AJS; American Journal Of Sociology[JOURNAL]
Sun
200 papers
Red states, blue states, and divorce: understanding the impact of conservative Protestantism on regional variation in divorce rates.
Glass J, Levchak P
AJS · 2014 Jan · PMID 25032268 · Publisher ↗
Why do states with larger proportions of religious conservatives have higher divorce rates than states with lower proportions of religious conservatives? This project examines whether earlier transitions to marriage and...
Why do states with larger proportions of religious conservatives have higher divorce rates than states with lower proportions of religious conservatives? This project examines whether earlier transitions to marriage and parenthood among conservative Protestants (known risk factors for divorce) contribute to this paradox while attending to other plausible explanations. County-level demographic information from all 50 states is combined from a variety of public data sources and merged with individual records from the National Surveys of Family Growth to estimate both aggregated county and multilevel individual models of divorce. Results show that individual religious conservatism is positively related to individual divorce risk, solely through the earlier transitions to adulthood and lower incomes of conservative Protestants. However, the proportion of conservative Protestants in a county is also independently and positively associated with both the divorce rate in that county and an individual's likelihood of divorcing. The earlier family formation and lower levels of educational attainment and income in counties with a higher proportion of conservative Protestants can explain a substantial portion of this association. Little support is found for alternative explanations of the association between religious conservatism and divorce rates, including the relative popularity of marriage versus cohabitation across counties.
Job displacement among single mothers: effects on children's outcomes in young adulthood.
Brand JE, Thomas JS
AJS · 2014 Jan · PMID 25032267 · Full text
Given the recent era of economic upheaval, studying the effects of job displacement has seldom been so timely and consequential. Despite a large literature associating displacement with worker well-being, relatively few...
Given the recent era of economic upheaval, studying the effects of job displacement has seldom been so timely and consequential. Despite a large literature associating displacement with worker well-being, relatively few studies focus on the effects of parental displacement on child well-being, and fewer still focus on implications for children of single-parent households. Moreover, notwithstanding a large literature on the relationship between single motherhood and children's outcomes, research on intergenerational effects of involuntary employment separations among single mothers is limited. Using 30 years of nationally representative panel data and propensity score matching methods, the authors find significant negative effects of job displacement among single mothers on children's educational attainment and social-psychological well-being in young adulthood. Effects are concentrated among older children and children whose mothers had a low likelihood of displacement, suggesting an important role for social stigma and relative deprivation in the effects of socioeconomic shocks on child well-being.
Spatial segmentation and the black middle class.
Sharkey P
AJS · 2014 Jan · PMID 25032266 · Publisher ↗
Ethnographic studies of the black middle class focus attention on the ways in which residential environments condition the experiences of different segments of the black class structure. This study places these arguments...
Ethnographic studies of the black middle class focus attention on the ways in which residential environments condition the experiences of different segments of the black class structure. This study places these arguments in a larger demographic context by providing a national analysis of neighborhood inequality and spatial inequality of different racial and ethnic groups in urban America. The findings show that there has been no change over time in the degree to which majority-black neighborhoods are surrounded by spatial disadvantage. Predominantly black neighborhoods, regardless of socioeconomic composition, continue to be spatially linked with areas of severe disadvantage. However, there has been substantial change in the degree to which middle- and upper-income African-American households have separated themselves from highly disadvantaged neighborhoods. These changes are driven primarily by the growing segment of middle- and upper-income African-Americans living in neighborhoods in which they are not the majority group, both in central cities and in suburbs.
How population structure shapes neighborhood segregation.
Bruch EE
AJS · 2014 Mar · PMID 25009360 · Full text
This study provides a framework for understanding how population composition conditions the relationship between individuals' choices about group affiliation and aggregate patterns of social separation or integration. Th...
This study provides a framework for understanding how population composition conditions the relationship between individuals' choices about group affiliation and aggregate patterns of social separation or integration. The substantive focus is the role of income inequality in racial residential segregation. The author identifies three population parameters--between-group inequality, within-group inequality, and relative group size--that determine how income inequality between race groups affects racial segregation. She uses data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics to estimate models of individual-level residential mobility and incorporates these estimates into agent-based models. She then simulates segregation dynamics under alternative assumptions about (1) the relative size of minority groups and (2) the degree of correlation between race and income among individuals. The author finds that income inequality can have offsetting effects at the high and low ends of the income distribution. She demonstrates the empirical relevance of the simulation results using fixed-effects, metro-level regressions applied to 1980-2000 U.S. census data.
