Sociology Theses and Dissertations

Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/2804

Browse

Search Results

Now showing 1 - 10 of 20

DEVELOPING PATHWAYS TO SERVING TOGETHER: DUAL MILITARY COUPLES' LIFE COURSE AND DECISION-MAKING
(2010) Smith, David Glenn; Segal, Mady W; Sociology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
The increase in the number and types of military families since the advent of the All-Volunteer Force in 1973 has increased the impact of the work-family interface for the military. For dual career couples, where both the husband and wife are in the military, both are subject to deployment for extended periods of time, high geographic mobility, probability of a foreign residence, the risk of injury or death, and they must manage two specialized and structured career paths (Segal 1986). The purpose of this study is to analyze the work careers and family life course of dual military couples and their decision-making processes, using a life course perspective. Using a grounded theory methodology, I interviewed and analyzed the transcripts of 23 dual military officer couples in the U.S. Navy. Results show that work and family decisions are influenced by the organizational constraints as well as institutional and cultural norms. The rhythm of life in the Navy is shaped by cyclic changing of job assignments and locations, rotation of sea and shore duty assignments, warfare specialty career paths designed for promotion, and the cultural fast track. These couples' experiences in trying to live together with collocated job assignments shape their long-term decision-making for maintaining a career in the Navy. Their experiences show that the organization's demands and far-reaching control are infused into every aspect of their lives. Couples' discourse is focused on their human agency in an effort to maintain control of their life course while meeting the organizational demands of rigid and structured career paths, increased number of sea duty tours and deployments, and perceived low priority of collocation in the assignment process. Dual career couples in this organization use a long-term perspective of the life course to cope with their current situation with the knowledge that their life satisfaction will improve in the near future as they progress in their career. These couples adapt by employing work-family prioritization strategies for achieving their personal and professional goals. Learning how to successfully combine and separate roles through these prioritization strategies reduces stress and increases life satisfaction.
Social Capital's Dark Side and Patriarchy in India
(2008-08-18) Andrist, Lester Howard; Andrist, Lester H; Sociology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
Social capital is often extolled as a benevolent resource, but resources can be applied to any number of ends. Using new data from the India Human Development Survey (N=41,544), I examine social capital and patriarchy and demonstrate that social capital works to enhance restrictions placed on women's autonomy, revealing a darker side. Households which are well tied into their communities avail themselves to greater scrutiny and thus anticipate and react to the prescriptions of dominant, patriarchal norms. This study employs multivariate logistic and ordinal logistic regression to model the relationship between four measures of women's autonomy and the social capital of households: 1) wearing a veil; 2) eating order during meals; 3) mobility; 4) and decision making. A male-first eating order and restrictions on mobility are demonstrated to be associated with higher levels of social capital.
Are Leavers and Returners Different? Determinants of Coresidence After Adult Children Leave Home
(2008-08-07) Chan, Chaowen; Iceland, John; Sociology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
The paper examines the determinants of coresidence between parents and adult children. Using 34 waves of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics from 1968 to 2005 and event history models, I find that there is an unambiguous distinction between nest leavers and nest returners. Marital status and employment status of adult children are the most important time-dependent determinants of nest-returning, and older cohorts have a higher propensity to return home. Parents in good health support their children returning home when significant life events endanger the adult children's ability to live alone. Therefore I argue that coresidence is a rational support but not a competition between children's need and parent's need. Further cohort comparisons also show adult children's life events matter for older cohorts, but parents' marital disruption matters for younger cohorts.
THE INTERGENERATIONAL TRANSMISSION OF GENDER-ROLE ATTITUDES AND BEHAVIOR: HOW DO PARENTS MATTER?
(2008-07-30) Wight, Vanessa Rachel; Bianchi, Suzanne M; Sociology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
