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Building upon insights generated by social psychological scholarship on equity, emotions, and identity, we use the General Social Survey (1996) Modules on Emotion and Gender and the National Survey of Family and Households (1992-1994) to investigate the relationship between perceived inequity in the household division of labor and emotion. These surveys enable us to assess the degree to which patterns identified in short-term laboratory studies of relative strangers are generalizable to enduring relationships among intimates. We move beyond existing studies that link inequity in the home with depression by incorporating a broader scope of emotions and further by distinguishing between underbenefiting and overbenefiting--i.e., doing what one considers more or less than one's fair share---and by examining these processes for women and men. We find general support for principles of equity theory: That is, emotions are closely tied to perceived inequity in the division of household labor. Guided by insights from Kemper's structural interactional theory of emotion and affect control theory, we show that this pattern differs by specific emotions, the direction of the inequity, and the sex of the perceiver. Implications for understanding emotion, equity theory, and family are then elaborated. Keywords: emotion, equity, gender, household labor DOI: 10.1177/0190272510389012

Drawing on interview data with black-white biracial adults, we examine the considerable agency most have in asserting their racial identities to others. Extending research on 'identity work' (Snow and Anderson 1987), we explore the strategies biracial people use to conceal (i.e., pass), cover, and/or accent aspects of their racial ancestries, and the individual and structural-level factors that limit the accessibility and/or effectiveness of some strategies. We further find that how these biracial respondents identify is often contextual--most identify as biracial, but in some contexts, they pass as monoracial. Scholars argue that passing may be a relic of the past, yet we find that passing still occurs today. Most notably, we find a striking reverse pattern of passing today--while passing during the Jim Crow era involved passing as white, these respondents more often report passing as black today. Motivations for identity work are explored, with an emphasis on passing as black. Keywords: passing, identity work, biracial, multiracial, identity DOI: 10.1177/0190272510389014

Many individuals use prayer to manage negative emotions, but scholars know little about how prayer accomplishes this task. Using in-depth interview data from victims o f intimate partner violence, I argue that prayer is an imaginary social support interaction that provides individuals with resources they use to perform individual emotion management strategies. In particular, interactions with God through prayer provide individuals (1) an other to whom one can express and vent anger; (2) positive reflected appraisals that help maintain self-esteem; (3) reinterpretive cognitions that make situations seem less threatening,' (4) an other with whom one can interact to 'zone out' negative emotion-inducing stimuli; and (5) an emotion management model to imitate. Most of these resources help individuals deal primarily with a particular type of emotion and have an appreciable influence on social action. The analysis presented suggests that scholars should investigate how interactions with imagined others help individuals manage emotions. Keywords: prayer, emotion management, imagined others, social support DOI: 10.1177/0190272510389129

According to the deprovincialization thesis, interethnic contact involves a reappraisal and distancing from the ingroup. Contact can broaden one's horizon by acknowledging and recognizing the value of other cultures and thereby putting the taken-for-granted own cultural standards into perspective. The current research uses data from three surveys to examine the relationship between quantity of outgroup contact and ingroup distance (ingroup identification and ingroup feelings) among native Dutch participants. More positive contact with ethnic outgroups was expected to lead to a higher endorsement of multiculturalism, that, in turn, is related to a stronger distancing from the ingroup. Findings in all three studies support the deprovincialization thesis. In addition, in Study 3, mediation is found independently of outgroup threat. Findings across the three studies confirm the stability of the results and cross-validate the deprovincialization thesis. Keywords: deprovincialization, outgroup contact, multiculturalism DOI: 10.1177/0190272510389015

Just as postsecondary schooling serves as a dividing line between the advantaged and disadvantaged on outcomes like income and marital status, it also serves as a dividing line between the healthy and unhealthy. Why are the better educated healthier? Human capital theory posits that education makes one healthier via cognitive (skill improvements) and noncognitive psychological resources (traits such as conscientiousness and a sense of mastery). I employ the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study (1957-2005) to test the relative strength of measures of cognitive human capital versus noncognitive psychological human capital in explaining the relationship between education and health outcomes among high school graduates. I find little evidence that noncognitive psychological human capital is a significant mediator, but find a relatively significant role for cognitive human capital, as measured by high school academic performance. It is not just higher educational attainment; academic performance is strongly linked to health in later life. Keywords aging, disparities, education, human capital, socioeconomic DOI: 10.1177/0022146510386796

We analyze data from the South African Stress and Health Study, a nationally representative in-person psychiatric epidemiologic survey of 4,351 adults conducted as part of the World Mental Health Survey Initiative between January 2002 and June 2004. AII blacks (Africans, Coloreds, and Indians) initially report higher levels of non-specific distress and anger/hostility than whites. Access to socioeconomic resources helps explain differences in non-specific distress between Coloreds and whites and Indians and whites. However, only when social stressors are considered do we find few differences in psychological distress (i.e., non-specific distress and anger/hostility) between Africans and whites. In addition, self-esteem and mastery have independent effects on non-specific distress and anger/hostility, but differences between Coloreds and whites in feelings of anger/hostility are not completely explained by self-esteem and mastery. The findings contribute to the international body of work on social stress theory, challenge underlying assumptions of the minority status perspective, and raise a series of questions regarding mental health disparities among South Africans. Keywords life events, psychological distress, race, South Africa, stress DOI: 10.1177/0022146510386795

This study examines whether the relationship between acculturation and physical health varies by gender among Mexican Americans, and if the mechanisms that mediate the acculturation-health relationship operate differently by gender. Using the 1998-2007 National Health Interview Study, we construct a composite measure of acculturation and estimate regression models for the total number of health conditions, hypertension, heart disease, and diabetes. Immigrants with the lowest levels of acculturation are the healthiest, but this association is stronger for men. Medical care plays a central role in accounting for gender and acculturation differences across health outcomes--increased access to and utilization of medical care is associated with worse health, which suggests that better health among recent arrivals (particularly men) partially results from their lack of knowledge about their own poor health. Keywords acculturation, gender, hypertension, medical conditions, Mexican American DOI: 10.1177/0022146510386792