Relative deprivation and internal migration in the United States: A comparison of black and white men.
Flippen C
AJS · 2013 Mar · PMID 24391221 · Full text
While the link between geographic and social mobility has long been a cornerstone of sociological approaches to migration, recent research has cast doubt on the economic returns to internal U.S. migration. Moreover, impo...
While the link between geographic and social mobility has long been a cornerstone of sociological approaches to migration, recent research has cast doubt on the economic returns to internal U.S. migration. Moreover, important racial disparities in migration patterns remain poorly understood. Drawing on data from the 2000 census, I reappraise the link between migration and social mobility by taking relative deprivation into consideration. I examine the association between migration, disaggregated by region of origin and destination, and absolute and relative earnings and occupational prestige, separately by race. Findings lend new insight into the theoretical and stratification implications of growing racial disparities in migration patterns; while both blacks and whites who move north-south generally average lower absolute incomes than their stationary northern peers, they enjoy significantly higher relative social position. Moreover, the relative "gains" to migration are substantially larger for blacks than whites. The opposite patterns obtain for south-north migration.
The Embeddedness of Adolescent Friendship Nominations: The Formation of Social Capital in Emergent Network Structures.
Frank KA, Muller C, Mueller AS
AJS · 2013 Jul · PMID 25364011 · Full text
Although research on social embeddedness and social capital con-firms the value of friendship networks, little has been written about how social relations form and are structured by social institutions. Using data from t...
Although research on social embeddedness and social capital con-firms the value of friendship networks, little has been written about how social relations form and are structured by social institutions. Using data from the Adolescent Health and Academic Achievement study and the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, the authors show that the odds of a new friendship nomination were 1.77 times greater within clusters of high school students taking courses together than between them. The estimated effect cannot be attributed to exposure to peers in similar grade levels, indirect friendship links, or pair-level course overlap, and the finding is robust to alternative model specifications. The authors also show how tendencies associated with status hierarchy inhering in triadic friendship nominations are neutralized within the clusters. These results have implications for the production and distribution of social capital within social systems such as schools, giving the clusters social salience as "local positions."
Bright Futures in Malawi's New Dawn: Educational Aspirations as Assertions of Identity.
Frye M
AJS · 2012 May · PMID 23645932 · Full text
Imagined futures, once a vital topic of theoretical inquiry within the sociology of culture, have been sidelined in recent decades. Rational choice models cannot explain the seemingly irrational optimism of youth aspirat...
Imagined futures, once a vital topic of theoretical inquiry within the sociology of culture, have been sidelined in recent decades. Rational choice models cannot explain the seemingly irrational optimism of youth aspirations, pointing to the need to explore other alternatives. This article incorporates insights from pragmatist theory and cognitive sociology to examine the relationship between imagined futures and present actions and experiences in rural Malawi, where future optimism appears particularly unfounded. Drawing from in-depth interviews and archival sources documenting ideological campaigns promoting schooling, the author shows that four elements are understood to jointly produce educational success: ambitious career goals, sustained effort, unflagging optimism, and resistance to temptation. Aspirations should be interpreted not as rational calculations, but instead as assertions of a virtuous identity, claims to be "one who aspires."
COHORT CHANGE, DIFFUSION, AND SUPPORT FOR ENVIRONMENTAL SPENDING IN THE UNITED STATES.
Pampel FC, Hunter LM
AJS · 2012 Sep · PMID 24639591 · Full text
The long-standing and sometimes heated debates over the direction and size of the effect of socioeconomic status (SES) on environmental concern contrast post-materialist and affluence arguments, suggesting a positive rel...
