While prior research has widely acknowledged the consequences of specific family transitions (e.g., parental death, parenthood, grandparenthood) for individual wealth holdings, the interplay of multiple family transitions and positions occurring at different life stages and in various orderings has received little attention. This is despite the fact that these transitions and positions most likely jointly shape wealth accumulation, both in the shorter and longer run. We apply (1) sequence analysis to identify typical family life course clusters defined by the timing of the death of the parent generation, the timing of the transition into parenthood, and grandparenthood and (2) regression analysis to describe how the accumulation of wealth between ages 40 and 64 differs by family life course cluster. Using Norwegian register data of individuals born in 1953 (N = 47,945), we identified six clusters of family trajectories ranging from childless individuals to individuals who were sandwiched between their parents, children, and grandchildren because of relatively early (grand)parenthood and late parental death. Individuals experiencing patterns with a later transition into (grand)parenthood occupied stable and high wealth positions over time. Individuals without children exhibited a steady increase in their wealth position. Additionally, experiencing parental death later in life was associated with increasing wealth, whereas early parental death was not. These results held net of gender and education. Pronounced and even increasing wealth differences over the life course seem to be associated with the interplay of multiple family transitions.
{"title":"Intergenerational family life courses and wealth accumulation in Norway","authors":"Bettina Hünteler, Theresa Nutz, Jonathan Wörn","doi":"10.1093/sf/soae151","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/sf/soae151","url":null,"abstract":"While prior research has widely acknowledged the consequences of specific family transitions (e.g., parental death, parenthood, grandparenthood) for individual wealth holdings, the interplay of multiple family transitions and positions occurring at different life stages and in various orderings has received little attention. This is despite the fact that these transitions and positions most likely jointly shape wealth accumulation, both in the shorter and longer run. We apply (1) sequence analysis to identify typical family life course clusters defined by the timing of the death of the parent generation, the timing of the transition into parenthood, and grandparenthood and (2) regression analysis to describe how the accumulation of wealth between ages 40 and 64 differs by family life course cluster. Using Norwegian register data of individuals born in 1953 (N = 47,945), we identified six clusters of family trajectories ranging from childless individuals to individuals who were sandwiched between their parents, children, and grandchildren because of relatively early (grand)parenthood and late parental death. Individuals experiencing patterns with a later transition into (grand)parenthood occupied stable and high wealth positions over time. Individuals without children exhibited a steady increase in their wealth position. Additionally, experiencing parental death later in life was associated with increasing wealth, whereas early parental death was not. These results held net of gender and education. Pronounced and even increasing wealth differences over the life course seem to be associated with the interplay of multiple family transitions.","PeriodicalId":48400,"journal":{"name":"Social Forces","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":4.8,"publicationDate":"2024-10-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142451378","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Research has demonstrated that couples have similar partisan preferences, a finding associated with political polarization. However, it remains debated to what extent different mechanisms contribute to this homogamy. Analyzing dyadic panel data from the German Socio-Economic Panel 1984–2020, we distinguish analytically between (1) direct political matching (i.e., partner selection on matching party preferences); (2) indirect political matching (i.e., social structural homogamy with political homogamy as a by-product); and (3) couples’ political alignment over time, to explain party preference similarity. First, we study matching among recently formed couples using an innovative method that compares real-world couples with three types of counterfactuals: couples that are matched (1) randomly, (2) by multidimensional social structural characteristics, and (3) by maximizing similarity in party preference. Second, we study couples’ political alignment over the course of relationships, tracking real-world couples over time and controlling for macro-level changes in the party-political landscape. Results indicate substantial political homogamy among recently formed couples, which is best explained by political matching (i.e., direct selection based on partisan preferences). Effects of social structural homogamy appear weak in comparison and rather stable across cohorts. Couples further align in their partisan preferences over time, but this effect is countered by an increasing heterogeneity of the German political landscape.