Much research has explored the role of social networks in promoting health through the provision of social support. However, little work has examined how social networks themselves may be structured by health. This article investigates the link between individuals' health and the characteristics of their social network positions. We first develop theoretical predictions for how health may influence the structure of adolescent networks. We then test these predictions using longitudinal analysis of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health). We find important relationships between the health status of adolescents and the characteristics of the social network positions within which they are embedded. Overall we find that adolescents in poor health form smaller local networks and occupy less central global positions than their healthy peers. These results also have implications for social network research, expanding the scope of factors responsible for the network positions individuals occupy. Keywords Add Health, adolescence, self-rated health, social networks, structure DOI: 10.1177/0022146510386791

What are the social consequences of the recent expansion of newborn screening in the United States? The adoption of new screening technologies has generated diagnostic uncertainty about the nature of screening targets, making it unclear not only whether a newborn will develop a disease but also what the condition actually is. Based on observations in a genetics clinic and in-depth interviews with parents and geneticists, we examine how parents and clinical staff work out the social significance of uncertain newborn screening results. We find that some newborns will experience a specific trajectory of prolonged liminality between a state of normal health and pathology. Based on a review of related literatures, we suggest 'patients-in-waiting' as an umbrella concept for those under medical surveillance between health and disease. Keywords diagnosis, genetics, medical technologies, newborn screening DOI: 10.1177/0022146510386794

Previous research has documented that sexual minorities are more likely than heterosexual people to experience mental health problems, but little is known about how these disparities emerge. Analysis of data from Miami--Dade County, Florida, shows that young adults reporting same-sex contact have higher levels of depressive symptoms and drug use than those without such contact, but that different processes explain the disparities in the two outcomes. A substantial portion of the gap in depressive symptoms is explained by sexual minorities' higher levels of stress exposure and their lower levels of family support and psychological resources. The gap in drug use is not explained by these processes, but is partially explained by self-exploratory attitudes and permissiveness of drug use in social networks. This study highlights the importance of using multiple outcome measures in research that examines mechanisms underlying mental health disparities across social groups. Keywords depression, drug use, gay/lesbian/bisexual people, sexuality, stress DOI: 10.1177/0022146510386793

Emerging themes in demography, developmental medicine, and psychiatry suggest that a comprehensive understanding of mental health across the life course requires that we incorporate the lives of children into our research. If we can learn more about the ways in which the stress process unfolds for children, we will gain important insights into the factors that influence initial set points of trajectories of mental health over the life course. This will simultaneously extend the scope of the stress process paradigm and elaborate the life course perspective on mental health. Incorporating children's lives into the sociology of mental health will also extend the intellectual influence of the discipline on sociomedical and biomedical research on mental illness. I contend that sociology's greatest promise in understanding trajectories of mental health across the life course lies in a systematic analysis of the social and social-psychological conditions of children, the stressful experiences that arise out of these conditions, and the processes that mediate and moderate the stress process in childhood. In this regard, there are three major issues that sociologists could begin to address: (I) the identification of structural and institutional factors that pattern children's exposure to stress; (2) the construction of a stress universe for children; and (3) the identification of key elements of the life course perspective that may set or alter trajectories of mental health in childhood and adolescence. Keywords children, early onset of disorder, family structure, fetal origins of disease, life course, stress DOI: 10.1177/0022146510386797

We use the 2003 National Survey of College Graduates to investigate earnings differentials between white and Asian American men. We extend prior literature by disaggregating Asian Americans by their immigration status in relation to the U.S. educational system, and by accounting for the effects of field of study and college type. Net of the latter variables and other demographic controls, native-born Asian American men have 8 percent lower earnings than do measurably comparable white men. Our findings show that Asian American men who were schooled entirely overseas have substantial earnings disadvantages, while Asian American men who obtained their highest degree in the United States but completed high school overseas have an intermediate earnings disadvantage. Net of the control variables, including region of residence, only 1.5-generation Asian American men appear to have reached full parity with whites. Most Asian American men lag at least slightly behind white men in terms of full equality in the labor market net of the measured covariates in our statistical models. No one theoretical approach seems able to explain our findings; instead, we suggest the relevance of several perspectives, including the racialized hierarchy view, the demographic heterogeneity approach, and assimilation theory. Keywords Asian Americans, generational status, field of study, earnings DOI: 10.1177/0003122410388501

Although the positive association between religiosity and life satisfaction is well documented, much theoretical and empirical controversy surrounds the question of how religion actually shapes life satisfaction. Using a new panel dataset, this study offers strong evidence for social and participatory mechanisms shaping religion's impact on life satisfaction. Our findings suggest that religious people are more satisfied with their lives because they regularly attend religious services and build social networks in their congregations. The effect of within-congregation friendship is contingent, however, on the presence of a strong religious identity. We find little evidence that other private or subjective aspects of religiosity affect life satisfaction independent of attendance and congregational friendship. Keywords life satisfaction, religion, social networks, social identity DOI: 10.1177/0003122410386686

Research consistently demonstrates that females engage in less criminal behavior than males across the life course, but research on the variability of the gender gap across contexts is sparse. To address this issue, we examine the gender gap in self-reported violent crime among adolescents across neighborhoods. Multilevel models using data from the Project of Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods (PHDCN) indicate that the gender gap in violent crime decreases as levels of neighborhood disadvantage increase. Furthermore, the narrowing of the gender gap is explained by gender differences in peer influence on violent offending. Neighborhood disadvantage increases exposure to peer violence for both sexes, but peer violence has a stronger impact on violent offending for females than for males; this produces the reduction in the gender gap at higher levels of disadvantage. We also find that the gender difference in the relationship between peer violence and offending is explained, in part, by (1) the tendency for females to have more intimate friendships than do males and (2) the moderating effect of peer intimacy on the relationship between peer violence and self-reported violent behavior. Keywords gender, violence, neighborhood, peer DOI: 10.1177/0003122410386688

