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This study estimates the impact of women’s college education on their fertility-related outcomes by taking advantage of a natural experiment known as the graduation quota program that massively exp...

Using data from the 2017 Latinobarometer survey, we find that attending college in Latin America is associated with economic views situated to the left of the ideological spectrum in general/abstra...

In Short The price of a public college education has increased rapidly, in large part because of inadequate public funding. Promising free tuition would be a giveaway to the relatively wealthy. Str...

More than one third of college students in the US do not complete their college education. Through panel data methods and principal component regression analysis, this study examines the effect of ...

This paper explores police chiefs’ opinions about the utility of a college education for police officers. Arguments for and against requiring a college degree for local police officers have been di...

The overwhelming impression left by this thoughtful collection of essays is that Colleges now occupy a contested and unstable position in the educational landscape in many countries, sitting somewh...

While participation in occupying protest is publicly remarkable, its impact on participants’ approval of government, is empirically uncharted. Meanwhile, current research and theory have not been consistent about the impacts of protest participation specifically and civic engagement generally. As the impacts are particularly of concern to college education and democratization, the present study surveyed 527 college students in the Chinese metropolis of Hong Kong to clarify the impacts. Results reveal that both occupying protest participation and civic engagement increase since the participation tended to reduce approval of government substantially. Such reduction reflects competing commitment between government and protest and civic organizations. The results thus show that the participation and engagement represent challenges to government to meet participants’ concerns.

This study examined rural adolescents’ perceived parents’ and teachers’ values and beliefs and their college plans after high school. Data were drawn from 682 middle/high school students surveyed in northeast Vermont. We found that although there was no difference in the value adolescents placed on college education according to their parents’ level of education, plans to go to college were disproportionately less likely among adolescents whose parents did not have a college degree. Perceived parents’ and teachers’ values and beliefs, along with self-competence, were much lower for adolescents with non-college educated parents, which all lead to their lower intentions to go to college. However, these same sorts of perceptions were not related to college plans in the case of adolescents with college educated parents.

To examine the Rape Myth Acceptance (RMA) in undergraduate criminology and criminal justice (CCJ) sample, we surveyed 414 CCJ undergraduate students at a large northeastern public university. In th...

Alongside increasing tuition and fees, textbook costs remain an expensive hurdle for students seeking a college education; however, university libraries are implementing strategies to ease this fin...

Given the increasing prevalence of podcast listening, especially among young adults with college education, it is important to consider how student-produced podcasts can impact the student experien...

The Flint College of the University of Michigan opened in 1956. In the home of General Motors, many residents saw little need for a college education when good jobs in the auto industry were readil...

Encouragement—or expressions of support designed to instill perseverance and hope in the face of challenging circumstances—is an important concept in the strengths perspective and a central feature of social work practice. Encouragement may be a particularly significant factor for Muslims living in post-9/11 America. Yet, little research has examined this topic despite its relevance. To address this gap in the literature, this cross-sectional study employed a community sample of Muslims (N = 274) to identify which Muslims are disproportionately likely to report receiving expressions of support from other people. The results of the logistic regression indicated that Muslims who were single, Middle Eastern, non-Sunni, and frequent Mosque attenders, were more likely to receive expressions of support compared to those who were married, European American, Sunni, and less frequent Mosque attenders. Conversely, Muslims without a 4-year college education and born aboard were less likely to receive express...

In this study, the researcher aimed to understand how students learned the targeted knowledge with an interactive response system (IRS) tool, and whether learners in two different learning modes: i...

Over the last several decades, U.S. women’s rates of college attendance and completion, which used to be lower than men’s, have grown to exceed men’s rates by a considerable margin. Following work by Goldin, Katz, and Kuziemko (2006), this paper focuses on the role of teenagers’ anticipated labor force participation in explaining the upward trend in women's college-going. A simple formal model implies that individuals with more anticipated lifetime hours of work are more likely to invest in college education. My analysis using data from three National Longitudinal Surveys supports the theoretical implication. This finding, combined with the trend towards higher work expectations of young women across birth cohorts, may account in part for the upward trends in women's college attendance and completion.

In an era of continued public questioning of the value of a college degree, given rising costs and concerns about employment preparation, Christian higher education is marketed both as a wise inves...

