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Author: Baird, Chardie L.
Resulting in 10 citations.
1. Baird, Chardie L.
Aspirations in Young Adulthood
Presented: New Orleans, LA, Southern Sociological Society Meetings, March 2003
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: Southern Sociological Society
Keyword(s): Education; Family Background and Culture; Mobility; Occupational Aspirations; Racial Differences; Socioeconomic Background; Socioeconomic Factors; Sons

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

Early research on mobility emphasized the importance of formal education (Blau & Duncan 1967), ability, academic performance, social influences, & aspirations (Featherman & Hauser 1975, Sewell et al 1970) on the occupational attainment of sons. These studies were criticized for being too individualistic (Kaufman 1983, 1987; Kerckhoff 1976; Knotterus 1987) & for ignoring disadvantaged groups, such as women & race/ethnic minorities (Hout 1988; Rosenfeld 1978, 1979; Stolzenberg 1990). The gender & race/ethnic limitations of these earlier studies raise interesting questions for the study of occupational aspirations. For example, women born in the late 1950s to early 1960s may have framed their aspirations relative to occupational positions frequently identified with women, such as teacher, nurse, dental hygienist for those who imagined employment, & full-time homemaker for those who planned early marriages. The purpose of this study is to identify factors that shape the occupational aspirations of young adults. To answer this question, I analyze data from the young women's & young men's cohorts of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY), which began in 1979. In this analysis, I model the relationships between sociodemographic, family background, & family attitude measures on occupational aspirations. Results suggest that gender & race/ethnicity as well as family background characteristics structure the distributions of aspirations. These findings are discussed within the general framework of inequality & the micro/macro linkage between structural constraints & identity formation.
Bibliography Citation
Baird, Chardie L. "Aspirations in Young Adulthood." Presented: New Orleans, LA, Southern Sociological Society Meetings, March 2003.
2. Baird, Chardie L.
Going Against the Flow: A Longitudinal Study of the Effects of Cognitive Skills and Gender Beliefs on Occupational Aspirations and Outcomes
Sociological Forum 27,4 (December 2012): 986-1009.
Also: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1573-7861.2012.01365.x/abstract
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: Wiley Online
Keyword(s): Cognitive Ability; Expectations/Intentions; Gender Attitudes/Roles; Gender Differences; Occupational Aspirations; Occupational Segregation; Skills

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

Occupational sex segregation persists in part due to cultural beliefs in the existence of gender differences in skills. This article explores potential resistance to the gender-typical aspirations and outcomes that re-create occupational sex segregation: cognitive skills in gender-atypical areas (i.e., math skills for women and verbal skills for men) and beliefs about women’s prioritization of family over paid work. Using the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, 1979 cohort, I find that individuals with skills in areas considered gender atypical have less traditional occupational aspirations and outcomes than their otherwise-similar counterparts. This process varies by gender, however. The results reflect the differential valuation of math and verbal skills. I conclude that programs designed to encourage women to pursue gender-atypical occupations that align with their gender-atypical skills are focusing on the least resistant group.
Bibliography Citation
Baird, Chardie L. "Going Against the Flow: A Longitudinal Study of the Effects of Cognitive Skills and Gender Beliefs on Occupational Aspirations and Outcomes." Sociological Forum 27,4 (December 2012): 986-1009.
3. Baird, Chardie L.
Importance of Community Context for Young Women's Occupational Aspirations
Sex Roles 58,3-4 (February 2008): 208-221
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: Springer
Keyword(s): Career Patterns; Modeling; Occupational Aspirations; Women

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

The effects of community context on occupational aspirations are examined in a national sample of young women in high school in the USA in 1979 (n = 2,210). Multilevel statistical models indicate that young women living in counties with a lower divorce rate, a lower percentage of women working, and more people employed in the wholesale and retail industrial sector tended to be less likely to aspire to paid work than young women living in areas with a higher divorce rate, a higher percentage of women working, and fewer people employed in the wholesale and retail industrial sector. Community context does not affect the level of young women's occupational aspirations as predicted by prior scholarship.

