Showing papers in "Sociological Inquiry in 2001"

The Role of Caring in the Teacher-Student Relationship for At-Risk Students

Abstract: This study uses information from both teachers and students to explore how the perceptions of each other’s investment in the relationship affects the productivity of the relationship. Using the National Longitudinal Study of 1988 PELS), I analyze the conditions and academic consequences of students’ investment in the relationship with teachers and school. I find that teachers’ perceptions that the student puts forth academic effort and students’ perceptions that teachers are caring are each weakly associated with mathematics achievement for most students. For students who are judged by their teachers as at risk of dropping out of high school, however, the value for math achievement of having teachers who care is substantial and mitigates against the negative effect of having been judged as at risk. The results suggest that social capital, as defined by a relationship that facilitates action, is especially high for at-risk students who feel their teachers are interested, expect them to succeed, listen to them, praise their effort, and care. Little is more tragic in American education than a student with hopes taught by teachers who do not expect success and therefore do not teach curricula necessary for progress. As students make their way through a system in which their opportunities are closed off by not learning material for the next step, many will leave the system, some in middle school and others during high school. Decades of research have underscored the importance of the teacher’s and student’s attitudes toward one another (Carew and Lightfoot 1979; Good and Brophy 1997; fist 1970), yet much less is understood about how the teacherstudent relationship becomes productive. A relationship that facilitates learning involves investment by teacher and student (Muller, Katz, and Dance 1999). The development of the relationship comes about from the factors that encourage each party to invest in the relationship. This study uses information from both teachers and students to explore how the perceptions of the other’s investment affect the productivity of the relationship. It analyzes the conditions and academic consequences of students’ investment in the relationship with teachers and school. For a century and a half following the founding of mass public education, the relationship between teachers and students has elicited general concern, accompanied by the recognition that students and classroom teachers may be

Building the Sustainable Community: Is Social Capital the Answer?

Abstract: Over the past decade, environmental sustainability has emerged as a prominent theme in the community development literature. In fact, the concept has become a standard feature of most economic and social development plans. Most models of sustainable community development stress the importance of widespread participation in the decision-making process. Unfortunately, community studies document numerous barriers to broad involvement and the high level of activeness envisioned by proponents of sustainable community development. In searching for ways to overcome these barriers, scholars and policymakers have embraced the idea that we can enhance efforts to create more sustainable communities by increasing the local stock of social capital. We examine this line of reasoning in light of what we view as the most important conceptual issues surrounding the relationship between social capital and sustainable community development. We conclude that before social capital is endorsed as a central component of public policy, much work remains to be done in terms of developing a more precise definition of the concept, situating it within extant theories of community, constructing better measures of social capital, documenting the activities and networks most important in building social capital, and gaining a better understanding of the forms of social capital that are most important in developing sustainable communities.

Role Conflict and Role Overload: Different Concepts, Different Consequences

Abstract: The concepts of role conflict and role overload have been used, often interchangeably, to interpret sources of gender differences in role-related mental health among men and women who combine the roles of spouse, parent, and worker. However, these types of chronic role strains actually represent two distinct concepts. Definitions of the concepts suggest different contextual sources for these role difficulties as well as different mental health consequences of experiencing them. This paper analyzes some potential sources of feelings of role conflict and role overload, and estimates their effects in undermining psychological well-being among a sample of women who combine work and family roles. Results indicate that (a) different contextual factors influence individuals' feelings of role conflict and role overload, and (b) feelings of role conflict significantly undermine psychological well-being, while feelings of role overload do not

Decomposing the Black-White Wealth Gap: The Role of Parental Resources, Inheritance, and Investment Dynamics

Abstract: Much research has shown that even after controlling for income, African Americans suffer from drastically lower net worths than their white counterparts; these differences in net worth have important implications for the overall well-being of blacks and whites. If not directly from labor market disadvantages–i.e., income differentials–then from what does this racial gap in wealth arise? The current study assesses two complementary accounts of this race difference in asset holdings. The first, the historical legacy thesis, suggests that net wealth differences in the current generation are largely a result of discrimination in past generations; that is, they can be traced to the “head start” that whites have enjoyed in accumulating assets and passing them on. The second theory, the contemporary dynamics thesis, holds that current dynamics of institutional racism in the housing and credit markets are more responsible for the gap. The current study tests the relative impact of multi-generational forces and contemporary property and credit dynamics by using two-generational data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics. It finds that parental wealth and income levels and inheritance all have a significant impact on the wealth levels of the current generation net of respondent socioeconomic characteristics; however, parental wealth and inheritance fail to explain the black-white gap. Further, this study shows that even predicting net worth from that same family's net worth five years prior (also controlling for savings during the interim), there remains a significantly negative effect of African American race. However, breaking out initial net worth into asset types shows that it may be different investment types and returns that explain the difference in asset accumulation over a five-year period.

