Linking dichotomous segregation with multi-group segregation: Weighted segregation ratios in selected U.S. metropolitan areas

The U.S. residential landscape is increasingly multi-racial and multi-ethnic, giving rise to the question of how to compare dichotomous segregation among multiple groups living in the same area. To address the problem in the existing dichotomous approach, which offers no common basis for comparing dichotomous segregation among multiple groups, this paper develops a weighted segregation ratio approach based on Theil’s segregation index and its additive decomposability. This approach can be used to bridge information obtained from dichotomous segregation between specific groups (such as black-white and black-Hispanic), and dichotomous segregation between group and non-group (such as white-non-white and black-non-black) in previous studies. We apply both dichotomous and weighted segregation ratio approaches to 1990 and 2000 U.S. census data. Results are interpreted for five selected metropolitan areas as well as for the weighted national average. This new approach yields distinctive findings that portray the complicated process of residential segregation, including the increasing significance of Hispanic segregation and Asian segregation in the decade from 1990 to 2000.     

Re-thinking the decline in trust: A comparison of black and white Americans

Generalized trust in other Americans has never been so low. Explanations of this decline draw attention to the role of generational replacement and to period effects stemming from macro-level economic and political changes. In this paper, I consider generational and period trends in trust for black and for white Americans. Although race is considered one of the most important predictors of levels of trust, few studies have analyzed how race relates to larger generational and period trends of decline. General Social Survey data is used to test whether the decline thesis applies equally to black and to white Americans’ trust levels. I consider both the widely used index of generalized trust and the individual items comprising this index. The results show that although the war baby generation (1935-1944) of white Americans was more trusting than other generations, there has been no corresponding variability across generations for black Americans. At the period level, while there has been a decline in generalized trust and each of its sub-components for white Americans, the period-based trends for black Americans are more variable across measures. The use of a general index to study trends for black Americans masks important period-based trends. The decline in trust is related to race and what is missing from most accounts of the race gap in trust is a discussion of structural forces that advantage white Americans and hence inflate their trust levels.     

Cross-national variation in the social origins and religious consequences of religious non-affiliation

I argue that the social implications of religious non-affiliation vary across cultural contexts, leading to differences across nations in both who is likely to be unaffiliated and the religious consequences of such non-affiliation. I test these propositions by examining cross-national variation in associations with non-affiliation using multilevel models and cross-sectional survey data from almost 70,000 respondents in 52 nations. The results indicate that: 1) both individual characteristics (gender, age, and marital status) and nation-level attributes (GDP, communism, and regulation of religion) strongly predict religious non-affiliation; 2) differences in non-affiliation by individual-level attributes—women vs. men, old vs. young, and married vs. single—are greatest in nations with low levels of religious regulation and high levels of economic development; and 3) the effect of religious non-affiliation on religiosity varies considerably by the political and religious context, and to a lesser extent by the level of economic development in each nation. These results highlight cultural variation in what it means to be religiously unaffiliated.     

When children affect parents: Children’s academic performance and parental investment

Sociologists have extensively documented the ways that parent resources predict children’s achievement. However, less is known about whether and how children’s academic performance shapes parental investment behaviors. I use data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten Cohort (ECLS-K) and longitudinal fixed effects models to examine how changes in teacher assessments are related to changes in the conferral of various parent resources. Overall, I find that the relationship between achievement and investment varies based on the directionality in children’s achievement and the type of resource at hand. Children whose performance improves receive a broad range of enrichment resources, while declines in performance are met with corrective educational resources. Results are largely consistent whether language or math assessments are used to predict investment, and also among children whose achievement does not change over time. I discuss these patterns, along with implications for the use of parent resources in education and family research.     

Foreclosures and crime: A city-level analysis in Southern California of a dynamic process

Although a growing body of research has examined and found a positive relationship between neighborhood crime and home foreclosures, some research suggests this relationship may not hold in all cities. This study uses city-level data to assess the relationship between foreclosures and crime by estimating longitudinal models with lags for monthly foreclosure and crime data in 128 cities from 1996 to 2011 in Southern California. We test whether these effects are stronger in cities with a combination of high economic inequality and high economic segregation; and whether they are stronger in cities with high racial/ethnic heterogeneity and high racial segregation. One month, and cumulative three month, six month, and 12-month lags of foreclosures are found to increase city level crime for all crimes except motor vehicle theft. The effect of foreclosures on these crime types is stronger in cities with simultaneously high levels of inequality but low levels of economic segregation. The effect of foreclosures on aggravated assault, robbery, and burglary is stronger in cities with simultaneously high levels of racial heterogeneity and low levels of racial segregation. On the other hand, foreclosures had a stronger effect on larceny and motor vehicle theft when they occurred in a city with simultaneously high levels of racial heterogeneity and high levels of racial segregation. There is evidence that the foreclosure crisis had large scale impacts on cities, leading to higher crime rates in cities hit harder by foreclosures. Nonetheless, the economic and racial characteristics of the city altered this effect.     

