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At the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, a lot of countries had to reorganise their education systems in a very short time by organising remote learning for students in general education schools. This change affected the working conditions of all participants in the learning process and presumably the learning outcomes of students. This paper examines the learning outcomes of students of Grades 5-12 during the COVID-19 lockdown. The research was carried out using the data from the electronic school diary "Mano Dienynas" of 22 schools: 11 schools from the favourable (high) SES municipal context and 11 schools from the unfavourable (low) SES municipal context. The total sample was 3747 students from high SES schools and 1942 students from low SES schools. The research results demonstrated that the learning results (marks) of both groups of students in maths and mother tongue (Lithuanian) were higher during the lockdown period than during the regular education that took place a year before. Moreover, the results in maths increased more than in Lithuanian, the learning results of lower grades (Grades 5-8) were higher than those of older grades (Grades 9-12), whereas the marks for tests were lower than those of independent work. The study encourages further investigation into remote learning and learning experiences, since scientific knowledge is of paramount importance in this special Covid-19 period with a fundamental change in educational practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on social determinants of health in India has focused largely on the independent influence of education, gender and region. This study advances knowledge on this topic by using an intersectionality framework to examine the combined effects of these three key social locators on the critical, as yet underexamined outcome of functional health of older adults. We use data from Wave 1 (2007-2010) of the Study of Global Ageing and Adult Health (SAGE) (N=7,150) to examine whether the effects of education on functional limitations differ by gender in six highly heterogenous regions of the country. Overall, the effects of education on functional limitations were substantially greater for men than women. Consistent with well-documented regional differences in economic development, cultural norms and practices, and political context, this relationship varied across locales. Our findings highlight the need to move beyond independent sources of heterogeneity in examining late life functional health in the global south. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the early 80's Varotsos and colleagues demonstrated that when the stress in an ionic solid reaches a critical point, a cooperative orientation of the electrical dipoles might occur. This can result in the emission of electrical transient signals. A similar physical phenomenon can be present before an earthquake occurs. Because, there is accumulation of stress near some focal regions of the tectonic plates before a rupture happens. By this reason, in the 80's and in the 90's, in Greece and in Mexico some stations were installed to measure the transient electrical signals of the earth. Their analysis exhibited some anomalies before a major earthquake occurred. In this work, the design of a system of instrumentation to measure geoelectrical signals and other physical variables is presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the association between women's postpartum breaks from employment and their mental health following their return to work. Both breaks of very short duration and those lasting more than a year are associated with declines in mental health, but little is understood about how these processes work differently for women across the SES spectrum. Using data from nationally representative longitudinal sample of more than 1600 women, I predict mental health as a function of breaks from employment after first birth. The duration of women's breaks from employment vary by SES characteristics. Further, in preliminary analyses longer breaks appear to be associated with declines in mental health. Planned longitudinal regression analysis will be used to further investigate how SES stratifies women, and the final analyses will include greater exploration of pre-birth and post-break employment characteristics. The results appear to confirm a U-Shape to the relationship between mental health and employment in the context of the transition to parenthood, and will expand on the inequalities in this association based on SES and employment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Breast cancer is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality in the United States, especially in disadvantaged communities. In studying risk factors for breast cancer, Hispanics are frequently studied in mortality research as a homogeneous group. Objective: The present study was undertaken to compare breast cancer deaths among persons of Hispanic origin by disaggregating groups in order to determine whether the categories in the Hispanic label have differential mortality risk. Methods: Data utilized were from the latest public use release of the U.S. National Longitudinal Mortality Study. Cox proportional hazards regression models were fitted to the data. Results: Individuals in the broader Hispanic label were 29% less likely to die from breast cancer than non-Hispanic whites (ARR=0.71, 95% CI = 0.57, 0.86). When Hispanic groups were broken down, we observed that Mexican women were 42% less likely to die of breast cancer than their non-Hispanic white female counterparts (ARR=0.58, 0.40, 0.83). No other Hispanic origin group was significantly associated with breast cancer mortality risk. Education was a predictor of mortality, along with central city residence regardless of Hispanic origin. Conclusion: Hispanics are the largest minority group in the United