<p> Measuring spouses&rsquo; ages allows us to explore larger sociological issues about marriage, such as whether narrowing gaps signal gender progress or if a rise in female-older unions reveals a status change. Using Census and American Community Survey data, I test the merits of beauty-exchange and status homogamy theories as explanations for how heterosexual marital age gaps changed over a 40-year period of social and economic revolution. Analyses address questions about how age gaps compared for people with different characteristics, whether similarly aged couples exhibited greater educational and socio-economic homogamy than others, and if the odds of being in age-heterogamous marriages changed. </p><p> Chapter 4 provides the historical context of U.S. marriages from 1910 on, and shows that while disadvantaged groups retreated from marriage, the percentage of individuals with greater education and income who married remained high. Age homogamy rose over 100 years due to a decline in marriages involving much-older husbands rather than increases in wife-older unions. </p><p> Results in Chapter 5 show that mean age gaps decreased significantly over time for first-married individuals by most&mdash;but not all&mdash;characteristics. Gaps narrowed for those who were White, Black, other race, or of Hispanic origin; from any age group; with zero, one, or two wage earners; with any level of education; and from most types of interracial pairs. One exception was that mean age gaps increased between Asian wives and White husbands, and Asian women&rsquo;s odds of having a much older husband were higher than the odds for racially homogamous women. Those odds increased over time. </p><p> Findings lent support for status homogamy theory, since same-age couples showed greater educational homogamy than others in any decade, but showed mixed support for beauty exchange. In 2010&ndash;14, the median spousal earnings gap was wider in husband-older marriages than age-homogamous ones; however, the reverse was true in 1980. Women-older first or remarriages exhibited the smallest median earnings gaps in 1980 and 2010&ndash;14, and women in these marriages contributed a greater percentage of the family income than other women in 2010&ndash;14 (43.6% vs 36.9%, respectively). </p><p> The odds of being in age-heterogamous unions were significantly higher for persons who were remarried, from older age groups, from certain racial backgrounds, in some interracial marriages, less educated, and from lower SES backgrounds. Age and remarriage showed the greatest impact on odds ratios. While age homogamy increased overall, the odds of being a much older spouse (11+ years older) increased dramatically for remarried men and women between 1970 and 1980, and then remained high in 2010&ndash;14. Remarried women&rsquo;s odds of being the much older wife versus a same-age spouse were 20.7 times that of the odds of first-married women in 2010&ndash;14. Other results showed that Black men&rsquo;s odds of being with a much-older wife compared to one around the same age were about 2.5 times that of the odds of White men in each decade. Hispanic men&rsquo;s odds of being in a first marriage with a much-older wife versus one of the same age were also twice the odds of White men in 1980 and 2010&ndash;14. </p><p> Analyses demonstrated that marital age gaps have, indeed, changed significantly since the second-wave women&rsquo;s movement, and that while age homogamy increased, the odds of being age heterogamous also shifted for people with different characteristics.</p><p>

Abstract not available.

Using annual statistics from the United, Anglican and Catholic Churches as well as demographic data from Quebec and Canada, the present thesis details the results of a series of quantitative analyses concerning the evolution of church indicators since the 1970s within the English-speaking community of Quebec. Data regarding religious affiliation, church attendance, membership and rites of passage (baptisms, professions of faith, confirmations, marriages and funerals) are also the object of comparisons with similar statistics from the rest of Quebec and Canada in order to establish the particularities of Anglo-Quebecers in this matter. The entirety of the results show three main axes which distinguish tendencies of decline from those of relative stability: differences between denominations (Protestantism-Catholicism), between linguistic communities (Anglophone-Francophone) and between regions (East-West). Anglo-Quebecers resemble more often than not English Canada regarding religious indicator tendencies from the three Christian churches being studied. Declines, especially protestant, in the English-speaking community are sometimes lesser than those in Ontario and in the West, but greater than those in the Atlantic region. These results are interpreted according to a theoretical framework allowing for the existence of several stories of secularization, dialoging most notably with the sociological works of David Martin, Daniele Hervieu-Leger and Raymond Lemieux --- experts regarding the link between church and national community as well as religious identity. In summary, new data is detailed and interpreted in order to contribute, in a modest but pertinent way, to the field of Sociology of Religion in Quebec and in Canada. An in depth examination of the relationship between Anglo-Quebecers and their three main Christian churches also allows to distinguish in many regards this population from other Quebecois and Canadian ethno-linguistic communities.

No description available.

