Attitudes of New Immigrant and Veteran-Resident Israeli Divorced Mothers Toward Single Motherhood

The aim of the study is to compare the attitudes of immigrant and veteran-resident divorced mothers toward single motherhood. The comparison focuses on two dimensions: personal attitudes and perceived social attitudes. Respondents included 100 divorced mothers who emigrated from the former Soviet Union after 1989 and 100 long-term Israeli divorced mothers. The immigrant divorced mothers, often having divorced following disagreement over the decision to emigrate, are forced to undergo parallel adjustment processes to a new society and to the new lifestyle inherent in single-parent households. Additionally, they are caught between attitudes toward single parenthood in their culture of origin, where divorce is common, and in Israeli culture, where the family plays a much more stable and central role. Results show that veteran-resident divorcees express significantly more favourable personal attitudes toward single motherhood, while immigrant divorcees perceive social attitudes as being more favourable. Immigration was found to affect personal and perceived social attitudes significantly, above and beyond demographic attributes.     

Gender roles,marriage, and residential independence

This article examines the effects of gender role attitudes on leaving home for marriage and for unmarried independence among young men and women in the United States in the 1980s. The choice to leave home for unmarried independence is associated with two major changes in family relationships: the shift in parent-child interaction from a traditional emphasis on children's obedience toward a greater stress on independence, and the shift toward more egalitarian definitions of gender roles in both work and family spheres. We ask the following: What is the effect of holding more modern gender role attitudes on gender differences in leaving home for marriage? Does holding more modern gender role attitudes influence patterns of leaving home for marriage and for unmarried independence differently for men and women? We examine these questions with data from sophomores in the High School and Beyond Survey.     

Black heterosexuals’ attitudes toward lesbians and gay men in the United States

Although the direction and intensity of Black heterosexuals’ attitudes toward homosexuality have been topics for considerable speculation, empirical data from representative samples previously have not been available. In the current article we report findings from a two‐wave telephone survey with a national probability sample of 391 Black heterosexual adults. Results indicated that negative attitudes toward homosexuality are widespread but do not appear to be more prevalent among Blacks than among Whites. Gender differences in Black heterosexuals’ attitudes (men's attitudes toward gay men were more negative than their attitudes toward lesbians or women's attitudes toward gay men) appeared to result primarily from men's greater tendency to regard male homosexuality as unnatural. The single most important predictor of attitudes was the attribution of choice to sexual orientation: Respondents who believed that homosexuality is beyond an individual's control expressed significantly more favorable attitudes toward gay men and lesbians than did respondents who regarded homosexuality as a choice. Consistent with previous research in predominantly White samples, respondents were more likely to express favorable attitudes if they were highly educated, unmarried, politically liberal, registered to vote and not religious, and if they included Blacks in their concept of gay men. In addition, respondents reported more favorable attitudes if they had experienced personal contact with gay men or lesbians, but this was not a significant predictor of attitudes when other variables were statistically controlled. Possible differences between Blacks’ and Whites’ social constructions of sexual orientation are discussed.     

Professional vs. personal factors related to physicians' attitudes toward drug testing

Questionnaires concerning attitudes toward alcohol and drug testing in the workplace, personal experiences with these substances, professional experiences in treating abuses, religious and political ideology and other personal and professional characteristics were completed by 303 internists, family physicians, gastroenterologists and psychiatrists. Drug testing was most favored by those who more strongly believed in the efficacy of treatment for abusers, the seriousness of the drug problem, the illegality of drug abuse and that marijuana use should not be permissible. Many other personal but almost no professional characteristics were correlated with attitudes toward drug testing. Physicians' opinions about drug testing strongly reflected personal ideologies rather than medical training or clinical experience.     

Four Decades of Trends in Attitudes Toward Family Issues in the United States: The 1960s Through the 1990s

This article examines trends in family attitudes and values across the last 4 decades of the 20th century, with particular emphasis on the past 2 decades. The article focuses on attitudes toward a wide range of family issues, including the roles of men and women, marriage, divorce, childlessness, premarital sex, extramarital sex, unmarried cohabitation, and unmarried childbearing. More generally, the article considers trends in 3 broad contemporary values: freedom; equality; and commitment to family, marriage, and children. Five data sets are used for the article: Monitoring the Future, General Social Survey, International Social Science Project, Intergenerational Panel Study of Parents and Children, and the National Survey of Families and Households. These 5 data sets reveal substantial and persistent long‐term trends toward the endorsement of gender equality in families, which may have plateaued at very high levels in recent years. There have also been important and continuing long‐term trends toward individual autonomy and tolerance toward a diversity of personal and family behaviors as reflected in increased acceptance of divorce, premarital sex, unmarried cohabitation, remaining single, and choosing to be childless. At the same time, marriage and family life remain important in the cultural ethos, with large and relatively stable fractions of young people believing that marriage and family life are important and planning marriage and the bearing and rearing of children.     