Intermediate Sanctions: A Comparative Analysis of the Probability and Severity of Recidivism

Abstract: Social scientists have a longstanding concern with the relationship between criminal sanctions and offenders’future behavior. This paper uses data from a sample of 528 adult felony offenders to compare the relative probability of rearrest, the severity of rearrest, and the likelihood of probation revocation for offenders with a sentence of incarceration, work release, house arrest, and traditional probation—or a combination of these sentences. Consistent with previous research, prior record, gender, offense type, and education were significantly related to the probability and severity of rearrest. Furthermore, no matter which other sanction it was paired with, house arrest was associated with reduced chances of rearrest and lower rearrest severity. The influence of one of these sanction combinations was gender-specific: incarceration followed by house arrest was associated with reduced odds of rearrest for women but not for men. However, house arrest was associated with the considerably increased likelihood of probation revocation. In addition, these effects remain after controlling for potential selection bias stemming from the sentencing decision. This paper concludes by discussing the theoretical and correctional implications of these findings and directions for future research.

The Premise and Promise of Citizenship and Civil Society for Renewing Democracies and Empowering Sustainable Communities

Abstract: State regimes have launched policies to “reinvent” government and “regenerate” communities in peripheral impoverished rural and urban areas to build sustainable communities and reduce poverty. We investigate the impact of policy concepts–the empowerment paradigm, citizenship as citizen participation and inclusion, and associations between the state and civil society–on local areas' success in leveraging dollars to foster sustainable economic and community development in persistently poor rural areas of the U.S. The thirty-three rural sites of the Empowerment Zone/Enterprise Communities Initiative of the Clinton-Gore Administration comprise our database. We find that empowering area-based, low-income residents through the election mechanism to choose their representatives on the local sites' governing board is strongly and significantly related to both inclusion and citizen participation. Also, the presence of elected citizens with connections to civil society on the governing body contributes strongly to later success in leveraging dollars.

A Focus on Familial Strain: Antisocial Behavior and Delinquency in Filipino Society

Abstract: Criminologists have long recognized the salient role of the family in explaining delinquency. However, explanations using family measures have been derived mostly from the paradigms of differential association and social control. This paper uses Agnew's General Strain Theory to examine two types of familial strain: witnessing interparental violence and direct parent-to-child violence, specifically its impact on children's antisocial behaviors. These two family measures are then juxtaposed against traditional explanations of delinquency and antisocial behavior. A total of 961 grade school students were surveyed in the Philippines and comprise this study's sample. Results show that witnessing interparental violence is significantly associated with self-reported antisocial and delinquent activities and the Teachers’Predictions of Peer Nominations. This significant association remained when measures of social control and differential association were controlled. The results highlight the importance of delineating family dynamics and their relative impact on youth behavior. The results also point to the utility of examining delinquency theories using non-Western samples.

The Batterer's View of the Self and Others in Domestic Violence

Abstract: Researchers estimate that 3-4 million women are abused by intimate partners each year, and the United States Surgeon General reports physical abuse as the leading cause of injury to women in the U.S. Although numerous studies have examined survivors’perceptions of domestic violence, few have examined battery from the perpetrator's perspective. We use a symbolic interactionist perspective to examine in-depth interviews with thirty-three male batterers and a demographically matched comparison group of twenty-five nonviolent male subjects. Our findings indicate that batterers minimize others’negative views of themselves, and they dissociate themselves from their partners’physical and emotional injuries. The comparison subjects, on the other hand, consider others’negative views of themselves, and they describe a deeper understanding of their intimate others’problems. We argue that an understanding of the batterer's perception of himself and others in domestic violence will help counselors develop techniques to stop male violence against women.

