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Danger on the Way to School: Exposure to Violent Crime, Public Transportation, and Absenteeism

By on February 13, 2019 in Articles

Julia Burdick-Will, Marc L. Stein, Jeffrey Grigg

Sociological Science, February 13, 2019
10.15195/v6.a5

Abstract
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In this study, we propose and test a mechanism for the effect of neighborhood of residence on school outcomes: absenteeism that results from exposure to danger on the way to school. We first determine the most efficient route to school using public transportation for 4,200 first-time freshmen in Baltimore City public high schools. Then, we link the specific streets along the most efficient route to incident-level crime data from the Baltimore Police Department. We find that students whose estimated routes require walking along streets with higher violent-crime rates have higher rates of absenteeism throughout the year. We also show that absenteeism is not associated with exposure to dangerous streets while riding on public transit and exposure to property crime.These conclusions hold with and without adjustments for student demographic characteristics, prior school attendance, violent crime around homes and schools, and unobserved differences related to school preference and neighborhood selection.
Creative Commons LicenseThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Julia Burdick-Will: Department of Sociology and School of Education, Johns Hopkins University
E-mail: jburdickwill@jhu.edu

Marc L. Stein: School of Education, Johns Hopkins University
E-mail: m.stein@jhu.edu

Jeffrey Grigg: School of Education, Johns Hopkins University
E-mail: jgrigg1@jhu.edu

Acknowledgements: This research was made possible by a grant from the Spencer Foundation and indirect support from the Baltimore Education Research Consortium and the Hopkins Population Center. Curt Cronister provided invaluable technical support. We are grateful for the feedback from and assistance of the Baltimore City Public Schools.All errors and opinions are our own.

Supplemental Material

  • Citation: Burdick-Will, Julia,Mark L. Stein, and Jeffrey Grigg. 2019. “Danger on the Way to School: Exposure to Violent Crime, Public Transportation, and Absenteeism.” Sociological Science 6: 118-142.
  • Received: November 8, 2018
  • Accepted: December 31, 2018
  • Editors: Jesper Sørensen, Kim Weeden
  • DOI: 10.15195/v6.a5


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Best Practices for Estimating, Interpreting, and Presenting Nonlinear Interaction Effects

By on February 6, 2019 in Articles

Trenton D. Mize

Sociological Science, February 6, 2019
10.15195/v6.a4

Abstract
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Many effects of interest to sociologists are nonlinear. Additionally, many effects of interest are interaction effects—that is, the effect of one independent variable is contingent on the level of another independent variable. The proper way to estimate, interpret, and present these two types of effects individually are well known. However, many analyses that combine these two—that is, tests of interaction when the effects of interest are nonlinear—are not properly interpreted or tested. The consequences of approaching nonlinear interaction effects the way one would approach a linear interaction effect are severe and can often result in incorrect conclusions. I cover both nonlinear effects in the context of linear regression, and—most thoroughly—nonlinear effects in models for categorical outcomes (focusing on binary logit/probit). My goal in this article is to synthesize an evolving methodological literature and to provide straightforward advice and techniques to estimate,interpret, and present nonlinear interaction effects.
Creative Commons LicenseThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Trenton D. Mize: Department of Sociology and Advanced Methodologies, Purdue University
E-mail: tmize@purdue.edu

Acknowledgements: I thank J. Scott Long, Bianca Manago, Long Doan, and Josh Doyle for their helpful comments on previous drafts and Dave Armstrong and Shawn Bauldry for the many insightful conversations that influenced the content of the article.

Supplemental Material

  • Citation: Mize, Trenton D. 2019. “Best Practices for Estimating, Interpreting, and Presenting Non-linear Interaction Effects.” Sociological Science 6: 81-117.
  • Received: December 18, 2018
  • Accepted: December 27, 2018
  • Editors: Jesper Sørensen, Olav Sorenson
  • DOI: 10.15195/v6.a4


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Do Test Score Gaps Grow Before, During, or Between the School Years? Measurement Artifacts and What We Can Know in Spite of Them

By on January 24, 2019 in Articles

Paul T. von Hippel, Caitlin Hamrock

Sociological Science, January 24, 2019
10.15195/v6.a3

Abstract
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Do test score gaps between advantaged and disadvantaged children originate inside or outside schools? One approach to this classic question is to ask (1) How large are gaps when children enter school? (2) How much do gaps grow later on? (3) Do gaps grow faster during school or during summer? Confusingly, past research has given discrepant answers to these basic questions.

We show that many results about gap growth have been distorted by measurement artifacts. One artifact relates to scaling: Gaps appear to grow faster if measurement scales spread with age. Another artifact relates to changes in test form: Summer gap growth is hard to estimate if children take different tests in spring than in fall.

Net of artifacts, the most replicable finding is that gaps form mainly in early childhood, before schooling begins. After school begins, most gaps grow little, and some gaps shrink. Evidence is inconsistent regarding whether gaps grow faster during school or during summer. We substantiate these conclusions using new data from the Growth Research Database and two data sets used in previous studies of gap growth: the Beginning School Study and the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Cohort of 1998–1999.

