Social Class Categories Research Articles

A Method of Assigning Socio-economic Status Classification to British Armed Forces Personnel

The objective of this paper was to develop and evaluate a socio-economic status classification method for British Armed Forces personnel. Two study groups comprising of civilian and Armed Forces families...

Participation in higher education: A geodemographic perspective on the potential for further expansion in student numbers

Higher education in England has expanded rapidly in the last ten years with the result that currently more than 30% of young people go on to university. Expansion is likely to continue following the recommendations of a national committee of inquiry (the Dearing Committee). The participation rate is known to vary substantially among social groups and between geographical areas. In this paper the participation rate is calculated using a new measure, the Young Entrants Index (YEI), and the extent of variation by region, gender and residential neighbourhood type established. The Super Profiles geodemographic system is used to facilitate the latter. This is shown to be a powerful discriminator and to offer great potential as an alternative analytical approach to the conventional social class categories, based on parental occupation, that have formed the basis of most participation studies to date.

Demographic and Psychosocial Characteristics of Substance-Abusing Pregnant Women

Women who abuse drugs and alcohol during pregnancy are an elusive population who often remain unidentified to practitioners and researchers and hence have not been well studied. In trying to understand better the characteristics of women who use drugs during pregnancy, the present article relies extensively on information gathered in studies of women in substance abuse treatment who, as epidemiologic studies show, may be more severely impaired than other substance-abusing women and, therefore, may not be typical of substance-abusing women identified in the course of obstetric practice. Yet, those pregnant women who are actually identified by medical providers as substance users are often those whose behavior raises concerns with health providers (such as presenting for labor having had no prenatal care) and thus also may represent only a relatively impaired group of substance-abusing women. The most objective picture available of the universe of women who use drugs during pregnancy comes from blinded urine toxicology screens conducted at samples of representative hospitals across states and across the country. The startling finding to emerge from these studies is that common perceptions of substance abuse as a problem of poor, ethnic minority, and young individuals is inaccurate and that this perception may all too often be acted on by medical providers in a prejudicial manner. These studies show similar rates of substance use during pregnancy by women of different racial, social class, and age categories. Demographic features are only related to type of substance used, with black women and poorer women more likely to use illicit substances, particularly cocaine, and white women and better educated women more likely to use alcohol, the substance whose teratogenic effects have been most clearly documented. Despite the even distribution of substance use across demographic categories, poor women and women of color are far more likely to be reported to health and child welfare authorities for use of substances during pregnancy than are other women, even when their base rates for use of illicit drugs are considered. Data from both epidemiologic studies and samples of women seeking treatment for substance abuse problems indicate that the lives of substance-abusing women are fraught with difficulties past and present. Substance-abusing women are likely to have been raised by parents who were substance abusers, particularly alcoholics. Although the intergenerational patterns of substance abuse may have some genetic basis, there is also ample evidence suggesting problematic relationships in families with a substance-abusing parent that raises concerns about intergenerational transmission of problematic parenting behavior. Perhaps the most startling research finding reported in studies reviewed in this article is the high proportion of substance-abusing women who have experienced early sexual abuse. Although most studies have not had adequate comparison groups of non-substance-abusing women, the fact remains that most studies suggest a third to a half of substance abusing women experienced some kind of sexual abuse during childhood. Substance-abusing women's lives remain complicated as adults. They are commonly involved with men who are also users of drugs, they are often the victims of domestic violence, and they suffer from a variety of psychiatric disorders. Studies of epidemiologic and treatment populations indicate that the majority of substance-abusing women have one or more types of comorbid mental disorders, with depression being the most common and the most elevated compared with substance-abusing men, but antisocial personality being extremely high compared with samples of non-substance-abusing women. These findings are of great concern given a growing body of research with non-substance-abusing women, suggesting that family violence and maternal psychopathology can have a profound effect on women's parenting and development o

Solving for the X: Aspirations and Expectations of College Students

We questioned if there is a set of values and goals that distinguish Generation X individuals by asking 462 college students in four institutions to think ahead ten years, and rate the importance of success in various life domains to their future satisfaction. We also asked them to indicate obstacles, if any, that might prove to be barriers as they sought their life goals. As predicted, there was considerable value consensus across race, gender, and social class categories, and little to suggest that Generation X college students differ from preceding generations in their core concerns; for example, women students attached greater importance than men to attaining family goals, but men and women students did not differ in the importance they attached to economic success. Unexpectedly, we found that students of color rated economic success as more important than did white students. Women students of both races, and minority students of both genders, anticipated discrimination as a likely future obstacle. Contrary to the popular assumption of Generation X alienation, most students thought it likely that they would achieve their life goals, although students whose parents were less well-educated expressed concern that difficulties with “connections,” money, and getting the right education might impede their future success. Despite the general optimism of the youths we studied, we found no correlation between college academic performance as measured by grade point average, and the importance attached to future material success, suggesting that their hopes for the future may not be founded on present effort and accomplishment.

