On the decomposition of X2 for two-way contingency tables

When samples are taken independently from I populations and the subjects classified into J categories, can the Pearson's chisquare statistic X² testing the homogeneity model on the resulting I×J two-way table be decomposed into components familiar in the analysis of variance? Will the X² testing the homogeneity model on tables derived by collapsing columns in the spirit of orthogonal comparisons in factorial experiments be asymptotically independent? The answers to both questions are generally negative. This paper gives a theoretical justification.     

Assessment of a State TANF Funded IDA Initiative: A Case Study

Individual development accounts (IDAs), wealth-building programs for the working poor, have existed since the late 1980s. Current research suggests that IDA programs benefit families while contributing to local and state economies. This program evaluation assessed the impact of one state Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF)-funded IDA initiative. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected from four agencies chosen using cluster sampling across the state. Agency programmatic and participant data from the last year of operation (N?=?160) were examined. Agencies also provided contact information for three participants who had graduated and three who exited the program prematurely in the past year of operation. In person, interviews were held with agency directors (n?=?6) and IDA participants (n?=?11) were interviewed by telephone. Results indicate that 69% (n?=?111) of IDA enrollees successfully completed the program. IDA participants who exited the program prior to completion also expressed benefits associated with the time in which they were involved. Programmatic and individual benefits and challenges reported guide recommendations for improving IDA marketability, participant outcomes, and organizational performance rates. A critical implication of the findings is the need to expand the use and design of IDA programs legislatively to better serve historically oppressed and working poor families more effectively.     

Racial Identity,School Racial Climate,and School Intrinsic Motivation Among African American Youth: The Importance of Person–Context Congruence

Researchers have been concerned with whether strong racial identification promotes or inhibits achievement motivation among African American youth, but current literatures have paid little attention to the role of youths' contexts. In this study, we outline a racial identity–context congruence framework that predicts positive benefits of a strong, positive racial identity when the context is congruent with youths' beliefs. To test this framework, we examined school racial climate as a moderator in the relationships of three racial identity variables (centrality, private regard, and public regard) with intrinsic motivation for attending school in a sample of 11th graders. Overall, results support the congruence perspective and also demonstrate how feelings of belonging at school mediate the relationship between racial identity–racial climate congruence and school intrinsic motivation.     

Where You Lead,I Will Follow: Exploring Sibling Similarity in Brain and Behavior During Risky Decision Making

This exploratory study examined whether social learning increases similarity in adolescent siblings’ behavior and neural patterns during risky decision making. Participants included 86 adolescents (43 sibling dyads; younger siblings: M_age = 12.2 years; 22 females; older siblings: M_age = 14.6 years; 20 females) who completed questionnaires, and a decision‐making task during an fMRI scan. Younger siblings became more similar to their older siblings’ risky decision making after observing their older sibling take risks). Younger siblings who reported greater modeling of their older sibling, and less differentiation from them, showed increased neural similarity to their older siblings in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, and the right anterior insula and ventral striatum, respectively. These findings highlight siblings as salient social agents in how adolescents process risky decision making.     

Black women’s mental health matters: Theoretical perspectives and future directions

Despite recent sociological research exploring how stratification systems impinge on the health of socially disadvantaged populations, Black women’s mental health is rarely a topic of investigation among scholars of medical sociology, sociology of race and racism, or sociology of gender. In this review, we incorporate perspectives from sociology, social psychiatry, psychology, and social work to develop a transdisciplinary intersectional model of Black women’s mental health. We also present critical interventions in the extant literature. First, though stress exposure is generally associated with poor mental health, more research is necessary to ascertain the gendered-racialized stressors to which Black women are exposed, owing to their racial and gender oppression. Second, we admonish mental health scholars to incorporate other status dimensions (e.g., nativity, sexual orientation, age) to provide a more nuanced depiction of Black women’s psychological health. Third, the unique and enduring relationship between the U.S. punishment system and the mental health of Black women should be further explicated in future research. Last, we envision a body of work on Black women’s mental health that captures the ways in which they cope with societal level marginalization, as these forms of resilience and resistance may be mental health protective.     

Methods for diagnosing multiplicative-interaction models for two-way contingency tables

An expanded class of multiplicative-interaction (M-I) models is proposed for two-way contingency tables. These models a generalization of Goodman's association models, fill in the gap between the independence and the saturated models. Diagnostic rules based on a transformation of the data are proposed for the detection of such models. These rules, utilizing the singular value decomposition of the transformed data, are very easy to use. Maximum likelihood estimation is considered and the computational algorithms discussed. A data set from Goodman (1981) and another from Gabriel and Zamir (1979) are used to demostrate the diagnostic rules.     

Women and Top Leadership Positions: Towards an Institutional Analysis

Women remain under‐represented in top leadership positions in work organizations, a reality that reflects a variety of barriers that create a glass ceiling effect. However, some women do attain top leadership positions, leading scholars to probe under what conditions women are promoted despite seemingly intractable and well‐documented barriers. Previous scholarship tends to posit individual‐level explanations, suggesting either that women who attain top leadership positions are exceptional or that potential women leaders lack key qualities, such as assertiveness. Much less scholarship has explored institutional‐level mechanisms that may increase women's ascension to top positions. This analysis seeks to fill this gap by testing three institutional‐level theories that may shape women's access to and tenure in top positions: the glass cliff, decision‐maker diversity, and the saviour effect. To test these theories we rely on a dataset that includes all CEO transitions in Fortune 500 companies over a 20‐year period. Contrary to the predictions of the glass cliff, we find that diversity among decision makers — not firm performance — significantly increases women's likelihood of being promoted to top leadership positions. We also find, contrary to the predictions of the saviour effect, that diversity among decision makers increases women leaders' tenure as CEOs regardless of firm performance. By identifying contextual factors that increase women's mobility, the paper makes an important contribution to the processes that shape and reproduce gender inequality in work organizations.