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Paul T. von Hippel: LBJ School of Public Affairs, University of Texas at Austin
E-mail: paulvonhippel.utaustin@gmail.com

Caitlin Hamrock: E3 Alliance
E-mail: chamrock@e3alliance.org

Acknowledgements: We thank Mina Kumar for research assistance. We thank the William T. Grant Foundation and the Institute for Urban Policy Research and Analysis for grants supporting this work.

Supplemental Material

  • Citation: von Hippel, Paul T., and Caitlin Hamrock. 2019. “Do Test Score Gaps Grow Before, During, or Between the School Years? Measurement Artifacts and What We Can Know in Spite of Them.” Sociological Science 6: 43-80.
  • Received: February 20, 2018
  • Accepted: July 23, 2018
  • Editors: Jesper Sørensen, Stephen Morgan
  • DOI: 10.15195/v6.a3


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Exploring the Sources of Collective Effervescence: A Multilevel Study

By on January 17, 2019 in Articles

Lasse Suonperä Liebst

Sociological Science, January 17, 2019
10.15195/v6.a2

Abstract
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Collective effervescence is assigned a key role in sociological theorizing on ritual and group processes, yet surprisingly little research has systematically measured the phenomenon and examined its sources. In addressing this research gap, the current article explores and compares several correlates of collective effervescence. The data included questionnaires and geospatial records of spatial setting and movement patterns recorded at a large music festival. Multilevel regression modeling was applied, and the strength of the estimated evidence was assessed with frequentist and Bayesian approaches. Results suggest that collective effervescence is a highly spatially clustered phenomenon that, in particular, is associated with the social-morphological feature of being in a crowd of people. The article discusses the implications of these results for sociological Durkheim scholarship as well as for festival-event studies.
Creative Commons LicenseThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Lasse Suonperä Liebst: Department of Sociology, University of Copenhagen
E-mail: lsl@soc.ku.dk

Acknowledgements: The author would like to thank the following individuals for their comments and suggestions: Randall Collins, Line Vistisen Liebst, Inge Kryger Pedersen, and Richard Philpot.

  • Citation: Liebst, Lasse Suonperä. 2019. “Exploring the Sources of Collective Effervescence: A Multilevel Study.” Sociological Science 6: 27-42.
  • Received: October 27, 2018
  • Accepted: November 25, 2018
  • Editors: Jesper Sørensen, Gabriel Rossman
  • DOI: 10.15195/v6.a2


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Inequality of Educational Opportunity in East and West Germany: Convergence or Continued Differences?

By on January 10, 2019 in Articles

Markus Klein, Katherin Barg, Michael Kühhirt

Sociological Science, January 10, 2019
10.15195/v6.a1

Abstract
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Diversity in education systems, and broader political and economic conditions, are commonly credited with international variation in inequality of educational opportunity (IEO). Comparing East and West Germany before reunification allows us to investigate whether vastly different political, economic, and educational systems led to differences in IEO. Postreunification, East Germany adopted the West’s systems and experienced an economic recession. IEO had been smaller in East Germany than in West Germany but was on an upward trajectory before reunification. After 1990, IEO in East Germany converged to the West German level as a result of decreased IEO in the west and increasing levels in the east. Postreunification convergence suggests that differences in political context and education policy are crucial for IEO.
Creative Commons LicenseThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Markus Klein: School of Education, University of Strathclyde
E-mail: markus.klein@strath.ac.uk

Katherin Barg: Graduate School of Education, University of Exeter
E-mail: k.barg@exeter.ac.uk

Michael Kühhirt: Institute of Sociology and Social Psychology, University of Cologne
E-mail: michael.kuehhirt@uni-koeln.de

Acknowledgements: The authors gratefully acknowledge the participants in the German Life History Study (GLHS), the German General Social Survey (GGSS), and the German Microcensus (GMC) for providing their information; the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin for collecting and managing the GLHS data; the GESIS Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences for collecting and managing the GGSS data; and the statistical offices of the Länder under the supervision of the Federal Statistical Office for collecting and managing the GMC data. The authors would also like to thank Walter Müller, Andreas Hadjar, and Ian Rivers for their valuable comments on an earlier draft of the manuscript; Julia Däumling for the excellent research assistance; and Matilda Klein for the copyediting. Sole responsibility for any remaining errors lies with the authors.

