Showing papers in "American Sociological Review in 2011"
TL;DR: The authors examines the transition to adulthood among 1.5-generation undocumented Latino young adults and finds that for them, the transition from K to adulthood involves exiting the legally protected status of K to...
Abstract: This article examines the transition to adulthood among 1.5-generation undocumented Latino young adults. For them, the transition to adulthood involves exiting the legally protected status of K to ...
663 citations
TL;DR: Generalized trust has become a paramount topic throughout the social sciences, in its own right and as the key civic component of social capital as discussed by the authors, and cross-national research relies on the stan...
Abstract: Generalized trust has become a paramount topic throughout the social sciences, in its own right and as the key civic component of social capital. To date, cross-national research relies on the stan...
573 citations
TL;DR: This article found that the decline of organized labor explains a fifth to a third of the growth in inequality, an effect comparable to the growing stratification of wages by education, and that unions helped institutionalize norms of equity, reducing the dispersion of nonunion wages in highly unionized regions and industries.
Abstract: From 1973 to 2007, private sector union membership in the United States declined from 34 to 8 percent for men and from 16 to 6 percent for women. During this period, inequality in hourly wages increased by over 40 percent. We report a decomposition, relating rising inequality to the union wage distribution’s shrinking weight. We argue that unions helped institutionalize norms of equity, reducing the dispersion of nonunion wages in highly unionized regions and industries. Accounting for unions’ effect on union and nonunion wages suggests that the decline of organized labor explains a fifth to a third of the growth in inequality—an effect comparable to the growing stratification of wages by education.
572 citations
TL;DR: It is found that sustained exposure to disadvantaged neighborhoods has a severe impact on high school graduation that is considerably larger than effects reported in prior research.
Abstract: Theory suggests that neighborhood effects depend not only on where individuals live today, but also on where they lived in the past. Previous research, however, usually measured neighborhood context only once and did not account for length of residence, thereby understating the detrimental effects of long-term neighborhood disadvantage. This study investigates the effects of duration of exposure to disadvantaged neighborhoods on high school graduation. It follows 4,154 children in the PSID, measuring neighborhood context once per year from age 1 to 17. The analysis overcomes the problem of dynamic neighborhood selection by adapting novel methods of causal inference for time-varying treatments. In contrast to previous analyses, these methods do not "control away" the effect of neighborhood context operating indirectly through time-varying characteristics of the family, and thus they capture the full impact of a lifetime of neighborhood disadvantage. We find that sustained exposure to disadvantaged neighborhoods has a severe impact on high school graduation that is considerably larger than effects reported in prior research. Growing up in the most (compared to the least) disadvantaged quintile of neighborhoods is estimated to reduce the probability of graduation from 96% to 76% for black children, and from 95% to 87% for nonblack children.
462 citations
TL;DR: This study points to the importance of schedule control for the understanding of job quality and for management policies and practices, primarily by increasing employees’ schedule control.
Abstract: Work-family conflicts are common and consequential for employees, their families, and work organizations. Can workplaces be changed to reduce work-family conflict? Previous research has not been able to assess whether workplace policies or initiatives succeed in reducing work-family conflict or increasing work-family fit. Using longitudinal data collected from 608 employees of a white-collar organization before and after a workplace initiative was implemented, we investigate whether the initiative affects work-family conflict and fit, whether schedule control mediates these effects, and whether work demands, including long hours, moderate the initiative's effects on work-family outcomes. Analyses clearly demonstrate that the workplace initiative positively affects the work-family interface, primarily by increasing employees' schedule control. This study points to the importance of schedule control for our understanding of job quality and for management policies and practices.
454 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors used original panel data to examine behavioral and intentional persistence among students who enter an engineering major in college and found that women's relative lack of this confidence contributes to their attrition.
Abstract: Social psychological research on gendered persistence in science, technology, engineering,and mathematics (STEM) professions is dominated by two explanations: women leavebecause they perceive their family plans to be at odds with demands of STEM careers, andwomen leave due to low self-assessment of their skills in STEM’s intellectual tasks, net oftheir performance. This study uses original panel data to examine behavioral and intentionalpersistence among students who enter an engineering major in college. Surprisingly, familyplans do not contribute to women’s attrition during college but are negatively associated withmen’s intentions to pursue an engineering career. Additionally, math self-assessment doesnot predict behavioral or intentional persistence once students enroll in a STEM major. Thisstudy introduces professional role confidence—individuals’ confidence in their ability tosuccessfully fulfill the roles, competencies, and identity features of a profession—and arguesthat women’s lack of this confidence, compared to men, reduces their likelihood of remainingin engineering majors and careers. We find that professional role confidence predictsbehavioral and intentional persistence, and that women’s relative lack of this confidencecontributes to their attrition.