An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 2006 Southern Sociological Society Annual Meetings.

Bibliography Citation
Baird, Chardie L. "Importance of Community Context for Young Women's Occupational Aspirations." Sex Roles 58,3-4 (February 2008): 208-221.
4. Baird, Chardie L.
Process of Career Goal Formation
Presented: New Orleans, LA, Annual Meetings of the Southern Sociological Society, 2006
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: Southern Sociological Society
Keyword(s): Attitudes; Career Patterns; Health/Health Status/SF-12 Scale; Modeling; Occupational Aspirations; Self-Esteem; Women; Women's Studies

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

[The] study analyzed students performing poorly, based on GPA and standardized tests, in high school. Despite their past performances, one group decided to attend college. The other group decided to end their education after they graduated high school. "The group that's worse off in terms of mental health [later in life] is the group that planned for the probable," Baird said. "The shoot for the stars group has a higher level of self esteem and a higher sense of mastery. We think that this basically lends evidence to the theory of self-worth."

The Theory of Self-worth says people are reinforced by trying, not succeeding, Baird said, "There is some inherent benefit in trying, because people will support us and won't see us as lazy because they saw that we tried to do it," she said.

The Deprivation Theory opposes the self-worth theory. This perspective predicts people who fail to achieve goals face negative mental health consequences, Baird said. "Deprivation Theory predicts what most of us expect," Baird said. "It's a dominant theory in sociology, and the self-worth theory is newer."

Baird and Reynolds both expected the opposite of what they found. They predicted the "planning for the probable" students to have better mental health than the "shooting for the stars" group. "We wanted to come away with rigorous evidence that would say we need unrealistic teenagers to wake up and smell the coffee in terms of their career plans," Reynolds said. "I really thought we were doing a disservice by letting below-average students think they can become anything they want."

In essence, students who attended college but failed had better mental health than students who did not go to college.

Quotes are from The Shorthorn, the University of Texas at Arlington, "Study Done to Test Theroy", by Melissa Hall.

Bibliography Citation
Baird, Chardie L. "Process of Career Goal Formation." Presented: New Orleans, LA, Annual Meetings of the Southern Sociological Society, 2006.
5. Baird, Chardie L.
Women's Early Career Goals and Attainments at Midlife
Ph.D. Dissertation, The Florida State University, 2005. DAI-A 67/04, Oct 2006
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: ProQuest Dissertations & Theses (PQDT)
Keyword(s): Career Patterns; Discrimination, Sex; Gender Differences; Occupational Segregation; Wage Gap; Women's Studies

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

Occupational sex segregation, the gender wage gap, and ghettoization persist despite improvements in women's opportunities since World War II. Recent research calls for a focus on the social psychological factors in early life that affect women's career attainments to help us more fully understand the persistence of women's disadvantaged positions in paid work. This dissertation synthesizes prior research to develop a multilevel model of career goal formation by examining community context, mothers' attainments, and gender beliefs as factors that shape young women's career goals. It also considers the degree to which career goals and gender beliefs influence work outcomes in later life. I study the 1979 and 1998 panels of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth to identify early life factors that affect young women's career goals and to assess the extent to which these early goals influence women's employment situations in later life.

This dissertation has three main findings. First, I find that young women's early career goals are influenced by women's disadvantaged position in the labor force more generally, as manifested in relationships with their mothers and women's status in the broader community. Young women with mothers who have lower occupational earnings, lower occupational prestige, and work with more women are more likely to plan to work in occupations with lower earnings, prestige, and more women themselves. Second, part of the influence of community context and mothers' attainments is indirect through young women's beliefs about gender. Third, early career goals and gender beliefs have lasting and cumulative effects on women's attainments in later life. Young women with less ambitious career goals and more traditional gender beliefs complete fewer years of education and are less likely to work full-time in later life. In turn, less education and fewer work hours are associated with employment in occupations with more women, lower median weekly earnings, lower occupational prestige, and lower hourly wages. Overall, the results provide evidence of the social embeddedness of women's career goals, and the cumulative impact of early career goals and gender beliefs on women's mid-life attainments. In addition, the results suggest that women's disadvantaged position in the labor market persists partly because the career goals of each generation are influenced by the constraints and opportunities experienced by their predecessors.

