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Population aging and widening disparities in healthy aging have increased attention to the social determinants of health and healthy aging. Unfortunately, our emphasis on the social determinants of health in adulthood has lacked the same intergenerational lens that is prominent in research focused earlier in the life course. Our research finds that having a college-educated adult child benefits parents’ health and well-being, particularly for disadvantaged parents. Although parental characteristics like education and family ties help to explain some of this effect, our and emerging work suggests that parents’ and children’s lives are inextricably linked, even after children have reached adulthood.

Previous research on family structure and child development has largely focused on the disadvantages faced by children who transitioned out of married families. However, we know less about how family structure affects child outcomes for children starting out in single-mother families. In this article, we use the kindergarten cohort of the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study to analyse children’s academic outcomes between kindergarten and eighth grade. We found that living in single-mother or step-families was clearly associated with lower test scores for children starting kindergarten in married biological-parent families, but the same disadvantages associated with living outside a married biological-parent family structure were not found for children starting kindergarten in single-mother families. We also found preliminary evidence of a buffering effect of maternal education in the relationship between family structure and children’s academic outcomes.

This article builds upon a multilevel theory of trust to explore the relationship between general trust in health care systems and general trust in physicians and the social-contextual factors that shape this relationship. We develop a model of trust in physicians emphasizing the embeddedness of individuals in broader social-institutional contexts. We analyze data from 30 countries in the 2011 International Social Survey Program ( N = 38,068) and specify hierarchical linear models with macro-micro level interactions. At the individual level, we find that individuals who trust the health care system are more likely to trust physicians in general. At the country level, we find that respondents from countries with predominately publicly financed health care systems are more likely to trust physicians than their counterparts in countries with less public funding of the health care system. Finally, we find that the greatest predicted probability of trust in physicians is found among individuals who trust their publicly funded health care system and the lowest probability is among individuals who have no confidence in their privately funded health care system. Based on these findings, we call for greater attention to the interaction of micro- and macro-level factors in models of trust in physicians cross-nationally.

Does exposure to income inequality in adolescence relate to well-being in adulthood? In Studies 1 and 2 ( N = 888), individuals who grew up in U.S. counties with higher income inequality expected g...

ObjectivesIntergenerational models of adult health contend that children’s educational attainments influence the health and well-being of their parents. However, it is unclear how much of this association is confounded by background characteristics that predict both children’s educational attainments and parents’ subsequent health, particularly in the United States.MethodsData from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health Parent Study are used to examine how having no children who completed college influences parents’ self-rated health and depressive symptoms. We rely on propensity score methods to more squarely assess this relationship net of potential confounding bias and to test for heterogeneity in the consequences associated with having no children who completed college.ResultsHaving no children who completed college is negatively associated with parents’ self-rated health and positively associated with depressive symptoms. After statistically balancing differences in background characteristics between groups, these associations remain, though the magnitude of the coefficients is attenuated. Supplemental matching analyses suggest that while the association between children’s education and self-rated health might be spurious, the association with depressive symptoms is more robust. Additionally, among parents with the highest propensity for having no children who complete college, the consequences on depressive symptoms are greatest.DiscussionThis study pays particular attention to selection-related concerns surrounding the association between offspring educational attainment and parent well-being in the United States. These findings are important given the call for investments in children’s educational opportunities as promoting both the well-being of adult children and their parents.

The present paper examines claims of a growing cultural divide in the United States. We analyze social change in beliefs about gender over a period of 36 years (from 1974 to 2010) in the United States using data from the nationally representative General Social Survey (GSS). We find evidence of growing gender egalitarianism until the mid-1990s, with a reversal between 1996 and 2000, and a decline in state differences in beliefs about gender over time in our decomposition analysis and multilevel models. Although we find significant differences in gender beliefs among states in the 1970s based on their voting record on the Equal Rights Amendment and based on patterns of family formation and family life associated with the Second Demographic Transition, these differences among states decreased or disappeared entirely by the early years of the twenty-first century. We highlight the implications of our findings for the ongoing public and academic debate surrounding growing cultural differences among states.