Increasingly, scholars have come to see the news media as playing a pivotal role in shaping whether social movements are able to bring about broader social change. By drawing attention to movements' issues, claims, and supporters, the news media can shape the public agenda by influencing public opinion, authorities, and elites. Why are some social movement organizations more successful than others at gaining media coverage? Specifically, what organizational, tactical, and issue characteristics enhance media attention? We combine detailed organizational survey data from a representative sample of 187 local environmental organizations in North Carolina with complete news coverage of those organizations in 11 major daily newspapers in the two years following the survey (2,095 articles). Our analyses reveal that local news media favor professional and formalized groups that employ routine advocacy tactics, mobilize large numbers of people, and work on issues that overlap with newspapers' focus on local economic growth and well-being. Groups that are confrontational, volunteer-led, or advocate on behalf of novel issues do not garner as much attention in local media outlets. These findings have important implications and challenge widely held claims about the pathways by which movement actors shape the public agenda through the news media. Keywords social movements, news media, organizations, environment, voluntary associations DOI: 10.1177/0003122410386689

Between 1945 and 2005, nation-states around the world revised their criminal laws on sexual activities. This global reform wave--across countries and domains of sexual activity-followed from the reconstitution of world models of society around individuals rather than corporate bodies. During the post-World War II period, this process rearranged the global cultural and organizational underpinnings of sex, eroding world-level support for criminal laws aimed at protecting collective entities--especially the family and the nation--and strengthening world support for laws aimed at protecting individualized persons. To make our case, we use unique cross-national and longitudinal data on the criminal regulation of rape, adultery, sodomy, and child sexual abuse. The data reveal striking counter-directional trends in sex-law reforms, which simultaneously elaborated regulations protecting individuals and dissolved laws protecting collective entities. World-level negative-binomial regression analyses and country-level event-history analyses confirm our main propositions. The findings demonstrate a sweeping revolution in criminal-sex laws, rooted in the intensified global celebration of flee-standing personhood. Keywords globalization, criminal law, sex, individualization, reform DOI: 10.1177/0003122410388493

Existing explanations of tokenism predict similar experiences for all numerically small, low-status groups. These explanations, however, cannot account for variation in the experiences of different low-status minority groups within the same setting. This article develops a theory of tokenism that explains such variation. Drawing on 117 interviews in the leveraged buyout industry (LBO) and a comparison of the differing experiences of female and African American male tokens in that setting, I argue that tokenism is contingent on the local cultural context in which it is embedded. Specifically, I identify two elements of an occupation's culture--its hierarchy of cultural resources and its image of the ideal worker--that can specify some status characteristics as more relevant to and incompatible with the occupation's work than others. In LBO, the industry values cultural resources that, on average, women lack but men possess, and the ideal worker is defined such that it directly conflicts with cultural beliefs about motherhood. Consequently, in this context, gender is a more relevant status characteristic for exclusion than is race, and female tokens are differentially disadvantaged. In addition to revising received wisdom about tokenism, this study integrates and advances social psychological and cultural theories of exclusion by deepening our understanding of the role of cultural resources and schemas in occupational inequality. Keywords tokenism, cultural resources, cultural schemas, ideal worker, status-based exclusion DOI: 10.1177/0003122410388491

This article engages with problems that are usually opaque: What trajectories do scientific debates assume, when does a scientific community consider a proposition to be a fact, and how can we know that? We develop a strategy for evaluating the state of scientific contestation on issues. The analysis builds from Latour's black box imagery, which we observe in scientific citation networks. We show that as consensus forms, the importance of internal divisions to the overall network structure declines. We consider substantive cases that are now considered facts, such as the carcinogenicity of smoking and the non-carcinogenicity of coffee. We then employ the same analysis to currently contested cases: the suspected carcinogenicity of cellular phones, and the relationship between vaccines and autism. Extracting meaning from the internal structure of scientific knowledge carves a niche for renewed sociological commentary on science, revealing a typology of trajectories that scientific propositions may experience en route to consensus. Keywords sociology of science, consensus, black boxing, network analysis, citations DOI: 10.1177/0003122410388488

Among early adolescents (10-12 years) in the Netherlands, this study examined the academic self-concept in terms of the big-fish--little-pond effect (BFLPE). The BFLPE implies that students in classes where the average achievement is low will have a higher academic self-concept than equally achieving students in classes where the average achievement is high. The social comparison process assumed to underlie this effect was examined by focusing on classmates' average achievement and the perceived relative achievement position in the school class. It was found that the perceived class position mediated the relationship between classmates' achievement and the academic self-concept. In addition, the effect of classmates' achievement on perceived relative academic position was stronger in smaller compared to larger classes. Furthermore, it was investigated whether classmates' gender was differently important for social comparison processes in the academic domain. It turned out. that students' academic self-concept was affected by the achievements of same-gender classmates. Achievements of opposite-gender classmates only had an effect on the academic self-concept when the number of these classmates was small. The findings of this study support the theoretical principles underlying the big-fish--little-pond effect and are relevant for debates about class sizes and the utility of academic selective schooling. Keywords Big-fish--little-pond-effect, social comparison, perceived class position, class size, gender DOI: 10.1177/0038040710383521

The authors use nationally representative data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 1998-1999 (ECLS-K) to identify variables measured in the fall of 1998 (when the sample's students were in kindergarten) that predict special education placement by the spring of 2004 (when most students were finishing fifth grade). Placement's strongest kindergarten predictor is a student's level of academic achievement. Also important is the student's frequency of classroom task engagement. There is a 'frog-pond' contextual effect--attending an elementary school with high levels of overall student academic ability and behavior increases a student's likelihood of special education placement. This is the case even after statistically controlling for a wide range of individual-, family-, and school-level characteristics. Social class background displayed a weak or statistically nonsignificant relation with special education placement. However, girls are placed less frequently than boys. African American, Hispanic, and Asian students are placed less frequently than non-Hispanic whites. The under- or equal-placement rates for racial/ethnic minorities are partially explained by their concentration in high-minority schools. Keywords special education, disability, race/ethnicity, school context DOI: 10.1177/0038040710383518

