Melissa A. Hardy

Handbook of data analysis

Introduction: Common Threads among Techniques of Data Analysis - Melissa Hardy and Alan Bryman PART ONE: FOUNDATIONS Constructing Variables - Alan Bryman and Duncan Cramer Summarizing Distributions - Melissa Hardy Inference - Lawrence Hazelrigg Strategies for Analysis of Incomplete Data - Mortaza Jamshidian Feminist Issues in Data Analysis - Mary Maynard Historical Analysis - Dennis Smith PART TWO: THE GENERAL LINEAR MODEL AND EXTENSIONS Multiple Regression Analysis - Ross M. Stolzenberg Incorporating Categorical Information into Regression Models: The Utility of Dummy Variables - Melissa Hardy and John Reynolds Analyzing Contingent Effects in Regression Models - James Jaccard and Tonya Dodge Regression Models for Categorical Outcomes - J Scott Long and Simon Cheng Log-Linear Analysis - Douglas L Anderton and Eric Cheney PART THREE: LONGITUDINAL MODELS Modeling Change - Nancy Brandon Tuma Analyzing Panel Data: Fixed- and Random-Effects Models - Trond Petersen Longitudinal Analysis for Continuous Outcomes: Random Effects Models and Latent Trajectory Models - Guang Guo and John Hipp Event History Analysis - Paul Allison Sequence Analysis and Optimal Matching Techniques for Social Science Data - Heather MacIndoe and Andrew Abbott PART FOUR: NEW DEVELOPMENTS IN MODELING Sample Selection Bias Models - Vincent Kang Fu, Christopher Winship and Robert D Mare Structural Equation Modeling - Jodie B Ullman and Peter M Bentler Multilevel Modelling - William Browne and Jon Rasbash Causal Inference in Sociological Studies - Christopher Winship and Michael Sobel The Analysis of Social Networks - Ronald L Breiger PART FIVE: ANALYZING QUALITATIVE DATA Tools for Qualitative Data Analysis - Raymond M Lee and Nigel G Fielding Content Analysis - Roberto P Franzosi Semiotics and Data Analysis - Peter K Manning Conversation Analysis - Steven E Clayman and Virginia Teas Gill Discourse Analysis - Jonathan Potter Grounded Theory - Nick Pidgeon and Karen Henwood The Uses of Narrative in Social Science Research - Barbara Czarniawska Qualitative Research and the Postmodern Turn - Sara Delamont and Paul Atkinson

Occupational influences on retirement, disability, and death

This research examines the alternative mechanisms by which occupations influence the nature and timing of older men’s labor force withdrawal. We specifically assess the extent to which occupational factors operate directly and indirectly on exiting events and whether occupations constrain traditional determinants of labor force participation. Based on a discrete-time hazard modeling approach, the results substantiate that the occupational task activities—substantive complexity and physical demands— are key elements of the work environment that are evaluated against nonwork alternatives. In the case of retirement, these aspects of occupational attractiveness function as a dominant and direct force in retirement decision making. With regard to disability, the occupational attribute of substantive complexity operates as an indirect advantage (through higher wages) by reducing the risk of disability. Indicators of career continuity also influence retirement among older workers. Finally, the results suggest that financial characteristics and health problems are central to the distribution of older workers across the alternative destination statuses of retirement, disability, and death.

Population Aging, Intracohort Aging, and Sociopolitical Attitudes

Prevailing stereotypes of older people hold that their attitudes are inflexible or that aging tends to promote increasing conservatism in sociopolitical outlook. In spite of mounting scientific evidence demonstrating that learning, adaptation, and reassessment are behaviors in which older people can and do engage, the stereotype persists. We use U.S. General Social Survey data from 25 surveys between 1972 and 2004 to formally assess the magnitude and direction of changes in attitudes that occur within cohorts at different stages of the life course. We decompose changes in sociopolitical attitudes into the proportions attributable to cohort succession and intracohort aging for three categories of items: attitudes toward historically subordinate groups, civil liberties, and privacy. We find that significant intracohort change in attitudes occurs in cohorts-inlater- stages (age 60 and older) as well as cohorts-in-earlier-stages (ages 18 to 39), that the change for cohorts-in-later-stages is frequently greater than that for cohorts-inearlier-stages, and that the direction of change is most often toward increased tolerance rather than increased conservatism. These findings are discussed within the context of population aging and development.

Early retirement processes among older men. Occupational differences.