Bibliography Citation
Baird, Chardie L. Women's Early Career Goals and Attainments at Midlife. Ph.D. Dissertation, The Florida State University, 2005. DAI-A 67/04, Oct 2006.
6. Baird, Chardie L.
Burge, Stephanie
Family-friendly Benefits and Full-time Working Mothers' Labor Force Persistence
Community, Work and Family 21,2 (March 2018): 168-192.
Also: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13668803.2018.1428173
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Keyword(s): Benefits, Fringe; First Birth; Labor Force Participation; Maternal Employment

Family-friendly benefits are intended to help mothers balance rather than juggle work and family. Prior research assumes that family-friendly benefits have a similar effect on mothers' persistence in full-time work across parity. However, there is evidence that the transitions to first-time and second-time motherhood are qualitatively, as well as quantitatively, different experiences. Using the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY79), we investigate women's labor force status (full-time, part-time, and not working) after both parity transitions among women who were working in the labor force full-time prior to the birth of their first child. We find that mothers often persist in the same labor force status after the birth of their second child that they held after the birth of their first child, but there is wide variability in labor force and parity pathways. In addition, a wider array of family-friendly benefits is associated with second-time mothers' full-time work than first-time mothers.
Bibliography Citation
Baird, Chardie L. and Stephanie Burge. "Family-friendly Benefits and Full-time Working Mothers' Labor Force Persistence." Community, Work and Family 21,2 (March 2018): 168-192.
7. Baird, Chardie L.
Burge, Stephanie
One is One and Two is Ten: Motherhood Transitions and Mothers’ Labor Force Participation
Presented: Atlanta GA, American Sociological Association Annual Meeting, August 2010
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: American Sociological Association
Keyword(s): Births, Repeat / Spacing; Labor Force Participation; Maternal Employment; Motherhood

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

Previous scholarship has not seriously considered the various parenthood transitions on women’s labor force participation. Most prior research assumes that each additional child has the same effect on mothers’ labor force participation and wages, not the transition from zero to one or one to two. However, the transition from zero to one child is likely to be different from the transition from one to two children and thus each requires different job and occupational arrangements to aid mothers’ successful return to the labor force. This paper uses multinomial logistic and logistic regression and the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY79) to explore the effects of the transition from zero to one versus one to two children on mother’s labor force participation. We find that mothers working in retention jobs rather than secondary jobs are more likely to be working full-time than part-time after the birth of a first child and the birth of a second child. In addition, the family situations and socio-demographic characteristics differentially affect labor force participation after the first and second birth indicating that the processes affecting the return to work after the birth of a first or second child are different.
Bibliography Citation
Baird, Chardie L. and Stephanie Burge. "One is One and Two is Ten: Motherhood Transitions and Mothers’ Labor Force Participation." Presented: Atlanta GA, American Sociological Association Annual Meeting, August 2010.
8. Baird, Chardie L.
Hardy, Melissa A.
The Gendered Structure of Career Goals: Influences of Role Models, Gender Ideology, and Agency
Presented: San Francisco CA, American Sociological Association Annual Meeting, August 2004
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: American Sociological Association
Keyword(s): Ethnic Differences; Gender Attitudes/Roles; Maternal Employment; Occupational Aspirations; Racial Differences; Role Models

