The effects of labor market segmentation on economic resources in retirement

Longitudinal data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics are used to explore the determinants of economic resource levels among recently retired workers. Three income determination models are used to examine significant predictors of economic status using a broad measure of economic well being that includes both retirement income and wealth. Findings indicate that variables used in status attainment, human capital, and labor market segmentation models explain substantial amounts of variance. Applying these models to the longitudinal data provide suggestive information about the crucial life-span characteristics and circumstances that determine economic status as workers enter retirement.     

Communication of ambiguous risk information

This paper reports on the responses of 646 individuals to environmental risk information involving different forms of risk ambiguity. Recipients of more than one set of risk information do not simply average the risk levels provided. Rather, a variety of aspects of the nature of the risks that are communicated influence their probabilistic beliefs. Individuals' perceptions of the risk levels to which they are exposed are likely to be greater: (i) for more ambiguous risks, (ii) for risks for which the unfavorable risk evidence is presented last even when there is no temporal order, (iii) for risks for which the most unfavorable risk studies have been performed most recently, and (iv) for risks where there is asymmetry in the risk ambiguity that imposes substantial potential downside risks. Although these effects are modest for the median individual, the potential for extreme responses that reflect only the most adverse or the most favorable piece of information provided is quite prevalent. These findings are of interest more generally in that they indicate how individuals form their risk perceptions in the presence of risk ambiguity.The authors would like to thank the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for support of this work under Cooperative Agreements Number CR-815445-01-2 and Number CR-814388-02-1. Dr. Alan Carlin and Dr. Ann Fisher provided valuable guidance in the design of the project, and Dr. Doyle Graham and Dr. Douglas Anthony offered generous assistance in communicating the medical consequences of nerve disease to subjects. Jon LaScala assisted superbly in the administration and analysis of the survey, and Patricia Born provided additional computer programming assistance.     

Testing for Additivity at Select Mixture Groups of Interest Based on Statistical Equivalence Testing Methods

Several assumptions, defined and undefined, are used in the toxicity assessment of chemical mixtures. In scientific practice mixture components in the low-dose region, particularly subthreshold doses, are often assumed to behave additively (i.e., zero interaction) based on heuristic arguments. This assumption has important implications in the practice of risk assessment, but has not been experimentally tested. We have developed methodology to test for additivity in the sense of Berenbaum (Advances in Cancer Research, 1981), based on the statistical equivalence testing literature where the null hypothesis of interaction is rejected for the alternative hypothesis of additivity when data support the claim. The implication of this approach is that conclusions of additivity are made with a false positive rate controlled by the experimenter. The claim of additivity is based on prespecified additivity margins, which are chosen using expert biological judgment such that small deviations from additivity, which are not considered to be biologically important, are not statistically significant. This approach is in contrast to the usual hypothesis-testing framework that assumes additivity in the null hypothesis and rejects when there is significant evidence of interaction. In this scenario, failure to reject may be due to lack of statistical power making the claim of additivity problematic. The proposed method is illustrated in a mixture of five organophosphorus pesticides that were experimentally evaluated alone and at relevant mixing ratios. Motor activity was assessed in adult male rats following acute exposure. Four low-dose mixture groups were evaluated. Evidence of additivity is found in three of the four low-dose mixture groups. The proposed method tests for additivity of the whole mixture and does not take into account subset interactions (e.g., synergistic, antagonistic) that may have occurred and cancelled each other out.     

THE EMERGENCE OF TRENDSETTERS FOR FASHIONS AND FADS:

Analyses of fads and fashions often note the importance of trendsetters whose early adoption of novelties provides an example for others to follow. However, trendsetting is usually taken for granted; there is no effort to explain why some groups assume fashion leadership. This article seeks to account for the rise of kogaru (stylish high-school girls) as trendsetters in 1990s Japan. We argue that trendsetting requires resources—particularly leisure time to devote to fashion, disposable income, and communication networks. Kogaru became trendsetters because they gained these resources at a time when the female college students who preceded them had less time for trendsetting, and when economic recession made inexpensive items of the sort kogaru could afford more desirable fashion objects. At the same time, new electronic technologies sped the flow of information among kogaru, while media coverage of this new social type gave kogaru visibility in the larger society.     

WHEN MEN ARE THE MINORITY: The Case of Men in Nursing

Based on in-depth interviews with a nonprobability sample of male nurses, this study argues that while male nurses do experience the interaction dynamics associated with tokenism as outlined by Kanter (1977a, 1977b), their experience is substantially different from that of female tokens because of socio-cultural factors that interact with group proportions in forming patterns of group interaction. Not only do male nurses react differently to the dynamics of visibility, polarization, and assimilation, but gender-related issues of status and stigma are also important to them. Although Kanter's framework is applicable to male nurses, many of the differences they experience compared to female tokens are attributable to socio-cultural definitions of masculinity and femininity as well as gender-based issues of status rather than group proportions alone. Thus, these findings suggest that socio-cultural factors, interacting with group proportions, strongly influence patterns of interaction among nurses.     

About the Authors

Sociological Forum -     

Examining outpatient health care utilization among adults with severe or profound intellectual disabilities living in an urban setting: a brief snap shot

The present study examined the health status and outpatient health care utilization among 52 adults with severe or profound intellectual disabilities (IDs) living with their families or in group homes in New York City. Bivariate and regression analyses among demographic variables, medical conditions, health care utilization, and type of living situation were conducted. Findings indicate that demographic factors and health statuses were similar regardless of living situation, except for age and the presence of Down Syndrome, that is, younger people and people with Down Syndrome were more likely to live with family than in group homes. The results indicated that regardless of where they lived, individuals had high rates (70%) of overweight/obesity. The mean number of internal medicine, specialty medicine, nursing, and total clinic visits were significantly higher for those living in group homes compared to those living with their families. The findings and their implications are discussed with respect to social work policy and practice.     

A spatial analysis of population dynamics and climate change in Africa: potential vulnerability hot spots emerge where precipitation declines and demographic pressures coincide

We present an integrative measure of exposure and sensitivity components of vulnerability to climatic and demographic change for the African continent in order to identify “hot spots” of high potential population vulnerability. Getis-Ord Gi* spatial clustering analyses reveal statistically significant locations of spatio-temporal precipitation decline coinciding with high population density and increase. Statistically significant areas are evident, particularly across central, southern, and eastern Africa. The highly populated Lake Victoria basin emerges as a particularly salient hot spot. People located in the regions highlighted in this analysis suffer exceptionally high exposure to negative climate change impacts (as populations increase on lands with decreasing rainfall). Results may help inform further hot spot mapping and related research on demographic vulnerabilities to climate change. Results may also inform more suitable geographical targeting of policy interventions across the continent.