Suchergebnisse

Characteristics of family life described by Middletown high school students in 1924 & reported by Robert S. & Helen Merrel Lynd (Middletown: A Study in American Culture & Middletown in Transition: A Study in Cultural Conflicts New York: Harcourt, Brace, & World, 1929 & 1937 respectively) are contrasted with data from 999 sophomore, junior, & senior students who in 1977 completed a questionnaire containing many of the Lynds' original items. Compared to the 1924 students, the 1977 students were more apt to earn their own spending money, less apt to receive their sex education from their parents, & females were more likely to spend evenings away from home. Changes in definitions of women's roles are apparent in the findings that students' respect for homemaking skills as a desirable characteristic of mothers has declined. The most marked changes in desired parental characteristics over the 50-year period was an increase in the proportion of students identifying parental respect for children's opinions as important. Analysis of reported topics of disagreements suggest that the generation gap in 1977 is no wider than it was in 1924. There is evidence of a continuing attenuation of certain family functions, & an enhancement of others. The continued impact of modernization upon the family ties of Middletown's young people is most apparent in young women, & is such that many of the male-female differences apparent in 1924 have now disappeared. 5 Tables. AA.

Occup'al mobility patterns of 66 men living on New York City's Bowery are analyzed in an attempt to illuminate a relatively neglected area of occup'al sociol, the study of worklife mobility among the unskilled. Detailed occup'al histories of a random sample of lodgers in Bowery hotels were gathered in 1965. Using O. Duncan's SE Index, lifetime mobility profiles were prepared for each man. The worklife mobility of these Bowery R's is similar to that of men living on Chicago's skid row, although Bowery R's tend to have more stable worklives & the 'typical' skid-row patterns described by D. J. Bogue do not fit any sizeable proportion of them. Most Bowery R's have not 'skidded' very far, having spent their entire worklives in Ls employment. Among those who have histories of downward mobility, personal problems such as illness, fam break-up, or heavy drinking are associated with their loss of status. AA.