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This chapter explores social media and athlete mental health and well-being from a sociological perspective. The chapter provides an overview of current literature and encourages future research to address the mental health and well-being impacts of social media use among athletes.

The chapter synthesizes existing literature focusing on sociological approaches to mental health, social media's impact on mental health, and athlete mental health and well-being. Focus is given to the ways social media can impact athlete mental health and well-being through virtual maltreatment and using the platforms for social change and challenging stigmatization.

Virtual maltreatment typically manifests in the intersectionality between gender, race, and sexual orientation adding to mental health challenges of vulnerable groups. Conversely, athletes could help challenge stigmatization of mental health and use their status to create social change among social groups experiencing higher rates of mental health challenges.

The chapter reveals that sociological perspectives around athlete mental health and well-being related to social media are growing, yet predominately concentrate on publicly available social media content. Therefore, more concentrated efforts are needed to fully understand these impacts in the short and long-term.

The chapter provides one of the first insights on social media and athlete mental health and well-being from a sociological perspective and argues that athletes contend with unique stressors compared to the general population which can exacerbate mental health challenges. The chapter advances that more research is needed to inform practice and help safeguard vulnerable populations of athletes.

As the First Lady, Michelle Obama stated that she had a number of priorities but that the first year would be mainly about supporting her two girls in their transitions to their new life in the White House. Her choice to be mom-in-chief drew unusually intense and rather puzzling, scrutiny. The chapter briefly discusses the range of reactions along the political spectrum as well as African-American feminists’ analyses of the stereotypes of Black women underlying those reactions. This analysis engages the debates from a different perspective. First, the chapter addresses the under-theorizing of the racialized gender norms embedded in the symbolism of the White House and the role of First Lady. It challenges the presumption of traditional notions of true womanhood and the incorrect conclusion that mothering would preclude public engagement.

Second and most importantly, this chapter argues that there are fundamental misunderstandings of what mothering meant for Michelle Obama as African-American woman. Cultural traditions and socio-historical conditions have led Black women, both relatives and non-kin, to form mothering relationships with others’ children and to appreciate the interdependence of “nurturing” one's own children, other children, and entire communities. Those practitioners whose nurturing activities encompassed commitment and contributions to the collectivity were referred to as community othermothering. Using primary sources, this chapter examines in detail Michelle Obama's socialization for and her practice of community othermothering in her role as First Lady. Attention is focused on her transformation of White House events by extending hospitality to more within Washington, DC, and the nation, plus broadening young people's exposure to inspiration, opportunities, and support for setting and accomplishing their dreams. Similarly, the concept of community othermothering is also used to explain Michelle Obama’s reinterpretation of the traditional First Lady's special project into the ambitious “Let's Move” initiative to end childhood obesity within a generation. The othermothering values and endeavors have helped establish the White House as “the People's House.”

Limited research focuses on the challenges that exist at the intersection of race and dis/ability for Black men on the autism spectrum in encounters with law enforcement. An interdisciplinary approach is necessary to fully comprehend and mitigate the complex challenges. This conceptual article presents Critical Dis/ability (DisCrit) Theory, a framework usually applied to education, as a lens through which to think about encounters between Black autistic men and police officers. The article concludes with recommendations for collaboration between social scientists, police scholars, law enforcement and the public to improve the outcomes of police encounters involving Black men on the autism spectrum.

Using a literature review and analysis of current events, this conceptual article explores the intersections of race and disability, specifically neurodiversity, in policing using Critical Dis/ability (DisCrit) theory, and its predecessors, Intersectionality Theory and Critical Race Theory (CRT).

An interdisciplinary approach might be a potential solution to improve police encounters with Black autistic men. Expanding the theoretical frameworks utilized in scholarship about policing might allow for innovative approaches to examine current practices in law enforcement. Collaboration and critical dialogue may yield opportunities for further research and shifts in practice.

This conceptual article uses two incidents from recent events to highlight the need for increased scholarship around the intersections of autism and race, with a particular focus on Black autistic men. It advocates for the use of social science frameworks, namely DisCrit Theory, as a novel way to approach new research regarding race and dis/ability.

This paper evaluates the modern baseline presumption of nonconsent in sexual assault (rape) cases in light of different theories of sexuality (feminism on the one hand and sex positivism/queer theory on the other) and in light of how sexuality manifests itself in the lives of contemporary young women. The authors analyze social science literature on contemporary heterosexual practices such as sexting and hook-ups, as well as contemporary media imagery, to inform a contemporary understanding of the ways in which young people perceive and experience sex. Using this evidence as a foundation, the authors reconsider the ongoing utility of a baseline presumption of nonconsent in sexual assault cases. This paper demonstrates the complex relationship between women’s sexual autonomy, the contemporary culture’s encouragement of women’s celebration of their own sexual objectification and the persistence of high rates of unwanted sex. In the end, it demonstrates why a legal presumption against consent may neither reduce the rate of nonconsensual sex, nor raise the rate of reported rapes. At the same time, it shows how the presumption itself is unlikely to generate harmful consequences: if it deters anything, it likely deters unwanted sex, whether consented to or not.

