General Feelings Toward Unions and Employers as Predictors of Union Voting Intent

The union voting intention literature shows that many nonunion employees who indicate that they think unions are instrumental in increasing wages, benefits, and working conditions would vote against forming a union. Although American workers have often been characterized as pragmatic with regard to their support for unions, the “disconnect” between union beliefs and union voting intentions just described suggests that more subtle forces are at work. In this paper, it is shown empirically that union instrumentality is a limited predictor of union voting intentions for a recent national cross-section of workers. Rather, more general feelings toward unions and employers are primary. These accounted for a large portion of the variance in union voting intentions, with general feelings towards unions by far the most critical predictor. A concluding section discusses whether the results may reflect changes in union power and changes in employee views of unions. Areas for future research are discussed.     

Psychometric Properties of the Family Inventory of Resources and Stressors in Families of Children with Emotional/Behavior Disorders: Ethnic/Racial and Developmental Differences

The Family Inventory of Resources and Stressors (FIRST) has been shown to have adequate psychometric properties in the assessment of families of children with emotional and behavior disorders (EBD). However, the extent to which ethnic/racial and developmental differences moderate the psychometric properties of this instrument is unknown. The study sample consisted of 150 families with an EBD child consecutively admitted to the Astor Transitions Program. This study seeks (1) to conduct a psychometric analysis of the FIRST subscales among African American and Hispanic/Latino families with older students versus early childhood students with EBD, and (2) to determine whether profiles will show greater stress for families of older students due to longer exposure to their EBD. Alpha coefficients were computed with a cutoff of 0.70 (or higher) indicating acceptable internal consistency reliability. Criterion variables reflecting family environment, mental health, and level of service correlated with relevant FIRST subscales assessed validity. Ethnic/racial and developmental effects were found to moderate the psychometric properties of the FIRST. No statistically significant between-group mean differences on the FIRST were found for families of early childhood versus older EBD students. Despite evidence of response bias on the part of families and lack of standardization during test administration by caseworkers, the current findings still reveal adequate reliability and limited validity of FIRST subscales.     

<Emphasis Type="Bold">Women’s Progress for Men’s Gain? Gender-Specific Changes in the Return to Education as Measured by Family Standard of Living, 1990 to 2009–2011</Emphasis>

This study investigates gender-specific changes in the total financial return to education among persons of prime working ages (35–44 years) using U.S. Census data from 1990 and 2000, and the 2009–2011 American Community Survey. We define the total financial return to education as the family standard of living as measured by family income adjusted for family size. Our results indicate that women experienced significant progress in educational attainment and labor market outcomes over this time period. Ironically, married women’s progress in education and personal earnings has led to greater improvement in the family standard of living for married men than for women themselves. Gender-specific changes in assortative mating are mostly responsible for this paradoxical trend. Because the number of highly educated women exceeds the number of highly educated men in the marriage market, the likelihood of educational marrying up has substantially increased for men over time while women’s likelihood has decreased. Sensitivity analyses show that the greater improvement in the family standard of living for men than for women is not limited to prime working-age persons but is also evident in the general population. Consequently, women’s return to education through marriage declined while men’s financial gain through marriage increased considerably.     

Does an Immigrant Background Ameliorate Racial Disadvantage? The Socioeconomic Attainments of Second‐Generation African Americans1

Although there is a growing literature on the socioeconomic circumstances of the second generation, this issue has not been systematically considered for African Americans. To help fill this research gap, we investigate the extent to which the socioeconomic attainments of second‐generation African Americans differ from mainstream (i.e., third and higher generation) African Americans. Using data from the Current Population Survey and the 2000 Census, our results indicate that the schooling and wages of second‐generation African Americans consistently exceed those of third‐ and higher generation African Americans. Our findings also reveal that second‐generation African Americans do at least as well as whites in terms of years of schooling, but wage differentials differ significantly by gender. Second‐generation African‐American women earn wages that are at least as high as comparable white women, but second‐generation African‐American men earn wages that are, on average, about 16% less than measurably comparable white men. While no one theoretical perspective can account for all these results, they nonetheless indicate the continuing significance of racial disadvantage for African‐American men, including those with an immigrant background.     

Social Class Correlates of Stability and Change in Levels of Alienation: a Longitudinal Study

Identical allenation items were used on questionnaires administered to 334 subjects in 1963 and again in 1971. Drawing upon the variables of powerlessness, meaninglessness, normlessness, and social isolation, an analysis was made of stability and change in alienation scores. The direction of change was toward disproportionate increases over decreases, with the largest increase occurring for normlessness. Differential educational and occupational status, along with other social characteristics, were examined for sources of subsequent change in different measures of alienation. The results indicated significant differences in levels of alienation by socioeconomic variables at the two points in time. The amount of change, however, was not differentiated by changes in socioeconomic characteristics.