"If I became a vegan, my family and friends would hate me:" Anticipating vegan stigma as a barrier to plant-based diets.

A significant body of literature has developed which examines why meat consumption continues to be so important to Americans. Our paper contributes to this literature by examining how fear of stigmatization may be a barrier to avoiding meat consumption. This is an important subject because there is evidence that suggests that individuals who avoid meat, especially vegans, are stigmatized for disrupting social conventions related to food. In this paper, we present data from a series of focus groups in which vegan, vegetarian, and omnivorous college students discussed perceptions of vegans and veganism. Our analysis shows that non-vegans anticipate stigma associated with eating like vegans. We identify two strategies by which non-vegans attempt to avoid this stigma: social and behavioral distancing. These results suggest that vegan stigma is a barrier that inhibits dietary shifts toward a plant-based diet. Our results are important because they can be used to improve the efficacy of public health initiatives focused on encouraging plant-based diet adoption and meat consumption reduction.

Childhood adversity and adult depression among the incarcerated: differential exposure and vulnerability by race/ethnicity and gender.

The relationship between childhood adversity and adult depression is well-established but less is known about the association between childhood adversity and adult depression among the incarcerated. In this paper, we examine differential exposure and vulnerability to childhood adversity by race/ethnicity and gender on adult depression among the incarcerated in the United States. We address three research questions: does exposure to childhood adverse experiences vary by race/ethnicity and gender? Is there an association between these childhood adverse events and depression and does the strength of the association vary by the specific adverse experiences? And does vulnerability to childhood adversity vary by gender and race/ethnicity? Using the 2004 Survey of Inmates in State and Federal Correctional Facilities (SI-SFCF), we measure four key childhood adverse events - parental/caretaker substance abuse, physical assault, having been placed in foster care, and sexual assault. We use ordinary least squares regression and a series of interaction effect analyses to examine differential exposure and vulnerability to the four childhood adverse experiences by race/ethnicity and gender. Incarcerated women are more likely to report parental substance abuse, but all inmates/prisoners are similarly vulnerable to this experience. For the other three adverse experiences measured, we find that there are important racial/ethnic and gender differences in both exposure and vulnerability. African American men and women are more vulnerable to the effects of physical and sexual victimization than White and Hispanic men and women. Women are much more likely to be exposed to sexual victimization, but men who report this experience are significantly more depressed. Hispanic women and White men and women are more likely to report foster care, but all inmates/prisoners who report foster care experiences are significantly more depressed than other inmates/prisoners, with the exception of white men. The findings indicate that there are significant differences in exposure and vulnerability to childhood adversity by race/ethnicity and gender. We conclude that in order to effectively design and implement programs to decrease the probability that childhood adversity is a risk factor for adult depression interventions must be targeted toward specific, vulnerable groups according to race/ethnicity and gender.

'There just aren't enough hours in the day': the mental health consequences of time pressure.

In this paper I examine the association between subjective time pressure and depression and consider whether time pressure mediates the relationship between roles and depression, whether social and economic resources moderate the association between time pressure and depression, and whether time pressure explains gender differences in depression. Results of a telephone survey of 790 respondents indicate that time pressure is significantly associated with distress for men and women, and that subjective time pressure accounts for the significantly higher depression of employed women. Time pressure mediates the impact of housework and the volunteer role among women and it partially explains the differential depression of divorced men. Several resources moderate the impact of time pressure on depression: income among both men and women and perceived co-worker social support among men. Results suggest that the subjective experience of time pressure can be thought of as a potentially important mechanism by which lived experience is transformed into depression. However, in spite of the ubiquity of time pressure in the North American context, the depressing consequences of this subjective experience are not distributed equitably, suggesting that the capacity to manage time pressure and avoid depression may be another benefit associated with strategically advantageous social locations.