Lala Carr Steelman

The Educational Benefits of Being Spaced Out: Sibship Density and Educational Progress

Although sociologists have identifiedfactors associated with the timing of births, little is known about the consequences of the spacing of births. Several perspectives imply a negative effect of close spacing of siblings on educational attainment, but these perspectives differ in the mechanisms used to explain this effect. We use data from the High School and Beyond survey to investigate the effect of spacing on high school attrition and post-secondary school attendance. Our analysis confirms that close spacing increases the likelihood of dropping out of high school and decreases the odds of attending post-secondary school. The direct effect of close spacing on post-secondary school attendance persists net of ability and academic performance; the effect of spacing on dropping out of high school is mixed. Close spacing of siblings also constrains the allocation offamily resources, which in turn affects educational attainment. Alternative explanations of the relationship between sibship structure and educational outcomes are reinterpreted in light of these findings.

Acquiring Capital for College: The Constraints of Family Configuration

We investigate the influence of size of sibling group and ordinal position on financial arrangements for college. While this analysis has implications for the status attainment and human capital perspectives, it also represents a direct test of the resource dilution hypothesis. Analyzing a sample of 3279 subjects from the National Longitudinal Survey of the High School Class of 1972, we estimate the association between the number of siblings and (1) the likelihood of parental support of students in college, (2) the amount of parental contributions, and (3) the proportion of total college costs borne by parents. In all cases, a strong inverse relationship is found. Conversely, large sibship sizes increase the dependence upon funds from extrafamilial sources, such as loans, scholarships, employment, and savings. Effects of birth order, although less pronounced, signify a financial advantage to latter-born children. Moreover, sibship structure affects the likelihood that youths cite financial barriers for not attending college.

Rebel without a cause or effect : Birth order and social attitudes

The enduring effects of an individuals birth order have been subject to a long and lively debate in sociology and other disciplines. Recently, in response to Frank J. Sulloways (1996) Born to Rebel: Birth Order, Family Dynamics, and Creative Lives, interest has increased in the possible effects of birth order on social attitudes. Using quantitative, historical data, Sulloway found that birth order is a better predictor of social attitudes than is gender, class, or race. His novel, evolutionary theory asserts the universal influence of birth order across eras and cultures. We use contemporary data to test Sulloways contention that firstborn adults are more conservative, supportive of authority, and tough-minded than laterborns. Examining 24 measures of social attitudes from the General Social Survey (GSS), we find no support for these claims, either in terms of significant effects or even the direction of nonsignificant coefficients. An expanded inquiry using all (202) relevant attitudinal items on the GSS yields similar results. In our analysis, variables discounted by Sulloway - gender, race, social class, and family size - are all linked to social attitudes more strongly than is birth order. Our findings suggest that birth-order theories may be better conceptualized in terms of modest effects in limited domains and in specific societies

Color-blind : The treatment of race and ethnicity in social psychology

We explore the extent to which race and ethnicity have been incorporated in social psychological scholarship and argue that social psychologists should, and can, do better in this regard. First, we discuss why social psychologists should consider race more seriously. We question whether scholars can reasonably continue to assume that basic social psychological processes and theories apply equally well to different racial and ethnic groups. Second, we document the extent to which social psychology has engaged issues of race and ethnicity through a content analysis of the last three decades of Social Psychology Quarterly and the two most comprehensive sourcebooks for social psychology. Comparisons with other specialty journals in sociology and psychology and with the increasing research on gender over the same period highlight the extent to which race has been neglected in social psychology. Finally, in looking to the future, we discuss how race can be given more attention in light of recent methodological advances and emerging research programs.

Unconfounding the Confluence Model: A Test of Sibship Size and Birth Order Effects on Intelligence.

