This thesis analyzes a subsample of 935 men and women from the 2002 National Study of the Changing Workforce, all of whom hold the simultaneous roles of parent, spouse, and worker. Its purpose is to examine some of the differential effects that objective role demands and subjective experiences of role demands have on psychological well-being for those juggling multiple roles. Specifically, I investigate the hypotheses that a) subjective experiences of role demand, including perceived work-family interference and perceived role strain, will have independent effects on psychological distress even when considered alongside more objective circumstantial variables, including the amount of time required or flexibility afforded by a role or roles; b) perceptions of work-family interference or role strain will interact with these objective variables when predicting distress; and c) these effects will vary by gender based on differing internalized expectations related to role performance. OLS regression analyses suggest that perceived work-family interference and role strain do have independent effects on psychological well-being, and that the perception of work-family interference interacts with the amount of time spent on home chores to predict distress. Separate analyses by gender produced some additional effects, but they were not always in the predicted directions.

My research employs structural and human capital approaches to examine poverty and working poverty. The structural approach identifies that spatial location, the quantity of job opportunities, the quality of job opportunities, the structure of the labor market, and the relative power of labor are important to consider when studying poverty and working poverty. Meanwhile, the human capital approach highlights the importance of considering household composition when studying poverty and working poverty. After collecting cross-sectional data for North Carolina counties, I replicate previous research that examined the effects of the quantity of job opportunities, quality of job opportunities, structure of the labor market, and relative power of labor on poverty, as well as on working poverty. Additionally, I extend past studies by improving the measures of the quantity of jobs, quality of jobs, structure of the labor market, and relative power of labor and adding measures of spatial location and household composition. Ordinary Least Squares regression models indicate that sources of poverty and working poverty include the quantity of jobs, the quality of jobs, the structure of the labor market, the relative power of labor, and household composition.

This project takes as its starting point research that indicates girls are more likely to be depressed, while boys are more likely to be delinquent. To explain these documented sex differences in well-being, I bring theories of gender to bear on how the processes described in general strain theory and the stress paradigm are modified by the processes and practices of gender. Building on past research that examines gender differences in the experience of stress, I consider how sex differences in general, agentic (intrapersonal) and communal (interpersonal) stress contribute to differences in well-being. Additionally, I further specify current approaches by examining how gender theoretically alters access to and employment of social/personal resources ? social support, self-esteem, mastery, and coping styles. I hypothesize that these interact with the experience of stress in gendered ways to produce variance in well-being by sex. Data are from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. Regression models are estimated separately for boys and girls, including interaction terms between each type of stress and social/personal resource. Analyses show boys report more delinquency, and girls report more depression. Boys report more exposure to agentic stress, but this does not translate into vulnerability. Girls, in terms of depression, are more vulnerable to general and communal stress. No social or personal resource completely accounts for their greater vulnerability to these stresses. Boys report higher levels of self-esteem, mastery, and risk-oriented coping; girls report higher levels of social support and avoidant coping. In terms of delinquency, social support and self-esteem protect girls from delinquent outcomes but are not significant for boys. Differences in coping styles provide some explanation for sex differences in well-being. For girls, avoidant coping exacerbates the damaging effects of stress on depression, while approach-oriented coping buffers the effects of stress on delinquency. Risk-oriented coping puts boys and girls at risk for delinquency and depression, but puts girls at greater risk for delinquency if they use a risk-oriented coping style to manage stress.

Existing research argues that gender affects social capital usage in migration. The power perspective suggests that unequal power relationships encourage potential migrants to rely on social capital from members of the dominant group, typically men. Conversely, the homophily perspective posits that relatively equal power relations may allow a tendency for gender homophily in social capital use to become evident. Because evidence for the power perspective comes largely from Mexico and evidence for the homophily perspective comes from Thailand, these perspectives must be tested in an alternative national context to determine their generalizability and the extent to which power differentials mask a tendency towards gender homophily in migrant social networks. Using data on migration from the Dominican Republic to the United States, this paper finds limited support for the power perspective and no support for the homophily perspective.

The Internet has grown rapidly over the past two decades and researchers continue to discuss the potential benefits of Internet use depending on how an individual utilizes it. Researchers argue that a large part of the advantages from Internet use stem from visiting capital-enhancing websites that provide individuals with educational, financial, occupational or networking opportunities that help cultivate human, cultural, and social capital. Despite these prospective benefits, previous literature finds that women lag behind men in overall frequency and variety of capital-enhancing website use. This article extends the literature on capital-enhancing website use by testing two possible explanations for why the gender gap exists: 1) the unequal division of household labor, and 2) non-capital-enhancing website content geared towards men. The findings from an analysis of General Social Survey (GSS) data from 2000-2004 indicate that the gendered content of Internet websites may play a large role in determining women and menâs capital-enhancing website use. I conclude with a discussion of the implications for gender inequality in the digital age.

