Cardell K. Jacobson

Resistance to Affirmative Action

Despite the decade-long debate in the media and in the social science literature over affirmative action programs, relatively little information has appeared about attitudes toward these programs. In this article racial threat or self-interest, new symbolic racism, and old-fashioned racism are examined as predictors of attitudes about affirmative action programs. The data are from a national survey conducted in the late fall of 1978 by Louis Harris and Associates for the National Conference of Christians and Jews. Self-interest, new symbolic racism, and old-fashioned racism are all found to be related to attitudes about affirmative action programs and remain so when a variety of control variables are included in the regression analyses. The new racism scale was clearly the best predictor of attitudes about affirmative action programs but is shown to have many underpinnings from traditional sources of racism. Possible reasons for the effect of self-interest on attitudes about affirmative action programs that had not been related to racial attitudes in earlier studies are discussed.

Persistence and change in decisions to remain childless

Numerous researchers have examined the incidence, correlates, and predictors of childlessness. Few, however, have examined changes in intended childlessness because the longitudinal data required to track these changes are rare. We utilize the National Survey of Families and Households to examine trends in intentions to remain childless. We include both demographic and ideational variables in the analysis, and we focus on respondents between the ages of 19 and 39 years who had not had children at the beginning of the study. The largest group wants children but still postpone childbearing. The next largest group carries out their intention to have children. The third largest group switches from wanting children to not wanting children. Some are consistently childless in both surveys. Finally, a relatively small group did not intend to have a child in the first survey but subsequently had a child. Marital status is the most salient predictor for having children, but cohabitors also are more likely to have children than are single noncohabitors. Rates of childlessness in the United States have varied substantially over the past several decades. Morgan (1991), for example, reports that census data show slightly over 15% of White women born in the mid-1880s remained childless. This childless rate increased to over 25% of women born in 1910 who reached normal childbearing age during the Depression. The percentage then dropped dramatically to about 10% of White women born in 1935 who reached childbearing age during the baby boom. Since then, the rate has increased again, with a projected childless rate of 22% for women born in 1962 (Morgan & Chen, 1992). Non-White women experienced a similar increase in childlessness during the Depression and a similar decline during the baby boom, but they have not participated in the post-baby boom rise in childlessness to the extent that White women have (Chen & Morgan, 1991.) These fluctuations indicate that potential parents do respond to economic and social conditions, even when modern and efficient contraception is not available. (See also May, 1995, and Friedman, Hechter, & Kanazawa, 1994.) Because demographers have been concerned with population growth arising from high fertility, their explanations for why people have children are designed to explain fertility decline. Such theories provide incomplete explanations for fertility decline during demographic transition (Mason, 1997) and are even less satisfactory in accounting for the persistence of childbearing in highly developed societies (Schoen, Young, Nathanson, Fields, & Astone, 1997). New approaches to understanding why people continue to have children have been suggested (Axinn & Thornton, 1996; Friedman et al., 1994; Rovi; 1994). Given recent increases in childlessness, these new approaches also should be able to account for the decision not to have children. We examine factors related to persistence and change in decisions to remain childless. The general trends in childlessness that we have noted combine both the infertile (or involuntarily childless) and the voluntarily childless. Though such trends reflect and affect the overall structure and composition of society, the rate of involuntary childlessness has declined as a result of better health and a general decrease in sterility caused by sexually transmitted diseases. Voluntary childlessness, on the other hand, reflects the choices of potential parents and has varied substantially by period and cohort. By all accounts, voluntary childlessness has increased in recent decades. We develop and test a model of persistence and change in voluntary childlessness. EXPLANATIONS FOR VOLUNTARY CHILDLESSNESS Prevailing theories of voluntary childlessness have tended to emphasize either a rational choice approach, focusing on the costs and benefits of having children, or ideational approaches, focusing more on values and norms. …

White on Black Can White Parents Teach Black Adoptive Children How to Understand and Cope With Racism

In this article, the authors examine White parents’ endeavors toward the racial enculturation and inculcation of their transracially adopted Black children. Drawing on in-depth interviews, the authors identify and analyze themes across the specific race socialization strategies and practices White adoptive parents used to help their adopted Black children to develop a positive racial identity and learn how to effectively cope with issues of race and racism. The central aim of this article is to examine how these lessons about race help to connect family members to U.S. society’s existing racial hierarchy and how these associations position individuals to help perpetuate or challenge the deeply embedded and historical structures of White supremacy. The authors use the notion of White racial framing to move outside of the traditional arguments for or against transracial adoption to instead explore how a close analysis of the adoptive parents’ racial instructions may serve as a learning tool to foster more democratic and inclusive forms of family and community.