Attitudes toward gambling among adolescents

It is well documented that attitudes toward gambling are a good predictor of problem gambling during adolescence. However, so far, little is known about what factors are associated with adolescents' gambling attitudes. This study used cross-sectional data (N = 2055, response rate 70.4%) from a representative sample of 17-year-olds in Norway to investigate the relationship between demographic, personality, motivational and social variables and gambling attitudes. Overall, adolescents' attitudes toward gambling were slightly negative. A multivariate analysis revealed that more favourable attitudes toward gambling were most strongly associated with family/peer approval of gambling. In addition, significant associations were found for gender (males more favourable); Sensation Seeking (positive association); Agreeableness (negative association); and family/peer gambling history (positive association for lifetime gambling, negative association for problematic gambling). Although a variety of individual-level and social factors are associated with more favourable attitudes toward gambling, it appears that family and peer approval of gambling are most important.     

Understanding Latino Family Attitudes in Relation to Latino Gang Members' Substance Abuse

Abstract

This paper presents a content analysis of ethnographic interviews from long-term Latino gang members whose families have recently immigrated to the United States. Positive relationships within the family, parental support, a consistent and constructive parental discipline style and adult supervision tend to be related negatively to adolescents' deviant behaviors and their association with deviant peers. An expected positive relationship between the parent-child constructs, adolescents' deviant behaviors, and association with deviant peers was not found. Positive family attitudes toward deviance were associated with the number of drug type transactions and greater levels of drug use. This association has been overlooked in previous research.

Our study expands the examination of the influence a family's positive attitudes toward deviance has on the apparent progression of drug use in a sample of Latino gang members with histories of drug use. An analysis of structured interview content differentiated family attitudes toward deviance as: encouragement and tolerance, imitation, and defining norms.     

GENDER DIFFERENCES IN JOB SATISFACTION

This article analyzes gender differences in job satisfaction among full-time workers. Why do women report equal or greater job satisfaction than men in spite of objectively inferior jobs? Analysis reveals few differences between men and women in the determinants of job satisfaction when considering job characteristics, family responsibilities, and personal expectations. Little support is found for theories that men and women: (1) focus on different aspects of work in arriving at a given level of job satisfaction; (2) differentially condition their job satisfaction according to the extent of their family responsibilities; and (3) employ different personal expectations in evaluating their jobs. Two alternative explanations for women's relatively positive job attitudes are considered. First, women may arrive at a higher level of job satisfaction than men by using different comparison groups. Second, men may be more willing to verbalize dissatisfaction with work because of different socialization. The most likely explanation is that these processes operate in conjunction to produce greater reported job satisfaction among women.     

Traditional and Nontraditional Mormon Women:

Political attitudes and sociolization of traditional, tranisitional, feminist Mormon and feminist ex-Mormon women were examined. The feminist groups had less conservative political beliefs and party affiliations and more liberal attitudes toward authority than the traditional and transitional women. Contrary to hypotheses, sense of personal control in the childhood family and mother's independence were not greater among feminists than among traditional women nor were fathers more encouraging of mothers' autonomy. Feminists were, as expected, less emotionally close to their mothers. Mothers of feminists were less politically conservative and likely to work full-time. An argument for a modeling and a dissatisfaction effect was made.     

Youth leadership program for changing self-image and attitude toward people with disabilities

Society has a negative attitude toward people with intellectual disabilities or psychiatric disabilities. It is well documented that they are subjected to prejudice, stigma, and negative attitudes (Di Giulio, 2003 ; Finger, 1994 ). Professional literature indicates that information about disabilities and encounters with persons with disabilities can change negative attitudes (Carter, Hughes, Copeland, & Breen, 2001 ; Krajewski & Flaherty, 2000 ). This study accompanied 164 9th-grade students from various junior high schools throughout Israel. Half of the students participated in an integration program for changing attitudes toward persons with disabilities, and the other half served as the control group. The research examined the existence and the degree of relationship between participation in the program, changes in attitudes toward people with disabilities, and self-image. The research findings pointed to a positive change in attitudes of the participants of the program in comparison with the control group, resulting mainly from personal contact with people with disabilities. No relationship was found between levels of self-image of the research group and attitudes toward people with disabilities.     

