Media Abstracts for April 2008 ASR

The Social Connectednedness of Older Adults: A National Profile 
− Benjamin Cornwell, Edward O. Laumann, and L. Philip Shumm, The University of Chicago
Older Adults have Smaller, More Closely Connected Social Circles

As the U.S. population ages, scholars and policy makers have become increasingly concerned about the social isolation of older adults. Using new data from a population-based study of older Americans ages 57 to 85, researchers Benjamin Cornwell, Edward O. Laumann, and L. Philip Shumm provide the first comprehensive profile of older Americans’ social networks. The authors find, consistent with previous research, that older Americans do show some signs of isolation: their networks are smaller and their ties become more distant. Yet this is not the whole story. Their results show that age increases the frequency of socializing with neighbors, religious participation, and volunteering. In addition, some later-life transitions, such as retirement and bereavement, may prompt greater connectedness. The authors conclude that their findings are “inconsistent with the view that old age has a universal negative influence on social connectedness.”   

Social Inequalities in Happiness in the United States, 1972 to 2004: An Age-Period-Cohort Analysis
− Yang Yang, The University of Chicago
Americans Becoming Happier, but Baby-Boomers Less Happy than Others

As Americans live longer, are they living better, happier lives? Research by Yang Yang, a sociologist at The University of Chicago, provides a comprehensive analysis of the disparities in happiness between men and women with different demographic characteristics, such as age and race. While substantial variation in subjective happiness exists between social groups, she finds that overall, levels of happiness increase with age. Since 1995, most groups of Americans have seen an up tick in happiness, with the happiness gap between men and women closing during this time. The racial disparity in happiness, although declining, continues to persist. Interestingly, she finds that baby boomers have experienced less happiness on average than both earlier and more recent cohorts. This suggests that happiness in later life is closely related to early life conditions and formative experiences. For example, larger cohort sizes increase the competition to enter schools and the labor market and create more strains to achieve expected economic success and family life. Baby boomer’s unique experiences during early adulthood may have had a lasting impact on their sense of happiness.

Make Money Surfing the Web? The Impact of Internet Use on the Earnings of U.S. Workers
− Paul DiMaggio and Bart Bonikowski, Princeton University
Internet Use at Work or at Home Leads to Higher Wages

Does the “digital divide” lead to lower earnings? While scholars have shown that a gulf exists between those who have access to the Internet and those who do not—the “digital divide—less is known about how this gulf may affect Americans at work. Paul DiMaggio and Bart Bonikowski, sociologists at Princeton University, have analyzed the effects of Internet use on earnings growth. Consistent with economic theory, the authors find that Internet use at work leads to earnings growth. Using this technology leads to higher wages. They find also find that workers who use the Internet only at home also have higher wages. They conclude that “the labor market rewarded Internet use at home and at work, and workers who went online at home and work did best of all.”

Ownership, Organization, and Income Inequality: Market Transition in Rural Vietnam 
− Andrew Walder, Stanford University; Giang Hoang Nguyen, Vietnam National University, Hanoi
Economic Organization Shapes Inequality in Market Transitions

As socialist countries experience the transition to market-based economies, scholars have attempted to determine the effect this transition has on inequality. Recent research points to the political and economic variability between transitional economies. Taking advantage of this variability and using new data, Andrew Walder, sociologist at Stanford University, and Giang Hoang Nguyen, sociologist at Vietnam National University, Hanoi, compare the effect of market transitions in rural Vietnam and China. The authors find that the scale of economic enterprise and the allocation of property rights shape social structures and influence income distribution. In China, whose development was dominated by larger firms, political officials’ incomes kept pace with private entrepreneurs. In Vietnam, where small family businesses predominated, political officials’ income advantages declined rapidly. These findings reinforce, “the proposition that specific variations in economic organization shape the impact of markets.”

Getting Counted: Markets, Media, and Reality
— Mark Thomas Kennedy, University of Southern California
How Do Firms in New and Emerging Markets Gain Public Attention?