The long-standing and sometimes heated debates over the direction and size of the effect of socioeconomic status (SES) on environmental concern contrast post-materialist and affluence arguments, suggesting a positive relationship in high-income nations, with counter arguments for a negative or near zero relationship. A diffusion-of-innovations approach adapts parts of both arguments by predicting that high SES groups first adopt pro-environmental views, which produces a positive relationship. Like other innovations, however, environmentalism diffuses over time to other SES groups, which subsequently weakens the association. We test this argument using the General Social Survey from 1973 to 2008 to compare support for environmental spending across 83 cohorts born from around 1900 to 1982. In developing attitudes before, during, and after the emergence of environmentalism, varying cohorts provide the contrast needed to identify long-term changes in environmental concern. Multilevel age, period, and cohort models support diffusion arguments by demonstrating the effects, across cohorts, of three common indicators of SES - education, income and occupational prestige - first strengthen and then weaken. This finding suggests that diffusion of environmental concern first produces positive relationships consistent with postmaterialism arguments and later produces null or negative relationships consistent with global environmentalism arguments.
Citizenship rights for immigrants: national political processes and cross-national convergence in western Europe, 1980-2008.
Koopmans R, Michalowski I, Waibel S
AJS · 2012 Jan · PMID 22594120 · Publisher ↗
Immigrant citizenship rights in the nation-state reference both theories of cross-national convergence and the resilience of national political processes. This article investigates European countries' attribution of righ...
Immigrant citizenship rights in the nation-state reference both theories of cross-national convergence and the resilience of national political processes. This article investigates European countries' attribution of rights to immigrants: Have these rights become more inclusive and more similar across countries? Are they affected by EU membership, the role of the judiciary, the party in power, the size of the immigrant electorate, or pressure exerted by anti-immigrant parties? Original data on 10 European countries, 1980-2008, reveal no evidence for cross-national convergence. Rights tended to become more inclusive until 2002, but stagnated afterward. Electoral changes drive these trends: growth of the immigrant electorate led to expansion, but countermobilization by right-wing parties slowed or reversed liberalizations. These electoral mechanisms are in turn shaped by long-standing policy traditions, leading to strong path dependence and the reproduction of preexisting cross-national differences.
Human rights as myth and ceremony? Reevaluating the effectiveness of human rights treaties, 1981-2007.
Cole WM
AJS · 2012 Jan · PMID 22594119 · Publisher ↗
Much research has shown human rights treaties to be ineffective or even counterproductive, often contributing to greater levels of abuse among countries that ratify them. This article reevaluates the effect of four core...
Much research has shown human rights treaties to be ineffective or even counterproductive, often contributing to greater levels of abuse among countries that ratify them. This article reevaluates the effect of four core human rights treaties on a variety of human rights outcomes. Unlike previous studies, it disaggregates treaty membership to examine the effect of relatively "stronger" and "weaker" commitments. Two-stage regression analyses that control for the endogeneity of treaty membership show that stronger commitments in the form of optional provisions that allow states and individuals to complain about human rights abuses are often associated with improved practices. The article discusses the scholarly and practical implications of these findings.
Settler colonial power and the American Indian sovereignty movement: forms of domination, strategies of transformation.
Steinman E
AJS · 2012 Jan · PMID 22594118 · Publisher ↗
The article extends the multi-institutional model of power and change through an analysis of the American Indian Sovereignty Movement. Drawing upon cultural models of the state, and articulating institutionalist concepti...
The article extends the multi-institutional model of power and change through an analysis of the American Indian Sovereignty Movement. Drawing upon cultural models of the state, and articulating institutionalist conceptions of political opportunities and resources, the analysis demonstrates that this framework can be applied to challenges addressing the state as well as nonstate fields. The rational-legal diminishment of tribal rights, bureaucratic paternalism, commonsense views of tribes as racial/ethnic minorities, and the binary construction of American and Indian as oppositional identities diminished the appeal of "contentious" political action. Instead, to establish tribes' status as sovereign nations, tribal leaders aggressively enacted infrastructural power, transposed favorable legal rulings across social fields to legitimize sovereignty discourses, and promoted a pragmatic coexistence with state and local governments. Identifying the United States as a settler colonial society, the study suggests that a decolonizing framework is more apt than racial/ethnicity approaches in conceptualizing the struggle of American Indians.
Gender deviance and household work: the role of occupation.
Schneider D
AJS · 2012 Jan · PMID 22594117 · Publisher ↗
This article takes a new approach to gender and housework by identifying a new measure of gender deviance--work in gender-atypical occupations--and by arguing that men who do "women's work" and women who do "men's work"...