Income inequality among U.S. families with children has increased over recent decades, coinciding with a period of significant reforms in federal welfare policy. In the most recent reform eras, welfare benefits were significantly restructured and redistributed, which may have important implications for income inequality. Using data from the 1968–2016 March Supplement to the Current Population Survey (N = 1,192,244 families with children) merged with data from the historical Supplemental Poverty Measure, this study investigated how income inequality and, relatedly, the redistributive effects of welfare income and in-kind benefits changed, and whether such changes varied across states with different approaches to welfare policy. Results suggest that cash income from welfare became less effective at reducing income inequality after the 1996 welfare reform, because the share of income coming from cash welfare fell and was also less concentrated among the neediest families. At the same time, tax and in-kind benefits reduced inequality until the Great Recession. Consistent with the “race to the bottom” hypothesis, results suggest that the redistributive effects of welfare income dropped in all states regardless of their approach to welfare policy.

The present paper examines claims of a growing cultural divide in the United States. We analyze social change in beliefs about gender over a period of 36years (from 1974 to 2010) in the United States using data from the nationally representative General Social Survey (GSS). We find evidence of growing gender egalitarianism until the mid-1990s, with a reversal between 1996 and 2000, and a decline in state differences in beliefs about gender over time in our decomposition analysis and multilevel models. Although we find significant differences in gender beliefs among states in the 1970s based on their voting record on the Equal Rights Amendment and based on patterns of family formation and family life associated with the Second Demographic Transition, these differences among states decreased or disappeared entirely by the early years of the twenty-first century. We highlight the implications of our findings for the ongoing public and academic debate surrounding growing cultural differences among states.

Employment rates for black men have declined sharply over the last half century. We use data from the 1962–2009 March Current Population Surveys and linear decomposition techniques to examine the mechanisms generating change in employment rates for white and black men with different levels of education. We find that not only did the overall magnitude of change in employment differ by race and education, but so too did the mechanisms generating change. Black men with less than a college degree experienced sharper declines in employment than did white men and more educated black men. Cohort replacement processes played a more prominent role in employment declines for less educated black men than for other men, who were affected more strongly by intracohort change mechanisms. Stronger cohort replacement effects for less educated black men concentrated joblessness to an unparalleled extent among younger black men with the least formal schooling. Declining employment since the 1960s for this group of men was not primarily the result of economic downturns or layoffs later in life, but rather resulted from the inability of more recent cohorts to secure stable employment. Comparisons of the employment experiences of less educated black men in the metropolises experiencing the most deindustrialization to those of men in other areas reveal that these men experienced greater employment declines not only because more recent cohorts had greater difficulty securing stable employment in early adulthood but also because, within cohorts, they experienced additional job losses associated with aging and changes in the economy.

We use data from the 2002 International Social Survey Programme, with roughly 42,000 individuals nested within 29 countries, to examine the determinants of happiness in a comparative perspective. We hypothesize that social democratic welfare states redistribute happiness among policy-targeted demographic groups in these countries. The redistributive properties of the social democratic welfare states generate an alternate form of “happiness inequality” in which winners and losers are defined by marital status, presence of children and income. We apply multilevel modeling and focus on public social expenditures (as percentage of GDP) as proxy measures of state intervention at the macro-level, and happiness as the specific measure of welfare outcome at the micro-level. We find that aggregate happiness is not greater in the social democratic welfare states, but happiness closely reflects the redistribution of resources in these countries. Happiness is redistributed from low-risk to high-risk individuals. For example, women with small children are significantly happier, but single persons are significantly less happy in the welfare states. This suggests that pro-family ideology of the social democratic welfare states protects families from social risk and improves their well-being at the cost of single persons. Further, we find that the happiness gap between high versus low-income earners is considerably smaller in the social democratic welfare states, suggesting that happiness is redistributed from the privileged to the less privileged.

