Marital status and psychiatric disorders among blacks and whites.

This paper examines the association between marital status and psychiatric disorder for Blacks and explores the extent to which these patterns differ from those for Whites. Widowed and separated/divorced Black males and females have higher rates of disorder than the married; never-married Blacks do not have an elevated risk of psychiatric illness. The association between marital status and disorder for White males is similar and stronger than that observed for Blacks. For White women, the separated/divorced have a higher risk of disorder than the married, and unmarried White females have higher rates of the substance abuse disorders, but lower rates of the anxiety disorder than the married. Across all marital status groups, Black males and White males have higher rates of disorder (except for depression), than females. A complex pattern emerges when gender differences in the relative rates of disorder for unmarried Blacks compared to married Blacks are considered. Separated/divorced Black men, widowed Black women, and never-married Black men are worse off than their respective peers. Except for the separated/divorced, opposite patterns are evident for Whites. Directions for further research are outlined.     

Economic consequences of marital dissolution for blacks

Paying particular attention to the economic impact of post-divorce on black survey respondents of both sexes, "this study analyzes Weitzman's suggestion that men and women lose economic well-being in the first year after divorce. Family incomes of divorced women and men are compared with [those of] their married counterparts for five SES [socioeconomic status] categories. Using t-tests, it was found that, for most categories, for both genders, incomes of divorced persons were lower than incomes of married persons. Family incomes were regressed against a set of four control variables and a marital status variable. The marital status variable was statistically significant for four of the five SES categories for females. This was not true for males. Policy implications are considered." The geographical focus is on the United States.     

Student and Institutional Characteristics as Determinants of the Prompt and Subsequent Four-Year College Graduation of Race and Sex Groups*

Recent national data were used to examine the impact of individual and institutional level variables on the ability of race and sex groups to complete a four-year college promptly (i.e., within three to four consecutive years) versus six to seven years after having entered college in 1972 or 1973. The results showed that black students were less successful than whites in prompt and in subsequent four-year college completion. In addition, males were far less successful than females in completing college on schedule. Initial race and sex differences favoring whites and females remained when examining subsequent college graduation rates. The magnitude of the race and sex disparities was reduced, however, when taking these rates into consideration. In addition, the proportion of blacks and males completing their B.A. degree increased substantially when college re-entry rates were examined. This finding indicates the importance of including college re-entry rates when describing the educational attainment of students. College grade performance was a major determinant of prompt and subsequent college completion for all race and sex groups. In addition, high school rank was an important determinant of prompt graduation for white males and prompt and subsequent graduation for black females. Attending a private college had a significant positive effect on prompt college graduation for white and black males but no significant effect for females; however, attending a selective college did not have a significant effect on prompt or subsequent graduation for any of the four race/sex groups examined.     

Luck or cheating? A field experiment on honesty with children

We run an experiment to study the relationship between honesty, age and self-control. We focus on children aged between 5 and 15 as the literature suggests that self-control develops within such age range. We ask each child to toss a fair coin in private and to record the outcome (white or black) on a paper sheet. We only reward children who report white. Although we are unable to tell whether each child was honest or not, we speculate about the proportion of reported white outcomes. Children report the prize-winning outcome at rates statistically above 50% but below 100%. Moreover, the probability of cheating is uniform across groups based on child’s characteristics, in particular age. In a second treatment we explicitly tell children not to cheat. This request has a dampening effect on their tendency to over-report the prize-winning outcome, especially in girls. Furthermore, while this effect in boys is constant with age, in girls it tends to decrease with age.     

Race differences in the effect of unemployment on marital instability: A socioeconomic analysis

