Jacob Felson

William Paterson University · Department of Sociology

When coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) became a major impediment to face-to-face college instruction in spring 2020, most teaching went online. Over the summer, colleges had to make difficult decisions about whether to return to in-person instruction. Although opening campuses could pose a major health risk, keeping instruction online could dissu...

At the end of Summer 2020 colleges and universities had to make difficult decisions about whether to return to in-person instruction. While opening campuses could pose a major health risk, keeping instruction online could dissuade students from enrolling. Taking an ecological approach that considers the influence of state, county, and college chara...

Since the late 1990s public opinion about cannabis legalization has become drastically more liberal, and some states have begun to legalize cannabis for recreational use. Why have attitudes changed so much? Prior research has considered a few of the reasons for this change, but this is the first comprehensive and empirically-based study to consider...

Gay and lesbian individuals have higher rates of psychological distress than do heterosexual individuals. The minority stress hypothesis attributes this disparity to adversity-related stress experienced by sexual minorities. In support of this idea, research in the U.S. has generally found that mental health disparities between sexual minorities an...

Much research has found a relationship between religion and teens’ health related behaviors. The majority of this research focuses on personal religious beliefs and behaviors. But, many religious organizations also sponsor nonreligious activities. There is reason to think that nonreligious programs sponsored by religious organizations will be more...

Does religious background influence sexual orientation? Research on the etiology of sexual orientation has focused almost exclusively on biological influences; however, the evidence suggests that biological influences are not deterministic. Family socialization could also play a role. In particular, parents’ religion may have an impact, since relig...

Much research has examined the relationship between religion and civic engagement, finding that more religious people are more likely to donate their time, energy, and money to community organizations. The overwhelming majority of the quantitative research on the relationship between religion and civic engagement has been done in Europe and North A...

Parenthood is both a biological and social status. Viewed within a biological life cycle framework, parenthood can be seen as a natural outcome of reproduction and regeneration. Viewed from a social and cultural perspective, the situation of parenthood conveys certain rights, responsibilities, obligations, and associated expectations regarding the...

Student Response Systems (SRS), or clickers, are growing in usage. Studies have consistently shown that clickers improve student learning outcomes in large classes. however, there is little evidence abut whether clickers enhance learning outcomes in small classes. In this study, we evaluated the effectiveness of clicker usage in small classes and c...

Objective. This study illustrates the ways religiosity and denominational affiliation influence the probability that a young woman will have an abortion. Methods. Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health), measures of sexual behavior, out-of-wedlock pregnancy, and out-of-wedlock pregnancy resolution are regre...

Research on the political attitudes of conservative Protestants has yielded inconsistent results. We know that conservative Protestants (CPs) tend to be more socially conservative than members of other religious groups and have tended to vote Republican in recent years, but we are less certain of their attitudes toward the size and role of governme...

Researchers have established that individual religiosity influences sexual behavior and that religious support can increase consistency between personal religiosity and behavior. Researchers are less certain, however, of the effect that religious friendship networks have on sexual behavior. In addition, the effects of network characteristics such a...

The purpose of this article is to acquaint the broader public opinion research audience with what has been a salient issue within the community of scholars of religion. We address the question of how best to conceptualize and measure religious identities in research on contemporary American society. We consider the main approaches to the measuremen...

Americans perceive time as scarcer than in the past, despite greater amounts of free time (Robinson and Godbey, 1997). According to recent research, Americans spend less time at work and more time at leisure than thirty years ago, but believe the opposite. One way of measuring the gap between attitudes about time and behavior is by comparing "styli...