Social Science Research最新文献

This paper examines whether exposure to spatially proximate homicide affects norms, attitudes, and the adaptive strategies adolescents take to insulate themselves from violent victimization. Drawing on survey data from a large sample of urban youth (n = 3195), we assess the impact of homicides occurring within a one-mile radius of respondents’ homes on a variety of psychosocial outcomes. We exploit random variation in the timing of survey administration to compare the survey responses of youths who were exposed to a homicide in the immediate vicinity of their homes in the one-month period leading up the administration of the survey with students who did not experience a homicide near their homes during that period but would the following month. This strategic comparison approach minimizes the confounding influence of endogenous processes that funnel children and families into places where homicides tend to concentrate.

Prior research sheds little light on how shifts in family formation trajectories have implications for recent cohorts' earnings gains and losses with childbearing. Using longitudinal data from a contemporary cohort, we examine how the pay premium or penalty for parents varies by their relationship status at childbirth and subsequent changes in the status. Fixed effects models show that children born to unpartnered women are associated with substantial pay penalties for the mothers. Conversely, women giving birth within cohabiting or marital unions experience small or no motherhood penalties. For residential fathers, only children born after marriage are linked to pay increases. Men having children while cohabiting or unpartnered receive no fatherhood premiums even if they later transition into marriage. Married mothers' earnings outcomes also depend on their sequence of marriage and childbearing. Whereas women bearing children before marriage encounter a substantial motherhood penalty, those doing so after marriage face none. The variation in parenthood penalties or premiums by childbearing context cannot be entirely elucidated by the differences in the age of entering parenthood, ethnoracial composition, education, or pre-parenthood earnings growth rate among people having children in various contexts. We suggest that the family formation sequence is related to individuals’ expectations and the support they receive for their parental roles, which shape parenthood earnings outcomes.

The decline in fertility is a pressing issue for most advanced economies. Previous studies on fertility have not paid enough attention to politics. This study investigates the role of political efficacy on people's fertility intentions in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore – three advanced economies with different political regimes. We also uncover how such a relationship varies depending on people's political attitudes. This study gathered data from three online surveys with a factorial experiment design in Hong Kong (N = 1895), Taiwan (N = 1971), and Singapore (N = 1985). The results of random-intercept regression analyses show that the impact of political efficacy varies depending on the context. The results indicate that political efficacy positively impacts fertility intentions in Hong Kong and Taiwan, where there are active political movements, especially among those who support democratic values. In Singapore, where there is a lack of active political movements, political efficacy has a lesser impact on fertility intentions. In modern societies with advanced economies and influential political voices from civil society, promoting citizens' involvement in policymaking may be a beneficial strategy to increase fertility rates.

Though the COVID-19 crisis put many older adults at sudden risk of social isolation, the pandemic was far from the “great equalizer” some pundits and politicians initially claimed it would be. Drawing from Cumulative Inequality Theory, I consider how long-run patterns of social dis/connectedness contextualize key disparities in social contact that manifested during the pandemic. I incorporate data from four rounds of the National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project (2005–2021), constructing multiple operationalizations of connectedness accumulation across pre-COVID years and examining several types of social contact during the pandemic, both in-person and remote. Results from ordered logistic regression show that those most durably connected were especially likely to incorporate digital tools for maintaining contact with family and friends. On the other hand, people experiencing more bouts of social disconnection were least likely to see friends during the pandemic, and were yet relatively tolerant of that level of engagement. Even while many older people's level of social dis/connectedness fluctuates over the course of 15 years, it was long-run accumulation patterns—not conditions observed most recently—that best explain their experience of social contact during the pandemic. Findings point to the role of crises in perpetuating and exacerbating key axes of inequality, and suggest points of attention and intervention in COVID's aftermath.

