Papers by Steve Carlton-Ford
Essay: Common Fates, Common Goals—A Response to Cyr
Armed Forces & Society, 2019
“The Soldier, the State, and the People—Costs and Benefits of Military Regimes”: Evaluating the E... more “The Soldier, the State, and the People—Costs and Benefits of Military Regimes”: Evaluating the Essay “Guns and Butter: Child Mortality and the Mediators of Militarization” raises several concerns about the theory and analyses in our article. We address what we see as the three most important: (1) the necessity of both qualitative and quantitative analyses in the study of militarization; (2) correlational versus causal analysis; and (3) the value of Huntington’s analysis of praetorian militarization. We have varying levels of agreement.
The Journal of Emergency Medicine, 2018
Background-Ohio has the fifth highest rate of prescription opioid overdose deaths in the United S... more Background-Ohio has the fifth highest rate of prescription opioid overdose deaths in the United States. One strategy implemented to address this concern is a state-wide opioid prescribing guideline in the emergency department (ED). Objective-Our aim was to explore emergency physicians' perceptions on barriers and strategies for the Ohio ED opioid prescribing guideline. Methods-Semi-structured interviews with emergency physicians in Ohio were conducted from October to December 2016. Emergency physicians were recruited through the American College of Emergency Physicians Ohio State Chapter. The interview guide explored issues related to the implementation of the guidelines. Interview data were transcribed and thematically analyzed and coded using a scheme of inductively determined labels.
Guns and Butter: Child Mortality and the Mediators of Militarization
Armed Forces & Society, 2018
Which types of militarization affect child mortality? Which type appears to lower it; which appea... more Which types of militarization affect child mortality? Which type appears to lower it; which appears to push it higher? This article focuses on social militarization (i.e., troops as a proportion of workforce-aged population) and praetorian militarization (i.e., the military’s control or strong influence over the government), investigating their impact on child mortality using pooled time series analysis covering 142 countries from 1996 through 2008. We find that social and praetorian militarization have opposite effects even after controlling for potentially confounding influences. Access to basic public health infrastructures and education mediates between each type of militarization and child mortality.
BMJ open, Jan 30, 2018
To evaluate the implementation of the Ohio Emergency and Acute Care Facility Opioids and Other Co... more To evaluate the implementation of the Ohio Emergency and Acute Care Facility Opioids and Other Controlled Substances Prescribing Guidelines and their perceived impact on local policies and practice. The study design was a cross-sectional survey of emergency department (ED) medical directors, or appropriate person identified by the hospital, perception of the impact of the Ohio ED Opioid Prescribing Guidelines on their departments practice. All hospitals with an ED in Ohio were contacted throughout October and November 2016. Distribution followed Dillman's Tailored Design Method, augmented with telephone recruitment. Hospital chief executive officers were contacted when necessary to encourage ED participation. Descriptive statistics were used to assess the impact of opioid prescribing policies on prescribing practices. A 92% response rate was obtained (150/163 EDs). In total, 112 (75%) of the respondents stated that their ED has an opioid prescribing policy, is adopting one or is...
Death studies, Aug 31, 2017
Continuing a bond after a loved one's death is considered typical and healthy. However, such ... more Continuing a bond after a loved one's death is considered typical and healthy. However, such a bond can continue symbolically only if it existed in the first place. What of indirect grievers, those who never knew the decedent? The authors describe bonds between individuals who did not have a living relationship to begin with, a concept referred to as imagined bonds. Forty-nine adults, who had a sibling die that they never knew, were interviewed. This article describes the bonds constructed between participants and the sibling they never knew. The authors compare and contrast the concepts of continuing bonds versus imagined bonds.
The Impact of War, Adult Hiv/Aids, and Militarization on Young Children's Mortality
Sociological Studies of Children and Youth
The study of war has generally been neglected in sociology, with much of the discussion focusing ... more The study of war has generally been neglected in sociology, with much of the discussion focusing around military spending or the organization of the military rather than war per se. Sociologists have critiqued and investigated the military-industrial complex (Mills, 1959), investigated morale in military units (Durkheim, 1951; Stouffer & DeVinney, 1955), and studied the socialization of soldiers (Cockerham & Cohen, 1980). However, the direct examination of war has been relatively rare. When war has been examined, sociological research has focused on the causes of war, often discussing the preconditions of revolutions (Goldstone, Gurr & Moshiri, 1991; Skopol, 1979), or the reasons for military interventions by core countries in the peripheral countries of the world system (Kowalewski, 1991). Examinations of the sociological impact of war on civilian populations have been even rarer.
Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, 2015
Natural resources are identified as a significant variable explaining intrastate conflict since t... more Natural resources are identified as a significant variable explaining intrastate conflict since the end of the Cold War. There are sound reasons for this to be the case, as social scientists struggle to make sense of conflicts in the post-Cold War era. As climatic disruptions and climate change are predicted to create extreme conditions and adversely affect natural resources accessibility, we wonder whether the capacity of nations to govern their natural resources rent-driven economies is of explanatory value. Hence, we hypothesize that what we have termed the governance capacity curse (GCC) may play an equal or greater role in our understanding of natural resources-driven internal wars than the so-called natural resources curse (NRC).
North Central Sociological Association Presidential Address. I Didn't Build That: Life Chances, Life Course, Habitus, and Dumb Luck—a Life in Sociology
Sociological Focus, 2013
'There is no private life that is not determined by a wider public life.'George Eliot (18... more 'There is no private life that is not determined by a wider public life.'George Eliot (1819-1880)"It is a sad fate for a man to die too well known to everybody else and still unknown to himself."Francis Bacon (1561-1626)The sociological imagination "is a quality of mind that seems most dramatically to promise an understanding of the intimate realities of ourselves in connection with larger social realities."C. Wright Mills (1916-1962)The quotation from George Eliot, novelist and friend of Herbert Spencer, reminds us that regardless of what we create, we do not create it all on our own, uninfluenced by our surroundings. This was the sentiment President Obama was attempting to convey in 2012 when he said,Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive. Somebody invested in roads and bridges. If you've got a business - you didn't build that. Somebody else made that happen. The Internet didn't get invented on its own. Government research created the Internet so that all the companies could make money off the Internet. The point is, is that when we succeed, we succeed because of our individual initiative but also because we do things together. (Zom 2012)The out-of-context quotation, "If you've got a business - you didn't build that," was a boon to Mitt Romney's Republican presidential campaign, spawning countless ads, t-shirts, and cartoons. The quotation and its out-of-context use made me ask whether people really were so unreflective, so out of tune with the reality of their lives, that they failed to understand the ways in which their society provided the background that helped make their efforts successful. How could so many people be living out Bacon's "sad fate," failing to understand themselves? Did that many people really lack Mills' sociological imagination; did they not understand that their successes depended on the successes of previous generations and of the people and businesses that surrounded them? And then it struck me how rarely we sociologists make that link explicitly.Although Eliot and Mills remind us that our biographies are deeply influenced by the social conditions in which we find ourselves, most of our work as sociologists does not make the direct link to personal biographies. Often when reading about theory, we do focus on the person- Marx, Weber, Durkheim, Simmel, Gilman, Addams, DuBois-including a discussion of personal biography. We also have a minor tradition of personal biographies of sociologists (e.g., Berger 1990). But, in my experience, such personal biographies only rarely or very indirectly invoke sociological ideas and conceptual analyses in understanding the details of those biographies.This gap in our work seems a bit odd, since, as C. Wright Mills famously noted: 'The most fruitful distinction with which the sociological imagination works is between 'the personal troubles of milieu' and 'the public issues of social structure'" (1959: 8). Troubles are local-tied to individuals and their milieux. Public issues have to do with the broader social organization within which and by which the many milieux are themselves interrelated and structured and which ultimately shape individuals and their approach to their worlds. The sociological imagination involves seeing the personal as a product of history and social structure.Typically, we sociologists focus on the historical, on the structural side of C. Wright Mills' equation, on the public issues of social structure, though, of course, many sociologists take a constructivist approach focused on meaning. There is also a long tradition of studying the link between social structure and various aspects of personality. We rarely write a straight sociological biography, authors attempting to explain and understand how sociology informs their lives. I hope this paper will be a little bit different; in the pages that follow, I plan to discuss what I see as crucial theoretical concepts by touching on my life and work and to accomplish this without its becoming an exercise in radical narcissism. …
Seizure, 1997
This pilot study finds that parents who think that their child will be stigmatized and who percei... more This pilot study finds that parents who think that their child will be stigmatized and who perceive that epilepsy limits their child, report higher levels of four child behavioural problems than reported by other parents of children with epilepsy. Those children with epilepsy who report that their parents use an over-controlling psychological approach to parenting report higher levels of four behavioural problems than those children with epilepsy who do not report over-contTolling behaviour from their parents. The effects of simple partial seizures and of seizure severity on children's behavioural problems are completely mediated by perceived stigma, perceived limitations, and perceived parenting. Seizure frequency, absence seizures, and treatment with ethosuximide have direct effects on three children's behavioural problems; the effects of these medical variables are generally unaffected by control for parent's and children's perceptions.