States. Yet epidemiological and sociological studies continue to treat them as a homogeneous group. Results from this study provide evidence to suggest that future research should break down Hispanics into sub-groups where data permit. Failure to do so will lead to drawing false inferences as they may hold for one group within the Hispanic label, but not others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding residential mobility in early childhood is important for contextualizing family, school, and neighborhood influences on child health and well-being. We examined residential mobility using longitudinal data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth Cohort (ECLS-B), a nationally representative survey that followed children born in 2001 from infancy to kindergarten. We described individual, household, and neighborhood characteristics associated with residential mobility for children aged 0-5. Our dynamic indicators of residential mobility examined frequency of moves, nonlinearities in frequency of moves, developmental timing and recency of moves, quality of moves, and comparisons between moving houses and moving neighborhoods. Moving was common, as nearly three-quarters of children moved at least once. Movers transitioned to better neighborhoods but experienced no improved household socioeconomic position relative to non-movers. Factors influencing selection into residential mobility accounted for all of the negative bivariate relationships between residential mobility and kindergarten reading scores. Math and especially behavior scores were negatively associated with each measure of residential mobility after including controls. These negative relationships were reduced among children with higher socioeconomic status for math scores only. Results suggest that residential mobility during early childhood and its consequences are distinct from moving in other developmental periods. Both the high prevalence and distinct implications of early childhood residential mobility suggest the need for further research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Submitted scientific paper deals with the influence of selected factors on the systolic and diastolic blood pressure and also with impact of anthropometric parameters on blood pressure. The aim of this work was to define the significant differences between boys and girls in health status parameters, to evaluate the impact of socio-economic, environmental and medical history factors on blood pressure. In the practical part is analyzed the sample group of school children from eastern Slovakia (770 children, 385 boys and 385 girls). There is a description of the impact of selected social and environmental factors on systolic and diastolic blood pressure and anthropometric values and cross-analysis of anthropometric values. Results of statistical analyses confirmed the importance of the following factors on somatic and blood pressure values: birth order, education of parents, mother's economic activity, income per capita, the complexity of the family, obesity and hypertension family history, the reported BMI of parents, birth weight and birth length. Statistically insignificant values for anthropometric and blood pressure were confirmed indicators such as: smoking of mother and father, father's education and economic activity, work with a PC and TV, breastfeeding, frequent consumption of sweet and fatty foods. Sports and physical activities of the child participated only on lower body fat percentage values, but did not affect the other anthropometric variables and blood pressure. The chapter of discussion deals with comparing of received outputs with recherché sources and attempts to explain obtained results. The benefit of this work is confirmation of inequalities in health impact of socioeconomic factors in the vulnerable children's groups. In modern society the work emphasizes the importance of socioeconomic factors influence on health determinants, growth and development of children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Both socioeconomic status (SES) and urbanization exert important impact on health inequality. Unprecedented urbanization, economic development and changes in social structure in last three decades make China a unique case to study the associations between urbanization, SES and health inequality. Using a five-wave dataset spanning 13 years (China Health and Nutrition Survey [CHNS] 1993, 1997, 2000, 2004, 2006), this paper investigates how urbanization modifies the pathway through which SES affect health in contemporary China. It finds that both income and education have positive impact on health. However, the effect of income is suppressed by rapid urbanization. China's nutrition transition and environment pollution related with urbanization may attribute to this result. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is no doubt that electromobility will be the future. All-electric vehicles were already available on the market in 2011 and 14 new vehicles will be commercially available in 2012. Due to the fact that automotive applications are influenced by the safety requirements of the ISO 26262, nowadays the use of new technologies requires more and more understanding for fail-safe and fault-tolerant systems due to increasingly complex systems. The safety of electric vehicles has the highest priority because it helps contribute to customer confidence and thereby ensures further growth of the electromobility market. Therefore in series production redundant hardware concepts like dual core microcontrollers running in lock-step-mode are used to reach ASIL D requirements given from the ISO 26262. In this paper redundant hardware concepts and the coded processing will be taken into account, which are listed in the current standard ISO 26262 as recommended safety measures. