Heili Pals

Intersecting gender with race and religiosity: Do unique social categories explain attitudes toward homosexuality?

Although attitudes toward homosexuality have been widely studied over the past 30 years, few studies have scrutinized the interaction effects between gender and race, and gender and religiosity, on attitudes toward homosexuality. This article analyzes US data from the fifth wave of the World Values Survey, collected in 2006 – a nationally representative sample of individuals residing in the United States. Contrary to previous research, no significant interaction is found between gender and race on attitudes toward homosexuality. This finding challenges conventional thinking on essentialized differences regarding racial groups and their attitudes toward homosexuality. The interaction between gender and religiosity, though, suggests that religiosity has a greater effect on women’s attitudes than men’s. Finally, the article shows that most of the difference in attitudes toward homosexuality between men and women is explained by differences in gender role beliefs.

Winners and Losers in Health Insurance: Access and Type of Coverage for Women in Same-Sex and Opposite-Sex Partnerships

Using data from the American Community Survey, 2009 (N = 580,754), we compared rates of health insurance coverage and types of coverage used between women in same-sex and opposite-sex partnerships. This large, national dataset also allowed us to investigate regional variation in insurance coverage for women in same-sex partnerships by comparing “gay-tolerant” states versus other states. Multivariate analyses revealed that women in same-sex partnerships consistently had lower rates of health insurance coverage than married women in opposite-sex partnerships, but always more than unmarried women in opposite-sex partnerships. We also found that state-level variation in gay tolerance did not contribute to the access or type of coverage used by women in same-sex partnerships.

The Consequences of School Environment and Locus of Control on Adulthood Deviant Behavior

ABSTRACT We examine the long-term effect of school environment on individual deviant behavior. Specifically, we contrast the effects of school deviance and students’ perception of school deviance on personal deviance later in life. Using longitudinal data from four waves of more than 3,100 participants in the Kaplan Longitudinal and Multigenerational Study, we are able to show that school deviance in 7th grade has only a short-term effect on individual deviance. However, when students perceive a lack of deviance in their school at 7th grade, it decreased their personal deviance in their mid-forties if they were both deviant in 7th grade and reported an external locus of control.

Residential energy conservation: the effects of education and perceived behavioral control

This study examines the effects of values, norms, perceived behavioral control, and education on intentions to save energy and actual energy-saving behaviors among residential energy customers (N = 329). A linear regression with ordinary least squares (OLS) estimates showed that environmental values, energy-saving norms, and perceived behavioral control did not have uniform effects on energy behaviors and the intention to conserve was not significantly correlated with energy-using behaviors. However, there is a link between perceived behavioral control and energy-saving behaviors. Respondents with higher educational attainment had greater intentions to conserve energy and an increased likelihood of engaging in energy-conscious behavior like turning off the television more frequently. Further exploration revealed that a considerable portion of the effect of education was due to the mediating effect of perceived behavioral control and not due to increased pro-environmental values or norms.

The roles of internal locus of control and neighborhood affluence in predicting the continuity of negative self-feelings from adolescence to young adulthood.

The present study examines the moderating effect of locus of control on the continuity in negative self-feelings from adolescence to young adulthood. We use longitudinal data of 1296 respondents from adolescence (11-13 years old) to young adulthood (20-24 years old). Using interaction effects in linear regression with robust standard errors we find that those with an internal locus of control experience stronger continuity in negative self-feelings from adolescence to young adulthood. Furthermore, based on both self-reported and objective measures of neighborhood status, internal locus of control increases the continuity in negative self-feelings in the transition to adulthood in disadvantaged neighborhoods but not in advantaged neighborhoods. Thus, locus of control acts as a maladaptive mechanism in less affluent neighborhoods. This result demonstrates the importance of considering both the individual social psychological and the contextual sociological perspectives when investigating the role of internal locus of control on the perpetuation of negative self-feelings.

Attachment to Society and Cognitive Deviance: The Case of Turkey

ABSTRACT This paper examines the relationship between the level of attachment to society and cognitive deviance in modern Turkey. Applying Social Bonding Theory, we argue that stronger attachment to society leads to higher conformity to society’s socially accepted norms and less cognitive deviance. We conceptualize cognitive deviance as nontraditional attitudes toward sexuality and marriage. Using the 2011 World Values Survey, we find that the level of attachment to society reduces cognitive deviance. Moreover, the effect is stronger toward more extreme cognitive deviance, such as tolerance toward homosexuality, than less extreme cognitive deviance, such as tolerance toward divorce and abortion.

Adolescent noncompliance and occupational attainment in transitional societies

This article examines the effects of adolescent noncompliance (e.g., breaking of rules, flouting of norms) on occupational attainment in unstable and unpredictable societies. The authors suggest that the effect of adolescent noncompliance on occupational attainment depends on the unpredictability of the society and propose that adolescent noncompliance has positive effects on the occupational status of young adults in unpredictable societies. Using longitudinal data from the Paths of a Generation study, the authors estimate the impact of adolescent noncompliance on occupational status in former Soviet regions at two time points: (1) before the transition (stable society) and (2) in 1997–9, after major societal changes (unstable and unpredictable society). They find that adolescent noncompliance does not affect occupational attainment before the transition; however, it does increase the chance of being a manager after the transition. In addition, it is found that after the transition, adolescent noncompliance has positive effects on occupational attainment in the private sector but not in the state sector, providing further evidence of the positive effect of noncompliance in unpredictable societies.