{"title":"Why do partners often prefer the same political parties? Evidence from couples in Germany","authors":"Ansgar Hudde, Daniela Grunow","doi":"10.1093/sf/soae133","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/sf/soae133","url":null,"abstract":"Research has demonstrated that couples have similar partisan preferences, a finding associated with political polarization. However, it remains debated to what extent different mechanisms contribute to this homogamy. Analyzing dyadic panel data from the German Socio-Economic Panel 1984–2020, we distinguish analytically between (1) direct political matching (i.e., partner selection on matching party preferences); (2) indirect political matching (i.e., social structural homogamy with political homogamy as a by-product); and (3) couples’ political alignment over time, to explain party preference similarity. First, we study matching among recently formed couples using an innovative method that compares real-world couples with three types of counterfactuals: couples that are matched (1) randomly, (2) by multidimensional social structural characteristics, and (3) by maximizing similarity in party preference. Second, we study couples’ political alignment over the course of relationships, tracking real-world couples over time and controlling for macro-level changes in the party-political landscape. Results indicate substantial political homogamy among recently formed couples, which is best explained by political matching (i.e., direct selection based on partisan preferences). Effects of social structural homogamy appear weak in comparison and rather stable across cohorts. Couples further align in their partisan preferences over time, but this effect is countered by an increasing heterogeneity of the German political landscape.","PeriodicalId":48400,"journal":{"name":"Social Forces","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":4.8,"publicationDate":"2024-09-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142306402","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Drawing on a unique survey of US workers with information about their employers’ policies on pay discussions and whether workers engage in such talk with their coworkers, we provide the most comprehensive investigation into pay talk in workplaces to date. Unlike existing treatments, we focus on core organizational and relational factors that influence whether workers talk about pay. We theorize pay talk as a challenge to managerial discretion, and we hypothesize that organizational attributes related to pay-setting influence workers’ willingness to discuss wages and salaries with colleagues. Managers, in turn, combat such challenges to their discretion by instituting pay secrecy rules. Particular relational factors within organizations are related to workers’ violations of these rules. Findings indicate that the likelihood of pay discussions varies by workplace pay secrecy rules, managerial relations within organizations, and, in certain model specifications, sector and career turning points. Among status characteristics, only age is associated with discussing pay, with younger workers significantly more likely to talk about pay and to violate organizational rules meant to suppress pay discussions.
{"title":"Pay talk in contemporary workplaces","authors":"Patrick Denice, Jake Rosenfeld, Shengwei Sun","doi":"10.1093/sf/soae130","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/sf/soae130","url":null,"abstract":"Drawing on a unique survey of US workers with information about their employers’ policies on pay discussions and whether workers engage in such talk with their coworkers, we provide the most comprehensive investigation into pay talk in workplaces to date. Unlike existing treatments, we focus on core organizational and relational factors that influence whether workers talk about pay. We theorize pay talk as a challenge to managerial discretion, and we hypothesize that organizational attributes related to pay-setting influence workers’ willingness to discuss wages and salaries with colleagues. Managers, in turn, combat such challenges to their discretion by instituting pay secrecy rules. Particular relational factors within organizations are related to workers’ violations of these rules. Findings indicate that the likelihood of pay discussions varies by workplace pay secrecy rules, managerial relations within organizations, and, in certain model specifications, sector and career turning points. Among status characteristics, only age is associated with discussing pay, with younger workers significantly more likely to talk about pay and to violate organizational rules meant to suppress pay discussions.","PeriodicalId":48400,"journal":{"name":"Social Forces","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":4.8,"publicationDate":"2024-09-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142166624","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Benefit cutbacks have been prominent after the Great Recession. The Family Economic Stress Model (FESM) theorizes how financial losses such as those spurred by cutbacks might adversely affect parental and child well-being. Yet, few links with policy have been established. We extend current knowledge by comprehensively assessing how benefits cutbacks may affect parents and their adolescent children. We rely on the first ten waves of the UK Household Longitudinal Study (2009–2019) and an event-study approach to examine the aftermath of an exceptional raft of benefit cutbacks. We find that mothers with lower incomes and single mothers accumulated losses equal to 20–30 percent of their household benefit income. Mothers could not fully compensate for such benefit income losses via their extra earnings, despite increased workforce participation. Financial worries, some forms of material hardship, and mental health worsened among mothers with lower incomes and single mothers exposed to cutbacks. Adolescent socio-emotional difficulties also increased in the period. We find little evidence, though, that cutbacks disrupted parenting. Parents thus display more agency than that accorded by the FESM. Nonetheless, findings point to deepening socioeconomic divides in financial and mental well-being, questioning the rationale for cutbacks.