Later-life cognitive function is strongly influenced by one's environment. At this life stage, a partner's behaviors and attributes—including their own cognitive status—are a key environmental determinant. A recent “social allostasis” theory also yields specific predictions on patterns of mutual influence—or “contagion”—in cognitive function. Yet, no population representative studies have examined these coupled dynamics. Using recently developed fixed-effects cross-lagged panel modeling (FE-CLPM) methods and ten-year data from the Health and Retirement Study—nationally-representative of U.S. adults over 50—the current study filled this gap. Results supported dyadic cognitive contagion over the long- but not short-run. Short-term associations suggested intriguing “cognitive cycling” possibilities among both men and women that need further investigation. Overall, results supported a theoretical model of coupled “cognitive careers,” and relational inducement of allostatic load. Especially among men, recurrent impulses also cumulatively induced substantial path-dependent cognitive improvements, supporting the added value of repeated over one-time interventions. Theoretical and substantive implications are discussed.

With advancement in reproductive technologies, public opinion regarding these procedures varies considerably across the world. While prominent public debates have focused on abortion, we know less about the factors shaping feelings regarding Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ART). Both procedures challenge the idea that human life starts with conception – with the fertilization of an embryo. Using European Values Survey data and multilevel modeling, we compare how religion and other personal and country-level factors shape disapproval toward abortion and ART. Conservative Protestants and people who are more engaged with their religion and live in a more religious country are more likely to disapprove of abortion and ART. More supportive polices and attitudes regarding ART, but not abortion, are correlated. Additionally, economic development moderates the relationship between personal religiosity and abortion, but not ART. This finding provides important insight into why abortion has remained such a controversial issue, even in richer nations.

Subjective well-being (SWB) describes an individual's life evaluation. Direct elicitation methods for SWB via rating scales do not force individuals to trade-off among life domains, whilst best-worst scaling (BWS) approaches only provide relative measures. This paper instead offers a dual-response BWS task, where respondents nominate areas of most and least importance and satisfaction with respect to 11 SWB domains, whilst also eliciting anchoring points to obtain an absolute measure of domain satisfaction. Combining domain satisfaction and importance produces a robust measure of individual SWB, but statistically unique relative to other life satisfaction measures utilizing single- and multi-item ratings, including global satisfaction and those aggregated over SWB domains, as well as eudemonia. Surveying 2500 Australians reveals anchored-BWS improves discrimination amongst domains in terms of importance and satisfaction, illustrating its value as a diagnostic tool for SWB measurement to focus services, policy, and initiatives in areas to most impact wellbeing. This includes highlighting a major discrepancy between health satisfaction and importance, whilst also reporting that SWB is significantly lower for Indigenous, unemployed, middle-aged, males and lower income groups.

While much research has documented stark racial gaps in total net worth, few studies have examined the development of racial gaps across different types of assets using longitudinal data. Drawing on data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (1997), we study the emergence of Black-White and Hispanic-White wealth gaps across different types of assets and debt among a recent cohort of young adults. We find that the gaps in net worth, financial assets, home equity, and debt all increase over time. The racial gaps in financial assets widen at a rate that exceeds the corresponding gaps in other components of net worth. Indeed, a decomposition analysis reveals that financial assets contribute more than home equity to exacerbating net worth disparities. Our findings underscore the unique role that financial assets play in expanding racial wealth gaps in young adulthood.

This study examines the health consequences and underlying pathways of education-occupation mismatch. Using a longitudinal sample of college graduates from the Panel Studies of Income Dynamics (1984–2019) and employing longitudinal hybrid models, we found that contemporary vertical mismatch (between education level and educational requirements of occupation) was associated with poorer psychological well-being and bio-behaviors (obesity and smoking), but not physical health. In contrast, horizontal mismatch (between field of study and field required for occupation) did not show clear health consequences. Sequence analysis was employed to uncover the mismatch trajectories and revealed that persistent vertical mismatch over one's career had a greater impact on psychological distress and smoking than episodic mismatch experiences. Furthermore, the linkage between vertical mismatch and health outcomes was likely shaped by psychosocial processes rather than reduced material well-being. These findings imply that education-occupation vertical (mis)match produces health disparities between occupationally matched and mismatched college graduates.