Sociology Theses and Dissertations
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Item Changing Observance of Traditional Jewish Religious Practices: A Study of Generations(1956) Greenberg, Meyer; Hoffsommer, Harold C.; Sociology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md)Changes in the observance of traditional religious practices among Jewish families during the course of three generations are the subject of t his paper. The religious practices studied are those related to the cycle of the year--the Sabbath and holy days--and kashruth (the dietary laws). The population is a group of 180 families, chiefly from Baltimore and Washington, D.C., with children in the freshman class at the University of Maryland in the spring of 1949. The first generation, the grandparents, are in the main immigrants to the United States from Eastern Europe during the years of mass immigration which ended shortly after World War I. The second generation are the parents, most of them American born, while the third generation consists of freshmen at the University. For the earlier generations the interaction with the American environment is analyzed in terms of acculturation and social mobility. In the third generation attention is focused on changes in religious practice from the time the student was a child and under parental control, through his last year in high school, and then into the latter part of hi s first year at college. Information on the background of students and parents and on their religious observance was obtained by means of a questionnaire. This was followed by an interview to learn the circumstances surrounding changes in the student's observance. It was found that the parents belong almost entirely to the middle class and are engaged in business or the professions. The student group, of whom two-thirds are male, does not differ appreciably from the general student body either in scholastic aptitude or in grades. Upon analysis, the combinations of religious practices observed by the individuals were found to fall into seven repeated patterns or types. This classification system was used to compare the observance of the different groups into which the sample was divided. The relatively sharpest break with tradition occurred in the immigrant generation. The second generation continued to move in the same direction. The third generation departed even further from tradition, especially when under the influence of the college environment, but the rate of change appears to have slowed down. The process of discarding ritual practices has been a selective one. Observances which are frequent and involve economic sacrifice, such as the Sabbath and holidays, have been the first to be dropped. Others such as formal daily prayer and kashruth outside the home have been abandoned because of inconvenience and because they differ widely from accepted social norms. A minimum observance level seems to have been reached in the evolution of Jewish religious life. Attending synagogue and fasting on the High Holydays and participating in a Passover Seder are still observed by the overwhelming majority of American Jews. The lighting of Sabbath candles is widespread, and kashruth in the home is kept by a substantial number, though only a very small proportion of the students observe the dietary laws. The subjects of the study were also classified according to their self-identification with one of the three branches of Judaism--Orthodox, Conservative and Reform. It was found that while the first generation were overwhelmingly Orthodox, the members of the second and third generations have been moving increasingly into the Conservative and, to a lesser degree, the Reform groups. The Orthodox Jews indicate greater average observance than the Conservative, who in turn tend to observe somewhat more than the Reform. However, the observance of all three groups falls far below the standards set by the movements officially. In the student generation, the differences between the groups are further narrowed, and there appears a marked tendency toward similarity in observance patterns. Future studies are needed to analyze the continuing development and relative strength of the Orthodox, Conservative and Reform groups. It would also be worthwhile to learn whether the students here studied at what is thought to be the lowest point of their religious observance will modify their practices when they are married and have families.Item Internal Migration to Osaka Prefecture, Japan(1956) Lewis, David Michael; Hoffsommer, Harold; Sociology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, MD)Item The Fair Housing Movement: An Overview and a Case Study(1965) Noe, Kaye Sizer; Cussler, Margaret T.; Sociology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md)The fair housing movement is a recent development in the general civil rights movement. While subscribing to the ideology of the general movement, community fair housing groups concentrate upon making middle-income, and particularly suburban, housing available to financially qualified Negroes. Few fair housing groups are affiliated with Negro civil rights groups, and most are all-white in membership. Their methods utilize many of the concepts first developed in sociology and social psychology; their programs emphasize community relations when a Negro move-in is imminent, property listing services which bypass the practices of discrimination entrenched in the real estate industry, and subscription by community members to open covenants. They seldom try to "force" integration using test cases, attempting rather to prevent discrimination against Negroes seeking homes in their communities and to avoid violence. The major portion of the research was a case study of a fair housing group in Greenbelt, Maryland. The program of this group emphasized a "planning" approach to integration and