Supplemental Material

  • Citation: Klein, Markus, Katherin Barg, and Michael Kühhirt. 2018. “Inequality of Educational Opportunity in East and West Germany: Convergence or Continued Differences?” Sociological Science 6: 1-26.
  • Received: October 15, 2018
  • Accepted: November 21, 2018
  • Editors: Jesper Sørensen, Stephen Morgan
  • DOI: 10.15195/v6.a1


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Cultural Capital and Educational Inequality: A Counterfactual Analysis

By on December 12, 2018 in Articles

Mads Meier Jæger, Kristian Karlson

Sociological Science, December 12, 2018
10.15195/v5.a33

Abstract
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We use National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 (NLSY79) data and a counterfactual approach to test the macro-level implications of cultural reproduction and cultural mobility theory. Our counterfactual analyses show that the observed socioeconomic gradient in children’s educational attainment in the NLSY79 data would be smaller if cultural capital was more equally distributed between children whose parents are of low socioeconomic status (SES) and those whose parents are of high SES. They also show that hypothetically increasing cultural capital among low-SES parents would lead to a larger reduction in the socioeconomic gradient in educational attainment than reducing it among high-SES parents. These findings are consistent with cultural mobility theory (which argues that low-SES children have a higher return to cultural capital than high-SES children) but not with cultural reproduction theory (which argues that low-SES children have a lower return to cultural capital). Our analysis contributes to existing research by demonstrating that the unequal distribution of cultural capital shapes educational inequality at the macro level.
Creative Commons LicenseThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Mads Meier Jæger: Department of Sociology, University of Copenhagen
E-mail: mmj@soc.ku.dk

Kristian Karlson: Department of Sociology, University of Copenhagen
E-mail: kbk@soc.ku.dk

Acknowledgements: We presented this article at the 2015 Research Committee 28 meeting at Tilburg University and at several research seminars at the University of Copenhagen. We thank the participants at these events for their excellent comments. The research leading to the results presented in this article has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP/2007-2013) and ERC grant 312906.

Supplemental Material

  • Citation: Jæger, Mads Meier, and Kristian Karlson. 2018. “Cultural Capital and Educational Inequality: A Counterfactual Analysis.” Sociological Science 5: 775-795.
  • Received: September 5, 2018
  • Accepted: November 7, 2018
  • Editors: Jesper Sørensen, Kim Weeden
  • DOI: 10.15195/v5.a33


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Hegemonic Gender Norms and the Gender Gap in Achievement: The Case of Asian Americans

By on December 3, 2018 in Articles

Amy Hsin

Sociological Science, December 3, 2018
10.15195/v5.a32

Abstract
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Many argue that hegemonic gender norms depress boys’ performance and account for the gender gap in achievement. I describe differences in the emergence of the gender gap in academic achievement between white and Asian American youth and explore how the immigrant experience and cultural differences in gender expectations might account for observed differences. For white students, boys are already underperforming girls in kindergarten, with the male disadvantage growing into high school. For Asian Americans, boys perform as well as girls throughout elementary school but begin underperforming relative to girls at the transition to adolescence. Additionally, I show that the Asian American gender gap is larger in schools with stronger male-centric sports cultures and where boys’ underachievement is normalized. I speculate that model-minority stereotypes, the immigrant experience, and standards of masculinity that promote pro-school behaviors in boys act as protective factors in early childhood but wane at the transition to adolescence during a period when the dominant peer culture plays a larger role in shaping gender identities. The study offers evidence that the gender gap in achievement is not an inevitable fact of biology but is shaped by social environment.
Creative Commons LicenseThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Amy Hsin: Department of Sociology, Queens College, City University of New York
E-mail: amy.hsin@qc.cuny.edu

Acknowledgements: The author would like to thank Yu Xie, Kate Choi, Sophia Catsambis, and Lizandra Friedland for commenting on earlier versions of this work. All remaining errors are strictly the responsibility of the author.

  • Citation: Hsin, Amy. 2018. “Hegemonic Gender Norms and the Gender Gap in Achievement: The Case of Asian Americans.” Sociological Science 5: 752-774.
  • Received: July 22, 2018
  • Accepted: October 23, 2018
  • Editors: Jesper Sørensen, Sarah Soule
  • DOI: 10.15195/v5.a32


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How States Make Race: New Evidence from Brazil

By on November 26, 2018 in Articles

Stanley R. Bailey, Fabrício M. Fialho, Mara Loveman

Sociological Science, November 26, 2018
10.15195/v5.a31

Abstract
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The Brazilian state recently adopted unprecedented race-targeted affirmative action in government hiring and university admissions. Scholarship would predict the state’s institutionalization of racial categories has “race-making” effects. In this article, we ask whether the Brazilian state’s policy turnabout has affected racial subjectivities on the ground, specifically toward mirroring the categories used by the state. To answer, we conceptualize race as multidimensional and leverage two of its dimensions—lay identification and government classification (via open-ended and closed-ended questions, respectively)—to introduce a new metric of state race-making: a comparison of the extent of alignment between lay and government dimensions across time. Logistic regression on large-sample survey data from before the policy turn (1995) and well after its diffusion (2008) reveals an increased use of state categories as respondents’ lay identification in the direction of matching respondents’ government classification. We conclude that the Brazilian state is making race but not from scratch nor in ways that are fully intended.
Creative Commons LicenseThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Stanley R. Bailey: Department of Sociology, University of California, Irvine
E-mail: bailey@uci.edu