Using data from the 2010 Survey on Chinese Women's Social Status, this contribution estimates the effect of paid maternity leave on breastfeeding duration in urban China during the 1988–2008 period. The analysis applies a policy-based identification strategy to control for the endogenous relationship between paid leave entitlements and breastfeeding decisions. Estimates show that paid maternity leave has a strong positive effect on breastfeeding duration. Specifically, if the length of paid leave increases by thirty days, then the probability of breastfeeding for at least six months increases by 12 percentage points. Between 1988 and 2008, the average length of paid leave for mothers without a college education decreased by twenty-three days, which reduced these mothers’ probability of breastfeeding for at least six months by 9 percentage points. These results support the view that paid maternity leave enhances the ability of employed women to sustain breastfeeding and call for universal paid leav...

A sense of belonging is an integral aspect of success in a long-term, group-oriented endeavor such as the pursuit of a college education. When students feel their presence at college is fraudulent,...

The number of individuals currently living in a country other than the one in which they were born peaked at more than 244 million in 2015. This makes the global society a culturally and racially d...

A university and college education is focused on learning, isn't it? Looking at the credentials we offer—our degrees, diplomas, and transcripts—the answer is not so clear.Students at a university o...

This study sought to generate a more robust understanding of teacher (in)authenticity. In other contexts, authenticity is regarded as a display of true self and has been positively linked to beneficial psychological (e.g., increased self-esteem) and social outcomes (e.g., higher relational satisfaction). However, what it means to be authentic in relational contexts may be very different from what it means to be authentic in teaching. Indeed, the concept of authentic teaching has been discussed by many, but has yet to be examined from a social science perspective. Using a grounded theory approach, this study sought to determine student perceptions of both authentic and inauthentic teacher behavior and communication. Open-ended data from 297 college students indicate that there are distinct behaviors employed by (in)authentic teachers. Results indicated that authentic teaching is perceived when teachers are viewed as approachable, passionate, attentive, capable, and knowledgeable. Alternatively inau...

Examining both the GI Bill and the origins of desegregation of traditionally segregated institutions of higher learning in the South, this historical essay argues that these 2 separate historic markers should not be considered independently. Indeed, to understand the full scope of the GI Bill, we must consider the limited options that Black veterans had when it came to college admissions. Conversely, when considering the desegregation of historically segregated southern colleges and universities, we must also evaluate the strong will many Black veterans expressed in their desire to redeem the federal government's promise for a college education. Building off the body of critical scholarship published on the GI Bill, this article closely examines the enrollment and experience of the first 2 Black veterans to attend the University of Florida (UF), contextualizing the experiences of these veterans with that of other African Americans seeking to gain acceptance to historically segregated public universities i...

People in prison participating in college education are least likely to recidivate and most likely to be employed after incarceration. Almost no research exists on the collateral – negative and often unanticipated – consequences of a criminal conviction on access to college upon community re-entry. We review these few studies, the existing research on college in prison – with special attention to women’s needs; some new ‘hybrid’ programs with 2 years of college in prison plus 2 years in the community; and the rare studies that interview people applying to college upon re-entry. Their struggles can be overwhelming and require more research and activism.

This study examines the level of punitiveness of criminology and criminal justice (CRIM) majors and non-majors. In particular, undergraduate students from a mid-western university situated in a rural area were surveyed to determine if college education, major, or exposure to CRIM classes impacts their punitive attitudes towards offenders. Regression analyses suggest that it is not the number of CRIM classes or the liberalization effect of college but the major that best predicts the level of punitiveness. Results also indicate that predictors of punitiveness differ between CRIM majors and non-CRIM majors. Implications of these findings are discussed.

We sought to understand the experiences of patients with lung cancer and to see if attitudes varied by demographic factors.We administered a 63-question survey by phone or online among 174 patients with lung cancer. Factor analysis was used to identify two groups of questions with a conceptual relationship and high Cronbach's alphas, stigma and satisfaction with care. We used a multivariable analysis to identify predictors of self-blame and the factors of stigma and satisfaction with care.Patients were satisfied with the quality of their care and treatment choices but did not feel that there is enough public support for or research in lung cancer. Predictors of lower satisfaction with care were never being a smoker, lack of college education, not living in a rural location, refusing to report income, and not knowing/not being sure of stage. Self-blame was modest; in multivariable analysis, predictors of self-blame were believing that smoking was a cause of their lung cancer, younger age, male sex, living in a suburban location, and not knowing/not being sure of the stage of the cancer. Reported stigma was low and the only predictor for stigma was being married. Despite low scores on their personal experience of stigma, patients reported a high degree of stigmatization of lung cancer in general. Smoking was a significant predictor of personal stigma.Despite satisfaction with their treatment and care, lung cancer patients feel that society stigmatizes them as a general population. Patients who smoke are more likely to report that they have personally experienced stigma.

