Simon Cheng

Testing for IIA in the multinomial logit model

The multinomial logit model is perhaps the most commonly used regression model for nominal outcomes in the social sciences. A concern raised by many researchers, however, is the assumption of the independence of irrelevant alternatives (IIA) that is implicit in the model. In this article, the authors undertake a series of Monte Carlo simulations to evaluate the three most commonly discussed tests of IIA. Results suggest that the size properties of the most common IIA tests depend on the data structure for the independent variables. These findings are consistent with an earlier impression that, even in well-specified models, IIA tests often reject the assumption when the alternatives seem distinct and often fail to reject IIA when the alternatives can reasonably be viewed as close substitutes. The authors conclude that tests of the IIA assumption that are based on the estimation of a restricted choice set are unsatisfactory for applied work.

Adoptive Parents, Adaptive Parents: Evaluating the Importance of Biological Ties for Parental Investment

Contemporary legal and scholarly debates emphasize the importance of biological parents for childrens well-being. Scholarship in this vein often relies on stepparent families even though adoptive families provide an ideal opportunity to explore the role of biology in family life. In this study, we compare two-adoptive-parent families with other families on one key characteristic—parental investment. Using data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten-First Grade Waves (ECLS-K), basic group comparisons reveal an adoptive advantage over all family types. This advantage is due in part to the socioeconomic differences between adoptive and other families. Once we control for these factors, two-adoptive-parent families invest at similar levels as two-biological-parent families but still at significantly higher levels in most resources than other types of families. These findings are inconsistent with the expectations of sociological family structure explanations, which highlight barriers to parental investment in nontraditional families, and evolutionary sciences kin selection theory, which maintains that parents are genetically predisposed to invest in biological children. Instead, these patterns suggest that adoptive parents enrich their childrens lives to compensate for the lack of biological ties and the extra challenges of adoption.

Multiracial Self-Identification and Adolescent Outcomes: A Social Psychological Approach to the Marginal Man Theory

Recent public health research has consistently reported that self-identified multiracial adolescents tend to display more problem behaviors and psychological difficulties than monoracial adolescents. Relying on insights from qualitative analyses using small or clinical samples to interpret these empirical patterns, these studies implicitly assume a pejorative stance toward adolescents’ multiracial self-identification. Building on the social psychological arguments underlying Park’s and Stonequist’s seminal discussions of the “marginal man,” we derive hypotheses indicating that self-identified multiracial adolescents may show more psychological difficulties, but are also likely to have more active social interaction and participation than monoracial groups. We also incorporate later elaborations of the marginal man theory to develop alternative hypotheses regarding multiracial youth’s school and behavioral outcomes. Based on a nationally representative sample of racially self-identified youth, the results suggest that patterns of multiracial-monoracial differences are generally consistent with the hypotheses derived closely from the marginal man theory or its subsequent elaborations. We examine the heterogeneities within these general patterns across different multiracial categories and discuss the implications of these findings.

Under and Beyond Constraints: Resource Allocation to Young Children from Biracial Families1

Using data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 1998–99, the authors examine the extent to which biracial families differ from monoracial families in their transmission of resources to young children. In these analyses, the authors demonstrate the utility of distinguishing not only between white‐biracial and nonwhite‐biracial families and but also between even more refined measures of biracial families (e.g., white father/Asian mother). The authors find that, in most cases, biracial families provide comparable or greater economic and cultural resources to their children than do their monoracial counterparts, but offer fewer advantages in interactional/social resources. This overall pattern remains even after sociodemographic factors are taken into consideration. Exceptions to this pattern also are identified and explored. Implications for our understanding of racial stratification, interracial relations, and the role of both human agency and constraints on intergenerational transmission of resources are discussed.

Declining Government Confidence and Policy Preferences in the U.S.: Devolution, Regime Effects, or Symbolic Change?

