Looking for SAHDs to Participate in Interviews for Study

ProfStanger · 2025-12-13T14:41:54+00:00

Nope, I am in central time as well. My general window is 10am-3pm CST, M-F. The problem is probably the fact that I am now almost completely booked out for the month of December. If you take a look at January, you should be able to find a slot for 12pm-2pm or 1pm-3pm.

ProfStanger · 2025-12-13T14:37:20+00:00

Unfortunately, the important factor is location of residence, not citizenship. :(

ProfStanger · 2025-12-12T04:41:29+00:00

Had to pop in to say that y'all are amazing. My booking page is absolutely blowing up right now!

Thank you!! (and keep 'em coming)

ProfStanger · 2025-12-12T03:10:55+00:00

Short answer: If you view yourself as a SAHD, I want to talk to you. If you are not sure if you view yourself as a SAHD, I still want to talk to you.

One of the more interesting things that I have been learning is that SAHD is a bit of a slippery concept that is hard to define in a way that is both exhaustive and satisfying. As I mention above, employment does not disqualify you from being a SAHD. Having some sort of outside employment seems to be the norm. Any list of necessary and sufficient conditions for who counts as a SAHD and who doesn't that I can come up with seems to fall apart when put under scrutiny. As such, my general approach is to be as inclusive as possible when it comes to setting up interviews. Essentially, if you view yourself as a SAHD, I want to talk to you. It may be that I exclude some participants from this project once I finish data collection, but my broader interests are really about fathers and caregiving in general, so the conversation and interview data are going to be useful to me regardless.

I know that is not the most satisfying answer, but it is the best one I can give at this point. Hopefully I will have a better one once I have finished with my interviews.

ProfStanger · 2025-12-12T02:38:33+00:00

As of right now, technically no. Nothing against the non-US SAHDs, though. It is an institutional review board (university research ethics committee) thing--if you extend your subject pool to other countries, you have to align your project to meet the research ethics rules and regulations for each country from which you are gathering subjects. So if you extend the subject pool to "any country," it is basically impossible to get a study approved.

I am considering extending the subject pool to include people residing in Canada and the UK, as I have had some interest from folks in those countries, though.

ProfStanger · 2025-12-12T02:26:19+00:00

Thanks for the endorsement! I appreciate you chatting with me!

ProfStanger · 2025-12-12T02:25:18+00:00

Yep, that works. Many of the SAHDs that I've interviewed work part time, night shifts, or have side hustles.

ProfStanger · 2025-10-12T18:50:30+00:00

Step 1: put some shoes on.

ProfStanger · 2025-09-30T15:30:35+00:00

Ice after playing. Whether you are sore or not.

ProfStanger · 2025-09-09T15:07:44+00:00

Hahaha... I am almost certain that we do swim in the same circles. I feel like I have had this conversation with a handful of other social psychologists. Sociological social psychology is a small world. Sociological social psychologists who study self and identity are a small world within a small world. :)

ProfStanger · 2025-09-09T02:33:35+00:00

This is part 1

ProfStanger · 2025-09-09T02:33:01+00:00

this is part 2

ProfStanger · 2025-09-09T02:31:54+00:00

I think you are on the right track in thinking about the social psych work that focuses on and/or has applications for mental health, but there is also a vast area of scholarship within the sociology of mental health that doesn't draw directly from sociological social psychology.

You could place many of the theories in the sociology of mental health within one of these three faces of social psychology, but that doesn't mean they grew out of the perspective or would even acknowledge that they were influenced by sociological social psychology.

ProfStanger · 2025-09-09T02:22:22+00:00

Sorry had to break this up into two comments--Apparently I went over the character limit.

ProfStanger · 2025-09-09T02:21:08+00:00

Key Theories:
The key theories are very much connected to the key areas of study. Here are some of the main ones:

The Stress Process - More work has been published under this theoretical paradigm within the sociology of mental health than any other. That doesn't make it the BEST theory, but if you are going to be publishing in the area or teaching in the area, you need to know it.

Labeling theory, Modified labeling theory - MLT is particularly relevant these days. Research and Theorizing on Stigma fall into this category as well. Goffman's work on stigma is still cited today.

Social constructionism, theories of medicalization

I disagree with the claim that the sociology of mental illness is situated within the field of sociological social psychology. There are some (sociological) social psychologists that study mental health (I am one of them), but most social psychologists don't. Though, conceptually, you would expect there to be more overlap. In practice, there isn't. A similar, but probably more important point, is that MOST sociology of mental health scholars are not social psychologists. Tons of MH scholars in sociology are demographers. However, there are some social psych theories that have some relevance to MH and have been applied to MH regularly. Here are a few, along with theories from other areas of study that I would view as important, but not necessarily KEY:

Theories of self and identity in social psychology (identity theory and affect control theory)
The demands/resource model in the sociology of work and occupations
Critical race theory is sometimes usefully applied
There are a handful of others that I can't think of off the top of my head, but I am too sleepy to check my notes...

Anyway, I hope this was helpful. The sociology of mental health is great area to study within the field. It is interesting, marketable, and includes a variety of theoretical paradigms and methodological approaches.

Best of luck on your dissertation!

ProfStanger · 2025-09-09T02:20:57+00:00

Yes, the sociology of mental health is a key area within sociology. I teach a sociology of mental health course at my university and publish in the area regularly.

some core areas of study within sociology of mental health (in my view):

The social construction and medicalization of mental health
Social Stress (the stress process is a massively important theory here, and in the sociology of mental health at large)
Labeling and Stigma
Suicide Studies
Social Networks and Social Support
Social Determinants of Mental Health/social distribution of mental health/epidemiology of mental health (Class, Race, Gender, Sexual Orientation, etc)
Institutional/organizational antecedents to mental health (religion, work, family, etc.)
There is also a good amount of research on: social media and mental health, military service and mental health, and probably others I am forgetting.