Armed conflict and children's life chances
Peace Review, 2004
Almost daily we hear of children—about two million between 1985 and 1995— killed in war zones: ch... more Almost daily we hear of children—about two million between 1985 and 1995— killed in war zones: children felled by snipers, blown up by suicide bombers, or systematically killed in genocides. Worldwide, young children (under the age of five) have one of the highest war-related mortality rates of any age group. But war’s effect on children extends much further than those killed as a direct result of war. War degrades the social arrangements that support normal daily life, leading to lower levels of life chances. But the many other ways nations at war differ from those without wars on their soil can obscure this fact. By considering the social contexts that lead to war and produce low levels of life chances for children, we can identify social conditions that help both minimize the probability of war and maximize the chance that children will live and be well nourished. A country’s chance of being engaged in a war or other major armed conflict and thus its children’s life chances are affected by a country’s economic well-being, cultural background, political arrangements, and level of military build-up. To more fully appreciate war’s impact on children, we need to answer three inter-related questions: First, what do we mean by “children’s life chances” and why should researchers focus on them? Second, how are war and the economy, cultural differences, democratization, and military build-up linked in affecting children’s life chances? Third, considering the range of inter-related factors, do wars result in lower life chances for children nationwide? After addressing these broad questions, we will examine some specific examples of how war has affected children’s life chances in three countries: Liberia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Iraq.
Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 1993
Divergent perceptions (or "disagreements") within the mother-daughter dyad and the association of... more Divergent perceptions (or "disagreements") within the mother-daughter dyad and the association of such divergence with daughter's affective and behavioral well-being were examined in the current study. One hundred sixty-one motherdaughter dyads (daughters aged 14-18 years; mothers aged 37-59 years) completed paper-and-pencil measures assessing their perceptions of fam@ cohesion and fam@ conflict; daughters also rated their own depressive affect and dieting behavior. While the means for groups of mothers and daughters on faro@ cohesion and conflict were similar, dyads varied substantial~, in their level of agreement. Disagreements on ram@ cohesion were associated with daughter dieting behavior; maternal employment status was more highly associated with daughter depressive affect than either ram@ conflict or cohesion. Findings are discussed in terms of their implications for studying the divergent perceptions
Epilepsy and Children's Social and Psychological Adjustment
Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 1995
This research investigates the effects of epilepsy on the social and psychological adjustment of ... more This research investigates the effects of epilepsy on the social and psychological adjustment of the children studied in the National Health Interview Survey of 1988. Analyses examine the effect of epilepsy on four measures of adjustment--home behavior problems, school behavior problems, depressed mood, and impulsiveness. For each outcome, we address five questions: (1) Do children with currently active epilepsy have poorer adjustment than children with inactive epilepsy? (2) Do children with epilepsy fare worse than other children? (3) Do demographic background and family structure moderate the apparent effects of epilepsy? (4) Do family processes mediate the apparent effects of epilepsy? and (5) Do cooccurring conditions produce the apparent effects of epilepsy? Generally, we find that: (1) Children with active and inactive epilepsy fare about equally; (2) Children with any history of epilepsy fare worse than children without epilepsy; (3) Demographic and family background moderate only a small part of epilepsy's effect; and (4) A combination of family processes and cooccurring conditions appears to produce epilepsy's apparent effects.
Journal of Adolescence, 2008
ABSTRACTA year into the 2003 US–Iraq war, how were adolescents in Baghdad faring? Conflict‐relate... more ABSTRACTA year into the 2003 US–Iraq war, how were adolescents in Baghdad faring? Conflict‐related events typically lower psychological well‐being; in contrast, investment in and protection of threatened identities should lead to self‐esteem striving and, presumably, better well‐being. How threatened do Iraqi adolescents feel? Is their self‐esteem related to their sense of threat? Do age, religion, ethnicity, and gender alter the link between perceived threat and self‐esteem?We use data from 1000 randomly selected adolescents living in Baghdad during July 2004. Iraqi adolescents reported high levels of threat; those feeling more threatened reported higher levels of self‐esteem. Social background correlates with both self‐esteem and perceived threat, but controlling for social background does not eliminate the relationship between self‐esteem and perceived threat. We interpret our results in light of theory and research concerning social identity, mortality threats, and war trauma.
