Inequality Publications Research

• Klawitter, M.; Carpenter, C. (Forthcoming). Local Antidiscrimination Ordinances and the Earnings of Sexual Minorities: Evidence from the 2001 California Health Interview Survey. Public Policy and Sexual Orientation, Badgett, M. L.; Frank, J. (eds.).
  
  The abstract for this publication is not available.
  
  
• Abe-Kim, J.; Takeuchi, D. T.; Hong, S.; Zane, N.; Sue, S.; Spencer, M. S.; Appel, H.; Nicdao, E.; Alegria, M., (2007), Use of Mental Health-Related Services Among Immigrant and US-Born Asian Americans: Results From the National Latino and Asian American Study, American journal of public health, 97(1): 91.
  
  Objectives. We examined rates of mental health–related service use (i.e., any, general medical, and specialty mental health services) as well as subjective satisfaction with and perceived helpfulness of care in a national sample of Asian Americans, with a particular focus on immigration-related factors. Methods. Data were derived from the National Latino and Asian American Study (2002–2003). Results. About 8.6% of the total sample (n=2095) sought any mental health–related services; 34.1% of individuals who had a probable diagnosis sought any services. Rates of mental health–related service use, subjective satisfaction, and perceived helpfulness varied by birthplace and by generation. US-born Asian Americans demonstrated higher rates of service use than did their immigrant counterparts. Third-generation or later individuals who had a probable diagnosis had high (62.6%) rates of service use in the previous 12 months. Conclusions. Asian Americans demonstrated lower rates of any type of mental health–related service use than did the general population, although there are important exceptions to this pattern according to nativity status and generation status. Our results underscore the importance of immigration-related factors in understanding service use among Asian Americans.
  
  
• Berthold, S. M.; Takeuchi, D.; Wong, E. C.; Schell, T. L.; Marshall, G. N.; Elliott, M. N.; Hambarsoomians, K., (2007), U.S. Cambodian Refugees' Use of Complementary and Alternative Medicine for Mental Health Problems, Psychiatric services : a journal of the American Psychiatric Association., 58(9): 1212.
  
  OBJECTIVE: This study examined U.S. Cambodian refugees' use of complementary and alternative medicine and Western sources of care for psychiatric problems. Analyses assessed the extent to which complementary and alternative medicine was used in the absence of Western mental health treatment and whether use of complementary and alternative medicine was associated with decreased use of Western services. METHODS: Face-to-face interviews were conducted with a representative sample drawn from the largest Cambodian refugee community in the United States. The sample included 339 persons who met criteria in the past 12 months for posttraumatic stress disorder, major depression, or alcohol use disorder. Respondents described contact with complementary and alternative medicine and Western service providers for psychological problems in the preceding 12 months. Bivariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were used. RESULTS: Seventy-two percent of the sample sought Western mental health services, and 34% relied on complementary and alternative medicine in the past year. Seeking complementary and alternative medicine was strongly and positively associated with seeking Western services, contrary to the hypothesis that use of complementary and alternative medicine inhibits seeking Western mental health treatment. CONCLUSIONS: Only a small percentage of Cambodian refugees used complementary and alternative medicine exclusively (5%), and utilization of complementary and alternative medicine was positively associated with seeking Western sources of care for mental health problems. Complementary and alternative medicine use does not appear to be a significant barrier to mental health treatment in this population, contrary to the Surgeon General's conclusion that Asian Americans' use of alternative resources may inhibit their utilization of Western mental health care.
  
  
• Bushway, S.; Pettit, B.; Stoll, M. A.; Weiman, D. F.; Lyons, C., (2007), "Status and the Stigma of Incarceration: The Labor Market Effects of Incarceration by Race, Class, and Criminal Involvement" In Barriers to reentry? : the labor market for released prisoners in post-industrial America, Russell Sage Foundation, New York.
  
  The abstract for this publication is not available.
  
  
• Ellis, M., Holloway, S. R., Wright, R., and M. East. (2007). The Effects of Mixed-Race Households in Residential Segregation. Urban Geography 28(6): 554-577.
  
  This paper investigates how household-scale racial mixing affects measurements of neighborhood-scale racial segregation. This topic is increasingly important as mixed-race households are becoming more common across the United States. Specifically, our research asks two questions: What is the sensitivity of neighborhood racial segregation measures to levels of household-scale racial mixing? And what is the relationship between neighborhood racial diversity and the presence of mixed-race households? We answer these questions with an analysis that uses confidential long-form data from the 1990 U.S. census. These data provide information on household racial composition at the tract level. The results show that racial mixing within households has meaningful effects on measurements of neighborhood segregation, suggesting that patterns of mixed-race household formation and residential location condition understandings of neighborhood segregation dynamics. We demonstrate that mixed-race households are a disproportionate source of neighborhood diversity in the least racially plural neighborhoods. This article also reflects on the complications that mixed-race households pose for the interpretations of neighborhood-scale segregation and cautions against drawing conclusions about residential desegregation based on racial mixing in households.
  
  
• Gee, G. C.; Takeuchi, D.; Spencer, M. S.; Chen, J., (2007), A Nationwide Study of Discrimination and Chronic Health Conditions Among Asian Americans, American journal of public health, 97(7): 1275.
  
  Objectives. We examined whether self-reported everyday discrimination was associated with chronic health conditions among a nationally representative sample of Asian Americans. Methods. Data were from the Asian American subsample (n = 2095) of the National Latino and Asian American Study conducted in 2002 and 2003. Regression techniques (negative binomial and logistic) were used to examine the association between discrimination and chronic health conditions. Analyses were conducted for the entire sample and 3 Asian subgroups (Chinese, Vietnamese, and Filipino). Results. Reports of everyday discrimination were associated with many chronic conditions, after we controlled for age, gender, region, per capita income, education, employment, and social desirability bias. Discrimination was also associated with indicators of heart disease, pain, and respiratory illnesses. There were some differences by Asian subgroup. Conclusions. Everyday discrimination may contribute to stress experienced by racial/ethnic minorities and could lead to chronic illness.
  
  
• Gee, G. C.; Takeuchi, D. T.; Delva, J., (2007), Relationships Between Self-Reported Unfair Treatment and Prescription Medication Use, Illicit Drug Use, and Alcohol Dependence Among Filipino Americans, American journal of public health, 97(5): 933.
  
  Objectives. We examined associations between self-reported unfair treatment and prescription medication use, illicit drug use, and alcohol dependence. Methods. We used data from the Filipino American Community Epidemiological Survey, a cross-sectional investigation involving 2217 Filipino Americans interviewed in 1998–1999. Multinomial logistic and negative binomial regression analyses were used in assessing associations between unfair treatment and the substance use categories. Results. Reports of unfair treatment were associated with prescription drug use, illicit drug use, and alcohol dependence after control for age, gender, location of residence, employment status, educational level, ethnic identity level, nativity, language spoken, marital status, and several health conditions. Conclusions. Unfair treatment may contribute to illness and subsequent use of prescription medications. Furthermore, some individuals may use illicit drugs and alcohol to cope with the stress associated with such treatment. Addressing the antecedents of unfair treatment may be a potential intervention route.
  
  
• Gee, G. C.; Takeuchi, D. T.; Spencer, M.; Chen, J.; Yip, T., (2007), The association between self-reported racial discrimination and 12-month DSM-IV mental disorders among Asian Americans nationwide, Social science & medicine., 64(10): 1984.
  
  Growing research finds that reports of discrimination are associated with mental health. However, many US studies are focused on regional samples and do not control for important confounders such as other stressors and response factors. The present study examines the association between self-reported racial discrimination and DSM-IV defined mental disorders among Asian respondents to the 2002–2003 US National Latino and Asian American Study (n = 2047). Logistic regression analyses indicated that self-reported racial discrimination was associated with greater odds of having any DSM-IV disorder, depressive disorder, or anxiety disorder within the past 12 months—controlling for sociodemographic characteristics, acculturative stress, family cohesion, poverty, self-rated health, chronic physical conditions, and social desirability. Further, multinomial logistic regression found that individuals who reported discrimination were at a twofold greater risk of having one disorder within the past 12 months, and a threefold greater risk of having two or more disorders. Thus, self-reported discrimination was associated with increased risk of mental disorders among Asian Americans across the United States and this relationship was not explained by social desirability, physical health, other stressors, and sociodemographic factors. Should these associations ultimately be shown enduring and causal, they suggest that policies designed to reduce discrimination may help improve mental health.
  
