Showing papers in "American Sociological Review in 1995"

Prejudice as a response to perceived group threat: population composition and anti-immigrant and racial prejudice in Europe

Abstract: L'A. etudie la representation des prejudices. Il evalue la perception de la menace que les groupes subordonnes ferraient peser sur les groupes dominants. Il estime que les conditions economiques et l'importance des groupes subordonnes par rapport aux groupes dominants expliquent ce type de perception. Il note a partir de donneees europeennes des disparites entre les 12 sur ce plan precis. Cette perception de la menace « ethnique » expliquerait le sentiment de prejudice. L'A. invite aux vues de ses analyses a revoir celles du passe

The links between education and health.

Abstract: University of Illinois, Urbana The positive association between education and health is well established, but explanations for this association are not. Our explanations fall into three categories: (1) work and economic conditions, (2) social-psychological resources, and (3) health lifestyle. We replicate analyses with two samples, cross-sectionally and over time, using two health measures (self-reported health and physical functioning). The first data set comes from a national probability sample of U.S. households in which respondents were interviewed by telephone in 1990 (2,031 respondents, ages 18 to 90). The second data set comes from a national probability sample of U.S. households in which respondents ages 20 to 64 were interviewed by telephone first in 1979 (3,025 respondents), and then again in 1980 (2,436 respondents). Results demonstrate a positive association between education and health and help explain why the association exists. (1) Compared to the poorly educated, well educated respondents are less likely to be unemployed, are more likely to work full-time, to have fulfilling, subjectively rewarding jobs, high incomes, and low economic hardship. Full-time work, fulfilling work, high income, and low economic hardship in turn significantly improve health in all analyses. (2) The well educated report a greater sense of control over their lives and their health, and they have higher levels of social support. The sense of control, and to a lesser extent support, are associated with good health. (3) The well educated are less likely to smoke, are more likely to exercise, to get health check-ups, and to drink moderately, all of which, except check-ups, are associated with good health. We conclude that high educational attainment improves health directly, and it improves health indirectly through work and economic conditions, social-psychological resources, and health lifestyle. he positive association between education and health is well established, but explanations for this association are not. Well educated people experience better health than the poorly educated, as indicated by high levels of self-reported health and physical functioning and low levels of morbidity, mortality, and disability. In contrast, low educational attainment is associated with high rates of infectious disease, many chronic noninfectious diseases, self-reported poor health, shorter survival when sick, and shorter life expectancy (Feldman, Makuc, Kleinman, and Cornoni-Huntley 1989; Guralnik, Land, Fillenbaum, and Branch 1993; Gutzwiller, LaVecchia, Levi, Negri, and Wietlisbach 1989; Kaplan, Haan, and Syme 1987; Kitagawa and Hauser 1973; Liu, Cedres, and Stamler 1982; Morris 1990; Pappas, Queen,

Global self-esteem and specific self-esteem : Different concepts different outcomes

Abstract: Les AA. eclairent la relation entre estime de soi globale (Rosenberg 1979) et estime de soi specifique (academique). Ils montrent que ces deux types d'evaluation ne sont pas equivalent. L'estime de soi globale etant plus adequate en ce qui concerne la perception psychosociologique du bien-etre et l'estime de soi specifique (academique) plus pertinente en ce qui concerne le comportement et constituant plus particulierement un indicateur de performance scolaire. Les resultats d'un modele causal d'equation structurale lineaire indique que le degre selon lequel l'estime de soi specifique affecte l'estime de soi globale, particulierement les aspects positif de l'estime de soi globale, est fonction de la valeur attribuee individuellement a la performance academique superieure

The epidemiology of social stress

Abstract: We examine the social distribution of exposure to stress to test the hypothesis that differences in stress exposure are one factor in sociodemographic variations in mental health. We make a more comprehensive effort to estimate stress exposure than has been typical, and present data that challenge the prevailing view that differences in exposure to stress are of only minimal significance for understanding variations in mental health. We report several findings, principal among which are: Differences in exposure to stress account for substantially more variability in depressive symptoms and major depressive disorder than previous reports have suggested; the distributions of stress exposure across sex, age, marital status, and occupational status precisely correspond to the distributions of depressive symptoms and major depressive disorder across the same factors; and differences in exposure to stress alone account for between 23 and 50 percent of observed differences in mental health by sex, marital status, and occupation. These findings contrast with the prevailing view that differences in vulnerability to stress across social statuses account for social status variations in mental health.