{"title":"Families of austerity: benefit cutbacks and family stress in the UK","authors":"Gabriele Mari, Renske Keizer","doi":"10.1093/sf/soae126","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/sf/soae126","url":null,"abstract":"Benefit cutbacks have been prominent after the Great Recession. The Family Economic Stress Model (FESM) theorizes how financial losses such as those spurred by cutbacks might adversely affect parental and child well-being. Yet, few links with policy have been established. We extend current knowledge by comprehensively assessing how benefits cutbacks may affect parents and their adolescent children. We rely on the first ten waves of the UK Household Longitudinal Study (2009–2019) and an event-study approach to examine the aftermath of an exceptional raft of benefit cutbacks. We find that mothers with lower incomes and single mothers accumulated losses equal to 20–30 percent of their household benefit income. Mothers could not fully compensate for such benefit income losses via their extra earnings, despite increased workforce participation. Financial worries, some forms of material hardship, and mental health worsened among mothers with lower incomes and single mothers exposed to cutbacks. Adolescent socio-emotional difficulties also increased in the period. We find little evidence, though, that cutbacks disrupted parenting. Parents thus display more agency than that accorded by the FESM. Nonetheless, findings point to deepening socioeconomic divides in financial and mental well-being, questioning the rationale for cutbacks.","PeriodicalId":48400,"journal":{"name":"Social Forces","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":4.8,"publicationDate":"2024-09-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142138262","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
In the United States, exclusionary public policies generate inequalities within and across labor, financial, and legal status hierarchies, which together undermine immigrant well-being. But can inclusive public policies improve immigrant health? We examine whether and how an immigrant-inclusive federal program, Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs), shaped health care access and use among farmworkers over nearly three decades, paying particular attention to disparities at the intersection of nativity and legal status. Linking historical administrative data on the location and funding of FQHCs with the National Agricultural Workers Survey from 1989–2017, we first document trends in farmworkers’ county-level proximity to FQHCs and identify a steady increase in FQHC access among undocumented farmworkers following the Affordable Care Act. Next, using time-series cross-sectional regressions with a battery of fixed effects, we find that living in a county where FQHCs are available and better resourced is associated with increased health care use among undocumented farmworkers, but not among U.S.-born or documented immigrant farmworkers. We also find that county-level access to FQHCs is associated with reduced reports of language barriers to care among both documented and undocumented foreign-born farmworkers. These findings suggest that FQHCs may improve access for immigrants who are typically excluded from U.S. health care institutions. Still, county-level FQHC infrastructure is not associated with cost-related barriers to care for any nativity or legal status groups. Taken together, our study highlights both the potential and constraints of inclusive public policies for promoting health equity in a welfare state context characterized by commodification and stratification.
