While the normative pattern of retirement is complete cessation of labor force activity, approximately one‐third of men work during their retirement. This research focuses on such “working‐retirees” by investigating the prevalence and patterns of occupational mobility from pre‐ to postretirement job, as well as the impact that institutional constraints on (re)employment in later life may have on the chances of occupational mobility. Using data from the older men's cohort of the National Longitudinal Surveys, a sample of working‐retirees was extracted from men who retired between 1967 and 1978. Results showed a substantial amount of occupational mobility among the working‐retired. The structure of mobility was found to be similar to younger labor force participants in that most mobility consists of moves to adjacent occupational categories. Unlike career mobility of nonretired workers, however, the large majority of moves constituted downward mobility. Using the economic segmentation perspective, log‐linear and logistic regression analyses indicated that working‐retirees whose preretirement jobs were in the core sector were more likely to experience occupational mobility. As a more specific indicator of bureaucratic control of the labor force, industry‐level pension coverage rates were used in the logistic regressions and higher rates of pension coverage were found to result in a greater likelihood of mobility. These results indicate that the considerable occupational mobility experienced by working‐retirees is partially the result of structural constraints on the employment of older men.

This research investigated the interrelationship of perception of crowding, racial antagonism, and aggression in a custodially oriented prison. Due to the black-white ratio in each dorm (2:1) and the forced, largely inescapable interaction in the open dorm housing arrangement, it appeared that race had an important effect upon the interpersonal dynamics of the prison. Perception of crowding was directly associated with the racial antagonism variables of stereotyping and social distance, especially for white inmates. Additionally, racial stereotyping and social distance were related to aggression, particularly interracial violence. Yet, at the zero-order level, aggression was virtually unrelated to perception of crowding. Thus, racial antagonism appeared to have had a far greater impact upon inmate attitudes and behavior than the effects of social density or the perception of being crowded. The finding that the most significant relationships among the variables in this study existed for the white inmate group is consistent with the hypothesis expressed herein-namely, that whites' excessive sensitivity to race may be due to the fact that they were accustomed to belonging to the majority racial group in society but in prison they constituted the minority racial group.

This study examined attitudes of black inmates at two institutions located in different sections of the United States. The attitudinal dimensions considered were black radicalism, race cohesiveness, class consciousness, the soul orientation, and allegiance to the inmate code. It was determined that despite the regional location of the institutions, there was considerable similarity regarding the relationship of the attitude sets to various pre-prison experiences and background factors, violence in prison, and type of offense. With respect to socialization effects, the nature of the institutional environment appeared to have a major impact upon the inmate's attitudinal orientation. The implications of the findings for the "Importation vs. Functional Adaptation" debate concerning the origins of inmate attitudes and behaviors are discussed.

In this paper, we explore undergraduate students' contradictory expectations of a woman professor (Dr. Baker) who taught a feminist course. Over the course of three semesters teaching the same class, the professor got pregnant and carried her child to term. Using qualitative and quantitative teaching evaluation data from this course, we analyze how students' reactions to their professor shifted depending on their professor's capacity to fulfill their gendered expectations. We also examine how the interactions between students' gendered expectations, their reactions to feminist course content, and their responses to their pregnant professor influenced the students' teaching evaluations of Dr. Baker.

This research identifies various factors related to lesbianism in prison and attempts to place the findings into the perspective of the importation-deprivation debate concerning the origins of inmate attitudes. When compared to nonparticipants in homosexual behavior, lesbians were found to have histories of previous confinements, longer sentences, served more time, been initially arrested at an earlier age, a higher endorsement of the inmate code and feminist values, and higher levels of conflict-aggression. Further, these variables were positively related to amount of participation in lesbian activities. A key factor that differentiated the lesbian subsample was the respondent's age at her first gay experience. The most criminalistic, feministic, aggressive, and homosexually active women in the institution were those whose first gay experience preceded their initial arrest. The implications of this finding are discussed from a sex-roles perspective.

Sociological research on older workers has tended to focus on the timing of retirement. Relatively little attention has been directed to post-retirement labor force patterns. Using data from the National Longitudinal Surveys of older men, this article investigates the impact of social and demographic factors, mediating variables such as retirement benefits, preretirement attitudes toward work, and health on work activity during retirement. While job opportunities determined by preretirement occupation and industrial sector do exert some effect on postretirement work activity, the individual-level constraints of poor health and low retirement benefits appear to be of central importance in determining labor force activity of retired men.

This research represents a partial test of the activity theory of aging. The data used are from the National Longitudinal Surveys of older men and the Bradburn Affect Balance Scale and its subscales of Positive and Negative Affect were employed as dependent variables while participation in 10 types of activities were used as the primary independent variables. The central hypothesis that more involvement in activities results in higher levels of psychological well-being was supported in the cases of Positive Affect and Affect Balance. However, involvement in activities exerted trivial effects on Negative Affect and other hypotheses based on activity theory were not supported.

Much has been written in recent years about changes in family and household structure in the United States. Analyses based on census data or other cross sections indicate that fewer adults live in families, especially the nuclear family of husband, wife, and minor children. Analyses based on cross sections also indicate the relative rarity of extended households, especially three-generation families. In this descriptive analysis, data from the National Longitudinal Surveys of Mature Women are used to compare cross-section and 15-year estimates of the incidence of various types of extended households. Black and white women are analyzed separately and the estimates for the proportion of middle-aged women living in extended households are presented by marital status. Results show large differences between single-year and 15-year estimates of the incidence of extension. Overall, between one-fourth and one-third of white middle-aged women lived in extended households for some time over the 15-year period, and approximately two-thirds of black women experienced this household form for at least part of their middle years. We conclude that, contrary to popular and academic perceptions, extended families are a relatively common form of living arrangement for adults in this country, if only for short periods of time. This may be one indicator of the prevalence of the modified-extended family in the United States.

This paper explores how workers try to manage their emotions under conditions that doom them to fail. The workers in question - floor instructors at a sheltered workshop for people with developmental disabilities - were expected to infuse clients with positive feelings about work and to help transform them into committed workers. But structural conditions - boring, poorly paid assembly work and long gaps between contract jobs - forced them to obtain clients' compliance through coercive and confrontational emotion management techniques that contradicted their ideological beliefs. The floor instructors sought to peacefully increase their control over clients through "preventive emotion management" but most often they experienced a loss of control, leading some of them to experience "burnout. " This paper defines burnout as "occupational emotional deviance" that workers experience when they cannot manage their own and other's emotions according to organizational expectations.

This essay provides a detailed, worker-oriented assessment of the new federal minimum wage law. Using a class-analytic approach and empirical findings generated by the 1987-1989 campaign to increase the federal minimum wage, I examine specific provisions of the new law and key political-economic variables evident in the struggle to pass it. I conclude by offering strategic observations on key trends likely to shape future campaigns to increase the federal minimum wage.