Felicia F. Tian

An empirical analysis of the impact of recruitment patterns on RDS estimates among a socially ordered population of female sex workers in China

Respondent-driven sampling (RDS) is a method for recruiting “hidden” populations through a network-based, chain and peer referral process. RDS recruits hidden populations more effectively than other sampling methods and promises to generate unbiased estimates of their characteristics. RDS’s faithful representation of hidden populations relies on the validity of core assumptions regarding the unobserved referral process. With empirical recruitment data from an RDS study of female sex workers (FSWs) in Shanghai, we assess the RDS assumption that participants recruit nonpreferentially from among their network alters. We also present a bootstrap method for constructing the confidence intervals around RDS estimates. This approach uniquely incorporates real-world features of the population under study (e.g., the sample’s observed branching structure). We then extend this approach to approximate the distribution of RDS estimates under various peer recruitment scenarios consistent with the data as a means to quantify the impact of recruitment bias and of rejection bias on the RDS estimates. We find that the hierarchical social organization of FSWs leads to recruitment biases by constraining RDS recruitment across social classes and introducing bias in the RDS estimates.

Weak ties, strong ties, and job mobility in urban China: 1978–2008

Abstract The economic transformation in urban China provides a unique opportunity to assess how institutional arrangements shape network-based job searches. Despite several studies on this issue, disagreement exists over how network-based job searches evolve in the Chinese emerging labor market. We argue one way to solve this controversy is to examine the patterns of change in the use of weak ties and strong ties separately. Using pooled data from three cross-sectional surveys in urban China, the results show a steady increase in the use of weak ties and an increasing and persistent use of strong ties in finding jobs between 1978 and 2008. The results also show no systematic difference between the use of weak ties for finding jobs in the market sector versus the state sector. However, they show faster growth in the use of strong ties for finding jobs in the state sector, compared to the market sector.

Job Mobility and Extramarital Sex in Reform-Era Urban China

The rise of extramarital sex in China is often portrayed as a consequence of a normative shift, that is, the diversification of family and related values that has accompanied the countrys move toward a less ideologically controlled society. We argue that the increase in extramarital sex is not only the result of a normative shift but also has been structurally determined by a reorganization of the labor market. We view job mobility, which was strongly discouraged in the prereform era, as a proxy for employees independence from institutional control over sexual behavior. Using a male sample from the Shanghai Sexual Network Survey (SSNS), a citywide representative survey of Shanghai population aged eighteen to forty-nine, our analysis reveals that male job changers, particularly those whose new jobs are in the market sector, are associated with a significantly higher likelihood of engaging in extramarital sex than those who never change jobs.

Gendered double embeddedness: Finding jobs through networks in the Chinese labor market

Abstract Inspired by the concept of “double embeddedness,” we argue that the gender gap in network-based job searching depends on the degree of legitimacy of gender status beliefs across institutional contexts. Analyses from the 2008 Chinese General Social Survey show that the gender gap in network-based job searching is larger in the market sector than in the state sector, as the gender status beliefs are more legitimate in the former than in the latter. Additionally, the sector difference of the gender gap in network-based job searching is significant when the resources channeled through networks are information-related, but it is insignificant when the network resources are influence-related. These findings indicate that job searching is double embedded in social networks and in cultural institutions.

Global Interactions and Family Formation Pathways in Reform-Era Urban China

Abstract: Although demographers and family sociologists have long recognized the importance of ideational diffusion to family change, few studies have examined this relationship, especially in non-Western societies. Building on the world society theory, this article proposes a positive relationship between global interactions and family change. Using reform-era urban China as a case study, latent class analysis is first used to map out innovative family behaviors in the Chinese context. Next, a multi-level framework is used to empirically examine the relationship between province-level global interactions and the adoption of innovative individual-level family behaviors. Results from the latent class analysis suggest that the major family change in the Chinese context is the postponement of marriage and childbearing. Results from multi-level models confirm the hypothesis, suggesting that individuals living in provinces with higher levels of global interactions, as measured by foreign direct investment performance, have higher likelihoods of delaying family formation.