  
• Haley-Lock, A. and Ford Shah, M. (2007). Protecting vulnerable workers: How public policy and private employers shape the contemporary low-wage work experience. Families in Society, 88(3): 485-95.
  
  This paper presents a conceptual approach to understanding how government and private employers shape the employment experiences of contemporary low-wage workers. After reviewing recent changes in employment conditions that have disproportionately affected poor working families, we present two perspectives on the structural vulnerability for low-wage workers: policy and organizational stratification. The stratification approach suggests that public policy and private workplace practices interact with workers’ personal and family circumstances to shape the outcomes of low-wage employment. Applying these lenses to restaurant workers, we examine why and how some workers may be uniquely disadvantaged by emerging proposals to change minimum wage laws. Promising directions for intervention are also discussed.
  
  
• Holt, S. D.; Romich, J. L., (2007), Marginal Tax Rates Facing Low- and Moderate-Income Workers Who Participate in Means-Tested Transfer Programs, National tax journal. 60(2): 253.
  
  The combination of a progressive tax system with credits for low-income workers and means-tested transfer programs can create high marginal tax rates (MTRs) on earned income. We document the extent and distribution of statutory and actual MTRs for Wisconsin households with earned income in 2000 using a unique data set of merged tax, transfer program, and wage data. Nearly a quarter of unmarried tax filers with two or more dependents face MTRs of 50 percent or greater. Households between 100 percent and 250 percent of the federal poverty threshold and those using multiple means-tested programs are more likely to face high rates.
  
  
• Lundberg, S. and R. Startz. (2007). Information and Racial Exclusion.Journal of Population Economics, 20(3), 621.
  
  We present several economic models of racial segregation and income inequality. The use of race as a signal arises from imperfect information about the return to transactions with particular agents. In a search framework, signaling supports not simply a discriminatory equilibrium, but a pattern of racially segregated transactions, which in turn perpetuates the informational asymmetries. Equilibrium income disparities depend on the relative size of the minority group and on the informational “distance” between races. Under some circumstances, minority agents will self-segregate since they face an adverse selection of majority agents who are willing to trade with them.
  
  
• Magnuson, K. A.; Meyers, M. K.; Waldfogel, J., (2007), Public Funding and Enrollment in Formal Child Care in the 1990s, The Social service review, 81: 1, 47.
  
  Although the share of all 3- and 4-year-old children enrolled in center-based care and early education has grown steadily in recent decades, rates of enrollment for children from low-income families still lag behind those for children from families with high incomes. During the 1990s, growing public funding for compensatory preschool education and means-tested child-care assistance had the potential to increase the availability of free or low-cost formal child-care arrangements and thus the attendance of low-income children. This article analyzes repeated cross-sectional data on formal child-care attendance from the October Current Population Survey as well as data on state-level funding. The results indicate that increases in public funding are positively associated with the probability that low-income young children attended formal care. These results also suggest that gaps in formal care between low- and high-income families would have widened in the absence of public investments.
  
  
• Takeuchi, David T., Nolan Zane, Seunghye Hong, David H. Chae, Fang Gong, Gilbert C. Gee, Emily Walton, Stanley Sue, and Margarita Alegría (2007). Immigration-Related Factors and Mental Disorders Among Asian Americans. American journal of public health, 97(1): 84-90.
  
  Objectives. We examined lifetime and 12-month rates of any depressive, anxiety, and substance abuse disorders in a national sample of Asian Americans. We focused on factors related to nativity and immigration as possible correlates of mental disorders. Methods. Data were derived from the National Latino and Asian American Study, the first national epidemiological survey of Asian Americans in the United States. Results. The relationships between immigration-related factors and mental disorders were different for men and women. Among women, nativity was strongly associated with lifetime disorders, with immigrant women having lower rates of most disorders compared with US-born women. Conversely, English proficiency was associated with mental disorders for Asian men. Asian men who spoke English proficiently generally had lower rates of lifetime and 12-month disorders compared with nonproficient speakers. Conclusions. For Asian Americans, immigration-related factors were associated with mental disorders, but in different ways for men and women. Future studies will need to examine gender as an important factor in specifying the association between immigration and mental health.
  
  
• Takeuchi, D. and D. Williams. (Accepted). Introduction to the special issue on race, ethnicity and mental health. Journal of Health and Social Behavior.
  
  The abstract for this article is not available.
  
  
• Bell, J, Zimmerman, F. and Almgren, G. (2006). Birth Outcomes among Urban African-American Women: A Multilevel Analysis of the Role of Racial Residential Segregation. Social Science & Medicine. 63(12): 3030.
  
  Residential segregation is a common aspect of the urban experiences of African-Americans in the United States (US), yet few studies have considered how segregation might influence perinatal health. Here, we develop a conceptual model of relationships between segregation and birth outcomes and test the implications of the model in a sample of 434,376 singleton births to African-American women living in 225 US Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs). Data from the National Center for Health Statistics 2002 birth files were linked to data from the 2000 US Census and two distinct measures of segregation: an index of isolation (the probability that an African-American resident will encounter another African-American resident in any random neighborhood encounter) and an index of clustering (the extent to which African-Americans live in contiguous neighborhoods). Using multilevel regression models, controlling for individual- and MSA-level socioeconomic status and other covariates, we found higher isolation was associated with lower birthweight, higher rates of prematurity and higher rates of fetal growth restriction. In contrast, higher clustering was associated with more optimal outcomes. We propose that isolation reflects factors associated with segregation that are deleterious to health including poor neighborhood quality, persistent discrimination and the intra-group diffusion of harmful health behaviors. Associations with clustering may reflect factors associated with segregation that are health-promoting such as African-American political power empowerment, social support and cohesion. Declines in isolation could represent positive steps toward improving birth outcomes among African-American infants while aspects of racial contiguity appear to be mitigating or indeed beneficial. Segregation is a complex multidimensional construct with both deleterious and protective influences on birth outcomes, depending on the dimensions under consideration. Further research to understand racial/ethnic and economic health disparities could benefit from a focus on the contributory role of neighborhood attributes associated with the dimensions segregation and other social geographies.
  
  
• Chae, D. H.; R., G. A.; Takeuchi, D. T., (2006), RESEARCH - Smoking Prevalence Among Asian Americans: Findings from the National Latino and Asian American Study (NLAAS), Public health reports., 121(6): 755.
  
  Objective. National studies suggest that the prevalence of current smoking among Asian Americans is lower than that for other racial/ethnic groups. However, these studies may have yielded inaccurate estimates because of the underrepresentation of non-English-speaking groups. Using data from the National Latino and Asian American Study (NLAAS), the authors estimated the prevalence of current and lifetime smoking among Asian Americans. Methods. Current and lifetime smoking status was assessed through a population-based survey administered to Asian American adults aged 18 and older.Results. An overall current smoking prevalence of 14.9% was found, with notable differences by gender, nativity, and other sociodemographic factors. The prevalence of current smoking was higher among foreign-born vs. U.S.-born men (24.9% vs. 15.6%), while U.S.-born women had a higher prevalence than foreign-born women (6.3% vs. 11.7%). Overall, 28.3% of Asian Americans were ever smokers (including current and former smokers), suggesting that approximately half of ever smokers cease smoking. Results indicated that some Asian American groups are more likely to initiate smoking and/or be more likely to continue smoking. Conclusion. Results revealed that the prevalence of current smoking exceeds that of the general U.S. population for some Asian American groups and suggest that excluding non-English-speaking Asian Americans may underestimate the prevalence of smoking among men. Findings indicate that some Asian American groups are at greater risk for initiating smoking and/or continuing smoking, and highlight the need for tailored interventions that address differential smoking patterns by gender, nativity, and other social characteristics.
  
