Jeffery Sobal
Biographic Data
| ID | 86936 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Jeffery Sobal |
| GIVEN NAMES | Jeffery |
| FAMILY NAME | Sobal |
| SIGNATURE | SOBAL J |
| AFFILIATIONS | Cornell University |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-5962-5345 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 90 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 1133 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 90 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1984 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2023 |
| H-INDEX | 17 |
Ethics of Care
We used a qualitative descriptive study to explore interrelationships between ethics of care and the leisure-time physical activities (LTPAs) of newlywed women and men. We conducted in-depth semi-structured interviews with 20 women and 14 male partners as they entered marriage, and we repeated interviews one year later. Our thematic analysis of interviews revealed that emotional and instrumental supports influenced LTPAs directly by fostering bot…
Hunting and raising livestock are associated with meat-related attitudes, norms and frequent consumption
Purpose Meat consumption is higher than health recommendations, but little is known about potential moderating factors in rural areas. Informed by the theory of planned behaviour (TPB), this paper explored potential moderators amongst rural residents. Design/methodology/approach The authors summarized meat-related attitudes (importance, taste preference, healthfulness perceptions), social norms, controls (availability, affordability, self-efficac…
Religion and Body Weight Among African-American Adults Attempting to Lose Weight
Draw Your Dinner
Objectives: In this study, we examined the role of plate size in an individual's ability to draw what they had for dinner the previous evening. Methods: A sample of 199 students at one US university were given large pieces of paper with the image of a plate printed on them and asked to make an accurate drawing on the plate of what they had for dinner the previous evening once per week for 10 weeks. The sizes of the printed plates either stayed co…
Gendertyping sports
Sport is shifting from being hegemonically masculine but it is unclear how sports are viewed as gender segregated or gender integrated. Previous quantitative studies of gendertyping sports have reported mixed findings. Gendertyping constructs social representations that shape institutional and individual sport activities. This study examined how particular sports are represented as masculine, feminine and/or neither-gendered in one sample of 310 …
Social representations of fish and seafood among midlife rural adults
The impact of a supermarket nutrition rating system on purchases of nutritious and less nutritious foods
Objective The current study examines the impact of a nutrition rating system on consumers’ food purchases in supermarkets. Design Aggregate sales data for 102 categories of food (over 60 000 brands) on a weekly basis for 2005–2007 from a supermarket chain of over 150 stores are analysed. Change in weekly sales of nutritious and less nutritious foods, after the introduction of a nutrition rating system on store shelves, is calculated, controlling …
Consumer Food System Participation
This study examined the prevalence, patterns, and health associations of consumer participation in different stages of the food system using a survey of 663 adults in one U.S. county. Consumer food system participation by stage was 43% in food production, 47% in food processing, 65% in food distribution, 62% in food acquisition, 61% in food preparation, and 100% in food consumption. Consumers participated in an average of 3.7 of these 6 possible …
Family dinner frequency, settings and sources, and body weight in US adults
Social Selection and Social Causation in Marriage and Health
Social selection proposes that health influences marriage, whereas social causation proposes that marriage influences health. We used biennial 1979 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth data to examine body weight 6 years before and 6 years after entering and exiting first marriages. For marital entry, social selection occurred as lighter women entered marriage. Social causation was not observed because all marital entry groups gained weight at c…
Weight and weddings. Engaged men’s body weight ideals and wedding weight management behaviors
Eating Maps
This project developed a method for constructing eating maps that portray places, times, and people in an individual's eating episodes. Researchers used seven consecutive days of qualitative eating recall interviews from 42 purposively sampled U.S. adults to draw a composite eating map of eating sites, meals, and partners for each person on a template showing home, work, automobile, other homes, and other places. Participants evaluated their own …
Using plate mapping to examine sensitivity to plate size in food portions and meal composition among college students
Family meals and body weight in US adults
Objective Family meals are an important ritual in contemporary societies and many studies have reported associations of family meals with several biopsychosocial outcomes among children and adolescents. However, few representative analyses of family meals have been conducted in samples of adults, and adults may differ from young people in predictors and outcomes of family meal consumption. We examined the prevalence and predictors of adult family…
Body weight relationships in early marriage. Weight relevance, weight comparisons, and weight talk
Family meals and body weight. Analysis of multiple family members in family units