How do new firms, businesses, and products catch the public’s attention? Does competition help draw attention to a new product, or is it better to be the only provider of a particular service? Mark Thomas Kennedy, of the University of Southern California, studied new and emerging firms that did not fit into established business categories. How did these firms escape being labeled as “misfits” and ignored? How did they gain prominence and get counted?  Kennedy studied more than 28,000 news stories and press releases from 34 media outlets between 1980 and 1990 on an emerging technology: personal computers. Using sophisticated statistical techniques and a new method for extracting data about market networks from media coverage, Kennedy finds that media coverage of a new market makes the market countable by embedding it in an emerging category. New firms also benefit by making references in press releases to a few other new firms. This linkage helps audiences perceive a new, emerging business category. Kennedy finds that firms get counted when they position themselves as part of a growing movement by talking about their rivals, but not too many rivals, or they risk getting lost in the crowd.

Gender and the Education–Employment Paradox in Ethnic and Religious Contexts: The Case of Arab Americans
— Jen'nan Ghazal Read and Sharon Oselin, University of California-Irvine
Why Do Arab American Women with High Levels of Education have Low Employment Rates?

Why do Arab American women have lower employment rates than many other racial or ethnic groups in the United States, despite their relatively high levels of education? Jen'nan Ghazal Read and Sharon Oselin, of the University of California, Irvine, conducted in-depth interviews with Muslim and Christian Arab American men and women in Houston, Texas to answer these questions. The authors find that both Muslim and Christian Arab Americans place a strong emphasis on higher education for women. The community stresses education, though, not as a means toward achieving a high-powered career, but to ensure that women can properly teach and socialize the children. In this context, education reinforces traditional gender roles. Because Muslim and Christian Arab Americans seem to share the same values about women’s education and employment, this suggests that Arab cultural values are more important than religion in making these decisions. The authors find that younger women are more accepting of women working outside the home and thus may challenge these traditional gender roles in the future.

Stability and Change in Family Structure and Maternal Health Trajectories
— Sarah O. Meadows, Princeton University; Sara S. McLanahan, Princeton University; Jeanne Brooks-Gunn, Columbia University
Stable Relationships Lead to Better Mental and Physical Health for New Mothers

What are the effects of marital and relationship transitions on new mothers’ mental and physical health? Using sophisticated statistical modeling, the authors of a recent study in the American Sociological Review examine how exiting a marriage or cohabitating relationship affects mothers’ mental and physical health after giving birth and through early childhood. Over time, mothers in stable marriages or cohabitating relationships have better mental and physical health than do single mothers or mothers in unstable relationships. Mothers who experience a relationship transition, such as leaving a marriage or cohabitating relationship, suffer short-term declines in mental and physical health, but are likely to recover from this decline in health if no further transitions are experienced. A large proportion of unmarried mothers experience more than one relationship transition in their child’s first five years of life and thus suffer poor health and do not have time to recover from transitions.

Gendered Power Relations among Women: A Study of Household Decision Making in Black, Lesbian Stepfamilies
— Mignon R. Moore, University of California, Los Angeles
How Do Black, Lesbian Stepfamilies Make Decisions within the Household?

How do Black, lesbian stepfamilies manage their finances, divide household chores, and make decisions about childrearing? How are their decisions different than those made by other types of stepfamilies? Most previous research on families focuses on either heterosexuals or well-educated, white, lesbian couples. Mignon R. Moore’s article in the latest American Sociological Review studies these familiar questions in an unexamined population: Black, lesbian stepfamilies. She finds that in these families, biological mothers often take on more household chores as a trade-off for greater authority over financial decisions—regardless of which partner earns more. The differences in family and household responsibility are largely due to the biological mothers’ legal ties to the children and a greater perceived responsibility for the children’s well-being. Without the gender structure of male privilege or the material advantage of high income, these families tend to associate control over household labor with greater relationship power.

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Last Updated on March 21, 2008
© 2007 American Sociological Association