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

As formal barriers to the realization of expectations are reduced, the factors that affect occupational aspirations of women and race/ethnic minorities deserve closer examination. The importance of same-sex parental role models on adolescents' career goals has been well documented in the literature. However, the mechanisms through which mothers' career orientations translate into daughters' career aspirations are not well understood. Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, a nationally representative sample of 12,686 young men and women aged 14 to 22 in 1979, we assess the relationship between occupational aspirations, characteristics of family background, gender ideology, and perceptions of individual agency. Although comparable proportions of young men and young women had mothers who were employed, mother's employment status relates differently to the career expectations of young men and young women. Further analysis suggests that mothers' employment status helps shape daughters' gender ideology: daughters of employed mothers are more likely to form egalitarian attitudes regarding the range of appropriate behaviors in which young women may engage. In addition, this mechanism varies across race/ethnic groups. A stronger sense of agency positively affects occupational aspirations across gender and race/ethnicity.
Bibliography Citation
Baird, Chardie L. and Melissa A. Hardy. "The Gendered Structure of Career Goals: Influences of Role Models, Gender Ideology, and Agency." Presented: San Francisco CA, American Sociological Association Annual Meeting, August 2004.
9. Baird, Chardie L.
Reynolds, John R.
Employee Awareness of Family Leave Benefits: The Effects of Family, Work, and Gender
Sociological Quarterly 45,2 (Spring 2004): 325-353.
Also: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1533-8525.2004.tb00015.x/abstract
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: Wiley Online
Keyword(s): Benefits; Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA); Family Studies; Gender Differences; Leave, Family or Maternity/Paternity; Women

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

The 1993 Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) was intended to help employees meet short-term family demands, such as caring for children and elderly parents, without losing their jobs. However, recent evidence suggests that few women and even fewer men employees avail themselves of family leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act. This paper examines the organizational, worker status, and salience/need factors associated with knowledge of family leave benefits. We study employees covered by the FMLA using the 1996 panel of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth to ascertain what work and family factors influence knowledge of leave benefits. Overall, 91 percent of employed FMLA-eligible women report they have access to unpaid family leave, compared to 72 percent of men. Logistic regression analyses demonstrate that work situations more than family situations affect knowledge of family leave benefits and that gender shapes the impact of some work and family factors on awareness. Furthermore, work and family situations do not explain away the considerable gender difference in knowledge of family leave.
Bibliography Citation
Baird, Chardie L. and John R. Reynolds. "Employee Awareness of Family Leave Benefits: The Effects of Family, Work, and Gender." Sociological Quarterly 45,2 (Spring 2004): 325-353.
10. Reynolds, John R.
Baird, Chardie L.
Is There a Downside to Shooting for the Stars? Unrealized Educational Expectations and Symptoms of Depression
American Sociological Review 75,1 (February 2010): 151–172.
Also: http://asr.sagepub.com/content/75/1/151.abstract
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: American Sociological Association
Keyword(s): CESD (Depression Scale); Educational Aspirations/Expectations; Educational Attainment; Health, Mental/Psychological; National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (AddHealth)

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

Despite decades of research on the benefits of educational expectations, researchers have failed to show that unrealized plans are consequential for mental health, as self-discrepancy and other social psychological theories would predict. This article uses two national longitudinal studies of youth to test whether unrealized educational expectations are associated with depression in adulthood. Negative binomial regression analyses show that unmet expectations are associated with a greater risk of depression among young adults who share similar educational expectations. The apparent consequences of aiming high and falling short result, however, from lower attainment, not the gap between plans and attainment. Results indicate almost no long-term emotional costs of “shooting for the stars” rather than planning for the probable, once educational attainment is taken into account. This lack of association also holds after accounting for early mental health, the magnitude of the shortfall, the stability of expectations, and college-related resources, and it is robust across two distinct cohorts of high school students. We develop a theory of “adaptive resilience” to account for these findings and, because aiming high and failing are not consequential for mental health, conclude that society should not dissuade unpromising students from dreams of college.
Bibliography Citation
Reynolds, John R. and Chardie L. Baird. "Is There a Downside to Shooting for the Stars? Unrealized Educational Expectations and Symptoms of Depression." American Sociological Review 75,1 (February 2010): 151–172. A.