publicly avoided the moral-ethical arguments which have been central in the general civil rights movement. Such resistance as they encountered was from individuals concerned about the possible effect of Negro occupancy on property values in the older, low-income section of the city. The leaders of the group were active in civic activities, representative of most religious faiths, tended to be college-educated, and many had a history of affiliation with other "liberal" groups. Few were active in other facets of the civil rights movement. It was concluded that the fair housing movement tends to be moderate rather than radical in its membership and strategy, and that its scope (some 600 groups in metropolitan areas across the United States) represents near-spontaneous action at the grass-roots level based on a conviction that discrimination on the basis of race is wrong.Item Juvenile Delinquency and the Negro in Charles County, Maryland(1966) Seaman, Thomas W.; Lejins, Peter P.; Sociology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, MD)Are there differences between Negro and white juvenile delinquents? This was the question that constituted the basis for this exploratory study. The objectives of the project were to determine if Negro juveniles were proportionately overrepresented among juvenile delinquents and if there were differences in types of offenses committed by Negro and white delinquents. The differences found were analyzed in the light of socio-economic class differences between Negro and white delinquents. Previous research has tended to indicate that racial differences disappeared when socioeconomic class was held constant. The area selected for the project was Charles County, Maryland, because of the writer's access to court records and knowledge of the area. Delinquency rates were developed to determine if Negroes were proportionately overrepresented among delinquents and/or if lower class juveniles were overrepresented among delinquents. Delinquent offenses were divided into four types: offenses involving theft or attempted theft of property, offenses involving violence, offenses involving the destruction of property, and offenses injurious to the child himself. Delinquency rates were developed for Negro and white delinquents in each socio-economic class for each type of offense. A simple ecological investigation was conducted to determine if there were any significant patterns in the spatial distribution of the delinquents. The findings show that Negro juveniles were not significantly overrepresented among delinquents even though Negro delinquents were overrepresented among lower-lower class delinquents. White delinquents were found to be overrepresented among delinquents from the lower-middle and upper-lower classes. The analyses of types of offenses revealed that types of offenses could be identified with certain levels of the socio-economic structure regardless of race, but that differences existed between Negro and white delinquents within socio-economic classes. The ecological investigation indicated that there was no significant ecological pattern among county delinquents.Item Interaction Patterns in the Neighborhood Tavern(1971) Bissonette, Raymond Peter; Lejins, Peter P.; Sociology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md)This study was undertaken in order to develop a systematic description and analysis of the social reality of the public drinking establishment with special reference to the neighborhood workingman's tavern. The perspective adopted was a focus on the non-pathological aspects of behavior associated with the consumption of beverage alcohol. Underlying this point of departure was the recognition that most research on drinking behavior is related to alcoholism but most drinking is not. The study had two purposes: first to attempt a descriptive analysis of social interaction in the tavern setting by translating observed behavior into relatively standard sociological concepts of norm, role, ecology, and communication. Beyond the descriptive purpose of this approach was the expectation that the organization of observations into such a conceptual scheme would enhance the scientific utility of the effort by providing for assimilability and comparability of the data with other research and theory. The second purpose was to test a new theoretical focus for its adequacy as an explanatory model. The focus is on behavior in public and semi-public places - an area falling some where between group studies on the one hand and studies of collective behavior on the other. The major component of this theoretical framework is the mechanism of involvement allocation which refers to the ways in which actors regulate the duration and intensity of their involvement in interpersonal interaction. As was anticipated much of what is unique to sociability in the tavern setting was explainable in terms of involvement allocation. Principally responsible for this is the fact that a tavern, regardless of its official definition, has the dual functions of dispensary and social event. Although the tavern is a prototypic case for involvement allocation it was concluded that this explanatory model might have wide application in interpersonal and intergroup behavior. The data were collected over a three year period by means of participant observation in a wide variety of settings. The core data represent observations taken over a two year period in four selected neighborhood taverns. The synchronic observation of these case taverns were then supplemented by spot observations taken in over one hundred other establishments. The third source of data was the published findings of similar and related studies. The contrast and comparison provided by these additional data aid considerably in verifying the raw data and their interpretation - an inherent problem in this kind of approach. The findings