Sing a Song of Drug Use-Abuse: Four Decades of Drug Lyrics in Popular Music–From the Sixties through the Nineties

Abstract: Songs dealing with illegal drugs have long dotted popular music. It was not until the aftermath of the sixties youth counterculture, however, that drug lyrics became a recurring musical motif. In the decades since, the lyrical treatment of drugs has undergone change. Heroin and cocaine have largely, though not exclusively, been treated antagonistically, with the animosity toward cocaine becoming more pronounced after crack cocaine was introduced in the mid-1980s. Marijuana, on the other hand, has generally been perceived as innocuous, if not positively assessed, and this treatment has crossed the decades into the nineties. In more recent years, however, the positive assessment of marijuana has undergone change, with younger musicians more likely to decry the harm that drugs do than older musicians do. This prosocial aspect of contemporary popular music has been largely ignored.

Communal Decline: The Vanishing of High‐Moral Servant Leaders and the Decay of Democratic, High‐Trust Kibbutz Cultures

Abstract: What is the connection between leaders’morality and the output performance of organizations? Can their morality explain, through trust, continuity, and change of organizational cultures? Is periodic rotation of managers the right solution for the distrust caused by self-serving conservatism due to Michels's “Iron Law of Oligarchy”? An anthropological study of kibbutzim, whose innovative and adaptive cultures declined recently, found that past success was dependent on high-moral servant leaders who backed democracy and promoted high-trust cultures that engendered innovation by creative officers in some kibbutzim, which others imitated. However, conservatism of continuous leaders as heads of low-trust kibbutz federative organizations, which were ignored by customary kibbutz research, engendered oligarchization which rotation enhanced rather than prevented. However, creativity deteriorated only after decades of growing oligarchy, with the vanishing of the high-moral old guard. Thus, the crux of democratic communal culture sustainability is pinpointed in the superiority of trusted, high-moral leaders. A preliminary idea for achieving that aim, predicated on officers’continuation in office being conditional on periodic tests of trust, is herein presented.

Motherhood and the Construction of Feminist Identities: Variations in a Women's Movement Organization

Abstract: This paper examines the relationship between feminism and motherhood as it plays out in the construction of feminist identities. Through a qualitative analysis of two grassroots chapters of the National Organization for Women (NOW), I examine how members’understandings and experiences with motherhood and their community context and organizational environment shape the construction of shared feminist identities. Central to this study is the conception of motherhood as a historically constructed ideology that provides a gendered model of behavior for women. In the organizations studied, I find that motherhood is interpreted two ways: as a social status with political ramifications and as the act of caring and taking responsibility for relationships. These interpretations are incorporated into “frames” extended to potential recruits and shape the group's actions. As a result these two ideologically similar liberal feminist organizations construct distinct feminist identities.

Environmentalism, Feminism, and Gender

Abstract: Although social scientists have written much recently about environmentalism, feminism, and gender, insufficient systematic examination of their interrelations has been done. The lack of adequate research on links among these three concepts limits their usefulness for both grassroots mobilization efforts and general theory development. The present exploratory study surveys a college student sample (N = 393) clarifying the relationships between liberal environmentalism, gender, and feminism. Relationship between feminism and attitudes toward human use of the environment and between gender and environmental regulation are found suppressed by a relationship between feminism and environmentalism. Although tentative, these findings suggest new directions for the study of ecofeminism.

The Effects of Family Structure of Origin on Offspring Cohabitation Duration

Abstract: This study uses data from both waves of the National Survey of Families and Households to examine the effects of family structure of origin on offspring's cohabiting unions. Parental divorce substantially decreases the likelihood that these relationships end in marriage, but this effect is almost completely ameliorated by parental remarriage. Parental divorce also increases the chances that a cohabiting relationship will break up, but the effect is much smaller than the impact of parental divorce on marital stability. I explain this discrepancy by showing that cohabitation is inherently unstable compared to marriage. In a context of instability, family structure of origin makes less difference than it does in marriage.