The purpose of this paper is to detail the perceived influence of early gaming habits toward media production from seven students enrolled at a university in the Southeastern US. Participants identified as heavily involved in creating media such as anime, videos, fanfiction, webcomics, games, and digital music.

This exploratory study used qualitative research, thus data collection and analysis included questionnaires, interviews, and artifacts identifying and categorizing six main themes: game play preferences, persistence, early connections between game play and media, support and feedback, creations inspired by games, and significance of games in current lives.

The study found that most participants believed game play in childhood influenced increasingly complex media production habits. Six of the seven believed game play influenced their career path. The paper concludes with implications for education including games as conduits to personalized learning and career paths.

Results from this study extend prior research on the value of games to promote media production and meet personal and professional goals. This is significant as prior research linking early game play to media production influencing career goals is sparse.

The current study aims to examine the joint impact of consumers' need for status (NFS), celebrity's star power and consumer-celebrity image match on consumers' attitudes toward the celebrity endorsement.

A factorial design was employed to test the research model. Consumer-celebrity image match was manipulated, and consumers' NFS and celebrity's star power was captured using existing measurement scales. A total of 365 responses were collected via Qualtrics. Hayes's (2013) PROCESS procedure was used to analyze the data and test hypotheses.

Results indicate that consumers with high (vs low) NFS have more favorable attitudes toward the endorsed brand. More importantly, consumers high in NFS, in an endorsement where celebrity-consumer image matches, have more favorable attitudes toward the brand endorsed by a celebrity with more (vs less) star power. In contrast, in an endorsement where celebrity-consumer image mismatches, they react the same regardless of the endorser's star power.

This study offers suggestions to hospitality marketing professionals in strategically using celebrity endorsers in their marketing campaigns and strategies that allows firms to further formulate positive and enduring brand images while encouraging favorable consumer behaviors.

While most hospitality studies have focused on the traits of celebrity endorsers, little attention has been paid to the impact of consumers' characteristics on celebrity endorsement. This study advances the growing literature on hospitality celebrity endorsement by providing empirical evidence to delineate the relationship among celebrities, endorsed brands and consumers.

The new focus of brand communication in social media has driven firms to develop the effective visual content strategy. In light of narrative transportation theory, this study aims to investigate the impact of a photo’s narrative elements on self-brand connection through viewers’ transportation and emotional responses. Additionally, this study tests the role of telepresence on Instagram in this psychological mechanism.

Using between-subjects experimental design, two experimental studies test the effect of implied movement (Study 1) and diverse narrative elements such as a character, implied motion for chronology and the relevant background (Study 2).

Results demonstrate that a single narrative element, i.e. implied motion, does not induce a viewer’s transportation to the presented image. Rather, the viewer’s transportation occurs as a function of complex and diverse narrative elements, such as implied motion and the background as a context.

Findings suggest that the concept of photo narrative should be taken into consideration in a visually-oriented social media environment. To increase self-brand connection, social media communication should be designed with diverse elements to promote viewers’ active simulation and create meaning to the branded photo story.

This study expands the theory of narrative transportation by applying it to a visual form. Additionally, this research investigates the effect of social media communication on self-brand connection; the findings of this study demonstrate that a major goal of social media communication is not to sell products but to strengthen consumer-brand relationships through branded storytelling.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the role of both the school counselor and the school psychologist in preparing students in urban school settings for college and/or the workforce. Throughout this paper, the authors discuss how collaboration is critical to ensuring students are successful at every school level (e.g., elementary, middle and high) to avail themselves of various postsecondary opportunities upon graduation. The authors give recommendations for practice and future research to implement and increase knowledge around collaboration between school counselors and school psychologists in preparing students in urban school settings to be college- and career-ready.

This is a conceptual paper on school counselors and school psychologists using the Eight Components of College and Career Readiness Framework to collaborate on preparing students for postsecondary options.

With support from key stakeholders like administrators, teachers and parents, school counselors and school psychologists can work collaboratively to increase students’ college and career readiness. For example, school counselors and school psychologists may start by creating and implementing a needs assessment, as it relates to the developmental tasks of students (i.e. self-regulation, self-efficacy, self-competence) that must be negotiated to ensure college and career readiness. School counselors and school psychologists should also examine out-of-school suspension, expulsion, school arrest and disciplinary referral data (Carter et al., 2014).

Collaboration around college and career readiness is important to the academic success and future of students in urban school settings. School counselors and school psychologists complement each other in preparing students for college and the workforce because their training has prepared both for addressing academic needs, assessment, mental health issues, career development, behavioral concerns and social–emotional needs of students (American School Counselor Association, 2012; National Association of School Psychologists, 2014). Further, school counselors and school psychologists are in a pivotal position to create a college-going culture by using evidence-based activities, curricula and practices.