demonstrate that the social reality of the tavern setting consists in patterned behavior amenable to systematic description and analysis. Drinking is a never-present variable but rarely an exclusive preoccupation. A more fruitful approach in understanding the role of drinking in such a setting is to focus on its social rather than physiological consequences. As a part of the definition of the tavern, drinking is always an accepted major involvement and as such affords the individual considerable flexibility in his involvement in the social activities occurring simultaneously. Throughout the study much of what is characteristic of tavern behavior is explained in terms of the involvement allocation options offered by the tavern's dual function as dispensary and social event.Item Riots as Disasters: An Exploratory Case Study of Selected Aspects of the Civil Disturbance in Washington, D.C., April, 1968(1973) Sedlack, Richard Guy; Janes, Robert W.; Sociology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md)Following some of the more recent sociological literature which has been critical of research into riots, the topic of this thesis addresses itself to a hitherto neglected aspect of riots. It is an initial exploratory effort into the ecological dimensions of official statistics, utilizing the relevant temporal and spatial conceptualizations suggested by the sociological disaster literature. The data sources were the offense and arrest records of the District of Columbia Metropolitan Police Department and the fire data on the Daily Communication Log of the District of Columbia Fire Department. The offense and fire data were treated as partial indicators of the situation reported to the police with the arrest data as partial indicators of the response made by the police to the riot. The data were conceptually organized along three dimensions. First, the type of criminal violation was classified into six general categories: crimes against persons, crimes against property, traffic violations, crimes without victims, crimes related to fires, and miscellaneous crimes. For a more detailed analysis, the total crimes falling into any one of these general categories were subclassified into more detailed subcategories within each general category. Second, the spatial dimension was trichotomized into three locational specifications: the riot areas of major destruction, the corridor areas of sporadic destruction, and the non-riot areas of minimal or no riot destruction. Third, the temporal dimension was dichotomized into the total riot period of organized response and a representative normal time period, so that the latter could serve as a benchmark against which to compare the former. Two specific questions were posited: what degree of difference existed between the defined riot period and the representative normal time period in terms of crimes and spatial location as reflected by the official statistics and what kinds of differences were evident. Three specific hypotheses were evaluated: (1) the offense and fire data hypothesis which suggested that the degree of association between the offenses reported and the selected riot-normal time period varies directly with the degree of concentrated riot damage, (2) the arrest data hypothesis which suggested that the degree of association between the police's response and the selected riot-normal time period varies directly with the degree of concentrated riot damage, and (3) the comparative hypothesis which suggested that the degree of association between the police's response and the selected riot-normal time period is less than the degree of association between the offenses reported and the selected riot-normal time period . Utilizing the lambda proportionate reduction in error statistic, the data were inconclusive relative to the first hypothesis and generally failed to support the second and third hypotheses, although the magnitude of the data indicated that there were some differences. The nature of the differences indicated that the incidence of fires and burglary violations increased substantially, while larceny, false fire alarm reports, and the degree of violence in crimes against persons decreased in the reported offenses during the riot. The police response was dominated by arrests for disorderly conduct and curfew violations with burglary arrests ranking second. While there were decreases in larceny and traffic arrests, the latter were still substantially represented during the riot and no meaningful numbers of arson arrests were made. Further, it was concluded that substantial numbers of offenses reported and arrests made occurred in the non-riot areas. It was concluded that the disaster literature provided relevant conceptualizations for the analysis of the spatial and temporal dimensions of riots, that further analysis of these dimensions is warranted, and that other dimensions of the disaster approach appear to be useful when applied to riots.Item Adolescent Deviance as a Function of Parents, Peers and Community Influence(1985) Slaght, Evelyn; Fleishman, John; Sociology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md)Recent studies conflict as to the relative importance of parents and peers as causal agents in juvenile misbehavior. Hirschi and other proponents of social control theory see parental bonding as preventing involvement in delinquency; Sutherland, Short and others envision youth as having differential learning opportunities, and see deviant peers and other negative learning opportunities in the community as more contributory to participation in antisocial acts. Part of the discrepancy in findings relative to these two perspectives has to do with the different in the way concepts are measured, based on different areas of interest. This study attempts to contrast social-emotional measure of parental influence with measure of parental control (knowledge, supervision, communication and discipline) in an effort to demonstrate the importance of the effect of parental control on deviant behavior.Item Women in the Chinese Military(1995) Li, Xiaolin; Segal, David R.; Sociology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md)This dissertation provides a sociological analysis of patterns of women's military participation in ancient China (5000 years ago-1840), during the post-Opium War period (1840-1949), and in modern times. It addresses three sociological issues: 1) under what conditions have Chinese women taken part in military operations? 