This study is intended to explore the intentions to migrate of a group of migrants from urban Java and Kalimantan, Indonesia, using a framework based on Place-Utility/Migration Intentions Model. Because this study explores the intentions of urban residents, several new variables were specified including: urban employment sector (formal and informal) as an individual background factor, difference in city settings as a structural background factor, and job satisfaction as a place-utility variable. Migration intentions to be explained consist of intentions "to stay", "to leave", and "be undecided". / Using multinomial logit technique, this study found that the inclusion of these variables in this model was very useful. Differences in urban settings and type of urban employment sector were found to be the most influential variables. Job satisfaction is an important predictor and functions as an intervening variable between urban employment sector, income and migration intentions. Other variables examined in the model such as education, employment status in the place of origin, duration of stay in the city, and income level were found as important individual background factors. Values expected from the city as a place utility variable in the model was an important intervening variable between marital status and migration intentions, and between the type of sector engaged in by migrants and migration intentions. / In Java, migrants are inclined to leave the city due to their participation in the urban informal sector, having a rural job waiting, being married, and low levels of education. On the contrary, migrants in Kalimantan are inclined to stay in the city or being undecided because of preference for urban life-style, participation in the formal sector jobs, having older age, and lower education levels. / This study demonstrates the utility of this model and suggests that prediction of migration intentions should take into account differences in employment sector, job satisfaction, and setting. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 54-07, Section: A, page: 2763. / Major Professor: Peter L. Doan. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1993.

The goal of this study was to assess the level of knowledge and attitudinal characteristics of secondary school teachers teaching population education; to examine the relationship between two dependent variables (population knowledge and attitude toward population education) and thirteen independent variables (age, sex, marital status, religion, ethnicity, education, teaching experience, experience in teaching population education, other sources of information on population issues, training participation, support from the community, support from colleagues, and support from administrators); and also to test hypotheses based on the premise that knowledge is theoretically related to attitude. / The sample comprised 224 teachers. The Pearson correlation analysis of data identified eight independent variables significantly related to knowledge (age, teaching experience, education, experience in teaching population education, training participation, other sources of information on population issues, support from the community, and support from colleagues). Five independent variables related significantly to attitude toward population education (education, training, age, teaching experience and experience in teaching population education). The analysis of data using parsimonious regression indicated that for this sample there were six significant determinants of population knowledge: education, training participation, sex (male), support from the community, environmental variables and other source of information on population matter). / For the attitude toward population education there were three significant determinants which affect attitude toward population education (education, training participation and age). Reciprocal analysis showed that there were a significant positive relationship between knowledge of population and attitude toward population education and vice versa. / The result of this study appear to throw some light on the relationship between attitude and knowledge on a subject matter. By taking a broader and more comprehensive definition of attitude than is often the case in attitude research, the direction of the relationship has been clarified, and at least a partial explanation can be proposed for the low correlation usually found between attitude and knowledge in a subject matter. However, this research used a small sample in a small geographic area. Before its findings can receive more general acceptance the study needs to be replicated in other places, and with difference social-demographic background. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 53-07, Section: A, page: 2224. / Major Professor: Byron G. Massialas. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1992.

<p> Objective: The focus of this study is a broad examination of household energy consumption for appliance use, space heating, space cooling, and water heating in United States over the period 2001-2009 using Residential Energy Consumption Survey (RECS) from the years 2001 and 2009. Methods: Linear Regression Analysis is used to identfy determinants of household energy consumption for each of the end uses. Regression based decomposition analysis is used to identify trends in residential energy consumption for each of the end uses. Results: The study identified current determinants of household energy consumption for each of the end uses. These determinants are employed in the study to predict trends in household energy consumption for each of the end uses. Based on the results policy interventions at local and federal level for energy conservation are suggested.</p>

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2008. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 69-11, Section: A, page: 4532. Adviser: Jan Nederveen Pieterse. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 139-150) Available on microfilm from Pro Quest Information and Learning.

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Social Work / W. Richard Goe / The chief aim of this research is to assess the influence of rural amenities on population change amongst all non-metropolitan counties in the United States (excluding Alaska and Hawaii) from 1980 to 2000. Rural amenities, as defined by this research, are the attributes of a non-metropolitan locale that enhance the quality of life of the people living or visiting there. First, I discuss the general patterns of population change in non-metropolitan areas during these three decades as well as the possible influence of rural amenities during this time period. I then examine how rural amenities have been studied by past research in order for me to hypothesize their influence on non-metropolitan population change in the United States. Additionally, I draw on past research in order to guide my conceptualization and measurement of rural amenities. Using data from the United States Census of Population, the National Outdoor Recreational Supply Information System (NORSIS), and David McGranahan’s (1999) Natural Amenity Scale, a panel model data set was constructed for the aforementioned counties from 1980 to 2000. This research constructed a panel data set using data from the aforementioned sources for the years of 1980-2000. Accordingly, in this model the change scores on two measures of population change (absolute population change and percentage population change) were regressed on the amenity and control variables. Regression diagnostics were then used to examine the extent to which specific regression assumptions were validated by the data. Results suggest that climatic amenities, river and ocean based amenities, and warm weather recreational amenities were most significantly associated with increase in population amongst the counties examined by this study.

Abstract not available.