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The recent development in cloud computing and Web service delivery encouraged companies from different disciplines to offer their services to customers over the Internet. Since different domains use different language of encounter to establish their contracts, a generic negotiation framework that can be tailored to a specific domain is needed. In this paper, we will present a generic domain-independent marketplace architecture that allows user agents to interact with service providers using two simple and yet powerful negotiation protocols. Service providers have different capabilities depending on the domain of interest. Hence, a dynamic message structuring capability is needed. A key solution to support expressive power is to design an ontology that contains specializations between different domains. The Integration of the domain-dependent ontology with the domain-independent marketplace gives the designer a powerful tool in which systems can be tailored based on the operational purpose. We demonstrate a proof of the concept by implementing the negotiation framework using Discrete Event Specification/Service Oriented Architecture (DEVS/SOA) environment. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This study examines the impact of superstructures (political, socio-economic, and cultural) on Korean public opinion on the Internet through an innovative methodological approach that enables the public to speak for itself. The findings indicated that the terms searched by Korean people are significantly different from those searched by people in other superstuructural societies in terms of political freedom (politically free, partially free, and not free), socio-economic status (high, medium, and low SES), and cultural differences (masculine, mixed/neutral, and feminine). ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the differences in beliefs about God's influence in everyday life across levels of socioeconomic status and whether that association is contingent upon religious involvement (i.e., frequency of praying, attendance, reading religious texts, and subjective religiosity). I focus specifically on the beliefs in divine involvement and divine control. Using data from two national 2005 surveys of Americans, I observe the following: 1) overall, SES is associated negatively with beliefs in divine involvement and control; 2) with the exception of reading religious texts, each indicator of religious involvement is associated with higher levels of beliefs in divine involvement or divine control; 3) SES interacts with each dimension of religious involvement such that the negative association between SES and divine involvement or control is attenuated at higher levels of religious involvement. I discuss the contributions of this research for theoretical perspectives on the relationship between socioeconomic inequality and beliefs about God's influence in everyday life, underscoring the need to assess religious involvement in these processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As immigration continues to increase and become increasingly diverse, additional attention to immigrant students' educational processes is necessary. Studies that have examined the educational expectations of children of immigrants have generally found that these students have high expectations for postsecondary education, often higher than nonimmigrants. However, research has demonstrated differences among these expectations based on various factors. Despite this, a thorough examination of immigrant status, race/ethnicity, and SES simultaneously has not been conducted. Using ELS data and logistic regression, I examine two different levels of educational attainment expectations. I expose differences in expectations by race/ethnicity, SES, and generational status among students and complicate the commonly accepted result that all immigrant students have higher expectations than nonimmigrants. Some of the most significant differences occur between Latino and white students. Implications for policy, practice, and further research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB) specifies that districts must provide supplemental educational services (SES) to students attending schools that are in the second year of school improvement. The mandate to provide SES services have given rise to praise (student and parent choice, greater accountability) and criticism (veiled vouchers, fragmenting Title I, bureaucratic overload). Although state education agencies are tasked with evaluating the effectiveness of SES providers, this has proven difficult due to selection issues and funding. The predominant hurdle to a scientifically rigorous evaluation of SES providers is that students who select to receive services do not do so randomly. In addition, these students are not randomly assigned to providers. In this paper, we address that hurdle by proposing a matched samples analytic approach. We pair students who receive services with other similar students who did not elect to receive services. Thus, we create a provider sample and comparison group. This approach suggests that scientifically rigorous evaluation of SES providers can be conducted within limited state education budgets. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dealing with the issue of mortality selection bias, this study utilizes latent growth-curve modeling to examine the difference in age trajectories of functional health between Black and White using panel data based on a nationally representative sample of 3,617 U.S. adults. In the results, Black experiences cumulative disadvantage in functional health over time for most adult age groups, but the magnitude of the health divergence between Black and White diminishes with age, supporting the hypothesis of age-as-leveler. Net of functional health at baseline, the cumulative disadvantage in functional health of Black adults over time is only partially explained by Black's lower educational attainment and income. Finally, gender interactions exist in the health disparities between Black and White over adulthood. Black women have the highest physical impairment at baseline for all adult age groups, and Black men have the worst change in health over time for all adult age groups. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Classical assimilation theory emphasizes the benefits that immigrants gain as they become gradually incorporated into the mainstream American society. However, empirical findings are mixed on whether incorporation into American society only benefits immigrants. By analyzing data from the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS), this paper examines how incorporation into the host society plays a role in influencing Mexican migrant psychological well-being and how variation of socioeconomic standing and family unity explain the influence of Mexican immigrant adaptation on psychological distress. To measure different aspects of immigrant adaptation, language, self-identity and duration of residence are used as proxies of immigrant social incorporation. The results suggest that different measures for incorporation lead to distinct conclusions whether integration into the U.S. society benefits Mexican immigrants. Furthermore, supportive evidence is found for classic assimilation theory as well as segmented assimilation theory. Once SES is adjusted the positive influence of linguistic and identificational assimilation is reduced and become insignificant, indicating the importance of socioeconomic incorporation as part of integration in explaining the psychological differentials between immigrants. As expected, family unity does not operate through linguistic and identificational assimilation. However, marital status has a strong indirect effect on distress through duration. Mexicans with long tenure in the U.S. are more likely to be cohabitating, divorced or separated. The weakened marriage is one of the adverse effects of duration on psychological well-being. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using quantitative content analysis, this study examines Internet search term patterns from various countries included on Google Zeitgeist in the display of its top ten lists. The lists of the most popular search terms from the countries were examined within the context of political differences (free, partially free, and not free), socioeconomic differences (high SES, medium SES, and low SES), and cultural differences (masculine country, mixed/neutral country, and feminine country, based on the cultural gender index of Hofstede). ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study is to explain the gap between Asian American and white students in mathematics test scores by combining both cultural and socioeconomic approaches presented in previous studies. The sample consisted of a nationally representative sample of 1465 Asian American and 8757 white American students obtained from National Educational Longitudinal Study of 2002, by the National Center for Educational Statistics. Ordinary Least Square (OLS) results indicate that parental involvement and students' individual motivation explain why Asian American students perform better than white American students. Meanwhile, better socioeconomic backgrounds and higher rates of two-biological-parent households also contribute to Asian student's better performance on mathematics test scores. However, Asian students who live with both biological parents make lower mathematics test scores than white American students who live with both biological parents. This result implies that Asian American students might have higher pressure from their parents on their education. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study we examine whether the slower rate of change in achievement during summer is associated with instructional practices during school. Our perspective is grounded on research that shows education is best understood in the context of its linkages to other institutional forces. We explore the institutional linkage between the family and classroom using the analytic technique of examining differences in achievement during school and summer. As in prior studies, social status and summer learning matter. However, summer loss in mathematics is asymmetrical. There is no summer loss in basic skills such as the ability to count. The loss primarily occurs in the skills which have not yet been mastered prior to summer, especially the ability to perform addition and subtraction. The few positive effects of instruction are modest; and they are dampened in the summer. Our result does not exclude the possibility that, with greater quantity and quality of math instruction in later grades, the contemporaneous and carryover effects of instruction on mathematics achievement could be considerably larger. The policy significance of instruction as an effective tool to improve student achievement is discussed. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Religion has traditionally been a central force in African American life (Baer and Singer 2002), with religious organizations providing a locus for individual spiritual growth and collective community support and political action. According to Lincoln and Mamiya, the Black Church "has no challenger as the cultural womb of the black community" (1990:8). African American religiosity thus merits in-depth study for its past significance and potential for continuing to foster social change.Crawford argues that "the transformative power of the black church has been weakened by the eroticism of affluence, education, and 'opportunity'" (2002:109) as African Americans have gained socioeconomic status. This paper will analyze studies featuring race, class, and gender to explore the effect of status attainment on African American women's spiritual activity and religious participation. One might expect that as African Americans' socioeconomic status improves, the need for external support would decrease and therefore both religious and spiritual activity might diminish as well. Isolation, racism, and other negative consequences of increased social status however, actually heighten women's spiritual and religious activities and involvement. The changing needs of African American women as they attain status have implications for women themselves, for black churches, and for social movements. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Key Words: Stress Vulnerability, SES, SEX, Blacks, Neighborhood This paper contributes to the growing research investigating how variations in stress exposure, due to stratification, may account for differences in vulnerability to depression. Previous research on stress has focused on checklist measures to account for black/white differences in depression without much attention to the role of stratification in accounting for different stressful experiences. An additional dimension of status included is neighborhood characteristics where residential segregation patterns populations racially, economically and socially. Results indicate variations in SES and sex were significant predictors of depression. Discrimination and neighborhood context played minimal roles in predicting depression. Suggestions for future research investigating how stressful life events and other social stressors induce depressive symptoms are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using data from a nationally representative sample (NSAF), this research investigates the association between race/ethnicity and health and examines mechanisms underlying health disparities by race/ethnicity among American children 17 years old or younger. We cover five major racial and ethnic groups in the US including whites, blacks, Latinos, Asians, and Native Americans. Three health outcomes are studied including parent-rated health, health condition, and mental health. We explore three pathways that may link racial or ethnic identities to health including social class, family structure, and access to and perceived satisfaction of health care. We find that class-related factors can entirely explain higher rates of health condition and negative mental health among black, Latino, and Native American children, but they only partially contribute to the effect on parent-rated health. For Asian Americans, however, class-based factors are not reasons why they on average have lower level of parent-rated health. Moreover, family disruption and health services factors have little explanatory power for these health disparities. These findings suggest that class and race are intricately linked and socioeconomic inequalities are fundamental causes of racial/ethnic disparities in some child's health outcomes among African American, Latino, and Native American groups in the US. But residual effects on parent-rated health do exist and class-related factors are not reasons why Asian children have lower level of parent-rated health. Study limitations and future research are discussed in the end. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Link and Phelan's (1995; 1996) "Fundamental Causes" theory posits that social and economic inequalities in morbidity and mortality have persisted over historical time ---and will continue to persist --- because people with access to more social and economic resources are always better able to avoid health risks (even if the nature of those risks change over time). Despite the prominence of this theory and its inherent challenge to mainstream epidemiological, public health, and social science research, the core empirical fact that the theory is designed to explain has not been well established by Linkand Phelan or others. Have socioeconomic inequalities in morbidity and mortality remained essentially constant over time? To investigate, we examine inter-cohorts trends in age-specific health inequalities using data from the 1972 through 2002 General Social Surveys. Our results reproduce findings of inter-cohort improvements in health outcomes, but we find that socioeconomic differences in health have remained unchanged across the bulk of the 20th century. Although Americans' health has improved over time,inequalities in health have persisted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The social construction of feminine beauty and the body is of interest to many feminist scholars. After all, beauty is something that all females strive to achieve and maintain. A component of beauty is body weight. Females are more likely to judge themselves as overweight and males are more likely to perceive themselves as underweight. The discrepancy that exists between perceived and actual weight has implication to health behaviors such as unhealthy dieting practice and excessive physical activity. The purpose of the present study is to examine the body image discrepancy, as measured between the disparity between perceived body weight and actual body weight (Body Mass Index) with the aid of the Hispanic HANES. This study builds on prior research by taking a look at the heterogeneity within the Latina category. The data shows Latinas who fall in the misguided body image category (they think they are heavier than they actually are) tend to be younger, more educated, and not in poverty although this varies by group as is the case with the acculturation and generational status variables. Latinas who fall in the culturally based body image category (they think they are thinner than they actually are) tend to be older, less educated, poorer, and less acculturated than their counterparts. Body image is social constructed and is shaped by history, context, and biography. Latinas straddle two worlds that impose their own sets of values, norms and mores -- mainstream US culture and Latino culture - each prescribing body standards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The decision to report a crime may be the