Suchergebnisse

Cultural and institutional context has the potential to moderate life course patterns of social interaction and network connectivity, yet few have attempted to empirically assess this claim. Contrasting collectivist versus individualistic cultural traditions, as well as socialist versus capitalist institutions, we develop and test a set of propositions regarding age-based variation in daily contact, occupational connections, and organizational memberships in China, Taiwan, and the United States. Analyses from cross-sectional survey data reveal how the cultural and institutional differences help structure access to social capital across age. Specifically, the data show how social capital accumulation in the individualistic societies is facilitated by employment and civic institutions, whereas family institutions form the basis for social capital accumulation in collectivist societies.

Despite the prominence of teaching in academia, we know little about how graduate students learn to teach. We propose the concept of a teaching community network (TCN), an informal social network that facilitates the exchange of teaching-specific resources. We explore the role of TCNs through a case study of a sociology doctoral program at a large state university. Results reveal that students rely heavily on informal ties within the graduate student community and existing formal programs to share teaching-related resources (e.g., information and social support) and develop their identities as instructors. We suggest that graduate programs facilitate TCNs through formal teacher-training programs and structural conditions that encourage informal, one-on-one interactions (e.g., shared offices). By cultivating TCNs, graduate programs can assist students in developing their teaching skills and identities as instructors, thus training students to balance the demands of research and teaching within an academic culture.

Abstract
Intervention efforts include social support as a mechanism to promote well-being in diverse communities. Cultivating support can be complex, particularly in disadvantaged urban communities. This complexity is compounded by a lack of studies that attempt to map associations between urban neighborhood environments and social support exchanges. Authors address this gap by analyzing data from the Healthy Aging in Neighborhoods of Diversity across the Life Span study (Wave 1, 2004–2009), a 20-year epidemiological investigation of African American and White adults living in Baltimore City. Results of ordinary least squares linear regression models (N = 2,002) indicate that individuals who report that their neighborhoods have more social resources (p = .03), social order (p < .001), social cohesion (p = .002), and social control (p = .001) tend to exchange more social support. Respondents in neighborhoods with more social disorder report providing more support (p = .02), but receive less (p = .004). Neighborhood social environment is more consistently associated with support received from friends or other kin compared with spouses and children. These findings suggest that neighborhood social environments may be a key contextual consideration for social work intervention efforts and indicate need for macro-level interventions to complement existing micro-level interventions.