W.C. Ultee

Denomination, Religious Context, and Suicide: Neo-Durkheimian Multilevel Explanations Tested with Individual and Contextual Data

In Suicide, Durkheim found that involvement in religious communities is inversely related to suicide risk. In this article, two explanations for this relationship are examined. One is that religious networks provide support. The other is that religious communities prohibit suicide. To examine these hypotheses, individual‐level data on suicide in the Netherlands from 1936 to 1973 are used. The results show that with an increase in the proportion of religious persons in a municipality, the chances of committing suicide decrease for every denomination in that municipality, as well as among nonchurch members. Furthermore, along with the secularization of Dutch society, the impact of religious composition on suicide wanes. These results contradict the network‐support mechanism and confirm the notion that religious communities have a general protective effect against suicide.

Trends in the Occupational Returns to Educational Credentials in the Dutch Labor Market: Changes in Structures and in the Association?:

In this article, we determine changes in the relationship between education and the labor market in The Netherlands since 1960, for which both developments in the distribution of the labor force according to educational attainment and level of occupation (structural changes) and shifts in the mechanism to allocate educated individuals to occupational positions (which modify the net association between education and occupation) are used. To observe both developments, we make use of data from the 1960 Census and four Labor Force Surveys held in 1973, 1977, 1985, and 1991. Loglinear analysis shows that the association between education and occupation has altered. We conclude that changes in the relationship between education and occupation are not only the result of structural changes, but also the outcome of changes in the way educated individuals are allocated to jobs. These shifts in the allocation mechanism are largely connected with the state of the business cycle: in times of high unemployment, employers increasingly select employees on the basis of their education. We also find some support for modernization theory, but as soon as the state of the business cycle is accounted for, the impact of modernization becomes non-significant.

Class voting in western industrialized countries, 1945—1990: Systematizing and testing explanations

Analyzing data obtained from the literature and our own calculations, significant differences were found among countries in their levels of class voting. The Scandinavian countries had the highest and Canada and the USA the lowest levels of class voting. Since the 1950s, there was a decline in almost all countries in the level of class voting. In this article, several hypotheses were deduced from a limited number of individual assumptions, each purporting to explain the differences among and declining trends within countries. Testing these hypotheses with multilevel techniques revealed that differences among countries can best be explained by their populations religious-ethnic-linguistic diversity, and by the union density within countries. The decline in most countries can best be explained by the rise in their standard of living. Furthermore, a rise in the percentage of union members, especially among the nonmanual classes, accelerated the decline in the level of class voting in some countries.

More or less educational homogamy? A test of different versions of modernization theory using cross-temporal evidence for 60 countries

We address two issues central to current stratification research: trends in educational homogamy in modernizing societies, and differences in educational homogamy between countries with different religious backgrounds. Regarding the trends in educational homogamy, there are different versions of modernization theory that lead to different predictions about the direction of the trends. With respect to the effect of a countrys religious background on educational homogamy, Raymo and Xie (2000, henceforward R&X) present new empirical evidence that appears to contradict the results of our paper on this subject (Smits, Ultee, and Lammers 1998). In this reply, we discuss these issues in detail and try to place them in a new light by presenting new empirical findings on trends in educational homogamy in 60 countries.

Models for status inconsistency and mobility: A comparison of the approaches by Hope and Sobel with the mainstream square additive model

This paper is about the analysis of effects of status inconsistency and mobility on a dependent variable. We compare the mainstream square additive baseline model to alternative designs by Hope (1971, 1975) and Sobel (1981, 1985). Both writers claim that the square additive baseline model also contains some status inconsistency effects. An examination of the relationships between the square additive model, Hopes halfway/difference model, and Sobels simple diagonal reference model shows that the effects uncovered by Sobel and Hope pertain to the inequality of the effects of the status variables on the dependent variable. These salience difference effects are therefore distinct from the non-additive status inconsistency effects which would be detected using the square additive approach. Less restricted versions of the diagonal reference model, the DM-1 and DM-2 models as well as a recent model by Weakliem (1992), are also examined with regard to additive/non-additive components and symmetry of effects.

Primary and Secondary Socialization Impacts on Support for Same-Sex Marriage After Legalization in the Netherlands

Two years after the legalization of same-sex marriages in the Netherlands, 65% of the Dutch population largely or completely disagrees with the statement “gay marriage should be abolished.” This article shows, by way of multinomial logistic regression analysis of survey data, which socializing agents influence one’s attitude toward same-sex marriage after its legalization (FNB2003; N = 2,124). Parents’ attitudes toward homosexuality during one’s youth strongly affect one’s attitude toward same-sex marriage. The strongest determinant is socialization within religious institutions. Religious practice provides an explanation of the differences between members of denominations opposing same-sex marriage. A lower educational level enhances one’s probability of being neutral on abolishing gay marriage. Finally, men and people from non-Western origin are especially likely to oppose same-sex marriage.

Individual preferences, social mobility and electoral outcomes

This paper models data for the Netherlands in the 1970s on prestige of males occupation, occupational prestige of the father and ‘left/right’ score of the political party he prefers. One set of hypotheses holds that individuals behave according to economic self-interest, another set postulates a status motive. The former specify additive effects, the latter interaction effects. It is argued that these hypotheses have to be tested with Diagonal Mobility Models. A result of their application is that an economic diagonal model fits best. This paper also discusses macroimplications of these models for individual data. To determine macroeffects of status models, it is necessary to ascertain the total percentage of mobile persons in a society. For the macro-application of economic models, the amount of mobility necessitated by a countrys opportunity structure is relevant. The latter is much smaller than the former. As an economic model was corroborated, macroeffects of social mobility on a societys political outcome are smaller than might have been suspected.

Occupational Homogamy in Eight Countries of the European Union, 1975-89

Using data from the Eurobarometers, the association between the occupations of spouses is studied for eight EU countries at several points in time. Most of the association is due to a tendency towards occupational similarity between the spouses. The strength of this tendency differs somewhat between countries and decreases by about 16 per cent between 1975 and 1989, indicating that the social structure of the countries has become more open in this period. By comparing the changes in occupational homogamy of successive birth cohorts over time, we find that when the spouses belonging to a certain birth cohort grow older, their degree of occupational similarity decreases. This suggests that even within existing marriages spouses tend to become less alike between 1975 and 1989.

Effects of Occupational Status Differences between Spouses on the Wife's Labor Force Participation and Occupational Achievement: Findings from 12 European Countries.

Effects of occupational status differences between spouses on the wifes employment and on her occupational achievement are studied for the coun- tries of the European Union. The results show a tendency towards similarity in occupational sta- tus within marriages. Labor force participation of a wife is highest when her potential occupational status equals her husbands occupational status. Furthermore, the husbands occupation produces both a ceiling effect and a facilitating effect on the wifes occupational achievement. The strength of these effects differs somewhat between the countries. For a wifes participation in the labor force, these differences are related to the countrys dominant religion.

The when and whom of First Marriage in The Netherlands

Sociologists are interested in societies, the shape they have and the changes in their profile. For instance, societies consist of privileged and disadvantaged classes. This stratification is indicated by the extent to which at one point in time resources like income are distributed unequally among the members of a society. This phenomenon has been studied extensively and intensively by economists and sociologists. Independent of income disparities, benefits and handicaps may be transmitted to a smaller or larger extent from parents to their children. This is the question of intergenerational social mobility or reproduction of inequalities. That question has been studied primarily by sociologists.