Search Results

Author: Dechter, Aimee R.
Resulting in 3 citations.
1. Dechter, Aimee R.
Furstenberg, Frank F. Jr.
Harris, Kathleen Mullan
The Changing Consequences of Adolescent Childbearing: A Comparison of Fertility and Marriage Patterns Across Cohorts
Presented: Washington, DC, American Sociological Association Annual Meetings, 1990
Cohort(s): Mature Women, NLSY79, Young Women
Publisher: American Sociological Association
Keyword(s): Adolescent Fertility; Childbearing; Childbearing, Adolescent; Educational Attainment; Fertility; First Birth; Marital Status; Racial Differences; Teenagers

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

Much is known about the implications of adolescent childbearing for the fertility and marital patterns of contemporary cohorts of women in the U.S., however, it is not known whether the long term implications of teenage childbearing for future family formation are persistent across successive cohorts of women. This paper focuses on differences in the implications of the timing of first birth on subsequent childbearing and on marital patterns, across several cohorts. The fertility and marital patterns are discussed within the context of social and historical changes, including the soaring rates of both high school completion and out of wedlock childbearing. The differences between adolescent mothers and others are contrasted across cohorts born in the following periods: the 1920s and 1930s; the years surrounding the Second World War; and in the late 1950s and early 1960s. The data, drawn from the Mature Women, Young Women, and Youth Cohorts of the NLS, suggest that differentials associated with the timing of first birth in the risks of out of wedlock childbearing, marriage, and divorce have increased and differentials in subsequent fertility have converged across the cohorts. Futhermore, racial differences in the differentials associated with adolescent childbearing have increased with respect to the marriage indicators and decreased with respect to children ever born.
Bibliography Citation
Dechter, Aimee R., Frank F. Jr. Furstenberg and Kathleen Mullan Harris. "The Changing Consequences of Adolescent Childbearing: A Comparison of Fertility and Marriage Patterns Across Cohorts." Presented: Washington, DC, American Sociological Association Annual Meetings, 1990.
2. Smith, Herbert L.
Dechter, Aimee R.
Effects of Nonresponse on the Measurement of Social Life Feelings
In: Relevance of Attitude Measurement in Sociology. P. Schmidt and D. Krebs, eds. Mannheim, Germany: Center for Survey Research, 1990
Cohort(s): Young Women
Publisher: Center for Survey Research and Methodology, Mannheim, Germany (ZUMA)
Keyword(s): Data Quality/Consistency; Internal-External Attitude; Locus of Control (see Rotter Scale); Nonresponse; Research Methodology; Rotter Scale (see Locus of Control)

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

The problem of survey non-response is particularly troublesome in the measurement of social life feelings since the refusal to participate in a study may be one manifestation of certain attitudes and sentiments. This paper examines the relationship between social life feelings reports and subsequent non-response. Employing data from the 1968-85 waves of the NLS Young Women, the authors focus on the 1970, 1973, and 1978 responses to a modified eleven item version of the Rotter Internal-External Locus of Control Scale and the 1983 responses to four of the items capturing personal control. In an analysis of the association (ANOAS) between 1970 item responses (item non-response, mostly internal, somewhat internal, somewhat external, mostly external) and 1973 outcomes (refusal, other non-interview, item non-response, and the four locus of control scales), subjects who responded to the 1973 survey but not to a given item, scored very low in the cooperativeness dimension. Refusals scaled somewhere in between those with item non-response and those who responded to the item regardless of the proffered response. It is reassuring that along the locus of control dimension, refusing to be re-interviewed, being lost to follow-up for some other reason, and refusing or being unable to respond to a Rotter item are not associated with the scaling on locus of control in the previous interview. Of course, the possibility remains that non-respondents are more likely to shift their feelings one way or the other relative to those who were re-interviewed.
Bibliography Citation
Smith, Herbert L. and Aimee R. Dechter. "Effects of Nonresponse on the Measurement of Social Life Feelings" In: Relevance of Attitude Measurement in Sociology. P. Schmidt and D. Krebs, eds. Mannheim, Germany: Center for Survey Research, 1990
3. Smith, Herbert L.
Dechter, Aimee R.
No Shift in Locus of Control Among Women During the 1970s
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 60,4 (April 1991): 638-640.
Also: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022351402022756
Cohort(s): Mature Women, Young Women
Publisher: American Psychological Association (APA)
Keyword(s): Data Quality/Consistency; Internal-External Attitude; Locus of Control (see Rotter Scale); Rotter Scale (see Locus of Control)

Contrary to reports published previously (Doherty, 1983; Doherty and Baldwin, 1985), there is no evidence of a shift in locus of control among U.S. women during the 1970s--at least not as revealed by responses of female subjects from the NLS of Mature Women and Young Women to a battery of Rotter Scale items administered on three occasions during that decade. The authors show that the apparent shift toward more external responses is completely an artifact of uncorrected coding errors in earlier releases of these data. The absence of any true change in locus of control among these women raises substantial questions about theories put forward to explain this nonexistent shift. The authors counsel circumspection.
Bibliography Citation
Smith, Herbert L. and Aimee R. Dechter. "No Shift in Locus of Control Among Women During the 1970s." Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 60,4 (April 1991): 638-640.