2) Do Chinese women participate in direct combat? 3) Does the military institution facilitate women's social mobility to education, jobs and higher social status? The following questions are also addressed: does Chinese women's military participation go through cycles of expansion and contraction? What are the People's Liberation Army (PLA) women's evaluations of their military lives? The study scrutinized 717 Chinese military women from the secondary sources and 230 PLA women through a survey conducted in Beijing in 1992. Women participate in Chinese conventional and unconventional warfare across time. From the first female general, Fu Hao, who lived about 3200 years ago, to the 12 women generals who serve in the PLA today, women's frequent presence has been observed in both regular and irregular military formations. Chinese women participated in direct combat--50% in this study with a 12% combat casualty. Female guerri11a fighters suffered the heaviest, but no casualty of women has been recorded since 1949. Sixteen percent of these women commanded battles. Seventeen percent ranked major and above, 3.5% of them became national leaders. Most women warriors are of the Han nationality. Nearly half of the ancient and the PLA women were from official and officers' families. Cultural and ideological support for women's military participation has also been frequent. Military service is one of the social mobility channels which allow women to achieve or hope for social recognition or higher status. The scope of women's military participation goes in cycles of expansion and contraction, particularly affected by group security situation and shortage of manpower. Women's representation in regular military formations has been increased. Modem military women in mainland China and Taiwan are career makers. Most PLA women did not expect combat participation nor becoming a woman general.Item Ethnic Identity and Intergroup Perceptions Among Post-Soviet Youth(1998) Kurbanov, Erjan; Robinson, John P.; Sociology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md)This research examines theoretical concepts of ethnic identity using survey data from probability samples of about 13,000 youth from 11 countries of the former Soviet Union (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Moldova, Tajikistan, Russia, and Ukraine). The focus is on the combined impact of different micro and macro factors on ethnic attitudes and perceptions during a period of rapid social change. The dependent variable is ethnic distinctiveness, which describes a group member's distancing of themselves from other ethnic groups, an important consequence of ethnic identity. The variable was measured through evaluations of six personal characteristics of ethnic majority and minority groups in each country. The continuous nature of this variable allows detailed study of how ethnic micro factors (self-identification, parents' ethnic identity, ethnic language, level of interaction with outsiders), macro factors (ethnic conflict and level of ethnic homogeneity at the national, sub-national, and micro levels), and other social factors (parents' education, religious strength, gender, and family income) affect ethnic distinctiveness. Due to the nested nature of the data, the analysis was conducted on three levels--individual, sub-national, and national--using different techniques for each level. The results show that at the individual level, ethnic self-identification is the strongest predictor of ethnic distancing, followed by parents' ethnic identification and ethnic language; out-group interaction has only a weak effect. At the second level, the micro-level (school) ethnic homogeneity has the strongest effect, while the regional homogeneity effect is not significant. Both national-level variables (national conflict and homogeneity on the societal level) have strong effects on the dependent variable, while class variables (parents' education and family income) have no effect on ethnic distinctiveness (possibly a legacy of the egalitarian Soviet system). The original model which presumes that ethnic distancing is a product of the strength of ethnic identity, family ethnic background, and out-group interaction thus seems applicable mostly to societies (1) in which the majority and minority are significantly differentiated from each other, (2) where the minority is significantly large, and (3) where both groups are involved in a major ethno-social process. Thus, the study confirms that the individual ethnic processes of ethnic boundary formation are quite susceptible to the pervasive social dynamics of the larger society.Item Sexual Behavior and Risk of Sexually Transmitted Diseases: Do Community Characteristics Moderate the Relationship between Individual Behaviors and STD Risk?