In 1965, Daniel Moynihan asserted that unemployment, in general, and its interaction with the matriarchal structure of black families was a major cause of the “crumbling‘ of the Negro family. Moynihan did not address the relation of unemployment and marital instability in white families. This study examines the relationship between unemployment and marital instability in black and white families over the period 1970–1978. The theoretical framework emphasizes that the effects of unemployment on the family cannot be understood in purely utilitarian terms i.e. lost income. A socioeconomic model that incorporates both the social-psychological and psychological responses to unemployment is developed and the parameters estimated using Event History Analysis on a sample from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics for the years 1967–1979. Moynihan's main assertion that unemployment destabilizes families—both black and white—is confirmed. Also confirmed is Moynihan's assertion that families with a patriarchal head are less likely to experience marital instability. The results contradict some of the other predictions of the Moynihan hypothesis. First, black families are at less risk of marital instability at moderate levels of unemployment than are white families. Second, although black families appear to be more vulnerable than white families to chronic unemployment, the difference disappears when black males have only average scores on internal locus of control. When black males have above average scores on internal locus of control the risk of marital instability in the face of chronic unemployment is negligible. Third, while stabilizing for families where males who do not experience unemployment, patriarchal values prove quite destabilizing when the male head experiences unemployment. Indeed, the families facing the greatest risk of instability due to unemployment were white families headed by a man who had partriarchal attitudes. Fourthly, this study produced no evidence that black women are. behaviorally, more matriarchal than white women. Finally, this research indicates that the financial problems caused by unemployment appear to be a minor factor in martial dissolution. It appears that socioeconomic, that is, normative and affective factors, rather than utilitarian factors, are critical is shaping a family's reaction to unemployment.     

Racial differences in infant mortality rates: United States, 1969

Using multiple regression analyses, we measured the effects of demographic, health, and socioeconomic variables on race-specific neonatal and postneonatal infant mortality rates. The racial difference in rates in 1969 is due to (1) effects of mean differences in black and white population characteristics, (2) differences in the impact of independent variables, and (3) differences from other causes. Higher black than white infant mortality is the result of unfavorable black means on birthweight, age of mothers at birth, education, and marital stability. Black mortality is also higher because mothers' age at birth, marital stability, and education have more favorable impact on mortality for whites than blacks.     

Gender and racial earnings differentials in academic labor markets

This study estimates earnings differentials across racial and gender groups among college faculty, and decomposes these differentials into the components attributable to differences in individual and institutional characteristics and that which remains unexplained. We find that white females earn approximately 4 percent less than white males; black males earn 7.4 percent more; black females earn one percent more; Hispanic males earn 2.7 percent more; Hispanic females earn 1.7 percent less; and Asian males earn 7.7 percent more than comparable white males. We also find a significant earnings penalty for being a naturalized citizen or noncitizen versus an U.S.-born citizen.     

Social Control and Delinquent Behavior: An Examination of the Elements of the Social Bond

This research examines the overall and relative effects of the elements of Hirschi's Social Bonding Theory on four separate measures of deviance using data drawn from a sample of 3065 adolescents. The magnitude and direction of the observed relationships moderately support the theory for all four deviant behavior scales; the elements of the bond are more predictive of the less serious forms of deviance than they are of the more serious forms. The element of commitment is more strongly related to deviant behavior than either the element of belief or attachment. A comparison of the theory for males and females demonstrates that the overall model consistently explains more variation in the dependent variables for females than it does for males. The commitment and belief variables are more strongly related to deviant behavior for females than for males while attachment is more important for males. These findings are discussed in relation to the overall viability of social bonding theory.     

Nonmarital Childbearing, Union History, and Women's Health at Midlife

Despite high rates of nonmarital childbearing in the U.S., little is known about the health of women who have nonmarital births. We use data from the NLSY79 to examine differences in age 40 self-assessed health between women who had a premarital birth and those whose first birth occurred within marriage. We then differentiate women with a premarital first birth according to their subsequent union histories and estimate the effect of marrying or cohabiting versus remaining never-married on midlife self-assessed health, paying particular attention to the paternity status of the mother's partner and the stability of marital unions. To partially address selection bias, we employ multivariate propensity score techniques. Results suggest that premarital childbearing is negatively associated with midlife health for white and black (but not Hispanic) women. We find no evidence that these negative health consequences of nonmarital childbearing are mitigated by either marriage or cohabitation for black women. For other women, only enduring marriage to the biological father is associated with better health than remaining unpartnered.     

A Comparative Analysis of Durkheim's Theory of Egoistic Suicide*

This paper reports a comparative cross-national test of Durkheim's theory of egoistic suicide, involving indicators of religious, family, and political integration. Linear and nonlinear multiple regression analysis showed that the relationships between religious integration and suicide and between political integration and suicide are inverse exponential functions of the form Y = ae^bX, while the relationship between family integration and suicide is linear. The relationships between the independent and dependent variables are strong and highly significant. Together, our indicators of religious, family, and political integration explain about 76 percent of the variation in international rates of suicide.     