429 citations
TL;DR: The authors argue that persistence of the gendered division of childcare is due to multiple causes, including multiple causes such as sexism, racism, and classism, and conclude that "in most families today, childcare remains divided unequally between fathers and mothers".
Abstract: In most families today, childcare remains divided unequally between fathers and mothers. Scholars argue that persistence of the gendered division of childcare is due to multiple causes, including v...
390 citations
TL;DR: Literature on aggression often suggests that individual deficiencies, such as social incompetence, psychological difficulties, or troublesome home environments, are responsible for aggressive behavior as mentioned in this paper, which is not the case.
Abstract: Literature on aggression often suggests that individual deficiencies, such as social incompetence, psychological difficulties, or troublesome home environments, are responsible for aggressive behav...
323 citations
TL;DR: This paper found that multitasking constitutes an important source of gender inequality, which can help explain previous findings that mothers feel more burdened and stressed than do fathers, and that mothers are more likely to feel more stressed than fathers.
Abstract: This study suggests that multitasking constitutes an important source of gender inequality, which can help explain previous findings that mothers feel more burdened and stressed than do fathers eve...
315 citations
TL;DR: The role of children in education and stratification has been explored in this article, where the authors argue that children are not passive recipients of unequal opportunities that schools and parents create for them.
Abstract: What role do children play in education and stratification? Are they merely passive recipients of unequal opportunities that schools and parents create for them? Or do they actively shape their own...
257 citations
TL;DR: This paper explored the forces promoting six diversity management programs in a national sample of 816 firms over 23 years and found that external pressure and internal advocacy serve as alternatives, such that when external pressure is already high, increases in internal advocacy will not alter the likelihood of program adoption.
Abstract: While some U.S. corporations have adopted a host of diversity management programs, many have done little or nothing. We explore the forces promoting six diversity programs in a national sample of 816 firms over 23 years. Institutional theory suggests that external pressure for innovation reinforces internal advocacy. We argue that external pressure and internal advocacy serve as alternatives, such that when external pressure is already high, increases in internal advocacy will not alter the likelihood of program adoption. Moreover, institutional theory points to functional need as a driver of innovation. We argue that in the case of innovations designed to achieve new societal goals, functional need, as defined in this case by the absence of workforce diversity or the presence of regulatory oversight, is less important than corporate culture. Our findings help explain the spotty coverage of diversity programs. Firms that lack workforce diversity are no more likely than others to adopt programs, but firms with large contingents of women managers are more likely to do so. Pro-diversity industry and corporate cultures promote diversity programs. The findings carry implications for public policy.
TL;DR: This paper examined the institutional and income dynamics associated with the financialization of the U.S. economy, and concluded that understanding inequality dynamics requires attention to market institutions and politics, and that between 5.8 and 6.6 trillion dollars were transferred to the finance sector since 1980.
Abstract: The 2008 collapse of the world financial system, while proximately linked to the housing bubble and risk-laden mortgage backed securities, was a consequence of the financialization of the U.S. economy since the 1970s. This article examines the institutional and income dynamics associated with the financialization of the U.S. economy, advancing a sociological explanation of income shifts into the finance sector. Complementary developments include banking deregulation, finance industry concentration, increased size and scope of institutional investors, the shareholder value movement, and dominance of the neoliberal policy model. As a result, we estimate that between 5.8 and 6.6 trillion dollars were transferred to the finance sector since 1980. We conclude that understanding inequality dynamics requires attention to market institutions and politics.
TL;DR: This paper found that depression likely has a role in structuring friendship networks and argued that friends protect against depression through the social support they provide; however, depression may have a role as well.
Abstract: Conventional wisdom holds that friends protect against depression through the social support they provide; however, depression likely has a role in structuring friendship networks. In particular, w...