Criminal careers in the short-term: intra-individual variability in crime and its relation to local life circumstances*

Abstract: We analyze month-to-month variations in offending and life circumstances of convicted felons to understand change in criminal behavior. We extend previous applications of social control theory by considering whether local life circumstances that strengthen or weaken social bonds influence offending over relatively short periods of time. We seek to determine whether formal and informal mechanisms of social control affect the likelihood of committing nine major felonies. We employ a hierarchical linear model that provides a within-individual analysis as we explore factors that determine the pattern of offending. The results suggest that meaningful short-term change in involvement in crime is strongly related to variation in local life circumstances. (Abstract Adapted from Source: American Sociological Review, 1995. Copyright © 1995 by the American Sociological Association) Social Bonding Social Control Theory Adult Crime Adult Offender Adult Violence Violence Causes Crime Causes Life Stress Crime Causes Violence Causes Stress Effects Offender Stress Adult Stress 04-03

When bigger is not better: family size, parental resources, and children's educational performance*

Abstract: Although the inverse relationship between the number of siblings and childrens educational performance has been well established explanations for this relationship remain primitive. One explanation resource dilution posits that parents have finite levels of resources (time energy money etc.) and that these resources are diluted among children as sibship size increases. I provide a more rigorous investigation of the dilution model than previous studies testing its implications with a sample of 24599 eighth graders from the 1988 [U.S.] National Education Longitudinal Study. My analyses support the resource dilution model in three ways. First the availability of parental resources decreases as the number of siblings increases net of controls....Second parental resources explain most or all of the inverse relationship between sibship size and educational outcomes. Finally interactions between sibship size and parental resources support the dilution model as children benefit less from certain parental resources when they have many versus few siblings. (EXCERPT)

Gender and values

Abstract: Les AA. etudient, sur la periode 1970-1990, les differences d'adhesion a certaines valeurs fondamentales et cela chez des adolescents americains. Ils mettent l'accent sur les representations de la vie. Ils proposent trois types de valeurs et distinguent la compassion liee au sentiment concernant la vie d'autrui, le materialisme qui met l'accent sur le benefice et la competition et enfin la signification qui porte sur le sens de l'existence. Les filles semblent plus concernees par le premier et le troisieme type de valeur et moins par le second, a l'inverse des garcons et cela independamment des contextes sociaux et de l'appartenance religieuse

Sex differences in distress: Real or artifact?

Abstract: Women report greater distress than men, but do women genuinely experience greater distress, suggesting a heavier burden of hardship and constraint? Or do they merely report the feelings in standard indexes more frequently? Perhaps women discuss their emotions more freely. Or perhaps the indexes tap "feminine" emotions such as depression rather than "masculine" ones such as anger. This study analyzes data from a 1990 U.S. sample of 1,282 women and 749 men. Results show that men keep emotions to themselves more than women, and that women express emotions more freely than men. However, these factors do not explain the effect of sex on reported levels of distressan effect that remains significant with adjustment for these factors. Our results also contradict the idea that the sex difference in distress would diminish if the indexes of distress contained more items that tap anger Adjusting for emotional reserve and expressiveness, women experience anger more often than men, as they do sadness, anxiety, malaise, and aches. In fact, being female has twice the effect on the frequency of anger that it has on the frequency of sadness. Women report feeling happy as often as men, but adjusting for emotional expressiveness reveals a negative effect of being female on happiness. Overall, women experience distress about 30 percent more often than men. We discuss the possibility that drug abuse and heavy drinking mask male distress, but find little evidence that those behaviors ameliorate distress. We conclude that women genuinely suffer more distress than men.

