Assimilation vs. multiculturalism: Views from a community in France

A recent American survey of attitudes toward societal multiculturalism vs. assimilation has found surprisingly widespread support for maintaining heritage cultures not only among immigrant minority groups but also among most subsamples of majority host groups, black and white. Working-class whites are the one exception. This pilot study explores the same attitude domain in a contrasting European setting. Randomly selected samples of middle- and working-class families (a mother, father, and teenage son or daughter) from a small city in France were interviewed. As a group, they were neutral to slightly favorable to immigrants maintaining heritage cultures and languages rather than losing them through assimilation. On measures of attitudes toward specific immigrant groups, there were marked intergroup dyfferunces with Maghrebian Arabs rated leist favorably and Southeast Asians, the model immigrants, most favorably. Comparisons of subgroups of respondents who varied in terms of (a) political left-right orientation, (b) social class standing, (c) degree of religiosity, and (d) generational level provide the base for a more general discussion of cultural assimilation and multiculturalism.     

Migration as a consumption activity

"While a generalized utility maximization approach to migration decisionmaking is not innovative, the principal extensions of this paper involve the search for an instrument capable of measuring changes in utility levels consistent with all preferences (i.e., with all forms of utility functions), requiring only data on observed behaviour. Our approach is to construct a Location-Specific Utility Index (LSUI), whose component variables serve as proxies for the arguments in [U.S.] households' utility functions.... The testable hypothesis is formulated as follows: Assuming constant household preferences and expansion of the household's feasible set over time, the household's utility level is greater following the migration decision.... The results are compared with the households' migration decisions. The empirical evidence shows that migration may reasonably be modelled as a consumption activity by households to maximize utility." (SUMMARY IN FRE AND SPA)     

Burnout,coping and suicidal ideation: An application and extension of the job demand-control-support model

Suicidal tendencies are typically considered related to individual traits or predispositions, but some occupations have significantly higher rates than other occupations and the general population. This article proposes that stressful work conditions may be important in understanding occupational variations in suicidal tendencies. It explores the links between work-related factors and burnout, and suicidal thoughts among veterinarians. Burnout appears to be an important mediator in understanding veterinarians’ suicidal tendencies; work conditions that are emotionally exhausting for veterinarians may foster suicidal thoughts. Individual coping strategies are also explored. Emotion-focused strategies of avoidance and alcohol consumption not only exacerbate burnout and suicidal thoughts but also amplify the harmful effects of some job demands. Active problem solving is not as beneficial as expected, but a supportive work environment is a valuable coping resource. Organizational interventions and coping resources effective in reducing burnout may also reduce the risk of suicide for those in service occupations.     

Gender and Supportive Co‐Worker Relations in the Medical Profession

Women's growing numerical representation in the professions has not necessarily translated into women being truly integrated in these occupations. Questionnaire data are used to examine whether female physicians are socially integrated in the male‐dominated profession of medicine in terms of the support they receive from their medical colleagues compared to male physicians. The literature on tokenism and homophily suggests that women in male‐dominated professions receive less support than their male colleagues, whereas the social support literature predicts that women typically receive more emotional support than men but less informational and instrumental support. The results of this study shed light on the complex and multi‐layered ways in which gender is relevant to our understanding of the extent to which co‐workers provide empathy, information and assistance to one another.     

What schools are doing around career development: implications for policy and practice

This article describes the role that schools are playing in supporting career development for young people. It examines the history of career-related programming in schools, including school-to-work programs, career and technical education, the college and career readiness movement, and current school reform initiatives. This understanding of schools' history, roles, opportunities, and constraints can help practitioners and policymakers think about how to build a system that supports youth development.     

Binge drinking and labor market success: a longitudinal study on young people

This paper presents a two-equation model of joint outcomes on an individual’s decision to binge drink and on his/her annual labor market earnings. The primary data source is the 1979 cohort of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY79), 1979–1994. We show that binge drinking behavior is quite alcohol-price responsive and is a rational addiction. A new result is that an individual’s decision to binge drink has a statistically significant negative effect on his/her earnings. Furthermore, we conducted simulations of the short-run and long-run impacts of increasing the alcohol price. They showed that the tendency for an individual to binge drink heavily is reduced significantly, and the reduction is greater in the long-run than short-run simulation. Also, an individual's annual earnings were increased. However, in the structural model, an individual’s earnings have no significant effect on his/her tendency to engage in binge drinking. Our results contradict earlier findings from cross-section evidence that showed increased alcohol consumption raised an individual’s earnings or wages.     

The last mile of the way: understanding caregiving in African American families at the end-of-life

This research is based on in-depth ethnographic interviews and focus groups with 88 African American family caregivers from various regions of the United States during a stressful time in their family development--caregiving at the end-of-life--and the grieving during the aftermath. The study employed a stratified purposeful sampling strategy. Subjects were African Americans from the Northern, Southern, and Midwestern United States. Formal care is complicated by the distrust that many African Americans hold toward the health care system, which has resulted from years of exclusion, racism and discrimination. The findings highlight the importance of hearing from African American families to gain an understanding of what services, including family therapy and other psychotherapy, they will need during this process.     

Alternative solutions to the problem of selection bias in an analysis of federal residential drug treatment programs

In an evaluation of prison-based residential drug treatment programs, the authors use three different regression-based approaches to estimating treatment effects. Two of the approaches, the instrumental variable and the Heckman approach, attempt to minimize selection bias as an explanation for treatment outcomes. Estimates from these approaches are compared with estimates from a regression in which treatment is represented by a dummy variable. The article discusses the advantage of using more than one method to increase confidence in findings when possible selection bias is a concern. Three-year outcome data for 2,315 federal inmates are used in analyses where the authors separately examine criminal recidivism and relapse to drug use for men and women. Statistical tests lead the authors to conclude that treatment reduces criminal recidivism and relapse to drug use. The treatment effect was largest when the inference was based on the Heckman approach, somewhat smaller when based on the instrumental variable approach, and smallest when based on the traditional dummy variable approach. Treatment effects for females were not statistically significant.     

Standardizing basic concepts in sociology

The idea of standardizing concepts in sociology is not new, but we have made little progress, despite the early hopes of such theorists as Durkheim and Weber. This article refutes the arguments of some who contend that we do not need standard concepts, we cannot make standard concepts, social phenomena are too complex and changeful, sociologists are too individualistic and sociological concepts are too context-dependent. The author proposes that the American Sociological Association appoint a Committee on Basic Sociological Concepts to investigate and recommend the official adoption of a basic conceptual language in American sociology. This paper is excerpted from a longer discussion first presented to a session on metatheory at the 1990 meetings of the American Sociological Association, and forthcoming in a collection of papers from that session.     

Racial differences in high school dropout rates: An analysis of U.S. Metropolitan areas

In this paper, we explore the differences in high school dropout rates among white, black and Hispanic students in 275 U.S. Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) in 2000. Our analysis focuses on the impact of community and labor market conditions, in hopes of providing insight into the relationship between place and educational outcomes. The explanatory power of our regression models is mixed across racial groups, performing best for whites and Hispanics. Our results also indicate that community factors – most importantly, same-race adult educational attainment in the community, teenage birth rates and residential stability – have a greater impact on dropout rates than labor market factors. Our results suggest that as education reform moves toward broad-based solutions to improve student outcomes including dropout rates, it will be increasingly important to address the structural origins of inequality outside of schools.