No trend in U.S. public opinion has elicited more enduring concern among scholars, political commentators, and politicians than declining levels of public confidence in the federal government. Motivated by the possibility that this decline signals a crisis of legitimacy or growing dissatisfaction with the overall direction of public policy, two generations of scholarly debates have yielded three competing theoretical interpretations of this phenomenon. While they provide divergent answers to important questions about the devolution of policy-making from the federal government to subnational levels of government, competing hypotheses implied by these interpretations have not been successfully evaluated. We seek to advance theory and research by investigating whether governmental confidence affects the publics willingness to support federal involvement within specific policy domains such as health care and education. Evaluating hypotheses implied by competing interpretations of declining government confidence, we find that the relationship between government confidence and policy preferences is small and shows no evidence of trends. We discuss implications for competing interpretations of government confidence and the possible role of declining confidence in explaining contemporary patterns of welfare state retrenchment.

Adult Social Capital and Track Placement of Ethnic Groups in Germany

The dictum that “context matters” notwithstanding, few researchers have focused on how social capital affects educational outcomes for ethnic groups outside of the United States. Using German Socioeconomic Panel (GSOEP) data, analyses highlight the group‐specific effects of parental social capital on track placement among 11–16‐year‐old German and non‐German students. For both groups, parents’ family ties fail to affect track placement. Parents’ community ties have mixed effects. Among Germans, parental involvement in sports affects children’s tracking positively. Among non‐Germans, parental socializing with peers affects track placement negatively, while parental involvement in religion‐based community groups and interethnic ties with Germans improve track placement chances. We relate these findings to different strands of social capital theory.

The effects of Internet use on adolescents’ first romantic and sexual relationships in Taiwan

Internet use and digital networking are increasingly an integral part of adolescents’ social lives. This study examines the influences of Internet use in Taiwan on two important adolescent social behaviors: first romantic relationship and sexual debut. Using data from the Taiwan Youth Project (TYP), 2000–2009, the results of event history analyses suggest that adolescents’ Internet use for educational purposes reduces the rates of having a first romantic relationship and a sexual debut in adolescence, whereas using the Internet for social networking, visiting internet cafés, and surfing pornographic websites increase the rates. There are gender differences in the effects of these Internet activities on adolescents’ intimate experiences. Logistic analyses further show that Internet activities also affect the likelihood of whether adolescents have a sexual debut before a first romantic relationship. The implications of these findings are discussed in the conclusion.

Government Influence and Community Involvement on Abstinence-Only Programs in 1999 and 2003.

In this study, we compare federal government influence on abstinence-only programs in 1999 and 2003 to better see how shifts in the federal governments sex education polices impacted other government and community actors. Using data from the Sex Education in America Surveys (SEAS), we find that changes in federal policy, particularly after the year 2000, significantly altered the influence of state and local governments and the involvement of other community actors on school sex education programs. As federal influence increased, the number of abstinence-only programs continued to grow. The influence and involvement of other key actors declined, changing the face of sex education.

A New Mixture Model for Misclassification With Applications for Survey Data

Social scientists often rely on survey data to examine group differences. A problem with survey data is the potential misclassification of group membership due to poorly trained interviewers, inconsistent responses, or errors in marking questions. In data containing unequal subsample sizes, the consequences of misclassification can be considerable, especially for groups with small sample sizes. In this study, the authors develop a new mixture model that allows researchers to address the problem using the data they have. By supplying additional information from the data, this two-stage model is estimated using a Bayesian method. The method is illustrated with the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study data. As anticipated, the more information supplied to adjust for group membership, the better the model performs. Even when small amounts of information are supplied, the model produces reasonably robust estimates and improves the fit compared to the no-adjustment model. Sensitivity analyses are conducted on choices of priors.

Boys, Girls, and the Second Shift: Paid and Unpaid Labor in High School and Adolescents’ Enrollment in College

Sociological research examines the gender gap reversal in higher education and the gender division in paid and unpaid labor for adult women, especially “the second shift literature,” as two distinct topics. In this study, we extend the insights of the second shift literature to research on youth labor and adolescents’ enrollment in higher education. Using data from the Youth Development Study from 1988 to 1992, we find that the negative association of unpaid labor with adolescents’ college enrollment odds was at least as large as, if not greater than, that of paid labor. Although labor engagement had adverse impacts both for female and male adolescents during this time, the negative associations of youth labor with college enrollment were more pronounced for male students. We discuss the implications of these findings and explain their relevance to more contemporary cohorts of high school students in the conclusion.