Over the past several decades, research has documented strong relationships between social class and children's cognitive abilities. These initial cognitive differences, which are substantial at school entry, increase as children progress through school. Despite the robust findings associated with this research, authors have generally neglected the extent to which school absenteeism exacerbates social class differences in academic development among young children. Using growth-curve analyses within a three-level hierarchical linear modeling framework, this study employs data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study (ECLS-K) to examine the links between children's social class, school absences, and academic growth during kindergarten and first grade. Results suggest that the effects of schooling on cognitive development are stronger for lower socioeconomic status (SES) children and that the findings associated with theories of summer learning loss are applicable to literacy development during early elementary school. Indeed, although they continue to achieve at lower absolute levels, socioeconomically disadvantaged children who have good attendance rates gain more literacy skills than their higher SES peers during kindergarten and first grade. Keywords social class, inequality, achievement, attendance DOI: 10.1177/0038040710383520

Scholars hypothesize that both neighborhood and school contexts influence educational attainment, but few have considered both contexts simultaneously. Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, the author analyzes how school and neighborhood contexts are jointly related to high school and college graduation. She finds that the absolute level of neighborhood resources positively predicts earning a bachelor's degree, while relative neighborhood socioeconomic status (SES) compared to school peers' neighborhood SES predicts high school graduation. Interactions between school and neighborhood characteristics reveal that low odds of educational attainment among students from lower-SES neighborhoods are reduced even more when a student attends school with more white and high-SES peers. Conversely, the high odds of educational attainment among students from higher-SES neighborhoods are further enhanced by attending school with more white and high-SES peers. Findings suggest that neighborhood SES may be a basis for relative deprivation within schools. Policy makers need to determine how students from different neighborhoods are integrated into a school's structure and culture in order for policies that mix students from different neighborhood backgrounds to succeed. Attending a high-SES, largely white school does not eliminate (and may even exacerbate) the disadvantages of coming from a low-SES neighborhood. Keywords neighborhood effects, school effects, educational attainment, multiple contexts, multilevel models DOI: 10.1177/0038040710383519

Why did the nation-state proliferate across the world over the past 200 years, replacing empires, kingdoms, city-states, and the like? Using a new dataset with information on 145 of today's states from 1816 to the year they achieved nation-statehood, we test key aspects of modernization, world polity, and historical institutionalist theories. Event history analysis shows that a nation-state is more likely to emerge when a power shift allows nationalists to overthrow or absorb the established regime. Diffusion of the nation-state within an empire or among neighbors also tilts the balance of power in favor of nationalists. We find no evidence for the effects of industrialization, the advent of mass literacy, or increasingly direct rule, which are associated with the modernization theories of Gellner, Anderson, Tilly, and Hechter. Nor is the growing global hegemony of the nation-state model a good predictor of individual instances of nation-state formation, as Meyer's world polity theory would suggest. We conclude that the global rise of the nation-state is driven by proximate and contextual political factors situated at the local and regional levels, in line with historical institutionalist arguments, rather than by domestic or global structural forces that operate over the long duree. Keywords nationalism, nation-state, diffusion, historical institutionalism DOI: 10.1177/0003122410382639

We draw on conversation analytic methods and research to explicate the interactional phenomenon of requesting in general and the specific case of requesting participation in survey interviews. Recent work on survey participation gives much attention to leverage-saliency theory but does not explore how the key concepts of this theory are exhibited in the actual unfolding interaction of interviewers and potential respondents. We examine interaction using digitally recorded and transcribed calls to recruit participation in the 2004 Wisconsin Longitudinal Study. We describe how potential respondents present interactional environments that are relatively discouraging or encouraging, and how, in response, interviewers may be relatively cautious or presumptive in their requesting actions. We consider how interviewers' ability to tailor their behavior to their interactional environments can affect whether an introduction reaches the point at which a request to participate is made, the form that this request takes, and the sample person's response. This article contributes to understanding the social action of requesting and specifically how we might use insights from analyses of interaction to increase cooperation with requests to participate in surveys. Keywords requesting participation, survey non-response, conversation analysis, leverage-saliency theory, rational choice DOI: 10.1177/0003122410379582

Earnings inequality has grown in recent decades in the United States, yet research investigating the motherhood wage penalty has not fully considered how the penalty itself, and the mechanisms producing it, may vary among low-wage, middle-wage, and high-wage workers. Pooling data from the 1979 to 2004 waves of the NLSY and using simultaneous quantile regression methods with fixed effects, we test whether the size of the motherhood penalty differs across the distribution of white women's earnings, and whether the mechanisms explaining this penalty vary by earnings level. Results show that having children inflicts the largest penalty on low-wage women, proportionately, although a significant motherhood penalty persists at all earnings levels. We also find that the mechanisms creating the motherhood penalty vary by earnings level. Family resources, work effort, and compensating differentials account for a greater portion of the penalty among low earners. Among highly paid women, by contrast, the motherhood penalty is significantly smaller and largely explained by lost human capital due to childbearing. Our findings show that estimates of average motherhood penalties obscure the compounded disadvantage mothers face at the bottom of the earnings distribution, as well as differences in the type and strength of mechanisms that produce the penalty. Keywords motherhood penalty, earnings, women, employment DOI: 10.1177/0003122410381593

