Alan E. Bayer

Birth Order and College Attendance

This follow-up study of a large national sample of high school seniors examines the magnitude and direction of birth order effects on educational attainment. Only children are found to be the most likely to attend college, while children of intermediate ordinal positions are least likely to further their education. Contrary to previous research findings, first-born emerge as no more likely to attend college than are last-born from the same family size and socioeconomic strata. The implications of these findings with respect to the generally posed explanatory hypotheses are discussed.

Life Plans and Marriage Age: An Application of Path Analysis

Path analysis has been widely employed in recent years as a concise means of simultaneously analyzing the interrelationships among a large number of variables. The utility of this method in family research is demonstrated in the present paper. Four independent variables-socioeconomic status, aptitude, educational plans, and marriage expectations-are related to the age at marriage among a subsample of 4,000 married young people from a nationwide longitudinal survey. Of the four independent variables, expected age at marriage, stated some time prior to marriage, is shown through path analysis to be the best single predictor of actual marriage age. The additional accuracy in prediction through assessment of the other variables is negligible. A multiple causality model, based on path analysis and including additional variables to those employed in this paper, is advocated as a means to optimize prediction of marriageand family-related outcomes.

A Bibliometric Analysis of Marriage and Family Literature

This research demonstrates that several quantifiable characteristics of articles in the marriage and family area are substantially related to subsequent impact in the field, based on bibliometric citation analysis. Articles are more frequently cited when they are explicitly linked to prior literature in the marriage and family field, to more current ongoing research not yet published, and to contemporary theorists in gender and sex roles. Consistent with studies of other science fields, the works published by the more eminent, highly cited scholars are more likely to be cited. However, contrary to other fields, collaborative work in marriage and the family does not yield higher visibility. The implications of these results to the field are discussed, and further analyses are proposed to supplement this bibliometric assessment and to explore some tentative conclusions.

College Impact on Marriage

A series of multiple regression analyses were undertaken to assess the impact of personal and college variables on early marriage and attrition in a random subsample of 2,091 married and 2,124 single college students drawn from a nationally representative longitudinal study sample. Utilization of a large number of personal and background variables are shown to yield only moderate predictive value for determining marriage in college; simply asking the person to estimate his or her chances of marrying while in college results in only slight differences of predictive accuracy. Disproportionate numbers of marriage-prone students are shown to enroll in particular types of institutions, and institutions with particular types of characteristics are shown to provide an environment which appears conducive to marriage, although the relationships are relatively weak. Implications of the results are discussed in connection with the institutional policies and practices affecting married students and, hence, their subsequent educational progress.

Student Protest and Sex-Role Attitude Change, 1967-1971: A Log-Linear Analysis of Longitudinal Data.

Longitudinal relationships between protest participation and attitude toward the female role are examined in data from a 1967–1971 national panel of college students using Goodmans log-linear techniques for the analysis of two-attribute turnover tables. Contrary to earlier evidence, 1967 protest participation does not predict 1971 sex-role “modernism” for either females or males. Sex-role modernism in 1967 does predict protest participation by 1971. No evidence is found for expected three-variable interactions involving gender, sex-role attitude, and protest participation. These findings suggest a need for reinterpretation of earlier work relating student protest to the sex-role attitudes of college women.

Cohabitation Among Youth: Correlates of Support for a New American Ethic

riage, a type of trial marriage, or simply a variation in the courtship process, it is clear that both the rate of cohabiting and the public opinion on cohabitation reflect a liberalizing trend. Cohabitation is increasing not only among young adults but across all age groups in American society. Nationally, the number of couples living together outside of marriage doubled during the first eight years of the 1970s, rising 19% between 1977 and 1978 alone, and increased more than eightfold among people under age 25 (U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1979).1

Family Life Education in Florida Public High Schools

Family life education in the South has received little study. In order to establish empirical data which will be comparable to research in other regions of the country and which will provide an objective basis on which to judge the present status of family life education, the authors have investigated the administrative provisions for family life education in Florida high schools, subjects and topics taught in family life courses, characteristics and qualifications of family life teachers, and teaching methods employed in family life courses. It is concluded that the improvement of high school family life programs and a more thorough training of family life teachers appear warranted.

Foreign students in American colleges: Time for change in policy and practice

Institutional characteristics for the total population of more than 2,300 American colleges and universities are related to the proportionate foreign student enrollment in each institution through stepwise multiple-regression analysis. Large proportionate numbers of foreign students are enrolled in American private colleges, in colleges located in the West, and in institutions of high quality (as determined by institutional revenue and average achievement test scores of enrolled students). It is proposed that American institutions of higher education, particularly those which are found to enroll proportionately few foreign students, undertake efforts to increase their ratio of foreign to domestic students. A broad discussion is also presented with respect to the educational experience of foreign nationals in the United States and the institutional and national policies which affect foreign students. Given the greater balance in the supply-demand situation of highly trained American manpower in the 1970s, and the availability of many unfilled student positions in American institutions, the implementation of such policies and programs may allow a greater inflow of foreign students to domestic colleges.