This study examines the dynamic relationship between a parent's gender-role attitudes and behavior and their children's subsequent gender-role attitudes and housework behavior as adults. It uses a national sample of 1,864 young adults aged 18-32 in 2001-2002 (Wave 3), whose parents were previously interviewed in 1987-1988 (Wave 1) and 1992-1994 (Wave 2) as part of the National Surveys of Families and Households (NSFH). Overall, the findings suggest that attitudes remain stable across generations--particularly from mothers to children. Consistent with earlier research, mothers who express egalitarian attitudes about women's and men's gender roles have children who are more egalitarian on average than those with mothers who express more conventional views of women and men. Furthermore, when measures of mother's gendered ideology and housework are considered simultaneously, a mother's gender ideology is a strong predictor of both her daughter's and son's gender ideology, and this relationship holds whether or not a mother's housework behavior is consistent with her ideas. Early maternal attitudes observed when focal children were aged 2-11 (Wave 1) are significant predictors of both daughters' and sons' gender attitudes in adulthood. Results from analyses of change over time in a mother's gendered attitudes and behaviors indicate that what is modeled early in a child's life, more than its consistency, is an important predictor of a child's subsequent gender-role attitudes as an adult. When fathers are added to the analysis and the role of mother-father agreement in gender ideology is considered, the results indicate that daughters with a mother and father who both hold egalitarian views of women's and men's roles are themselves more egalitarian than daughters with parents who are both traditional. On the other hand, a son's gender ideology shows less association with mother-father gender ideology agreement. As long as one parent holds more egalitarian attitudes, a son's gender ideology is more egalitarian than sons with parents who are both traditional. The transmission of gendered behaviors from parents to children, however, appears to be less stable and more complex than the transmission of attitudes. For example, the amount of time daughters spend on housework is primarily associated with their own adult characteristics. Most notably, taking on adult family roles (such as a spouse, partner, or parent) is associated with more time women spend in housework. Yet there is some evidence that later maternal housework time (observed at Wave 2 when children were aged 10-17) is positively associated with a daughter's adult housework time, regardless of whether Wave 1 housework time was high or low. Among sons, the results suggest that the more housework a mother does in Waves 1 and 2, the more a son does in adulthood, and this relationship does not appear to be sensitive to the mother's housework time and consistency in Waves 1 and 2. Finally, the timing of exposure to a mother's attitudes seems to be more salient to a partnered daughter's share of the couple's combined housework than whether the mother's attitudes remain consistent over time. Overall, this dissertation finds that our understanding of gendered outcomes in adulthood is best understood by applying a life course perspective that acknowledges the contributions of both parental effects and children's own current circumstances-- recognizing that adult lives evolve over time, are intertwined within an ever changing society, and cannot be understood from a single survey or snapshot in time.
What Makes a Good Dad? Contexts, Measures and Covariates of Paternal Care
(2008-06-04) Wang, Rong; Bianchi, Suzanne M.; Sociology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
American fathers devote significantly less time than mothers to rearing their children. Using new time diary data from the 2003-2005 American Time Use Survey, this dissertation documents the variation of father involvement in different family contexts, develops more comprehensive measures of paternal care, and provides an in-depth examination of the major covariates contributing to fathers' time allocation to childrearing. Compared to married resident fathers, single fathers - specifically, "sole" single fathers who are the only adult in the family - spend significantly more time providing all types of childcare except playing with children. Sole single fathers spend similar amounts of time with their children as married fathers, although their passive care time is less. Cohabiting fathers and married fathers demonstrate similar parenting time patterns. Lacking daily interaction with their children, non-resident fathers provide less than one-third of direct childcare and spend much less overall time with their children than resident fathers do. When non-resident fathers are with their children, their time is mostly spent on playing with children and performing necessary managerial responsibilities (e.g., attending children's events and school meetings, picking up/dropping off children). However, non-resident fathers' time "minding" children - a measure that gauges passive care of children not requiring physical presence - is almost 85 percent of what resident fathers report. Further, divorced non-resident fathers spend more time providing childcare than (re)married non-resident fathers, especially in physical and recreational activities. Father care in two-parent families is associated with a number of covariates that reflect demands on fathers and their capacity to provide care. First, fathers' direct care time and time with children, but not their minding time, decreases as their children age. Second, fathers tend to do more childcare when they have boys rather than girls in the family. Third, although fathers appear to do more childcare when their spouses are employed, this happens only among those whose spouses are least educated or best educated. Finally, despite the common assumption that better educated fathers are more "involved," the childcare time differences are mainly between fathers with high school (or below) education and everyone else.