TL;DR: A sociological concept of substantive citizenship, particularly substantive citizenship as a matter of belonging, including recognition by other members of the... as mentioned in this paper, was developed in the presidential address of 2009.
Abstract: This Presidential Address develops a sociological concept of citizenship, particularly substantive citizenship, as fundamentally a matter of belonging, including recognition by other members of the...
TL;DR: This paper examined the interplay of culture, cognition, and social networks in organizations with norms that emphasize cross-boundary collaboration and found that people consciously report more positive views of themselves as collaborative actors than they appear to hold in less conscious cognition.
Abstract: This article examines the interplay of culture, cognition, and social networks in organizations with norms that emphasize cross-boundary collaboration. In such settings, social desirability concerns can induce a disparity between how people view themselves in conscious (i.e., deliberative) versus less conscious (i.e., automatic) cognition. These differences have implications for the resulting pattern of intra-organizational collaborative ties. Based on a laboratory study and field data from a biotechnology firm, we find that (1) people consciously report more positive views of themselves as collaborative actors than they appear to hold in less conscious cognition; (2) less conscious collaborative–independent self-views are associated with the choice to enlist organizationally distant colleagues in collaboration; and (3) these self-views are also associated with a person’s likelihood of being successfully enlisted by organizationally distant colleagues (i.e., of supporting these colleagues in collaboration...
TL;DR: This article explored the idea that race and ethnic relations affect how police respond to protest events, drawing on the protest policing literature and on theories of race-and ethnic relations, and found that the race of protesters affects the response of police to protests.
Abstract: How does the race of protesters affect how police respond to protest events? Drawing on the protest policing literature and on theories of race and ethnic relations, we explore the idea that police...
TL;DR: In this paper, a three-stage estimation model was proposed to examine the effect of parental divorce on the development of children's cognitive skills and non-cognitive traits, using a framework that...
Abstract: In this article, I propose a three-stage estimation model to examine the effect of parental divorce on the development of children’s cognitive skills and noncognitive traits. Using a framework that...
TL;DR: This paper explored how firms shape labor markets and career paths using employee non-compete agreements and found that nearly half of all workers agree to noncompetes in their employment contracts.
Abstract: This study explores how firms shape labor markets and career paths using employee non-compete agreements. The sociology of work has overlooked non-competes, but data indicate that nearly half of te...
TL;DR: It is found that relatively common variants of the dopamine receptor gene and the serotonin transporter gene interact with social environmental conditions to predict aggression in a manner consonant with differential susceptibility and that a latent construct formed by these schemas and emotions mediated the effect of gene by environment interaction on aggression.
Abstract: Although G×E studies are typically based on the assumption that some individuals possess genetic variants that enhance their vulnerability to environmental adversity, the differential susceptibility perspective posits that these individuals are simply more susceptible to environmental influence than others. An important implication of this model is that those persons most vulnerable to adverse social environments are the same ones who reap the most benefit from environmental support. The present study tested several implications of this proposition. Using longitudinal data from a sample of several hundred African Americans, we found that relatively common variants of the dopamine receptor gene and the serotonin transporter gene interact with social environmental conditions to predict aggression in a manner consonant with differential susceptibility. When the social environment was adverse, individuals with these genetic variants manifested more aggression than other genotypes, whereas when the environment was supportive they demonstrated less aggression than other genotypes. Further, we found that these genetic variants interact with environmental conditions to foster various cognitive schemas and emotions in a manner consistent with differential susceptibility and that a latent construct formed by these schemas and emotions mediated the effect of gene by environment interaction on aggression.
TL;DR: It is suggested that neighborhoods dynamically interact with the people living in them in different ways at different times to shape health outcomes to better understand the changing socioeconomic gradient of autism and the increase in prevalence.
Abstract: The prevalence of autism has increased precipitously—roughly 10-fold in the past 40 years—yet no one knows exactly what caused this dramatic rise. Using a large and representative dataset that spans the California birth cohorts from 1992 through 2000, we examine individual and community resources associated with the likelihood of an autism diagnosis over time. This allows us to identify key social factors that have contributed to increased autism prevalence. While individual-level factors, such as birth weight and parental education, have had a fairly constant effect on likelihood of diagnosis over time, we find that community-level resources drive increased prevalence. This study suggests that neighborhoods dynamically interact with the people living in them in different ways at different times to shape health outcomes. By treating neighborhoods as dynamic, we can better understand the changing socioeconomic gradient of autism and the increase in prevalence.
