Dropping out of high school: Effects of close and distant friendships

Prior research highlights the role of friends in influencing whether a student completes high school. Students who drop out tend to have fewer friends, as well as friends who are less oriented toward school success. We distinguish between close and distant friendships by developing a theoretical framework which predicts close and distant friends likely have distinct effects on dropping out. Close friendships provide valuable emotional support, and forging numerous close friendships at school should decrease one’s risk of dropping out. In contrast, the characteristics of distant friends help shape students’ social identities and beliefs about “what’s normative.” Our analyses of the Add Health data set confirm our expectations. Students with more close friendships are less likely to drop out, but close friends’ characteristics are unrelated to dropping out. Distant relationships (as measured by affect and regularity of interaction) with friends who have a high risk of dropping out significantly increase a student’s own risk of dropping out.     

Social interactions and college enrollment: A combined school fixed effects/instrumental variables approach

This paper provides some of the first evidence of peer effects in college enrollment decisions. There are several empirical challenges in assessing the influences of peers in this context, including the endogeneity of high school, shared group-level unobservables, and identifying policy-relevant parameters of social interactions models. This paper addresses these issues by using an instrumental variables/fixed effects approach that compares students in the same school but different grade-levels who are thus exposed to different sets of classmates. In particular, plausibly exogenous variation in peers’ parents’ college expectations are used as an instrument for peers’ college choices. Preferred specifications indicate that increasing a student’s exposure to college-going peers by ten percentage points is predicted to raise the student’s probability of enrolling in college by 4 percentage points. This effect is roughly half the magnitude of growing up in a household with married parents (vs. an unmarried household).     

Neighborhood characteristics, parental practices and children’s math achievement in elementary school

This paper investigates the relationships among neighborhood characteristics, education-related parental practices, and children’s academic achievement during a critical but under-studied stage of children’s educational trajectories - the elementary school years. Using a large, nationally representative database of American elementary school students - the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study - Kindergarten Cohort (ECLS-K) - and contextual data from the 2000 US Census, we examine parental practices and neighborhood characteristics at the beginning of children’s school careers (grades K-1) and their associations with math achievement through the end of the 5th grade. Findings: Net of family-level characteristics, higher levels of early education-oriented parental practices were associated with higher mathematics achievement at the end of 5th grade, while neighborhood disadvantage was associated with lower 5th grade math achievement. Families residing in high poverty, high unemployment, low-education neighborhoods employed fewer education-oriented practices with their kindergarten-first grade children, but the positive effect of such parental practices on children’s mathematics achievement was stronger for children who live in disadvantaged neighborhoods.     

The estimation of neighborhood effects in the social sciences: An interdisciplinary approach

This paper critically examines the interdisciplinary research of neighborhood effects. Neighborhood effects are community influences on individual social or economic outcomes. Examples include labor force activity, child outcomes, criminal behavior, and other socioeconomic phenomena. The existing theoretical and empirical literature is reviewed. Conceptual definitions from sociology are linked and contrasted with economic models. Early studies are criticized for failing to account for a number of endogeneity concerns. Recent empirical studies are also explored. The results of these papers demonstrate that although neighborhood characteristics are important, their influences are much smaller than suggested by previous research. An additional emphasis is dedicated to linking the neighborhood effects literature to other research of local or spatial activity within economics, sociology, and geography. In particular, the potential employment of local interaction game theory and spatial econometrics in neighborhood effects research is discussed. Additionally, a catalogue of existing empirical research is assembled.     

Influence flows in the academy: Using affiliation networks to assess peer effects among researchers

Little is known about how influence flows in the academy, because of inherent difficulties in collecting data on large samples of friendship and advice-seeking networks over time. We propose taking advantage of the relative abundance of “affiliation network” data to assess aggregate patterns of how individual and dyadic characteristics channel influence among researchers. We formulate and test our approach using new data on 2034 faculty members at Stanford University over a 15-year period, analyzing different affiliations as potential influence channels for changes in grant productivity. Results indicate that research productivity is more malleable to ongoing interpersonal influence processes than suggested in prior research: a strong, salient tie to a colleague in an authority position is most likely to transmit influence, and most forms of influence are likely to spill over to behaviors outside those jointly produced by collaborators. However, the genders and institutional locations of ego-alter pairs significantly affect how influence flows.     

