Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: We present detailed analyses of gender differences in the effects of education on all-cause and cause-specific mortality. We also test whether the resource substitution vs. resource multiplication theories, recently proposed to explain gender differences in the education-mental health association, are applicable in mortality research. We use data from the 1986-2000 National Health Interview Surveys matched to the National Death Index through 2002. The analyses include 619,311 non-Hispanic white men and women born between 1906 and 1965. Proportional hazard models are employed to estimate gender differences in the effect of education on mortality. The results suggest that there are few systematic differences in education inequalities in all-cause mortality, with some trend toward a steeper gradient for men at the postsecondary levels and a steeper gradient for women at the pre-secondary levels. The gender patterns vary across specific causes of death but less so across birth cohorts. We find that the resource substitution vs. resource multiplication theories are less well suited for mortality research and propose their extension into the domain of more proximate health mediators.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Much of the current discomfort with mainstream methodology is rooted either in outright rejection of or ambivalence toward a Humean model of causation. The Humean legacy has at least two parts, however. It is not just a question of constant conjunction. The second part of the legacy is the dualism of belief and desire (reason and the passions) which underpins a simple and influential model of instrumentalism. As it stands however, current debates about methodology, particularly the innovations of those participants who are self-consciously anti-Humean, whether in a strong or weak form, do not appear to have recognized that a full-blown challenge to the Humean legacy requires the rejection of instrumentalism and the dictum that reasons are causes, and not simply the rejection of the constant conjunction model of causation. And they therefore do not recognize that what may be left at the heart of the human sciences, when they are evacuated of the Humean legacy, are explanations without causes.

This paper examines the place of explanations without causes in the social and human sciences. First of all, do such explanations exist? Second, if they do exist, what is their logical structure? Third, what is their import? And, finally, assuming for the moment that they exist, what are their problems?

Publication Type: Paper/Poster Proposal
Abstract: Placing related questions together can alter the associations between answers to them. We conducted two experiments that varied whether related questions were presented together on a single screen in a web survey. The first experiment replicated that inter-item associations and scale reliability were highest when the questions were presented together. However, a structural equation model revealed that these higher associations reflected correlated measurement error and decreased rather than increased construct validity. We carried out a second experiment to test three possible mechanisms for the heightened correlations, but reduced validity. First, the questions may be perceived as being multiple measures of the same construct, inducing more similar interpretations of the items. Secondly, when no actions are needed to get to the next question, the same material may be retrieved from working memory in answering all the questions. Thirdly, respondents may be minimizing effort by clicking response options in the same columns and paying less attention to the individual questions when they are presented in a grid. Our second experiment used a factorial design in a web survey with 2,694 respondents. Respondents answered 4 questions on diet and 4 on exercise, where the layout (together in a grid, together on a screen but listed separately, in separate screens), the accompanying instructions (related, independent, no instructions), and the order of the questions (by topic, intermixed) were varied randomly. We also expected these manipulations to interact with the location of the experiment in the questionnaire and randomly assigned its placement. Respondents’ Body Mass Index was calculated in order to estimate and compare measurement error properties and validity of the diet and exercise constructs. The findings will allow us to understand the mechanisms generating differences in responses to questions on the same topic and guide survey design decisions that affect measurement error, nonresponse, and cost.

Publication Type: Session Presentation
Abstract: French cinema has often portrayed France’s contemporary social climate, from La Haine to Exils, presenting a fragmented French youth in the midst of redefining its identities, oscillating between revolt and desire for integration in a changing culture. This session helps teachers engage students with these delicate topics, often misrepresented in American media.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: Abstract. The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) ranks countries annually on their human development index (HDI), which combines a country’s values on longevity, literacy, and per capita income. Hierarchical modeling is applied to uncover the factors that predict a country’s HDI rank, explain the variability between regions, ó2R, and explain the variability between countries within a region, ó2c. The effects on the HDI of nine civilizations are assessed: African, Buddhist, Hindu, Japanese, Latin, Moslem, Orthodox, Sinic, and Western. Civilization is a strong predictor of a country’s rank on the HDI, but it does not provide the strongest causal explanation of the variability in the HDI quantified by ó2R and ó2c.. Among the covariates studied here, the new slavery (bonded servitude, forced labor, forced prostitution) and the lack of political freedom explain much of the variability that is between regions and corruption explains much of the variability among countries within a region. Additionally, countries with high values of conflict and social unrest and debt have significantly worse positions on the HDI. Civilization is best viewed as a pointer to underlying social mechanisms that more directly determine development; their modification may enhance development.
*Author’s Note: With contributions by Kevin Bales, who provided several of his measures for analysis, and by Irina Koltoniuc, who helped operationalize the constructs and develop the analytic data base. Helen Fein underscored the importance of the new slavery, Philip Gibbs of the SAS Institute clarified some of the nuances of PROC MIXED, and Stanley Guterman and Andy Baker critiqued an earlier draft. The views expressed here are my own and do not necessarily reflect the opinions or policies of the United Nations Development Program or any other organization. This draft lacks mathematical symbols for the estimated statistics.