Losing a close friend affects older adults differently. #JGSSAdvAccess research finds that those with strong social support recover fine. Socially vulnerable older adults experience steep increases in depression after losing a friend. buff.ly/hKYTulm @geronsociety.bsky.social @academic.oup.com

Social vulnerability and the mental health consequences of the death of a close friend in older adulthood

AbstractObjectives. Close friend death is a common experience in later adulthood, yet its mental health consequences remain understudied. This study examin

buff.ly

What I find disingenuous about these types of criticisms is that we do not expect other types of scientists to stay neutral about scientific knowledge that can improve lives. We don't tell cancer researchers that they shouldn't have an opinion on the clinical relevance of their discoveries.

Chronicle of Higher Education@chronicle.com · 2mo ago

Sociology is under fire from right-wing politicians in Florida. A recent contest to lead the American Sociological Association became a stage for a debate over whether the field’s activist tendencies are to blame. https://chroni.cl/4oXtcb8

In “Wildfires & Birth Outcomes,” @conteristo.bsky.social & @mariarubiocab.bsky.social assess how exposure to wildfire & PM2.5 during pregnancy is associated w/ lower birth weight & increased risk of LBW & preterm birth. @mpidr.bsky.social @cedemografia.bsky.social read.dukeupress.edu/demography/a...

This study of four cohorts of French schoolchildren shows that the gender gap in math (girls falling behind) begins essentially immediately as soon as kids start school. They use the natural variation in kids' ages at school start to show that it's school entry, not age, that triggers the change.

Rapid emergence of a maths gender gap in first grade - Nature

Boys and girls exhibit very similar maths scores upon school entry, but a gender gap in favour of boys becomes highly significant after 4 months of schooling, which increases with years of schooling,&...

nature.com

Dear @elsevierconnect.bsky.social. I hate everything about this. It makes me not want to read articles from your journal and certainly not want to submit my own work. Even when minimized, this is incredibly intrusive. You cannot "X" out of it. Please for the good of science. Do better.

Our new study explored how well various AI chatbots responded to health questions on various topics. Sum: not great. Nearly half (49.6%) of responses were problematic. See study: bmjopen.bmj.com/content/16/4... via @bmj.com

Kind of surprised that this hasn't been bigger news. It's finals week for a whole lot of universities, and yet, Canvas (a learning/grading platform used by ~9,000 schools globally) is currently inaccessible because of a pay-or-have-your-data-leaked hack. www.insidehighered.com/news/tech-in...

“PAY OR LEAK”: Hackers Target Big Higher Ed Vendor

The criminal extortion group ShinyHunters breached Instructure last week. The hackers, who have also attacked individual universities, demanded the ed-tech giant pay up or face a data leak.

insidehighered.com

File this under "conference habits that date me": Creating a word document of my program choices and printing them out. @popassocamerica.bsky.social, I had a very tough time choosing this year. #PAA2026

New paper documenting a negative association between childhood exposure to local wealth inequality and inter-class social ties in adulthood. If children have fewer chances to meet peers from different class backgrounds, those divides may persist far beyond childhood.

yes *and* there are more people in prison today who were on probation/parole at the time of arrest than the entire prison pop in 1974. The problem is not only technical violations but how easy it is to get a new charge while on supervision. journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/....

Are Supervision Violations Filling Prisons? The Role of Probation, Parole, and New Offenses in Driving Mass Incarceration - Michelle S. Phelps, H. N. Dickens, De Andre’ T. Beadle, 2023

Advocates for reform have highlighted violations of probation and parole conditions as a key driver of mass incarceration. As a 2019 Council of State Government...

journals.sagepub.com

Prison Policy Initiative@prisonpolicy.org · 5mo ago

And failure of these systems because of conditions is high: Supervision violations account for more than 25% of all prison admissions. This is not a system designed for success.

I believe the only correct response to an overwhelming to-do list is to post cat memes. Happy almost-the-end-of-the-semester to all those who celebrate.

a white cat is sitting in a pile of styrofoam .

Alt: a white cat is sitting in a pile of styrofoam and being covered by more following styrofoam packing material.

media.tenor.com

Demographer colleagues: Do you know of any analysis that examines LE by race, income, and place? I'm interested in LE disparities between high income and low income individuals by race across geographic settings. This article comes close, but not quite: www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...

Ten Americas: a systematic analysis of life expectancy disparities in the USA

Our analysis confirms the continued existence of different Americas within the USA. One's life expectancy varies dramatically depending on where one lives, the economic conditions in that location, an...

thelancet.com

These are “low enrollment” majors but the classes are regularly at capacity. They changed the funding structure a few years ago here, switching the allocation from course enrollments to majors then blamed these departments for a structural, top-down change. This is entirely a political choice.

Sarah E. Bond@sarahebond.bsky.social · 6mo ago

The closing of African American Studies and GWSS at Iowa is absolutely heartbreaking. It is such an important time to study these subjects. Words really cannot express how upsetting this decision is. www.thegazette.com/higher-educa...