{"title":"The promise and limits of inclusive public policy: federal safety net clinics and immigrant access to health care in the U.S.","authors":"Emily Parker, Rebecca Anna Schut, Courtney Boen","doi":"10.1093/sf/soae111","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/sf/soae111","url":null,"abstract":"In the United States, exclusionary public policies generate inequalities within and across labor, financial, and legal status hierarchies, which together undermine immigrant well-being. But can inclusive public policies improve immigrant health? We examine whether and how an immigrant-inclusive federal program, Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs), shaped health care access and use among farmworkers over nearly three decades, paying particular attention to disparities at the intersection of nativity and legal status. Linking historical administrative data on the location and funding of FQHCs with the National Agricultural Workers Survey from 1989–2017, we first document trends in farmworkers’ county-level proximity to FQHCs and identify a steady increase in FQHC access among undocumented farmworkers following the Affordable Care Act. Next, using time-series cross-sectional regressions with a battery of fixed effects, we find that living in a county where FQHCs are available and better resourced is associated with increased health care use among undocumented farmworkers, but not among U.S.-born or documented immigrant farmworkers. We also find that county-level access to FQHCs is associated with reduced reports of language barriers to care among both documented and undocumented foreign-born farmworkers. These findings suggest that FQHCs may improve access for immigrants who are typically excluded from U.S. health care institutions. Still, county-level FQHC infrastructure is not associated with cost-related barriers to care for any nativity or legal status groups. Taken together, our study highlights both the potential and constraints of inclusive public policies for promoting health equity in a welfare state context characterized by commodification and stratification.","PeriodicalId":48400,"journal":{"name":"Social Forces","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":4.8,"publicationDate":"2024-09-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142131000","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Despite their significance, life-course dynamics are rarely considered as consequences of social movements. We address this shortcoming by investigating the relationship between protest and marriage formation in Ethiopia. Building on scholarship in social movements and insights from family demography, we argue that exposure to protest delays marriage formation. To test our theoretical arguments, we created an original panel dataset using georeferenced data from the 2016 Ethiopia Demographic and Health Survey. We combined the marriage histories of 4,398 young women with fine-grained measures of exposure to local protests that we compiled from two conflict datasets covering events between 2002 and 2016. Using discrete-time event history analyses, we find that protest delays first-marriage formation. Additional analyses suggest that political uncertainty and disruptions in interethnic marriages cannot explain this effect. Instead, we provide tentative evidence that protest delays marriage formation by preoccupying large segments of the marriageable population, rendering them unavailable for this critical life-course transition. Our findings pave the way for scholarship on the demographic outcomes of protest and contribute to understanding marriage patterns in a country where the timing of marriage has far-reaching social consequences.
{"title":"Demographic consequences of social movements: local protests delay marriage formation in Ethiopia","authors":"Liliana Andriano, Mathis Ebbinghaus","doi":"10.1093/sf/soae112","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/sf/soae112","url":null,"abstract":"Despite their significance, life-course dynamics are rarely considered as consequences of social movements. We address this shortcoming by investigating the relationship between protest and marriage formation in Ethiopia. Building on scholarship in social movements and insights from family demography, we argue that exposure to protest delays marriage formation. To test our theoretical arguments, we created an original panel dataset using georeferenced data from the 2016 Ethiopia Demographic and Health Survey. We combined the marriage histories of 4,398 young women with fine-grained measures of exposure to local protests that we compiled from two conflict datasets covering events between 2002 and 2016. Using discrete-time event history analyses, we find that protest delays first-marriage formation. Additional analyses suggest that political uncertainty and disruptions in interethnic marriages cannot explain this effect. Instead, we provide tentative evidence that protest delays marriage formation by preoccupying large segments of the marriageable population, rendering them unavailable for this critical life-course transition. Our findings pave the way for scholarship on the demographic outcomes of protest and contribute to understanding marriage patterns in a country where the timing of marriage has far-reaching social consequences.","PeriodicalId":48400,"journal":{"name":"Social Forces","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":4.8,"publicationDate":"2024-08-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142090036","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Research has shown that socioeconomic and psychological resources may influence educational trajectories. There are still unanswered questions, however, about the unique roles of these resources and the interplay between them. We consider two such questions: First, how do major psychological resources—a sense of school belonging and optimistic future expectations—predict educational trajectories when controlling for the effect of socioeconomic resources? And, second, do these psychological resources compensate for lacking socioeconomic resources or do they reinforce the influence of socioeconomic resources on educational trajectories? We used data from a 15-year-long Swiss panel study (N = 1989) and investigated educational trajectories concerning individuals’ transitions from lower-secondary to academic upper-secondary education, and from there to university. Findings indicated that both socioeconomic and psychological resources were significantly associated with individuals’ probability of transitioning to academic upper-secondary education. We also uncovered some evidence of resource compensation between socioeconomic resources and future expectations, suggesting that optimistic expectations may buffer the adverse effect of scarce socioeconomic resources on educational attainment. Furthermore, we found that both the sense of school belonging and future expectations were significantly associated with individuals’ probability of transitioning to university. Overall, we conclude that psychological resources play a critical role in academically oriented educational trajectories and that they may partly compensate for the effects of limited socioeconomic resources on these trajectories.
