Family Formation and Close Social Ties Within Religious Congregations

The study of family and religion has yet to elaborate on the social ties that connect these two important and changing institutions. Specifically, how does family formation (i.e., marriage and childrearing) impact social ties to religious communities? Using longitudinal data from the Portraits of American Life Study (2006–2012) and fixed effects regression models that control for time‐stable heterogeneity (N = 1,314), this study tests the effects of marriage and childrearing on changes in close congregational social ties. Fixed effects estimates suggest that marriage actually decreases close social ties to religious congregations, whereas rearing children within marital unions increases them. Thus, it is children, not marriage per se, that actually integrates married couples into religious communities. These contrasting effects tend to be the strongest among young adults, but they weaken with age as well as marital duration.     

Experiencing discrimination in Los Angeles: Latinos at the intersection of legal status and socioeconomic status

Despite its recent slowdown, immigration from Latin America continues to be a controversial issue. Some scholars argue that the social climate is increasingly inhospitable to Latinos, potentially fueling discriminatory attitudes and behaviors. However, little research has examined Latinos' experiences with discrimination, especially variation by nativity and legal status. We address this issue with research on perceived discrimination among Mexican and Central American residents of Los Angeles County, a major destination for Latin American immigrants. Using data from the Los Angeles Family and Neighborhood Survey and the American Community Survey, the analyses consider immigrants’ legal status, intersectionality, and competing perspectives on assimilation. The results show that undocumented immigrants do not report especially high levels of discrimination. Instead, young U.S.-born Latinos are the most likely to report mistreatment in interpersonal and institutional domains. Neighborhood ethnoracial and income diversity also have implications for perceived exposure to different types of discrimination.     

Is giving or receiving psychologically beneficial to older mothers in South Korea? Importance of marital status

In order to understand intergenerational financial transfers and subjective well-being for older mothers, this study argues that marital status is an important factor to be considered. Using the first wave of the Korean Longitudinal Study of Aging (KLoSA), this study finds that married older mothers report higher levels of life satisfaction when they provide economic support but widowed older mothers feel higher levels of life satisfaction when they receive economic support. Also, regular or irregular financial support appears to also matter in the associations between financial support and life satisfaction. These findings suggest that married and widowed older mothers have different viewpoints about the parent-children relationship.     

Additive hazards regression of current status data with auxiliary covariates

This paper discusses the regression analysis of current status failure time data arising from the additive hazards model with auxiliary covariates. As often occurs in practice, it is impossible or impractical to measure the exact magnitude of covariates for all subjects in a study. To compensate the missing information, some auxiliary covariates are utilized instead. We propose two easy-to-implement procedures for estimation of regression parameters by making use of auxiliary information. The asymptotic properties of the resulting estimators are established and extensive numerical studies indicate that both procedures work well in practice.     

Labor Market Disparities Between African Americans and Afro Caribbeans: Reexamining the Role of Immigrant Selectivity

Black immigrants from the Caribbean have long attained greater labor market success than African Americans. The most recent studies show that Afro Caribbeans have earnings that are approximately 16% greater than African Americans and that Afro Caribbeans are as much as 21% more likely to be employed than African Americans. The most prominent explanation for greater Afro Caribbean success is that, because they have chosen to migrate, Afro Caribbeans are positively self‐selected on characteristics that are key for success in the U.S. labor market. Proponents of immigrant selectivity argue that migrants have greater levels of both hard and soft skills than nonmigrants. Using data from the National Survey of American Life—the first social survey to provide a nationally representative sample of both African Americans and Afro Caribbeans—this study finds that Afro Caribbeans have greater hard skills than African Americans but split the difference on two measures of soft skills: African Americans and Afro Caribbeans are matched on John Henryism, but African Americans have greater personal mastery than Afro Caribbeans. Contrary to expectations, controlling for differences in hard and soft skills does not provide for a meaningful reduction in labor market disparities between African Americans and Afro Caribbeans.     

Racial/Ethnic Patterns of Kindergarten School Enrollment in the United States

Enrollment into unequal schools at the start of formal education is an important mechanism for the reproduction of racial/ethnic educational inequalities. We examine whether there are racial/ethnic differences in school enrollment options at kindergarten, the start of schooling. We use nationally representative data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study‐Birth Cohort (ECLS‐B) to model whether parents seek information about their child's school before enrolling, whether parents move to a location so that a child can attend a certain school, or whether parents enroll their child in a school other than the assigned public school. Results indicate that enrollment patterns differ greatly across race/ethnicity. Whereas Black families are the most likely to seek information on a school's performance, White families are the most likely to use the elite option of choosing their residential location to access a particular school. These differences persist when controlling for socioeconomic status and sociogeographic location. Kindergarten enrollment patterns preserve the advantages of White families, perpetuating racial/ethnic disparities through multiple institutions and contributing to intergenerational processes of social stratification. Research should continue to examine specific educational consequences of housing inequities and residential segregation.     

Learning disabled students and access to accommodations: socioeconomic status,capital, and stigma

In the 1990s, Canadian universities began implementing policies to accommodate learning disabled students. While such policies appear to make post-secondary education more accessible, students must manage considerable complexity and absorb social and financial costs to receive accommodations. Through interviews with learning disabled students, this research explores the effects of socio-economic status (SES) on how, or whether, students access accommodations at a Nova Scotian university. Drawing on the work of Bourdieu and Goffman, this study suggests that SES affects students’ abilities to navigate the accommodation process successfully, and that accommodation policies, while important, may not ensure equal access to accommodations.     

江苏省居民个人收入流动性实证分析

利用1989-2009年间CHNS调查数据,对江苏省居民个人的收入流动性进行了经验分析,研究发现:(1)尽管在1997-2000年间居民个人收入流动性略有上升,但是整体上考察期内江苏省居民个人的收入流动性呈现出不断下降且趋于稳定的趋势特征;(2)中间阶层的居民较最穷和最富两个收入阶层具有更高的收入流动性;(3)农村居民个人收入流动性始终大于同时段城镇居民个人收入流动性;(4)1993年以后收入流动性不利于江苏省居民个人收入地位的改善,收入顶层居民的收入地位固定化趋势较为明显,同时江苏省尚未形成一个较为稳定的中等收入阶层.最后,本文指出江苏省应将提高居民收入流动性和培育中等收入阶层作为政策的着力点.     

我国小城镇发展状况、对策与展望

“发展小城镇 ,是带动农村经济和社会发展的一个大战略”,小城镇在我国社会经济发展和城镇化进程中起着越来越重要的作用。文章界定了小城镇的定义 ,对小城镇发展现状进行了评述 ,通过分析小城镇发展存在问题 ,提出了相应对策 ,并对我国小城镇发展做了展望     

论我国妇女政治参与的当代意蕴

随着两性平权意识的广泛传播,妇女参政已经成为国际化的潮流。虽然我国自解放以来就倡导男女平等,但几千年传承下来的男尊女卑观念根深蒂固,妇女的社会政治地位、接近政治资源的渠道,以及对政策的影响力远不及男性。当前中国要走向国际化、构建和谐社会呼唤妇女参政,推进社会主义市场经济亟待妇女参政,重构公正先进的性别文化亦期待妇女政治参与。