This study analyzes the dynamics of the rate of the return to college share on wage rates, by controlling for the effects of individual schooling. Using an endogenous selection model enables controlling the labor idiosyncratic matching structure and unobserved characteristics of people and cities. A 1% increase in college share in the workforce raised the wages by approximately 0.7% for the less educated groups, and approximately 0.5% for the college-educated group. The dynamics of externalities from the share of college graduates rose from approximately 0.3% in 1998 to approximately 0.8% in 2002, and then decreased gradually to approximately 0.5%. The estimation results also show that the expanding higher education benefits female more than male.

Using the Current Population Survey (CPS) March Supplement data between 1989 and 2011, the article examines the impacts of college education on the likelihood of self-employment and on entrepreneurs' annual income in the United States. The primary results suggest that individuals with college education are more likely to have their own businesses than those without; entrepreneurs with college education receive a significantly higher annual income than those without. Specifically, college education is more effective in promoting Black and Hispanic entrepreneurs than other ethnic groups. Women with a college degree are more inclined to be self-employed and earn more than those without college education. However, the influences of college education are stronger for men than for women on self-employment and annual income.

The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of education on rape myth acceptance, alcohol expectancies, and bystander attitudes. A sample of 126 community members and college students who had consumed alcohol within the past 90 days were administered surveys. College experience was unrelated to rape myth acceptance, alcohol expectancies, and bystander intentions. In line with previous research, two rape myth subscales were inversely related to bystander attitudes. In regard to alcohol expectancies and bystander attitudes, only one subscale was marginally significant. Ancillary analysis indicated that rape myth acceptance varied as a function of age, with older individuals less likely to support rape myths.

Earning a college degree has never been more important. People with a college education have on average substantially higher earnings, pay more taxes, live healthier lives, and have more stable mar...

College experiences can expand knowledge, decrease negative stereotypes, and increase acceptance toward diversity, especially regarding gay and lesbian issues. This study found that the more interaction undergraduate students have with gay and lesbian people on campus, the more accepting their attitudes are regarding (1) same-sex, consensual sex, (2) same-sex relations between adults is not unnatural, (3) vote for a gay presidential candidate, (4) friends with a feminine man, (5) friends with a masculine woman, (6) knowledge of GL issues important for future career, and (7) comfortable with GL roommate. Furthermore, the more undergraduate students are exposed to coursework addressing gay and lesbian issues, the more positive their attitudes are regarding the importance of knowledge of gay/lesbian issues for future career and comfort with a gay/lesbian roommate. Discussion explores possible long-term implications of systematic interaction experiences and coursework at all levels within the educational system to prevent negative attitude formation.

In this article, we exploit the recent higher education expansion in China to apply a regression discontinuity method to identify the causal effects of higher education on health and health behaviours. We do not find causal effect of a college education on better smoking and drinking behaviours. For our selected measures of health, we do not find causal effect of a college education on better self-assessed health, less chance of having illness in the past 3 months and keeping normal body weight; however, we find that a college education could significantly reduce the probability of having hypertension.

Among the many documented benefits of a college education is a higher level of self-reported happiness. The present work considers instead the level of demonstrated happiness and unhappiness within groups, the latter proxied by the conditional probability of suicide within groups having a college education and those without. Those with college are not happier for it, in these terms, and actually have slightly higher rates of suicide than those without college, based on a recent US data.

Existing police research has produced mixed results regarding the benefits of college education on the outlooks of officers. In addressing many of the well-documented methodological concerns of prior research, the current study augments the existing police education-occupational attitudes literature by examining the impact of varying levels of education (i.e. high school, some college, and bachelor’s degree and higher) on officers’ job satisfaction, views of top management, and role orientation(s). In addition, among those with a bachelor’s degree, the relevance of degree major on officers’ occupational outlooks is assessed. Our results address and inform advocacy efforts to make college education a bona fide occupational qualification.