{"title":"Origins, belonging, and expectations: assessing resource compensation and reinforcement in academic educational trajectories","authors":"Kaspar Burger, Nathan Brack","doi":"10.1093/sf/soae113","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/sf/soae113","url":null,"abstract":"Research has shown that socioeconomic and psychological resources may influence educational trajectories. There are still unanswered questions, however, about the unique roles of these resources and the interplay between them. We consider two such questions: First, how do major psychological resources—a sense of school belonging and optimistic future expectations—predict educational trajectories when controlling for the effect of socioeconomic resources? And, second, do these psychological resources compensate for lacking socioeconomic resources or do they reinforce the influence of socioeconomic resources on educational trajectories? We used data from a 15-year-long Swiss panel study (N = 1989) and investigated educational trajectories concerning individuals’ transitions from lower-secondary to academic upper-secondary education, and from there to university. Findings indicated that both socioeconomic and psychological resources were significantly associated with individuals’ probability of transitioning to academic upper-secondary education. We also uncovered some evidence of resource compensation between socioeconomic resources and future expectations, suggesting that optimistic expectations may buffer the adverse effect of scarce socioeconomic resources on educational attainment. Furthermore, we found that both the sense of school belonging and future expectations were significantly associated with individuals’ probability of transitioning to university. Overall, we conclude that psychological resources play a critical role in academically oriented educational trajectories and that they may partly compensate for the effects of limited socioeconomic resources on these trajectories.","PeriodicalId":48400,"journal":{"name":"Social Forces","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":4.8,"publicationDate":"2024-08-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142084702","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Prior studies have shown a negative effect of motherhood on women’s post-maternal employment, yet few have examined how the motherhood employment penalty may vary by living arrangements. Using data from the 2010–2018 waves of the China Family Panel Studies, we applied fixed-effects linear probability models to examine the effects of the number and age of children on the employment status of Chinese women and how multi-generational living arrangements moderate these effects. The results show that motherhood significantly reduces women’s likelihood of labor force participation. A woman’s coresidence with her natal mother significantly mitigates the motherhood employment penalty, especially in urban China. In contrast, coresidence with only her father or father-in-law does not reduce the penalty. These findings indicate that there is a gendered intergenerational division of labor in Chinese extended families and highlight the importance of considering gender asymmetries in multi-generational relations in understanding mothers’ labor market decisions.
{"title":"Motherhood and Employment in China: Gender Asymmetries in Multi-Generational Families","authors":"Jia Yu, Cheng Cheng","doi":"10.1093/sf/soae105","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/sf/soae105","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Prior studies have shown a negative effect of motherhood on women’s post-maternal employment, yet few have examined how the motherhood employment penalty may vary by living arrangements. Using data from the 2010–2018 waves of the China Family Panel Studies, we applied fixed-effects linear probability models to examine the effects of the number and age of children on the employment status of Chinese women and how multi-generational living arrangements moderate these effects. The results show that motherhood significantly reduces women’s likelihood of labor force participation. A woman’s coresidence with her natal mother significantly mitigates the motherhood employment penalty, especially in urban China. In contrast, coresidence with only her father or father-in-law does not reduce the penalty. These findings indicate that there is a gendered intergenerational division of labor in Chinese extended families and highlight the importance of considering gender asymmetries in multi-generational relations in understanding mothers’ labor market decisions.","PeriodicalId":48400,"journal":{"name":"Social Forces","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.3,"publicationDate":"2024-08-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141923987","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This paper connects insights from the literature on cosmopolitan worldviews and the effects of perspective-taking in political science, (intergroup) anxiety in social psychology, and identity economics in a vignette-style experiment. In particular, we asked German respondents about their attitudes towards a Syrian refugee, randomizing components of his description (N = 662). The main treatment describes the refugee as being aware of and empathetic towards potential worries in the German population about cultural change, costs, and violence associated with refugee inflows. This perspective-taking by the refugee increases the reported ability to empathize with the refugee and, especially for risk-averse people, reported sympathy and trust. We argue that acknowledging the potential concerns of the host population relieves the tension between an anxious and a cosmopolitan/open part of people’s identities. Moreover, relieved tension renders people less defensive; i.e. when one aspect of identity is already acknowledged (expressing anxieties), it has less influence on actual behavior (expressing sympathy). In addition, previous contact with foreigners and a higher willingness to take risks are important factors in determining an individual’s willingness to interact with refugees.
