Media Abstracts for the American Sociological Review

Abstracts for October 2007 ASR

Unnecessary Roughness? School Sports, Peer Networks, and Male Adolescent Violence − Derek A. Kreager, Pennsylvania State University
Participation in Contact Sports Increases Likelihood of Male Violence

Does athletic participation increase violence off the field? Or, as some scholars and school administrators argue, do sports promote healthy physical and mental behaviors? Sports are lauded for encouraging teamwork, fair play, and achievement, but with recent headlines chronicling the criminal activity of professional and college athletes, some are beginning to question whether participation in high contact sports also promotes violence off the field. Sociologist Derek A. Kreager, Assistant Professor of Sociology at Pennsylvania State University, examines whether adolescent athletic participation contributes to male violence. Kreager looks at a comprehensive data set of male teenagers and finds that contact sports, such as football and wrestling, indeed increase the likelihood of violence. Playing football increases the risk of getting into a serious fight by over 40 percent, and wrestlers are 45 percent more likely to get into a fight. Much of this effect is tied to teenagers’ peer networks: boys with football-playing friends are more likely to fight. These results, according to Kreager, suggest that “sports fail to protect males from interpersonal violence.”

Population Aging, Intracohort Aging, and Sociopolitical Attitudes -- Nicholas L. Danigelis, University of Vermont, Melissa Hardy, Pennsylvania State University, and Stephen J. Cutler University of Vermont
Older Generation May Not Be So Set-In-Their-Ways After All

Is it true that older people are unlikely to change their views? Do attitudes become more conservative as people age? These stereotypes are proven false by a recent study by sociologists from the University of Vermont and Penn State University. Nicholas Danigelis, Melissa Hardy, and Stephen Cutler analyzed responses to surveys questions given between 1972 and 2004 concerning attitudes toward historically subordinate groups, including women, blacks, homosexuals, and atheists, as well as attitudes toward privacy issues, including premarital sex and the “right to die.” Contrary to the belief that older people are more “set in their ways,” the study concludes that individuals age 60 and older changed their attitudes on many of these issues more significantly than did people under 40. What’s more, the older cohort typically became more tolerant, not more conservative, in their attitudes. Overall, the study found that people’s attitudes shift throughout their lives and are more sensitive to immediate social and political changes than to ideas or values that crystallize in their late adolescence or early adulthoods, as many have previously believed.

Dynamics of Political Polarization − Delia Baldassarri, Princeton University and Peter Bearman, Columbia University 
Is American Society as Polarized as Many Believe?

Red state/blue state, reproductive rights, the war in Iraq—is the United States really split right down the middle? Sociologists Delia Baldassarri and Peter Bearman examine the polarization paradox—the simultaneous absence and presence of political polarization among Americans. They find that countrywide polarization is relatively rare, even though pundits describe it as common. At the same time, most Americans believe they share the same beliefs as their friends and family, but research shows they disagree more than they think. Using a comprehensive computer simulation, Baldassarri and Bearman isolate the mechanism that drives these paradoxes and find that the answer lies in “takeoff issues.” Sometimes, typically for very short periods, some issues become the focus of intense attention and consequently appear to radically polarize Americans—for example, attitudes toward abortion, gays in the military, or the Iraq war. The attention paid to these takeoff issues distracts from the larger number of issues on which attitudes remain similar. Although rare, takeoff issues give the electorate the appearance of polarization, despite a preponderance of shared beliefs. In essence, Americans don’t necessarily disagree on that much, but the debate and discussion over the few disagreements can overwhelm all other topics.