Are Religious People Nice People? Religiosity, Race, Interview Dynamics, and Perceived Cooperativeness

Abstract: Prior research has shown consistently that religiosity, as indexed by self-reported frequency of prayer, is associated positively with “niceness,” measured by interviewers’ratings of respondents’cooperativeness. We used data pooled from the 1983, 1988, and 1993 General Social Surveys to further examine the association between religiosity and niceness, and to raise questions about the adequacy of this currently preferred operationalization of niceness. We used three different measures of religiosity and directly examined racial differences in perceived cooperativeness. Our results indicate that each self-reported indicator of religiosity was associated positively with perceived cooperativeness (in separate models), while race was associated negatively. We found no evidence of mediating or moderating relationships. Overall, our results provide additional evidence that persons who are more religious are perceived by others to be more cooperative and that this effect operates net of more readily observable characteristics that might influence interview dynamics and interviewers’evaluations of respondents’cooperativeness. However, our results also suggest that new, more specific measures of niceness are needed to improve our ability to fully measure this sociologically important concept and to refine our understanding of the relationship between religiosity and niceness.

Environmental Hazards and Veterans’Framing of Gulf War Illness

Abstract: Military personnel and other civilians were exposed to numerous environmental hazards during their service in the Persian Gulf Crisis. Nearly a decade later well over 100,000 veterans, spouses, and other civilians are claiming illnesses related to these exposures. The U.S. government denies a connection and refuses to sanction these claims of environmental illness. Analyzing data from in-depth interviews and various documents, the author examines the veterans' framing of Gulf War Illness and the government's response to this environmental illness frame.

Mental Maps: Social Networks and the Language of Critical Reviews

Abstract: This study uses network analysis to examine the correspondence, based on Bourdieu's theory of cultural production, between artists’positions in a structure of social relations and the critics’conceptions of their work. Shared gallery memberships among fine art photographers yield person-by-person matrices that are partitioned into structurally equivalent blocks. Three types of actors emerge: “stars” who have large loose-knit networks of bridge ties, “invisible collegians” who inhabit small dense cliques, and “stragglers” who have difficulty maintaining any sort of foothold in the network. Critical reviews of the photographers in the population are then analyzed for stylistic references, and the photographers are matched to stylistic categories. A match emerges between the types of networks and the stylistic perceptions of the critics. “Stars” are categorized with a wide variety of stylistic terms, often contradictory in nature. “Invisible collegians” and “stragglers” are routinely fit into one stylistic camp or another. Multiplying the person by style matrix by its transpose yields a person-by-person matrix of perceived shared stylistic affinity. “Stars” in this matrix have higher scores of both degree and “betweenness” centrality.

“Did You See What I Saw?” Gender Differences in Perceptions of Avenues to Prestige among Adolescents

Abstract: We use data from 1,796 college students to explore gender differences in perceptions of avenues to prestige during adolescence. Students attending seven large universities during the 1997–98 academic year provided information on the ways in which adolescents in their high schools had gained prestige with peers. The analysis reveals substantial gender differences in perceptions regarding the most common avenues to prestige. Most important, men were less likely than women to report that female students in their high schools accrued prestige through sports and grades, and more likely than women to report that male students accrued prestige through engaging in deviant behaviors, such as sexual activity, drug and alcohol use, and fighting. We discuss the findings in the context of gender differences in social perception and gender-role attitudes.

Sex Ratio and Family Structure in the Nonmetropolitan United States

Abstract: The sex ratio hypothesis maintains that the ratio of marriageable men to marriageable women can have major implications for family formation and structure. Despite extensive research attention, the sex ratio hypothesis has yet to be tested on general nonmetropolitan populations. This study of nonmetropolitan counties in the United States found strong support for the sex ratio hypothesis. Counties with low sex ratios (shortage of men) had lower proportions of married couple households and a corresponding higher proportion of female-headed households. These low sex ratio counties also had fewer adults married, and a lower proportion of their children living in married couple households with a higher proportion of children living in female-headed households.

A Structural Analysis of the R. Kahane Code of Informality: Elements toward a Theory of Informal Education

Abstract: Reuven Kahane's code of informality, which identifies and defines eight “internal structural components,” provides one of the few theoretical guides in the field of informal education. As a contribution to the development of a theoretical basis for empirical studies in this field, we wanted to uncover the underlying structural organization of these internal structural components. In a multidimensional analysis of Kahane's data, we found this structure of Kahane's eight components of informality along two axes. The first represents objects to which the structural components are applied: group, content, and activities. The second axis illustrates the components’expected impact–a process beginning with identification, moving through experimentation, and culminating in commitment. The process of experimentation represents a major contribution to the field on Kahane's part and is especially relevant to an understanding of education in a “postmodern” era. However, we found two gaps in the structure, possibly indicating missing components. Further analysis suggests that three of the components (modularity, pragmatic symbolism, and voluntarism) form a foundation of this structure and may be the minimal requirements for an understanding of informal activities and organizations.

