Sociology
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Item Health Associations with Interracial and Inter-ethnic Marital, Cohabiting, and Dating Relationships in the United States(2017) Lykke, Lucia Christine; Rendall, Michael S; Sociology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Research consistently finds that health is stratified by race, ethnicity, and gender, and that romantic relationships, particularly marriage, are protective of health. Despite increasing prevalence of interracial and inter-ethnic relationships, few studies have investigated the association between partnership exogamy and health. In this dissertation, I examine whether and how heterosexual exogamy is associated with self-rated health, being overweight and obese, and depression. I additionally examine evidence for health selection into exogamous versus endogamous relationships and the evidence for health change over time in relationships. First, I use data from four panels of the Survey of Income and Program Participation, representing the adult population aged 18-59 in the US, to investigate partnership exogamy and self-rated health among Whites and nonwhites. I find that having a White partner is associated with better self-rated health for nonwhites, and that having a nonwhite partner is associated with worse health for White women. I find evidence that people in better health select into partnerships with Whites, and that having a White partner is associated with better self-rated health over time. Second, I use data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health, representing young adults who came of age in the 1990s, to look at associations of partner race and ethnicity with being overweight and obese, and with depression. I find that overweight and obese White women select into new relationships with Black men, and also that having a Black partner is associated with weight gain over time for White women. Finally, I find that White young men and women who are more depressed are more likely to partner with nonwhite partners, and this effect is particularly strong for White women who have Black dating partners. I find evidence for depression increase over time among White women with Black partners, though the findings suggest a weaker causal impact of interracial relationships on depression than suggested by prior studies. To interpret the results throughout, I draw on gendered theories of interracial relationship formation including status exchange theory, and gendered theories of relationships and health that focus on stress and social status.Item INTERGENERATIONAL SUPPORT AND WELL-BEING OF OLDER ADULTS IN CHANGING FAMILY CONTEXTS(2016) Bao, Luoman; Chen, Feinian; Sociology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This dissertation consists of three papers that examine the complexities in upward intergenerational support and adult children’s influence on older adults’ health in changing family contexts of America and China. The prevalence of “gray divorce/repartnering ” in later life after age 55 is on the rise in the United States, yet little is known about its effect on intergenerational support. The first paper uses the life course perspective to examine whether gray divorce and repartnering affect support from biological and stepchildren differently than early divorce and repartnering, and how patterns differ by parents’ gender. Massive internal migration in China has led to increased geographic distance between adult children and aging parents, which may have consequences for old age support received by parents. This topic has yet to be thoroughly explored in China, as most studies of intergenerational support to older parents have focused on the role of coresident children or have not considered the interdependence of multiple parent-child dyads in the family. The second paper adopts the within-family differences approach to assess the influence of non-coresident children’s relative living proximity to parents compared to that of their siblings on their provision of support to parents in rural and urban Chinese families. The study also examines how patterns of the impact are moderated by parents’ living arrangement, non-coresident children’s gender, and parents’ provision of support to children. Taking a multigenerational network perspective, the third paper questions if and how adult children’s socioeconomic status (SES) influences older parents’ health in China. It further examines whether health benefits brought by adult children’s socioeconomic attainment are larger for older adults with lower SES and whether one of the mechanisms through which adult children’s SES affects older parents’ health is by changing their health behaviors. These questions are highly relevant in contemporary China, where adult children have experienced substantial gains in SES and play a central role in old age support for parents. In sum, these three papers take the life course, the within-family differences, and the multigenerational network perspective to address the complexities in intergenerational support and older adults’ health in diverse family contexts.Item CHILDREN'S SCHOOLING AND MATERNAL WELL-BEING: EVALUATING THE ROLE OF ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS AS SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS IN MOTHERS' LIVES(2011) Warner, Catharine H.; Milkie, Melissa A.; Sociology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Motherhood is accompanied by costs to well-being, and the mechanisms that negatively affect mothers' health are not clearly defined. Using a stress process perspective, this dissertation examines the role of strains associated with children's education to explain racial/ethnic and class variation in maternal well-being. Using mixed methods, I argue that much of the literature on family-school "partnerships" ignores the ways in which schools affect family life. Additionally, stress process literature fails to analyze stressors within schools, which house a myriad of potential difficulties for mothers. In short, while much research considers children's success in school, we know little about how this social institution affects mothers' lives and relationships. Multi-level modeling with the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten Cohort (ECLS-K, N=6,995), illustrates which strains affect mothers' self-rated health and depressive symptoms. Key strains associated with children's health and school problems include children's disabilities, poor health, and poor behavior. Strains associated with mothers' own time pressures include looking for work, employment transitions during elementary school, and missed events/activities at the school. Strains in the school context include the proportion of students in poverty and the school neighborhood conditions. Longitudinal analyses show that school context is a central mediator of the relationship between mothers' racial/ethnic status and self-rated health and depressive symptoms, explaining health differences between African-American and white mothers and accounting for nearly one-third of the differences between Latina and white mothers. Finally, I explore whether social integration through school involvement benefits mothers. Though associated with improved well-being, school involvement does little to mitigate the effects of schooling strains. In-depth interviews with a racially/ethnically diverse group of 27 middle class mothers show that school involvement often comes at a cost to mothers in terms of time with family, difficult interactions with fellow parents, and concerns for an equitable distribution of labor at the school. Moreover, mothers' motivations for involvement vary with some mothers, more commonly mothers of color, focused solely on involvement as a component of good mothering, while other mothers, mainly the white mothers in the sample, also refer to their involvement as an opportunity to expand their own friendship networks.