Attitudes toward homosexuality among U.S. residents of Mexican descent

This study examined attitudes toward lesbians and gay men in a sample of northern California residents of Mexican descent (N = 616), using 3-item versions of the Attitudes Toward Gay Men (ATG) and Attitudes Toward Lesbians (ATL) scales presented simultaneously in Spanish and English. Males attitudes toward homosexual men were significantly more negative than females attitudes, whereas females expressed relatively negative attitudes toward lesbians. Overall, respondents expressing negative attitudes endorsed more traditional gender attitudes than respondents with positive attitudes, tended to be older and less educated, had more children, were more likely to belong to a fundamentalist religious denomination and to attend religious services frequently, were more conservative politically, and were less likely to have personal contact with gay people. Further analyses revealed that associations between attitudes and education, number of children, personal contact, and religious attendance occurred mainly among respondents who spoke and read English (rather than Spanish) or identified with U.S. culture (rather than Mexican culture).     

Attitudes toward homosexuality among U.S. residents of Mexican descent

This study examined attitudes toward lesbians and gay men in a sample of northern California residents of Mexican descent (N = 616), using 3‐item versions of the Attitudes Toward Gay Men (ATG) and Attitudes Toward Lesbians (ATL) scales presented simultaneously in Spanish and English. Males’ attitudes toward homosexual men were significantly more negative than females’ attitudes, whereas females expressed relatively negative attitudes toward lesbians. Overall, respondents expressing negative attitudes endorsed more traditional gender attitudes than respondents with positive attitudes, tended to be older and less educated, had more children, were more likely to belong to a fundamentalist religious denomination and to attend religious services frequently, were more conservative politically, and were less likely to have personal contact with gay people. Further analyses revealed that associations between attitudes and education, number of children, personal contact, and religious attendance occurred mainly among respondents who spoke and read English (rather than Spanish) or identified with U.S. culture (rather than Mexican culture).     

Attitudes Toward the Unemployed

The present study examined whether politicalorientation, experience of unemployment or with theunemployed, and/or occupational background predictedthree dimensions of attitudes expressed toward theunemployed in conversation. The three dimensions were:nature of attitude, variability in attitude, and form ofattitude. Sixty-seven employed individuals participated.Political orientation was found to be a good predictor of the nature of and variability inattitudes toward the unemployed. It was also a goodpredictor of the form with which attitudes wereexpressed in general, with political moderates usingfewer generalizations than those who were politicallypolarized, but it was not a good predictor of the formthat people used to express particular types ofattitude. Occupational group also predicted the nature of and variability in attitudes toward theunemployed, with other factors constant. Personalexperience was a good predictor of the form of attitudeexpressed. Those with more experience with unemployed people tended to use fewer generalizations.However, personal experience of unemployment or with theunemployed did not predict the nature of attitudesexpressed.     

Examining the Relationship Between Female Inmate Homosexual Behavior and Attitudes Toward Homosexuality and Homosexuals

Most sociologists and penologists tend to shy away from studying inmate attitudes toward homosexuality and homosexuals. Researchers within the corrections field who focus on prison sexuality typically conduct their research on consensual samesex sexual behavior and sexual coercion. The focus of the present study, however, was to ascertain female inmates' attitudes toward homosexuality and homosexuals while exploring the role ofseveral predictor variables on their attitudes. Specifically, the authors examine the relationship between female inmate homosexual behavior and attitudes toward homosexuality and homosexuals. Because of the number of items pertaining to attitudes toward homosexuality and homosexuals, factor analysis was conducted to examine whether the items measured similar constructs. Results ofthe factor analysis revealed two distinct factors/issues:civil/personal rights and personal deviance models. The mostsalient, and only statistically significant, variables in the civil/personal rights model were age, homosexual activity prior to incarceration, and homosexual activity during incarceration. Homosexual behavior during incarceration was the only statistically significant predictor of the personal deviance model.     