Gender,Race, Social Class,and Self-Evaluations among College Students*

The purpose of this study was to modify Heiss and Owens's (1972) formulation on trait differences in the self-evaluations of blacks and whites and integrate it with the literature on sex role socialization, thereby elaborating the instrumental-expressive dichotomy they proposed so as to generate and test hypotheses regarding race, gender, and SES differences in self-evaluations. University students rated themselves on a fifteen-item semantic differential scale. A principal component factor analysis with varimax rotations yielded five factors, three of the factors were seen as private-domain, one as public-domain, and one as mixed. A series of 2X2X2 ANOVAS indicated that (1) on the public-domain factor, black females rated themselves more positively than did the white females, while black males and white males did not differ; (2) blacks rated themselves more positively than did whites on two private-domain factors; (3) white females rated themselves more positively than did males on the private-domain factor indicative of a feminine stereotype; and (4) SES differences appeared on the private-domain factors in particular.     

Minority Status and Childlessness*

This study applies the Goldscheider-Uhlenberg theory of minority status and fertility to black-white differences in childlessness. It is hypothesized that when integration into dominant societal institutions is impeded, high-status black couples are more likely to be voluntarily childless than comparable white couples. Using census data, the results tend to support this hypothesis, suggesting that among college-educated, high-status couples, blacks delay marriage longer and have higher rates of voluntary childlessness than do white couples. The implications of these findings are discussed and suggestions for further research are noted.     

Trends and incidence of childlessness by race: indicators of black progress over three decades

Patterns in childlessness rates for blacks and whites in the U.S. from 1950-1972 were examined using 1940, 1950, and 1960 census data and data from Current Population Reports for 1969 and 1972. Among ever married women, aged 15-49, the proportion of childless black women declined from 29.1%-13.6% from 1940-1972, while the porportion of childless white women declined from 22.9%-14.3% from 1940-1969 and then increased slightly to 15.6% in 1972. The decline in childlessness observed for both blacks and whites during this period was attributable, at least in part, to improved medical care. When age specific rates were examined 2 diverse patterns emerged. For females, aged 15-24, childlessness rates for blacks were lower than for whites throughout 1940-1972, and the differences between blacks and whites increased over time. However, for females, aged 30-39, childlessness rates were higher for blacks than for whites throughout 1940-1972, and the gap between white and black rates decreased over time. In general the data demonstrated a convergence in childlessness patterns for blacks and whites. Childlessness rates were viewed as an indication of social integration. Childlessness is not a norm in American society. The general decline in childless rates among blacks and especially among blacks over 30 years of age indicated that the wider society was serving as a reference group for blacks. Among blacks under 25 years convergence was less apparent and indicated that younger black women were less integrated into the larger society than older black women. On the basis of recent trends it was predicted that convergence between black and white childlessness patterns would continue; however, in view of the upturn in the childlessness rate observed for whites since 1969, it was expected that the childlessness rates for both blacks and whites would increase somewhat in the coming years.     

Suicide and Religion: A Comparative Analysis

Abstract

Previous work on the relationship between religion and suicide has focused on the simple bivariate relationship and has failed to address the problem of the possible convergence between Catholicism and Protestantism in the underlying determinant of suicide, the degree of social integration. The present study explores the relationship more systematically through a series of multiple regression analyses. The lack of any significant relationship between the proportion Catholic and measures of the suicide rate supports the convergence hypothesis. In contrast, two control variables taken from other prominent theories of suicide have considerable explanatory power. Tests of Durkheim's theory of marital integration and suicide all confirm a significant relationship but one of a parabolic form. Finally, the paradigm connecting the level of industrialization to suicide is confirmed, but preliminary analysis of social mobility rates and suicide indicate that this relationship is more of a function of cultural heterogeneity produced by the modernization process than of increasing mobility rates.     