The authors investigated how the reported happiness of married and cohabiting individuals varies cross-nationally with societal gender beliefs and religious context. They used the 2002 International Social Survey Programme data from 27 countries (N = 36, 889) and specified hierarchical linear models with macro - micro level interactions in order to examine how the social - institutional context affects happiness at the individual level. Consistent with previous research, they found a happiness gap between married and cohabiting persons. In the case of women, this gap was moderated by the gender climate and the religious context in the country. This suggests that, at least for women, this gap is not intractable but is rather an outcome of the social context. For men, the relationship between marital status and happiness was less variable across the different social contexts studied.Key Words: cohabitation, family diversity, family structure, happiness, non-U.S. families, well-being.Earlier research on family and marriage has consistently found that marriage improves both physical and subjective well-being. Marriage, it is argued, provides economic and social stability, which is associated with better health and greater happiness than experienced by unmarried persons (Waite & Gallagher, 2000). Although the empirical evidence is seemingly insurmountable, some scholars have questioned whether it is marriage per se or simply the act of union formation that is associated with happiness (Soons & Kalmijn, 2009). Cohabitation has the potential to improve the quality of life for many persons, especially for women, because it is not subject to the same gendered roles and expectations that may be associated with marriage. This stream of inquiry led to empirical research that has examined how happiness varies by marital status, with a particular focus on the happiness gap between married and cohabiting persons. Much of the evidence thus far upholds the benefits of marriage, with married persons reportedly experiencing greater happiness than cohabiting persons (e.g., Stack &Eshleman, 1998).In this research, we hypothesized that the happiness gap between married and cohabiting persons is not universal across countries but instead depends on the social - institutional context of the countries involved. Our primary areas of interest concerned the institutions of family and religion. How is the happiness gap affected by gender roles and gender norms at the country level? How do the predictions of past research (largely based on U.S. and western European data) hold up in a crossnational comparison of marital status and happiness? Similarly, how is the happiness gap influenced by the society's religious climate? We investigated these questions through a crossnational investigation of general happiness using multilevel models.BACKGROUNDThe happiness gap between married and cohabiting persons is one area of research that clearly demonstrates how macro- and microlevel attributes affect happiness. Stack and Eshleman (1998) and Diener, Gohm, Suh, and Oishi (2000), for example, examined happiness among cohabiters and married couples crossnationally and found that the relationship between marital status and happiness was similar across the countries studied and also between genders. Soons and Kalmijn (2009) specifically examined the role of attitudes toward cohabitation in moderating the happiness gap between married and cohabiting individuals in Europe. They found that, in countries where cohabitation is institutionalized, the happiness gap between married and cohabiting individuals disappears or is even reversed. They did not explore gender differences in the marital status happiness gap. What remains to be investigated, however, is how other social and institutional factors shape happiness by marital status. Is it only attitudes toward cohabitation that matter in shaping the relative happiness of married and cohabiting persons? …

Through in-depth interviews with scientists at elite academic institutions—those particularly likely to have no firm belief in God—we provide insight into the motives scientists who are not religious have for joining a religious group and the struggle faced by these individuals in reconciling personal beliefs with what they consider the best interests of their families. Narratives stress the use of resources from identities as scientists to provide their children with religious choices consistent with science and in negotiating spousal influence and a desire for community. Findings expand the religious socialization and identities literatures by widening the range of understanding of the strategies parents utilize to interface with religious communities as well as lead to more nuanced public understanding of how atheist and agnostic scientists relate to religious communities.

Previous research has found a link between economic development and post-materialist and libertarian values. This research examines social change in values in Japan from the mid-1970s to the beginning of the 21st century. Using Japanese survey data, we investigate the nature and pace of social change during the economic crisis of the early 1990s, as well as in the periods before and after the burst of the bubble economy. We find that social change stalled during the economic crisis and resumed again in the late 1990s, but at a much lower level than in the late 1980s. We argue that economic period effects are largely responsible for the slowdown in social change in values in Japan at the end of the 20th century.

This research investigates sociological ambivalence in negotiating care work in Japanese families. Women and their aging parents experience ambivalence based on conflicting norms of filial obligation, gender ideology, and cultural beliefs about the parent—child bond. Analysis of in-depth interview data showed ambivalence was based on (1) conflict between norms and cultural beliefs and (2) intergenerational differences in norms of caregiving. Not only are norms of care work in Japan gendered, but they also create conflicting demands for women who are torn among providing care for their parents, providing care for their in-laws, and changing expectations for women in contemporary Japan. In the families studied, norms of filial obligation were challenged, but gendered definitions of care work were left largely intact. These findings challenge theories of elder care that identify a hierarchy of preferred caregivers based on filial obligation and gender.