  
• Haley-Lock, A., & Bruch, S. K. (2006). Workplace and workforce considerations in access to employment opportunity. Accepted for publication in D. Engstrom & L. Piedra (Eds.), Our Diverse Society: Race, Ethnicity, and Class, Washington, DC: NASW Press. Accepted for publication (June 2006).
  
  The abstract for this article is not available.
  
  
• Gornick, J. C.; Meyers, M. K., (2006), L'egalite des sexes : un enjeu pour les reformes - Entre travail remunere et responsabilites familiales, le role des Etats providence - Un regard americain sur la prise en compte du care dans les politiques sociales europeennes, Revue franu’caise des affaires sociales. Cahier de jurisprudence. Emploi-travail., 60: 1, 187.
  
  The abstract for this article is not available.
  
  
• Heintze, T. C.; Meyers, M. K.; Berger, L. M.; Naidich, W. B., (2006), Housing Assistance and Employment: How Far-Reaching Are the Effects of Rental Subsidies?, The Social service review., 80: 4, 635.
  
  This article uses instrumental variables models and data from the National Survey of America’s Families to explore associations between rental housing assistance and employment among low-income, single-mother households in the United States. Results suggest that housing assistance has indirect effects on employment. These effects operate through the stability of housing residency. However, the analyses provide little evidence of direct association between housing assistance and employment. The article also finds that unit- and tenant-based assistance are differentially associated with work hours among employed, low-income single mothers.
  
  
• Meyers, M.K. and Jordan, L. (2006). Choice and Accommodation in Parental Child Care Decisions. Community Development, 37(2): 1-19.
  
  As women approach parity with men in their representation in the U.S. labor force, child care has become a critical concern both for families and for community development professionals. In this paper, we review recent literature on parental child care decisions and on socio-economic differences in child care utilization. We contrast two bodies of theoretical and empirical research on the determinants of child care arrangements, comparing models of individual consumption choice with models of socially constructed or situated patterns of action. This research suggests that parental child care decisions may be best understood as accommodations--to family and employment demands, social and cultural expectations, available information, and financial, social, and other resources--that often reproduce other forms of economic and social stratification. Plotnick, R. Comment on: "The socioeconomic status of black males: The increasing importance of incarceration," by Steven Raphael, in Public Policy and the Income Distribution, John Quigley, Alan Auerbach and David Card (eds.), New York: Russell Sage Foundation 2006. http://urbanpolicy.berkeley.edu/smolensky.htm
  
  
• Susan K. Brown and Charles Hirschman. (2006). The End of Affirmative Action in Washington State and Its Impact on the Transition from High School to College. Sociology of Education, 79:106-130.
  
  Changes in affirmative action policies in some states create possibilities for "natural experiments" to observe the effect of public policy on racial and ethnic inequality in American society. This study measured the impact of Initiative 200, a ballot measure that eliminated affirmative action in Washington State, on the transition from high school to college. As of 1999, the year after I-200 passed, the proportion of minority high school seniors who went to college in Washington State decreased temporarily. The impact of I-200 was registered almost entirely at the University of Washington, the flagship public institution in the state. This decrease, however, stemmed less from changes in minority admission rates than from declines in application rates. Affirmative action programs may provide a signal of an institutional "welcoming environment" that serves as a counterweight to the normal reluctance of prospective students to apply to institutions that may be perceived as intimidating. Although the impact of I-200 was short-lived, significant racial and ethnic differences remain in the transition from high school to college.
  
  
• Plotnick, R. (2006). Comment on: "The socioeconomic status of black males: The increasing importance of incarceration," by Steven Raphael, in Public Policy and the Income Distribution, John Quigley, Alan Auerbach and David Card (eds.), New York Russell Sage Foundation 2006.
  
  Available online at http://urbanpolicy.berkeley.edu/smolensky.htm
  
  
• Almgren, G. (2005). The Ecological Context of Interpersonal Violence: From Culture to Collective Efficacy. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 20 (2), 218-224.
  
  This brief essay outlines the progression over the last 20 years of ecological theories of interpersonal violence. The period between the present and the early 1980s began with a revival of cultural explanations of violence that paralleled the introduction of the neo-conservative social science and then witnessed a rediscovery of deficitsbased structural explanations of interpersonal violence under the broad rubric of social disorganization theory. The essay concludes with a more optimistic appraisal of recent refinements of social disorganization theory that consider the mediating effects of collective efficacy on urban crime and interpersonal violence.
  
  
• Amon Emeka and Charles Hirschman. (2005). "Who Applies For and Who Is Selected for Washington State Achievers Scholarships? A Preliminary Assessment." In Edward St. John, ed. Public Policy and Equal Educational Opportunity: Readings on Equal Education. Volume 21, pp. 177-206. New York: AMS Press.
  
  This report identifies the characteristics of those who apply for the Washington State Achievers Program, as well as those who are ultimately selected, in order to shed light on the factors that impede low-income students from receiving a college education. Rather than simply choosing the best low-income students from schools around the state, this program targets large numbers of students from selected schools in order to establish a "culture of college attendance" at these schools, which will hopefully carry over in years to come and affect entire groups of students rather than a few select students. In the three high schools that were studied for this report, one in five students received a scholarship-a relatively high percentage. The study found that students who receive encouragement to attend college and are popular are significantly more likely to win awards because they are significantly more likely to apply than are other students. Students who spend more time on homework and have more contact with counselors also are significantly more likely to receive awards because they are more apt to apply AND because they are favored in the selection process. Due to the small numbers of students considered, the authors caution that these results must be considered preliminary and tentative.
  
  
• Charles Hirschman and Jennifer Lee. (2005). "Race and Ethnic Inequality in Educational Attainment in the United States." In Michael Rutter and Marta Tienda, eds. Ethnicity and Causal Mechanisms, pp. 107-138. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  
  The abstract for this article is not available.
  
  
• Pettit, Becky and Jennifer Hook. (2005). The Structure of Women’s Employment in Comparative Perspective. Social Forces, 84:779-801.
  
  In this paper we analyze social survey data from 19 countries using multi-level modeling methods in an effort to synthesize structural and institutional accounts for variation in women's employment. Observed demographic characteristics show much consistency in their relationship to women's employment across countries, yet there is significant variation in the effect of demographic characteristics on women's employment across countries. Disentangling specific policy conditions from overall policy generosity leads us to discover important non-linearities in the effects of parental leave on the employment of women with young children, and that federally supported childcare is positively related to the probability of employment of married women and women with young children.
  
  
• Reskin, B., (2005), Unconsciousness Raising: Women's Underrepresentation in Top-Level Jobs, Regional Review, 14: 3, 32-37.
  
  The abstract for this article is not available.
  
  
• Reskin, B.; Bielby, D., (2005), A Sociological Perspective on Gender and Career Outcomes, Journal of Economic Perspectives, 19: Winter, 71-86.
  
  Both economists and sociologists have documented the association between gender and career outcomes. Men are more likely than women to participate in the labor force, and men average more hours of paid labor per week and more weeks per year. Women and men tend to hold different occupations and to work in different industries, firms and jobs. Furthermore, men outearn women, hold more complex jobs and are more likely to supervise workers of the other sex and to dominate the top positions in their organization. The challenge for both disciplines lies not in showing that gender is linked to employment outcomes, but in explaining the associations. Sex segregation across jobs reflects the long-standing association between workers' sex and their careers, and it is the primary mechanism through which workers' sex is associated with other career outcomes, such as earnings, job authority and promotion chances.
  
  
• Snipp, C. Matthew and Charles Hirschman. (2005). "Assimilation in American Society: Occupational Achievement and Earnings for Ethnic Minorities in the United States, 1970 to 1990." In David Bills, ed. The Shape of Inequality: Stratification and Ethnicity in Comparative Perspective. Research in Social Stratification and Mobility, 22: 93-117. Amsterdam: Elsevier, JAI.
  
  The abstract for this article is not available.
  
  
• Western, Bruce and Becky Pettit. (2005). Black-White Wage Inequality, Employment Rates, and Incarceration. American Journal of Sociology, 111:553-578. Winner 2006 James F. Short Jr. Paper Award.
  
