Fertility decision making,unintended births,and the social drift hypothesis: A longitudinal study

To explore relationships between fertility intentions and subsequent childbearing, data were collected from 334 mothers in a metropolitan area in 1963 and again in 1971, allowing for a time interval of eight years for testing a series of hypotheses on fertility control. The results suggested that social psychological obstacles to decision making should be taken into account as potential qualifiers of the more rational models of fertility behavior currently prevalent in the literature. The alienation variable of meaninglessness was examined in conjunction with education, age at marriage, marital duration, and previous parity. The analyses indicated that pregnancies for many women are experienced as occurrences, happenings, or unintended events within a social psychological context of social drift.Research support pursuant to contract NIH-71-2028 with the Center for Population Research, NICHD, is gratefully acknowledged, as is the assistance of David W. Chilson in the processing of the data. Request reprints from either author, Sociology Department, Bowling Green University, Bowling Green, Ohio 43403.     

Dialing for Dollars: Opportunities,Justifications, and Telemarketing Fraud

Opportunities for deviant economic exploitation grew significantly in the second half of the twentieth century. Drawing from interviews with forty-seven fraudulent telemarketers, this article describes the backgrounds and pursuits of one type of deviant actor that has stepped forward to exploit these opportunities. The men and women interviewed for this research were reared in middle-class, disproportionately managerial and entrepreneurial families. Their class and family backgrounds provided them with high, but ill-defined, expectations for material success. Their preparation for successful conventional careers was unremarkable. As a result, they were predisposed to economic activities that required few credentials but provided a high income. Once involved in and aware of the deviant nature of their endeavors, continuation in fraud was facilitated by the income it produced and the lifestyle it permitted, by self-definitions enhanced by their manipulative abilities, and by acquisition and use of a vocabulary of motive that deflected blame. An augmented version of sociological strain theory provides an analytic vantage point from which to examine the backgrounds, aspirations, and perspectives of those involved in fraudulent telemarketing.     

The Relationship Between Work-to-Family Conflict and Family-to-Work Conflict: A Longitudinal Study

The relationship between work-to-family conflict and family-to-work conflict was tested using a longitudinal research design with 234 dual-earner couples caring for both children and aging parents. Two waves of mailed survey data were collected. The mediating effects of role-related satisfaction were hypothesized to link these two forms of work-family conflict. The analytical steps for determining mediating effects followed suggestions by Baron and Kenny (1986). The results failed to show significant mediating effects of role-related satisfaction between the two forms of conflict over time for both husbands and wives, contrary to suggestions by Frone, Yardley, and Markel (1997). Instead, positive, direct relationships between the two types of work-family conflict were found. Limitations and implications are discussed.     

Child,Caregiver, and Temperament Contributions to Infant Joint Attention

Little is known about variables that may contribute to individual differences in infant joint attention, or the coordination of visual attention with a social partner. Therefore, this study examined the contributions of caregiver behavior and temperament to infant joint attention development between 9 and 12 months. Data were collected from 57 infants using a caregiver–infant paradigm, an infant–tester paradigm, and a parent report of infant temperament. Nine‐month measures of caregiver scaffolding and infant initiating joint attention (IJA) with testers were significantly related to 12‐month infant IJA with testers. A temperament measure of positive emotional reactivity was related to 9‐month IJA, and a measure of negative emotional reactivity was related to 12‐month IJA. Temperament and caregiver scaffolding measures, however, were not associated with the development of infant responding to joint attention. These results further the understanding of the multiple processes that contribute to joint attention development in infancy, and support the hypothesis that initiating and responding measures tap different aspects of joint attention development.     

Gender Role Expectations of Juveniles*

This paper discusses the development of two five-item Likert scales that classify juveniles' gender role expectations as highly traditional to nontraditional. One is composed of behavioral expectations that juveniles define as traditionally feminine and the other is composed of expectations they define as traditionally masculine. With a sample of junior and senior high school students, correlational and factor analyses of scale items were conducted to assess the validity of the assumptions of bipolarity and unidimensionality common in theoretical conceptualizations of gender roles. The results suggest that feminine and masculine role expectations are not bipolar opposites and do not form a unidimensional continuum.     

Child Well-Being in Same-Sex Parent Families: Review of Research Prepared for American Sociological Association Amicus Brief

Recent legal cases before the Supreme Court of the United States were challenging federal definitions of marriage created by the Defense of Marriage Act and California’s voter approved Proposition 8 which limited marriage to different-sex couples only. Social science literature regarding child well-being was being used within these cases, and the American Sociological Association sought to provide a concise evaluation of the literature through an amicus curiae brief. The authors were tasked in the assistance of this legal brief by reviewing literature regarding the well-being of children raised within same-sex parent families. This article includes our assessment of the literature, focusing on those studies, reviews and books published within the past decade. We conclude that there is a clear consensus in the social science literature indicating that American children living within same-sex parent households fare just, as well as those children residing within different-sex parent households over a wide array of well-being measures: academic performance, cognitive development, social development, psychological health, early sexual activity, and substance abuse. Our assessment of the literature is based on credible and methodologically sound studies that compare well-being outcomes of children residing within same-sex and different-sex parent families. Differences that exist in child well-being are largely due to socioeconomic circumstances and family stability. We discuss challenges and opportunities for new research on the well-being of children in same-sex parent families.     

Self-Forgiveness and Mortality in Late Life

The purpose of this study is to see if older people who are able to forgive themselves have a lower mortality risk than older adults who are not able to forgive themselves. In addition, it is hypothesized that the relationship between self-forgiveness and mortality will be contingent upon the level of an older individual’s education. More specifically, it is predicted that the potentially beneficial effects of self-forgiveness will be more evident among older people with more years of schooling. Data from a nationwide survey of older people provide support for this view. Self-forgiveness does not provide a mortality benefit for less educated elders. But as the level of educational attainment rises, self-forgiveness is associated with a progressively smaller mortality risk.     

Recipes for Attention: Policy Reforms,Crises, Organizational Characteristics,and the Newspaper Coverage of the LGBT Movement, 1969–2009

Why do some organizations in a movement seeking social change gain extensive national newspaper coverage? To address the question, we innovate in theoretical and empirical ways. First, we elaborate a theoretical argument that builds from the political mediation theory of movement consequences and incorporates the social organization of newspaper practices. This media and political mediation model integrates political and media contexts and organizations' characteristics and actions. With this model, we hypothesize two main routes to coverage: one that includes changes in public policy and involves policy‐engaged, well‐resourced, and inclusive organizations and a second that combines social crises and protest organizations. Second, we appraise these arguments with the first analysis of the national coverage of all organizations in a social movement over its career: 84 lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender rights and AIDS‐related organizations in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and Wall Street Journal from 1969 to 2010. These analyses go beyond previous research that provides either snapshots of many organizations at one point in time or overtime analyses of aggregated groups of organizations or individual organizations. The results of both historical and fuzzy set qualitative comparative analyses support our media and political mediation model.     

Lie detection across cultures

Can people detect deception by watching a liar's nonverbal behavior? Can lies be detected across cultures? In the current paper, we report the first cross-cultural study to date of the detection of deception from nonverbal behavior. Americans and Jordanians were videotaped while telling lies and truths; other Americans and Jordanians watched the resulting videotapes and made lie detection judgments. Results showed similar patterns of lie detection within each of the two culture but no lie detection across cultures. In both the U.S. and Jordan, people who avoided eye contact and paused in the middle of speaking were judged to be deceptive. The findings are discussed within an adaptive perspective.