{"title":"Conflicting identities: cosmopolitan or anxious? Appreciating concerns of host country population improves attitudes towards immigrants","authors":"Tobias Heidland, Philipp C Wichardt","doi":"10.1093/sf/soae108","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/sf/soae108","url":null,"abstract":"This paper connects insights from the literature on cosmopolitan worldviews and the effects of perspective-taking in political science, (intergroup) anxiety in social psychology, and identity economics in a vignette-style experiment. In particular, we asked German respondents about their attitudes towards a Syrian refugee, randomizing components of his description (N = 662). The main treatment describes the refugee as being aware of and empathetic towards potential worries in the German population about cultural change, costs, and violence associated with refugee inflows. This perspective-taking by the refugee increases the reported ability to empathize with the refugee and, especially for risk-averse people, reported sympathy and trust. We argue that acknowledging the potential concerns of the host population relieves the tension between an anxious and a cosmopolitan/open part of people’s identities. Moreover, relieved tension renders people less defensive; i.e. when one aspect of identity is already acknowledged (expressing anxieties), it has less influence on actual behavior (expressing sympathy). In addition, previous contact with foreigners and a higher willingness to take risks are important factors in determining an individual’s willingness to interact with refugees.","PeriodicalId":48400,"journal":{"name":"Social Forces","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":4.8,"publicationDate":"2024-08-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141899400","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Receiving assistance can be stigmatizing. As the cash welfare rolls have fallen to near-historic lows, the privatization of the social safety net in many states has brought up new questions about how recipients of assistance meet their material needs without sacrificing their sense of dignity. I draw on 15 months of ethnographic observation and 44 interviews with social service recipients in two majority Black neighborhoods in Houston, Texas to explore how they destigmatize their encounters with social service providers. I find that service recipients primarily seek out organizations that will treat them with respect due to the stigma attached to receiving assistance. This stigma is both racialized and gendered, such that groups with identities congruent with negative stereotypes about welfare recipients—like Black women—see themselves at higher risk of stigmatization and therefore practice destigmatization strategies with greater frequency. I build on these findings by highlighting two repertoires of destigmatization that service recipients draw upon to access both material and symbolic resources simultaneously: getting out of their neighborhoods to receive services anonymously and giving back by volunteering at local organizations. In doing so, I highlight multiple pathways through which residents of disadvantaged neighborhoods move from stigmatization to destigmatization in the welfare system.
{"title":"Getting out and giving back: repertoires of destigmatization in the private social safety net","authors":"Daniel Bolger","doi":"10.1093/sf/soae106","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/sf/soae106","url":null,"abstract":"Receiving assistance can be stigmatizing. As the cash welfare rolls have fallen to near-historic lows, the privatization of the social safety net in many states has brought up new questions about how recipients of assistance meet their material needs without sacrificing their sense of dignity. I draw on 15 months of ethnographic observation and 44 interviews with social service recipients in two majority Black neighborhoods in Houston, Texas to explore how they destigmatize their encounters with social service providers. I find that service recipients primarily seek out organizations that will treat them with respect due to the stigma attached to receiving assistance. This stigma is both racialized and gendered, such that groups with identities congruent with negative stereotypes about welfare recipients—like Black women—see themselves at higher risk of stigmatization and therefore practice destigmatization strategies with greater frequency. I build on these findings by highlighting two repertoires of destigmatization that service recipients draw upon to access both material and symbolic resources simultaneously: getting out of their neighborhoods to receive services anonymously and giving back by volunteering at local organizations. In doing so, I highlight multiple pathways through which residents of disadvantaged neighborhoods move from stigmatization to destigmatization in the welfare system.","PeriodicalId":48400,"journal":{"name":"Social Forces","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":4.8,"publicationDate":"2024-08-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141895273","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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