This article takes a new approach to gender and housework by identifying a new measure of gender deviance--work in gender-atypical occupations--and by arguing that men who do "women's work" and women who do "men's work" in the labor market may seek to neutralize their gender deviance by doing male- and female-typed work at home. Analysis of data from the National Survey of Families and Households and the 2003-7 waves of the American Time Use Survey shows that men who do "women's work" in the market spend more time on male-typed housework relative to men in gender-balanced occupations and their wives spend more time on female-typed housework. Women in gender-atypical occupations also do more female-typed housework than women in gender-balanced occupations. The article provides clearer evidence about the important ways in which cultural conceptions of gender shape and are shaped by economic processes.
When Do Fathers Care? Mothers' Economic Contribution and Fathers' Involvement in Child Care.
Raley S, Bianchi SM, Wang W
AJS · 2012 Mar · PMID 26379287 · Full text
Previous literature suggests a tenuous link between fathers' care of children and maternal employment and earnings. This study shows that the link is stronger when measures of caregiving capture fathers' increased respon...
Previous literature suggests a tenuous link between fathers' care of children and maternal employment and earnings. This study shows that the link is stronger when measures of caregiving capture fathers' increased responsibility for children. The analysis of time diary data from 6,572 married fathers and 7,376 married mothers with children under age 13 indicates that fathers (1) engage in more "solo" care of children when their wives are employed, (2) are more likely to do the kind of child care associated with responsibility for their children when their wives spend more time in the labor market, and (3) participate more in routine care when their wives contribute a greater share of the couple's earnings. In addition, the "father care" to "mother care" ratio rises when mothers contribute a greater share of household earnings.
Organized Labor and Racial Wage Inequality in the United States.
Rosenfeld J, Kleykamp M
AJS · 2012 Mar · PMID 25620802 · Full text
Why have African-American private-sector unionization rates surpassed those of white workers for decades, and how has private-sector union decline exacerbated black-white wage inequality? Using data from the Current Popu...
Why have African-American private-sector unionization rates surpassed those of white workers for decades, and how has private-sector union decline exacerbated black-white wage inequality? Using data from the Current Population Survey (1973-2007), the authors show that African-Americans join unions for protection against discriminatory treatment in nonunion sectors. A model-predicted wage series also shows that, among women, black-white weekly wage gaps would be between 13% and 30% lower if union representation remained at high levels. The effect of deunionization on racial wage inequality for men is less substantial, but without deunionization, weekly wages for black men would be an estimated $49 higher. The results recast organized labor as an institution vital for its economic inclusion of African-American men and women. This study points to the need to move beyond class-based analyses of union decline to an understanding of the gendered role unions once played in mitigating racial inequality.
Wealth and the marital divide.
Schneider D
AJS · 2011 Sep · PMID 22268248 · Publisher ↗
Marriage patterns differ dramatically in the United States by race and education. The author identifies a novel explanation for these marital divides, namely, the important role of personal wealth in marriage entry. Usin...
Marriage patterns differ dramatically in the United States by race and education. The author identifies a novel explanation for these marital divides, namely, the important role of personal wealth in marriage entry. Using event-history models and data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 cohort, the author shows that wealth is an important predictor of first marriage and that differences in asset ownership by race and education help to explain a significant portion of the race and education gaps in first marriage. The article also tests possible explanations for why wealth plays an important role in first marriage entry.
Pride and prejudice: employment discrimination against openly gay men in the United States.
Tilcsik A
AJS · 2011 Sep · PMID 22268247 · Publisher ↗
This article presents the first large-scale audit study of discrimination against openly gay men in the United States. Pairs of fictitious résumés were sent in response to 1,769 job postings in seven states. One résumé i...
This article presents the first large-scale audit study of discrimination against openly gay men in the United States. Pairs of fictitious résumés were sent in response to 1,769 job postings in seven states. One résumé in each pair was randomly assigned experience in a gay campus organization, and the other résumé was assigned a control organization. Two main findings have emerged. First, in some but not all states, there was significant discrimination against the fictitious applicants who appeared to be gay. This geographic variation in the level of discrimination appears to reflect regional differences in attitudes and antidiscrimination laws. Second, employers who emphasized the importance of stereotypically male heterosexual traits were particularly likely to discriminate against openly gay men. Beyond these particular findings, this study advances the audit literature more generally by covering multiple regions and by highlighting how audit techniques may be used to identify stereotypes that affect employment decisions in real labor markets.
