Guided by Durkheim's classic theory of suicide, this article examines suicide trends and determinants in Eastern European countries for the period of 1989-2006, with particular attention given to the association between postcommunist social change and suicide mortality. I find that countries characterized by more drastic structural change…

Are children's statements about their futures related to outcomes in middle age? In 1966 almost 13,500 children ages 12-13 were asked whether they thought their futures would be worse, similar or better as compared to others of their own age. It was shown that children with low, and surprisingly high, expectations did suffer from increased…

Using data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing study and the Current Population Survey, we find that labor market conditions play a large role in explaining the positive relationship between educational attainment and marriage. Our results suggest that if low-educated parents enjoyed the same, stronger labor market conditions as their…

Sociology with a Southern face characterizes Southern sociologists and Southern social issues. This article asks why we are sociologists and what we are doing about it in the South. I posit that many Southern sociologists share common biographical experiences that provide insights for understanding and solving Southern problems. Longstanding…

In this article we use comparative micro data for 15 European countries covering the period 1992-2007 to study the impact of labor market reforms on the skill-related individual risk of holding a temporary contract and the risk of being unemployed. Our results indicate no general increase in either of these skill gaps. Using two-step multilevel…

Analyzing data from the 2007 Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan Inequality Survey, I identify and compare the determinants of economic justice attitudes in two formerly similar majority-Muslim nations that are now distinguished almost exclusively by their dissimilar economic circumstances following the collapse of the Soviet Union. In Kazakhstan, where the…

What do recent trends toward increasingly ambitious educational expectations and rising college completion rates mean for the stratification of higher education? This article shows that the odds of achieving expectations for a bachelor's degree increased across 15 cohorts of young adults, and to a lesser extent, for expectations to attend…

Research suggests that community-level poverty is associated with access to health care net of individual-level characteristics, but no research investigates whether this association differs by individual-level income. Using data from the Medical Expenditure Panel Surveys, the U.S. Census Bureau and the Health Resource and Services Administration,…

Using data from a 2005 nationally representative survey of working adults residing in the United States, we show that education is associated positively with a sense of personal control. The well-educated have higher status occupations which include higher levels of schedule control, challenging, interesting and enriching work, greater economic…

The model specifies the causal relationships hypothesized as existing among a set of social, demographic, and economic variables known to be related to the supply and use of health manpower and facilities, and to the health status of a population. (Author)

How does neighborhood poverty affect the poor's ability to access resources such as health care and job information? Most studies have focused on individuals or neighborhoods; we focus on organizations--specifically, whether organizations are less connected if located in poor neighborhoods. Our case study is childcare centers. We ask whether…

Bridging the areas of political-economic sociology, the sociology of agriculture and environmental sociology, this study tests two hypotheses derived from a refined theory of foreign investment dependence. The hypotheses state that pesticide and fertilizer use intensity in less-developed countries are both positively associated with foreign…

Examines the definition, construction, and interpretation of social indicators. Shows how standard classes of formalisms used to construct models in contemporary sociology are derived from the general theory of models. Reviews recent model building and evaluation related to active life expectancy among the elderly, fertility rates, and indicators…