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Editor:
Tonya Allen
allen@pop.psu.edu
PRInformation
Spring 2004
New External Research Funding
Love It and Leave It? The Consequences of Educational and Career Aspirations and Attainment Among Youth in Rural Pennsylvania
Dr. Anastasia Snyder, assistant professor of rural sociology and demography, Dr. Diane K. McLaughlin, associate professor of rural sociology and demography, and Dr. Leif Jensen, director, Population Research Institute and professor of rural sociology and demography, received funding from the Center for Rural Pennsylvania to examine the educational and career aspirations and attainment of youth in rural Pennsylvania.
Management Information System: A Hiring and Termination Reporting System for Direct Care Workers in Long Term Care Facilities
Dr. David R. Johnson, director, Survey Research Center and professor of sociology, human development and family studies and demography, received funding from The Institute for the Future of Aging Services/American Association of Homes and Services for the Aging and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to develop a web-based hiring and turnover information system that will be used to keep track of employee turnover of providers in the five states that are part of the Better Jobs Better Care project.
The North Orkney Population History Project
Dr. Patricia L. Johnson, associate professor of anthropology, women's studies and demography, and Dr. James W. Wood, professor of anthropology and demography, have received a 3-year NSF REU grant for The North Orkney Population History Project. This project will reconstruct changes in population, settlement, and landscape use over the past c. 300 years on the islands of Westray and Papa Westray (Papay), two of the northernmost of the Orkney Islands located off the northern tip of Scotland. The project, which combines elements of historical demography, ethnology, and archaeology, aims to link demographic information from censuses, vital registers, and cemetery headstones to a large-scale GIS database that maps old farm buildings and field systems onto environmental features such as soil types, water sources, elevation, surface drainage, common grazing lands, and sites providing access to marine resources.
Public Opinion and Policy Responsiveness in Small Electorates: Institutions and Spending in American School Districts
Dr. Eric Plutzer, associate professor of political science and sociology, with co-P.I. Dr. Michael Berkman, associate professor of political science, received funding from the National Science Foundation to investigate spending outcomes in America's school districts, specifically, how much actual spending levels correspond to local preferences (after controlling for economic resources). The project will examine how the correspondence between local educational spending levels and citizen preferences varies by three aspects of institutional design: fiscal independence, referendum requirements, and rules of electoral representation. A key methodological contribution of the project is in the estimation of public opinion for small areas such as counties and school districts.
Race, Friendship, Tracking, Aspirations and Achievement
Dr. George Farkas, professor of sociology, demography, and education, received funding from the Spencer Foundation to use newly available data to study whether, and if so, how, school context, particularly school racial composition and same- and cross-race friendship networks, affect student aspirations and achievement. This research will use school transcript data recently added to the Add Health data set by Chandra Muller and her colleagues at the University of Texas - Austin. Dr. