The relationship between lifetime health trajectories and socioeconomic attainment in middle age

A large literature demonstrates the direct and indirect influence of health on socioeconomic attainment, and reveals the ways in which health and socioeconomic background simultaneously and dynamically affect opportunities for attainment and mobility. Despite an increasing understanding of the effects of health on social processes, research to date remains limited in its conceptualization and measurement of the temporal dimensions of health, especially in the presence of socioeconomic circumstances that covary with health over time. Guided by life course theory, we use data from the British National Child Development Study, an ongoing panel study of a cohort born in 1958, to examine the association between lifetime health trajectories and socioeconomic attainment in middle age. We apply finite mixture modeling to identify distinct trajectories of health that simultaneously account for timing, duration and stability. Moreover, we employ propensity score weighting models to account for the presence of time-varying socioeconomic factors in estimating the impact of health trajectories. We find that, when poor health is limited to the childhood years, the disadvantage in socioeconomic attainment relative to being continuously healthy is either insignificant or largely explained by time-varying socioeconomic confounders. The socioeconomic impact of continuously deteriorating health over the life course is more persistent, however. Our results suggest that accounting for the timing, duration and stability of poor health throughout both childhood and adulthood is important for understanding how health works to produce social stratification. In addition, the findings highlight the importance of distinguishing between confounding and mediating effects of time-varying socioeconomic circumstances.     

Life course transitions in early adulthood and SES disparities in tobacco use

A huge literature has documented adult socioeconomic disparities in smoking but says less about how these disparities emerge over the life course. Building on findings that smoking among adolescents differs only modestly by parental SES, we utilize a life course perspective on social differentiation to help explain the widening disparities in smoking in young adulthood. Our theory suggests that achieved socioeconomic status and the nature and timing of adult role transitions affect age-based trajectories of smoking and widen disparities in adult smoking. The analyses use data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, which follows a representative national sample over four waves from ages 11–17 in 1994/1995 to 26–34 in 2007/2008. The results show divergent age trajectories in smoking by parental education and that achieved socioeconomic status and life course roles in young adulthood account in good part for differences in the age trajectories. The findings demonstrate the value of the life course perspective in understanding processes of increasing stratification in health behavior and health during the transition to adulthood.     

Using geographically weighted regression for environmental justice analysis: Cumulative cancer risks from air toxics in Florida

Previous quantitative research on environmental justice has been limited by simplistic assumptions used to measure health risks and traditional regression techniques that fail to discern spatial variations in statistical relationships. We address these gaps through a case study that examines: (a) whether potential health risks from exposure to hazardous air pollutants in Florida are related to race/ethnicity and socioeconomic status, and (b) how the significance of statistical associations between health risk and race/ethnicity or socioeconomic status vary across the state. This study integrates census tract level estimates of cumulative cancer risk compiled by the EPA with Census 2000 data and a spatial statistical technique known as geographically weighted regression that allows us to explore spatial variability in analytical results. Our findings indicate that while race and ethnicity are significantly related to cancer risks in Florida, conventional regression can hide important local variations in statistical relationships relevant to environmental justice analysis.     

Social origins and post-high school institutional pathways: A cumulative dis/advantage approach

The social stratification that takes place during the transition out of high school is traditionally explained with theoretical frameworks such as status attainment and social reproduction. In our paper, we suggest the cumulative dis/advantage hypothesis as an alternative theoretical and empirical approach that explains this divergence in institutional pathways as the result of the dynamic interplay between social institutions (in our case, schools) and individuals’ resources.We use data from the NLSY79 in order to compute institutional pathways (defined by educational and occupational status) of 9200 high school graduates. Optimal Matching Analysis and Cluster Analysis generated a typology of life course pathways. Our results show that both ascribed characteristics and students’ high school characteristics and resources are predictors of post-high school pathways.     

社会生活中的契约机制刍议

社会生活从运行过程和运行模式或运行机制上看,不过是作为社会活动主体的社会成员之间为了实现各自的目的或者共同的目的而进行的不断订立契约、并不断履行契约的活动过程。社会契约机制的健全和完善,对于社会生活的正常、有序运行,对于社会主义市场经济体制的建设和完善,有一定的维系作用。     

Labor Market and Socioeconomic Effects on Marital Stability

This paper reports an investigation of the effects of socioeconomic and labor market factors on the dissolution of marriages since the mid 1960s. We examine the effects of possible sources of marital disruption, including poor labor market opportunities for young adults; the economic independence and improved labor market opportunities of women; and changes in the labor market roles and expectations of women within marriage. Using the National Longitudinal Surveys of Young Men, Young Women, and Youth, we estimate the effects on marital stability of husbands′ and wives′ levels, differences and changes in educational attainment, income, and annual weeks worked. Our results suggest that average levels of couples′ educational attainment and recent work experiences positively affect marital stability. The degree to which husbands and wives differ on educational attainment and income does not affect marital stability, but the more that wives work relative to their husbands, the greater the chances of disruption. Positive changes in wives′ socioeconomic and labor force characteristics over the course of their marriages increase the odds of marital disruption.     