Male sex workers serve multiple groups (i.e., gay-identified men, heterosexually-identified men, and their own sexual partners), making them a unique source to test theories of gender, masculinity, and sexuality. To date, most scholarship on this topic has been qualitative. I assembled a dataset from the largest online male sex worker website to conduct the first quantitative analysis of male escorts in the United States. I find the geographic distribution of male sex workers is more strongly correlated with the general population than with the gay male population. In addition, I estimate the value of sexual behaviors and personal characteristics in this market to test sociological theories of gender and masculinity. Consistent with hegemonic masculinity, I find that male escorts who advertise masculine behavior charge higher prices for their services, whereas escorts who advertise less masculine behavior charge significantly less, a differential on the order of 17 percent. Results show that race and sexual behavior interactions exert a strong influence on prices charged by male sex workers, confirming aspects of intersectionality theory. Keywords prostitution, masculinity, market forces, homosexuality, male sex work DOI: 10.1177/0003122410379581

This article returns to a classic question of political economy: the zero-sum conflict between capital and labor over the division of the national income pie. A detailed description of labor's share of national income in 16 industrialized democracies from 1960 to 2005 uncovers two long-term trends: an increase in labor's share in the aftermath of World War II, followed by a decrease since the early 1980s. I argue that the working class's relative bargaining power explains the dynamics of labor's share, and I model inter- and intra-class bargaining power in the economic, political, and global spheres. Time-series cross-section equations predicting the short- and long-term determinants of labor's share support most of my theoretical arguments and the main findings are robust to alternative specifications. Results suggest that the common trend in the dynamics of labor's share of national income is largely explained by indicators for working-class organizational power in the economic (i.e., unionization and strike activity) and political (i.e., government civilian spending) spheres, working-class structural power in the global sphere (i.e., southern imports and foreign direct investments), and indirectly by an indicator for working-class integration in the intra-class sphere (i.e., bargaining centralization). Keywords income inequality, political economy, workers' bargaining power DOI: 10.1177/0003122410382640

Latin America is often used as a backdrop against which U.S. race relations are compared. Yet research on race in Latin America focuses almost exclusively on countries in the region with a large recognized presence of individuals of African descent such as Brazil. Racial categories in these countries are based on skin color distinctions along a black-white continuum. By contrast, the main socially recognized ethnic distinction in Indo-Latin American countries such as Mexico, between indigenous and non-indigenous residents, is not based primarily on phenotypical differences, but rather on cultural practices and language use. Many Mexicans today nevertheless express a preference for whiter skin and European features, even though no clear system of skin color categorization appears to exist. In this study, I use data from a nationally-representative panel survey of Mexican adults to examine the extent of skin-color-based social stratification in contemporary Mexico. Despite extreme ambiguity in skin color classification, I find considerable agreement among survey interviewers about who belongs to three skin color categories. The results also provide evidence of profound social stratification by skin color. Individuals with darker skin tone have significantly lower levels of educational attainment and occupational status, and they are more likely to live in poverty and less likely to be affluent, even after controlling for other individual characteristics. Keywords skin color, stratification, race in Latin America, Mexico DOI: 10.1177/0003122410378232

The rise in subprime lending and the ensuing wave of foreclosures was partly a result of market forces that have been well-identified in the literature, but it was also a highly racialized process. We argue that residential segregation created a unique niche of minority clients who were differentially marketed risky subprime loans that were in great demand for use in mortgage-backed securities that could be sold on secondary markets. We test this argument by regressing foreclosure actions in the top 100 U.S. metropolitan areas on measures of black, Hispanic, and Asian segregation while controlling for a variety of housing market conditions, including average creditworthiness, the extent of coverage under the Community Reinvestment Act, the degree of zoning regulation, and the overall rate of subprime lending. We find that black residential dissimilarity and spatial isolation are powerful predictors of foreclosures across U.S. metropolitan areas. To isolate subprime lending as the causal mechanism through which segregation influences foreclosures, we estimate a two-stage least squares model that confirms the causal effect of black segregation on the number and rate of foreclosures across metropolitan areas. We thus conclude that segregation was an important contributing cause of the foreclosure crisis, along with overbuilding, risky lending practices, lax regulation, and the bursting of the housing price bubble. Keywords segregation, foreclosures, race, discrimination DOI: 10.1177/0003122410380868

We examine several potential mechanisms linking religious involvement to depressive symptoms, major depression, and anxiety. Logistic and OLS regression estimations test five sets of potential psychosocial religion mediators: perceived attitudes toward and motivations for attendance; positive and negative religious coping; religious attitudes, beliefs, and spirituality; congregational support and criticism; and interpersonal and self-forgiveness. Compared to attending services less than once a month or never, attending services once a week but no more is associated with fewer depressive symptoms and anxiety symptoms. Hypothesized mediators, including meaning, interpersonal and self-forgiveness, congregational criticism, social attendance beliefs, and negative coping are independently associated with one or more mental health outcomes. Keywords religion, mental health, religious aspects, religion and health DOI: 10.1177/0022146510378237

Previous research has devoted significant attention to understanding the link between health and personal religious beliefs and practices, typically finding that more religious people tend to have better health. However, almost no attention has been given to how switching religious groups or leaving religion altogether is related to self-reported health. Due to selection and causation mechanisms, switching from high-cost groups that are theologically and culturally exclusive could be associated with poor health more than switching from other religious groups. Using data from the 1972 through 2006 General Social Surveys, we examine the relationship between health and religious switching as moderated by the religious tradition of origin. We find that people who are raised and stay in high-cost sectarian groups, such as the Latter-day Saints and Jehovah's Witnesses, have better self-reported health than those raised and staying in other religious traditions. However, people who leave such groups are more likely to report worse health than those who leave other groups. Keywords religion, reaffiliation, switching, denominations, health DOI: 10.117710022146510378236