Fabrício M. Fialho: Centre de Recherches Internationales, Sciences Po Paris, France
E-mail: fabriciofialho@gmail.com

Mara Loveman: Department of Sociology, University of California, Berkeley
E-mail: mloveman@berkeley.edu

Supplemental Material

  • Citation: Bailey, Stanley R., Fabrício M. Fialho, and Mara Loveman. 2018. “How States Make Race: New Evidence from Brazil.” Sociological Science 5: 722-751.
  • Received: September 4, 2018
  • Accepted: September 27, 2018
  • Editors: Jesper Sørensen, Delia Baldassarri
  • DOI: 10.15195/v5.a31


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The Continuing Persistence of Intense Religion in the United States: Rejoinder

By on November 15, 2018 in Articles

Landon Schnabel, Sean Bock

Sociological Science, November 15, 2018
10.15195/v5.a30

Abstract
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3 Citation


In their comment on our article about the persistence of intense religion in the United States, David Voas and Mark Chaves (2018) claimed that “the intensely religious segment of the American population is shrinking.” In this response, we show that intense religion has persisted from the 1970s to the present, with a temporary uptick during the exceptional Reagan years. Voas and Chaves concluded otherwise because their analytical strategy was not sufficiently sensitive to nonlinear patterns. In addition to demonstrating the continuing persistence of intense religion, we also discuss criteria for measuring intense religion over time and the importance of avoiding unfounded assumptions in age–period–cohort analysis. We conclude that aspects of the classic secularization thesis championed by Voas, Chaves, and others are not supported by the data, and we suggest that scholars should look for better ways of thinking about religious change.
Creative Commons LicenseThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Landon Schnabel: Department of Sociology, Indiana University Bloomington
E-mail: lpschnab@indiana.edu

Sean Bock: Department of Sociology, Harvard University
E-mail: seanbock@g.harvard.edu

Acknowledgements: The authors are grateful to Jason Beckfield, Bart Bonikowski, Mike Hout, Brian Powell, Chris Winship, and the editor for exceptional feedback on this response. Direct correspondence to Landon Schnabel, Department of Sociology, Indiana University Bloomington, 702 Ballantine Hall, 1020 E. Kirkwood Ave., Bloomington, IN 47405.

  • Citation: Schnabel, Landon, and Sean Bock. 2018. “The Continuing Persistence of Intense Religion in the United States.” Sociological Science 5: 711-721.
  • Received: October 25, 2018
  • Accepted: October 29, 2018
  • Editors: Jesper Sørensen
  • DOI: 10.15195/v5.a30



Even Intense Religiosity Is Declining in the United States: Comment


The Persistent and Exceptional Intensity of American Religion: A Response to Recent Research

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Even Intense Religiosity Is Declining in the United States: Comment

By on November 15, 2018 in Articles

David Voas, Mark Chaves

Sociological Science, November 15, 2018
10.15195/v5.a29

Abstract
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0 Citation


In their 2017 article, “The Persistent and Exceptional Intensity of American Religion: A Response to Recent Research,” Schnabel and Bock claimed that “intense religion . . . is persistent and, in fact, only moderate religion is on the decline in the United States.” In this article, we show that even the intensely religious segment of the American population is indeed shrinking. Schnabel and Bock mistakenly concluded otherwise because their analytical strategy was not sufficiently sensitive to detect very slow change (leading them to miss signs of declining intense religion on the indicators they examined), they examined a limited set of indicators (missing still more signs of declining intense religion), and they paid insufficient attention to cohort differences. Overall, their empirical conclusion that “only moderate religion is on the decline in the United States” is simply false. And their interpretive conclusion that “intense religion in the United States is persistent and exceptional in ways that do not fit the secularization thesis” should be rejected.
Creative Commons LicenseThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

David Voas: Department of Social Science, University College London
E-mail: d.voas@ucl.ac.uk

Mark Chaves: Department of Sociology, Duke University
E-mail: mac58@soc.duke.edu

Acknowledgements: David Voas received funding from the U.K. Economic and Social Research Council via the Research Centre on Micro-Social Change. The authors thank Tom Smith for helping to detail the changes that occurred in the General Social Survey between 2002 and 2004 and Simon Brauer for suggesting the use of a scale measure of intense religiosity.

