Objective: The purposes of this study are twofold. First, we explore how the accumulation, timing, and duration of ACEs influences youth delinquency. Second, because few studies to date have examined how the effect of ACEs may vary among different groups, we explore how these patterns may vary by gender. Methods: Analyses were based on data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (FFCW), which employs a national sample of urban-born, at-risk youth. Results: The results showed that as the number of early ACEs experienced incrementally increases, the likelihood of youth reporting delinquent behavior also increases, even after adjusting for recent adversity. Moreover, exposure to early ACEs that are high but late, intermittent, or chronically high significantly increase the risk of youth participating in delinquency. Our results also indicate that ACEs are significantly related to delinquency for girls, but not for boys. Conclusions: Prevention and intervention efforts should screen for ACEs—especially in early childhood. Given that the accumulation, timing, and duration of ACE exposure is linked to youth delinquency, interventions that target ACEs early may have greater success at reducing delinquency. Moreover, prevention programs need to consider gender-specific responses to ACEs and gender-specific intervention strategies.

The sport sector functions as a site of health-promotion by encouraging and enabling individuals to invest in their health and giving them tools to do so. This investment is often initiated by, or altered by, role modeling, or seeing other individuals engaging in sport. This could include family or peers but could also include depictions of sport in popular media. Inclusive role-modeling could subsequently encourage more sport participation, thus expanding access to health benefits that arise from sport. However, stereotypical depictions of sports role models could make sports seem like a more exclusive space and discourage participation. We examine a case study of a prominent athletic brand and their advertising to examine the ways they expand or reify stereotypes of gender in sport. Through a qualitative content analysis of 131 commercials released by Nike in the past decade, we explore whether their stated goals of being a socially progressive company extend to genuinely diverse and inclusive portrayals of gender in their commercials. Our results indicate that Nike commercials continue to treat sports as a predominantly and stereotypically masculine realm, therefore marginalizing athletes who are female, who do not fit traditional gender binaries, or who do not display traditionally masculine qualities. We also find that the bulk of athletes portrayed by Nike are those who adhere to gender stereotypes. Despite their purported goal of encouraging individuals to participate in sports, Nike’s promotion of gendered sport behaviors may be having an opposite effect for some consumers by discouraging sports participation for those who do not align with the gendered behavior Nike promotes. The stereotyped role modeling of the sport sector portrayed in a majority of Nike commercials could dissuade already marginalized individuals from participating in the health-promoting behaviors available through sport.

While investigations examining the effects of direct and vicarious police stops on youth attitudes toward the police have been limited, even less research has explored how these processes vary by race/ethnicity. Thus, this study uses the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (FFCWS) to examine how race/ethnicity shapes: (1) the relationship between direct and vicarious police stops and youth attitudes toward police and (2) how the contextual nature of these stops (intrusiveness) influence youth perceptions of police. The results suggest that direct and/or vicarious police contact can generate negative attitudes toward police among black, Hispanic, and in some cases, white youth, though these effects vary across type of police stop and type of attitude. When a direct stop involved more officer intrusiveness, black youth reported less respect and more negative perceptions of procedural justice. As such, policymakers and criminologists should consider how race/ethnicity influences youth attitudinal responses to police encounters.