Do State‐Designated Enterprise Zones Promote Economic Growth?

Abstract: In light of the economic stresses faced by many urban and rural places in the 1970s and 1980s, many communities began actively promoting local economic growth. Subsequently, sociologists became interested in the effectiveness of such efforts. In particular, they wanted to know whether places can purposefully alter their economies, or whether ecological and other factors commonly associated with growth are more powerful. State-designated enterprise zones are an example of such attempts. Data were collected from 51 enterprise zones in the United States. The data indicate that growth in number of firms and number of jobs within the zones did occur. The data also indicate that the rate of growth in the zone often surpassed its respective county. Further, while tax incentives are often touted as the key to economic development, this research finds that attention to the services and quality of life in the zone and a wide range of incentives overall matter more than the provision of tax cuts, subsidies, and other financial incentives alone. These results hold after controlling for other factors known to affect economic development.

Rationalists, Fatalists, and the Modern Superstitious: Test-Taking in Introductory Sociology

Abstract: As sociologists we are guided by a rational approach to understanding the social world. This rational approach is also evident in the way we test students. But do students approach tests from the same orientation that we take in creating them, or are they influenced by such nonrational orientations as superstitions? To explore this question the authors created and administered the Luck and Superstition Questionnaire to 426 students taking Introduction to Sociology. We found that nearly 70 percent of students indicate some level of test-related superstitious practice. However, we also found that superstitious practice was largely unrelated to religious belief and practice, gender and race, educational performance and grade expectations, and end-of-semester pressures. These results are entirely consistent with Colin Campbell's theory of modern superstition. Superstitious practice in modern society is self-sustaining–not integrated into social institutions or systems of belief–and only “half-believed” by the very practitioners of modern superstition.

Trends in military influences on army recruitment: 1915-1953

Abstract: The implementation of an all-volunteer force in 1974 sparked academic interest in U.S. Army recruiting. During the past three decades Moskos's (1977) Institution/ Occupation (I/O) thesis has dominated this literature. Moskos held that the U.S. Army was becoming less of an institution and more of an occupation. He warned about the danger of offering monetary incentives for enlistment which, he believed, threatened to transform a patriotic duty into a mere job and might also undermine motivation to fight during wartime. This study examines recruiting theme trends through an analysis of recruitment posters from 1915 to 1953. (In a companion article, we extend the examination from 1954 to 1990.) Findings indicate that the I/O thesis was not borne out (Janowitz 1977) and that military changes, including the emergence of an elite military culture, influenced recruitment themes.

Building Community from “Scratch”: Forces at Work among Urban Vietnamese Refugees in Milwaukee

Abstract: Drawing from extensive participant observation and qualitative interviewing, this paper describes and analyzes the Vietnamese “community” in Milwaukee, Wisconsin The author concludes that community, both as an element that is sensed by its members and a process identified by actual interaction, is virtually nonexistent Ten specific forces that inhibit community formation are identified under the overlapping categories of demographics, organizational issues, cultural factors, and class/power interests The underlying tendencies toward family isolationism and radical individualism are implicated as driving social forces that undermine community building Lessons learned from this case study about the process of community formation include the insufficiency of a common “enemy” or ethnic identity for sustainable community, social psychological issues, and environmental influences, as well as survival needs

An Exploration of the Independent Contributions of Genetics, Shared Environment, Specific Environment, and Adult Roles and Statuses on Perceived Control

Abstract: Perceived-control ‘describes individuals’generalized beliefs about their abilities to influence their life courses and circumstances. Most research concerning this construct has viewed perceived control as a developmentally acquired, stable personality characteristic. Others argue that perceived control is determined by current social status, with more privileged social positions contributing to increased control over life circumstances. This study analyzes data from the Virginia Twin Registry to determine the independent contributions of genetics, shared environment, and nonshared environment, including adult roles and statuses, on women's perceived control. Findings from latent variable twin models suggest that there are modest but significant effects of shared environment and genetics on perceived control but that the majority of individual variation in perceived control is due to nonshared environmental factors on perceived control among adult women. Analyses of measured individual-level variables indicate significant effects from education, income, earnings, marital quality, age, and single-parent status.