Long-Term Changes in Attitudes Toward Premarital Sex in the United States: Reexamining the Role of Cohort Replacement

Attitudes toward premarital sex in the United States have changed considerably since the 1970s. However, it is unclear whether these changes are due to cohort replacement, broader changes within cohorts, or a combination of the two processes. We examined within- and between-cohort changes in attitudes toward premarital sex in the United States from 1975 to 2008 using hierarchical age-period-cohort models based on data from the General Social Survey. We used a religious plausibility structure framework to examine several possible mechanisms for within- and between-cohort variation in premarital sex attitudes over time, including changes in religious participation, marital patterns, and family structure. The results provided mixed support for our hypotheses. Attitudes toward premarital sex became more permissive over time in the United States in part because of the process of cohort replacement, but the level of permissiveness peaked with the baby boomer cohorts. This cohort effect is due in part to differences in rates of religious service attendance and educational attainment. However, the overall increase in permissive attitudes toward premarital sex is also due to period effects that are not captured by the measures included in our analyses.     

Nuclear and Extended Family Attitudes of Jordanian Arabs

Using a sample of 419 families from the northern region of Jordan, people's attitudes toward extended and nuclear family types were measured on two separate attitude scales. Each scale consisted of 42 Liker-type items. The alpha coefficients were .93 and .94 for extended family and nuclear family attitude scales, respectively. The effects of sex, level of education, area of residence, age, and marital status on the two attitudes were investigated. Appropriate statistical analyses of the data revealed that Education and Marital Status had significant effects on the extended family attitude but not on the nuclear family attitude. Sex, and Area of Residence, in contrast, had significant effects on the nuclear family attitude but not on the extended family attitude. The age factor, however, had significant similar effects on both attitudes. The two attitudes were found to be rather independent of than complementary to each other.     

The strategic use of Twitter to manage personal public relations

This study examined the effect of personal public relations developed through Twitter on cognitive and attitudinal aspects, particularly focusing on the use of Twitter by CEOs. According to the responses of young consumers who participated in this study, their attitudes toward the use of Twitter by CEOs positively influenced their perception of transformational leadership (H1). Further, perceived transformational leadership was positively associated with attitudes toward CEOs using Twitter; this in turn positively influenced attitudes toward corporations (H2). The positive evaluation of the use of Twitter by CEOs directly influenced attitudes toward such CEOs (H3), whereas attitudes toward such use did not influence attitudes toward corporations. The results indicated that microblogging is beneficial for the development of effective personal public relations by corporate leaders.     

The nature of incoming graduate social work students' attitudes toward sexual minorities

Competent social work practice with sexual minorities requires educators to identify factors that can be addressed in the graduate social work curriculum to foster affirming attitudes among students. This study explored the attitudes incoming master of social work (MSW) students hold toward sexual minorities, utilizing a scale that addresses contemporary subtle biases toward lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) people, rather than overt, fear- and morality-based objections measured in previous studies. We explored the role of race/ethnicity, age, sex, sexual orientation, religiosity, political ideology, perceived biological causation of sexual orientation, and LGB social contacts on students' attitudes toward sexual minorities. Multivariable linear regression results suggest that being African American/Black (versus White), older, and heterosexual (versus sexual minority), and greater religiosity (importance of religion and frequency of service attendance) and conservative political ideology, predicted less affirming attitudes, while greater endorsement for genetic causation of sexual orientation and exposure to LGB friends and immediate family members each predicted more affirming attitudes among our sample.     

Ethnic conflict,group polarization,and gender attitudes in Croatia

We examine the sources of traditional gender attitudes during a period of social conflict and change. Using survey data from Croatia (Center for the Investigation of Transition and Civil Society, 1996; N= 2,030) we explore the relationships between war‐related experiences, in‐group and out‐group polarization, and two dimensions of gender attitudes: policy attitudes (e.g., attitudes toward divorce and abortion) and gendered family roles (e.g., attitudes toward the division of household labor). We argue that ethnic conflict promotes in‐group polarization (i.e., attachment to the Croatian nation) and out‐group polarization (i.e., distrust of “others”), which lead to a resurgence of traditional values, including traditional gender attitudes. We also examine the effects of childhood socialization, individual resources, and interpersonal familial ties on gender attitudes. Results support the conflict‐group polarization model and indicate that out‐group polarization has the most powerful effect on both gendered family role attitudes and policy attitudes for men and women. In‐group polarization does not affect gender attitudes, however.