Sociology News & Events

“Although past research has documented a higher overall mortality risk among veterans compared to non-veterans, no study until now has considered the contribution of SCD to veteran-non-veteran mortality differentials,” says Scott Landes, associate professor of sociology and the paper’s lead author.

“Our life expectancy is increasingly being shaped by where we live in the U.S.,” says Jennifer Karas Montez, Gerald B. Cramer Faculty Scholar of Aging Studies at Maxwell. It’s tempting to blame lifestyle-related behaviors, but “lifestyle behaviors are not root causes. They are symptoms of the environment and the social and economic deprivation that many parts of the country endure, thanks to decades of policy decisions.”

Shannon Monnat, associate professor of sociology and Lerner Chair for Public Health Promotion says long-running challenges in many rural communities are the underlying drivers of the increase in opioid overdose rates, things like economic decline and social isolation. 

Jackie Orr, associate professor of sociology, contends that the duties of the civilian-soldier extend to outer space, as well: that "final, fantastic frontier for the U.S. military's imaginary and material battlefields."

Lerner Chair Shannon Monnat's research found that the Rust Belt counties that put Trump over the top were those that lost the most people in recent years to deaths of despair—those due to alcohol, drugs, and suicide.

"We must tackle root causes, which... drive suicide, alcohol-related deaths and more," says Shannon Monnat, Lerner Chair for Public Health Promotion.