Marital Status, Marital History, Body Weight, and Obesity
Marital status and marital history are associated with health. Marital history can be represented by the marital trajectory components of timing, transitions, sequence, and duration. We examined whether marital trajectory components add insights beyond marital status in predicting body weight in a retrospective analysis of 3,011 adults. Marital status findings revealed that married men were heavier than separated/divorced men, and never married w…
Shopping for fruits and vegetables. Food and retail qualities of importance to low-income households at the grocery store
Behavioral and Social Influences on Food Choice
Marion Nestle, PhD, MPH, Rena Wing, PhD, Leann Birch, PhD, Lorelei DiSogra, PhD, Adam Drewnowski, PhD, Suzette Middleton, PhD, Madeleine Sigman-Grant, PhD, Jeff
Dating and eating. Beliefs about dating foods among university students
Eating routines. Embedded, value based, modifiable, and reflective
Dating and eating. How university students select eating settings
Religion, Social Support, Food-Related Social Support, Diet, Nutrition, and Anthropometrics in Older Adults
Religion is an important aspect of many people's lives, especially for older adults. However, very little data exists about the relationships between religion, food-related social support, diet, nutrition, and anthropometrics in older U.S. adults. Social support may be a possible mechanism for religion-diet/nutrition relationships. This analysis examined these relationships in a sample of 424 older individuals. Religion was related to some dietar…
An analysis of a community food waste stream
Weighing Weight
Food Choice
Interviews examining the food choice process were conducted with 29 adults, primarily individuals making grocery store food choice decisions, who were sampled for their diversity. These people were asked about how they chose foods when shopping and in other settings, and what influenced their choices. Verbatim transcripts of the interviews were analysed using qualitative methods that included constant comparison, concept mapping, and case summari…
Men, Meat, and Marriage
Gender permeates all aspects of life, including foodlife, and can be examined using singular and multiple models of genderedness. Singular models of masculinity gender-type foods as masculine and feminine, suggesting that men and women "do gender" by consuming gender appropriate foods. Meat, especially red meat, is an archetypical masculine food. Men often emphasize meat, and women often minimize meat, in displaying gender as individuals. Dealing…
Managing values in personal food systems
Sandwiching it in
Food choices among newly married couples
Commensal eating patterns
A conceptual model of the food and nutrition system
The food system is a widely used concept, but few systematic frameworks model the full scope and structure of the food and nutrition system. Bibliographic searches, a modified Delphi technique, focus groups and interviews with experts on the topic were conducted to identify existing models of agriculture, food, nutrition, health and environmental systems. These models were examined, classified and synthesized into an integrated conceptual model o…
Marital status changes and body weight changes
Foodwork in Newly Married Couples
Foodwork is the labor involved in making meals. We examined foodwork negotiations of twenty newly married couples using qualitative in-depth interviews at the time couples married and again one year later. The findings revealed that dinner decision-making, food shopping, and cooking were linked: partners who cooked dinner were also involved in dinner decision-making and food shopping; those who cooked infrequently rarely chose what the couple ate…
Dimensions of everyday eating and drinking episodes
Acculturation and health in Korean Americans
Obesity and socioeconomic status
Fatness and obesity are body characteristics which are both ascribed and achieved for adults. Socioeconomic status (SES) is the ranking of individuals within complex societies. In traditional societies a direct relationship between SES and fatness exists, while in modern societies there is an inverse association between SES and obesity for adult women but mixed patterns for other age/sex groups. A framework recognizing the difference between vari…
Commensal Careers at Entry into Marriage
Commensality is eating with others, and marriages are among the most significant commensal relationships. We collected qualitative data about commensality and entry into marriage from twenty couples using two in-depth interviews, the first at about the time couples entered marriage and the second about one year later. Commensal eating was an important component of the courtship process. Entry into marriage marked a transformation in people's comm…
Eating routines. Embedded, value based, modifiable, and reflective
Classifying foods in contexts
Public Attitudes Toward Suicide Demographic and Ideological Correlates
Journal Article PUBLIC ATTITUDES TOWARD SUICIDE DEMOGRAPHIC AND IDEOLOGICAL CORRELATES Get access DARWIN SAWYER, DARWIN SAWYER Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Maryland Baltimore County Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar JEFFERY SOBAL JEFFERY SOBAL Assistant Professor in the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore Search for other works …
How adults construct evening meals. Scripts for food choice
Size Matters
We examine the relationship between body size (specifically, weight and height) and dating and sexual activity using two large, nationally representative, longitudinal data sets. Our conceptual framework assumes that the utility an adolescent derives from dating and sexual activity is a function of the weight and height of his or her partner, and it predicts that heavier and shorter adolescents will be less likely to date and have sex. Empirical …