Previous models of parental educational investments focus on the composition of the sibship (number, gender, ordering, and spacing) and on the social and institutional context in which investment decisions are made. Social— institutional models predict that parents in Japan are likely to underinvest in girls because of their transient status in the family of origin and their limited earnings potential. This article contributes an understanding of the family contexts under which this model of investment does and does not apply. Through an analysis of 45 in-depth interviews conducted by the author, a family culture of investment model is developed that identifies parental gender beliefs and valuation of education as key factors shaping parental investments in prewar cohort groups. The findings from this research have implications for our understanding of international variation in the gender equity of educational attainment.

This research investigates change in gender beliefs in Japan during a period of economic hard times in the late 1990s. Using data from the International Social Survey Programme on the Japanese population from 1994 (n = 1,054) and 2002 (n = 872), we examined how cohort replacement and intracohort change contributed to changes in gender beliefs. We found important differences from the patterns of change reported for many Western countries, namely, a decoupling between societal trends in the female labor force participation rate and beliefs about gender. Such differences may be attributable to factors such as the high societal valuation of the housewife role compared to that in other postindustrial countries and sanctions against full-time employment for women in Japan.

The predictions of resource dilution and sibship gender composition models of educational investment are tested using the Japanese Nationwide Survey on Families (N = 6,985). Japan is an important case because of its postindustrial economy, coupled with high levels of dependence on parental investment to attend a university and persisting gender inequality in educational attainment. In previous between-family analyses of educational attainment in Japan, boys were found to drain resources from their sisters. The within-family, multilevel models of parental educational investments in this analysis show that girls with college-educated brothers fare better than their peers without brothers. An alternative model incorporating the educational investments received by brothers in the same family is proposed.

This research investigates the mechanisms of change in gender beliefs in East and West Germany since reunification. Using repeated cross-sectional data from the German General Social Survey (ALLBUS), we examine how processes of cohort replacement and of intra-cohort change contributed to the changes in beliefs about gender ideology and about the consequences of women working for pay that occurred from 1982 to 2004 in the former West Germany and from 1991 to 2004 in the former East Germany. We find that while changes in gender beliefs occurred through both cohort replacement and within-cohort change in West Germany, changes in East Germany primarily occurred through processes of intra-cohort change. Heterogeneity in levels of schooling and employment status are important in accounting for variation in gender beliefs. We find support for the conclusion that there are continued changes in gender beliefs in the reunified Germany across time. However, we do not find that beliefs converged in the East and West following reunification. In fact, focusing on the period following reunification, we find that the gap in beliefs between the East and West actually increased between 1991 and 2004.

I examine the attitudinal ambivalence created by conflicting social expectations regarding parent-child devotion, filial obligation and family membership, and gender norms in a national population of Japanese adults. I ask: in a context of rapidly changing family and elder care norms, how do different beliefs and attitudes overlap and conflict and how are they related to elder care preferences? I analyze data from the 2006 Japanese General Social Survey and use Latent Class Analysis to identify latent groups in the population defined by their beliefs and examine the relationship between class membership and elder care preferences. I found variation in the population with respect to the measured beliefs as well as a relationship between patterns of beliefs and choice of elder caregiver. I found conflicting expectations regarding elder care responsibility in one latent class and this class also expressed elder care preferences that conflict with at least some of their strongly held beliefs.

This qualitative research examines the work experiences and gender beliefs of 22 Okinawan women who were young adults during the Battle of Okinawa. In-depth interviews were conducted with Okinawan women, including a subsample of women widowed in World War II, and the work experiences and gender beliefs of widows and nonwidows are compared. Women's orientation to breadwinning is found to shape the gender beliefs that they hold. Widows who defined their work as breadwinning maintained traditional gender beliefs, in compensation for their gender boundary–crossing work experience. Nonwidows who saw their work as supplementary to their husbands' income, however, adopted liberal gender beliefs.

This paper examines the relationship between specialization and happiness in marriage in the U.S. and Japan. Our findings, based on the General Social Surveys in the U.S. and Japan, indicate both similarities and differences in the determinants of marital happiness in the two countries. In the U.S., the findings are mixed. Women’s reported marital happiness in the U.S. is more likely to follow the predictions of the bargaining model where their happiness is determined by their own income. Men’s marital happiness in the U.S. follows the predictions of the specialization model; they are happier if their wives are not working or, alternatively, if they are financially dependent on their wives. In Japan, we find support for the specialization model, particularly in the case of women; they are happier if they are specialized in the household and they have a higher household income. Our research highlights how marital quality is affected by the institutional context and the normative environment.