This study examines the influence of the occupational work context on early retirement, focusing specifically on the ways in which the nature of work in the occupation constrains early retirement processes. Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Mature Men and the Dictionary of Occupational Titles, a model of early retirement is specified in which retirement is a function of health, pension coverage, union membership, the wage rate, compulsory retirement regulations, tenure, and certain background factors. This model is estimated within occupational job families where a job family is a cluster of occupations grouped according to major task dimensions of the occupational work context. The findings indicate that the effects of certain traditional determinants of early retirement vary substantially across occupational work contexts, demonstrating that the labor force opportunities of older men are defined within an occupational context, and that the impact of individual and job characteristics relevant to the early retirement decision are shaped by the nature of work. The implications of these findings for future research are discussed.

Older Adult Migration to the Sunbelt Assessing Income and Related Characteristics of Recent Migrants

Previous research has documented that, in the aggregate, older adult migrants to the Sunbelt tend to have higher average incomes than age-peer native residents. Using individual-level data on older Florida residents, the present study examines the extent to which this difference is due to compositional differences in factors that correlate with income, rather than to differences in income, per se. To compare specifically the income characteristics of the in-migrant and native portions of a places older population, it is necessary to standardize the two groups on other relevant characteristics. The analyses suggest that the income advantage of migrants occurs principally among those older adults who migrate in conjunction with the retirement decision, and that it results mainly from a self-selection process.

Studying aging and social change : conceptual and methodological issues

Doing Time - Melissa A Hardy and Linda Waite Reconciling Biography with History in the Study of Social Change The Problem of Generations - K Mannheim The Cohort as a Concept in the Study of Social Change - Norman B Ryder On the Importance of Age - Lawrence Hazelrigg Beyond Trajectories - Eliza K Pavalko Multiple Concepts for Analyzing Long-Term Process Using Repeated Surveys To Study Aging and Social Change - Glenn Firebaugh and Dana L Haynie Aging, Social Change and Conservatism - Duane F Alwin The Link between Historical and Biographical Time in the Study of Political Identities Establishing a Reference Frame against Which To Chart Age-Related Changes - John R Nesselroade and David L Featherman

Employment after Retirement Who Gets Back in.

This study deals with one piece of the more general topic of job termination and responses to job terminations by focusing on the retirement and reentry behavior of older men and women. Using survey data from a representative sample of Florida residents aged 55 and older, multinomial logit models distinguishing reentrants, available workers, and retirees are estimated. Results are supportive of a status maintenance perspective on inequality in old age, showing that many of the factors associated with an insufficient demand for labor at younger ages are reproduced as predictors of unsuccessful reentry into the labor force after an initial retirement. Women, in particular, appear to be disadvantaged in their ability to maintain a desired attachment to the labor force, and evidence of this disadvantage persists even when preretirement job status and educational achievement are controlled.

A Multilevel Model of Early Retirement Decisions among Autoworkers in Plants with Different Futures

During the period of their 1986-1989 General Motors (GM)-United Auto Workers (UAW) contract, about 17% of all GM autoworkers who were eligible to elect early retirement did so. Those who did were distinctive in theoretically expected ways, with expectations defined by individual characteristics such as age, physical health, and pension wealth. But some of the workers were employed in plants that GM had decided to abandon. Did that difference in organizational context make a difference in individual workers’ decisions about early retirement? Would workers who chose to take early retirement and who were employed in plants scheduled to close have made the same decision had their plants not been selected for closure? If the rate of early retirement was higher in plants scheduled to close, and it was, how did that difference relate to the process by which individual workers reached their decisions? These are some of the questions asked and answered through multilevel analyses of data from a probability sample of GM’s autoworkers. These analyses generate findings not detected in single-level analyses of the same data.

How Health Conditions Translate into Self-Ratings: A Comparative Study of Older Adults across Europe

Using data from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe, we examine how respondents translate morbidity and disability into self-rated health (SRH), how national populations differ in SRH, and how normative and person-specific reporting styles shape SRH. We construct proxy variables that allow us to specify cultural differences in reporting styles and individual differences in relative rating behavior. Using generalized logistic regression, we find that both of these dimensions of subjectivity are related to SRH; however, their inclusion does not significantly alter the connection between SRH and the set of disease and disability indicators. Further, country differences in SRH persist after controlling for all these factors. Our findings suggest that observed country differences in SRH reflect compositional differences, cultural differences in reporting styles, and perceptions of how health restricts typical activities. SRH also seems to capture underlying but unmeasured health differences across populations.

Racial Disparities in Income Security for a Cohort of Aging American Women

In this analysis we examine how womens family and employment choices are linked to differences in financial security as they age. Previous research has tested theories of growing inequality, decreasing inequality, or maintained inequality as cohorts transition into old age. We assess these hypotheses for older women and emphasize the heterogeneity in womens experiences, particularly differences in income security among women by race. Our findings indicate that, although marriage offers women considerable financial protection, their own employment was also a key to their security and reduced the rate at which income security decayed as they entered old age. This increased the variation in outcomes relative to initial positions. Whereas marriage provided more security for white women, employment gave a greater boost to black women.