Individual officer characteristics, attributes of the organization, and the racial threat thesis are all explored as possible contributors to the racial distribution of citations. Using Hierarchal Linear Modeling (HLM), the findings of the analyses suggest that less experienced officers and those officers working in patrol districts where members are more highly trained issue more African American citations than more experienced officers and officers working in patrol districts where members are less trained. The findings also indicate that the effect of length of service on the outcome measure varies by the officer?s race. The racial threat analyses suggest that there is racial disparity in the issuance of citations and that the extent of the disparity steadily increases as the representation of African Americans in the driving population increases. The implications of this dissertation?s findings for future research on the racial distribution of traffic enforcement outcomes are discussed.

Previous research has analyzed the effects of legal and extralegal factors on criminal justice decision-making. Most of this research analyzes discrete stages, rather than multiple stages of the criminal justice process. Using data on felony convictions in a New Jersey State Court, this study compares the utility of a legal model of decision-making, an organizational model of decision-making and Black?s (1976) theory of law in predicting several criminal justice outcomes. Providing some support for both the legal model and Black?s theory of law, the results indicate the influence of both legal case characteristics and extralegal factors during initial stages of criminal justice processing. However, the influence of extralegal factors on later sentencing decisions through their effects on initial outcomes indicates the operation of organizational factors in criminal justice processing. While offenders are directly penalized by extralegal factors during initial criminal justice processing, they are penalized indirectly at sentencing stages by these same factors. Overall, the results of this analysis provide overwhelming support for an organizational model of criminal justice processing, in which later criminal justice outcomes are greatly a function of outcomes at previous stages. Previous research fails to systematically include prior outcomes in analyses of criminal sentencing. Criminal sentencing research that fails to consider the impact of initial criminal justice outcomes may falsely conclude that extralegal factors have no affect on decision-making.

In this study I examine the effects of two organizational mechanisms on the race gap in promotions and authority attainment. Previous work in the area has treated promotions as a means to obtaining authority invested positions, while the present research examines promotions and authority simultaneously, and as conceptually distinct. This research also examines the effects of both social closure and homosocial reproduction on promotions and authority, something previous research has failed to accomplish. Using the North Carolina Employment and Health Survey (NCEHS), I examine the effect that social closure through training time may have on Black?s relative chances of having authority, and the influence of homosocial reproduction by linking the racial composition of jobs with the likelihood of receiving a promotion and having authority. Results from these analyses indicate that Blacks are more likely to receive promotions and authority positions in jobs with a higher percentage of Black employees. The results also indicate that Black employees with increased education also increase their likelihood of being promoted, and Blacks have less authority in private sector jobs, both conclusions showing support for the particularistic mobility thesis. This analysis provides empirical support for homosocial reproduction.

The purpose of the research is to evaluate whether a simple ?add gender and stir? approach with Hirschi?s social control theory can help explain gender differences or the gender gap in delinquency. I propose that incorporating traditional gender ideologies into the traditional ?add gender and stir? approach can help extend the theory and lead to a better understanding of the gender gap. Using data from the National Youth Survey, I empirically assess the differences in the levels (means) and the effects that attachment to family, commitment to school and/or a future career, and acceptance of traditional gender ideologies have on delinquency. The findings suggest that although Hirschi?s theory offers insight into why males and females engage in delinquent behavior, it does little to explain the gender gap in delinquency. Specifically, having ?stakes in conformity? curbs delinquency among both males and females. However, the data shows that these stakes in conformity do not help understand the gender gap per se. The findings also suggest that the acceptance of traditional gender ideologies play an important part in understanding the gender gap in delinquency because these ideologies promote delinquency among males but control female delinquency. These findings underscore arguments that the ?add gender and stir? approach to understanding the gender gap in delinquency is insufficient. Future research should continue to explore broad gender arguments derived from gender studies.

Based on 43 semi-structured interviews with children in grades 6th through 8th, this study examines how heteronormativity, or normative heterosexuality, shapes and reinforces gender stratification among preadolescents. The sample consists of 29 white and 17 non-white children. The author draws from self-evaluation theory, closure theory, and theory on heteronormativity in demonstrating that heteronorms and the use of the gay stigma operate to regulate gender performances and identities. Findings suggest specifically that a) while norms of femininity have altered in response to the feminist movement, norms of masculinity have not; b) male gender nonconformists are harassed through the use of the gay stigma, putting significant pressure on boys to maintain a hegemonic masculine/heterosexual identity; c) openly gay students are not always harassed to the extent suggested by the level of homophobia revealed in interviews with middle school students; d) boys use the gay stigma against other boys in their struggle for dominance over others; and e) white girls are less homophobic than other groups. The strict regulation of self and others reproduces heterosexism and patriarchy in ways profoundly important for understanding the persistence of inequality.