The social standing of jobs: Scores for all Australian occupations

This paper presents the method used to develop the ANU II status scores for all Australian occupations. For some purposes it supersedes ANU I, a 16-point scale (Broom, Jones, and Zubrzycki, 1965, Australian and New Zealand Journal of Sociology (Suppl.) 1; Broom and Jones, 1969, American Sociological Review 34, 650–658). The two scales correlate at .83. The new scale was calculated using a broad range of data applied to a prestige score criterion to estimate an equation used to predict status scores for all occupations. These scores are available in Broom, Duncan-Jones, Jones, and McDonnell (1977, Investigating Social Mobility) along with further details of the method and results. The new scale is currently being used in the analysis of the ANU 1973 survey of social mobility in Australia, and in the reanalysis of data from the ANU 1965 survey. Preliminary results (also presented in Broom et al., 1977) indicate that the scale will be comparable both across time in Australia and across space when comparisons with the “second generation” of mobility studies is undertaken.     

What keeps young adults in permanent poverty? A comparative analysis using ECHP

Previous studies suggest that there are strong differences in the rates of youth poverty across European countries. Rather surprisingly, it is found to be high in Scandinavian countries, and relatively speaking, lower in Mediterranean and Anglo-Saxon countries. This somewhat unexpected finding prompts the question whether the incidence of poverty is an appropriate measure of youth disadvantage. Instead of considering poverty rates we consider the length of recorded poverty spells, taking into account explicitly the temporal sequencing of the episodes of poverty. Using the European Community Household Panel, individuals are classified into different groups of poverty permanence, each reflecting severity of social disadvantage. Based on these categories we implement a generalized ordinal logit model to assess the various factors associated with social disadvantage among youth. We find that cross-national patterns differ from those found in previous studies. In particular from our findings it does not result that poverty is highest among young people in Social Democratic countries. Our analysis shows important gender differences, though they are not the same across the countries included in the study. For some countries it turns out that being a woman is a protective factor against long-term poverty. As previous studies suggests, young individuals’ living arrangements matter.     

Educational differences in mortality associated with central obesity: Decomposing the contribution of risk and prevalence

Thousands of preventable deaths are attributed to obesity in the United States. However, the harmfulness of obesity varies across the population; individuals’ education determines access to healthful resources and exposure to competing risks, dampening/amplifying obesity-associated mortality risk. Using restricted U.S. National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey data (N = 40,058; 1988–2015), this study estimates educational differences in mortality attributable to central obesity (waist-to-height ratio ≥0.5) – a dangerous form of abdominal adiposity. Over 30% of excess deaths are attributable to central obesity among college-educated adults, compared to 1–10% among their less-educated counterparts. This difference is larger for cardiometabolic-related mortality, as central obesity may explain 60–70% of excess deaths among college-educated adults. Decomposition analyses show differences are driven by greater obesity-associated risk among college-educated adults, rather than prevalence. Policies targeting health disparities should recognize central obesity as a key risk among highly-educated adults, but only one of many encountered by those with less education.     

Socioeconomic variation in the association of marriage with depressive symptoms

Although the health-relevant resources that marriage is argued to provide vary by socioeconomic status (SES), little research has examined whether the association of marriage with psychological well-being varies by SES. Focusing on depressive symptoms as an outcome and using a two-stage Heckit procedure with multilevel modeling, results from analyses of four waves of data (n = 4340 person-waves) from the American Changing Lives Survey (ACL) shows that differences in depressive symptoms between never-married and married adults varies by adjusted household income. Depressive symptoms are highest among the never married, and differences from the married greatest, at the lowest levels of income. As income increases these differences are eliminated. The conditioning effect of income is partially mediated by financial security, self-efficacy, and social support from friends and relatives. The implications of these findings for U.S. marriage promotion policies are discussed.     

The relation between societal factors and different forms of prejudice: A cross-national approach on target-specific and generalized prejudice

The goal of this paper was to investigate the generalizability of prejudice across contexts by analyzing associations between different types of prejudice in a cross-national perspective and by investigating the relation between country-specific contextual factors and target-specific prejudices. Relying on the European Social Survey (2008), results indicated that prejudices were indeed positively associated, confirming the existence of a generalized prejudice component. Next to substantial cross-national differences in associational strength, also within country variance in target-specific associations was observed. This suggested that the motivations for prejudice largely vary according to the intergroup context. Two aspects of the intergroup context – economic conditions and cultural values – showed to be related to generalized and target-specific components of prejudice. Future research on prejudice and context should take an integrative approach that considers both the idea of generalized and specific prejudice simultaneously.     