Movement Framing and Discursive Opportunity Structures: The Political Successes of the U.S. Women’s Jury Movements -- Holly J. McCammon, Courtney Sanders Muse, Harmony D. Newman, Teresa M. Terrell, Vanderbilt University
Cultural Shifts Crucial for Explaining Activists’ Influence on Policy Change

What factors contribute to activists’ success in lobbying policy makers? How can social movements best attain social change? A recent study by sociologists at Vanderbilt University attempts to answer these questions by examining the successes and failures of the U.S. women’s jury movement in the early 1900s. They find that activists who drew their arguments from the political and cultural environment of the times, whether by tapping into prevailing legal discourses or evoking wartime sentiments, were more successful in changing state laws to permit women to sit on juries. Activists who simply emphasized their core beliefs were less successful. These findings clearly have implications beyond the women’s jury movement and may shed light on the likely success of contemporary social movements in achieving political and social change.

Working for the Woman? Female Managers and the Gender Wage Gap − Philip Cohen, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and Matt L. Huffman, University of California-Irvine
Do Female Managers Affect Gender Equity for all Employees?

Do female managers make a difference for women lower on the pay scale? While women are entering managerial positions in increasing numbers, few studies examine the effect of these promotions on all working women. Asking whether “women’s representation in management ‘lifts all boats’ by reducing gender equality among nonmanagerial workers,” sociologists Philip Cohen and Matt Huffman employ sophisticated statistical techniques and data from the 2000 Census to examine wage disparities between men and women. When women are clustered on the low end of managerial hierarchies, they have a limited effect on the gender wage gap; however, inroads made by women in upper-status managerial positions boost the wages of nonmanagerial female employees. The authors note that “not only are qualified women blocked from upper-level managerial positions and denied the benefits of those jobs, but their absence has ripple effects that shape workplace outcomes for nonmanagerial women as well.”

Corporate Demography and Income Inequality -- Jesper B. Sorensen, Stanford University and Olav Sorenson University of Toronto
Industry Diversity Shapes Regional Income Inequality

Local policymakers who are concerned with the level of income inequality in their communities might want to consider whether a lack of industrial diversity might be to blame. A recent study by sociologists from Stanford University and the University of Toronto suggests that changes in the number and size distribution of corporate firms may have contributed to the recent rise in income inequality in advanced economies. According to Jesper Sorensen and Olav Sorenson’s study of labor market trends in Denmark, regions with more firms operating within the same industry have greater income inequality than do regions with a greater diversity of industries. A wide variety of different employers searching for different types of employees means that many different skills will be valued. Income inequality drops when a broad range of employees are valued in a community.

The Implications of Racial Misclassification by Observers--Mary E. Campbell and Lisa Troyer, University of Iowa
Racial Misclassification Leads to Psychological Distress

American Indians, more than any other racial minority group in the United States, tend to have their racial identities misclassified by outsiders. According to a recent study by sociologists’ Mary E. Campbell and Lisa Troyer from the University of Iowa, such racial misclassification results in significantly higher rates of psychological distress—including contemplated suicide, attempted suicide and fatalistic thoughts about one’s future—for American Indians than for other groups. Although being misclassified as White did not have the same negative emotional impact as being misclassified into another racial minority group, it also did not provide any positive effects either, as some earlier studies have suggested. According to Campbell and Troyer, their findings have implications beyond American Indians and may shed light on the socio-psychological consequences of racial classifications and identities in an increasingly multiracial American society.

Block, Tract, and Levels of Aggregation: Neighborhood Structure and Crime and Disorder as a Case in Point − John R. Hipp, University of California-Irvine  
Measurement Matters for Neighborhood Studies

Substantial evidence highlights the importance of neighborhoods in predicting criminological, economic, and sociological outcomes; however, less attention is paid to how neighborhoods are measured. This lack of attention leads to a methodological puzzle: do results change when neighborhoods are measured as city blocks, census tracts, or an alternative unit? In his analysis of this problem, John R. Hipp examines whether different levels of aggregation, or ways of measuring neighborhoods, lead to different conclusions. In fact, the characteristics that affect perceptions of crime and disorder do differ based on the level of aggregation. His findings indicate that scholars should theoretically justify the appropriate geographic unit when measuring neighborhoods. Taking the level of aggregation into account is likely to increase the precision and strength of neighborhood studies.