Family meals and body weight. Analysis of multiple family members in family units
Body Weight and Matching With a Physically Attractive Romantic Partner
Matching and attribute trade are two perspectives used to explain mate selection. We investigated patterns of matching and trade, focusing on obesity, using Add Health Romantic Pair data (N = 1,405 couples). Obese individuals, relative to healthy weight individuals, were less likely to have physically attractive partners, with this disadvantage greater for women than men, and greater for White women than Black women. Additional education, a more …
Chocolate cravings in American and Spanish individuals
Comparison of Models of Acculturation
This study examined whether a unidimensional model or a bidimensional model better explained acculturation of Korean Americans on two levels: (a) separate domains of acculturation and (b) "overall" acculturation. Also, the study examined whether there were meaningfully different forms of acculturation in Korean Americans. Additionally, associations between the acculturation forms and exogenous variables were investigated. On both domain and overa…
Shopping for fruits and vegetables. Food and retail qualities of importance to low-income households at the grocery store
Rural-Urban Differences in Obesity1
Obesity is an important social and health issue in contemporary society. Differences in relative weight, overweight, and extreme overweight were examined in rural, middle-sized, and urban areas in a national sample of 11,578 adults in the NHANES II survey. Rural-urban residence and weight were examined in bivariate relationships and in multiple regression analyses controlling for demographic and physical variables. Overall bivariate analyses reve…
Marriage, Obesity and Dieting
Despite the importance of marriage as a basic social institution, there has been little analysis of the relationship between marriage and obesity. This paper reviews work on the prevalence of obesity by marital status; factors associated with obesity as a criterion for entry into marriage; the similarity of fatness in marital partners; changes in weight in relationship to marital problems; and the relationship between obesity and marital terminat…
Group Dieting, the Stigma of Obesity, and Overweight Adolescents
Natalie Allon was one of the pioneers in the sociological analysis of obesity and dieting, and a consistent voice on the topic in the 1970s. Her contributions to the study of the obese are reviewed in this paper. As an ethnographer who used participant observation and unstructured interviewing to examine organized dieting groups, she provided insight into the structure and function of these groups. She showed how group dieting was a form of relig…
Marriage, Obesity and Dieting
Despite the importance of marriage as a basic social institution, there has been little analysis of the relationship between marriage and obesity. This paper reviews work on the prevalence of obesity by marital status; factors associated with obesity as a criterion for entry into marriage; the similarity of fatness in marital partners; changes in weight in relationship to marital problems; and the relationship between obesity and marital terminat…
The Content of Survey Introductions and the Provision of Informed Consent
Journal Article The Content of Survey Introductions and the Provision of Informed Consent Get access JEFFERY SOBAL JEFFERY SOBAL Jeffery Sobal is Assistant Professor and Associate Director of Research, Department of Family Medicine, University of Maryland School of Medicine. Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Public Opinion Quarterly, Volume 48, Issue 4, WINTER 1984, Pages 788–793, https://doi.org/10.1086/268…
Physicians' beliefs about the importance of 25 health promoting behaviors
A mail survey of 1,040 primary care physicians in Maryland examined their beliefs about the importance of 25 behaviors for promoting the health of the average person. Physician consensus existed across specialties in rating most health behaviors as very important and few as very unimportant. Eliminating smoking was most important and taking vitamin supplements least important
Students' Health Concerns
Bias against “marginal” individuals in jury wheel selection
Health protective behaviors in first year medical students
Dieting foods
While use of the term “dieting” is frequent in the United States, little is known about its relevance as a category for classifying foods — which foods are considered dieting foods, how often people eat and avoid such foods and why foods are categorized as “dieting.” A sample of 374 undergraduate university students exhibited considerable consensus in naming specific foods as dieting foods and delineating foods they regularly consumed and avoided…
Public Attitudes Toward Suicide Demographic and Ideological Correlates
Journal Article PUBLIC ATTITUDES TOWARD SUICIDE DEMOGRAPHIC AND IDEOLOGICAL CORRELATES Get access DARWIN SAWYER, DARWIN SAWYER Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Maryland Baltimore County Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar JEFFERY SOBAL JEFFERY SOBAL Assistant Professor in the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore Search for other works …
Socioeconomic status and obesity
Socioeconomic status and obesity