The suicide rate among American adolescents between the ages of 14-25 has dramatically increased during the last 50 years, and this fact has been the focus of extensive social-scientific investigation. To date, however, research focusing on the joint effects of mental health, family, and contextual-level predictors on adolescents' suicidal behaviors is scarce. Drawing on Durkheim's classic macro-level approach to suicide and collective efficacy theory, we use data from the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods (PHDCN) to examine the effect of informal social controls on adolescents' suicide attempts. Analyzing reports from 990 youth, we examine the hypothesis that neighborhood-level collective efficacy and family-level integration and social control independently affect suicide attempts. We also examine the extent to which they interact in their effects on suicidal behavior. Overall, results from multilevel logit models support the Durkheimian expectation that family attachment reduces the probability that adolescents will attempt suicide. The effect of collective efficacy is interactive in nature. Specifically, we find that collective efficacy significantly enhances the protective effect of family attachment and support on adolescent suicidal behaviors. We discuss findings within the context of social control theory. Keywords: adolescents, suicide attempts, neighborhoods, social control DOI: 10.1177/0022146510377878

In this study, we take a dynamic approach to studying the connections among mothers' education, their depression, and their children's academic trajectories during elementary school. Applying latent growth curve modeling to longitudinal data from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development's Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (N = 1,012), we find that maternal depression does not mediate the association between mothers' education and children's achievement. Instead, maternal education moderates the association between maternal depression and children's achievement. Specifically, maternal depression only predicted lower achievement for children of women who did not pursue higher education. These results highlight the role of mothers' mental health in the intergenerational linkage between mothers' and children's educational experiences. Keywords maternal education, depression, children's achievement DOI: 10.1177/0022146510377757

Drawing on stress and life-course perspectives and using panel data from 1,286 south Florida young adults, we assess three critical questions regarding the role of marijuana in the 'gateway hypothesis' First, does teen marijuana use independently (causally) affect subsequent use of more dangerous substances? Second, if so, does that effect apply to the abuse of other illicit substances, as defined by the DSM-IV, or only to the use of such substances? Finally, does any causal effect of teen marijuana use survive beyond adolescence, or is it a short-term effect that subsides as adolescents transition to adulthood? Our results indicate a moderate relation between early teen marijuana use and young adult abuse of other illicit substances; however, this association fades from statistical significance with adjustments for stress and life-course variables. Likewise, our findings show that any causal influence of teen marijuana use on other illicit substance use is contingent upon employment status and is short-term, subsiding entirely by the age of 21. In light of these findings, we urge U.S. drug control policymakers to consider stress and life-course approaches in their pursuit of solutions to the 'drug problem.' Keywords gateway hypothesis, drug use and abuse, life-course, stress, social roles DOI: 10.1177/0022146510378238

Studies have shown that neighborhood conditions and experiences may individually or collectively impact health. Using 38 years of longitudinal data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID), we clarify the relationship between child and adult neighborhood quality and self-reported adult health, using sibling fixed effects models. Overall, we find support for positive long-term health effects, both for growing up in affluent neighborhoods and for growing up in neighborhoods where one is surrounded by comparative advantage. Relative to childhood neighborhood factors, adult neighborhoods have little to no effect in almost every model specification. We find mixed evidence, as well, that these relationships are stronger for nonwhites than for whites. Our findings suggest that childhood is a critical point for intervention in the long-term health effects of residential conditions. Keywords adult health, neighborhood effects, panel study of income dynamics, fixed effects models DOI: 10.1177/0022146510378241

Using two waves of the National Survey of Midlife Development in the United States, I compare changes in personal growth over a 10 year period among cancer survivors and individuals without cancer. Moreover, I examine joint effects of age and cohort on personal growth after a cancer diagnosis. The theoretical framework of this study integrates impairment, resilience, and thriving perspectives. Findings reveal that, although personal growth declines with age for all individuals regardless of cohort and cancer status, cancer slows the decline in personal growth with age in 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s birth cohorts, yet accelerates the age-related decline in the 1920s cohort. I argue that a sociological perspective can enhance our understanding of the interplay of developmental and sociocultural influences on psychological adjustment to cancer. Seemingly idiosyncratic psychological reactions to cancer partly reflect macrolevel processes represented by cohort differences. Keywords cancer, personal growth, age, cohort DOI: 10.1177/0022146510378239

A critical feature of the social stress model is the apparent relationship between stress and depression. Although many studies have demonstrated a connection between the two, the relationship may be contaminated by genes affecting both stress and depression. Using a sample of identical and fraternal twins, this study explores genetic influences on depression and assorted sources of stress while explicitly estimating, and thereby controlling for, gene-environment correlations. I consider both stress and depression in a fine-grained fashion. For the former, the study explores assorted sources of stress, including health and disability, family, unemployment, discrimination, and perceived neighborhood safety, as gene-environment correlations may be stronger for some forms of stress than others. For the latter, the study explores both depressive symptoms and major depressive disorders, as each may entail a different epidemiological process, especially with respect to genes. The results reveal that most, but not all, measures of stress have moderate heritabilities, suggesting that genes influence exposure to the environment in a broad fashion. Yet, despite this, the relationship between stress and depression is generally robust to gene-environment correlations. There are some notable exceptions. For example, allowing for gene--environment correlations, marital conflict is generally unrelated to depression. Moreover, gene--environment correlations are generally stronger for major depression than for depressive symptoms, encouraging further elaboration of the distinction between the onset of depression and its recurrence, especially in the context of genes. These exceptions do not put limits on environmental influence, but do suggest that genes operate in a complex life-course fashion. Keywords genes, depression, stress, behavioral generics DOI: 10.1177/0022146510378240

The passage of time is fundamentally experienced through people's interaction with their social worlds. Life-course scholars acknowledge the multiple aspects of time-based experience but have given little attention to age identity in a dynamic context. Drawing from a stress-process model, we expected that turbulence within people's family relations and health declines would produce increases in subjective age. Family role transitions were also examined as potential factors that would hasten subjective aging, but only to the extent that they produced stress. We used the Midlife Development in the United States study, a nationally representative longitudinal survey. Regression results show that turbulence within one's family accelerated age identity and that the effect of diminishing psychosocial resources explained this relationship. For the most part, however, changes within family roles did not affect age identity. On the other hand, the incidence of chronic health problems increased subjective ages, and this relationship too was mediated by the depletion of psychosocial resources. The findings demonstrate an interconnection between the stress process and age identity. Broadening our conception of time-based experience with attention to the stress process offers exciting directions for future theory and research in life course sociology. Keywords: age identity, stress, life course, subjective age, health, family, role transition DOI: 10.1177/0190272510379751

