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Author: Weiss, Christopher C.
Resulting in 7 citations.
1. Arbeit, Caren
Weiss, Christopher C.
Who Returns to School? Non-traditional Patterns of Mothers' School Attendance
Presented: San Francisco CA, American Sociological Association Annual Meeting, August 2014
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: American Sociological Association
Keyword(s): Education, Adult; Educational Attainment; Life Course; Mothers

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

Education in later life is increasingly common in the United States, yet remains understudied. We seek to contribute to our knowledge of this phenomenon by examining what factors predict returning to school for women who have become mothers. To do this, we build off theoretical perspectives of, and empirical research on, educational attainment, life course and educational trajectories, and family factors. Taking these perspectives together we create a new model for understanding characteristics associated with returning to school for mothers. Our sample includes a modern cohort of women (in the NLSY 79). We find that returning to school does not conform to the traditional predictors of educational attainment, but is a distinct process.
Bibliography Citation
Arbeit, Caren and Christopher C. Weiss. "Who Returns to School? Non-traditional Patterns of Mothers' School Attendance." Presented: San Francisco CA, American Sociological Association Annual Meeting, August 2014.
2. Armstrong, Elizabeth M.
Weiss, Christopher C.
Do American Mothers Treat Sons and Daughters Alike?
Presented: Atlanta, GA, Population Association of America Annual Meetings, May 2002
Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79, NLSY79
Publisher: Population Association of America
Keyword(s): Child Care; Child Health; Gender Attitudes/Roles; Gender Differences; Infants; Parent-Child Interaction; Parenting Skills/Styles; Pre-natal Care/Exposure; Pre/post Natal Behavior; Pre/post Natal Health Care

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

Son preference is well documented in parts of the developing world, particularly China, Korea, India and South Asia. In societies where son preference is strong, adverse consequences for girls may be severe, including death. In the U.S. where the stated norm is gender equality, surprisingly little attention to whether childrearing practices differ by gender. This absence seems all the more surprising given the evidence of gender bias in the American primary education system. This paper uses the NLSY to examine gender-differentiated parenting practices (infant feeding, well baby care, child care) in the U.S. Despite prevailing norms of gender equity, we hypothesize that mothers treat boys and girls differently; however, these differences cause less morbidity and fewer lasting developmental effects, because children in the U.S. generally receive adequate nutrition and medical care and child mortality overall is low. Therefore, gender bias in the U.S. may be invisible in infancy.
Bibliography Citation
Armstrong, Elizabeth M. and Christopher C. Weiss. "Do American Mothers Treat Sons and Daughters Alike?" Presented: Atlanta, GA, Population Association of America Annual Meetings, May 2002.
3. Armstrong, Elizabeth M.
Weiss, Christopher C.
Do American Mothers Treat Sons and Daughters Alike?
Presented: San Francisco, CA, American Sociological Association Annual Meeting, August 2004
Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79, NLSY79
Publisher: American Sociological Association
Keyword(s): Child Care; Child Health; Gender Attitudes/Roles; Gender Differences; Infants; Parent-Child Interaction; Parenting Skills/Styles; Pre-natal Care/Exposure; Pre/post Natal Behavior; Pre/post Natal Health Care

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

Son preference is well-documented in parts of the developing world, particularly China, Korea, India and South Asia. In societies where son preference is strong, adverse consequences for girls may be severe, including even death. Yet in the U.S. where the stated norm is one of gender equality, there has been surprising little attention to whether childrearing practices differ by gender of child. This absence seems all the more surprising given the evidence that gender differentiation is observable in a number of different domains of American children's' lives (e.g., school, play groups, etc.). Much of this literature argues that gender bias begins early in life and unfolds in subtle ways. This paper uses the NLSY to examine gender-differentiated parenting practices (infant feeding, well baby care, child care) in the U.S. Despite prevailing norms of gender equity, we hypothesize that mothers treat boys and girls differently; however, these differences cause less morbidity and have fewer lasting developmental effects, because children in the U.S. generally receive adequate nutrition and medical care, and child mortality overall is low. Therefore, gender bias in the U.S. may be invisible in infancy.

The data we use come from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY) linked mother-child records. The data enable us to test for the presence of gender bias by examining a number of maternal behaviors during an infant's first year of life. We consider outcomes in the realms of both health and social care. In terms of health, we look at (a) infant feeding decisions (whether the child was breastfed and duration of breastfeeding and timing of introduction of solid food); and (b) immunization records (measles, DPT, polio). In terms of social care, we consider: (c) fostering (whether child lives with other than biological mother in first year of life); and (d) how often mother reads to child; and (e) the restrictions and rules that parents place upon their chi ldren. Do women invest more heavily in terms of time, love and attention in boys than in girls?

We also control for a wide range of maternal and household outcomes that both may affect child outcomes and may affect infant-feeding and childcare decisions. Our controls include child's birth order, mother's age at birth, mother's race and ethnicity, mother's education and household poverty status. We restrict our sample to full-term infants with a normal birthweight. We use OLS and multiple logistic regression to test the effect of child's gender on maternal behavior, controlling for maternal characteristics.