A review of 144 published studies of the relationship between socioeconomic status (SES) and obesity reveals a strong inverse relationship among women in developed societies. The relationship is inconsistent for men and children in developed societies. In developing societies, however, a strong direct relationship exists between SES and obesity among men, women, and children. A review of social attitudes toward obesity and thinness reveals values…
Relation of Perceived Health with Psychosocial Variables in Elderly Osteoarthritis Patients
Self-perceived health is related to physical health status and frequently assessed in research on elderly persons. The association of perceived health with sociodemographic, psychological, social functioning, and physical functioning variables was examined in 86 elderly osteoarthritis patients. Psychological well-being (especially depression and anxiety), size of household, physical activity, and education were the most important predictors of se…
Intolerance of ambiguity in students entering medical school
Teaching Medical Sociology in Medical Schools
Sociologists teach in most U.S. medical schools. Because the medical school environment is unique, sociologists working there must adjust course content and methods of presentation to be successful We discuss seven teaching guidelines (applicability, integration, simplicity, demonstration, use of multiple methods, succinctness, and inclusion in clinical teaching) for presenting sociological material to the medical student audience. The influence …
Public perceptions of fiber in foods
The nutritional value of consuming fiber has received much recent attention, yet little is known about how the public perceives fiber in foods. We asked a sample of 517 adults to name foods which are high and low in fiber and to explain what made a food a high‐fiber food. Nine in ten could name at least one high‐fiber food, and three in four could name at least one low‐fiber food. The most frequently named high‐fiber foods were grains, followed b…
Medical Uncertainty in Students Entering Medical School
Uncertainty is a fundamental characteristic of medical practice. Renee Fox described three types of uncertainty: limitations in the body of medical knowledge, incomplete mastery of existing knowledge, and distinguishing between limitations and mastery of knowledge. This investigation administered ten Likert-format questions about uncertainty to 171 incoming medical students at one state medical school Items were reliable over a six week test-rete…
Obesity and socioeconomic status
Fatness and obesity are body characteristics which are both ascribed and achieved for adults. Socioeconomic status (SES) is the ranking of individuals within complex societies. In traditional societies a direct relationship between SES and fatness exists, while in modern societies there is an inverse association between SES and obesity for adult women but mixed patterns for other age/sex groups. A framework recognizing the difference between vari…
Reliability of Budner's Intolerance of Ambiguity Scale in Medical Students
Reliability of Budner's Intolerance of Ambiguity Scale in Medical Students
Intolerance of ambiguity is the perception of ambiguous situations as threatening. It has often been measured using Budner's 1962 intolerance of ambiguity scale in studies of medical students and physicians. To examine the test-retest reliability of the scale among that population, we administered it to all 171 entering medical students at one medical school immediately prior to beginning classes and readministered it to them six to nine weeks la…
Social Science Perspectives in Nutrition
Public Beliefs about the Amount of Fiber in Foods
Despite the current interest in fiber in foods and dietary recommendations to increase fiber consumption, relatively little attention has been paid to public beliefs about fiber in foods. We used a mail questionnaire in a sample of 478 adults to assess public beliefs about the amount of fiber in 40 different foods and compared these beliefs with laboratory data about fiber content. Almost all respondents had heard of both fiber and roughage, and …
Teaching the Sociology of Food, Eating, and Nutrition
Sociologists are paying increasing professional attention to food, eating, and nutrition. Students' interest in these topics is high, and incorporating the subject into the classroom is a useful means of helping students understand sociology. The sociology offood and nutrition can be taught in several settings, including in sociology departments as an entire course, in lectures in other courses, or in continuing and occasional examples. Sociologi…
The food choice conference
Obesity and Marital Quality
Obesity is a stigmatized condition that clinical studies have suggested is associated with low marital quality. Body weight, marital unhappiness, and marital problems were examined in a national telephone survey of 1,980 married adults. Few relationships between the 5 measures of weight and 2 measures of marital quality (unhappiness and problems) were significant. Obese men had more marital problems. Men who lost more weight reported marital prob…
Food Choice
Interviews examining the food choice process were conducted with 29 adults, primarily individuals making grocery store food choice decisions, who were sampled for their diversity. These people were asked about how they chose foods when shopping and in other settings, and what influenced their choices. Verbatim transcripts of the interviews were analysed using qualitative methods that included constant comparison, concept mapping, and case summari…
Psychology (70 works) · Medicine (65 works) · Sociology (43 works) · Social Psychology (40 works) · Obesity, Physical Activity, Diet (28 works) · Culinary Culture and Tourism (27 works) · Obesity (23 works) · Demography (22 works) · Gerontology (21 works) · Environmental health (20 works)