Is age kinder to the initially more able?: differential ageing of a verbal ability in the Healthy Old People in Edinburgh study

Studies that examine whether there is differential age-related decline in intelligence test scores according to initial cognitive status, social class and education are reviewed. We tested the differential ageing hypothesis which states that decline in ability scores over time will be lower in those with superior mental ability, more education and higher social class at the time of original testing. 387 healthy old people were tested at baseline and followed up 4 years later. The National Adult Reading Test (NART) was administered on both occasions. NART-estimated IQ fell by a mean of 2.1 points over 4 years ( p<0.001). Subjects in higher social class categories had higher NART scores overall ( p<0.001), and had smaller NART decrements over 4 years. Ex-professional and -secretarial groups fell by a mean of 1.4 points in this period, versus 3.2 points for skilled manual, semi-skilled and unskilled groups. In addition, those who fell more in NART were older ( p=0.001), were less educated ( p<0.001), and had lower NART ( p<0.001) scores at baseline. In summary, those with higher baseline ability, in higher social class groups, with more education and who are younger are relatively protected from decline in this verbal ability with age. Possible mechanisms of differential decline in this verbal intelligence with age are discussed.

Film ‘hits’ and ‘misses’ in mid-1930s Britain

A recent piece of scholarship concerned with film audience reactions suggested that the pleasures derived from cinemagoing are not homogeneous. At a general level, De Vany and Walls presented evidence to support their contention that 'Film audiences make hits or flops and they do it, not by revealing preferences they already have, but by discovering what they like'. The implication is that, as hard as film-makers attempt to attenuate the risks associated with film production through the devices of 'stars', 'genre' and perhaps 'direction', audiences are prone to upset the best-made plans. However, this can be taken further with Harper and Porter's claim that, for the period of their study (circa 1950), '... gender, social class and, to a lesser extent, age were paramount in determining the nature and intensity of film response'. They argued that, although films and their stars are important in shaping the experience of audiences, the latter, in turn, bring their own experiences to the cinema and these act as filters through which meaning and pleasure are derived. From their analysis of the 1950 Mass Observation study into the incidence and reasons behind crying at the cinema, Harper and Porter found that filmgoers, classified into gender and social class categories for the purposes of analysis, gave differentiated responses to both the act of crying and the films which stimulated this behaviour.

Obesity, social class, and mental illness. 1962.

The relationship between obesity and mental health was investigated, using data obtained from 1,660 persons selected as representative of 110,000 inhabitants of a residential area of New York City. In addition to confirming the previously noted relationship between obesity and age, preliminary analysis revealed a striking relationship between obesity and socioeconomic status of origin. The prevalence of obesity was 7 times higher among women reared in the lowest social class category as compared with those reared in the highest category. Scores made by the obese respondents on 9 mental health indices were compared with scores made by individuals of average weight. The obese respondents made more pathological scores on 8 of the 9 measures and on 3 of these the difference was statistically significant (“immaturity,” “rigidity,” and “suspiciousness”).

Social class and race disparities in premature stroke mortality among men in North Carolina

The purpose of this work was to examine the association between social class and premature stroke mortality among blacks and whites. For black men and white men in North Carolina, aged 35–54 years, mortality data from vital statistics files and population data from Census Public Use Microdata Sample files were matched according to social class for the years 1984–1993. Four categories of social class were defined based upon a two-dimensional classification scheme of occupations. For each category of social class, race-specific age-adjusted stroke mortality rates were calculated, and race-specific prevalences of income, wealth, education, unemployment, and disability were estimated. Women were excluded because comparable information on social class was not available from the mortality and population data sources. For both black men and white men, the highest rates of premature stroke mortality were observed among the lowest social classes. The rate ratios (RR) between the lowest and highest social class were 2.8 for black men and 2.3 for white men. Within each social class, black men had substantially higher rates of premature stroke mortality than white men (black-to-white RR ranged from 4.0 to 4.9). Among both black men and white men, the highest social class consistently had the most favorable levels of income, wealth, education, and employment. The inverse association between social class and stroke mortality for both black men and white men supports the need for stroke prevention efforts that address the structural inequalities in economic and social conditions.

