scholarly journals What Should Children Learn? Americans’ Changing Socialization Values, 1986–2018

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
pp. 237802311987901 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kei Nomaguchi ◽  
Melissa A. Milkie

Assessing changes in socialization values for children provides a unique window into how Americans perceive the landscape of their society. We examine whether, since the mid-1980s, Americans (1) emphasized survival values, like hard work, for children, as economic precarity rose or (2) prioritized self-expression values, like autonomy and compassion, as expected in postindustrial society. Analysis of 1986 to 2018 General Social Survey (N = 23,109) supports the precarity thesis: Preferences for hard work increased steadily whereas preferences for autonomy, the top-ranked quality throughout the period, declined. There was some indication of enduring self-expression values, as support for compassion increased and its relative importance to hard work stayed stable. Decomposition analyses show valuing hard work would have been even greater without demographic changes like an increase in college graduates. Aligning with earlier research, valuing obedience in children continued to decline. Our results extend theoretical work on complexities of socioeconomic links to parenting values.

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adèle Fantasia

Individualism operates as a dominant ideology in American society, so how does individualism pervade both people’s larger views on society as well as their dyadic relationships? Do world views about the value of hard work and if people deserve help permeate the private sphere in tangible ways? I propose a relationship between individualistic tendencies and the frequency with which individuals help their friends and family who are feeling depressed. I hypothesize that the more the respondent believes that those in need have to learn to take care of themselves, the less frequently they will help a relative, friend, or neighbor who is a bit down or depressed by talking to them. I also hypothesize that the more the respondent believes that people get ahead by their own hard work, the less frequently they will engage in this helping behavior. Finally, I hypothesize that the more conservative the respondent is, the less frequently they will engage in this helping behavior. I test the relationship between these typically conservative values and helping behavior using a sample of 828 respondents from the 2014 General Social Survey (GSS) dataset, controlling for gender, race, age, and education. Results from bivariate and OLS regression analyses report that there is no statistically significant relationship between conservative values and helping behavior, so the hypotheses are not supported. Instead, two control variables impact the dependent variable. Gender has the strongest effect on the frequency with which one helps a relative, friend, or neighbor who is feeling depressed, followed by race. On average, women and people of color engage in more helping behavior.


2018 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 237802311880585
Author(s):  
Colin Campbell ◽  
Jerry Johnson

In this data visualization, we use data from the General Social Survey to explore long-running trends in the association between a college education and political tolerance toward five groups. For tolerance toward militarists, anti-religionists, communists, and gay men, we show that the tolerance gap between college-educated and non–college educated individuals has narrowed, and this is largely attributable to increased tolerance among the non–college educated. We also find that the tolerance gap toward racists has narrowed; however, this is the result of decreased tolerance among college graduates.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ernesto F. L. Amaral ◽  
Paige Mitchell ◽  
Guadalupe Marquez-Velarde

This study investigates demographic, socioeconomic, political, and contextual factors associated with attitudes toward U.S. immigration. We analyze cross-sectional data from the 2004–2016 General Social Survey and American Community Survey five-year estimates. Results from generalized ordered logit models suggest that support to immigration has been increasing over time. There is no difference by sex on attitudes toward immigration. Non-whites, those between 18 and 24 years of age, people with higher educational attainment, and non-Protestants are more likely to be pro-immigration. People working on sales, office, natural resources, construction, maintenance, production, transportation, material moving, and military occupations are less likely to support immigration. People living in the South Atlantic region are the least likely to support an increase in immigration. People who lived in areas at the age of 16 that tend to have higher proportions of foreign-born individuals are more likely to support immigration. People who self-classify as strong Democrats, Independents near Democrats, and in other parties are more likely to be in favor of an increase on the number of immigrants. People with more liberal political views are more likely to be in favor of immigration. People with lower levels of racial resentment have higher chances to be in favor of an increase in immigration. Opinion about immigration has stronger associations with racial resentment than with opinion about U.S. economic achievement. People who live in counties with higher proportions of college graduates and higher proportions of immigrants are more likely to be pro-immigration.


Author(s):  
Leanne Findlay ◽  
Dafna Kohen

Affordability of child care is fundamental to parents’, in particular, women’s decision to work. However, information on the cost of care in Canada is limited. The purpose of the current study was to examine the feasibility of using linked survey and administrative data to compare and contrast parent-reported child care costs based on two different sources of data. The linked file brings together data from the 2011 General Social Survey (GSS) and the annual tax files (TIFF) for the corresponding year (2010). Descriptive analyses were conducted to examine the socio-demographic and employment characteristics of respondents who reported using child care, and child care costs were compared. In 2011, parents who reported currently paying for child care (GSS) spent almost $6700 per year ($7,500 for children age 5 and under). According to the tax files, individuals claimed just over $3900 per year ($4,700). Approximately one in four individuals who reported child care costs on the GSS did not report any amount on their tax file; about four in ten who claimed child care on the tax file did not report any cost on the survey. Multivariate analyses suggested that individuals with a lower education, lower income, with Indigenous identity, and who were self-employed were less likely to make a tax claim despite reporting child care expenses on the GSS. Further examination of child care costs by province and by type of care are necessary, as is research to determine the most accurate way to measure and report child care costs.


2015 ◽  
Vol 38 (3) ◽  
pp. 21
Author(s):  
Scot Ausborn ◽  
Julia Rotondo ◽  
Tim Mulcahy

Mapping the General Social Survey to the Generic Statistical Business Process Model: NORC's Experience


2021 ◽  
pp. 073112142199485
Author(s):  
Ashley Wendell Kranjac ◽  
Robert L. Wagmiller

Americans’ attitudes toward same-sex relationships have liberalized considerably over the last 40 years. We examine how the demographic processes generating social change in attitudes toward same-sex relationships changed over time. Using data from the 1973 to 2018 General Social Survey and decomposition techniques, we estimate the relative contributions of intracohort change and cohort replacement to overall social change for three different periods. We examine (1) the period prior to the rapid increase in attitude liberalization toward same-sex marriage rights (1973–1991), (2) the period of contentious debate about same-sex marriage and lesbian and gay rights (1991–2002), and (3) the period of legislative and judicial liberalization at the state and federal levels (2002–2018). We find that both intracohort and intercohort change played positive and significant roles in the liberalization of attitudes toward same-sex relationships in the postlegalization period, but that individual change was more important than population turnover over this period.


2015 ◽  
Vol 47 (2) ◽  
pp. 169-206 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew S. Fullerton ◽  
Jun Xu

Adjacent category logit models are ordered regression models that focus on comparisons of adjacent categories. These models are particularly useful for ordinal response variables with categories that are of substantive interest. In this article, we consider unconstrained and constrained versions of the partial adjacent category logit model, which is an extension of the traditional model that relaxes the proportional odds assumption for a subset of independent variables. In the unconstrained partial model, the variables without proportional odds have coefficients that freely vary across cutpoint equations, whereas in the constrained partial model two or more of these variables have coefficients that vary by common factors. We improve upon an earlier formulation of the constrained partial adjacent category model by introducing a new estimation method and conceptual justification for the model. Additionally, we discuss the connections between partial adjacent category models and other models within the adjacent approach, including stereotype logit and multinomial logit. We show that the constrained and unconstrained partial models differ only in terms of the number of dimensions required to describe the effects of variables with nonproportional odds. Finally, we illustrate the partial adjacent category logit models with empirical examples using data from the international social survey program and the general social survey.


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