(1999) Rogers, Susan Matthews; Kahn, Joan R.; Sociology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md)This study examined individual demographic and behavioral characteristics associated with the risk of infection with two bacterial sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), Neisseria gonorrhoeae and Chlamydia trachomatis. Unlike other studies of STDs, this study also investigated how the neighborhood composition may influence individual behaviors and STD risk. Individual-level data were derived from a probability sample of 560 adults residing in households in Baltimore, Maryland in 1997-1998. The Baltimore STD and Behavior Study (BSBS) combined use of urine-based diagnostic tests for gonorrhea (GC) and chlamydia! (CT) infection with a population-based survey of health and STD-related risk behaviors. Neighborhood-level data on the geographic and social characteristics of Baltimore's neighborhoods were obtained from 1990 Census data and the Baltimore City Department of Planning (1993). Urine assays revealed that 8.3 percent of adults ages 18-35 were currently infected with gonorrhea and/or chlamydia. A self-reported history of GC/CT infection was assessed from BSBS interview data; 26.1 percent reported previous treatment for GC/CT. As predicted by the STD literature, bivariate and logistic regression analyses suggested that self-reported infections were significantly associated with individual and behavioral characteristics. However, the lack of STD-related risk behaviors among respondents currently infected was somewhat unexpected. Compared with uninfected participants, respondents with a current infection, for example, were less likely to report multiple sex partners, new partners, paid sex, or concurrent sexual relationships. Hierarchical logistic regression models indicated only the proportion of black residents within the neighborhood was positively and significantly associated with self-reported GC/CT infection after controlling for individual- and community-level characteristics. However, multilevel analyses did not detect an association between neighborhood characteristics and current infection. Neighborhood characteristics did not seem to matter when examining differences in the distribution of current infection in Baltimore. Unlike individuals with a self-reported infection, currently infected individuals were not more likely to report high-risk sexual behaviors or STD-related symptoms. One plausible explanation is that the partners of these 'low-risk' individuals may have engaged in 'high-risk' behaviors. These data urge further exploration of the social context of gonorrhea and chlamydiaI infection in conjunction with an investigation of the interactions between individuals and their sexual partners.Item The Social Distribution and Long-Term Effects of Childhood Maltreatment: An Analysis of the Moderating Effects of Social Status and Parental Support(2003-12-08) Patriciu, Iulia Oana; Schieman, Scott; SociologyThis study explores the relationship between childhood physical maltreatment and two mental health outcomes, psychological distress and problem drinking, in a nationally representative sample. Data from the National Survey of Midlife Development in the United States (MIDUS), which measured childhood experiences with parental physical maltreatment and adult mental health outcomes, were used to examine the conditional effects of childhood maltreatment on psychological distress and problem drinking. A "gender-difference hypothesis" predicts that childhood physical maltreatment is more strongly related to distress among women and is more strongly related to problem drinking among men. The results support this hypothesis only for psychological distress. A "saturation hypothesis" predicts that women are more likely to have higher rates of problem drinking but not distress, and men experience elevated rates of distress but not problem drinking. No significant findings emerged to support the second hypothesis. Results also suggest that, among respondents who experienced either any physical maltreatment or major psychical maltreatment, low parental support exacerbates the negative impact of physical maltreatment on distress. This research underscores the importance of structural and contextual factors for the long-term consequences of childhood physical maltreatment.Item THE IMPACT OF PERSONAL RESOURCES ON COLLEGE PERSISTENCE AND EDUCATIONAL ATTAINMENT(2003-12-16) Cohen, Crecilla Vonetta; Kahn, Joan; Neustadtl, Alan; Dance, Lory; SociologyThis study examines the influence of personal resources on educational attainment. Using data from the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988, this study analyzes the educational outcomes of 1992 graduates who enrolled in a 4-year college or university immediately after high school. Using logistic regression, this study attempts to answer the following questions: (1) Do personal resources influence educational outcomes, net of important background characteristics?; (2) Do these resources affect men and women differently?; and (3) Do these resources affect minority students differently? Results indicate that, net of other important background characteristics, personal resources as measured by respondent's aspirations, advanced math taking, and SAT/ACT preparation efforts, significantly influence educational outcomes. However, they have stronger effects on degree completion than persistence. The effects of advanced math courses on degree attainment are significantly stronger for women. SAT/ACT preparation and seeking help with college admissions yields significantly different results for some racial/ethnic groups.Item PERCEPTIONS OF ABILITY TO REFUSE SEX AMONG SINGLE WOMEN IN URBAN CAMEROON(2003-12-18) Klein, Megan Lynn; DeRose, Laurie F; SociologyThis thesis reviews the variables that influence young women's ability to refuse sex with a man who has paid her school fees and a man who has power over her such as a teacher or employer. I use the 2002 Cameroon Adolescent Reproductive Health Survey, which contains information on a randomly selected sample of youth, aged 15 to 24 who reside in Yaoundé and Douala, Cameroon. Ability to refuse sex with one who paid school fees is positively associated with education, student status, and age, yet negatively associated with sexual experience, reporting most of friends have boyfriends, and tricked