Ethnic Differences in Financial Outcomes Among Low-Income Older Asian Immigrants: A Financial Capability Perspective

ABSTRACT

This exploratory study examined ethnic differences in financial outcomes among low-income older Asian immigrants from a financial capability perspective. We used survey data collected from a convenience sample of Chinese, Korean, and “Other Asian” ethnic participants in a subsidized employment program (n = 159). We ran logit regressions of dichotomous financial outcomes. Regression analysis showed significant ethnic differences in some financial outcomes after controlling for financial capability and other factors. Findings did not support our hypothesis that financial capability explains ethnic differences in financial outcomes. Findings suggest the need to develop culturally suitable financial capability measures for future research.     

Immigration and Economic Conditions Among Older Asian Americans

This study compares native-immigrant gaps in economic conditions among older Asian Americans to those in other racial groups. This study uses the American Community Survey data collected from 2006 to 2010. The sample consists of Asians, whites, blacks, and Hispanics, who are 65 years old or older (N = 2,205,148). The dependent variables are per capita income, poverty, asset income, homeownership, and vehicle ownership. This study employs linear and logit regressions. Analysis results show that older native Asian Americans’ economic statuses are comparable to or better than older native whites. Older immigrant Asian Americans’ economic situations are worse off than older immigrant whites but better off than their black and Hispanic counterparts. Regression analyses indicate that native-immigrant gaps among older Asian Americans are significantly larger than those among other racial groups. These findings suggest that the public perception of economically successful immigrant Asians is not consistent with the economic reality of older immigrant Asian Americans. Analysis results call for further research on native-immigrant gaps among older Asian Americans and policy interventions to enhance economic security among older minority groups, including older immigrant Asian Americans.     

Maximal inequalities and strong law of large numbers for sequences of m-asymptotically almost negatively associated random variables

In this paper, we establish some inequalities for maximum of partial sums of m-asymptotically almost negatively associated random variables. With the help of these inequalities we prove some strong law of large numbers.     

Family planning practice and women's fertility decision-making power

This paper investigates the effects of family planning practice on fertility decision-making power in South Korea. The log-linear analysis of the 1981 survey data by the Institute of Population and Health Services Research, Yonsei University, Seoul, Korea, shows that those urban and rural women who practice family planning or have experienced abortion exercise greater influence on a couple's fertility decision making than those who do not practice family planning or who have had no abortion experience. In addition, there is the interactive effect of abortion experience and contraceptive use on fertility decision making among urban women. This finding is significant because regardless of how birth control is available within a society, birth control use enhances women's decision making power where fertility is concerned.     

Occupational Status in 2000; Over a Century of Census-Based Measurement

The Nam–Powers–Boyd Occupational Status Scale for the year 2000 is introduced here. It is the sixth in a decennial series of such scales that were initiated at the Census Bureau a half century earlier. The bureau's examination of occupational status actually goes back to the end of the 19th century and its thread continues today. The historical background of the 2000 scale, the methodology for constructing the scores, some comparisons with other occupational scales, the 2000 scores themselves, and applications of the 2000 scores are presented.     

The moral middle-class in market socialism: An investigation into the personhood of women working in NGOs in Vietnam

The paper uncovers the values that Vietnamese women produce and accumulate from the NGO sector to acquire a morality central to their middle-class identity. They present an idea of a moral middle-class that conforms to the neoliberal criteria of self-reliance and self-optimisation within the economic segment, in which values are generated in the forms of sacrifice and giving away. I argue that this idea is associated with a mode of governmentality whereby the socialist state shapes the moral subject for the sake of governance in the context of marketisation. Morality, as a governing device, motivates and polices women's compliance with their subordinate position. This paper presents findings that illustrate the slipperiness of the notion of middle-class between theories and practices and from women's perspectives. Perceived in part in terms of women's sacrifices, this study illustrates how middle-class identity is negotiated through moral, gender and class divisions in a post-socialist society.     

Adult mortality differentials associated with cigarette smoking in the USA

Although cigarette smoking has been extensively researched, surprising little knowledge has been produced by demographers using demographic perspectives and techniques. Thus, this paper contributes to the literature by extending a demographic framework to an important behavior for mortality research: cigarette smoking. In earlier works, the authors used nationally-representative data to show that cause of death patterns varied by smoking status and that multiple causes of death characterized smokers moreso than non-smokers. The present work extends previous analysis by estimating smoking status mortality differentials by underlying and multiple causes of death and by age and sex. Data from the 1986 National Mortality Followback Survey are related to data from the 1985 and 1987 National Health Interview Survey supplements to assess the smoking-related mortality differentials. We find that cigarette smoking is associated with higher mortality for all population categories studied, that the smoking mortality differentials vary across the different smoking status categories and by demographic group, and that the mortality differentials vary according to whether underlying cause or multiple cause patterns of death are examined. Moreover, the multiple cause analysis highlights otherwise obscured smoking-mortality relations and points to the importance of respiratory diseases and cancers other than lung cancer for cigarette smoking research.     

Will It Help? Identifying Socialization Discourses That Promote Sexual Risk and Sexual Health Among African American Youth

Because much of the existing research examining sexual communication to African American youth focuses on demographic and parental factors predicting sexual risk behaviors, less is known about factors predicting sexual health, and little is understood about the contributions of peer communications. The current study aimed to expand existing approaches by assessing which socialization discourses communicated by parents and peers contribute to sexual risk and health outcomes (sexual assertiveness, positive sexual affect, and condom self-efficacy). Participants were 631 African American undergraduates (73% female) who indicated the extent to which they had received from their parents and peers each of 28 messages representing four cultural discourses: abstinence, relational sex, sex positive, and gendered sexual roles. As expected, parents were perceived to emphasize relational sex and abstinence messages more than peers, and peers were perceived to communicate sex-positive and gendered sex role messages more than parents. Greater exposure to abstinence messages predicted lower levels of sexual experimentation, whereas exposure to sex-positive messages predicted higher levels. In addition, exposure to relational sex and sex-positive messages predicted higher levels of sexual assertiveness and positive sexual affect. Implications are discussed concerning sexual communications that could help Black youth develop healthy sexual perspectives.     

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