International Sociology, 2010
Civil war adversely affects life chances (i.e. economic well-being, food production and education... more Civil war adversely affects life chances (i.e. economic well-being, food production and education) that are key to social and economic development; civil war and these life chances all, potentially, affect the most basic life chance — mortality. Results show that civil war worsens child mortality despite controls for other life chances. In contrast, civil war accounts for much of the impact of other life chances on child mortality. Information comes from 175 countries from 1985 through 1998. Given the broad and persistent impact of civil war, future research concerned with social and economic development and, ultimately, the life chances of the masses should consider civil war as a factor in their theories and analyses.
The Cultural Significance of the Child Star
Contemporary Sociology: A Journal of Reviews, 2009
... ponder. The Cultural Significance of the Child Star, by Jane O'Connor. New York, NY: Rou... more ... ponder. The Cultural Significance of the Child Star, by Jane O'Connor. New York, NY: Routledge, 2007. 190pp. $95.00 cloth. ISBN: 9780415961578. STEVE CARLTON-FORD University of Cincinnati [email protected] ...
From Adolescence to Adulthood in the Vietnam Era
Contemporary Sociology: A Journal of Reviews, 2006
... Page 6. To my lovely wife of nearly 25 years and our three terrific children Caitlin (21), Pe... more ... Page 6. To my lovely wife of nearly 25 years and our three terrific children Caitlin (21), Peter (19), and Sam (15) and to the late James V. Mudge, Jr. ... Our three children are also tremendous sources of pride and inspiration for me. Thank you Caitlin, Peter, and Sam. ...
Child Soldiers in the Age of Fractured States
Contemporary Sociology: A Journal of Reviews, 2010
... Page 7. vi conTenTS 8. Organizing Minors: The Case of Colombia 121 Francisco Gutiérrez Sanín ... more ... Page 7. vi conTenTS 8. Organizing Minors: The Case of Colombia 121 Francisco Gutiérrez Sanín Part iV: empirical Assessments of Child Soldiers 9. War, Displacement, and the Recruitment ofChild Soldiers in the Democratic Republic of Congo 143 Sarah Kenyon Lischer 10. ...
War and Children's Mortality
Childhood, 2000
This article examines the impact of war on young children's mortality in a sample of 137 coun... more This article examines the impact of war on young children's mortality in a sample of 137 countries. Years recently at war (1990-5) interact with years previously at war (1946-89) to elevate children's mortality rates (1995). Religious composition (percentage Christian and percentage Muslim) also interacts with years recently at war to reduce the effect of war on children's mortality rates. Controlling for women's literacy and access to safe water completely eliminates the effect of years previously at war, but not years recently at war.
Armed Forces & Society, 2009
Armed conflict typically worsens civilian life chances. The effects of social militarization (mai... more Armed conflict typically worsens civilian life chances. The effects of social militarization (maintenance of armed forces) and economic militarization (military expenditures) on civilian life chances are disputed, and the joint effect of armed conflict and militarization on civilian life chances has not previously been examined. This study examines the joint effects of three types of major armed conflicts and two types of militarization on civilian life chances, using a fixed-effects negative binomial cross-national panel analysis (1985-1998) of data from 175 countries with populations larger than two hundred thousand. General economic development, political regime, and country-specific effects are controlled. Armed conflict and militarization interact in affecting civilian life chances. Armed conflict results in higher levels of civilian mortality; militarization interacts with armed conflict, producing the best civilian life chances at either medium-low or medium-high levels of mi...
Film Review: Pirjo Honkasalo (Director), Kristiina Pervila, and Pirjo Honkasalo (Producers). (2005). The 3 Rooms of Melancholia. United States: First Run/Icarus Films
Armed Forces & Society, 2007
... The film introduces Kolja, age eleven, an orphan found living on the street; Dmitri, age ten,... more ... The film introduces Kolja, age eleven, an orphan found living on the street; Dmitri, age ten, his father a merce-nary, his mother ... In their foreword, Ambassador Theodor H. Winkler, Director of the Geneva Center for Democratic Control of Armed Forces, and the Ambassador Leif ...
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Papers by Steve Carlton-Ford