The effect of female participation in the labor force on suicide: A time series analysis, 1948–1980

The impact of female labor force participation (FLFP) on suicide has been debated from two opposed paradigms. From the stand-point of Gibbs and Martin's status integration theory, FLFP creates stress for both husbands and wives, and so should increase suicide due to role conflict and overload. In contrast, from the position of role accumulation/expansion theory, the benefits of FLFP such as higher incomes outweigh the costs and, hence, suicide should be decreased by FLFP. The present paper formulates a third, synthetic view on the effects of FLFP on suicide based on the cultural context surrounding FLFP. Control variables are included from the domestic integration and economic paradigms. A time series analysis finds that given the antipathy towards FLFP in the culture of the 1948–1963 period, FLFP increased both male and female rates of suicide as suggested by status integration theory. In contrast, during the 1964–1980 period, an emancipation era characterized by gender role change and cultural supports for FLFP, there was no relationship between FLFP and female suicide. However, while the role accumulation/expansionist position is supported for the case of contemporary female suicide, it is not supported for male suicide. For the contemporary male it is contended that the costs for FLFP still outweigh the benefits, a situation which contributes to male suicide potential.     

What's the Matter with Kansas? Now It's the High White Death Rate

This article reports empirical tests for an explanation of the anomalous finding that Case and Deaton recently identified. They found that middle‐aged white people were dying at increased rates during the 1998–2013 years. By contrast, the Hispanic and African Americans enjoyed lower rates. The explanation proposed here for this deviant trend is that the middle‐aged whites are especially vulnerable to the stress of “white status loss” as measured by the decline in the county white population. Using data for the 105 Kansas counties, the analysis replicates the divergent mortality trends and shows that white population decline predicts the rising mortality rate for the middle‐aged segment of the population. This explanation opens the door to a new branch of public health, one based on social problems, not pathogens. 1     

CAUSES AND CONSEQUENCES OF LAYOFFS

Using probit analysis, this article finds that differential treatment accounts for a substantial portion of the higher layoff rates of blacks in comparison to whites. However, women are found to be considerably less prone to layoffs than men with similar characteristics. Among those who obtained subsequent employment (taking into account the possible selectivity bias in such a subsample), white males are hurt more by layoffs than black males in terms of both short-term and long-term earnings growth; women's earnings are not necessarily affected by layoff at all. However, whites and males are found to be more likely to be reemployed than blacks and females, respectively.     

Sex Differences in the Characteristics of Members Lost to a Longitudinal Panel: A Speculative Research Note

A nine-year follow-up of former adolescents reveals sex differencesin the relative deviance and drug involvement of individualslost to the panel in young adulthood. As expected, men who werereinterviewed were less deviant than the noninterviewed, whilethe opposite was observed among women. Specification by raceindicates that the female pattern applies especially to nonwhites,but all women who are reinterviewed, irrespective of race, areno less deviant than the nonreinterviewed. The paradoxical findingfor females may result from changing marital status in thatparticular period of the life cycle and an inverse relationshipbetween delinquency and marriage.     

Self-Esteem and Low Status Groups: a Changing Scene?*

To insure the widest possible test of the hypothesis that individuals with lower ascribed or achieved status will demonstrate lower levels of self-esteem than higher status individuals, 972 subjects completed questionnaires which included the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale. North Florida residents were sampled using a disproportionate stratified random sampling technique. Seven groups were identified: psychiatric patients, prisoners, black or white college students, city residents, married black residents, and service-oriented professionals. When analyzing data for each group, the results indicated that persons with lower ascribed status (blacks, females, and older Americans) did not, as a group, have lower self-esteem scores than persons with higher ascribed status (Whites, males, and younger Americans). However, persons with lower achieved status in the areas of educational attainment and occupational prestige did have lower self-esteem scores than did persons of higher status. Further, having an institutionalized status—confinement at a state psychiatric hospital or a maximum security prison—is correlated with low self-esteem scores. Some possible explanations of these findings are explored.     

Trends and Incidence of Childlessness by Race: Indicators of Black Progress over Three Decades

Abstract

This paper analyses the trends in childlessness of black and white ever-married women from 1940 through 1972, employing the trends as indicators of both cultural and institutional integration. It is hypothesized that rates of black and white childlessness have converged over the three decades, thus indicating that blacks have made progress into the basic structures of American society. The findings suggest two relatively distinct patterns of childlessness trends between the races by age groupings, and these patterns are somewhat at variance with one another. The implications of these findings are discussed within a cultural and institutional integration framework. Finally, trends for the future are discussed, and it is predicted that childlessness will continue to converge and increase for both racial groups in the 1970s.