Nurture net of nature: Re-evaluating the role of shared environments in academic achievement and verbal intelligence

Prominent authors in the behavioral genetics tradition have long argued that shared environments do not meaningfully shape intelligence and academic achievement. However, we argue that these conclusions are erroneous due to large violations of the additivity assumption underlying behavioral genetics methods – that sources of genetic and shared and nonshared environmental variance are independent and non-interactive. This is compounded in some cases by the theoretical equation of the effective and objective environments, where the former is defined by whether siblings are made more or less similar, and the latter by whether siblings are equally subject to the environmental characteristic in question. Using monozygotic twin fixed effects models, which compare outcomes among genetically identical pairs, we show that many characteristics of objectively shared environments significantly moderate the effects of nonshared environments on adolescent academic achievement and verbal intelligence, violating the additivity assumption of behavioral genetic methods. Importantly, these effects would be categorized as nonshared environmental influences in standard twin models despite their roots in shared environments. These findings should encourage caution among those who claim that the frequently trivial variance attributed to shared environments in behavioral genetic models means that families, schools, and neighborhoods do not meaningfully influence these outcomes.     

Similarity in peer college preferences: New evidence from texas

In this paper, I use survey data from high school students in Texas to examine the magnitude of peer correlation in college preferences and choices. In this survey, respondents (and their classmates) recorded their preferences for attending specific colleges, and a follow up survey recorded their college enrollment decisions. This paper uses this information to present the first empirical examination of whether individuals who report preferences for “popular” colleges are more likely to attend their preferred college. The rich data set allows the use of often unavailable information such as distance to college, and the construction of the “popularity” variable allows the use of school-level fixed effects. Results indicate that individuals with 10 percentage points more classmates with matching college preferences are 3 percentage points more likely to enroll in their preferred college.     

浙江省社科类期刊学术影响力研究——基于CSSCI的实证分析

学术期刊是一个国家学术发展水平的外在反映,社科类学术期刊影响力研究是目前学术界的研究热点之一.浙江省社科类学术期刊在2010-2011年被CSSCI收录的有9种,仅占CSSCI全部来源期刊的1.71％,远低于全国各省的平均水平3.33％,这种状况显然与作为经济大省的浙江省不相适应.本文从建构评价指标体系出发,通过对总被引频次、影响因子、及时指数等文献计量指标的实证分析,分析了浙江省社科期刊学术影响力的状况与走势,并提出了一些针对性建议.     

Self-Esteem and Mastery Trajectories in High School by Social Class and Gender

Using longitudinal data from 769 white adolescents in the Midwest, this research applies a social structure and personality perspective to examine variation in self-esteem and mastery trajectories by gender and SES across the high school years. Analyses reveal that high SES adolescents experience significantly steeper gains in self-esteem and mastery compared to low SES adolescents, resulting in the reversal of SES differences in self-esteem and the emergence of significant SES differences in mastery. Pre-existing gender differences in self-esteem narrow between the 9th and 12th grade because self-esteem increases at a faster rate among girls than boys during high school. These SES and gender differences in self-concept growth are explained by changes in parent-adolescent relationship quality and stress exposure. Specifically, boys and adolescents with lower SES backgrounds experienced steeper declines in parent-adolescent relationship quality and steeper gains in chronic work strain compared to girls and low SES adolescents, respectively.     

新式读书人的学习生活与社会交往——以清末浙江学生的回忆为中心

清末废科举、兴学堂后,产生了第一代学生。他们作为与科举时代士子、童生所不同的新式读书人,其所经历的学生生活方式发生了根本变化。浙江是中国较早接受欧风美雨的地区之一,文章通过对其时浙江学生沈雁冰、蒋梦麟、钱均夫、马叙伦等人的历史回忆进行梳理分析,再现他们学习活动与社会交往等学生生活场景。而诸如这般的学生生活,也因为处于鼎革年代的特殊机缘,这些读书人的生活与交往都充满了历史的范式色彩。新式读书人的学习生活与社会交往,以转折时代困境突围,展现他们承前启后、与众不同的生活状态。     

Neighborhood poverty and children’s exposure to danger: Examining gender differences in impacts of the Moving to Opportunity experiment

The Moving to Opportunity (MTO) program offered public housing residents in distressed communities a chance to move to low-poverty neighborhoods. The present study examined whether the resulting decline in neighborhood poverty led to lower levels of exposure to danger among children and youth ages 8-19 years old (n = 4606), and specifically, if there was a gender difference that matched the pattern of more beneficial program effects for girls and more adverse affects for boys. The study goes beyond previous research by using fixed effects to control for family factors that may influence moving behavior and confound estimates of gender differences in program impacts. Results showed that children experienced a decline in exposure to danger, with one key gender difference. Models based on brother-sister comparisons indicated that MTO had a more beneficial impact on exposure to drug activity for females than males. The findings suggest that neighborhood poverty is tied to children’s exposure to danger. Moreover, exposure to drug activity may help explain the gender differences in impacts on children’s mental health and risky behavior.     