Women's employment trajectories during early adulthood in urban China: A cohort comparison

This study uses retrospective work history data from CGSS 2008 and employs group-based trajectory analysis to model the diverse employment trajectories of cohorts of urban Chinese women (born in the 1940s–1970s) during young adulthood (age 20–35). We identify ideal-types of urban women's employment trajectories and explore traits associated with each group type. In particular, we examine whether and how the timing of marriage and fertility as well as socioeconomic background help to distinguish patterns of women's labor force attachment in young adulthood. We also examine how these patterns change across cohorts given China's rapid social transformations in the past few decades. We find that delaying family formation is generally associated with more consistent work attachment, but this relationship is also largely associated with one's socioeconomic background. Our results reveal significant cohort variations in the shape of women's employment trajectories and we discuss how institutional and cultural contexts of different historical periods could have shaped family formation and employment processes differently. Our findings highlight the heterogeneity of urban women's work and family formation patterns in the context of rising gender inequalities and rapid socioeconomic transformation over time.     

中国城镇住房产权的区域差异分析——基于CGSS（2003）数据的实证研究

近年来，随着住房改革的日益深入，住房产权在社会分层中占有越来越重要的地位。但与其他经济指标一样．过往研究往往忽视其区域的差异性，然而这种经验结果是失之偏颇的。文章采用CGSS（2003）数据结合多层次模型分析方法探讨区域差异下住房产权的影响因素。研究发现：在区域差异前提下，中国转型期居民住房产权选择的变化是多种因素和机制共同作用的结果，而区域差异在一定程度上是由各个区域市场化程度差异影响的。     

东西部居民最低生活保障实证分析与社会救助立法的完善

我国区域经济发展不平衡、城乡经济社会二元体例,导致居民最低生活保障区域差异、城乡差异特征鲜明,且在最低生活保障标准设计、救助能力等方面存在一定问题,进而影响社会救助立法整体定位与结构功能发挥。社会救助立法应着重结构功能定位,与慈善救助法分野互补,明确政府与社会组织的职责划分,科学且分层界定最低生活保障标准,将专项救助与临时救助整合为临时困难救助,规范居民收入、财产确认措施和救助程序,确保生存型社会救助立法与适用完善,使其充分发挥"最后一道社会安全保障网"的作用。     

从弱势群体的视角看社会公正的内涵及其实现

弱势群体的存在及其在当前条件下所呈现出来的扩大趋势表明我国社会公平正义的实现面临着严峻的挑战。切实关怀和维护广大弱势群体的利益是我国目前实现社会公平正义最为迫切的课题。为此,至少要做好两个方面的工作：一是为弱势群体提供最低限度的社会保障,使其过上合乎人类尊严的生活。二是为弱势群体创造平等的发展机会。     

社会生活:社会文化史研究中的一个重要概念

社会生活是人类使用频率极高的一个概念,学人对其很少作深入的研究和探讨.随着对学术处女地的不断开拓,很多日常概念不断引起研究者高度关注,社会生活即为其中之一.社会文化史是研究社会生活与其内在观念形态之间相互关系的历史,社会生活作为社会文化史研究的一个视角和领域,已经成为社会文化史研究中的一个重要概念.     