  The observed gap in average wages between black men and white men inadequately reflects the relative economic standing of blacks, who suffer from a high rate of joblessness. The authors estimate the black-white gap in hourly wages from 1980 to 1999 adjusting for the sample selection effect of labor inactivity. Among working-age men in 1999, accounting for labor inactivity--including prison and jail incarceration--leads to an increase of 7%-20% in the black-white wage gap. Adjusting for sample selectivity among men ages 22-30 in 1999 increases the wage gap by as much as 58%. Increasing selection bias, which can be attributed to incarceration and conventional joblessness, explains about two-thirds of the rise in black relative wages among young men between 1985 and 1998. Apparent improvement in the economic position of young black men is thus largely an artifact of rising joblessness fueled by the growth in incarceration during the 1990s.
  
  
• Charles Hirschman. (2004). The Origins and Demise of the Concept of Race. Population and Development Review, 30: 385-415.
  
  Physical and cultural diversity have been salient features of human societies throughout history, but "race" as a scientific concept to account for human diversity is a modern phenomenon created in nineteenth-century Europe as Darwinian thought was (mis)applied to account for differences in human societies. Although modern science has discredited race as a meaningful biological concept, race has remained as an important social category because of historical patterns of interpersonal and institutional discrimination. However, the impossibility of consistent and reliable reporting of race, either as an identity or as an observed trait, means that the notion of race as a set of mutually exclusive categories is no longer tenable. As a social science term, race is being gradually abandoned. Physical differences in appearance among people remain a salient marker in everyday life, but this reality can be better framed within the concept of ethnicity.
  
  
• G. Gee andD. Takeuchi. (2004). Traffic stress, vehicular burden and well- being: A multilevel analysis. Social Science and Medicine, 59 (2): 405-414.
  
  This study examined whether health is associated with individually perceived traffic stress and as well as ecologically measured vehicular burden using multi-level analysis.
  
  Data from the Chinese American psychiatric epidemiologic study (N=1503) are linked to data from the 1990 Census in the United States. Hierarchical linear modeling was used to analyze the cross-sectional relationship between traffic stress, neighborhood conditions, depression and health status. Perceived traffic stress is associated with both general health status and depression in multivariate multilevel models, such that persons reporting traffic stress had lower health status and more depressive symptoms. Further, there is an interaction between vehicular burden and traffic stress for both health outcomes. Persons who lived in areas with greater vehicular burden and who reported the most traffic stress also had the lowest health status and greatest depressive symptoms. These findings suggest that traffic stress may represent an important factor that influences the previous term well-being next term of urban populations, and that studies which examine factors at only one level (either individual level only or ecological level only) may underestimate the effect of the social environment.
  
  
• Meyers, M.K., Rosenbaum, D., Ruhm, C., and Waldfogel, J. (2004). Inequality in Early Childhood Education and Care: What Do We Know? In K. Neckerman (ed.), Social Inequality. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.
  
  Inequality in income, earnings, and wealth has risen dramatically in the United States over the past three decades. Most research into this issue has focused on the causes- global trade, new technology, and economic policy-rather than the consequences of inequality. In Social Inequality, a group of the nation’s leading social scientists opens a wide-ranging inquiry into the social implications of rising economic inequality. Beginning with a critical evaluation of the existing research, they assess whether the recent run-up in economic inequality has been accompanied by rising inequality in social domains such as the quality of family and neighborhood life, equal access to education and health care, job satisfaction, and political participation.
  
  Marcia Meyers and colleagues find that many low-income mothers cannot afford market-based child care, which contributes to inequality both at the present time-by reducing maternal employment and family income-and through the long-term consequences of informal or low-quality care on children’s educational achievement. At the other end of the educational spectrum, Thomas Kane links the growing inequality in college attendance to rising tuition and cuts in financial aid. Neil Fligstein and Taek-Jin Shin show how both job security and job satisfaction have decreased for low-wage workers compared with their higher-paid counterparts. Those who fall behind economically may also suffer diminished access to essential social resources like health care. John Mullahy, Stephanie Robert, and Barbara Wolfe discuss why higher inequality may lead to poorer health: wider inequality might mean increased stress-related ailments for the poor, and it might also be associated with public health care policies that favor the privileged. On the political front, Richard Freeman concludes that political participation has become more stratified as incomes have become more unequal. Workers at the bottom of the income scale may simply be too hard-pressed or too demoralized to care about political participation. Social Inequality concludes with a comprehensive section on the methodological problems involved in disentangling the effects of inequality from other economic factors, which will be of great benefit to future investigators.
  
  While today’s widening inequality may be a temporary episode, the danger is that the current economic divisions may set in motion a self-perpetuating cycle of social disadvantage. The most comprehensive review of this quandary to date, Social Inequality maps out a new agenda for research on inequality in America with important implications for public policy.
  
  
• Pettit, Becky and Bruce Western. (2004). Mass Imprisonment and the Life Course: Race and Class Inequality in U.S. Incarceration. American Sociological Review, 69:151-169. Honorable Mention 2003-2005 Sociology of Law Article Prize.
  
  Although growth in the U.S. prison population over the past twenty-five years has been widely discussed, few studies examine changes in inequality in imprisonment. We study penal inequality by estimating lifetime risks of imprisonment for black and white men at different levels of education. Combining administrative, survey, and census data, we estimate that among men born between 1965 and 1969, 3 percent of whites and 20 percent of blacks had served time in prison by their early thirties. The risks of incarceration are highly stratified by education. Among black men born during this period, 30 percent of those without college education and nearly 60 percent of high school dropouts went to prison by 1999. The novel pervasiveness of imprisonment indicates the emergence of incarceration as a new stage in the life course of young low-skill black men.
  
  
• Gong, F., D. Takeuchi, P. Agbayani-Siewert, and L. Tacata. (2003). Acculturation, Psychological Distress and Alcohol Use: Investigating the Effects of Ethnic Identity and Religiosity. Pp 189-206, In Acculturation: Advances in Theory, Measurement, and Applied Research. Chun, K.M., Balls Organista, P., & Marin, G. (Eds.). Washington, D.C.: American Psychological Association.
  
  The abstract for this article is not available.
  
  
• Meyers, M.K. and Vorsanger, S. (2003). Street-Level Bureaucrats and the Implementation of Public Policy. In B. Guy Peters and J. Pierre (eds.) Handbook of Public Administration. New York: Sage Publications.
  
  The abstract for this article is not available.
  
  
• Plotnick, R. (2003). "A measure of horizontal inequity," Review of Economics and Statistics, 63:2, May 1981, 283-288. Reprinted in The Economics of Poverty and Inequality, Frank A. Cowell (ed.). Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar Publishing Inc..
  
  The abstract for this article is not available.
  
  
• Reskin, Barbara, (2003). Including Mechanisms in Our Models of Ascriptive Inequality. American Sociological Review, 68:1-21.
  
  Sociologists' principal contribution to our understanding of ascriptive inequality has been to document race and sex disparities. We have made little headway, however, in explaining these disparities because most research has sought to explain variation across ascriptive groups in more or less desirable outcomes in terms of allocators' motives. This approach has been inconclusive because motive-based theories cannot be empirically tested. Our reliance on individual- level data and the balkanization of research on ascriptive inequality into separate specialties for groups defined by different ascriptive characteristics have contributed to our explanatory stalemate. Explanation requires including mechanisms in our models-the specific processes that link groups' ascribed characteristics to variable outcomes such as earnings. I discuss mechanisms that contribute to variation in ascriptive inequality at four levels of analysis-intrapsychic, interpersonal, societal, and organizational. Redirecting our attention from motives to mechanisms is essential for understanding inequality and-equally important-for contributing meaningfully to social policies that will promote social equality.
  
  
• Takeuchi, D. and S. Gage. (2003). What to do with race? Changing notions of race in the social sciences. Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry. 27: 435-45.
  
  The Supplement to the Surgeon General’s Report on Mental Health documents that race, ethnicity, and culture are linked to the use of mental health services and the receipt of quality mental health care. The Supplement provides an elaborate discussion on how culture affects mental health care without a corresponding level of discourse on race. How race is handled in the Supplement suggests that it is still a sensitive topic and one that is difficult to address in a public report. This sensitivity parallels the difficulties that the social sciences have had in investigating issues of race. In this paper, we highlight some perspectives that have influenced the way race has been studied in the past and how these views reflect the general political climates of the eras that produced them.
  