Interactional research on advice giving has described advice as normative and asymmetric. In this paper we examine how these dimensions of advice are softened by counselors on a helpline for children and young people through the use of questions. Through what we term 'advice-implicative interrogatives, 'counselors ask clients about the relevance or applicability of a possible future course of action. The allusion to this possible action by the counselor identifies it as normatively relevant, and displays the counselor's epistemic authority in relation to dealing with a client's problems. However, the interrogative format mitigates the normative and asymmetric dimensions typical of advice sequences by orienting to the client's epistemic authority in relation to their own lives, and delivering advice in a way that is contingent upon the client's accounts of their experiences, capacities, and understandings. The demonstration of the use of questions in advice sequences offers an interactional specification of the 'client-centered' support that is characteristic of prevailing counseling practice. More specifically, it shows how the values of empowerment and child-centered practice, which underpin services such as Kids Helpline, are embodied in specific interactional devices. Detailed descriptions of this interactional practice offer fresh insights into the use of interrogatives in counseling contexts, and provide practitioners with new ways of thinking about, and discussing, their current practices. Keywords: advice, counseling, conversation analysis, helpline, questions DOI: 10.1177/0190272510379838

Research on memory of public events consistently reveals generational effects, where individuals remember best the events from their 'critical years' of adolescence and early adulthood--a phenomenon attributed to privileged encoding or retrieval of memories due to primacy of experience. Prior research, however, has not decoupled the youthful period from transitional experiences more generally, raising the question of whether primacy generated by important transitions not tied to youth--such as emigration from one country to another--might also enhance memories. Survey data are used to examine effects of generation on collective memories of public events among a sample of mostly Jewish emigrants from the Soviet Union and its successor states. Evidence points to persistent generational effects, linking memory to adolescence and young adulthood specifically, rather than to primacy of transitional experiences in general. Perspectives that emphasize adolescents' agentic interpretation, construction of meaning, and decision-making suggest reasons for the link between memories and youth. Keywords: collective memory, immigration, Russia, generations, transitions DOI: 10.1177/0190272510377881

The gender gap in entrepreneurship has typically been understood through women's structural disadvantages in acquiring the resources relevant for successful business ownership. This study builds on resource-based approaches to investigate how cultural beliefs about gender influence the process by which individuals initially come to identify entrepreneurship as a viable labor-market option. Drawing on status characteristics theory, this study evaluates (1) how cultural beliefs about gender and entrepreneurship influence self-assessments of entrepreneurial ability, and (2) the extent to which such assessments account for the gender gap in business start-ups. Results suggest that women are significantly less likely to perceive themselves as able to be an entrepreneur and they hold themselves to a stricter standard of competence when compared to similarly situated men. This gender difference in self-assessments accounts for a significant portion of the gender gap in entrepreneurship after controlling for relevant resources. Additional analyses reveal that significant gender differences in self-assessed ability persist among established business owners. Keywords: gender, entrepreneurship, status characteristics theory, self-assessments of ability DOI: 10.1177/0190272510377882

This article explores the national factors that predict bishops' votes on two of the most contentious issues at the Second Vatican Council. Using data obtained from the Vatican Secret Archive, analyses demonstrate that rational choice oriented theory in the sociology of religion that focuses on competition is limited. While competition is important to religious leaders' actions, its effects can be understood only in relation to other crucial characteristics of the social environment within which leaders operate. These characteristics, which we derive from Neo-Institutional Theory (NIT), shape leaders' interests and often lead them to prioritize concerns about their institutions' legitimacy over the concerns about efficiency and growth rational choice theorists assume are predominant. Most NIT studies examine the population of firms within one organizational field. Because we hold firm constant and examine how variation in the type of organizational field (supplied by the more than 100 countries in our analyses) predicts firm leaders' actions, this study represents a unique test of NIT. Keywords Vatican II, Neo-Institutional Theory, Rational Choice Theory, voting behavior, religious change DOI: 10.1177/0003122410368927

Considering long-distance advocacy as a distinctive institution of European modernity, the article examines the genesis and history of networks engaged in political action on behalf of distant others. Ever since the beginnings of European expansion overseas in the sixteenth century, such networks have originated from a persistent pattern of radicalization of religious actors against rival networks within the context of empire. In the late eighteenth century, the very same processes led to the establishment of modern forms of long-distance advocacy, with the international movement against colonial slavery and the slave trade. Throughout, long-distance advocacy was initiated and carried out by distinctively reformist and activist religious organizations within Catholicism and Protestantism. These findings highlight the importance of religious organizations in the imperial context for the configuration of modern forms of political activism. Keywords empire, institutions, religion, social movements, transnational activism DOI: 10.1177/0003122410374083

Sociologists have long recognized that historical events, such as wars, depressions, and natural disasters, influence trajectories of people's lives and reproduce or alter social structures. This article extends that line of research. Using data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, I test three accounts regarding how combat exposure in war affects men's ability to work. The direct cumulative disadvantage account posits that war negatively affects servicemen who see combat, regardless of their pre-combat characteristics. The moderated cumulative disadvantage account suggests that combat most negatively affects men who had lower status before they fought. The turning point account suggests the reverse: combat most negatively affects men who had greater status before they fought. Findings suggest that with regard to disability and unemployment, the effects of combat exposure in war are most consistent with the direct cumulative disadvantage account. Keywords military service, social inequality, life course DOI: 10.1177/0003122410374085