Religious participation in early adulthood: age and family life cycle effects on church membership*

Abstract: We attempt to integrate, elaborate, and test competing theories of why religious participation increases with age during young adulthood. We reconceptualize age and family formation as interacting causes of religious participation rather than competing explanations of it. We expand the concept offamily formation to include divorce, cohabitation, and dissolution of cohabitational relationships. We distinguish attitudes toward the family from family formation behavior. We analyze data from the National Longitudinal Study of the High School Class of 1972, which traces church membership to age 32. Our results show that the effect of children on church membership varies with the combination of the children's and parent's ages. We find separate effects of family formation behavior and attitudes toward the family. Cohabitation, divorce, and dissolution of cohabitational unions all affect membership probability, but these effects vary with age and are often differentfor men and women. n most religious traditions practiced in the United States, religious values and participation in religious organizations are deeply intertwined with values and attitudes that encourage marriage and parenthood. Most formal religious dogmas promote the establishment and maintenance of family relationships. Organized religions offer institutionalized moral support for love, intimacy, and childbearing in the context of religiously sanctioned marriage (D'Antonio 1983, 1985;

Career Mobility and the Communist Political Order

Abstract: Les partis communistes ont eu tendance a offrir des possibilites de carriere a leurs membres les plus loyaux et cela dans le but de garantir le conformisme et la discipline. L'A. note que l'on n'a pas etudie le mecanisme de la recompense politique. Il propose une analyse du cas de la Chine. Il montre l'existence de deux types distincts de carriere qui divise l'elite du parti. Le premier necessite des competences politiques et un haut niveau d'instruction et conduit aux carrieres administratives. Le second necessite un haut niveau d'instruction mais de faible competences politiques et conduit aux postes de prestige denues de tout pouvoir

The influence of school enrollment and accumulation on cohabitation and marriage in early adulthood.

Abstract: We explore the influence of education on cohabitation and marriage formulating a theoretical framework that identifies ways in which the multiple dimensions of education influence both cohabitation and marriage. Our theoretical framework links education and union formation through the incompatibility of educational and marital and cohabiting roles the opportunity costs of truncating education and the accumulation of skills knowledge and credentials gained from school attendance. Using this theoretical framework we formulate hypotheses about the influence of school enrollment and accumulation on marriage and cohabitation....We evaluate our hypotheses using event-history data from a panel study of young [U.S.] adults. Results indicate that school enrollment decreases the rate of union formation and has greater effects on marriage than on cohabitation. School accumulation increases marriage rates and decreases cohabitation--a pattern suggesting that less educated individuals tend to substitute cohabitation for marriage while those with greater school accumulation are more likely to marry. (EXCERPT)

Economic determinants of democracy

Abstract: The relationship between the level of economic development and the level of democracy found in most quantitative cross-national research implies that the largest gains in democracy are experienced by countries at intermediate levels of development. During the 1960s and 1970s, however, middle-income countries were more likely to register declines in democracy than increases. I explain this anomaly with the hypothesis that income inequality affects democracy, and this effect often counteracts the positive influence of economic development. Because intermediate levels of economic development are associated with the highest levels of income inequality, the independent negative effect of income inequality on change in level of democracy explains the declines in democracy in middle-income countries. Cross-national data from a sample of 58 countries support the hypothesis of a negative effect of income inequality on change in level of democracy from 1965 to 1980. This effect is robust when noneconomic determinants of democracy are taken into account and when sample size is increased.

American Indian ethnic renewal : politics and the resurgence of identity

Abstract: This chapter examines recent demographic trends in the American Indian population to understand the conditions and factors that lead individuals to change their racial identity. It argues that the increase in American Indian ethnic identification reflected in the US Census is an instance of “ethnic renewal”. Ethnic renewal refers to both individual and collective processes. Changes in American political culture brought about by the ethnic politics of the civil rights movement created an atmosphere that increased ethnic consciousness, ethnic pride, and ethnic mobilization among all ethnic groups, including American Indians. The result increased the appeal of Indian ethnicity for many individuals, and no doubt contributed to the resurgence of Indian self-identification. American Indians indeed were able to navigate the changing currents of American ethnic politics, and their successes resulted in increased federal spending on Indian affairs, making American Indian identification a more attractive ethnic option for many Americans of Indian descent.

The Gender Gap in Workplace Authority: A Cross-National Study.

