Richard H. Nagasawa

THEORY OF SEGMENTED ASSIMILATION AND THE ADOPTION OF MARIJUANA USE AND DELINQUENT BEHAVIOR BY ASIAN PACIFIC YOUTH

This article examines the adoption of behaviors of the teen drug and delinquent subcultures among Asian Pacific youth within the framework of the theory of segmented assimilation. Alejandro Portes and Min Zhous theory offers a new perspective to the question: Under what conditions are youth susceptible to marijuana use and delinquent behavior? In contrast to Milton Gordons classic one-path theory, segmented assimilation theory looks to the immigrant culture and social capital (e.g., social solidarity) as critical factors in the assimilation process. The theory suggests several different types of adaptation by immigrant youth and Asian youth born in the United States. The data from the Asian Student Drug Survey were used to analyze the patterns of marijuana use and delinquent behavior among Japanese. Chinese, Filipino. Korean, Southeast Asian, Asian Indian, and Pacific Islander youth, controlling for human capital and social capital, as well as other relevant factors. Logistic regression analysis was used to determine the factors that affect the odds of marijuana use and delinquent behavior for the seven ethnic groups in this study. The likelihood of marijuana use differed significantly among the ethnic groups. For example, Pacific Islander and Filipino youth were much more likely than Japanese youth to use marijuana. Korean, Southeast Asian, and Asian Indian youth did not differ significantly from the Japanese youth in marijuana use. Like the model that predicted marijuana use, the Chinese youth were least likely to engage in delinquent behavior, while Filipino and Pacific Islander youth were most likely. Segmented assimilation theory points to the importance of the human and social capital that serve to insulate youth from the influence of the teen drug and delinquent cultures.

Construction of An SI Theory of Fashion: Part 1. Ambivalence and Change

In this first part of a three-part series explaining fashion as a social process, a symbolic interactionist (SI) theory is presented to explain why appearance styles continue to emerge, be adopted and change. Unlike existing theories that tend to explain how a particular style diffuses through a social system, this theory draws on SI and extracts underlying concepts that, we propose, instigate and perpetuate changes in appearance styles: ambivalence, symbolic ambiguity, and negotiation. Five principles and associated theoretical statements are developed to explain fashion in general, followed by a more specific look at transitional cultural contexts, using the contemporary, U.S. context for the purpose of illustration.

Clothing Style Differences: Their Effect on the Impression of Sociability

This research examines the effect of clothing style differences on the formation of the impression of sociability. A two-by-four factorial experiment was designed to measure the effect of four costumes on the impressions of sociability formed by males and females of a female peer. The sample included 60 male and 60 female college students, from which 15 males and 15 females were assigned randomly to view each of the experimental costumes and to respond on an Impression Measure. Photographs of a female college student wearing two in-fashion costumes and two out-of-fashion costumes were used to determine the degree of sociability attributed to her when she wore different clothing styles. Analysis of variance and the eta squared correlation ratio were used to determine the type and strength of the relationships within the data. Both male and female college students evalu ated a female peer when she wore in-fashion clothing as being more sociable than when she wore out-of-fashion clothing. The effect of clothing style on the impression of sociability was found to be statistically significant and conceptually important.

Social Control Theory as a Theory of Conformity: The Case of Asian/Pacific Drug and Alcohol Nonuse

This study uses data from the Asian Student Drug Survey to examine the extent to which social control and peer cluster theories explain drug and alcohol use among students of various Asian American subgroups. The data suggest that drug and alcohol use differs significantly among the various subgroups. Pacific Islander and Filipino American youths have the highest rates, whereas Chinese American youths have the lowest rates of use. Among some ethnic groups, families, friends, and teachers are unable to keep youths from using drugs and alcohol. Even so, families play an important role for Chinese and Asian Indians, and teachers are important in keeping Southeast Asians from drug and alcohol use. Commitment to school and to high moral standards also insulates youths from drug and alcohol use. Contrary to social control theory, however, use of drugs and alcohol by peers strongly affects alcohol and drug use. The data suggest that youths of all ethnic groups tend to use drugs and alcohol when their peers have tried marijuana, have gotten drunk, have been gang members, or have encouraged marijuana use. In general, the data are consistent with social control theory, with the exception of peer influence on drug and alcohol use as predicted by peer cluster theory.

Theoretical Development in Clothing and Textiles: Are We Stuck in the Concrete?:

This paper addresses the need for more abstract theoretical development in clothing and textiles. Presented is a model of scientific inquiry to use as a guide to assess current research and to provide suggestions for future development and ordering of knowledge. It is argued that current practices restrain development of the discipline at a concrete, observable level. Questions are raised and recommendations are offered to aid in development of knowledge in the field.

A Paradigm for the Study of the Social Meaning of Clothes: Complementarity of Social-Psychological Theories:

This paper offers a paradigm for the study of the social meaning of clothes. The paradigm orders four basic models in social psychology: cognitive, behavioral, bio-volitional, and symbolic. Each model differs in its assumptions on the nature of human behavior. The paper also sketches the metatheory (or model) underlying each of the four theoretical perspectives in social psychology. It is argued that theories in social psychology differ only in the sense that the models on which they are based focus on different combinations of the paradigm elements: stimulus (S), organism or person (0), andresponse (R). Methods and strategies of inquiry related to individual models are also identified and subsumed under the paradigm. Finally, the metatheories of the four perspectives are outlined as they relate to the study of clothing. Metatheories sketched in this paper may be used to examine similarities and differences among theoretical perspectives adopted by clothing scholars and to pinpoint what is missing in our understanding of the social meaning of clothes.

A Further Test of the Model Minority Thesis Japanese Americans in a Sunbelt State

This article examines data on Japanese Americans in Arizona in terms of the model minority thesis and addresses the question of whether or not this image is a myth. Occupation and income return from education, based on the 1980 census data, are examined for Japanese American males in Arizona. The findings suggest that the model minority thesis does not apply for the Japanese Americans in Arizona; for example, white males are more than two times as likely to be in managerial positions as Japanese American males, and the latter receive less return from education than the former. It is suggested that further studies explore in depth cultural and structural factors in relation to mobility, income, and occupation for Japanese Americans and other Asian Americans.

Truth, Knowledge, New Clothes1 Responses to Hamilton, Kean, and Pannabecker

Authors’ Addresses: Susan B. Kaiser, Department of Textiles & Clothing, University of California, Davis, CA 95616, Richard H. Nagasawa, Department of Sociology, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287 and Sandra S. Hutton, Department of Design, Merchandising, and Consumer Science, Colorado State University, Ft. Collins, CO 80523. Much as fashion seduces,...it can also initiate persons into realms of thought and experience that would otherwise have bypassed them. (Davis, 1992, p. 198)

Formal Theory of Balance Revisited

The conceptual clarity of the formal theory of balance and the extent to which its basic axioms provide insights into the dynamics of structural balance are examined. Our concern is with the logical adequacy of the theory, and our analysis suggests that some of the definitions of the theory serve more as rules of syntax or derivations than as definitions of terms per se. We suggest that the authors of the formal theory overlooked numerous implications and that some of the theorys axioms and provisos exhibit redundancy. It is concluded that the theory, despite its defects, serves as an example of theories that possess properties of completeness and clarity and thus opens the way for the next stage in cumulative science—testing its implications. It is suggested that by clarifying the formal theory more precise and better theories can be built in cumulative steps.