  
• Abe-Kim, J., D. Takeuchi, and W. Hwang. (2002). Predictors of helpseeking for emotional distress among Chinese Americans: Family Matters. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology. 70 (5): 1186-1190.
  
  Using data from the Chinese American Psychiatric Epidemiological Study, the authors examined longitudinal predictors of help seeking for emotional distress in a community sample of 1,503 Chinese Americans. Specifically, they assessed the relative contribution of family relational variables (e.g., levels of family support and family conflict) in predicting help seeking for medical, mental health, and informal services. After traditional need, predisposing, and enabling factors were controlled for in hierarchical logistic regression analyses, family conflict predicted both mental health and medical service use, whereas family support was not predictive of help seeking. In addition to family conflict, mental health service use was predicted by negative life events, emotional distress, and insurance coverage. Implications of the findings for assessing and treating Asian American clients are explored.
  
  
• Almgren G., Yamashiro G, and Ferguson M. (2002). Beyond Welfare or Work: Teen Mothers, Household Subsistence Strategies, and Child Development Outcomes. Journal of Sociology and Social Welfare, 29 (3), 125-149.
  
  There is probably no aspect of the work versus welfare debate that is more contested than the effects of welfare use on child development outcomes. Liberals tend to emphasize the detrimental effects of poverty and welfare stigma on children, while conservatives cite the negative socialization that occurs regarding the value of work within welfare dependent families. However, large scale longitudinal studies that have been used to address this question only indirectly measure critical influences on child development such as maternal mental health and do not consider the effect that a range of economic strategies that low-income mothers might undertake may have on their children. In this analysis, we employ data from a longitudinal study of 173 teen-mothers to assess the relative effects of maternal characteristics and economic strategies on the developmental outcomes of their children at time of school entry. Two principal findings emerge. First, over the period from their first teen birth to the reference child's entry into school, the sample subjects used a variety of household economic strategies aside from the simple welfare versus work dichotomy that is commonly used to depict the choices of teen-mothers. Second, while maternal depression appears linked to the prevalence of problem behaviors in early childhood, the particular economic strategies used by the mothers in the sample do not explain any variation in either the prevalence of problem behaviors or in children's learning preparation for school entry. These findings support the perspective that the influence of teen mothers' parenting qualities on child development cannot be assessed through an analysis of their labor force participation, use of welfare, or other strategies of household subsistence.
  
  
• Goto, S., G. Gee and D. Takeuchi. (2002). Strangers still? The experience of discrimination among Chinese Americans. Journal of Community Psychology, 30(2):211-224.
  
  This study investigates the perceptions of discrimination within an Asian American community. Over 1,500 Chinese Americans were interviewed regarding experiences with unfair treatment due to their race or ethnicity and their language and or accent. Demographic variables, acculturation level, and amount of contact opportunity were used to predict perceived discrimination using multiple hierarchical logistic analyses. Approximately 21% of Chinese Americans reported being unfairly treated in their lifetime. The specific predictors varied depending on whether the discrimination was due to race and ethnicity, or language and accent. Retention of cultural practices, age of immigration, and contact opportunity were associated with racial discrimination. Only contact opportunity was associated with language and accent discrimination. Implications are discussed with respect to perceptions of similarity, the contact hypothesis, and bicultural adjustment.
  
  
• Padavic, Irene and Barbara F. Reskin. (2002). Women and Men at Work (2nd ed.) Pine Forge Press.
  
  The Second Edition of this best selling book provides a comprehensive examination of the role that gender plays in work environments. This book differs from others by comparing women’s and men’s work status, addressing contemporary issues within a historical perspective, incorporating comparative material from other countries, recognizing differences in the experiences of women and men from different racial and ethnic backgrounds. Relying on both qualitative and quantitative data, the authors seek to link social scientific ideas about workers’ lives, sex inequality, and gender to the real-world workplace. This new edition contains updated statistics, timely cartoons, and presents new scholarship in the field. It also provides a renewed focus on reasons for variability in inequality across workplaces. In sum, the second edition of Women and Men at Work presents a contemporary perspective to the field, with relevant comparative and historical insights that will draw readers in and connect them to the wider concern of making sense of our dramatically changing world.
  
  
• Reskin, Barbara. (2002). "Rethinking Employment Discrimination." Pp. 218-44 in Mauro F. Guillen, Randall Collins, Paula England, and Marshall Meyer (eds.). The New Economic Sociology: Developments in an Emerging Field. N.Y.: Russell Sage.
  
  The abstract for this article is not available.
  
  
• Takeuchi, D., C. Chun, F. Gong and H. Shen. (2002). Cultural expressions of distress. Health: An Interdisciplinary Journal for the Social Study of Health, Illness and Medicine, 6(2):221-35.
  
  The abstract for this article is not available.
  
  
• Western, Bruce and Becky Pettit. (2002). Beyond Crime and Punishment: Prisons and Inequality. Contexts, 1:37-43.
  
  Changes in government policy on crime and punishment have put many poor minority men behind bars, more than their arrest rates would indicate. The growth of the penal system has also obscured the extent of economic inequality and sowed the seeds for greater inequality in the future.
  
  
• Almgren G, and Marcenko, M. (2001). Emergency Room Use among A Foster Care Sample: The Influence of Placement History, Psychiatric Diagnosis, Chronic Illness and Care Factors. Brief Treatment and Crisis Intervention Journal, 1 (1).
  
  Despite the physical, mental, and social health risks of foster children, relatively little attention has been paid to how they interact with emergency medicine. To address the need for more empirical research on this topic, we tested whether demographic characteristics, chronic health conditions, psychiatric disorders, and placement factors predicted ER use among children in Washington State's foster care system in fiscal year 1999. Medicaid claim records and Child Welfare administrative records for 8,716 children were used to extract data on the dependent variables of interest. Contrary to findings with general pediatric samples, the results showed that psychiatric conditions were the strongest predictors of ER use, followed by some chronic health problems. Children diagnosed with personality disorders or depression were 9.5 and 5.4 times more likely to be seen in the ER than children without a psychiatric diagnosis. Possible explanations for these findings are explored and implications for the health care and child welfare systems are discussed.
  
  
• Charles Hirschman. (2001). The Educational Enrollment of Immigrant Youth: A Test of the Segmented-Assimilation Hypothesis. Demography, 38: 317-336.
  
  An analysis of 1990 census data on the educational enrollment of 15- to 17-year- old immigrants to the United States provides partial support for predictions from both the segmented-assimilation hypothesis and the immigrant optimism hypothesis. Most immigrant adolescents, especially from Asia, are as likely as their native-born peers to be enrolled in high school, or more so. The "at-risk" immigrant youths with above-average levels of nonenrollment that are not reduced with longer exposure to American society are primarily of Hispanic Caribbean origins (from Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, and Cuba). Recent Mexican immigrants who arrived as teenagers have nonenrollment rates over 40%, but Mexican youths who arrived at younger ages are only somewhat less likely to be enrolled in school than are native-born Americans.
  
  
• Conway, Dennis, Adrian Bailey, and Mark Ellis. (2001). "Transnationalism, Employment, and the Poverty of Puerto Rican Women in New York City" In Transnational Communities and the Political Economy of New York City in the 1990s. Cordero-Guzman, Grosfoguel and Smith (eds), Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
  
  Puerto Rican women living in New York City represent a segment of a transnational community with some of the highest rates of poverty on the US mainland. This community is characterized by high rates of repetitive (circulation) migration, and we discuss evidence that links circulation migration to the reduced labor force participation of Puerto Rican women. We utilize a pooled data set of micro-level, longitudinal event-histories, drawn from two complementary sets: the 1982 Puerto Rico Fertility and Family Planning Assessment and the 1985 Survey of Fertility, Employment and Migration Among Puerto Rican Women. We find that nativity plays a strong role in differentiating a group of women with work experience in New York from a group of women with no work experience in New York. The relationship between circulation migration and labor force participation is more nuanced. We interpret these findings in the light of our previous research on the gendering of circulation migration and the emerging discussion of racialized experiences of migrants in the U.S. We close by arguing for a re-conceptualization of poverty conditions in transnational communities that offers more insight into the material conditions, gender relations, racialized experiences, and household survival strategies.
  