or unwanted first sex. Perceived ability to refuse sex with a teacher/employer is greater for Muslims and those reporting no religion, but less for those pressured by friends to have sex. Findings suggest that ability to refuse sex in general and ability to refuse sex under specific circumstances are distinct capabilities.Item Mothers' Level of Attachment to the Labor Market Following the Birth of a Second Child(2004-05-05) Peltola, Pia; Kahn, Joan; SociologyABSTRACT Title of Dissertation: MOTHERS’ LEVEL OF ATTACHMENT TO THE LABOR MARKET FOLLOWING THE BIRTH OF A SECOND CHILD Pia Kristiina Peltola, Doctor of Philosophy, 2004 Dissertation directed by: Professor Joan Kahn Department of Sociology Increased employment of mothers with infants has prompted an avalanche of studies about how mothers balance paid work and family. Most of that research has focused on how the birth of the first child impacts mothers’ employment. Less is known about what happens after the birth of a second child. Combining the life course perspective with the classic labor supply theory and employing the 1979-1998 NLSY data, this study examines how mothers balance paid work and family when they have two children. Some comparisons are made between the first and a second birth. The first comparison, the survival distribution of mothers’ return to market work, finds no significant difference in the rate at which mothers return to employment after the first and a second birth. The results of Cox hazard models show some similarities and some differences in the determinants for the timing of return to paid work after the two births. They also highlight the importance of considering the impact of past life experiences on current decisions. Results of the competing risk models show that some predictors for full time and part time returns differ. This study also examines what mothers’ employment is like after returning to paid work by examining mothers’ employment hours during the preschool years of the second child. Very different employment patterns are observed between those who began working full time and those who started part time. The changes in employment hours during this period would be missed without longitudinal data. The large number of mothers dropping out of the labor force over the five-year period suggests that reports focusing on the return to market work only overestimate mothers’ economic activity. Fluctuations in the employment hours underline the dynamic nature of the balancing act: the equilibrium keeps shifting as children grow older, and mothers keep readjusting and chasing the optimal balance between care work and market work.Item Being Single in Late-Life: Single Strain, Moderating Resources, and Distress(2004-05-06) Pudrovska, Tetyana; Schieman, Scott; SociologyUsing a sample of 532 nonmarried adults over age 65 residing in the District of Columbia and two adjoining Maryland counties, this study examines "single strain"--the strain of not being married or not living with a partner in late-life. First, I consider how social and economic statuses affect exposure of nonmarried elders to single strain. Second, I study how sociodemographic characteristics and psychosocial resources moderate the effect of single strain on mental health. Results of multiple OLS regression analyses indicate that while social statuses influence elders' exposure to single strain, the differential emotional responsiveness of nonmarried older adults to single strain is largely unaffected by their sociodemographic characteristics. In contrast, mastery and self-esteem are powerful moderating resources: Nonmarried elders with high mastery and self-esteem are less adversely affected by single strain than those with lower levels of intrapsychic resources.Item THE FORMS AND MECHANISMS BY WHICH SOCIAL RELATIONSHIPS IMPACT DEPRESSION IN LATE LIFE: EXPLORING THE ROLE AND SIGNIFICANCE OF MATTERING.(2004-05-12) Sergeant, Candice A.; Pearlin, Leonard I; SociologyThis thesis examined the significance of two aspects of social life for psychological well-being among a community sample of older adults. I proposed, first, that the degree to which elders engage in both informal interpersonal relationships and formal social affiliations are directly and positively related to psychological well-being; second, that these relationships are mediated through two elements of the sense of mattering. Contrary to expectations, it was found that states of mattering do not operate as mediating mechanisms linking social engagement and depression. Instead, the findings suggest that perceptions of mattering play roles independent of social engagement in promoting psychological well-being. Further conceptual and methodological development of the concept of mattering are needed to better understand the ways in which it is linked to social relationships and how these possible interlinked factors promote optimal health outcomes.Item Women's Work and Timing of Second Birth in The Philippines(2004-05-18) Luo, Shuang; DeRose, Laurie F; SociologyThis thesis examines how women's work in the period after first birth affects the timing of their next birth using work history and birth history data from the 1993 Philippine Demographic and Health Survey. It thereby overcomes some of the kinds of data and methodological problems that commonly contribute to doubt regarding whether work has a causal effect on fertility outcomes. The relationship between work and birth spacing in these data can provide us some insight regarding the role compatibility of work and childbearing in a setting with a high total fertility rate, low rates of modern sector employment for women, and low modern contraception use. The results show that women's work delays the occurrence of second birth. However, quick return to paid work is related to a higher hazard of second birth, and doing paid work is found to have a non-proportional