most important one made in the criminal justice system, highlighting the role of citizens as gatekeepers of order. The system of reporting crime is based on the belief that those living in areas characterized by high rates of crime will be more bothered by that crime and thus more likely to report it to police. Much of the research in the criminological literature has tended to implicitly accept the idea that crime is inherently bothersome, without explicitly investigating that belief. This research addresses whether race and socioeconomic status (SES) affect both the degree to which individuals are bothered by crime and satisfied with neighborhood police protection. The results suggest that race and SES each has an independent effect: the poor, minorities, the uneducated and those living in inner cities are both more bothered by crime and less satisfied with police protection; suburban and non-metropolitan residence and household income are significantly associated with being less bothered by crime and more satisfied with police protection. The findings lend support to social disorganization theory. The analysis offers suggestions for future research and policy implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wether the overall trajectory of work status is related to health is examined, adjusting for gender, health selection, SES, job characteristics, health behaviors, and family impacts. Analyzing data from the 1975 and 1992/1993 waves of Wisconsin Longitudinal Study, I identify six patterns of work trajectories----stable full-time, full-/part-time alternating, intermittent full-time, stable part-time, diversified part-time, and never employed. Results show that: 1) Better paid and less demanding jobs tend to present among work trajectories with higher proportion of full-time employment, more labor force participation, and higher stability. 2) Trajectory groups differ in cardiovascular problems, depression, and probability of self-reported overall health, particularly between stable full-time and intermittent full-time or never employed trajectories. However, these variations diminish after health selection, health behavior, SES, family backgrounds, and family impacts are considered. 3) Women tend to be in better cardiovascular health, more likely to report being in excellent overall health, more depressed, and have more musculoskeletal problems than men. Gender variations in health may result from that women tend to engage in work trajectories with low stability, smaller proportion of full-time employment, and more disruptions. 4) Significant effects are found in health selection, frequent exercise, BMI, smoking, psychological well-being, asset, college education, physical job characteristics, farm origin, access to health insurance, caregiving experience, and work status of spouse, varying by magnitude and health outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This project examines the role of family background on the identification of multiracial children in the U.S. and considers the impact of various classificatory schemes on child poverty estimates. I seek to resolve several questions in this analysis. First, I consider the extent to which key family background characteristics such as income, education, and race influence patterns of child race reporting (monoracial vs. multiracial) by parents in interracial unions. I then consider whether child poverty tabulations are sensitive to how and where we include multiracial children in the estimates. In undertaking this analysis, I examine the large, nationally representative 5 percent Public Use Microdata from the Census 2000 long form. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper will study the impact of life course stratification on mental health. While much research has confirmed the association between adult socioeconomic status (SES) and adult mental health, still relatively little is known about the impact of different life course trajectories on this outcome. Using a theoretical framework drawing on Blau and Duncan?s (1967) model of occupational achievement, I will determine whether adult stratification outcomes have a cumulative impact on mental health independently of the effects attributable to family of origin and education. In addition, I will use growth curve models to model the dynamic nature of status attainment and the evolution of depression over the life course. Preliminary results indicate that parents? education has no direct consistent impact on either the initial level or the change in depressive symptoms. However, parent?s education does have a significant impact on the respondent?s education, which in turn has a negative impact on the initial level of depressive symptoms in mid-adulthood. Finally, it seems that the effect of education works partly through the trajectory of income from early to mid-adulthood, which also decreases the initial level of depression. What these results suggest is that while none of these factors affect the rate of change of depression in mid-adulthood, they do have an impact on where individuals? trajectories start, i.e. at lower levels of depression. Moreover, an important limitation of these findings is that none of the models with the income trajectory had satisfactory fit for the women, which suggests that different processes appear to be at play for men and women, and that other life course factors such as marriage and childbearing for instance merit attention to better understand women?s mental health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A large body of social science research indicates achievement gaps between population groups, particularly groups defined by race/ethnicity, narrow when results are adjusted for differences in socioeconomic status. However, there is considerable variation in how SES is operationalized, thereby limiting the ability to accurately assess effects or compare results across studies. Theoretical and