Critical thinking is an important outcome of a college education. Assessment techniques that require students to demonstrate their understanding of course concepts are referred to as authentic assessment and promote the development of critical thinking. Little research exists on the types of assessment and grading practices utilized by community college instructors. This research examined the incidence and nature of various assessment practices used by community college faculty for basing the course grade. In addition, the study also examined the percentage of course grades that was based on traditional and authentic assessment and factors that may influence the use of assessment techniques. To facilitate the study, an online survey instrument was used to obtain data from faculty employed at two community colleges in California. Study results revealed that a variety of assessment practices are used by community college instructors with differences in relation to faculty status, level of academic achieveme...

The present study aimed to compare body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC), and waist-to-height ratio (WHr) in college students of different shifts and semesters. To do so, 208 college students (96 women and 112 men) had their body mass, stature, and WC measured in order to calculate BMI and WHr. The volunteers also answered a questionnaire related to which shift of study and semester they attended. The students who studied at night, when compared to the ones that attended day classes, showed higher BMI, WC, and WHr. Students at the end of college had higher BMI and WHr when compared to students beginning college and had higher WC than those in beginning and in the middle of college. The present study's results suggest that students studying in night shift and closer to finishing college present higher BMI, WC, and WHr when compared with those studying during day time and in the initial semesters of college. Possible factors that support our findings involve the decrease in physical activity due t...

States have responded in a variety of ways to undocumented immigration and its implications for higher education. Some states have allowed undocumented students to seek an affordable college education while others have created barriers. This article highlights the piecemeal legislation that the states have passed in order to respond to the needs of undocumented students; namely, policies allowing undocumented students in-state resident tuition. It also considers the policy impacts on undocumented students and the institutions and faculty that serve them.

Using the Survey of Consumer Finances of 2001 and 2004, this article provides a nonlinear decomposition analysis to find the relative importance of household risk preference characteristics after allowing adjustment for distribution of other household characteristics. We find significant contributions of net worth, college education, inherited wealth, managerial and low unemployment risk occupation in explaining the differences in probability of stockholding among the least and higher risk-averse households. The results show the impact of internet bubble and recession in post-9/11 environment on risk preference groups in terms of their stockholding behaviour.

This article examines gender gaps in academic performance (grades in mathematics and reading) between boys and girls of ninth-grade elementary schools in the Czech Republic. Our analysis is based on 2003 data from the Programme for International Student Assessment, encompassing the academic performance and family background of ninth-grade pupils. Similar to research on other countries, we find that girls strongly outperform boys in grades in Czech language, but that this gender gap is not explained by measured ability in reading nor on family background or student attributes. We also find gender bias in mathematics grades, after controlling for measured ability and other factors. Girls are also substantially more likely than boys to apply to secondary grammar schools, as well as aspire to a college education, even after controlling for measured ability. We put forward a number of theoretical perspectives that shed light on the possible causes of these empirical findings.

A sample of 128 undergraduate women reported stronger identification with college education than with motherhood. In contrast, an implicit association test revealed a slightly stronger identification with motherhood than with college education. Implicit attitudes toward college education and motherhood correlated with implicit (but not explicit) identification, whereas explicit attitudes correlated with explicit identification and, to a lesser extent, implicit identification. Internal (but not external) motivation to define the self as academically oriented predicted both explicit and implicit identifications. Results regarding the role of childhood and current experiences with gender roles were inconclusive. As a whole, these findings contribute to a better understanding of the potential for conflicts in the self-concept of college women.

Credit-based transition programs provide high school students with opportunities to jump start their college education. The Kentucky Community and Technical College System (KCTCS) offers college credit through dual-credit programs. While KCTCS dual-credit offerings have been successful in helping high school students start their college education before high school graduation, these offerings need to move from enrollment mechanisms to recruitment tools. This manuscript provides areas where more can be done to improve dual-credit offerings and make the change from enrollment tool to recruitment and completion tools.

This article explores the extent to which the impact of family background and gender on one's access to college education changed after the 1999 college expansion policy in China. The analysis is based on data from the Chinese General Social Survey (CGSS) collected between 2005 and 2008. The results show that, although the expansion has been an equalizing force in that it allows more youths of different characteristics to attain college education than in prereform regime, intergenerational inequality persisted. Youth from more socioeconomically advantaged families maintain their edge by obtaining more and higher quality education than others. The influence of family background, as indicated by fathers' education, becomes stronger on youths' access to academic colleges after the college expansion policy. The gender gap in college attendance disappears and even reverses itself. However, the female advantage is greater in attending the short-cycle program colleges than in academic colleges.

