Mother–Adolescent Conflict: Adolescent Goals,Maternal Perspective‐Taking,and Conflict Intensity

Younger and older adolescents were interviewed about their goals in recent disagreements with their mothers. Six goals were identified: instrumental (simply gaining their immediate desire); dyadic concern; achieving emotional support; autonomy; dominance; and nonengagement (avoidance of conflict). Younger adolescents reported significantly more instrumental and significantly fewer emotional support and dominance goals than did older adolescents. Maternal perspective‐taking predicted more dyadic concern and fewer dominance goals, as well as more nonengagement goals for younger adolescents. Dominance goals mediated the effect of maternal dyadic perspective‐taking on conflict intensity for older adolescents.     

Branding consultants as cultural intermediaries

Advertising agencies are frequently the focus of sociological studies investigating the ways in which commodities are imbued with meanings, and the impacts of these efforts on consumer activity. However, advertising agencies face increasing competition from other symbolic intermediaries, of which branding consultancies are some of the most successful. This paper explores the nature and significance of branding by focusing upon three key themes: first, its history and relationship to the design industry; secondly, its everyday practice and efforts to translate brand values into material, as well as visual, form; and thirdly, the forms of knowledge drawn upon in its decision-making processes, and their relationship to its broader power and influence. These themes are addressed through a combination of historical analysis and empirical material drawn from interviews with branding professionals, and are framed with reference to the literature on cultural intermediaries     

The narrative self in autobiographical accounts of illness

The paper analyzes autobiographical acounts of the experience of chronic illness and its treatment to develop a sociological theory of the self. It is suggested that ‘self’ is not a biologistic or psycologistic thing. Rather self is autobiographical narrative – hence the narrative self. It is argued that four elements constitute such narrative selves in autobiographical discourse: evaluative relationships between events in time; cosmology; power relationships; and conceptualisation of self as object.     

Social Support Networks of African-American Children Attending Head Start: A Longitudinal Investigation of Structural and Supportive Network Characteristics

This study examined the stability and coherence of African‐American children's social support networks. Participants included a total of 106 3‐ to 4‐year‐old children attending Head Start centers located in the southeast. Children completed a social network interview in two consecutive years at the Head Start centers. These interviews tapped multiple dimensions of the support network including social embeddedness, proportion of the network providing support, and perceived support. Analyses focused on both the rank‐order stability of children with respect to network characteristics as well as stability of network relationships (the same individuals included in the network at both time periods). Results indicated age‐related increases in network size for adult and child categories, network size across three support domains, proportion of support scores, and perceived support from adults. In addition to age‐related changes, analyses revealed considerable rank‐order stability with respect to structural network dimensions, but very little rank‐order stability in proportion of support and perceived support scores. In contrast, both structural and supportive components of the children's networks were shown to be coherent over a one‐year period when specific network member relationships were examined. Discussion highlights both continuities and discontinuities in young children's social networks, and how data obtained in this study contribute to theory building and the systematic examination of African‐American children's emerging social networks.     

The Bordes-LeBreton exceptional case

Bordes and LeBreton have found a set D of weak orderings of X that includes all linear (strong) orderings of X but where there exists a social welfare function f on D ^N satisfying all of Arrow's (non-domain) conditions. In this paper we characterize all such D and f possibilities.     

Of Sex and Romance: Late Adolescent Relationships and Young Adult Union Formation

To better understand the social factors that influence the diverse pathways to family formation young adults experience today, this research investigates the association between opposite‐gender relationships during late adolescence and union formation in early adulthood. Using data from the first and third waves of the Add Health (n= 4,911), we show that, for both men and women, there is continuity between adolescent and adult relationship experiences. Those involved in adolescent romantic relationships at the end of high school are more likely to marry and to cohabit in early adulthood. Moreover, involvement in a nonromantic sexual relationship is positively associated with cohabitation, but not marriage. We conclude that the precursors to union formation patterns in adulthood are observable in adolescence.