  • Citation: Voas, David, and Mark Chaves. 2018. “Even Intense Religiosity Is Declining in the United States.” Sociological Science 5: 694-710.
  • Received: August 3, 2018
  • Accepted: September 30, 2018
  • Editors: Jesper Sørensen, Stephen Morgan
  • DOI: 10.15195/v5.a29



The Continuing Persistence of Intense Religion in the United States: Rejoinder


The Persistent and Exceptional Intensity of American Religion: A Response to Recent Research

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Identity Override: How Sexual Orientation Reduces the Rigidity of Racial Boundaries

By on November 7, 2018 in Articles

Adam L. Horowitz, Charles J. Gomez

Sociological Science, November 7, 2018
10.15195/v5.a28

Abstract
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Although most Americans have limited interpersonal relations with different-race others, interracial ties are notably more common among gay, lesbian, and bisexual (GLB) individuals. Departing from the modal explanation of intergroup relations theories, which suggests that individual propensities for between-group interactions are driven by demographic groups’ physical location relative to one another, we show that, beyond propinquity, GLB interraciality is spiked through active identification as GLB. We evaluate full romantic/sexual partnership histories along with friendship network racial compositions for respondents in a large, nationally representative sample. We show that GLBs have a greater likelihood and frequency than heterosexuals of forming multiple types of interracial ties and also that this effect applies only to those who actively identify as GLB and not to those who engage in same-sex relations but do not identify as GLB. This discovery refines theories of intergroup relations, isolating how identification serves as a mediating mechanism that can heighten the propensity for intergroup interaction. We argue that active identification with a group that crosses racial boundaries spurs overriding the rigidity of intergroup borders that otherwise dissuade interpersonal diversity.
Creative Commons LicenseThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Adam L. Horowitz: The Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics, Tel Aviv University, and Center for Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity, Stanford University
E-mail: ahorowitz@stanford.edu

Charles J. Gomez: Department of Sociology, Queens College, City University of New York.
E-mail: charles.gomez@qc.cuny.edu

Acknowledgements: The authors would like to acknowledge the valuable feedback provided by Monica McDermott, Michael Rosenfeld, Morris Zelditch, Jr., Tomás Jiménez, and Louis Mittel. Adam Horowitz and Charles Gomez made equivalently consequential contributions to this article, and authorship should be considered equal.

  • Citation: Horowitz, Adam L., and Charles J. Gomez. 2018. “Identity Override: How Sexual Orientation Reduces the Rigidity of Racial Boundaries.” Sociological Science 5: 669-693.
  • Received: July 3, 2018
  • Accepted: August 6, 2018
  • Editors: Mario Small
  • DOI: 10.15195/v5.a28


February 2019

This article has been updated after a reader discovered and brought to the authors’ attention a coding error with a control variable. Add Health codes two responses for declining to report income as 9999998 and 9999996. In the original analyses, these responses were not treated as missing. This authors have corrected the error and rerun the analyses, which are presented in the current version.

The most consequential results of this correction are as follows:

  • The number of respondents in the analytical sample changed from 10,721 to 10,281 (p. 674)
  • The descriptive statistics in Table 1 have changed due to the change in sample size. In addition, due to the recoding of income for some respondents to missing, the descriptive statistics for income at the bottom of the table have changed.
  • The correlations reported in Table 2 have changed.
  • Point estimates for coefficients and standard errors for the models reported in Table 3-6 have changed. These changes generally do not involve changes in statistical significance, and are generally not consequential for the interpretations offered, with the following exceptions:
    • In Table 5, the effect of “GLB” in the “All other race” column is no longer significant at the p<.05 letter. As a result, the text on p. 679 has been changed to say "GLBs are estimated to select four [previously: five] of six friendship network composition categories over “all your race" at significantly higher rates than are heterosexuals."
    • In Table 6, the effect of “Less than High School” in the “Almost all other races” column is no longer statistically significant.

The originally published version of the paper is available here.


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Taxation and Citizen Voice in School District Parcel Tax Elections

By on October 29, 2018 in Articles

Isaac William Martin, Jennifer M. Nations

Sociological Science, October 29, 2018
10.15195/v5.a27

Abstract
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Local taxation produces consequential resource inequalities among public school districts, but little is known about how policy design affects taxpayers’ willingness to pay for schooling. We show that voters are more likely to approve local school taxes if the policy is written to require citizen–state consultation on how the funds are spent. In a sample of 236 California school district elections, the promise of indirect consultation with a citizen advisory board was associated with a 3.7 percentage-point greater share of voters and a probability of passage that was 31 percentage points greater, whereas direct consultation with voters was associated with a 5.7 percentage-point greater share of voters and a probability of passage that was 32 percentage points greater, relative to a proposed tax increase with no consultation. These results provide evidence that citizens may trade increased taxation for increased voice even within an established democracy.
Creative Commons LicenseThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Isaac William Martin: Department of Sociology, University of California, San Diego
E-mail: iwmartin@ucsd.edu

Jennifer M. Nations: Scholars Strategy Network
E-mail: jnations@ucsd.edu

Acknowledgements: This research was supported by the Spencer Foundation (award 201800030) and the National Science Foundation (award 1421993). The authors gratefully acknowledge the research assistance of Jane Lilly López and Lauren Olsen; the generosity of Rod Kiewiet, who shared documents from his own collection of school district parcel tax measures; and the constructive feedback of colleagues at the 2017 Meetings of the Sociology of Education Association.