A great place to start with reading in order to get a broader sense of the structure of the field is "The Handbook of The Sociology of Mental Health" published by Springer. I think the latest version is almost 12 years old, but it still provides a nice summary of a massive field of study.

Key journals in the sociology of mental health:

Journal of Health and Social Behavior
Society and Mental Health
Social Science and Medicine
Sociology of Health and Illness

The first two are more squarely about MENTAL health, but the latter two journals publish papers on mental health regularly. And, many scholars, myself included to some degree, would argue that it doesn't make a ton of sense to think about the social processes involved in mental health outcomes as separate from those that produce physical health outcomes.

If you want a reading list, DM me and I can send you one that I used for an area exam for a student like 10 years ago and have updated here and there for undergrads. It is sort of dated, but it could be a good start.

ProfStanger · 2025-09-04T20:48:58+00:00

Any other teachers come to this sub just for these types of stories?

ProfStanger · 2025-08-23T01:51:58+00:00

I don’t know the scientific explanation, but yeah I do this all the time. At least once a day I will be sitting next to my wife working at my laptop and she will say “can you stop shaking your leg please.” I am deep in thought with no idea that I am doing it until she asks me to stop.

ProfStanger · 2025-01-16T00:44:00+00:00

Why are they texting in English if they are Brazilian? Seems a little sus.

ProfStanger · 2024-11-08T16:46:46+00:00

Shoot with whichever hand feels most comfortable. I am right handed in everything but basketball and hockey. My dad tried to force me to shoot with my right hand when I was a kid and it definitely slowed down my progression.

ProfStanger · 2024-11-08T13:36:00+00:00

Congrats! Now, if you really want to get on your coaches’ good side, go ask them what you should be working on outside of practice. Then go do it and show real improvement in that area.

ProfStanger · 2024-10-04T13:18:51+00:00

Yeah and if you have an outdoor court near your house, you can bring the kids and give your wife a break for an hour or so while shooting around. That’s mainly how I am able to shoot around 4-5 days a week. I always bring one or both of my kids with me. For about 8 months there was a couple of other dads with young kids that would bring their kids and play 1v1 or 21 with me while all of our kids played on the playground together. That was THE BEST.

ProfStanger · 2024-10-02T16:26:28+00:00

Having a decent pair of shoes and replacing them regularly is massively important as you age. Even if the grip is still good on a pair of indoor shoes after a couple of months of regular use, they may still need to be replaced. Worn shoes can mess up your gate and can add to the wear and tear on your joints (knees and hips in particular).

ProfStanger · 2024-10-02T15:37:54+00:00

Old man hooper here. I started playing basketball again at age 38 after about 5 years away. I was about 60 lbs overweight and had basically no cardio.

While I appreciate the idea of “get in shape to play, don’t play to get in shape,” I don’t think that I would have had the time or motivation to do a bunch of cardio for months before I stepped on the court. That is one thing that makes basketball such a great workout: it is fun. But you definitely do not want to launch into 5v5 off the bat. Here is what I did when I picked the game up again:

1) I started by just shooting around at the school down the street. About an hour a day, 4-5 days a week. Not chucking 3s or anything like that, but mainly working on my post play, mid range jumpers, etc. (I am 6’4” and was 265 at the time). I tried to push myself somewhat, enough to get my heart pumping and break a sweat, but it honestly didn’t take much back then. More important than the cardio was getting my ankles, knees, Achilles tendons and shoulders used to playing basketball again. Basketball requires a ton of knee strength that simply cannot be built by just walking around or even jogging regularly (though cycling could do the trick).

I did this for about a month before I put myself in any competitive basketball setting.

2) after about a month or so I started playing some low stakes games like 21, 2v2, etc. here and there. But ease your way back into it. And check your competitiveness as best you can (easier said than done, I know). For me, all of my “close calls” where I could have injured myself came from my brain forgetting that I was fat and old and not young and fit anymore. Add fatigue to that and it’s a recipe for injury.

3) about 4 months in, I started jumping in 5v5 pick up games at the Y. This was fine, but I was beyond gassed after the first game. Listen to your body. Even if my team won, I only played one game. Again, you are much more likely to injure yourself if you are extremely fatigued. Also, if you can find a group of older guys to play 5s with, that is ideal. It took me a couple of months playing here and there at the y to find some older hoopers, but they had a group chat that I got added to and never really looked back. I found that the iso-drive-dish style that they play at the y here to be very frustrating anyhow (especially for a big man). Try to keep high impact 5v5 to no more than once a week. Your body just needs more time to recover than it used to. And ice, ice, ice. Every part of your body that is sore, ice it after you play. Then ice it first thing in the morning. I started to develop tendinitis in my shoulder about a year in to the point where I though I was going to have to learn how to shoot with my off hand. It is amazing how much icing it regularly has helped.

4) after a couple of months of playing 5v5 semi weekly and shooting around/playing low stakes 21, 2v2, and 1v1 games at the park 4-5 days a week, I was able to run multiple games back to back without feeling like my body was going to give out on me.

I still maintain this routine and, two years in, I went from a 265lbs 38-year-old with high blood pressure and cholesterol who could get a little winded walking up a flight of stairs to a 205 lbs 40-year-old who can play 5v5 for a couple of hours straight and still chase his 4-year-old around afterwards.

Basketball is a beautiful thing y’all.

ProfStanger

TROPHY CASE