TL;DR: Results indicate substantial widening and narrowing of educational disparities in mortality across causes of death, and the total educational disparity in mortality would be about 25 percent smaller today if not for newly emergent and growing educational disparities since 1999.
Abstract: This paper examines how educational disparities in mortality emerge, grow, decline, and disappear across causes of death in the United States and how these change contribute to the enduring association of education and mortality over time. Focusing on adults age 40-64, we first examine the extent to which disparities in all-cause mortality by education persisted from 1989-2007. We then test the "fundamental cause" prediction that mortality disparities persist, in part, by shifting to new health outcomes over time, most importantly for those causes of death that have increasing mortality rates. To test this hypothesis, we focus in depth on the period from 1999-2007, when all causes of death were coded to the same classification system. The results indicate (a) both substantial widening and narrowing of mortality disparities across causes of death, (b) almost all causes of death that had increasing mortality rates also had widening disparities by education, and (c) the total disparity by education in all-cause mortality would be about 25% smaller today were it not for newly widened or emergent disparities since 1999. These results point to the theoretical and policy importance of identifying the social forces that cause health disparities to widen over time.
TL;DR: It is argued that adolescent romantic partners are likely to be network bridges, or liaisons, connecting daters to new peer contexts that, in turn, promote changes in individual drinking behaviors and allow these behaviors to spread across peer networks.
Abstract: The onset and escalation of alcohol consumption and romantic relationships are hallmarks of adolescence, yet only recently have these domains jointly been the focus of sociological inquiry. We extend this literature by connecting alcohol use, dating and peers to understand the diffusion of drinking behavior in school-based friendship networks. Drawing on Granovetter's classic concept of weak ties, we argue that adolescent romantic partners are likely to be network bridges, or liaisons, connecting daters to new peer contexts which, in turn, promote changes in individual drinking behaviors and allow these behaviors to spread across peer networks. Using longitudinal data of 459 couples from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, we estimate Actor-Partner Interdependence Models and identify the unique contributions of partners' drinking, friends' drinking, and friends-of-partners' drinking to daters' own future binge drinking and drinking frequency. Findings support the liaison hypothesis and suggest that friends-of-partners' drinking have net associations with adolescent drinking patterns. Moreover, the coefficient for friends-of-partners drinking is larger than the coefficient for one's own peers and generally immune to prior selection. Our findings suggest that romantic relationships are important mechanisms for understanding the diffusion of emergent problem behaviors in adolescent peer networks.
TL;DR: The likelihood of out-mobility for native householders is significantly and positively associated with the relative size of, and increases in, the immigrant population in a neighborhood, consistent with theoretical arguments related to the distance dependence of mobility.
Abstract: This study combines data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics with data from four censuses to examine the effects of foreign-born populations in the immediate neighborhood of residence and surrounding neighborhoods on the residential mobility decisions of native-born black and white householders. We find that the likelihood of out-mobility for native householders is significantly and positively associated with the relative size of, and increases in, the immigrant population in the neighborhood. Consistent with theoretical arguments related to the distance dependence of mobility, large concentrations of immigrants in surrounding areas reduce native out-mobility, presumably by reducing the attractiveness of the most likely mobility destinations. A sizable share of local immigration effects can be explained by the mobility-related characteristics of native-born individuals living in immigrant-populated areas, but the racial composition of the neighborhood (for native whites) and local housing market conditions (for native blacks) also are important mediating factors. The implications of these patterns for processes of neighborhood change and broader patterns of residential segregation are discussed.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors studied how managers in particular may shape the careers of the employees and found that managers' behaviors affect workplace inequality, but little is known about how managers may shape career trajectories of their employees.
Abstract: While great progress has been made in documenting that organizational practices affect workplace inequality, little is known about how managers in particular may shape the careers of the employees ...
TL;DR: This article examined the extent to which protest attendance and petition signing have differences in political participation between 1973 and 2008, and found that protest attendance was correlated with the number of signatures and signatures.
Abstract: This project explores cohort and period trends in political participation in the United States between 1973 and 2008. We examine the extent to which protest attendance and petition signing have dif...