Supplemental Material

  • Citation: Martin, Isaac W., and Jennifer M. Nations. 2018. “Taxation and Citizen Voice in School District Parcel Tax Elections.” Sociological Science 5: 653-668.
  • Received: August 2, 2018
  • Accepted: September 24, 2018
  • Editors: Jesper Sørensen, Delia Baldassarri
  • DOI: 10.15195/v5.a27


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Poor State, Rich State: Understanding the Variability of Poverty Rates across U.S. States

By on October 3, 2018 in Articles

Jennifer Laird, Zachary Parolin, Jane Waldfogel, Christopher Wimer

Sociological Science, October 3, 2018
10.15195/v5.a26

Abstract
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0 Citation


According to the Supplemental Poverty Measure, state-level poverty rates range from a low of less than 10 percent in Iowa to a high of more than 20 percent in California. We seek to account for these differences using a theoretical framework proposed by Brady, Finnigan, and Hübgen (2017), which emphasizes the prevalence of poverty risk factors as well as poverty penalties associated with each risk factor. We estimate state-specific penalties and prevalences associated with single motherhood, low education, young households, and joblessness. We also consider state variation in the poverty risks associated with living in a black household and a Hispanic immigrant household. Brady et al. (2017) find that country-level differences in poverty rates are more closely tied to penalties than prevalences. Using data from the Current Population Survey, we find that the opposite is true for state-level differences in poverty rates. Although we find that state poverty differences are closely tied to the prevalence of high-risk populations, our results do not suggest that state-level antipoverty policy should be solely focused on changing “risky” behavior. Based on our findings, we conclude that state policies should take into account cost-of-living penalties as well as the state-specific relationship between poverty, prevalences, and penalties.
Creative Commons LicenseThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Jennifer Laird: Department of Sociology, Lehman College
E-mail: jennifer.laird@lehman.cuny.edu

Zachary Parolin: Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy, University of Antwerp
E-mail: Zachary.Parolin@uantwerpen.be

Jane Waldfogel: School of Social Work, Columbia University
E-mail: j.waldfogel@columbia.edu

Christopher Wimer: School of Social Work, Columbia University
E-mail: cw2727@columbia.edu

Acknowledgements: A draft of this article was presented at the 2017 meeting of the American Sociological Association. We are grateful to David Brady and Jake Rosenfeld for their insights on a prior version of this article. This research is supported by generous funding from The JPB Foundation and the Annie E. Casey Foundation.

Supplemental Material

  • Citation: Laird, Jennifer, Zachary Parolin, Jane Waldfogel, and Christopher Wimer. 2018. “Poor State, Rich State: Understanding the Variability of Poverty Rates across U.S. States.” Sociological Science 5: 628-652.
  • Received: June 17, 2018
  • Accepted: August 21, 2018
  • Editors: Jesper Sørensen, Olav Sorenson
  • DOI: 10.15195/v5.a26


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Like Bees to a Flower: Attractiveness, Risk, and Collective Sexual Life in an AIDS Epidemic

By on September 26, 2018 in Articles

Margaret Frye, Nina Gheihman

Sociological Science, September 26, 2018
10.15195/v5.a25

Abstract
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We examine how men’s shared understandings of women’s physical attractiveness are influenced by concerns about risk in the context of a generalized AIDS epidemic. Using 180 conversational journals—descriptions of informal conversations about sex occurring in Malawi between 1999 and 2011—we show that men deploy discourses of risk to question and undermine the status advantages enjoyed by attractive women. Men simultaneously portray attractive women as irresistibly appealing and as destructive to men. Men engage in two types of collective responses: First, men work to discipline themselves and each other, reframing attractiveness as illusory and unworthy of pursuit; and second, men endeavor to discipline attractive women themselves, portraying them as evil temptresses that must be suppressed and reasserting their masculine dominance through harassment and violence. These findings reveal how men’s classifications of women as sexual objects operate as forms of symbolic violence, legitimating and naturalizing their gendered domination over women.
Creative Commons LicenseThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Margaret Frye: Department of Sociology, University of Michigan
E-mail: mtfrye@umich.edu

Nina Gheihman: Department of Sociology, Harvard University
E-mail: nina.gheihman@fas.harvard.edu

Acknowledgements: We are grateful to Asad L. Asad, Bart Bonikowski, Larissa Buchholz, Caitlin Daniels, Paul DiMaggio, Mitchell Dunier, Pablo Gastón, Michele Lamont, YaWen Lei, Omar Lizardo, Terence McDonnell, Orlando Patterson, Ann Swidler, Lorne Tepperman, and Jocelyn Viterna for their feedback and suggestions for revision. Previous versions of this were presented at Notre Dame’s Sociology Departmental Colloquium and African Studies Workshop, Princeton University’s Notestein Seminar Series (through the Office of Population Research), Harvard University’s Culture and Social Analysis Workshop, the Sociology of Development Conference at Brown University, and the Eastern Sociological Society Annual Meeting.