effect at around sixteen month postpartum.Item Differential Effects of Institutional Socialization on Value Orientations in Naval Academy Midshipmen(2004-07-21) Trainor, Stephen C.; Segal, David R.; Sociology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Organizations are thought to influence the values, attitudes, and behaviors of members through processes of indoctrination and socialization. Military organizations also are believed to influence members by essentially "transforming" individuals from civilian life into part of an effective fighting machine. However, the process by which that occurs and the relative outcomes have not been fully understood. This problem is important because of the role the military plays as a professional, work, and social context for millions of people. The problem is addressed by analyzing the professional socialization to military service of midshipmen attending the United States Naval Academy. This research occurs at the nexus of organizational and professional socialization, the effects of college, identity theory, and the occupational or work orientations of youth. A model of organizational socialization and value congruence predicted the orientations of incoming midshipmen and compared them to groups of civilian high school seniors as well as to groups of midshipmen with greater time in the organization. Significant differences in the orientations of incoming midshipmen and civilian peers were observed, indicative of the self-selection and anticipatory socialization effects associated with organizational entry. In addition, incoming midshipmen differed significantly from midshipmen with greater tenure in the organization, highlighting a trend from newcomer idealism toward more realistic occupational orientations in seniors about to graduate and begin military work. The findings are important because greater congruence or "fit" in organizational and indivdidual orientations produced the most positive outcomes, including the most certain military career plans. Longitudinal evidence of greater congruence or "fit" occurred in midshipmen who possessed a strong personal identity associated with work and military service. The most significant predictors of this identity or "professional military career orientation" were strong work beliefs, high officer role identity, and the belief that military service is important. Midshpmen with better organizational "fit" expressed the most positive attitudes about the military, were more likely to see themselves working in the military at age 30, expected greater satisfaction with military work, and expressed greater certainty in their plans for a military career. Recommendations to foster a "professional military career orientation" in midshipmen are provided.Item Argentina and Chile: Politics and Fronteras in Geographies of Gender and Nation(2004-07-21) Weathers, Gwyndolyn Jo; Korzeniewicz, Roberto P; Sociology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Over the course of the twentieth century, women in Argentina and Chile have organized in political, economic, and social arenas. In the 1980s and 1990s, sectors of the women's movement in both countries were interested in constructing agencies for women within the state, and they pushed for and achieved the establishment of the National Council on Women (Consejo Nacional de la Mujer) in Argentina, and the National Women's Service (Servicio Nacional de la Mujer) in Chile. In the mid-1990s, both agencies constructed plans designed to promote women's equality, increase inter-ministerial attention to gender, and enable more vertical ties with civil society organizations, including NGOs. The results have been mixed. The Argentine plan resulted in international funds reaching the provinces to do work "with a gender perspective," and despite the difficulties encountered because of Argentina's crisis in the early 2000s, gender-sensitive programs have been put in place at the local level, although on a very small scale. However, the civil society organizations that are involved are not necessarily those with ties to the women's movement. In Chile, the plan has resulted in increased inter-ministerial cooperation, but civil society is largely out of the loop, even when the agency openly depends upon the perception of receptivity to civil society for its own legitimacy. In the context of these relations, and the contrasts that they present, I contend that civil society-governmental relations are shifting, primarily because both women's NGOs and women's agencies in the state must re-situate themselves vis-à-vis newly emergent actors in civil society, as well as continuing negotiations for state power in a globalized economy.Item THE ROUTES OF BERMUDIAN SOCIETY: THE THEMING OF BERMUDIAN SOCIETY AS A TOURIST DESTINATION(2004-08-03) Rothwell, Geoffrey Scott; Falk, William W; Sociology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)In this dissertation I consider the socio-historical development of Bermudian society in response to the demands of mass tourism. There has been an active effort to shape Bermudian society, the 'natural' environment, and the tourist industry to conform to an idealized aesthetic that would ensure the continued arrival of visitors. Consequently, there has been a calculated attempt to theme Bermuda, much in the same way that the Disney Amusement Parks are themed to meet the expectations of tourists. The means to establish this theme was the creation of a Tourism Board which utilized the four main components of McDonaldization calculability, efficiency, predictability and control to shape Bermudian society to conform to the expectations of Bermuda's primary tourist market. Consequently, rather than locating mass tourism in terms of a consequence of an increase in available free-time, I have sought to locate tourism within the structural context of modernity.