Voluntary childlessness among American men and women in the late 1980's

Most studies of childlessness in the United States have relied on unrepresentative, opportunistic samples collected in a variety of ways. Thus, the relationship of various correlates to childlessness is not well known. Some studies have focused on demographic variables, but have not examined attitudinal factors associated with childlessness--something the opportunistic samples have been able to do. In this paper we examine both attitudinal and demographic factors associated with childlessness in the United States. The data used in this paper are from the National Survey of Families and Households collected in 1987 and 1988. The data set includes both demographic data, perceived advantages and disadvantages of having children, and attitudinal data about related social issues. Overall, the rate of voluntary childlessness was not high. Only 3.5 per cent of the men and 2.8 per cent of the women reported that they were childless and did not expect to have children. Only one category of people (unmarried men and women over the age of 35) had rates that exceeded ten per cent. A combined variable of age and marital status was the best predictor of childlessness. A scale of reasons or justifications for having children was the next best predictor. In addition, attendance at religious services, number of hours the respondents desired to work and education (for women only) were related to childlessness. Those who scored highly on measures of support for traditional families and support of extended families also tended to have lower rates of childlessness. Occupational status, religious denomination, and race, on the other hand, were not significantly related to childlessness. Measures of gender equality, religious fundamentalism, and support for mothers working were also not related to childlessness.

Race Differences in Changing Family Demographics in the 1980s

Traditional demarcators of family formation and dissolution have changed dramatically over the past few decades and Black-White differences have become pronounced. In this article, we explore the degree to which a relatively small set of variables can account for racial difference in timing of initiation of sexual activity, first marriage, first birth, and divorce. The independent variables included in the model are adolescent living arrangements (single-parent vs. two-parent), mothers educational level, religion, region of the country, area of residency (urban, suburban, rural), birth cohort, and year of the survey. Based on hazard models for the rate of occurrence of each event, we estimate how Blacks would differ if they had mean values on covariates equal to White observed means. Although the results differ for the four dependent variables, this particular set of independent variables does not provide a satisfactory explanation of the differences between Black and White family formation and dissolution. Blacks and Whites may be responding to different structural and cultural constraints not easily captured by basic demographic variables.

Religiosity of Married Couples and Childlessness

The relationship between religion and voluntary childlessness is examined using data from the National Survey of Families and Households collected in 1987and 1988. Four types of religious variables are used: attendance, denomination, belief in the Bible, and type of marriage ceremony. In addition the religious variables and childlessness of spouses are examined as correlates. Finally, the relationship between religion and voluntary childlessness is examined with age, occupation, and education controlled. Overall, the rate of voluntary childlessness was low. Only 3.5 percent of the men and 2.8 percent of the women reported that they were childless and did not expect to have children. A low but consistent negative relationship between religion and childlessness was found. Non-attenders, those without an affiliation, those who did not believe in the Bible, and those who had civil rather than religious marriage ceremonies had significantly higher rates of childlessness. Differences between denominations were small and insignificant. Each spouses religiosity influences his/her own childlessness but is not directly associated with childlessness of the other spouse.

Interracial Friendship and African American Attitudes about Interracial Marriage

For a variety of reasons, there is little systematic evidence about African American attitudes about interracial marriage. National data are often sparse or not available, and they are often dated. Using a Year 2000 nationally representative poll from The New York Times, we analyze African American approval of interracial marriage. The sample comprised 934 African Americans. Eighty-five percent say they approve of interracial marriage. Education, sex, age, and region are significantly related to approval in the bivariate analyses. Analysis of the amount of contact or friendship African Americans have with Whites appears to be a critical variable affecting attitudes about intergroup marriage; the effects of most of the other variables become nonsignificant when friendship is included in the analysis.

Religiosity and Prejudice: An Update and Denominational Analysis

This paper examines the relationship between several measures of religiosity and prejudice for Catholics, Protestants, Latter-day Saints, and those with no religious affiliation. The data are from undergraduate students at several universities in the United States. The religious dimensions are biblical orthodoxy, experiential religiosity, frequency of religious attendance, and set-assessed importance of religion for the respondents. The measures of prejudice or racism include a racism scale, a proximity scale, and a measure of attitudes towards affirmative action programs. Both linear and curvilinear relationships between religiosity andprejudice are negligible for most groups. The exception was the Latter-day Saint or Mormon sample; for this group the relationship between religiosity and prejudice was negative, not positive. This result is explained in terms of the recent history of the church, the effect of its missionary program on the attitudes of the missionaries, and the hierarchical structure of the LDS church.

Childlessness among American women

Abstract The rate of childlessness in the United States has increased over the last two decades. Changing or differential rates by different segments of society have important implications for society. Most previous studies have relied on unrepresentative opportunistic samples to identify those segments of society with lower or higher rates of childlessness. These types of samples may misestimate both the number of women planning to remain childless and the magnitude of the correlates of childlessness. The present study uses these previous studies to identify predictor variables, but tests their significance using a recent national representative sample of women in the United States, aged 20–44: Cycle III of the National Survey for Family Growth, collected in 1982. The most important demographic factors are marital status and fecundity status, followed by age, race or ethnicity, education of the respondent, labor force status, and region. Fathers education and mothers education are slightly, but not sig...

Denominational and Racial and Ethnic Differences in Fatalism

Social scientists have long been interested in the relationship between religion and various measures offatalism. Theodicies, or religious explanations for negative (andpositive) outcomes in life, suggest that religion and religiosity should be related to measures offatalism. Race and ethnicity have also been linked to fatalistic attitudes. In this paper I examine the relationship between religious denomination, religiosity, race/ethnicity and a measure offatalism. The data are from Wave I of the national survey Americans Changing Lives, a national probability sample of3617 people that includes an oversample ofAfrican Americans. The results indicate that both denominational types and race and ethnicity continue to be related in important ways to the measure offatalism. The differences remain strong even when age, gender, income, education, and socio-economic status of occupations are controlled statistically.