Yesterday, those who teach Intro to Sociology at Florida colleges (as opposed to universities) received a ready-made curriculum from the state and were ordered to teach it. Yes, you read that correctly. The *state* is enforcing a curriculum on college profs, complete w/ the following restrictions:

Sometimes I wish I could just send out a Batman-like signal to my entire professional network that simply said "who do I owe something to this week."

I forgot to post my annual #SociologyValentine. Better late than never. Roses are red, Violets are blue, Structural conditions, Means we all got issues.

Chin & Miller, in “Health, Wealth & Racial Welfare Gaps Among Older Americans,” find that much of the gap is determined by age 60 initial conditions & suggest that policies to close “gaps in late life may be more efficient if targeted earlier in the life cycle." read.dukeupress.edu/demography/a...

Only 15 days until the @asanews.bsky.social Annual Meeting Call for Papers closes. The Section on Disability in Society has some great sessions (if I do say so myself). Please consider submitting. @asadisability.bsky.social #ASA2026 #Sociology #Disability

According to previous data, Phil's prediction accuracy rate is around 35%. So, perhaps, it is good news he saw his shadow. I know I'm ready for a bit more sunshine (both literally and metaphorically). www.noaa.gov/heritage/sto...

Grading the groundhogs

In honor of Groundhog Day and in the spirit of fun, we pitted groundhogs from all over the United States against each other — and data from NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information — to s...

noaa.gov

Philadelphia Inquirer@inquirer.com · 7mo ago

Expect the record-setting cold Philadelphia has experienced in recent days to continue for the next six weeks (😭), at least according to Punxsutawney Phil. 🔗 www.inquirer.com/news/pennsyl...

We do have some clues about the not-so-secret key to longevity: it’s social and economic privilege and resources, preferably from birth.

I can't imagine what my life trajectory would have been w/o being exposed to all that Sociology had to offer. When 18 yo me sat in my Sociology classes at the University of Florida, it was like I found a home. Sociology spoke to my soul and gave me a sense of purpose. No one should be denied that.

Andrea Leverentz@amlevere.bsky.social · 7mo ago

“the state-approved version doesn’t include chapters on media and technology, global inequality, race and ethnicity, social stratification, or gender, sex and sexuality.” State. Approved. www.insidehighered.com/news/faculty...

"How far that little candle throws its beams! So shines a good deed in a naughty world" -William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice Shine on MN, shine on world.

JP Sherman@jpsherman.bsky.social · 7mo ago

Every act of resistance, no matter how small, pushes back the control, it’s a signal of hope, it’s a candle that can be seen. It creates joy & it supports justice.

ICE detained a 5-year-old Minnesota boy coming home from school + took him and his dad to Texas, school officials say. The family has an active asylum case + entered the US at a port of entry. "They’re taking children. They're not violent criminals. They're little kids," the superintendent told me.

ICE detains five-year-old Minnesota boy as he came home, say school officials

Superintendent says Liam Ramos and his father were taken into custody while in their driveway and sent to Texas

theguardian.com

Approximately, 1/3 of authors from sociological research self-report using GenAI on a weekly or more frequent basis. Wow. I'm disappointed. I assume that professional sociologists are well aware of the environmental impact of GenAI. They also know which communities will suffer the most.

Oscar Stuhler@oms279.bsky.social · 7mo ago

Now out in Sociological Science (How) do sociologists use GenAI for their research? Find out in our paper. Written with @ajalvero.bsky.social @dustinstoltz.com and Marshall Taylor. Thank you to everyone who participated in the survey!!

I'm always happy to guest lecture as a general rule, but that's doubly true for folks being impacted. I have a lot of experience teaching medical sociology courses at the undergrad and grad level. I also teach in the areas of aging and disability.

Elizabeth Wrigley-Field@wrigleyfield.bsky.social · 8mo ago

Finally, a note to the many professors in my networks: One other specific, small thing you can do from outside of Minneapolis is reach out to colleagues who are heavily affected (because of their own or their family's risk, or because they're very busy protecting neighbors) and offer a guest lecture

After 56 years, Indiana University is canceling the MLK dinner hosted by their Black Student Union.

Indiana University Cancels MLK Celebration Dinner

Indiana University in Indianapolis canceled a dinner in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. hosted annually in January by the Black Student Union, Mirror Indy reported.

insidehighered.com

I really want ppl w/o Minneapolis connections to understand You might've heard that Mpls public schools went hybrid bc so many families are in hiding. Well, a coworker just told me that today, during his kid's hybrid class, a kid's apt building was raided onscreen *Everyone has stories like this*

New in @ssreditorial.bsky.social with @jasonwongyh.bsky.social and Linda Waite. We introduce and examine the "linked long arms" where early family disadvantages have spillover effects within marriage on social lives with women’s early disadvantage especially consequential. doi.org/10.1016/j.ss...