Theodore N. Greenstein

Marital Disruption and the Employment of Married Women.

This study examines the simultaneous effects of multiple indicators of wifes employment on marital disruption for a US national probability sample of women who 1st married between 1968-1982. Based on a multivariate proportional hazards model the results indicate that while the employment of married women is related to the rate and timing of marital disruption the direction and nature of this relationship is not necessarily consistent with conventional wisdom or much of the sociological literature. Specifically it was found that the rate and timing of marital disruption was negatively related to wifes income and positively related to the number of hours worked per week and to amount of premarital work experience. The pattern of these effects is similar for whites and blacks. Some implications for future trends in marital stability are discussed. (authors)

Effects of Union Type on Division of Household Labor: Do Cohabiting Men Really Perform More Housework?

Using data from 17,636 respondents in 28 nations, this research uses multilevel modeling to compare the reported division of household labor and factors affecting it for currently married and currently cohabiting couples. Cohabiting men report performing more household labor than do married men, and cohabiting women report performing less household labor than do married women. The findings provide support for the time-availability, relative-resources, and gender-ideology perspectives. The effects of time availability and relative resources on the division of household labor are substantially the same for both union types, but gender ideology is more influential on the division of labor reported by cohabiting than by married respondents. Implications and suggestions for future research are discussed.

Are the “Most Advantaged” Children Truly Disadvantaged by Early Maternal Employment? Effects on Child Cognitive Outcomes

This research examines the effects of early maternal employment on the cognitive ability of 2,040 4- to 6-year-old children drawn from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. Some scholars have hypothesized that it is the “most advantaged” of societys children who are disadvantaged or negatively affected by early maternal employment. If this hypothesis is true, the findings should be that advantages such as high levels of cognitive stimulation in the home or household income do not affect cognitive ability as strongly for children of mothers who were employed during early childhood as they do for children whose mothers were not employed. Of 24 possible interaction effects that would confirm this hypothesis, only one is statistically significant (and the nature of that interaction is not completely consistent with the hypothesis). In terms of effects on cognitive outcomes, the most advantaged children are not disproportionately disadvantaged by early maternal employment.

Maternal Employment and Child Behavioral Outcomes: A Household Economics Analysis

This research employs the household economics approach to study the effects of maternal employment and substitute child care on the social behavior of a national sample of 4- and 5-year-old children. Mothers from the National Longitudinal Surveys youth cohort were asked to rate their childs social behavior using items from the Behavioral Problems Index. The household economics approach predicts that behavioral outcomes for children of employed mothers will differ from those of children whose mothers were not employed to the extent that the substitution of market goods and services for nonmarket goods and services is imperfect. The study tests three hypotheses analyzing the interactions of family income and emotional support level with indicators of maternal employment and use of substitute child care. In general, the findings do not support the contention that maternal employment is associated with negative behavioral outcomes for young children. The findings of this and related studies suggest redirecting the research agenda on maternal employment and families to include analyses of the beneficial aspects of maternal employment for child well-being and to develop policies designed to promote the well-being of children with employed parents.

Human Capital, Marital and Birth Timing, and the Postnatal Labor Force Participation of Married Women:

Using materials from the National Longitudinal Surveys of Labor Market Experience of Young Women, this article analyzes postnatal labor force participation data for married husband-present women over a 15-year period in order to study factors associated with the length of time out of the labor force following the first birth. Survival analyses and proportional hazards models indicate that human capital variables (education, prebirth work experience, and income) and marital and birth-timing variables (age at first marriage and age at first birth) have significant estimated effects on the rate and timing of reentry into the paid labor force.

Interactive Effects of Gender Ideology and Age at First Marriage on Women’s Marital Disruption

A sample of ever-married women from the NLSY79 is analyzed to examine the effects of age at first marriage and gender ideology on the likelihood of experiencing marital disruption. The authors hypothesize that age at first marriage will have no effect on the likelihood of experiencing marital disruption for non-traditional women, but that there will be a strong negative effect for traditional women. The authors use the log-rate model for piecewise-constant rates to estimate the log odds of respondents’ hazard for experiencing a marital disruption separately for each of the three gender ideologygroups.Findingssuggest that ageat first marriage affects women’s likelihood of marital disruption contingent upon gender ideology. It is suggested that gender ideology is a lens through which women view the world and make decisions and that within each ideology category the factors that affect likelihood of divorce may differ as a result.

Social-Psychological Factors in Perinatal Labor-Force Participation

Using material from the National Longitudinal Surveys of Labor Market Experience of Young Women this study analyzes 8 years of panel data from 895 white married women with husband present who had a 1st birth prior to the 1978 interview. This research investigates social-psychological factors that may affect exit from the labor force prior to the birth event and reentry following the birth event. Just 10 years ago only about 1 in 3 mothers with preschoolers was in the labor force; by 1984 over 1/2 were either employed or seeking work. A linear model utilizing 8 independent variables as well as 3 interaction terms was used to predict whether or not a particular woman was in the labor force at the time of the interview. Covariance analyses suggest 1) that there is a large and statistically significant effect of attitude toward married women in the work force on labor-force participation throughout the perinatal period and 2) that the effect of attitude towards married women in the work force on perinatal labor-force participation is stronger than that of proximity to the birth event age age at 1st marriage husbands income or education. The strength of the effect of a social-psychological variable suggests that further research in this area should examine the role of other social and psychological factors. Particular attention needs to be paid to how married couples perceive the costs and rewards associated with the wifes labor-force participation with the understanding that any given cost or reward will not necessarily have the same subjective meaning to different couples.

Behavior change following self-confrontation: a test of the value-mediation hypothesis.

This study presents a reanalysis of data from Rokeachs self-confrontation experiments using path analytic techniques. Contrary to Rokeachs interpretations, findings indicate that behavior changes following self-confrontation are not primarily mediated through changes in value priorities. Rather, the available data suggest that the self-confrontation process involves the resolution of inconsistencies between behaviors and self-conceptions that are revelaed during the treatment session. The authors interpret these findings within the framework of Rokeachs general theory of self-disatisfaction and cognitive-behavioral change. Suggestions for future directions in self-confrontation research are offered.

Occupation and Divorce

Analyses of the combined General Social Surveys for 1972-1983 are used to estimate propensity to divorce (proportion of ever-married persons who have ever been divorced or legally separated) for major occupational categories and for selected occupations. Separate analyses for males and females show significant estimated effects of occupation on propensity to divorce even when occupational prestige, age, age at first marriage, income, education, and number of children are statistically controlled. Contrary to the findings of previous studies, male professional and technical workers do not have the lowest propensity to divorce. Propensity to divorce for male professional and technical workers, when adjusted for income, occupational prestige, age, age at first marriage, education, and number of children, is higher than for any occupational category except transport equipment operatives. For female workers, on the other hand, professional and technical workers do have the lowest propensity to divorce among nonfarm workers.

Order effects in Rokeach's Value Survey☆

Abstract Two-hundred-twelve sociology students completed a version of Rokeachs Value Survey in which the presentation order of the values was randomized. Each respondent received a unique randomization pattern. Spearmans ϱ correlations were computed between the presentation order and the order of ranking done by the respondent. The magnitude of the correlations obtained was such that the amount of bias created by presentation order was sufficiently small as to suggest that order effects are not a problem in the instrument.