March 2008, Volume 86, Number 3

Sociology with a Southern Face:
Why Are We Sociologists and What Are We Doing About It in the South?
The presidential address at the 70^th annual meeting of the Southern Sociological Society.

Ronald C. Wimberley, North Carolina State University

Making Space for Civil Society:
Institutional Reforms and Local Democracy in Brazil

Gianpaolo Baiocchi, Brown University
Patrick Heller, Brown University
Marcelo Kunrath Silva, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul

This paper contributes to the growing body of research on participatory democracy and the literature on associational democracy by exploring the impact that institutional reforms have on local-level configurations of civil society. In the 1980s a wide range of participatory experiments were initiated in Brazil, most notably Participatory Budgeting in municipal governance. Municípios that adopted PB in principle devolve much or all of the decision making on new investments to decentralized participatory forums. In this paper we consider the results of an eight-city matched-pair analysis conducted in 2004, in which we selected municípios that adopted PB in 1997-2000, and matched them with a similar município that did not in the same period, drawing from the full sample of municípios over 20,000 inhabitants. Building on relational theories of civil society, we show that PB has clear but limited effects on civil society. It moves civil society practices from clientelism to associationalism, but does not contribute to the capacity of civil society to self-organize, at least in the time-frame considered. We also show that this democratizing effect on civil society practices and networks is conditioned by pre-existing state-civil society relations.

 
Social Contexts and Core Discussion Networks: 
Using a Choice-Constraint Approach to Study Similarity in Intimate Relationships

Gerald Mollenhorst, Utrecht University, the Netherlands
Beate Völker, Utrecht University, the Netherlands
Henk Flap, Utrecht University, the Netherlands

Social contexts in which confidants get to know each other affect the composition of their personal networks, inter alia the similarity among confidants. Results from analyses on a representative sample of the Dutch population between 18 and 65 years of age (SSND 2000), support the idea that differences in similarity among confidants can be explained by 1.) the social composition of a context, 2.) the extent to which interactions within a context are enforced, and 3.) the amount of time people spend in a context. Moreover, there is a certain degree of path-dependency in the use of social contexts, that leads to reinforced context effects on similarity among confidants.

Social Movement Size, Organizational Diversity and the Making of Federal Law

Erik W. Johnson, Washington State University

During the 1960s and 70s the United States environmental movement experienced dramatic growth in both absolute size and in the diversity of organizational structures and issues represented within the movement. We assess the importance of change in movement size and compositional diversity on two important stages within the legislative process. Findings indicate that U.S. environmental movement size is positively associated with the incidence of Congressional environmental agenda-setting activities, but not the passage of environmental laws. An increased diversity of issue representation within the movement is consistently and positively associated with the incidence of agenda setting and law-passage activity. The growth of EMOs attending simultaneously to both traditional conservation and “new” quality of life issues, in particular, is associated with elevated rates of policy activity.

Growth of Migrant Remittances from the United States to Mexico, 1990-2004

Mariano Sana, Louisiana State University

Migrant remittances from the United States to Mexico have grown at an impressive rate in recent years. Using a decomposition technique, I attribute the growth in remittances, for the 1990-2004 period and subperiods within it, to a migration effect, a remitting propensity effect and an average amount effect. Results show that while migration growth was the main force driving remittance growth for most of the 1990s, in the new century remittance growth cannot be simply attributed to migration growth. Mexican migrants are becoming more likely to remit and are remitting larger amounts. This reflects both a change in the composition of the Mexican population in the United States and new modes of immigrant incorporation, consistent with the assimilation and the transnational narratives. Macroeconomic oscillations play an important role in explaining remittance growth as well.

Why do Policy Frames Change?  Actor-Idea Coevolution in Debates Over Welfare Reform

Brian Steensland, Indiana University

One shortcoming in the literature on policy framing has been the absence of analytic models through which to explicate change. This paper advances research in this area in three related ways. First, it links policy frames to the actors who employ them. Second, based upon this linkage it proposes two complementary approaches for examining longitudinal change in policy framing: an actor representation approach and a frame adoption approach. Third, it assesses the relative contribution of each process using demographic decomposition analysis. This analytic framework is illustrated using the case of debates over welfare reform in the United States during the 1960s and 1970s. The findings are consistent with expectations from the frame adoption approach, suggesting that ideational diffusion was largely responsible for changing discourse during this period.