  
• Ellis, Mark. (2001). "Trends in Immigrant and Native-born Wages: A Tale of Five Cities?" In Strangers at the Gates. R Waldinger (ed.) University of California Press.
  
  The abstract for this article is not available.
  
  
• Ellis, Markand John Odland. (2001). Intermetropolitan Variation in the Labor Force Participation of White and Black Men in the United States. Urban Studies, 38, 2327-2348.
  
  We decompose the variance in black and white male labour force participation rates across US metropolitan areas in 1990 into three effects: that due to variation in labour force participation within labour force categories across metropolitan areas (local labour market effects); that due to variation in the distribution of those categories across metropolitan areas (labour force structure effects); and that due to the covariation between these two effects. Variation in labour force participation rates within labour force categories (local labour market effects) accounts for 56 per cent of the variance in labour force participation rates across metropolitan areas for white men but over 75 per cent for black men. Variation in the frequency of membership in each labour force category is a relatively unimportant factor for both groups. The covariance between labour force effects and local effects is negligible for black men but accounts for 25 per cent of the intermetropolitan variance in white male participation rates. This covariance is a measure of how well adjusted the labour force characteristics of metropolitan areas are to local economic conditions; our results indicate that this adjustment is greater for white men than black men. We also use this decomposition to identify the causes of variation in the difference between black and white labour force participation rates. Black-white differences in response to local labour market effects conditions generate most of this variance. These different local labour market effects are greatest among young single men with less than a high school education.
  
  
• Klawitter, M. with M. Edwards and R. Plotnick. (2001). Do Psychosocial Characteristics Affect Socioeconomic Outcomes?: The Case of Welfare Use by Young Women. Social Science Quarterly, December.
  
  We develop and estimate a model of social-psychological determinants of entry to the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program, the primary cash welfare program in the United States for 60 years until replaced in 1996. The structural model holds that attitudes and personality characteristics influence a woman’s likelihood of becoming demographically and financially eligible for welfare and her willingness to bear the stigma of receiving benefits. These factors, in turn, affect the likelihood of actually going on welfare. We test for a relationship between social-psychological variables and welfare participation using data from the youngest cohorts of women in the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. We estimate logit models of the probability of ever participating in AFDC up to age 25 and hazard models of the timing until first use of AFDC. The attitudes and personality characteristics in the empirical model are self-esteem, locus of control, attitudes toward school, attitudes toward women’s work and family roles, commitment to work, and aversion to accepting public assistance. We find strong associations between welfare use and several attitudes and personality characteristics, but most of the associations are not robust to the inclusion of exogenous personal and family background characteristics. Consistent, strong evidence suggests that more positive attitudes toward school lower the likelihood of using welfare and increase duration until first receipt.
  
  
• Lau, A. and D. Takeuchi. (2001). Cultural values in helpseeking for child behavior problems: value orientation, affective responding, and severity appraisals among Chinese American parents. Journal of Community Psychology, 29:675-692.
  
  This study explored the relationships between cultural values, appraisal of child behavior problems, and associated help-seeking intentions among Chinese- American parents. Questionnaires were administered to 120 Chinese-American parents of elementary-school-aged children. Parents were asked how they might respond if their child displayed the behavioral problems depicted in a hypothetical vignette. Influences of Chinese value orientation, severity appraisal, and affective reactions on help-seeking intentions were examined using regression analyses and structural equation modeling. The study examined three hypotheses regarding the nature of the influence of cultural value orientation on help-seeking intentions: (a) a direct effect model, (b) an indirect effect through cultural differences in severity appraisal, and (c) an indirect effect through cultural differences in affective responding. Results supported the hypothesis that cultural value orientation exerted an indirect effect on help-seeking intentions through its influence on affective responding. Those parents who had more traditional Chinese values responded with more feelings of shame to child behavior problems and, in turn, reported lower intentions to seek help. Findings are discussed with reference to the literature on help-seeking among Asian Americans.
  
  
• Reskin, Barbara. (2001). "Sex Stereotyping and Sex Bias in Employment." Pp. 1891-92 in Cheris Kramarae and Dale Spender (eds.), Routledge International Encyclopedia of Women’s Studies. N.Y.: Routledge, vol. 4.
  
  The abstract for this article is not available.
  
  
• Reskin, Barbara. (2001). "Discrimination and Its Remedies." Pp. 567-600 in Ivar Berg and Arne Kalleberg (eds.), Sourcebook on Labor Market Research: Evolving Structures and Processes. N.Y.: Plenum.
  
  The abstract for this article is not available.
  
  
• Reskin, Barbara. (2001). "Sex Segregation at Work." Pp. 13962-13965 in N. J. Smelser and Paul B. Baltes (editors), International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioral Sciences. Oxford: Pergamon.
  
  The abstract for this article is not available.
  
  
• Shen, B. and D. Takeuchi. (2001). A structural model of acculturation and mental health status among Chinese Americans. American Journal of Community Psychology, 29:387-418.
  
  This study examined the role of acculturation and its direct and indirect impact on depressive symptom severity through various correlates, including socioeconomic status (SES), stress, social support, personality negativity, and physical health perception. Using structural equation modeling, the proposed model was tested with 983 employed Chinese Americans from a representative community sample, the majority of whom were immigrants. The results demonstrated that acculturation, correlated with SES, contributed to depressive symptom severity only through indirect pathways. Higher acculturation was found associated with higher stress that in turn contributed to more elevated depressive symptoms. On the other hand, higher acculturation was also found strongly correlated with higher SES, which was associated with lower depressive symptoms directly or indirectly through several mediators. Better support, lower personality negativity, better health perception, and lower stress were found mediating the relationship between higher SES and lower depressive symptom severity. The simultaneous multigroup analysis showed that the final model was comparable for both men and women with very few differences.
  
  
• Cassirer, Naomi and Barbara Reskin. (2000). High Hopes: Organizational Location, Employment Experiences, and Women's and Men's Promotion Aspirations. Work and Occupations, 27:438-63.
  
  Kanter argued that men's and women's positions in workplace opportunity structures, not their sex, shape their career attitudes. Women attached less importance to promotion than men, according to 1991 General Social Survey data. The authors examine the extent to which this difference stems from the sexes' segregation into jobs with unequal opportunities, as Kanter argued. The findings are largely consistent with Kanter's thesis: Men attached greater importance to promotion than women because they were more likely to be located in organizational positions that encourage workers to hope for a promotion. Net of the effects of workers' organizational locations and prior promotion by their employer, sex was not associated with promotion attitudes.
  
  
• Chang, Doris, C. Chun, D. Takeuchi and H. Shen. (2000). SF-36 health survey: Tests of data quality, scaling assumptions, and reliability in a community sample of Chinese Americans. Medical Care, 38:542-8.
  
  Background. Chinese Americans are one of the fastest growing ethnic groups in the United States; however, language and cultural obstacles have challenged health workers and policy makers seeking to understand the health status and needs of this population.
  
  Objectives. This study is the first to use a large-scale probability design to evaluate the 36-item Short-Form Health Survey (SF-36) in a Chinese population (n = 1,501).
  
  Methods. Using the International Quality of Life Assessment Project protocols, we examine summated-rating scaling assumptions, item-internal consistency, item- discriminant validity, and reliability.
  
  Results. Similar to previous studies, our tests indicated that the SF-36 generally met minimum psychometric criteria with high reliability and satisfactory scaling success rates for most scales. However, the performance of the vitality and mental health scales was less satisfactory with regard to discriminant validity and scaling success rates. Notably, our results indicate that VT3 and VT4 ("feel worn out" and "tired," respectively) formed a separate "fatigue" cluster more highly correlated with the mental health scale. However, MH4 and MH5 ("downhearted and blue" [reverse coded] and "been a happy person") were more highly correlated with the vitality scale, suggesting that it may be more meaningful to reorganize the vitality and mental health items along the dimensions of well-being and distress.
  
  Conclusions. These results are interpreted within a cultural framework; however, additional work is needed to better understand the relationship between vitality and mental health for Chinese Americans.
  