  • Citation: Frye, Margaret, and Nina Gheihman. 2018. “Like Bees to a Flower: Attractiveness, Risk, and Collective Sexual Life in an AIDS Epidemic.” Sociological Science 5: 596-627.
  • Received: July 23, 2018
  • Accepted: August 21, 2018
  • Editors: Jesper Sørensen, Gabriel Rossman
  • DOI: 10.15195/v5.a25


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The Labor Market Value of Taste: An Experimental Study of Class Bias in U.S. Employment

By on September 12, 2018 in Articles

Kyla Thomas

Sociological Science, September 12, 2018
10.15195/v5.a24

Abstract
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This article investigates cultural forms of class bias in the middle-income U.S. labor market. Results from an audit study of employment discrimination in four U.S. cities reveal that cultural signals of class, when included in résumés, have a systematic effect on the callback rates of women applying to customer-facing jobs. For these women, displays of highbrow taste—the cultural signals of a higher-class background—generate significantly higher rates of employer callback than displays of lowbrow taste—the cultural signals of a lower-class background. Meanwhile, cultural signals of class have no systematic effect on the callback rates of male and/or non–customer-facing job applicants. Results from a survey-experimental study of 1,428 U.S. hiring managers suggest that these differing patterns of employer callback may be explained by the positive effect of higher-class cultural signals on perceptions of polish and competence and their negative effect on perceptions of warmth.
Creative Commons LicenseThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Kyla Thomas: Center for Economic and Social Research, University of Southern California
E-mail: kylathom@usc.edu

Acknowledgements: I would like to thank Paul DiMaggio for his intellectual guidance and support as well as Viviana Zelizer, Devah Pager, Susan Fiske, David Pedulla, Patrick Ishizuka, René Flores, and participants of the University of Michigan’s Inequality and Family Working Group for their valuable insights and feedback. This research was supported by the Fahs-Beck Fund for Research and Experimentation, Princeton University’s Center for the Study of Social Organization, and an Andrew W. Mellon Foundation/American Council of Learned Societies Dissertation Completion Fellowship.

Supplemental Material

  • Citation: Thomas, Kyla. 2018. “The Labor Market Value of Taste: An Experimental Study of Class Bias in U.S. Employment.” Sociological Science 5: 562-595.
  • Received: November 17, 2017
  • Accepted: July 15, 2018
  • Editors: Jesper Sørensen, Kim Weeden
  • DOI: 10.15195/v5.a24


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Unions and Nonunion Pay in the United States, 1977-2015

By on August 15, 2018 in Articles

Patrick Denice, Jake Rosenfeld

Sociological Science, August 15, 2018
10.15195/v5.a23

Abstract
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We provide the most extensive investigation into the connection between union power and nonunion worker pay to date. Leveraging nearly four decades of Current Population Survey (CPS) data on millions of U.S. workers, we test whether private sector union density, measured at the occupation and occupation region levels, helps raise average wages among unorganized private sector workers. We find stable and substantively large positive effects of private sector union strength on nonunion private sector workers’ wages, especially for men. These results are robust to the inclusion of controls for the risk of automation, offshoring, the related rising demand for skill, overall employment levels, industry, and the strength of public sector unions. Disaggregating the results by occupation reveals positive and substantively large union spillover effects across a range of occupations, including those not transformed by automation, offshoring, or rising skill demands. These disaggregated results also indicate that occupational segregation limits the positive spillover effects from unions to nonunion women workers: in highly organized occupations, nonunion women benefit, but there are comparatively few women in these segments of the labor market.
Creative Commons LicenseThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Patrick Denice: Department of Sociology, The University of Western Ontario
E-mail: pdenice@uwo.ca

Jake Rosenfeld: Department of Sociology, Washington University in St. Louis
E-mail: jrosenfeld@wustl.edu

Acknowledgements: Partial support for this research came from a Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development research infrastructure grant (P2C HD042828) to the Center for Studies in Demography and Ecology at the University of Washington.

Supplemental Material

  • Citation: Denice, Patrick, and Jake Rosenfeld. 2018. “Unions and Nonunion Pay in the United States, 1977–2015.” Sociological Science 5: 541-561.
  • Received: June 12, 2018
  • Accepted: July 10, 2018
  • Editors: Jesper Sørensen, Kim Weeden
  • DOI: 10.15195/v5.a23


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Schools as Moderators of Genetic Associations with Life Course Attainments: Evidence from the WLS and Add Health

By on August 2, 2018 in Articles

Sam Trejo, Daniel W Belsky, Jason D. Boardman, Jeremy Freese, Kathleen Mullan Harris, Pam Herd, Kamil Sicinski, Benjamin W. Domingue