Consistency and Enhancement Processes in Understanding Emotions

Jan E. Stets, Universityof California, Riverside
Emily K. Ascencio, University of California, Riverside

Many theories in the sociology of emotions assume that emotions emerge from the cognitive consistency principle. Congruence among cognitions produces good feelings whereas incongruence produces bad feelings. A work situation is simulated in which managers give feedback to workers that is consistent or inconsistent with what the workers expect to get from their performance. Workers’ emotional reactions are then obtained. The power and status of the managers is investigated. The findings reveal that how much time workers have to process their performance feedback, and the power and status of the managers, influence workers to feel good about feedback that is inconsistent with their expectations. These findings are consistent with the enhancement process. We suggest that the enhancement process be included in sociology theories on emotions.

Structural and Individual Covariates of English Language Proficiency

Sean-Shong Hwang, University of Alabama at Birmingham
Juan Xi, Universityof Alabama at Birmingham

This study evaluates the empirical merits of a multilevel model of English language proficiency among immigrants. The model represents a synthesis of Blau’s theory of intergroup relations and the human capital model. Hypotheses derived from the model were tested using multilevel ordinal logistic analysis with individual and aggregate data from the 2000 U.S. Census for members of 20 non-English language groups. The results lent strong support to predictions derived from Blau’s theory. As expected, immigrants’ English proficiency was affected negatively by group size and segregation, and positively by linguistic heterogeneity and inequality between fluent and poor English speakers of foreign origin. In addition, individual factors also exerted significant effects on English fluency as predicted by the human capital model.

 
Minority College Aspirations, Expectations and Applications under the Texas Top 10% Law

Kim M. Lloyd, Washington State University
Kevin T. Leicht, University of Iowa
Teresa A. Sullivan, University of Michigan

The Texas legislature passed the Top 10% Law in 1996 guaranteeing automatic admission to any Texas public college or university for seniors who graduate in the top decile of their high school class. Using data on a representative sample of seniors (N = 12,029) enrolled in 96 Texas public high schools, we examine whether and how this law affects the educational aspirations and expectations of graduating seniors, as well as whether they apply to college. Hierarchical generalized linear models demonstrate that the knowledge of a percent plan has played an important role in raising the sights of students who might not otherwise consider college. This effect is particularly pronounced for minority students, although peer, family and high school context play pivotal roles.

Two on Family

Parental Divorce, Marital Conflict and Children’s Behavior Problems:
A Comparison of Adopted and Biological Children

Paul R. Amato, Pennsylvania State University
Jacob E. Cheadle, University of Nebraska-Lincoln

We used adopted and biological children from Waves 1 and 2 of the National Survey of Families and Households to study the links between parents’ marital conflict, divorce and children’s behavior problems. The standard family environment model assumes that marital conflict and divorce increase the risk of children’s behavior problems. The passive genetic model assumes that parents’ and children’s behavior are linked because of genetic transmission from parents to children. The child effects model assumes that parents’ marital distress is the result of (rather than the cause of) children’s behavior. Our analysis shows that the associations between parents’ divorce and marital conflict and children’s behavior problems are comparable for biological and adopted children. Moreover, the primary direction of influence appears to run from parents to children. Taken together, these results provide support for the standard family environment model.

Religiosity and Fertility in the United States: The Role of Fertility Intentions

Sarah R. Hayford, Arizona State University
S. Philip Morgan, Duke University

Using data from the 2002 National Survey of Family Growth, we show that women who report that religion is “very important” in their everyday life have both higher fertility and higher intended fertility than those saying religion is “somewhat important” or “not important.” Factors such as unwanted fertility, age at childbearing or degree of fertility postponement seem not to contribute to religiosity differentials in fertility. This answer prompts more fundamental questions: what is the nature of this greater religiosity? And why do the more religious want more children? We show that those saying religion is more important have more traditional gender and family attitudes and that these attitudinal differences account for a substantial part of the fertility differential. We speculate regarding other contributing causes.