Practicing What They Preach? Lynching and Religion in the American South, 1890 - 1929.
Bailey AK, Snedker KA
AJS · 2011 Nov · PMID 24327771 · Full text
This project employs a moral solidarity framework to explore the relationship between organized religion and lynching in the American South. We ask whether a county's religious composition impacted its rate of lynching,...
This project employs a moral solidarity framework to explore the relationship between organized religion and lynching in the American South. We ask whether a county's religious composition impacted its rate of lynching, net of demographic and economic controls. We find evidence for the solidarity thesis using three religious metrics. First, our findings show that counties with greater religious diversity experienced more lynching, supporting the notion that a pluralistic religious marketplace with competing religious denominations weakened the bonds of a cohesive moral community and might have enhanced white racial solidarity. Second, counties in which a larger share of the black population worshipped in churches controlled by blacks experienced higher levels of racial violence, indicating a threat to the prevailing moral community or inter-group racially based solidarity. Finally, we find a lower incidence of lynching in counties where a larger share of church members belonged to denominations with racially mixed denominations, suggesting that cross-racial solidarity served to reduce racial violence.
The end of the gender revolution? Gender role attitudes from 1977 to 2008.
Cotter D, Hermsen JM, Vanneman R
AJS · 2011 Jul · PMID 22003521 · Publisher ↗
After becoming consistently more egalitarian for more than two decades, gender role attitudes in the General Social Survey have changed little since the mid-1990s. This plateau mirrors other gender trends, suggesting a f...
After becoming consistently more egalitarian for more than two decades, gender role attitudes in the General Social Survey have changed little since the mid-1990s. This plateau mirrors other gender trends, suggesting a fundamental alteration in the momentum toward gender equality. While cohort replacement can explain about half of the increasing egalitarianism between 1974 and 1994, the changes since the mid-1990s are not well accounted for by cohort differences. Nor is the post-1994 stagnation explained by structural or broad ideological changes in American society. The recent lack of change in gender attitudes is more likely the consequence of the rise of a new cultural frame, an "egalitarian essentialism" that blends aspects of feminist equality and traditional motherhood roles.
Network position and sexual dysfunction: implications of partner betweenness for men.
Cornwell B, Laumann EO
AJS · 2011 Jul · PMID 22003520 · Full text
This article combines relational perspectives on gender identity with social network structural perspectives on health to understand men's sexual functioning. The authors argue that network positions that afford independ...
This article combines relational perspectives on gender identity with social network structural perspectives on health to understand men's sexual functioning. The authors argue that network positions that afford independence and control over social resources are consistent with traditional masculine roles and may therefore affect men's sexual performance. For example, when a heterosexual man's female partner has more frequent contact with his confidants than he does--which the authors refer to as partner betweenness--his relational autonomy, privacy, and control are constrained. Analyses of data from the National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project (NSHAP) show that about a quarter of men experience partner betweennessa and that these men are 92% more likely to report erectile dysfunction. Partner betweenness is strongest among the youngest men in the sample, which may reflect changing conceptions of masculinity in later life. The authors consider several explanations for these findings and urge additional research on the links between health, gender, and network structure.
The population dynamics of black-white-mulatto racial systems.
Montgomery JD
AJS · 2011 Jul · PMID 22003519 · Publisher ↗
Building on Preston and Campbell's two-sex model of intergenerational transmission, this article provides a theoretical analysis of the dynamics of the racial distribution in black-white-mulatto systems. The author shows...
Building on Preston and Campbell's two-sex model of intergenerational transmission, this article provides a theoretical analysis of the dynamics of the racial distribution in black-white-mulatto systems. The author shows that "bounded" patterns of racial classification and switching imply long-run racial homogeneity in the absence of differential reproduction. Beyond the theoretical analysis, the author attempts to account for the dramatic growth of the white population share in Puerto Rico in the early 20th century. Because the effects of racial classification and differential reproduction were roughly offsetting, the observed growth of the white share can be attributed almost entirely to racial switching.
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