Sociological Quarterly

We formulate a MIDUS longitudinal data-based multi-population LISREL model to gauge variation among Black and White Americans in the reciprocal relationship across time between perceived major and everyday discrimination, and psychological distress. Two hypotheses building on prior theory and empirical findings are generated: reciprocity between perceived discrimination and distress, and stronger reciprocity among Blacks . Here, "reciprocity" denotes positive effects of perceived discrimination and mental health problems such as distress on each other across time...

Though contemporary adolescents in the United States have ambitious educational goals, a sizable number of youth express uncertainty about their future educational attainment. Using data from the High School Longitudinal Study of 2009 (n=17,340), we investigate whether uncertainty in educational expectations in adolescence is associated with college matriculation and dropout. Approximately 21% of youth expressed uncertainty about their future educational attainment, and the odds of attending college were lower among uncertain teens compared to youth who expected at least 4-year degrees...

Social networks are commonly discussed in reference to processes of disaster recovery but rarely explicitly measured. We employ a mixed-methods approach drawing upon the personal-network data of 265 oysterworkers in the wake of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill and qualitative accounts of individual experiences during the recovery process. We find evidence of two potential mechanisms linking network structure with the receipt of formal support: a networks-as-pipes approach linking networks and access to relevant information in the wake of a disaster and a networks-as-prisms approach where networks signal their social identities, shaping post-disaster actions and behaviors...

We use the Education Longitudinal Study: 2002 to compare the perceived importance of work and family achievement among young women and men. We apply latent class analysis to identify distinct configurations of values, then examine associations between latent classes and educational and occupational expectations. Results show high ambitions for both work and family among both young women and men. Although young women are more likely than young men to report that marriage and family relationships are very important, differences are small...

We examine responses to infertility among a sample of 2,361 women with infertility from the National Survey of Fertility Barriers. Latent class analysis uncovered seven latent classes of behavioral response which can be arranged in a rough continuum from least medicalized to most medicalized response. We then aggregated these seven categories into three schemas representing various degrees of medicalization. Women in each class combine treatment-seeking, knowledge-seeking, socio-emotional support seeking, and non-medical solution-seeking strategies...

This study is the first to systematically identify the most recognized scholars in sociology in the 1970s and 2010s by citation counts. This is achieved on the basis of a newly generated text corpus of approximately 49,000 pages, which encompasses various genres of literature (encyclopedias, handbooks, journals, textbooks). Investigations into common characteristics reveal that, in the 1970s, elites typically received their PhD from Columbia University, Harvard University, or the University of Chicago. The contemporary elite is partly European...

This paper provides detailed description of students' access to one critical educational resource, teachers that effectively promote learning. Using large scale administrative data from North Carolina in grades 3-8 and value-added measures of effectiveness, I find disadvantages for poor, American Indian, African American, and Hispanic students, but disparities represent less than 2% of observed achievement gaps. Gaps are driven by differential risks of exposure to especially ineffective teachers, which occur between and within schools...

The percent black-inequality relationship and the unique position of the South have been cornerstones of research on US racial inequality. Using an innovative methodological approach, I address how migration contributes to our understanding of the percent black-inequality relationship. I find that the educationally selective migration of blacks and whites significantly contributes to the percent black-inequality relationship via compositional changes. However, any explanatory power is limited to the non-South...

The disproportionate placement of racial minorities and males into special education for learning disabilities (LDs) raises concerns that classifications occur inaccurately or inequitably. This study uses data from the Education Longitudinal Survey of 2002 to investigate the social etiology of LD classifications that persist into adolescence. Findings suggest the overclassification of racial minorities is largely consistent with (clinically relevant) differences in educational performance. Classifications may occur inconsistently or subjectively, with clinically irrelevant qualities like school characteristics and linguistic- immigration history independently predictive of disability classification...

Rather than a defined endpoint that is waiting to be discovered or developed, racial and sexual identities can be considered social identities which are fluid, malleable, and socially created through a social process that defines what it means to be a member of a social group. This paper expands the work on how social identities are constructed by examining personal anecdotes used by gay men of color to discuss how they come to see themselves as "gay men of color." In doing so, we find that gay men of color use a number of cultural tropes that provide them the framework necessary to structure their experiences within a larger social context of a largely white, heterosexual society...