This study estimates the effects of prenatal poverty on birth weight using changes in state Earned Income Tax Credits (EITC) as a natural experiment. We seek to answer two questions about poverty and child wellbeing. First, are there associations between prenatal poverty and lower birth weights even after factoring out unmeasured potential confounders? Because birth weight predicts a range of outcomes across the life course, lower birth weights that result from poverty may have lasting consequences for children's life chances. Second, how have recent expansions of a work-based welfare program (i.e., the EITC) affected maternal and infant health? In recent decades, U.S. poverty relief has become increasingly tied to earnings and labor markets, but the consequences for children's wellbeing remain controversial. We find that state EITCs increase birth weights and reduce maternal smoking. However, results related to AFDC/TANF and varying EITC effects across maternal ages raise cautionary messages. Keywords infant health, poverty, Earned Income Tax Credit DOI: 10.1177/0003122410374086

We examine the origins of voluntary associations devoted to environmental protection, focusing on the divergent trajectories of industrialized versus developing countries. We consider a wide range of domestic economic, political, and institutional dynamics that give rise to environmental associations. Developing and extending neo-institutional world polity arguments, we characterize domestic association in the developing world as the product of global cultural models, legitimation, and resources. Using event history and dynamic panel models, we analyze the formation of domestic environmental associations for a large sample of countries in the contemporary period. Among highly industrialized countries, domestic factors--resources and political institutions that afford favorable opportunities--largely explain the prevalence of environmental associations. In contrast, global forces are a powerful catalyst for environmental organizing in the developing world. The environmental movement, which had domestic origins in the West, became institutionalized in the world polity, generating new associations on a global scale. We also find positive effects of democratic institutions and philanthropic foundations. Environmental degradation and societal affluence are not primary drivers of environmental association. We conclude by reflecting on the implications of globally-sponsored voluntary associations, which appear to be common in the developing world. Keywords social movements, environment, neo-institutionalism, globalization, voluntary associations DOI: 10.1177/0003122410374084

Environmental justice scholars have suggested that because chemical plants and other hazardous facilities emit more pollutants where they face the least resistance, disadvantaged communities face a special health risk. In trying to determine whether race or income has the bigger impact on a neighborhood's exposure to pollution, however, scholars tend to overlook the facilities themselves and the effect of their characteristics on emissions. In particular, how do the characteristics of facilities and their surrounding communities jointly shape pollution outcomes? We propose a new line of environmental justice research that focuses on facilities and how their features combine with communities' features to create dangerous emissions. Using novel fuzzy-set analysis techniques and the EPA's newly developed Risk-Screening Environmental Indicators, we test the influence of facility and community factors on chemical plants' health-threatening emissions. Contrary to the idea that community characteristics have singular, linear effects, findings show that facility and community factors combine in a variety of ways to produce risky emissions. We speculate that as chemical firms experiment with different ways of producing goods and externalizing pollution costs, new 'recipes of risk' are likely to emerge. The question, then, will no longer be whether race or income matters most, but in which of these recipes do they matter and how. Keywords environmental justice, health disparities, corporate pollution, Risk-Screening Environmental Indicators, fuzzy-set analysis DOI: 10.1177/0003122410374822

Despite increases in the representation of African American and Hispanic youth in advanced math courses in high school over the past two decades, recent national reports indicate that substantial inequality in achievement remains. These inequalities can temper one's optimism about the degree to which the United States has made real progress toward educational equity. Using data from the Education Longitudinal Study of 2002 (ELS), the authors find that the math achievement gap is most pronounced among those students who take the most demanding high school math classes, such as precalculus and calculus. The authors explore the roles of family socioeconomic status and school composition in explaining this pattern. Findings suggest that among those students reaching the advanced math high school stratum, Hispanic youth from low-income families and African American youth from segregated schools fare the worst in terms of closing the achievement gap with their white peers. The authors discuss potential explanations for the achievement differences observed and stress the need for more research that focuses explicitly on the factors that inhibit minority/majority parity at the top of the secondary curricular structure. Keywords math, course-taking, race-ethnicity, segregation, social class DOI: 10.1177/0038040710375689

Drawing on a year and a half of ethnographic research in three New York City small high schools, this study examines the role of the school in managing school choice and asks what social processes are associated with principals' disparate approaches. Although district policy did not allow principals to select students based on their performance, two of the three schools in this study circumvented these rules to recruit and retain a population that would meet local accountability targets. This article brings together sensemaking and social network theories to offer a theoretical account of schools' management of choice in an era of accountability. In doing so, the author demonstrates that principals' sensemaking about the accountability and choice systems occurred within the interorganizational networks in which they were embedded and was strongly conditioned by their own professional biographies and worldviews. Principals' networks offered access to resources that could be activated to make sense of the accountability and choice systems. How principals perceived accountability and choice policies influenced whether they activated their social networks for assistance in strategically managing the choice process, as well as how they made sense of advice available to them through these networks. Once activated, principals' networks provided uneven access to instrumental and expressive resources. Taken together, these results suggest that schools respond to accountability and choice plans in varied ways that are not simply a function of their short-term incentives. Keywords school choice, accountability, principals, social networks DOI: 10.1177/0038040710375688

Promoting marriage, especially among low-income single mothers with children, is increasingly viewed as a promising public policy strategy for improving developmental outcomes for disadvantaged children. Previous research suggests, however, that children's academic achievement either does not improve or declines when single mothers marry. In this article, the authors argue that previous research may understate the benefits of mothers' marriages to children from single-parent families because (1) the short-term and long-term developmental consequences of marriage are not adequately distinguished and (2) child and family contexts in which marriage is likely to confer developmental advantages are not differentiated from those that do not. Using multiple waves of data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study--Kindergarten Cohort (ECLS-K), the authors find that single mothers' marriages are associated with modest but statistically significant improvements in their children's academic achievement trajectories. However, only children from more advantaged single-parent families benefit from their mothers' marriage. Keywords family structure, child development, academic achievement, public policy DOI: 10.1177/0038040710375686