Question-order effects in social network name generators

Social network surveys are an important tool for empirical research in a variety of fields, including the study of social capital and the evaluation of educational and social policy. A growing body of methodological research sheds light on the validity and reliability of social network survey data regarding a single relation, but much less attention has been paid to the measurement of multiplex networks and the validity of comparisons among criterion relations. In this paper, we identify ways that surveys designed to collect multiplex social network data might be vulnerable to question-order effects. We then test several hypotheses using a split-ballot experiment embedded in an online multiple name generator survey of teachers’ advice networks, collected for a study of complete networks. We conclude by discussing implications for the design of multiple name generator social network surveys.     

Working U.S. Adults without Paid Sick Leave Report more Worries about Finances

Using the National Health Interview Survey 2015 data release, an analytic sample of 17,897 working U.S. adults in current paid employment were examined to determine if there was a relationship between not having paid sick leave and worry about finances. A series of nine indicators of financial worry were regressed on paid sick leave status with ten control variables. U.S. workers who lack paid sick leave are more likely to report worry about: medical bills from a potential future sickness or accident, retirement, current medical costs from an illness or accident, maintenance of standard of living, medical costs for normal health care, normal monthly bills, rent, mortgage, or other housing costs, and credit card payments. Based on this set of nine multinomial multivariable regressions equations, findings indicate a positive association between not having paid sick leave and reporting financial worry after controlling for gender, age, marital status, education level, race and ethnicity, personal health status, full time work status, insurance coverage, family size, and annual family income. Implications for policy, practice, and future research are set forth.     

Purchases,Penalties, and Power: The Relationship Between Earnings and Housework

Studies examining the association of housework with earnings have not tested for causal directionality despite competing theories about causal ordering. Autonomy theory and the relative resources, gender display, and gender deviance neutralization hypotheses suggest personal and relative earnings affect time in housework, whereas human capital theory implies the opposite. Using data from N = 3,719 continuously married couples in Waves 1 and 2 of the National Survey of Families and Households and structural equation modeling, the authors found that wives' personal earnings and housework are reciprocally related; her earnings have a stronger effect on housework than vice versa. For husbands, time in routine housework affects earnings only. The authors observed little evidence that relative earnings affect husbands' or wives' housework time; rather, they identified a significant effect of housework on one's share of couples' earnings. These results support autonomy theory for wives and a human capital perspective for both spouses.     

Comparison between count of cumulative conforming sampling plans and Dodge–Romig single sampling plan

In this research, a new sampling system is introduced based on the concept of count of cumulative conforming control charts (CCC-charts). The proposed method is based on Markov modeling and negative binomial distribution. The proposed sampling system is compared with traditional sampling methods like Dodge–Romig single sampling plan based on lot tolerance percent defective (LTPD) and Dodge–Romig single sampling plan based on average outgoing quality limit (AOQL) and its superiority for larger values of lot sizes and process average is denoted using a comparison study.     

Domestic Supply,Job-Specialization and Sex-differences in Pay

This article proposes an explanation of sex-differences in job-allocation and pay in different institutional contexts. Job-allocation calculations are considered to be related to (1) the distribution of housework and (2) the skill-specialization requirements of jobs. In a context of uncertainty and imperfect information, housework and job-specialization requirements generate a particular incentive structure for each sex. This incentive structure can, however, be altered by governmental action. Welfare policies and services are expected to affect allocation decisions at the micro-level both by reducing the risks of skill-depreciation for women as well as by increasing their intra-household bargaining power. Both effects combined should reduce the economic pay-offs of “traditional” sphere-specialization by sex. This model is tested using a sub-sample of married and cohabiting employees drawn for the second round of the European Social Survey. Results based on nested random-intercept regressions show that sex-differences in job-specialization and housework can explain the wage effects of occupational sex-composition and have a significant direct impact on hourly earnings. Welfare-regime interactions also suggest that the association between housework and earnings is much weaker in societies displaying high levels of defamilialization and decommodification.

Life satisfaction and the economic and social characteristics of neighbourhoods

This paper uses data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey to investigate the association between neighbourhood effects and life satisfaction. We find that neighbourhood measures of social support and interaction and the absence of socio-economic deprivation are positively and significantly correlated with individual life satisfaction. Neighbourhood fixed effects, however, explain only an additional 1.5 to 2.5% of the variance in life satisfaction over the 14% explained by individual characteristics.

Determinants of Work-life Balance: Shortcomings in the Contemporary Measurement of WLB in Large-scale Surveys

Research on work-life balance (WLB) has presented important insights into the problems of combining family aspirations with paid work in relation to policy relevant agendas. Using the ESS II (2004/2005), we examine work-related and household/family-related causes of WLB. We can corroborate other research findings that show that work-related aspects explain by far the largest part of the variation in WLB. However, we illustrate that the measurement of WLB is partly problematic. Because WLB scales conceptualize the work component more specifically than the life component, what ‘life’ means remains rather intangible apart from general references to the ‘home’, ‘housework’ and ‘family responsibilities’. This largely neglects different emic dimensions to WLB common to specific subgroups and renders the measurement rather abstract. Second, the wordings of WLB indicators already include their most probable explanations. There is the danger of a circular argument here and many explanations seem tautological. This makes it difficult to conclude on the effects of other than work-related aspects on WLB, which are, arguably, also important aspects of WLB. Finally, WLB scales hardly correlate with relevant external criteria, for instance subjective well-being. Following from these findings, we discuss what these WLB scales could really measure and propose to broaden quantitative empirical approaches to it.

Immigration and Natives’ Attitudes towards the Welfare State: Evidence from the European Social Survey

Does immigration reduce natives’ support for the welfare state? Evidence from the European Social Survey (2002/2003) suggests a more qualified relation. For Europe as a whole, there is only weak evidence of a negative association between the perceived presence of immigrants and natives’ support for the welfare state. However, this weak average relationship masks considerable heterogeneity across countries. We distinguish two channels through which immigration could affect natives’ support for the welfare state: a pure dislike of immigrants and concerns about the economic consequences of immigration. We find that natives who hold both negative views react much more negatively to a given perceived share of immigrants than natives who hold neither view. However, there is no clear pattern concerning the relative importance of the two channels. Finally, we find that natives who hold either of these negative views of immigrants tend to be less supportive of the welfare state independently of the perceived presence of immigrants.