This paper explores the theoretical validity of the confluence model in explaining the effects of sibship size and birth order on intelligence. Using a nationally representative sample the effects of age, sex, marital disruption, socioeconomic status, race, and other potentially confounding variables, unincorporated in other studies, are controlled. The results suggest that (a) the inverse relation between sibship size and IQ lessens for the economically advantaged, (b) the only child breaks the otherwise consistent linear decline between sibship size and IQ in the below-poverty condition only, (c) the nonteacher handicap for only children is questionable, and (d) close spacing, as Zajonc defines it, may have detrimental consequences for children

Social Location, Significant Others and Body Image Among Adolescents

Relatively little is known about factors that influence the extent to which self-perceptions of attractiveness diverge from the evaluations of other observers. Examined in this study are socialfactors that affect the self-evaluations of body weight provided by more than 6500 adolescents. Data are obtained from Cycle III of the National Health Examination Survey. Our findings suggest that adolescents tend to denigrate rather than enhance their body image. This derogation is more pronounced for females than for males. The direction by which the derogation occurs varies by sex, with males viewing themselves as too thin and females rating themselves as overweight, and race, with blacks seeing themselves as too thin. Nevertheless, status characteristics are less powerful predictors of body image than parental assessments, which have a stronger effect on females than on males. This research demonstrates that social location and the views of significant others affect how adolescents see themselves. Implications of these findings and suggestions for further research are discussed.

Advancing Age, Advantaged Youth: Parental Age and the Transmission of Resources to Children

Using data from the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988, we identify parental age as influential in the parental provision of economic resources, social capital and cultural capital to adolescents, as well as in parental educational expectations for their children. At the bivariate level, the relationship is curvilinear, suggesting that having comparatively young or old parents is disadvantageous to teenagers, at least with regard to resource allocation. With controls for socioeconomic background and family structure, however, the pattern typically becomes positive and linear: as the age of the parent rises, so too does the transmission of resources to adolescent offspring. These patterns hold for most economic, social and cultural resources, although the pattern is strongest for economic ones and weakest – albeit still significant – for more interactional ones. Although maternal age is the primary focus of this article, supplementary analyses also confirm a generally positive relationship between paternal age and parental resources. These results suggest that parental age may warrant attention similar to that given to family structure, race and gender.

Seeing their surroundings: the effects of neighborhood setting and race on maternal distress ☆

Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth at two points in time, we examine the relationship between maternal psychological distress and perceived neighborhood disorder for three groups: African Americans, Mexican Americans and whites. Findings show that across all racial groups neighborhood perceptions are more salient in shaping levels of distress than is objective neighborhood location. However, objective location (e.g., central city residence) does considerably influence how mothers perceive their neighborhoods in the first place. These results suggest that future research on the independent consequences of the neighborhood context should incorporate both subjective assessments and objective indicators of living arrangements. We also observe that perceived neighborhood disorder and psychological distress are affected by marital status, educational attainment, household income, and employment. Moreover, compared to their Mexican American and white counterparts, family structure (e.g., number of children) appears to be more detrimental in shaping outcomes for African American mothers.

Sibling Structure and Parental Sex-Typing of Children's Household Tasks.

A theoretical argument concerning the relationship between the sibling structure and parental sex-typing of childrens tasks is developed and tested using data from two nationally representative surveys of adults. We hypothesize that as the number of sons in the family increases (holding constant the number of daughters), the sex-typing of traditionally female tasks will decrease. However, as the number of daughters increases, sex-typing of traditional female chores should become more pronounced. The reverse pattern of effects is expected for traditionally male chores. The results support our hypotheses for the female-specific tasks. For male-specific tasks, the results suggest that only in sibling groups with no sons do increases in the number of daughters reduce the sex-typing of male tasks. Implications of these findings for further study of the impact of sex composition on the division of labor by sex are discussed.

All My Children The Consequences of Sibling Group Characteristics on the Marital Happiness of Young Mothers

In this research, we investigate how children shape maternal marital happiness. The findings reveal that the otherwise negative effects of sibship size are altered by the gender composition of the sibling group. Having sons tends to reduce the negative impact of sibling group size. Solving for main effects in the interactions that include sibship size by the gender composition of the sibling group, we find that having all sons affords the most beneficial consequences for marital happiness. The daughter-only groups have nonsignificant effects, and the mixed-gender sibships have the most deleterious influence on maternal marital happiness. Within a subsample of mixed-gender sibships only, we further find that mothers who have more boys than girls are more likely to report higher marital gratification. Generally speaking, our research demonstrates the need to examine both main and interaction effects of family structure on marital happiness.