Hungry for an Us: Adolescent Girls and Adult Women Negotiating Territories of Race, Gender, Class and Difference

This article explores conversational territory covered by an ongoing `girls' group' of six women, four adults, spanning age, generation, race/ethnicity and social class categories. Discourse analysis of these conversations allows us to follow the young women's collective talk, their early and desperate struggle for sameness, and then to trace our bumpy journey, ultimately, into a discourse of power and difference. The article marvels at our collective ability, among women, to move toward difference, and ends with worries about young women's inability/refusal to analyze for power or difference when talking about `personal' relations with young men.

Differences in social class among psychotic patients at inpatient admission

A cross-sectional assessment of differences in social class and other sociodemographic variables at hospital admission for patients with psychotic disorders was carried out through a systematic survey of psychotic patients admitted to greater Baltimore psychiatric facilities between 1983 and 1989. Female patients, first-admission patients, and patients with bipolar disorder or other, nonschizophrenic psychosis were more likely to have been admitted to community, university, and private hospitals than to state hospitals. Patients in medium and higher social class categories were 1.29 to 2.57 times more likely to be admitted to community, university, and private hospitals than to state hospitals.

A review of the incidence of nonprescription psychoactive substance use/misuse in Nigeria.

The past 15 years of published literature on the use/misuse of non-prescription psychoactive substances in Nigeria was reviewed. It was found that alcohol, tobacco products, cannabis, and stimulants are more frequently used than other substances. More males than females, more single than married persons, and more urban than rural residents use the substances. As a result of insufficient information, it could not be established who uses the substances more among different age, religious, social class, educational, and occupational categories. The incidence of substance misuse could not be established precisely because most of the authors did not clearly distinguish substance use from substance misuse. However, a low incidence of chemical dependency was established. Improved research methodology was suggested as a way of obtaining better results in the future.

Man-made medicine and women's health: the biopolitics of sex/gender and race/ethnicity.

National vital statistics in the United States present data in terms of race, sex, and age, treated as biological variables. Some races are clearly of more interest than others: data are usually available for whites and blacks, and increasingly for Hispanics, but seldom for Native Americans or Asians and Pacific Islanders. These data indicate that white men and women generally have the best health and that men and women, within each racial/ethnic group, have different patterns of disease. Obviously, the health status of men and women differs for conditions related to reproduction, but it differs for many nonreproductive conditions as well. In national health data, patterns of disease by race and sex are emphasized while social class differences are ignored. This article discusses how race and sex became such all-important, self-evident categories in 19th and 20th century biomedical thought and practice. It examines the consequences of these categories for knowledge about health and for the provision of health care. It then presents alternative approaches to understanding the relationship between race/ethnicity, gender, and health, with reference to the neglected category of social class.

Local housing markets, structure and buyer behaviour: The east belfast case

This article provides a discussion of the characteristics of local housing markets with specific emphasis placed upon determining a sound operational basis for the definition of submarkets. Analysis is presented for the eastern sector of the city of Belfast highlighting the need for consistency within data if meaningful evaluation is to be achieved. The results indicate that physical house type is the best criterion for defining submarkets rather than market price, household type or social class category. Price bands lack the degree of homogeneity required whilst household type and social class category do not provide sufficient discrimination across a range of property, locational and environmental characteristics. Concerning the dynamics of market areas, a behavioural survey of purchases reveals most house moves to be short distance and prompted by factors which are non‐location specific though variability is apparent between different purchaser groups.

National Socialism and the German proletariat, 1925–1935: old myths and new perspectives

Scholarly interest in the social composition of both the membership and electorate of the National Socialist movement before the Machtiubernahme of I 9 continues unabated, though the nature and weight of argument have undergone some significant changes, particularly during the last decade. The earliest theories about the social nature of the movement, such as those adduced by contemporary observers like Theodor Geiger and in the postwar period by Seymour Lipset and Arthur Schweitzer, lacked supporting empirical evidence.' The impressionistic view that the NSDAP was a predominantly lower middle-class party (Mittelstandspartei) was widely accepted, despite the fact that in the Kampfzeit the NSDAP progressed through various discernible phases of development which, it might have reasonably appeared, had implications for its social support, as well as its ideological and propagandistic orientation and electoral priorities, as Hitler strove to foster a mass movement capable of assuming power within the legal and constitutional framework of the Weimar state. After all, it was appreciated by scholars that the Hitlerian power strategy was perennially conditioned by the expediency of tactical opportunism. Even with the growing availability of hard data for example, from the membership lists held in the Berlin Document Center and German regional archives the debate was stifled to a considerable extent by disagreements over what methodological and interpretational models to apply to the findings. A further and enduring problem has been how to relate various occupations, especially those on the lower-middle-class/working class divide, to social class categories. An issue of fundamental importance arises from the absence among scholars of an agreed class model. Indeed, the answer of some is to argue that given the whirlpool of economic, social and political upheaval in the Weimar republic, it is simply not feasible to understand the development of the NSDAP, or any other party, in class terms.2 However, the employment of sophisticated, computer-based, quantitative methods to relevant data has allowed impressive advances to be made in our knowledge of the NSDAP's following.3