Abstract: We explore a range of issues concerning the gender gap in workplace authority in seven countries (the United Stares, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, Sweden, Norway and Japan). There are six main empirical conclusions. First, there is considerable cross-national variation in the gender gap in authority: The gap is lowest in the four English-speaking countries (especially the United States and Australia) and highest in Japan. Second, the gender gap in authority within countries and the pattern of cross-national variation do not appear to be the result of gender differences in personal attributes or employment settings. Third, the self-selection hypothesis (that women choose nor to seek authority because of family responsibilities) does not appear to account for much of the gender gap in authority, except perhaps in Canada. Fourth, we find little support for the ''glass-ceiling'' hypothesis that barriers to upward promotions for women in authority hierarchies are greater than the barriers they face in getting into hierarchies in the first place. Fifth, in the United States the barriers faced by women already in hierarchies are weaker than in other countries, and probably weaker than the barriers they faced to enter hierarchies in the first place. Finally we find suggestive evidence that these variations across countries in the gender gap in authority are explained by the interaction between the availability of managerial positions and the capacity of politically organized women's movements to challenge barriers to women gaining authority in the workplace.

Organizational evolution in a multinational context: entries of automobile manufacturers in Belgium, Britain, France, Germany, and Italy

Abstract: Cet article examine l'evolution du nombre d'entreprises dans l'industrie automobile entre 1886 et 1981 cela pour cinq pays : la France, la Grande-Bretagne, la Belgique, l'Italie et l'Allemagne. Les AA. montrent, en utilisant le modele analysant la variable densite-dependance, que la legitimation de l'investissement, dans cette branche, est liee a l'engagement global et au dynamisme de l'industrie automobile europeenne et que cette strategie d'investissement ne repond pas a une pure logique de competition

Spousal alternatives and marital dissolution

Abstract: The authors draw on three different data sources to explore the effects of the quantity and quality of potential remarriage partners available in the local marriage market on the risk of marital dissolution. First data from the National Survey of Families and Households are used to demonstrate that among recently-divorced couples a substantial percentage of husbands and wives had been romantically involved with someone other than their spouse prior to divorcing. Then microlevel data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth are merged with aggregated Public Use Microdata from the US census to examine directly the impact of marriage market characteristics and other contextual variables on the risk of marital disruption net of conventional individual-level predictors of divorce. Proportional hazards regression models reveal that among nonhispanic Whites the risk of dissolution is highest where either wives or husbands encounter abundant alternatives to their current spouse. The labor force participation rate of unmarried women and the rate of geographic mobility in the local marriage market also decrease marital stability. In general the results suggest that many persons continue the marital search even while married and that the distribution of spousal alternatives embedded in the social structure influences significantly the risk of marital dissolution. (authors)

Changes in gender role attitudes and perceived marital quality

Abstract: Les AA., a partir d'une enquete longitudinale construite sur un echantillon d'individus maries, s'efforcent d'examiner les changements, au sein des menages, en matiere de roles sexuels et cela sur la periode 1980-1988 aux Etats-Unis. Les analyses montrent que si les femmes adoptent un role familial de type moins traditionnel, leurs qualites conjugales tendent a etre moins percues. D'un autre cote lorsque les hommes adoptent une attitude moins traditionnelle, leurs qualite maritales tendent a croitre. Ils montrent qu'il n'y a pas de lien evident entre qualite conjugale et attente de role en ce qui concerne le sexe au sein du couple

The democratic class struggle in the United States, 1948-1992

Abstract: We present evidence of a historic realignment in the relationship between class and voting behavior in U.S. presidential elections in the postwar period. We take advantage of recent advances in class analysis and statistical methodology to introduce a distinction between "traditional" class voting and "total" class voting. Neither shows a decline in the postwar era. The realignment occurred since 1968, as professionals and nonmanagerial whitecollar workers movedfrom voting for Republicans to supporting Democratic presidential candidates. Stronger'support for Republicans among the selfemployed and among managers has more than offset the shift of professionals and nonmanagerial white-collar workers to the Democrats. Skilled bluecollar workers have become volatile, moving away from their historic support for the Democratic Party withoutfirmly attaching themselves to the Republican Party. Significant class differences in voter turnout also contribute to the total association between class and voting outcomes. Scholars and political activists have long debated the role of class divisions in U.S. politics. At mid-century, research on the "democratic class struggle" (Anderson and Davidson 1943) was a central concern of the sociology of politics. The seminal studies of political behavior in the 1950s featured detailed analyses of the organizational and sub* Direct correspondence to Michael Hout, Sur

Cultivating an institutional ecology of organizations: comment on Hannan, Carroll, Dundon, and Torres

Abstract: Les AA. considerent que le concept de legitimation est une notion clef pour la sociologie. En revanche son caractere a la fois de processus et de resultat pose d'enormes problemes de mesure. Ils rejettent donc le modele de « densite-dependance ». Selon eux on ne peut se limiter a croire qu'une croissance des effectifs puisse par elle-meme etre le signe d'une legitimation d'une pratique, d'une strategie. Ils s'opposent donc a Hannan et alii en arguant que l'on peut, sur ce point, developper des modeles, fins et a portee generale et pourtant non fondes sur la densite

Friendship among the French financial elite

Abstract: L'A. analyse les liens qui unissent les membres de l'elite de la finance en France dans le context des dernieres annees du gouvernement socialiste. Les liens d'amitie au sein de l'elite financiere dependent du prestige social, de l'appartenance politique, du lieu de residence, mais surtout de la question du passage par l'E.N.A.. Il distingue dans ce monde de la finance un reseau de relation lie au monde politique, a l'E.N.A.. Il montre que, du fait des liens entre les individus lies a ce reseau, malgre les privatisations d'institutions financieres commencees par le gouvernement socialiste le visage de la finance ne saurait changer en France

The structural embeddedness of business decisions : the migration of manufacturing plants in New York State, 1960 to 1985

Abstract: Les AA. presentent un modele d'analyse des strategies industrielles : le modele de l'enracinement structurel dont ils s'efforcent d'evaluer le bien-fonde en analysant les phenomenes de transferts d'activite d'une region vers une autre aux Etats-Unis. Ils montrent que les migrations n'interviennent qu'au niveau des entreprises qui jouent un role central dans l'economie regionale et qui, face a la competition et craignant pour leur rentabilite, mettent en place cette strategie. Les entreprises dont le role est plus peripherique sont trop dependantes du tissu local pour prendre ce type de decision et cela meme si le maintien de l'activite dans une region implique des couts de production plus importants. Les AA. evaluent ces differentes strategies sur l'Etat de New York entre 1960 et 1985

Income inequality, development, and dualism : results from an unbalanced cross-national panel

Abstract: Les AA. etudient les relations entre inegalites en matiere de revenu et le developpement economique a partir de donnees internationales collectees entre 1952 et 1988 et concernant 88 pays. Ils montrent que ce type de relation suit la courbe en forme de U inverse du modele de Simon Kuznets. Ils examinent un certain nombre de variables susceptibles d'expliquer ce type de relation : le developpement de l'industrie, celui de l'agriculture, celui du systeme educatif, la situation demographique. Ces facteurs exercent une influence importante sur les inegalites de revenu

Class and class conflict in six western nations

Abstract: People's subjective images of class and class conflict reflect a mixture of both materialist forces and the vivid subjective images of equality and consensus among family, friends, and coworkers. These reference group processes distort perceptions of class: They make most people think they are middle class, thereby weakening the link between objective class and subjective perceptions of class and class conflict, fostering consensual rather than conflictual views of class relations, and attenuating the links between class and politics, particularly in Central European nations. Maximum-likelihood analyses of large, representative national samples from six Western democracies support the argument.

The Friendly and Predatory Acquisition of Large U.S. Corporations in the 1960s: The Other Contested Terrain

Abstract: Cet article etudie les rachats d'entreprise aux U.S.A. dans les annees 1960. Les mecanismes de concentration affectent l'organisation des entreprises et le monde des affaires. Ceux-ci sont de type predateur ou pacifiques. Ils dependent, d'une part, d'une strategie d'entreprise et de la position occupee par les differentes entreprises dans le reseau de dependance economique. Ils tiennent aussi aux situations specifiques des chefs d'entreprise dans le reseau social que constitue le monde des affaires et au type de propriete juridique et financiere

A Comparative Study of Working-Class Disorganization: Union Decline in Eighteen Advanced Capitalist Countries

Abstract: In contrast to the diverse trends that prevailed for most of the postwar period, unionization rates in the advanced capitalist countries generally declined in the 1980s. I propose a discrete-time hazard-rate model to explain this novel pattern of labor disorganization. Model estimates indicate that union decline is related to growing economic openness, unemployment, pre-existing levels of unionization, the decentralization of collective bargaining institutions, and the electoral failure of social democratic parties through the 1980s.