  
• Charles Hirschman, Richard Alba, and Reynolds Farley. (2000). "The Meaning and Measurement of Race in the U.S. Census: Glimpses in the Future." Demography, 37: 381-393. Abbreviated and revised version is reprinted in Susan B. Carter and Richard Sutch. 2004. Historical Statistics of the United States. Cambridge University Press.
  
  The 1996 Racial and Ethnic Targeted Test (RAETT) was a "mail-out mail-back" household survey with an experimental design of eight alternative questionnaire formats containing systematic variations in race, instructions, question order, and other aspects of the measurement. The eight different questionnaires were administered to random subsamples of six "targeted" populations: geographic areas with ethnic concentrations of whites, blacks, American Indians, Alaskan natives, Asian and Pacific Islanders, and Hispanics. The major conclusion is that allowing multiple responses to the "race" question in the 2000 census (and other variations in measurement that were considered in RAETT) had only a slight impact on the measured racial composition of the population. Another finding was a dramatic reduction in nonresponse to the combined race/Hispanic-origin question relative to all other questionnaire formats. We conclude that the concept of "origins" may be closer to the popular understanding of American diversity than is the antiquated concept of race.
  
  
• Chun, D., Suh, D., and D. Takeuchi. (2000). Access to Health Care Among Chinese, Korean, and Vietnamese Americans. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press.
  
  The abstract for this article is not available.
  
  
• Hwang, W., H. F. Myers and D. Takeuchi. (2000). Psychosocial predictors of first onset depression in Chinese Americans. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, 35:133-45.
  
  Background: This study examines the longitudinal and concurrent risk factors associated with first-onset major depression in a community sample of 1747 Chinese Americans in Los Angeles. Methods: The relative contributions of demographic, health, psychiatric, psychosocial, and cultural variables were assessed in a series of longitudinal and concurrent hierarchical multivariable analyses. Results: Results of the longitudinal analyses indicated that the risk for experiencing a first major depressive episode at 18-months follow-up was higher for those who initially rated their health as poor, reported higher depressive symptoms, and perceived higher levels of social support. After controlling for prior health and psychiatric and psychosocial status at time 1, the results of the concurrent analyses indicated that the risk for experiencing a first major depressive episode at time 2 was higher for those who rated their health as poor, had at least one other psychiatric disorder, were bilingual, experienced high levels of life stress, and perceived themselves as having low and/or decreased social supports. Conclusions: The results of this study confirm previous evidence that psychosocial vulnerabilities, including higher acculturation, greater stress exposure and reduced social supports, are important predictors of risk for first-onset depressive episodes. Prevention and treatment implications are addressed, and future directions for research are offered.
  
  
• Hwang, W., C. Chun, K. Kurasaki, W. Mak, and D. Takeuchi. (2000). Factor validity scores on a social support and conflict measure among Chinese Americans. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 60:808-16.
  
  Data collected from the Chinese American Psychiatric Epidemiological Study (CAPES) were used to examine the factor validity of selected social support and conflict indices among 1,152 married Chinese Americans. Gender, age, and a 36- item social interaction scale consisting of six separate indices of social support and social conflict (spouse, family, and friend) were factor analyzed. As expected, cross-cultural validity of scores on all six social interaction indices was confirmed, lending empirical support to the notion that social support and conflict from different sources are distinct constructs in Chinese Americans.
  
  
• Klawitter, M. with R. Plotnick and M. Edwards. (2001). Determinants of Initial Entry Onto Welfare by Young Women. Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, 19(4):527-546.
  
  Using data from the youngest cohorts of women in the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, this study constructs Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) histories starting at age 15. Most young women go on AFDC for the first time between ages 18 and 25 and do so in the first few years after the birth of their first baby. These histories are used to estimate models of the determinants of initial use of AFDC. The models provide mixed evidence that the financial or other incentives of welfare policy affect the likelihood and timing of AFDC use. Benefit levels do not seem to affect participation, but the presence of a program for medically needy families who are not on welfare appears to decrease entrance to welfare for some groups. Parental poverty, family structure, academic achievement, attitudes toward school, and race are significantly related to the likelihood of participating in AFDC, and the rate of entry.
  
  
• Lukemeyer, A., Meyers, M.K. & Smeeding, T. (2000). Expensive Kids in Poor Families: Out of Pocket Expenditures for the Care of Disabled and Chronically Ill Children and Welfare Reform. Journal of Marriage & the Family, 62(2), 399-415.
  
  A significant minority of poor families care for children with disabilities and chronic illnesses. This study is among the first to explore private costs resulting from children's disabilities among low-income families. We find that almost half of the sample of California AFDC families with special-needs children incurred some direct, out-of-pocket expenses in the preceding month, and about 20% incurred total costs exceeding $100. We also estimate lost employment income among low-income mothers caring for children with disabilities. We conclude that both out- of-pocket expenses and foregone earnings represent a substantial burden for many low-income families with special-needs children, and we discuss the policy implications of these findings.
  
  
• Lundberg, S. with Richard Startz. (2000). "Inequality and Race: Models and Policy," in Meritocracy and Economic Inequality, eds. Kenneth Arrow, Samuel Bowles and Steven Durlauf, Princeton University Press, 2000, pp. 269-295.
  
  The abstract for this article is not available.
  
  
• Meyers, M.K., Brady, H. & Seto, E. (2000). Expensive Children in Poor Families. San Francisco, California: Public Policy Institute of California.
  
  Although disabilities affect children of all income groups, poor children are far more likely to suffer from them. In this study, Marcia K. Meyers, Henry E. Brady, and Eva Y. Seto provide important new estimates of the private costs and public effects of childhood disabilities among welfare recipients. Based on over 2,000 interviews with household heads in Los Angeles, Alameda, San Joaquin, and San Bernardino Counties, their estimates cover direct expenditures by families and indirect costs due to employment reductions. They also examine participation rates in public assistance programs and estimate the likelihood that families with disabled children will exit these programs to independence. They conclude that public assistance may be an essential part of an income-packaging strategy for many of these families.
  
  
• Plotnick, R. (2000). "The twentieth century record of inequality and poverty in the United States" (with Eugene Smolensky, Eirik Evenhouse and Siobhan Reilly), in The Cambridge Economic History of the United States, Volume 3, The Twentieth Century, Stanley Engerman and Robert Gallman (eds.), Cambridge University Press, 249-300.
  
  In the past several decades there has been a significant increase in our knowledge of the economic history of the United States. This has come about in part because of the development in economic history, most particularly with the emergence of the statistical and analytical contributions of the new economic history, and in part because of related developments in social, labor, and political history that have important implications for the understanding of economic change. The Cambridge Economic History of the United States has been designed to take full account of new knowledge in the subject, while at the same time offering a comprehensive survey of the history of economic activity and economic change in the United States, and in those regions whose economies have at certain times been closely allied to that of the United States: Canada and the Caribbean.
  
  
• Reskin, Barbara. (2000). "Sex Segregation" and "Sex Stratification." In Encyclopedia of Psychology. Washington, D.C.: American Psychological Association and Oxford University Press.
  
  The abstract for this article is not available.
  
  
• Reskin, Barbara. (2000). The Proximate Causes of Discrimination: Research Agenda for the Twenty-First Century. Contemporary Sociology, 29:319-29.
  
  Reskin argues that the standard sociological approaches to explaining workplace discrimination have not been very fruitful in producing knowledge that can be used to eradicate job discrimination. If sociological research is to contribute to the battle against injustice, more attention needs to be directed to how inequality is produced.
  
  
• Reskin, Barbara and Debra McBrier (2000). Why Not Ascription? Organizations’ Employment of Male and Female Managers. American Sociological Review, 65:210-33.
  
  We examine the effects of organizations' employment practices on sex-based ascription in managerial jobs. Given men's initial preponderance in management, we argue that inertia, sex labels, and power dynamics predispose organizations to use sex-based ascription when staffing managerial jobs, but that personnel practices can invite or curtail ascription. Our results-based on data from a national probability sample of 516 work organizations-show that specific personnel practices affect the sexual division of managerial labor. Net of controls for the composition of the labor supply, open recruitment methods are associated with women holding a greater share of management jobs, while recruitment through informal networks increases men's share. Formalizing personnel practices reduces men's share of management jobs, especially in large establishments, presumably because formalization checks ascription in job assignments, evaluation, and factors that affect attrition. Thus, through their personnel practices, establishments license or limit ascription.
  