Reflections on the Role of Social Narratives in Working-Class Formation: Narrative Theory in the Social Sciences

This article explores the role of social narratives in working-class formation. The primary goal of this exercise is to generate concepts for the comparative analysis of working-class identities and practices. My thesis is that more successful cases of working-class formation involve the elaboration of coherent narratives about individual and collective history, stories that are coordinated with one another and that are organized around the category of social class. In such narratives, events are selected for inclusion due to their relevance to social class, or they are excluded or deemphasized because of their irrelevance to class, and events are interpreted, emplotted, and evaluated in a way that emphasizes class rather than other possible constructs. By contrast, working-class formation is less pronounced where individual and collective narratives are based on alternative, nonclass forms of identity, such as nationality, gender, ethnicity, and race. Working-class formation is also weaker where individual narratives are asynchronous, where the individual and collective levels are not coordinated with one another, or where identities fail to attain narrative coherence.

The Disagreeing Audience

Paradoxically, the advent of glastnost and the democratization of Soviet society appear to have diminished both agreement with mass media and trust in them. At the same time, the disagreeing audience—as compared to the agreeing one—demonstrates more self-consciousness and social activity, conditions indicating greater preparedness for perestroika and the restructuring of Soviet society. These results were obtained from surveys in 1985 and 1987 of 2,000 Byelorussians aged 16 to 30 in five social class categories: collective farmers, workers, technical employees, secondary and professional school students, and university students. Survey results are compared to a content analysis of reports of problems on Soviet radio and television and in youth newspapers (750 texts in 1985, 850 in 1987). The author concludes that under conditions of “monopropaganda,” in which mass media are managed by a single sociopolitical group, disagreement with the media becomes a socially positive force for the democratization of society.

Helicobacter pylori infection rates in relation to age and social class in a population of Welsh men.

The seroprevalence of IgG antibodies to Helicobacter pylori was determined using a standard enzyme linked immunosorbent assay in a population of 749 randomly selected men, aged 30-75 years, from Caerphilly, South Wales. The overall prevalence of H pylori was 56.9%, increasing sharply in middle age from 29.8% in those aged 30-34 to over 59% in those aged 45 or older (p less than 0.0001). Age standardised seroprevalence rates were lowest in combined social class categories I and II (49.2%), intermediate in categories IIIN and M (57.5%), and highest in categories IV and V (62.2%) (p = 0.01). In those aged 30-34 years, the prevalence rate for those in combined social class categories IV and V was 57.9% - double the rate for social class categories IIIM and N (28.3%) and five times the prevalence rate in those in social class categories I and II (11.1%). These differences in the infection patterns of H pylori by social class are consistent with patterns of peptic ulcer disease and gastric cancer.

Cerebral palsy: social class differences in prevalence in relation to birthweight and severity of disability.

The aim of the study was to examine the possible influence of social class on the prevalence of cerebral palsy. The study was a retrospective population based survey of all cases of cerebral palsy. The study involved all cases of cerebral palsy born to residents in the Eastern Health Board area of the Republic of Ireland between 1976 and 1981 inclusive. There were 289 cases of cerebral palsy during the study period. Thirty one were excluded because they were attributable to postneonatal brain damage, leaving 258 children for analysis. Cases with uncertain diagnosis were excluded. There was a clear social class gradient in the overall prevalence of cerebral palsy, also evident in the individual syndromes of hemiplegia and diplegia. No such gradient was detected in the other syndromes, either singly or in combination. Among cases of low birthweight (less than or equal to 2500 g), the prevalence was the same across the social class range after allowing for the increased low birthweight rate in the lower social class categories. Among normal birthweight cases there was a strong positive association with decreasing social class. Intrauterine growth retardation seemed to be a factor in cerebral palsy in all social class groups. Prevalence of cerebral palsy severe enough to prevent walking by the fourth birthday, but not of cases ambulant by this age, increased with socioeconomic disadvantage. The clear social class gradients in hemiplegia and diplegia suggest that environmental factors play an important role in the aetiology of these syndromes, but there was no evidence of a contribution from this type of factor in the remaining types of cerebral palsy.

