principals are able to moderate the negative impact environmental uncertainty has on schools’ organizational health.

The findings validate the growing uncertainty characterizing the environment in which public schools operate. They further strengthen existing knowledge on the transformational leadership style in light of its unique capacity to buffer negative external influences imposed on schools and maintain their organizational health.

The paper's purposes are to establish organizational learning theory as evolving from the theoretical and empirical study of organizations and to build grounded theory explaining organizational learning in schools.

Implementation of instructional technology as a process of organizational learning was explored at an elementary school. Findings from qualitative data revealed determinants of organization learning discussed as grounded theory, building on the relationship between social psychology and structural systemic aspects of organizational theory.

Five elements influenced organizational learning: priority of the learning in the organization, consistency and breadth of information distribution, unpredictability or uncertainty, the ease of learning new routines (how to) and the difficulty of learning new conceptual frameworks (why).

Assessing the type of change (routine or conceptual) and the adequacy of information distribution can predict the ease of organizational change. Identifying existing beliefs or procedures that impede new learning can explain lack of progression, and prioritizing the learning through both words and action can facilitate the process.

The paper develops organizational learning theory in schools as contextual indicators and conditions with theoretical roots in the structural technical and social cognitive study of organizations.

The following classified, annotated list of titles is intended to provide reference librarians with a current checklist of new reference books, and is designed to supplement the RSR review column, “Recent Reference Books,” by Frances Neel Cheney. “Reference Books in Print” includes all additional books received prior to the inclusion deadline established for this issue. Appearance in this column does not preclude a later review in RSR. Publishers are urged to send a copy of all new reference books directly to RSR as soon as published, for immediate listing in “Reference Books in Print.” Reference books with imprints older than two years will not be included (with the exception of current reprints or older books newly acquired for distribution by another publisher). The column shall also occasionally include library science or other library related publications of other than a reference character.

Through a survey of 200 employees working in five of the thirty establishments analysed in previous research about the microeconomic effects of reducing the working time (Cahier 25), the consequences on employees of such a reduction can be assessed; and relevant attitudes and aspirations better known.