Till Debt do us Part: A Model of Divorce and Personal Bankruptcy

The number of personal bankruptcies has increased dramatically since 1990, and a growing number of filers are divorced. While previous research shows that divorce significantly increases the probability of bankruptcy, these studies assume divorce is exogenous. This study uses the Panel Study of Income Dynamics to investigate the relationship between divorce and bankruptcy. Single-equation probit results show that divorce significantly increases the probability of bankruptcy and bankruptcy significantly increases the probability of divorce. However, after controlling for endogeneity, the effect of divorce on bankruptcy and the effect of bankruptcy on divorce both fall by a significant amount and are statistically insignificant. The findings suggest that future research needs to more carefully model the role that financial distress plays within a marriage.

On the Relation of Personal Experience to Early Adolescents' Reasoning About Best Friendship Deterioration

The primary goal of this study was to investigate the association between early adolescents' generalized beliefs about the causes of best friendship deterioration and dissolution and conflict experiences in their own best friendships. An additional goal was to assess whether early adolescents' self-esteem moderated this association. Participants listed their beliefs about the causes of best friendship deterioration and dissolution, indicated whether conflicts described in a series of vignettes had occurred in one of their best friendships, and described two conflicts they had experienced in their best friendships. They also judged the seriousness of the vignette and personally experienced conflicts. As predicted, early adolescents included conflict issues they had experienced personally more frequently in their causal inventories than conflict issues that they had not experienced personally. However, contrary to predictions, the perceived seriousness of the conflicts did not influence their inclusion in participants' causal inventories. While high and low self-esteem adolescents had similar beliefs about the causes of best friendship deterioration and dissolution, low self-esteem adolescents perceived their conflicts as more serious and their friendships as more fragile.     

The Impact of Parental Occupation and Socioeconomic Status on Choice of College Major

This study examines the effects of socioeconomic status and parental occupation on choice of college major, with special attention directed toward female and male differences. The study uses multinomial logit analysis and data from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) 1990 Survey of Beginning Postsecondary Students (BPS). Having a father in a professional or executive occupation has a larger effect on female students than does having a mother in a similar occupation. The opposite holds for males. Women from families with high socioeconomic status are less likely to major in business; the opposite holds for males. Students who believe that being very well off financially is very important are more likely to major in business than are other students.     

Building ‘community’ for different stages of life: physical and social infrastructure in master planned communities

As cities around the world struggle to cope with increasing populations, major new master planned housing developments are being undertaken to meet the demand for housing. Such urban developments are influencing workforce, household, and community relations, which in turn drive health and well-being outcomes, and affect social capital and labour market participation. This paper reports findings from the first phase of data collection for the Work, Home and Community Project. Fourteen focus groups were conducted with 68 men and women who live and/or work at newly developed master planned communities in South Australia and Victoria. Findings indicate that familiarity, availability, and the enabling of social bridges contribute to the development of community and social capital in these residential areas. For individuals at different stages of life these factors were facilitated or inhibited by specific physical and social infrastructures in the residential area and the workplace. At a time when concerns are being raised about the ability of people to combine work, home, and community these findings shed some light on the physical and social infrastructures that can enable or constrain the building of healthy communities.     

U txt WHEN? College students’ social contexts of text messaging

Despite an explosion in the popularity of text messaging (short message service, or SMS texting), little research has documented the prevalence of its use in various dimensions of the social landscape of young adults. We examined text messaging patterns in various social situations in a sample of college students. Unsurprisingly, participants placed a good deal of importance on texting and reported using texts frequently to stay in touch with friends and loved ones. However, a good number of participants reported texting in seemingly inopportune situations, such as while in the shower, while at work, during religious services, and while having sex. Further, most participants reported texting in situations that may be considered by some as social breaches, such as while on a date, while socializing in person with others, and to break up with and cheat on a romantic partner. Results suggest that drawbacks of this convenient, fast, and faceless mode of communication include disinhibition and inattention to one's immediate social environment.     

Politics and Growth

Theories of growth have made progress in understanding the mechanisms of growth in economic terms. However, there is less understanding of the political processes that enable or obstruct these mechanisms. This article provides a four‐stage framework to clarify and analyse the connections between politics and growth: (i) discussing the basic conditions essential for growth; (ii) suggesting that whether or not these conditions emerge depends on specific forms of public‐private interaction; (iii) linking these relationships to the incentives facing those in political power and investors; and (iv) considering the factors at country level that may help to push incentives in a pro‐growth direction.     

The Sociological Significance of Sleep: Progress, Problems and Prospects

Sleep is something we all 'do' on a daily or nightly basis, consuming approximately a third of our lives. It is only relatively recently, however, that sociologists have begun to address the social significance of sleep. This paper, therefore, provides an invitation of sorts to a rich and fascinating new field of sociological inquiry, charting and commentating on the sociological significance of sleep in relation to the following seven key themes: (i) body and society; (ii) roles and routines; (iii) history and culture; (iv) work and employment; (v) gender and the life course; (vi) health and illness; and finally, (vii) politics and ethics. The paper concludes with some further critical thoughts and reflections on this sociological engagement with sleep to date and the theoretical, conceptual and methodological challenges ahead.     

“How Edge Are You?” Constructing Authentic Identities and Subcultural Boundaries in a Straightedge Internet Forum

We analyze how participants in an internet forum dedicated to the straightedge subculture articulate and express subcultural identities and boundaries, with particular attention to how they accomplish these tasks in a computer‐mediated context. Through participant observation, “focused discussions,” and interviews, we explore the complexity of identity‐making processes in terms of cyberspace and subculture, conceptualizing identification as occurring at the intersection of biography, subculture, and technology. We find that the internet influences how individuals participate in subcultural communities by analyzing their claims for authenticity and how they position themselves in relation to subcultural boundaries. This article provides insight into the dialectic relationship between participation in a subculture and in an internet community.     

Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) Seropositive Homeless Men: Behavioral and Social Characteristics

Homeless persons living in US. innercities are at risk for human immunodeficiency virus (HW) infection, but few studies have examined the continued risk behaviors of HIV infected homeless men. We investigated the sexual behavior of 32 homeless men who had tested HIV seropositive. Twenty-five percent of HW positive men reported a history of injection drug use, 34% had sex with men, over 40% had participated in commercial sex, and 59% had been treated for a non-HIV sexually transmitted disease. HIV seropositive men also reported recent sexual behavior, with 62% having sex in the previous month and 50% currently sexually active. Condom use was inconsistent among seropositive men; 44% of vaginal and 50% of anal intercourse occasions in the preceding three months did not involve condoms, and 28% of HW seropositive men did not use a condom during their most recent sexual encounter. Substance use was frequently associated with unprotected sexual behavior among HW seropositive men. Finally, measures of life satisfaction showed that HIV seropositive men were most satisfied with their relationships, mental health, and spiritual well being. These data suggest a need for intensive behavioral.interventions tailored for homeless HW infected men and we recommend that existing substance use treatment and holistic care be incorporated into behavioral interventions for HW infected men.