This study determined the measurement equivalence of the South African Psychological Ownership Questionnaire (SAPOS) for black and white South African employees. Participants were a non-probability sample of 645 professional level employees from both the private and the public sector (59.4% were females, 35.2% were black and 52% were over the age of 40. Over 90% of the participants have college education qualifications and nearly 41.7% had been working in their current organisations for a period of less than 5 years). Confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modelling were used to analyse the data. The results indicated that factor variances appeared to be equal for the two groups although differences existed in factor loadings and covariances.

Using data on Swedish university entrants, this study finds that earnings are significantly lower for students who change universities compared to students who do not change. Earnings differences decrease over time and over the earnings distribution. The pattern in the estimates seems consistent with non-transfer students having higher earnings because of their earlier labor market entry and transfer students catching up because of their additional human-capital investments. But by changing universities, individuals signal that they are more likely to jump between jobs, and some employers account for these factors when screening job applicants.

This article investigates a positive college education externality in South Korea. Using a simple Cobb–Douglas-type Constant Returns to Scale (CRS) production function with South Korean educational data, we find that there are positive spillover effects from tertiary education in South Korea. According to our model prediction, new college graduates increase the income per worker without college education by approximately US$1000 in 2008.

This study pools data from two sources to investigate the role of educational attainment in determining the gender wage gap. The empirical analysis reveals that the returns to education remained largely unchanged for young men but declined significantly for young women over the period 1984–2007. We find significant evidence of a decline in the returns to a Bachelor's degree for young women as well as evidence of increasing wage inequality over time among young men and women with a Bachelor's degree. Also, in 2007, the gender wage gap between young men and women was largest for those with a Bachelor's degree. Further, our analysis suggests that young women with a college education may confront more discrimination in the labor market than young women without a college education. We conclude that promoting educational attainment among young women may be a necessary but not sufficient condition for addressing the gender wage gap.

In a recent New York Times editorial (1/20/12, Summers), the author wished for transformation of college education in a way that would reflect the structure of society and what we now understand ab...

Even though the gap between prospects for high school and college graduates has remained wide, young people are not rushing to attend college. Indeed, many economists believe widespread college education is the main avenue to future economic growth. These two analysts find that the pay-off of college does not accrue to all as is widely thought. And they propose that we channel policies to make college more financially worthwhile.

Two-year colleges in Japan have traditionally absorbed the major portion of female college entrants due to long-held gender stereotypes. Recently, Japanese women began to explore selfhood outside the traditional realm of marriage and motherhood. However, two-year colleges in Japan today continue to enroll mostly female students and few male students. Moreover, the general public continues to regard two-year colleges as a place for young women to prepare themselves for marriage and motherhood. The purpose of the study was to investigate whether traditional gender stereotypes continue to influence the decision of Japanese females pursuing a two-year college education. A sample of 214 Japanese female students enrolled in a two-year college participated in the study. The survey questionnaire was developed to examine factors perceived as influential by Japanese women on their decision to choose a two-year college. The questionnaire items were adopted based on a review of literature pertinent to gender roles an...

In Taiwan, substantial resources have been invested in upper-secondary vocational education for Aborigines as a solution to their lack of career development opportunities. This study examined the schooling experiences and career aspirations of Taiwanese indigenous vocational high school students. A case study was designed to collect data through in-depth, semi-structured interviews with 24 aboriginal students in twelfth grade at a Major Indigenous Vocational High School (MIVHS). The findings indicated that aboriginal students experienced mainstream-centric schooling that focused on preparing students for college education with additional support. The schooling contributed to their solid educational aspirations to attend non-prestigious technological colleges and vague occupational aspirations with low occupational self-efficacy. It also enforced their strong cultural aspirations of living in their homelands and benefiting their people. The findings suggest that the MIVHS could provide the culturally respo...

Support was found for a hierarchical model of argumentativeness theory (N = 1541) in which the second-order factors of motivation to argue and verbal aggressiveness exert top-down influence on subsidiary motives and attitudes. Emotional involvement with arguing and emotional involvement with verbal aggressing were added to clarify the originating theory and to improve model fit. The argumentativeness scale was heterogeneous, consisting of distinct ability and motivation to argue factors. Ability to argue had a direct negative effect and an indirect positive effect on verbal aggressiveness, with this positive effect mediated by motivation to argue. The positive effect of motivation to argue on verbal aggressiveness was moderated by college education, suggesting that students acquire a debate schema during their first semesters of college that enables them to better control their arguments, preventing escalation into verbal aggression. The methodological and theoretical implications of the results are discu...