Sociological Science, August 2, 2018
10.15195/v5.a22

Abstract
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Genetic variants identified in genome-wide association studies of educational attainment have been linked with a range of positive life course development outcomes. However, it remains unclear whether school environments may moderate these genetic associations. We analyze data from two biosocial surveys that contain both genetic data and follow students from secondary school through mid- to late life. We test if the magnitudes of the associations with educational and occupational attainments varied across the secondary schools that participants attended or with characteristics of those schools. Although we find little evidence that genetic associations with educational and occupational attainment varied across schools or with school characteristics, genetic associations with any postsecondary education and college completion were moderated by school-level socioeconomic status. Along similar lines, we observe substantial between-school variation in the average level of educational attainment students achieved for a fixed genotype. These findings emphasize the importance of social context in the interpretation of genetic associations. Specifically, our results suggest that though existing measures of individual genetic endowment have a linear relationship with years of schooling that is relatively consistent across school environments, school context is crucial in connecting an individual’s genotype to his or her likelihood of crossing meaningful educational thresholds.
Creative Commons LicenseThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Sam Trejo: Graduate School of Education, Stanford University
E-mail: samtrejo@stanford.edu.

Daniel W. Belsky: Duke University School of Medicine and Social Science Research Institute
E-mail: dbelsky@duke.edu

Jason D. Boardman: Institute of Behavioral Science and Sociology Department, University of Colorado Boulder
E-mail: boardman@colorado.edu

Jeremy Freese: Department of Sociology, Stanford University
E-mail: jfreese@stanford.edu

Kathleen Mullan Harris: Department of Sociology and Carolina Population Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
E-mail: kathie_harris@unc.edu

Pam Herd: Department of Sociology and La Folette School of Public Affairs, University of Wisconsin–Madison
E-mail: pherd@lafollette.wisc.edu

Kamil Sicinski: Center for Demography of Health and Aging, University of Wisconsin–Madison.
E-mail: ksicinsk@ssc.wisc.edu

Benjamin W. Domingue: Graduate School of Education, Stanford University
E-mail: bdomingue@stanford.edu

Acknowledgements: This work has been supported (in part) by award 96-17-04 from the Russell Sage Foundation and the Ford Foundation, the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program under grant DGE-1656518 (Trejo), the Institute of Education Sciences under grant R305B140009 (Trejo), and a Jacobs Foundation Early Career Research Fellowship (Belsky). This research uses Add Health GWAS data funded by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development grant R01 HD073342 to Kathleen Mullan Harris and the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and National Institutes of Health grant R01 HD060726 to Harris, Boardman, and McQueen. Add Health is a program project directed by Kathleen Mullan Harris and designed by J. Richard Udry, Peter S. Bearman, and Kathleen Mullan Harris at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; it is funded by grant P01 HD31921 from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development with cooperative funding from 23 other federal agencies and foundations. The Wisconsin Longitudinal Study is directed by Pamela Herd, and the work conducted herein was supported by the National Institute on Aging (R01 AG041868-01A1 and P30 AG017266). This research benefitted from GWAS results made available by the Social Science Genetic Association Consortium. Any opinions expressed are those of the author(s) alone and should not be construed as representing the opinions of each foundation.

Supplemental Material

  • Citation: Trejo, Sam, Daniel W. Belsky, Jason D. Boardman, Jeremy Freese, Kathleen Mullan Harris, Pam Herd, Kamil Sicinski, and Benjamin W. Domingue. 2018. “Schools as Moderators of Genetic Associations with Life Course Attainments: Evidence from the WLS and Add Health.” Sociological Science 5: 513-540.
  • Received: March 20, 2018
  • Accepted: April 16, 2018
  • Editors: Kim Weeden
  • DOI: 10.15195/v5.a22


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The Social Life of Mortgage Delinquency and Default

By on July 26, 2018 in Articles

Brian J. McCabe

Sociological Science, July 26, 2018
10.15195/v5.a21

Abstract
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Although falling behind on a mortgage loan has significant personal consequences, we know little about whether the experience of delinquency or default influences the housing market behavior of other people in the defaulter’s social networks. In this article, I ask how exposure to mortgage default through social networks affects perceptions of the housing market, judgments about the strategic default behavior of other households, and expectations for homeownership. Although individuals purposively draw on information from their social networks to aid in their housing search, theories of social influence have yet to be applied to the negative experience of mortgage delinquency or default. Drawing on the National Housing Survey, I find that individuals exposed to mortgage strain through their social networks express more negative expectations for the housing market and hold more permissive attitudes about strategic default. Homeowners reporting network exposure to mortgage strain are more likely to prefer rental housing when they next move. These results are strongest when individuals are connected to someone who has fallen behind on a mortgage payment in the previous three months.
Creative Commons LicenseThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Brian J. McCabe: Department of Sociology, Georgetown University
E-mail: mccabeb@georgetown.edu

Acknowledgements: An earlier version of this article was presented at the 2017 Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Association.

Supplemental Material

  • Citation: McCabe, Brian J. 2018. “The Social Life of Mortgage Delinquency and Default.” Sociological Science 5: 489-512.
  • Received: April 18, 2018
  • Accepted: May 26, 2018
  • Editors: Jesper Sørensen, Sarah Soule
  • DOI: 10.15195/v5.a21


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