empirical work guides the construction of multiple regression models to address these issues. Data from large scale surveys of nationally representative samples of high school seniors conducted between 1965 to 1996 are employed to determine the measures and scales of SES that have the largest impact on African American ? White and Hispanic ? White achievement gaps in reading and mathematics. Preliminary results from parsimonious models constructed with predictors representing family SES indicate a model that controls for mother and father?s education and reading materials in the home (newspaper, magazine, encyclopedia, and 25 or more books) or that employs a composite SES measure (a linear combination of parents? education and family income) provide the greatest reduction in achievement gaps for both groups and for both academic subjects and the magnitude of these reductions changed very little over time. However, gap reductions are larger for Hispanics than for African Americans. Implications for applications and further study are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This ongoing research aims to show that SES is a significant factor which influences lesbians? decision to disclose sexual orientation at work, to friends, and to loved ones. Past research has shown that work environment is a key characteristic for lesbians when deciding to disclose sexual orientation. However, there has been little research on how income and education levels influence the decision to disclose sexual orientation. This research looks at income level, education level, occupation status, and other demographic variables. By surveying the Michigan Womens Music Festival and regional Gay Pride Parades, this research investigates whether the decision to disclose sexual orientation is dependent on SES factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examine and explain the multivariate relationship of Blood Lead Level (BLL) to race housing conditions and socio-economic status. We also compare the effect of housing related variables (indicating lead paint) and lead emissions related variables on BLL. Data from over 85,000 BLL tests on Michigan children aged 12 ?23 months were examined. Each BLL result was associated with census socio-demographics of the block group of the child?s residence, and data indicating proximity to industrial emissions of lead and exposure to motor vehicle traffic during the era of leaded gasoline. Socio-economic status is a stronger predictor of BLL than is race, but even controlling for SES, race has a non-trivial effect on BLL. Exposure to lead paint was found to be a much stronger predictor of BLL than exposure to lead emissions from industry or motor vehicles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Latinos are projected to be the largest ethnic minority in the United Sates by 2005. Latinos are a diverse population coming from many countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. Yet our understanding of the mental health status of this diverse population is overall limited. This study has addressed several unanswered question on the relationship between sociological contextual factors and psychological distress for the three major Latino groups. Using the Hispanic Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (HHANES, 1982-1984), we find that men and the married have better mental health, but the pattern among the unmarried varies across Latino ethnicity. There is an inverse relationship between socioeconomic status and psychological distress consistently across the three groups. Generational status is associated with psychological distress for Mexican Americans and Puerto Ricans, but the relationship is in the opposite direction of each other. Being an immigrant protects Mexican Americans from higher rates of distress, but the opposite is true for Puerto Ricans. Inevitably, these data show that there is uniqueness across Latino group in terms of how the contextual variables affect mental health status. This highlights the importance of understanding the heterogeneity within the Latino community and it underscores that there are several issues remain unresolved and deserve further attention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using the data from PISA 2000 (Program for International Student Assessment), this study compares the ways in which parent-child communication influences reading literacy among 15-year olds in Korea and the United States. Korea provides an interesting context for comparisons: higher mean achievement with substantially less variation in student performance and the high level of standardization of educational system. The results show that both aspects of parent-child communication ? social and cultural communication ? significantly affect children?s reading literacy, though the effect of social communication in the United States is negligible once family SES is controlled for. More interesting is that parent-child communication interacts with family SES in different ways in Korea and the United States. In the former, parental engagement in communication with children is more beneficial to lower SES students to result in the decreasing socioeconomic gap as the level of social communication increases. Contrastingly, parent-child communication is more effective for higher SES students in the United States, resulting in the rising difference in reading literacy between students from lower and higher SES families with the increasing level of parent-child communication. Detailed examinations of structural features of each educational system will help identify the contexts in which these differences are produced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In our research we investigate the cumulative impact of the physical and psychosocial characteristics of paid employment on a variety of physical and mental health outcomes using data from the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study (WLS). We do so with an eye toward understanding the ways in which the physical and psychosocial job characteristics across the working career mediate the relationship between socioeconomic status (SES) and health. Specifically, we ask how the cumulative physical and psychosocial characteristics of jobs influence general/overall health, depression, and cardiovascular, musculoskeletal, and stress-related health problems and medical conditions. Questions about the impact of physical and psychosocial job characteristics have frequently been addressed using cross sectional or short-term longitudinal data, and so our ability to consider job characteristics across respondents' careers and health outcomes at age 53 puts us in a much stronger position to understand how job characteristics cumulate to affect health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper contributes to the literature on trends in socioeconomic inequalities in mortality in the United States by examining all cause and cause-specific mortality and trends in risk factor distributions (e.g., obesity, smoking) by age, gender, race, and socioeconomic status (SES) over time. The cause-specific investigations together with analyses of risk factor distributions will point to areas where public health interventions might be most effective in reducing social class inequalities in health. The results will also provide input into further studies designed to illuminate the processes that link SES to health and mortality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What types of people are more likely to perceive that God controls their fate? Using data from a sample of 1,167 black and white elderly, we examine the effects of two forms of socioeconomic status (SES)--education and income--on the sense of divine control. We also explore whether or not those effects vary by race, as well as explanations for any race-contingent effects. Results indicate that education and income are associated negatively with the sense of divine control, although those effects are significantly stronger among whites. Adjustment for race-linked differences in religiosity reduces part of the race gap, but the effect remains significant. In contrast, we fail to find support for the deprivation-compensation hypothesis, which proposes that the disadvantaged seek out religion as compensation. Specifically, adjustment for an array of potential stressors (i.e., perceived unfair treatment, life events, economic hardship, health conditions, and neighborhood problems) has little effect on the race-contingent effects of SES. Taken together, our final model explains over half of the total variation in the sense of divine control. We discuss the implications of our findings for common assertions about race and class differences in religious precepts and practices and offer speculation about the persistence of SES-by-race effects irrespective of the degree of religiosity and stressors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How has the educational attainment process changed between late 1950s and 1990s? This paper replicates Sewell and Shah's (1967) analyses of the determinants of college plans, college attendance, and college graduation using the HSB 1982 seniors data and the newly available follow-up data for the NELS 1992 seniors. Data from 1957-1992 finds that the process has become more meritocratic. In the 1982 cohort, we observe that SES influence has declined while test scores influence has increased. Disturbingly, however, the 1990s have shown resurgence in SES influence and a marked increase in the discrepancy between college plans and attainments. In addition, college graduation rates have not risen nearly as fast as college plans or attendance. With these data, we observe that while college entrance is less of a barrier than formerly, college completion remains an obstacle (fewer than half graduate). We discuss some methodological caveats and some new issues raised by these preliminary findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of popular music as an entrée for discussion in college classrooms is nothing new. Critical analysis of explicit and implied messages in lyrics, track collections, and cover art can cultivate student interest while bringing issues as diverse as political action, sustainability, white privilege, inter-racial and inter-SES communication, and violence in popular culture to the forefront. "Poverty of Philosophy" provides a powerful message to students whose lives have often not required them to confront these issues. This project explores ways in which teachers may use, students might relate to, and outcomes can be affected by the pedagogical introduction of music as social criticism and call to action. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examine community social and structural effects on disease progression among Medicare beneficiaries who were hospitalized for the onset of one of five serious diseases. The data showed that community SES was protective against mortality whereas within-community income inequality did not have significant effect. We also found that collective efficacy and social support were health-protective social resources while criminal and violent activities were detrimental to health. Surprisingly, community social networking appeared to be not salubrious but detrimental to the survival of these older patients. Taking different dimensions of community social processes together, a global measure of contextual social environment was found to be significantly protective against mortality. However, the complex relationship between community social features and health found in this study may suggest that community-level social interventions based on social capital/social cohesion models are not likely to achieve fruitful results without concomitant effort in the economic and health care realm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]