关系网络:少数民族迁移者城市就职中的社会资本

作者回顾了学界对社会关系的研究,通过对在北京市和深圳市200多位少数民族迁移就业者的问卷和访谈调查,指出了人们的迁移就业过程分3个阶段并在其中运用了不同的关系网络组合。     

资本主义:从社会契约论到社会资本论--论社会资本概念在政治领域拓展的意义及其局限

社会资本概念的流行是与其在政治领域的拓展分不开的,这一拓展既反映了它在理论上与社会契约论的内在逻辑关系,也反映了资本主义在实践中的自我调整过程。社会资本概念本身的矛盾性质,深刻地反映了资本主义发展的内在困境;这一概念在应用于第三世界国家时存在着文化决定论的倾向。     

从“现代化”到“现代性”——理论的嬗变与中国社会转型过程中的问题迁衍

就近现代以来的中国而言,“现代化”是一个贯穿始终的核心主题,而与之既相联系又相区别的“现代性”主题的凸显则要晚得多.在中国语境下,“现代化”理论侧重于探讨中国如何实现从传统社会向现代社会的转型,而近几十年才在中国兴起的“现代性”理论则更多地探讨当前社会主义现代化建设所面临的形势与问题.从“现代化”到“现代性”的理论嬗变,昭示出中国社会转型过程中问题的迁衍.应当及时厘清从这一理论嬗变中折射出来的问题迁衍,以便为社会主义现代化建设提供更好的理论指导.     

论城市社会治理现代化的四个着力点 ——学习习近平关于城市社会治理重要论述的一点体会

习近平强调城市治理是国家治理体系和治理能力现代化的重要内容,一流城市要有一流的治理。党的十八大以来,围绕如何做好城市社会治理这一重大问题,习近平发表了一系列重要论述。这一重要论述强调党对城市社会治理的领导,完善党委领导、其他各方面有序参与的治理体制;明确了人民城市为人民的治理立场,必须将其贯彻在城市社会治理的全过程;要求必须实现治理重心下移,打通党和政府联系、服务群众的"最后一公里"创新和完善基层社区治理;更新了城市社会治理思路,阐述了城市社会治理精细化、智能化、法治化之路。     

从无根的"个人"到现实的"个人"--一种对社会契约论中"个人"的马克思主义批判

社会契约论从无根的"个人"出发,把政治权威的合法性置于"个人"对它认可的基础之上,是一种典型的个人主义唯意志论学说.马克思从现实的"个人"出发,变个人本位的主体性思维范式为实践的人类学思维范式,展开了对契约论中"个人"历史的、逻辑的批判,它不但摧毁了社会契约论的理论前提--无根的"个人",确立了历史的坚实基础,同时也自然地展现出了一个"个人"辩证发展的逻辑.     

新世纪新思考:中国社会的全面发展与人类文明的康庄大道

社会的全面发展是马克思主义理论体系中的重要问题 ,社会的全面发展 ,是社会主义本质的充分体现。邓小平建设有中国特色的社会主义理论更全面更准确、更深刻的体现了马克思主义的社会发展观 ,以江泽民为核心的党中央第三代领导集体 ,在强调物质文明建设的同时 ,更加重视精神文明建设和社会全面发展。事实终将证明 ,全面发展的社会主义是 2 1世纪人类文明发展的价值取向     

Tackling inequalities in political socialisation: A systematic analysis of access to and mitigation effects of learning citizenship at school

This article tackles the issue of social inequalities in voting and identifies how and when differences in learning political engagement are influenced by social background in the school environment between the ages of 11–16 in England. Using Latent Growth Curve Modelling and Regression Analysis on the Citizenship Education Longitudinal (CELS) data this research identifies two elements that influence the political socialisation process: access to political learning and effectiveness in the form of learning in reducing inequalities in political engagement. The results show that there is unequal access by social background to learning political engagement through political activities in school and through an open classroom climate for discussion. However, there is equal access by social background to Citizenship Education in schools and this method of learning political engagement is effective at the age of 15–16 in reducing inequalities in political engagement.     

Improving ability measurement in surveys by following the principles of IRT: The Wordsum vocabulary test in the General Social Survey

Survey researchers often administer batteries of questions to measure respondents’ abilities, but these batteries are not always designed in keeping with the principles of optimal test construction. This paper illustrates one instance in which following these principles can improve a measurement tool used widely in the social and behavioral sciences: the GSS’s vocabulary test called “Wordsum”. This ten-item test is composed of very difficult items and very easy items, and item response theory (IRT) suggests that the omission of moderately difficult items is likely to have handicapped Wordsum’s effectiveness. Analyses of data from national samples of thousands of American adults show that after adding four moderately difficult items to create a 14-item battery, “Wordsumplus” (1) outperformed the original battery in terms of quality indicators suggested by classical test theory; (2) reduced the standard error of IRT ability estimates in the middle of the latent ability dimension; and (3) exhibited higher concurrent validity. These findings show how to improve Wordsum and suggest that analysts should use a score based on all 14 items instead of using the summary score provided by the GSS, which is based on only the original 10 items. These results also show more generally how surveys measuring abilities (and other constructs) can benefit from careful application of insights from the contemporary educational testing literature.