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors analyzed longitudinal personnel data from a large law firm to demonstrate that assignment to powerful supervisors upon organization entry improves career outcomes for individuals who later use a reduced-hours program.
Abstract: One of the great paradoxes of inequality in organizations is that even when organizations introduce new programs designed to help employees in traditionally disadvantaged groups succeed, employees who use these programs often suffer negative career consequences. This study helps to fill a significant gap in the literature by investigating how local employer practices can enable employees to successfully use the programs designed to benefit them. Using a research approach that controls for regulatory environment and program design, we analyze unique longitudinal personnel data from a large law firm to demonstrate that assignment to powerful supervisors upon organization entry improves career outcomes for individuals who later use a reduced-hours program. Additionally, we find that initial assignment to powerful supervisors is more important to positive career outcomes—that is, employee retention and performance-based pay—than are factors such as supervisor assignment at the time of program use. Initial ass...
TL;DR: In this article, a comprehensive account of the role socio-cultural factors, especially race and ethnicity, have in the institutional sanctioning process of monetary sanctions in state and federal criminal courts is presented.
Abstract: Recent research suggests that the use of monetary sanctions as a supplementary penalty in state and federal criminal courts is expanding, and that their imposition creates substantial and deleterious legal debt. Little is known, however, about the factors that influence the discretionary imposition of these penalties. This study offers a comprehensive account of the role socio-cultural factors, especially race and ethnicity, have in this institutional sanctioning process. We rely on multilevel statistical analysis of the imposition of monetary sanctions in Washington State courts to test our theory. The theoretical framework emphasizes the need to treat race and ethnicity as complex cultural categories, the meaning and institutional effects of which may vary across time and space. Findings indicate that racialized crime scripts, such as the association of Latinos with drugs, affect defendants whose wrong-doing is stereotype congruent. Moreover, all individuals accused of committing racially and ethnically stigmatized offenses in racialized contexts may experience the courtesy stigma that flows from racialization. We find that race and ethnicity are not just individual attributes but cultural categories that shape the distribution of stigma and the institutional consequences that flow from it.
TL;DR: This paper studied the relationship between household income and housework time across 33 countries and found that low-income individuals do more housework than their high-income counterparts in most countries, and that the difference in household income between the two groups was not statistically significant.
Abstract: This article studies the relationship between household income and housework time across 33 countries In most countries, low-income individuals do more housework than their high-income counterpart
TL;DR: The results suggest that activists do not simply organize around their similarities but, through cultural anchors, they use their commonalities to build a thinly coherent foundation that can also support their differences.
Abstract: Social scientists describe culture as either coherent or incoherent and political dissent as either unifying or divisive. This article moves beyond such dichotomies. Content, historical, and network analyses of public debates on how to organize four lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) Washington marches provide evidence for an integrative position. Rather than just describe consistencies or contradictions, we contend that the key analytic challenge is to explain the organization of differences. We propose one way of doing this using the mechanism of a cultural anchor. Within and across marches, a small collection of ideas remains fixed in the national conversation, yet in a way that allows activists to address their internal diversity and respond to unfolding historical events. These results suggest that activists do not simply organize around their similarities but, through cultural anchors, they use their commonalities to build a thinly coherent foundation that can also support their differences. Situated at the nexus of culture, social movements, sexualities, and networks, this article demonstrates how the anchoring mechanism works in the context of LGBT political organizing.
TL;DR: This paper found that active union members of a Los Angeles janitors' labor union are not particularly involved in plug-in types of involvement, which are typically defined and dictated by school personnel.
Abstract: Scholars have long argued that civic organizations play a vital role in developing members’ civic capacity. Yet few empirical studies examine how and the extent to which civic skills transfer across distinct and separate civic contexts. Focusing on Latino immigrant members of a Los Angeles janitors’ labor union, this article fills a void by investigating union members’ involvement in an independent civic arena—their children’s schools. Analyses of random sample survey and semi-structured interview data demonstrate that labor union experience does not simply lead to more civic engagement, as previous research might suggest. Rather, conceptual distinctions must be made between active and inactive union members and between different types of civic engagement. Results show that active union members are not particularly involved in plug-in types of involvement, which are typically defined and dictated by school personnel. Instead, active union members tend to become involved in critical forms of engagement tha...