  
• Reskin, Barbara. (2000). Getting It Right: Sex and Race Inequality in Work Organizations. Annual Review of Sociology, 26:707-09.
  
  The abstract for this article is not available.
  
  
• Takeuchi, D. and K. Flower Kim. (2000). Enhancing mental health care delivery for diverse populations. Contemporary Sociology, 29:74-83.
  
  Takeuchi and Kim argue that race and ethnicity are likely to affect significantly the mental health services delivery system. The constructs of mental health and illness have arbitrary boundaries that depend on social and cultural meanings that society attaches to different behaviors.
  
  
• Western, Bruce and Becky Pettit. (2000). "Incarceration and Racial Inequality in Men’s Employment." Industrial and Labor Relations Review 54:3-16.
  
  To estimate employment-population ratios for black and white men with an adjustment for incarceration-a factor overlooked by most research on employment inequality-the authors combine data from surveys of prisons and jails with data from the Current Population Survey. This adjustment significantly reduces estimated employment rates for African Americans, young workers, and young high school dropouts. The authors find that employment among young black male high school dropouts steadily declined between 1982 and 1996 despite periods of very low unemployment in the labor market as a whole. Standard labor force data, which include no incarceration data, understate black-white inequality in employment among young dropouts by about 45%.
  
  
• Agbayani-Siewert, P., D. Takeuchi, and R. Pangan. (1999). Mental illness in a multicultural context. In C. Aneshensal and J. Phelan (Eds), Handbook of the Sociology of Mental Health. New York: Plenum.
  
  The abstract for this article is not available.
  
  
• Almgren G and Ferguson M. (1999). The Urban Ecology of Hospital Failure: Hospital Closures in the City of Chicago, 1970-1991. Journal of Sociology and Social Welfare, 25 (4).
  
  The mortality disadvantage of African Americans is well documented, but previous studies have not considered its implications for population theory in the general case of industrialized nation states with high levels of income inequality. This paper examines the relevance of classic epidemiological theory to the extremes of income and mortality observed in Chicago, one of America's most racially divided cities. We analyze cause-specific death rates for black and non-black male populations residing in Chicago's community areas by using linked data from the 1990 Census and from 1989-1991 individual death certificates. The same cause- of-death patterns explain much of the mortality of black and non-black men. These two major structures include one, degenerative diseases, the other, "tough-living" causes (accidents, homicides, and liver disease). Community socioeconomic status is strongly related to tough-living deaths within each racial group, and to degenerative deaths for African Americans. Black men's tough-living mortality is much greater than non-blacks', but their younger age structure suppresses their degenerative death rates. Aggregate unemployment and social disorganization account for the most salient disparities in mortality across racial groups. This patterning of mortality along a socioeconomic continuum supports epidemiological theory and extends its applicability to highly unequal populations within industrialized countries.
  
  
• Charles Hirschman and C. Matthew Snipp. (1999). "The State of the American Dream: Race and Ethnic Inequality in the United States, 1970- 1990." In Phyllis Moen, Donna Dempster-McClain, and Henry Walker (eds.) A Nation Divided: Diversity, Inequality, and Community in American Society, pp. 89-107. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. Reprinted in David B. Grusky. 2001. Social Stratification: Class, Race and Gender Sociological Perspective 2nd edition, pp. 623-636. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
  
  The abstract for this article is not available.
  
  
• Meyers, M.K. & Garfinkel, I. (1999). Social Indicators and the Study of Inequality. Economic Policy Review, 5(3), 149-163.
  
  The New York City Social Indicators Survey demonstrates the use of social indicators - repeated, population-based measures of economic, social, and health outcomes - to answer questions about inequality and well-being. First year findings from the New York City Social Indicators project are presented. An overview of the issues that motivated the project is offered. Data collected in 1997 are used to tell the story of income and outcome inequality in the city - first, in terms of the well- being of poor and economically secure residents of the city. Future research plans for the Social Indicators project are described.
  
  
• Plotnick, R.(1999). "Comment on ‘Horizontal inequity measurement: A basic reassessment’ by Stephen P. Jenkins and Peter J. Lambert," in Handbook on Income Inequality Measurement, Jacques Silber (ed.) Kluwer Academic Publishers, pp. 554-556.
  
  The abstract for this article is not available.
  
  
• Plotnick, R. with Saul Hoffman (1999). The effect of neighborhood characteristics on young adult outcomes: Alternative estimates. Social Science Quarterly, 80:1, March 1999, 1-18.
  
  The abstract for this article is not available.
  
  
• Reskin, Barbara and Irene Padavic. (1999). "Sex, Race, and Ethnic Inequality in United States Workplaces." Pp. 343-74 in Janet S. Chafetz (ed.), Handbook of Gender Research. N.Y.: Plenum.
  
  The abstract for this article is not available.
  
  
• Reskin, Barbara F. and Camille Z. Charles. (1999). "Now You See ‘Em, Now You Don’t: Theoretical Approaches to Race and Gender in Labor Markets." Pp. 380-407 in Latinas and African American Women in the Labor Market, edited by Irene Browne. N.Y.: Russell Sage.
  
  The abstract for this article is not available.
  
  
• Reskin, Barbara, Debra McBrier, and Julie Kmec,(1999). The Determinants and Consequences of the Sex and Race Composition of Work Organizations. Annual Review of Sociology, 25:335-61.
  
  This chapter reviews research on the determinants and consequences of race and sex composition of organizations. Determinants include the composition of the qualified labor supply; employers' preferences, including the qualifications they require; the response of majority groups; and an establishment's attractiveness, size, and recruiting methods. The race and sex composition of an establishment affects workers' cross-group contact; stress, satisfaction, and turnover; cohesion; stereotyping; and evaluation. Composition also affects organizations themselves, including their performance, hiring and promotion practices, levels of job segregation, and wages and benefits. Theory-driven research is needed (a) on the causal mechanisms that underlie the relationships between organizational composition and its determinants and consequences and (b) on the form of the relationships between organizational composition and workers outcomes (e.g., cross-group contact, cohesion, turnover, etc). Research is needed on race and ethnic composition, with a special focus on the joint effects of race and sex.
  
  
• Subramanian, S.K. and D. Takeuchi. (1999). The complexities of diversity: Substance abuse among Asian Americans. In S. Kar (Ed.), Substance Abuse Prevention: A Multicultural Perspective. Amityville, New York: Baywood Publishing.
  
  The abstract for this article is not available.
  
  
• Takeuchi, D., E. Uehara, and G. Maramba. (1999). Cultural Diversity and Mental Health Treatment. In A. Horwitz and T. Scheid (Eds.), The Sociology of Mental Health and Illness. Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press.
  
  The abstract for this article is not available.
  
  
• Lundberg, S. with Richard Startz (1998). On the Persistence of Racial Inequality. Journal of Labor Economics, April, 292-323.
  
  A model of the "new growth theory" type is applied to the persistence of racial income differentials in the presence of community segregation. When community human capital affects human capital accumulation by individuals, differences between groups can persist indefinitely, even in the absence of current discrimination. Intercommunity mobility can benefit advantaged minority workers, who leave behind an impoverished ghetto. Workplace integration without community integration may not lead to equality even in the long run. We examine various policies and show that a large, temporary intervention may be successful in achieving racial equality while a smaller permanent one fails.
  
  
• Lundberg, S. (1991). The Enforcement of Equal Opportunity Laws Under Imperfect Information: Affirmative Action and Alternatives. Quarterly Journal of Economics, February, 309-326.
  
  A study was conducted to examine the enforcement of regulations covering employment discrimination under conditions of imperfect information. Since firms usually have imperfect information about individual productivity, they discriminate in employing workers to retain profit-maximizing conditions. Thus, firms generally attempt to evade such regulations. Results show that firms enjoy optimal conditions when they apply an affirmative action type policy for employment.