Gender, Kinscripts and the Work of Transnational Kinship among Afro-Caribbean Immigrant Families: An Exploratory Analysis
(2007-08-23) Forsythe-Brown, Ivy; Thornton Dill, Bonnie; Sociology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
Using an integrated, quantitative and qualitative, research design this study explores the type, frequency, duration and circumstances of transnational kinship ties among Afro-Caribbean immigrants in the U.S. Focus is on how immigrants maintain kinship connections across international boundaries, the delegation of kin work tasks among family members, and the impact of gender and/or kin designated roles on these activities. Qualitative data is from in-depth semi-structured interviews with multiple members of four English-speaking Afro-Caribbean families, key informants and two group interviews among immigrants with transnational kinship ties (n=41). Quantitative data from a sub-set of the National Survey of American Life (NSAL) re-interview, an integrated, hierarchical national probability sample, is utilized to examine the statistical significance of factors that impact transnational kinship contact (n=101). The notion of kinscripts posited by Stack and Burton (1993) is with combined theoretical perspectives on doing and performing gender, the household division of labor, and literature on Caribbean families and migration to create a lens through which the activities and behaviors of study participants are analyzed. Findings indicate that gender, social class, family size and gender composition, parents residing in the Caribbean, and length of stay in the host nation impact the frequency, extent, and direction of kin contact among NSAL respondents and study participants with transnational kinship ties. Men were found to engage in kin work in the absence of available women in the family to perform kin work tasks. Additionally, the study finds that who executes the majority of kin work in immigrant families tends to be voluntary and closely linked to individual skill and personality.
Role Occupancy, Physical Health and the Diminishment of the Sense of Mattering in Late Life
(2007-11-28) Fazio, Elena Marie; Milkie, Melissa A; Sociology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
Mattering is an important but understudied part of the self-concept. Morris Rosenberg and Claire McCullough (1981) suggested that older adults feel they matter less than middle-aged adults and this discrepancy may in part be explained by a lack of role occupancies such as paid work, and a devaluation of the old in society at large. This dissertation examines sense of mattering in older adults and two mechanisms that may explain the decline of the self-concept in later life - fewer role occupancies and poorer physical health. It examines whether these processes differ for men versus women and for African-Americans versus whites. The study employs the first wave (2001) of data from the Aging, Stress and Health (ASH) Study, which includes over 1100 white and African-American adults over age 65 living in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. Results indicate that there is a negative relationship between age and both dependence mattering and importance mattering and that it is in part explained by role occupancies as well as physical health status. Compared to informal ties, work and volunteer roles (productive or formal roles), are more important in explaining the relationship between age and mattering. Additionally, the total number of roles held is significantly and positively related to dependence and importance mattering. How roles mediate the relationship between age and dependence mattering depends on race and gender. The work role significantly mediates the age/mattering relationship for whites, but not for African-Americans. For African-Americans, the volunteer role mediates the relationship between age and dependence mattering, but this is not the case for whites. Also, self-rated health mediates the age-dependence mattering relationship for whites but not African-Americans. These findings point to the need to employ multiple mattering measures in analyses of older adults as well to study diverse samples; results differ depending on the outcome variable and group examined. Mattering is critical to the comprehensive study of the self-concept in later phases of the life course, as it is sensitive to social roles and physical health both of which are locations for key changes occurring during late life.
Breaking Through the Brass Ceiling: Elite Military Women's Strategies for Success
(2007-11-27) Iskra, Darlene Marie; Segal, Mady W.; Sociology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