关于创新社会管理的思考

当今中国经济社会发展步入关键时期,既面临难得的战略机遇,同时也处在矛盾凸显的历史阶段,因此,加强和创新社会管理成为中国社会顺利转型的重要保障。所以,必须坚持正确的改革方向和基本指导原则,明确创新社会管理的总体思路以及工作着力点,从而健全完善中国"党委领导、政府负责、社会协同、公众参与"的社会管理格局。     

马克思的大小社会形态范畴及其重要意义

在马克思的唯物史观中,在表征社会历史发展阶段的意义上,有大小两种社会形态范畴。大社会形态范畴表征社会历史发展的大阶段,即原始社会、阶级社会、共产主义社会;小社会形态范畴表征社会历史发展的小阶段,即大阶段的阶段,如奴隶社会、封建社会、资本主义社会等。这两种社会形态范畴,直到现在还没有引起人们的注意,还没有得到应有的研究。真正弄清楚这两种社会形态范畴的含义,对正确理解整个人类社会的社会结构、历史发展进程、特别是社会形态的历史转变时期,具有重要意义。     

Partner selection and social capital in the status attainment process

Why is individual success so strongly affected by parental socioeconomic status? We argue that parental socioeconomic status affects the socioeconomic status of one's romantic partner, thereby partially determining one's own social capital and socioeconomic status. Censored-inflated structural equation models using data from the NEtherlands Longitudinal Lifecourse Study (NELLS) and British Household Panel Survey (BHPS) confirm these relationships, while cross-lagged analyses suggest that they may be causal in nature. The strong tendency for people to have a romantic partner that reflects their socioeconomic origin shows how far the influence of the parental home stretches and why it does so.     

Unequal on top: Gender profiling and the income gap among high earner male and female professionals

We develop a comprehensive, multi-level model of income inequality between high earner men and women during the early career stages. We argue that young women are routinely subjected to “gender profiling” by employers—women’s potential contribution to the organization is interpreted through the lens of social stereotypes and cultural norms that attribute to them weaker labor market commitment than men. We investigate two specific mechanisms that arise from this profiling and lead to income inequality: First, women have diminished access to resources and advancement opportunities within the firm which results in lower returns to tenure for women than for men. Second, external mobility is greatly beneficial for men but much less so for women because it reinforces the image of weak commitment. Salary regressions of early career history data of young MBA alumni of a prestigious U.S. business school accord with our conjectures.     

社会文化对大学生择业的影响

近来许多大学生在择业中出现了一种重眼前利益、轻长远发展的择业观。西方职业学家从个人利益最大化角度提出了以兴趣、能力和就业机会为核心的择业指导模型,然而这种建立在西方社会文化背景之上的模型很难解释当今中国大学生的这种择业行为。为此,本文从社会文化的视角,对这种现象作了分析,并为国内择业指导提供了一些启示。     

领域分化后的道德寓所——兼论公共行政的道德原则

人类社会经历了农业社会和工业社会的历史阶段,现在正处于后工业化的过程中。在农业社会,社会的一体性决定了它的制度是“权制”的,它的治理模式是“权治”的,道德的因素在不同的社会阶层中会有着不同的要求和表现。工业社会是一个社会分化的过程,特别是领域的分化,把道德主要限制在日常生活领域之中。私人领域也要求道德的支持,但是,自利的追求往往把道德置于客观结果的位置上。至于公共领域,则是一个非道德的领域。在后工业化的进程中,出现了领域的融合,从而为普适性道德的出现提供了历史前提,也为在道德发展最新成果的基础上进行道德制度和德治体系的设计提供了契机。     

我国全程化职业生涯规划教育探析

职业生涯规划教育是贯穿教育始终的一项工程,我国的职业生涯教育虽已取得一定成绩,但仍存在相关部门重视程度不够、没有一个完整的体系、基础教育阶段职业生涯规划教育缺失、职业生涯教育多停留在就业指导的层面、师资队伍薄弱等问题。针对这些问题,文章在优化职业生涯规划教育的大环境,实现高校职业生涯规划教育系统化、专业化、个性化等方面提出建议。     

如何创新我国社会管理方式——基于社会管理方式的研究述评

创新社会管理方式对于我国应对转型期的各种挑战具有重要现实意义。根据理论界对我国当前社会管理方式的主要特点与问题的分析,结合我国社会主义初级阶段的特殊国情,我国创新社会管理方式应当以中国特色社会主义社会管理方式为目标模式,以社会主义、中国特色、着眼现代、立足现实为基本原则,以从威权式、管制型、控制型、人治型、单一型向协同式、治理型、服务型、法治型、复合型转变为实施路径。     

社会管理的意蕴演进

伴随着全球经济管理一体化,传统的社会管理在我国已经不能适应发展的需要,目前我国社会管理理论研究尚处于起步阶段,基础性概念尚未能形成统一认识,因此社会管理的概念等基础性研究应成为社会管理研究的重中之重。这就需要结合经济与社会的发展,探索社会管理规律,需要社会管理观念的更新,社会管理资源的整合,社会管理的体制机制的创新,适应社会管理的新格局。