The stopping and spacing of childbirths and their birth-history predictors: rational-choice theory and event-history analysis.

Abstract: Using data on women from the 1985 Current Population Survey the authors analyze the distinct effects of covariates on birth stopping and birth spacing They develop behavioral models of rational childbearing from which they then derive two sets of hypotheses: one for the effects on birth stopping of the sex composition of children born and its interaction with education and cohort and the other for the effects of maternal age at birth and the length of the preceding birth interval on birth stopping and birth spacing To test these hypotheses they analyze second and third births using event-history models that combine a regression on the probability of not having another birth in the lifetime and a regression on spacing to the next birth The authors predict and confirm that: 1) women with different-sex children are more likely to stop childbearing than women with same-sex children; 2) this sex composition effect of children born is larger for highly educated women than for those with lower education attainment and for women in younger cohorts than for those in older cohorts; 3) the sex composition of children born has no effect on birth spacing The authors also find that the probability of birth stopping increases as maternal age at previous birth increases while the spacing to the next birth first increases and then decreases as maternal age at previous birth increases (authors)

Education, social liberalism, and economic conservatism: attitudes toward homeless people*

Abstract: De nombreuses etudes lient education et attitudes liberales comme la tolerance et le soutien aux libertes publiques. Les AA. evaluent cette perspective. Ils testent trois hypotheses : les attitudes liberales resultent soit du developpement cognitif et personnel soit de la socialisation directe soit d'un affinage ideologique. Celles-ci ne permettent pas de predire les attitudes sociales. Ils affirment que le mecanisme par lequel l'education influence les attitudes doit etre envisage sous l'angle economique autant que social. A partir d'une enquete sur les representations des sans-abri ils montrent que la tolerance a leur endroit croit avec le niveau d'education

Gender and family businesses in rural China

Abstract: The authors investigate the roles played by women and men in the emerging private sector in rural China Specifically the authors explore gender and the allocation of labor in household-run businesses in the rural areas of eight provinces Data collected in the China Health and Nutrition Survey (1989) indicate that households with a large pool of female labor are at no advantage in starting and running a small business; rather business involvement depends on the male labor pool especially the presence of older men Furthermore if a household runs a business men are more likely than women to work in it Men apparently have led the development and expansion of household business in rural China; while women increasingly specialize in agricultural activities Possible reasons for these findings are discussed (authors)

Engendering the worlds of labor: women workers, labor markets, and production politics in the South China economic miracle

Abstract: L'A. presente une etude comparative menee dans deux entreprises du sud de la Chine appartenant au meme groupe industriel, dirigees par les memes gestionnaires, fabriquant les memes produits et utilisant les memes techniques de production. Il montre comment ces deux usines ont developpe la meme politique d'autoritarisme a l'endroit des femmes qui composent la quasi totalite de leur personnel. Il montre que la structure sociale du marche du travail local construit des conditions differentes de dependance ouvriere. Ces types de dependance determinent les strategies de controle social, les pratiques d'action collective des ouvriers et les constructions de l'identite sexuelle des ouvriers

Organizational mortality in a declining social movement : the demise of peace movement organizations in the end of the Cold War era

Abstract: Les AA. examinent le mouvement pacifiste americain au moment de la fin de la Guerre Froide, entre 1988 et 1992. Ils montrent comment, des le milieu des annees 1980 et ensuite avec la reelection de Ronald Reagan en 1984, ce mouvement a commence a decliner, bien qu'apres les elections presidentielles de 1988 et la desintegration du Pacte de Varsovie un certain nombre de militants pacifistes ont reoriente les debats vers d'autres questions. Aussi ce mouvement a-t-il trouve de nouveaux partisans et une nouvelle legitimite. Ils presentent une analyse comparative des organisations pacifistes les plus representatives aux Etats-Unis. Plus particulierement ils etudient la mortalite organisationnnelle au sein de ce mouvement. La survie de celui-ci est liee a la capacite des organisations a reorienter les debats, a s'inserer au sein des reseaux de communication, a garder une base militante importante