People who rise to the top of any organization must have a dedication and determination that distinguishes them from their co-workers. White men historically have held these positions due to discriminatory practices by employers, protectionist legislation, and social constructs about their leadership capabilities and motivation. Inroads into these elite positions are being made, however, both in the corporate world and in the military, by women and minority men. This study examines the women who have risen to the top of a masculine institution, and the strategies they used to "break through the brass ceiling" and become General and Flag Officers. Data were collected through several methods, including content analysis of their military biographies, self-administered surveys, and selected interviews. Results generally indicate that the women overcame the challenges they faced and took advantage of opportunities that arose. They rarely said "no" to a challenge; they did not question their ability to succeed simply due to gender, and they overwhelmingly had a positive attitude and loved the military institution. However, the ability for the women to navigate the masculine organization of the military would not have been possible without a vibrant support system, which included mentors, and supportive spouses and family. Mentorship was an important factor in the women's ability to navigate the system; mentors provided career guidance, opened opportunities, and provided personal support and advice when needed. Many also had an active family life. This was especially true for those in the Reserves; family formation was the most obvious difference between Regular and Reserve respondents. Results primarily varied by cohort, with earlier cohorts limited by institutional and legislative impediments to both their professional and family lives. This research is sociologically important because it helps to fill the gap in knowledge about the situations and behaviors that lead to career success for executive women. It is limited in that it looks only at the women in these elite positions and does not compare these findings with male generals and admirals or to women who did not rise to these levels. Suggestions for further research are provided.
Transmitting Advantage: Maternal Education Differences in Parental Investment Activities
(2007-07-30) Raley, Sara B; Bianchi, Suzanne M; Sociology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
Though the stark advantages of children growing up in college-educated families are well documented (e.g. higher levels of school achievement, higher likelihood of completing high school, higher college admission rates), scholars are just beginning to understand how the everyday activities of parents and children are involved in this reproduction of inequality. This study links parental time investments in children to their verbal achievement using data from the 1997 and 2002 waves of the nationally representative Panel Study of Income Dynamics Child Development Supplement. Consistent with existing theoretical frameworks, children of college-educated mothers are read to more often, watch less television, participate more in structured activities, and have mothers who are more involved in their schooling when compared with children of less educated mothers. These investments are also linked to children's verbal aptitude, and the linkages are strongest when children are young. Among preschool-aged children, reading is positively associated, while children's television viewing with parents is negatively associated with children's verbal achievement. By the time children reach school age, however, reading is negatively associated with verbal achievement. At this age, better-educated parents seem more likely than less-educated parents to provide remedial help to their children who may be having difficulty with reading. Also among school-aged children, parental investment in children's schooling and structured activities are positively associated with children's verbal scores. At the same time, there are important ways in which college-educated and less educated mothers do not diverge as much as previous research might suggest. Most notably, once family structure and race are held constant, educational variation in time spent with extended family and visiting others, mothers' daily expressions of warmth and affection, and awareness of children's whereabouts are generally negligible. Finally, individual parental investment measures only marginally explain the positive relationship between maternal education and children's verbal achievement, though they do play a significant role in helping to explain how and why children of college-educated mothers are more likely to have high-achieving children. Other factors, like high levels of income and mothers' verbal ability, seem more advantageous to these children than do the specific parenting activities of college-educated mothers.
Mine Is Yours: Modes of Expense Sharing in Married and Cohabiting Households
(2007-05-06) Warner, Catharine Hobart; Iceland, John; Sociology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
Relatively little is known about differences in how married and cohabiting couples share their economic resources. Using the 2001 panel of the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP), this study compares the extent of household expense sharing among married and cohabiting couples focusing on gender specialization differences between married and cohabiting couples. Current debates question the relative differences between married and cohabiting relationships. Multinomial logistic analyses suggest that relative resources indeed do much to explain who pays the majority of household expenses, but also find support for differences across family structure. Married couples are more likely than cohabiting couples to have a single male provider compared to other sharing arrangements. Households with a child not biologically related to one partner are more likely to have a female provider, while households with biological children are more likely to have a male provider.

Sociology Theses and Dissertations

Browse

Filters

Settings

Sort By

Results per page

Search Results