Five on Gender

Gender, Body Size and Social Relations in American High Schools

Robert Crosnoe, University of Texas at Austin
Kenneth Frank, Michigan State University
Anna Strassmann Mueller, University of Texas at Austin

To investigate the role of body size in social networks, this study estimated cross-nested multilevel network models (p₂) with longitudinal data from the 16 saturated schools in the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. As body mass index increased, the likelihood of being nominated by schoolmates as friends – but not the likelihood of nominating others as friends – decreased. This trend was more pronounced among girls. Moreover, similarity in body mass index strongly predicted friendship formation. These findings were not explained by correlates (e.g., academic achievement) of both body size and friendship dynamics. Thus, the connection between body size and high school social relations was largely a function of the stigmatization of heavier body sizes, especially for girls, and of homophily.

Double Jeopardy? 
The Interaction of Gender and Race on Earnings in the United States

Emily Greenman, Pennsylvania State University
Yu Xie, University of Michigan

There are sizeable earnings differentials by gender and race in the U.S. labor market, with women earning less than men and most racial/ethnic minority groups earning less than whites. It has been proposed in the previous literature that the effects of gender and race on earnings are additive, so that minority women suffer the full disadvantage of each status. We test this proposition for a broad range of minority groups in the United States. We find that women of all minority groups suffer a smaller gender penalty than white women (relative to same-race men). Exploring the potential role of racial variation in gender role specialization in producing such differentials, we find some empirical evidence suggesting that white families specialize more than families of most other races.

Gender, Religious Tradition and Biblical Literalism

John P. Hoffmann, Brigham Young University
John P. Bartkowski, Mississippi State University

Several studies examine biblical literalism to categorize Christian denominations and predict attitudes and behaviors. Yet, few studies have identified the predictors of literalist orientations. In this study, we use structuration theory and gender theory to develop hypotheses concerning gender differences in literalist ideologies based on the degree of organizational patriarchy among religious traditions. Analyses using two national data sets demonstrate that women are relatively more inclined than men to embrace a literalist ideology in patriarchal religious organizations than in mainline organizations. We argue that a literalist ideology provides a compensatory schema to conservative Protestant women, who are generally denied access to organizational resources, especially positions of leadership and authority, in such organizations. We conclude by identifying the implications of our findings for research on gender, religion and patriarchal organizations.

Gendered Academic Careers:
Specializing for Success?

Erin Leahey, University of Arizona
Jason Lee Crockett, University of Arizona
Laura Ann Hunter, University of Arizona

In this article we take a longitudinal perspective to analyze gender differences in academic career attainment. We improve upon prior research both theoretically and methodologically. Theoretically, we incorporate the extent of research specialization as a form of professional capital that potentially improves productivity and visibility, especially for men. Methodologically, we introduce a measure of research specialization and examine how men’s and women’s productivity and visibility unfold over time, rather than examining discrete periods of scholars’ careers. We find that specializing is most beneficial with regard to productivity – that is, it helps scholars publish more. Specialization’s effects on visibility are less general: surprisingly, only women’s visibility seems to benefit from specialization. We discuss these findings and their implications, and suggest avenues for future research on this important and newly recognized form of capital.

Happily Ever After? 
Religion, Marital Status, Gender and Relationship Quality in Urban Families

Nicholas Wolfinger, University of Utah
W. Bradford Wilcox, University of Virginia

Researchers have found that religious participation is correlated with marital satisfaction. Less is known about whether religion also benefits participants in nonmarital, intimate relationships or whether religious effects on relationships vary by gender. Using data from the first three waves of the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, we find that religious participation by fathers, irrespective of marital status, is consistently associated with better relationships among new parents in urban America; however, mothers’ participation is not related to relationship quality. These results suggest that religious effects vary more by gender than by marital status. We conclude that men’s investments in relationships appear to depend more on the institutional contexts of those relationships, such as participation in formal religion.