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Teaching for the first time can be a challenging but rewarding experience. For first-time graduate student instructors, however, it also officially marks the transition from student to teacher--a process that can be both transformational and emotion-laden. In this article, we use content analysis of 86 first-time sociology graduate student instructors' reflections on their first semester teaching to explore the emotional aspects of first-time college teaching, an aspect that has received little attention in the existing literature. We describe the range of emotions--both positive and negative--first-time instructors highlighted in these written reflections, as well as their discussions of emotional highs and lows, emotional surprises, connections to pedagogical strategies, and the role of formal and informal departmental support in dealing with the emotional aspects of teaching. We conclude with the implications of these findings for graduate student teacher training and preparation programs and directions for future research.

Dating rituals include dating--courtship methods that are regularly enacted. This study explores gender and race differences in the relative importance placed on certain symbolic activities previously identified by the dating literature as constituting such rituals. Using information collected from a racially diverse sample of college students (N = 680), it is found that some traditional gender differences persist, but that these are also cross-cut by racial contrasts. Men, overall, place more emphasis on gifting, as well as sexual activity. Gender differences, however, are significantly greater among African Americans as compared with Whites in the sample studied. African American respondents are also significantly more likely than White respondents to associate meeting the family with a more serious dating relationship. The findings highlight the need for greater efforts to uncover and account for racial differences in dating, relationships, and courtship. (Contains 5 tables and 11 notes.)

This article assesses the health implications of emerging patterns in the organization of work time. Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979, we examine general mental and physical health (SF-12 scores), psychological distress (CESD score), clinical levels of obesity, and the presence of medical conditions, at age 40. Overall, we find that health varies more across work hours than across types of shifts, and part-time workers report worse physical and emotional health than full-time workers. However, controlling for individual, family and job characteristics explains the poorer health observed among part-time workers. Those who are satisfied with their jobs, have more education, or have an employed spouse, report better health, while women and those with a prior health limitation report worse health. After taking these factors into account, we find a curvilinear relationship between work hours and health, with those working between 40 and 59 hours per week reporting worse mental and physical health than those working 40 hours per week. We also find that obesity differs from current health problems in its relationship to work time. Those who work part-time or fixed-hour schedules are less likely to be obese, suggesting that long-term health risks operating through obesity, such as cardiovascular disease and diabetes, are affected by time availability. (Contains 4 tables and 11 notes.)

Women, particularly those in coresidential unions, have previously been found to spend less time commuting to work than men. This gender gap among couples’ commuting has been linked to inferior labor market opportunities for women. How gender differences in commuting emerge on entering coresidence is underresearched, however. This study examines changes in commuting times at the transition from singlehood to coresidential unions using the British Household Panel Survey (1992-2008; N = 8,122 individuals). Results from fixed effects regression indicate that men increase their commuting time when entering coresidential unions. For childless women, entering coresidential unions is not associated with changes in commuting time. Mothers reduce their commuting time on entering coresidential unions. Changes in labor income and domestic housework responsibilities, previously suggested as likely explanations, are not found to contribute to observed changes in commuting among those entering coresidential unions in this study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A growing literature examines the organizational factors that promote women’s access to positions of organizational power. Fewer studies, however, explore the implications of women in leadership positions for the opportunities and experiences of subordinates. Do women leaders serve to undo the gendered organization? In other words, is women’s greater representation in leadership positions associated with less gender segregation at lower organizational levels? We explore this question by drawing on Cohen and Huffman’s (2007) conceptual framework of women leaders as either “change agents” or “cogs in the machine” and analyze a unique multilevel data set of workplaces nested within Fortune 1000 firms. Our findings generally support the “agents of change” perspective. Women’s representation among corporate boards of directors, corporate executives, and workplace managers is associated with less workplace gender segregation. Hence, it appears that women’s access to organizational power helps to undo the gendered organization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dating rituals include dating-courtship methods that are regularly enacted. We explored gender and race differences in the relative importance placed on certain symbolic activities previously identified by the dating literature as constituting such rituals. Using information collected from a racially diverse sample of college students (N = 680), we find that some traditional gender differences persist, but that these are also cross-cut by racial contrasts. Men, overall, place more emphasis on gifting, as well as sexual activity. Gender differences, however, are significantly greater among African Americans as compared to Whites in our sample. African American respondents are also significantly more likely than White respondents to associate meeting the family with a more serious dating relationship. Our findings highlight the need for greater efforts to uncover and account for racial differences in dating, relationships, and courtship.