Using the National Longitudinal Surveys of Youth 1979, this study examines the roles of alcohol and substance use as mediators in the mechanism between self-esteem and depression, and investigates whether the mechanism works for both men and women. Results demonstrate that alcohol and substance use during young adulthood mediates the effect of self-esteem on depression among men. Furthermore, self-esteem during young adulthood remains a determinant of high depression in middle adulthood. However, we did not find evidence to support that same mechanism among women...

Responding to the longer and more variable transition to adulthood, parents are stepping in to help their young adult children. Little is known, however, about the extent to which parental support promotes success, and whether parental support has different effects for young adult sons and daughters. Using longitudinal data from the Youth Development Study, we find that parental scaffolding assistance for educational expenses predicts college graduation for both men and women. Negative life events experienced during the transition to adulthood are associated with lower earnings by the early 30s, although there is some variation by type of event...

This study examined associations between adverse childhood family experiences and adult physical health using data from 52,250 US adults aged 18-64 from the 2009-2012 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS). We found that experiencing childhood physical, verbal, or sexual abuse, witnessing parental domestic violence, experiencing parental divorce, and living with someone who was depressed, abused drugs or alcohol, or who had been incarcerated were associated with one or more of the following health outcomes: self-rated health, functional limitations, diabetes, and heart attack...

Most existing research theorizes individual factors as predictors of perceived job insecurity. Incorporating contextual and organizational factors at an information technology organization where a merger was announced during data collection, we draw on status expectations and crossover theories to investigate whether managers' characteristics and insecurity shape their employees' job insecurity. We find having an Asian as opposed to a White manager is associated with lower job insecurity, while managers' own insecurity positively predicts employees' insecurity...

Aging populations now exert influence on all aspects of social life. This article examines changes to major social and economic institutions linked with old age, taking the period from the mid-20th century to the opening decades of the 21st century. These developments are set within the context of the influence of globalization as well as the impact of the 2008 financial crisis, these restructuring debates around the longevity revolution. The article examines how the basis for a new framework for accommodating longevity can be built, outlining ways of securing new forms of solidarity in later life...

In an era of increased access to credit, it becomes increasingly important to understand the consequences of taking on unsecured consumer debt. We argue that credit can have both positive and negative consequences resulting from its ability to smooth life transitions and difficulties but that this occurs simultaneously with increased financial risks and stress resulting from carrying unsecured debt. We find that those in the middle of the income distribution suffer the greatest disruptions to mental health from carrying debt...

Does a participatory, open-ended organizational format inspire creativity and draw on participants' local knowledge? Many nonprofits operate under this assumption, and many of their financial sponsors agree, and therefore demand precise accounts documenting the nonprofits' "participatory" formats. In the U.S. youth civic engagement projects described here, the practice of accounting itself had an effect, regardless of funders' goals. Volunteers devoted more time to documenting just how participatory, open-ended and grassroots they were than they devoted to any other topic...

Research has demonstrated that concentrated disadvantage and other measures are strongly associated with aggregate-level rates of violence, including across racial and ethnic groups. Less studied is the impact of cultural factors, including religious contextual measures. The current study addresses several key gaps in prior literature by utilizing race/ethnic-specific arrest data from California, New York, and Texas paired with religious contextual data from the Religious Congregations and Memberships Survey (RCMS)...

Familism has been described as a cultural trait that might explain why the fertility of Hispanic women remains higher than non-Hispanic White women. Still, few studies have analyzed group differences in childbearing attitudes. This paper focuses on two dimensions of childbearing orientation: social value of children and fertility intentions. Using the National Survey of Family Growth we find limited support for the idea that familism undergirds differentials in fertility between native-born Hispanics and Whites...

Racial diversity is understood to play an important role for all students on the college campus. In recent years, much effort has gone into documenting the positive effects of this diversity. However, few studies have focused on how diversity impacts student interactions in the classroom, and even fewer studies attempt to quantify contributions from students of different races. Using Web blog discussions about race and religion, the authors uncover the differences in contributions black and white students make to those discussions...