Disentangling the reciprocal relationship between change in crime and racial/ethnic change

Prior research has found that racial/ethnic change and residential instability are positively related to neighborhood crime. However, the process of racial/ethnic change differentially influences crime above and beyond residential instability. While both processes affect crime through the disruption of existing social ties, racial/ethnic change has additional consequences for crime by heightening racial/ethnic tensions and undercutting cross-group interactions. This means racial/ethnic change is a different process than residential instability, and suggests that neighborhoods experiencing high rates of instability and high rates of racial/ethnic change may be particularly susceptible to crime. Therefore, we examine the influence of racial/ethnic compositional change on change in crime across different levels of residential instability. Further, we argue that demographic change and crime may be influencing each other simultaneously: increases in the crime rate and racial/ethnic compositional change impact each other at the same time. To capture this process, we employ a structural equation model (SEM) that accounts for the reciprocal and simultaneous relationship between racial/ethnic change and violent and property crime rates in Los Angeles, California between 1990 and 2000. We also account for the influence of change in spatially proximate communities. Results show robust evidence that increases in racial/ethnic change contributes to greater violent and property crime rates, but the reciprocal influence of crime on racial/ethnic change is contingent upon the degree to which a neighborhood is experiencing residential instability and crime type.     

Sexual intercourse,romantic relationship inauthenticity,and adolescent mental health

Numerous studies indicate sexual intercourse, especially when it occurs early in adolescence, increases youths' risk of mental health problems. However, no research has examined whether the association between sexual intercourse and mental health varies by romantic relationship inauthenticity, or the level of incongruence between thoughts/feelings and actions within romantic relationships. Using data from a subset of romantically-involved Add Health respondents, we measured sexual involvement in romantic relationships and applied sequence analysis to reports of ideal and actual romantic relationship to measure inauthenticity within adolescent romances. Regressions of depression symptoms indicate that the magnitude of the positive associations between sexual intercourse and girls' mental health is most pronounced in relationships characterized by high levels of relationship inauthenticity and that there is no association between sexual intercourse and girls' depression at low levels of relationship inauthenticity. Having sexual intercourse is positively associated with depression symptoms among boys, but relationship inauthenticity does not alter this association. We discuss the implications of these findings for research on adolescent sexuality and programs aimed at enhancing youth sexuality development.     

The quality and comparability of child care data in U.S. surveys

This paper examines the quality and comparability of child care data obtained from eight waves of data from four nationally representative data sources: the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (1986 and 1988), the Survey of Income and Program Participation (1986, 1987, 1988, and 1990), the National Child Care Survey, and the National Survey of Families and Households. We examine whether different study designs and survey techniques for asking questions about child care produce similar results on both the levels and determinants of child care. We identified four main sources of difference in the data sets that could impact the quality and comparability of child care research: when the interview is conducted; screening questions used to determine who is asked about child care; the population of parents and children represented in the survey; and the way child care questions are asked. Our findings indicate that summer interviews and screening on mother's work status produce the largest differences in the levels and effects of child care across these studies. Even after removing the effects of summer interviews and screening questions, however, substantial differences exist across the studies.     

Religion and vulnerability among low-risk adolescents

Studies of resilient youth have documented the helpful influence of religion in their lives. In the absence of positive influences among high-risk youth, religion and religious organizations in particular often serve to promote prosocial outcomes. This study, on the other hand, investigates whether religion and religious change are comparably effective influences in reducing the vulnerability of low-risk youth to drinking, drug use, delinquency, problems in school, and poor grades. Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, this study identified at least one influential aspect of religion that serves as a direct protective factor across each mode of vulnerability, and also documented indirect pathways of religious influence. We discuss the findings and consider the variable influence of religion on youth.     

Early education and care quality: Does it matter for maternal working hours?

This study investigates whether mothers whose children enter early childhood education and care (ECEC) centers of higher quality are more likely to work longer hours. The empirical analysis links the Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) Study with the K²iD-SOEP extension study, which collected ECEC quality information from childcare centers across Germany. Based on a sample of 556 mothers of 628 children with a mean age of 2.6 years at center entry, the authors applied change score models with entropy balancing to account for differences in a rich set of observable characteristics. The findings show that higher levels of quality with respect to child-teacher-ratio and partly also activities promoting child learning and offered services for parents are associated with greater increases in working hours for mothers since the year before using the ECEC center. No significant relationships emerged for group size and equipment.     