Bibliography Citation
Armstrong, Elizabeth M. and Christopher C. Weiss. "Do American Mothers Treat Sons and Daughters Alike?" Presented: San Francisco, CA, American Sociological Association Annual Meeting, August 2004.
4. Armstrong, Elizabeth M.
Weiss, Christopher C.
Self-efficacy, Risk Behaviors and Health Outcomes: Evidence from the NLSY
Presented: Los Angeles, CA, Population Association of America Meetings, March 2000
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: Population Association of America
Keyword(s): Alcohol Use; CESD (Depression Scale); Cigarette Use (see Smoking); Health/Health Status/SF-12 Scale; Obesity; Pearlin Mastery Scale; Risk-Taking; Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES) (see Self-Esteem)

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

Bibliography Citation
Armstrong, Elizabeth M. and Christopher C. Weiss. "Self-efficacy, Risk Behaviors and Health Outcomes: Evidence from the NLSY." Presented: Los Angeles, CA, Population Association of America Meetings, March 2000.
5. Waldron, Ingrid
Weiss, Christopher C.
Hughes, Mary Elizabeth
Interacting Effects of Multiple Roles on Women's Health
Presented: Washington, DC, Population Association of America Meetings, March 1997
Cohort(s): Young Women
Publisher: Population Association of America
Keyword(s): Employment; Health Factors; Health/Health Status/SF-12 Scale; Marital Status; Marriage; Maternal Employment; Motherhood; Women's Roles

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

This study evaluates the effects of employment, marriage, and motherhood on women's general physical health. We analyze prospective panel data from the National Longitudinal Surveys of Young Women. The women were aged 24-34 at the beginning of two successive five-year follow-up intervals. Our findings indicate that employment had beneficial effects on health primarily for women who were not married, and marriage had beneficial effects on health-primarily for women who were not employed. It appears that being employed and/or married has beneficial health effects because either role can increase income and social support and reduce psychological distress. The health effects of being a mother appeared to vary, depending on the ages of the children and several characteristics of the mothers. Our findings provide almost no support for the Role Strain Hypothesis and only limited support for the Role Accumulaffon Hypothesis Instead, it appears that multiple roles have vari able effe cts on women's health, depending on the specific role combinations, role characteristics, and the women's characteristics.
Bibliography Citation
Waldron, Ingrid, Christopher C. Weiss and Mary Elizabeth Hughes. "Interacting Effects of Multiple Roles on Women's Health." Presented: Washington, DC, Population Association of America Meetings, March 1997.
6. Waldron, Ingrid
Weiss, Christopher C.
Hughes, Mary Elizabeth
Interacting Effects of Multiple Roles on Women's Health
Journal of Health and Social Behavior 39,3 (September 1998): 216-236.
Also: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2676314
Cohort(s): Young Women
Publisher: American Sociological Association
Keyword(s): Age at First Birth; Childbearing, Adolescent; Employment; Health/Health Status/SF-12 Scale; Marital Status; Marriage; Motherhood; Women's Roles; Women's Studies

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

Our study tests several hypotheses concerning the effects of employment, marriage, and motherhood on women 's general physical health. These hypotheses predict how the health effect of each role varies, depending on specific role characteristics and the other roles a woman holds. Our analyses utilize longitudinal panel data for 3,331 women from the National Longitudinal Surveys of Young Women follow-up intervals: 1978-83 and 1983-88. The Role Substitution Hypothesis proposes that employment and marriage provide similar resources (e.g., income and social support), and, consequently, employment and marriage can substitute for each other in their beneficial effects on health. As predicted, we found that employment had beneficial effects on health for unmarried women, but little or no effect for married women. Similarly, marriage had beneficial effects on health only for women who were not employed. The Role Combination Strain Hypothesis proposes that employed mothers experience role strai n, resulting in harmful effects on health. However, we found very little evidence that the combination of employment and motherhood resulted in harmful health effects. Contrary to the predictions of the Quantitative Demands Role Strain Hypothesis, it appears that neither longer hours of employment nor having more children resulted in harmful effects on health. As predicted by the Age Related Parental Role Strain Hypothesis, younger age at first birth, particularly a teenage birth, appeared to result in more harmful health effects.
Bibliography Citation
Waldron, Ingrid, Christopher C. Weiss and Mary Elizabeth Hughes. "Interacting Effects of Multiple Roles on Women's Health." Journal of Health and Social Behavior 39,3 (September 1998): 216-236.
7. Waldron, Ingrid
Weiss, Christopher C.
Hughes, Mary Elizabeth
Marital Status Effects on Health - Are There Differences Between Never Married Women and Divorced and Separated Women?
Social Science and Medicine 45,9 (November 1997): 1387-1397.
Also: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953697000658
Cohort(s): Young Women
Publisher: Elsevier
Keyword(s): Divorce; Health Factors; Health/Health Status/SF-12 Scale; Marital Stability; Marital Status

To test whether the effects of marital status on health differ between never married women and divorced and separated women, this study utilizes prospective panel data for a large national sample of non-institutionalized young women in the U. S. (the National Longitudinal Surveys of Young Women). The women were aged 24-34 at the beginning of two successive five-year follow-up intervals (1978-1983 and 1983-1988). The health effects of marital status were evaluated in regressions which assessed the relationships between initial marital status and subsequent health trends in each follow-up interval. In the first follow-up interval, never married women tended to have worse health trends than divorced and separated women for physical impairments and for overall health problems. However, there were no differences between never married women and divorced and separated women in health trends for psychosomatic symptoms in either follow-up interval or for any health measure in the sec ond follow-up interval. Our analyses of cross-sectional data showed few significant differences in health between never married women and divorced and separated women. Taken together, the evidence from our study and previous studies suggests that differences between never married women and divorced and separated women may vary by age and/or cohort. Evidence for the 1970s and 1980s suggests that, among older women, divorced and separated women may have experienced more harmful health effects than never married women; however, among younger women, this difference may have been absent or possibly reversed.
Bibliography Citation
Waldron, Ingrid, Christopher C. Weiss and Mary Elizabeth Hughes. "Marital Status Effects on Health - Are There Differences Between Never Married Women and Divorced and Separated Women?" Social Science and Medicine 45,9 (November 1997): 1387-1397.