The Operationalisation of Class in British Sociology: Theoretical and Empirical Considerations

This research note is a contribution to an important on-going debate in British sociology on the operationalisation of class. A comprehensive framework is proposed based on three interrelated choices. All three choices have both theoretical and empirical elements. First, researchers must choose which conceptual scheme to employ conventional occupational class or neo-Marxist social class categories. Second, what is to be the unit of analysis the respondent or the household? Third, what is to be the degree of coverage? whether or not to include the economically inactive. Consideration of all three choices is followed by a discussion of their interrelations and consequences. We suggest an extended version of Erikson's solution which incorporates not only the unit of analysis decision but also the degree of coverage decision. Thus a respondent based measure covering the economically active only is appropriate for studies of production behaviour and attitudes (work position). Alternatively, a household based measure inclusive of the economically inactive is appropriate for studies of consumption behaviour and attitudes (market or class position). Acceptance of the extended Erikson solution leaves only the choice of conceptual scheme. Our indicated preference is for social class on both theoretical and empirical grounds. Finally, we recommend several ways of improving the quality of datasets with regard to the problem of operationalising class. During recent years a lively and important debate has developed in British sociology concerning the operationalisation of class, arguably the most central concept in the discipline. So far the debate has fragmented theoretical considerations and the empirical appraisal of them. Thus neo-Marxists have revived the issue of social versus occupational class and feminists have stimulated discussion of the Thc British Journal of Sociology Volumc XXXVIII Number 4 This content downloaded from 207.46.13.128 on Tue, 06 Sep 2016 06:14:46 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 446 Vic Duke and Stephen Edgell unit of class analysis. In addition, contributions to both these and related issues have tended to ignore each other at the empirical level. As part of a wider research project concerned with changes in the social and political effects of the public expenditure cuts in Britain (Edgell and Duke 1981 and 1985), we have considered the relative advantages and disadvantages of various ways of operationalising class. Qur investigations to date suggest that in order to operationalise class, researchers need to make three interrelated fundamental choices. At the theoretical level each choice involves both conceptual and technical considerations (see Figure I). The first choice is which conceptual scheme (and, by implication, theoretical framework) to employ, i.e. conventional occupational class or neo-Marxist social class. The second and third choices concern to whom the class categories should be applied. This entails two linked but distinct decisions: (a) should the unit of class anaysis be the respondent/individual or the household/family?; and (b) what is to be the degree of coverage of the population? In other words, should the classification be based solely upon the economically active respondents/household members or on all adult respondents/ household members? Each of these three key choices will be considered separately and in terms of their interrelationships. The purpose of this research note is to provide a comprehensive and integrated account of all the issues that are relevant to both theoretical and empirical levels of analysis. Inevitably the choices prove to be not as simply dichotomous as they have appeared in the ongoing debate of the operationalisation of class in British sociology. I THE CONCEPTUAL SCHEME: OCCUPATIONAL CLASS VERSUS SOCIAL

Changes in Sex Differences in Scottish Examination Results since 1976

This study describes trends in the size and distribution of sex differences between Scottish secondary pupils in their national certificate examination results between 1976 and 1984. It also examines the relationship between sex differences and social class, and between sex differences and geographical location. We employ data from the Scottish School Leavers Surveys which describe three nationally representative samples of pupils who left school in 1976, 1980, and 1984. The findings show that ten years ago there was no sex difference in overall examination attainment, but by 1984 there was a considerable female advantage. The female advantage in English increased between 1976 and 1984, and the gap in arithmetic, which previously favored males, no longer remained in 1984. The findings also show that social-class inequality far outweighs sex inequality: differences between pupils in the top and bottom social-class categories in their mean levels of performance were about 1.25 to 1.5 standard deviations, compared with sex differences, which at most were about .25 of a standard deviation. The performance of working-class pupils relative to middle-class pupils improved over the eight-year period; however, the study did not lend support to theories that hypothesize sex differences are larger for either high or low social-class pupils. The study suggests that differences in the local opportunity structure may be a determining factor of sex inequality: in rural areas the attainment and achievement scores of males were considerably below the national average. Rural females, who had worse employment prospects at the end of fourth year, remained at school longer, had better examination results, and had higher rates of entry into post-secondary institutions than their male peers.