From the West Indies to Africa: A universal generational decline in health among blacks in the United States

Research shows that foreign-born blacks have better health profiles than their U.S.-born counterparts. Less is known, however, regarding whether black immigrants’ favorable health outcomes persist across generations or whether these patterns differ across the diverse sending regions for black immigrants. In this study, we use data from the 1996–2014 waves of the March Current Population Survey (CPS) to investigate generational differences in self-rated health among blacks with West Indian, Haitian, Latin American, and African ancestry. We show that first-generation black immigrants have a lower probability of reporting fair/poor health than third/higher generation blacks. The health advantage of the first generation over the third/higher generation is slightly more prounced among the foreign-born who migrated to the United States after age 13. Second-generation immigrants with two foreign-born parents are generally less likely to report their health as fair/poor than the third/higher generation. However, we find no evidence that self-reported fair/poor health varies between second-generation immigrants with mixed nativity parents (only one foreign-born parent) and the third/higher generation. These general patterns hold across each of the ancestral subgroups in the study sample. In summary, our findings highlight a remarkable convergence in health across immigrant generations among blacks in the United States.     

Foreign-born health integration during the transition to adulthood: The case of weight

Nativity differences in youths’ health in the United States are striking—the children of foreign-born parents often have healthier outcomes than those of native-born parents. However, very little is known about how immigrant-native differences evolve within the same individuals over time, or about life cycle aspects of the health-related integration of youth with migration backgrounds. Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, I examine nativity differences in trajectories of weight gain during adolescence and early adulthood, as well as the degree to which temporal patterns are stratified by race/ethnicity and socioeconomic status. I examine whether nativity differences converge, diverge or remain stable over time, and whether patterns are socially stratified within and across nativity groups. I find that first-generation adolescents begin at a lower weight than their third generation peers and gain weight at a significantly slower pace, resulting in meaningful differences by early adulthood. More complex examination of the relationship between nativity and weight gain reveals additional differences by ethnicity: the foreign-born advantage over time does not extend as strongly to Hispanic adolescents. The findings demonstrate how the health-related integration of foreign-born youth is tied to race/ethnicity and socioeconomic circumstances, and suggest the need to examine the ways in which social circumstances and health change together.     

The adolescent family environment and cohabitation across the transition to adulthood

This study draws upon a sample of men and women from Waves I and IV of Add Health to examine the linkages between the adolescent family environment and cohabitation behavior across the transition to adulthood. Using event history modeling the current paper considers the association between a variety of family factors and both the timing of first cohabiting unions and their outcomes (marriage, break up, still cohabiting). This paper also considers whether the impact of predictors for cohabitation timing and outcomes varies depending on the age of individuals. Results indicate that exposure during adolescence to family instability, parental cohabitation, lower parental SES, and low family belonging were associated with an elevated likelihood of entering into cohabiting unions, but primarily during adolescence and early adulthood. Family factors, including family belonging and parental relationship history, were also associated with the outcomes of first cohabitations.     

The role of family relationships in the psychological wellbeing of interracially dating adolescents

We use data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health) to examine the role of family relationships in explaining why interracially dating youth have poorer psychological wellbeing than youth with same-race partners. Results indicate that interracial daters experience more symptoms of depression and anxiety and poorer family relationships than do same-race daters. The additive effects of their lower levels of family support and poorer quality parent-child relationships, however, do little to explain interracial daters' more negative wellbeing outcomes. The negative effects of interracial dating hold similarly for boys and girls and among White and Black youth. Interracial dating less negatively effects the depressive symptomatology of Hispanics, though, and actually appears to “protect” Asian youth from depressive symptoms. Our findings highlight the psychological wellbeing risks faced by many interracially dating youth and the protective benefits of close and supportive family relationships for romantically-involved adolescents in general.     

Family structure and the intergenerational transmission of educational advantage

I examine whether the effect of parents’ education on children’s educational achievement and attainment varies by family structure and, if so, whether this can be explained by differential parenting practices. Using data from the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988, I find that as parents’ education increases, children in single mother families experience a lower boost in their achievement test scores, likelihood of attending any post-secondary schooling, likelihood of completing a 4-year college degree, and years of completed schooling relative to children living with both biological parents. Differences in parents’ educational expectations, intergenerational closure, and children’s involvement in structured leisure activities partially explain these status transmission differences by family structure. The findings imply that, among children with highly educated parents, children of single mothers are less likely to be highly educated themselves relative to children who grow up with both biological parents.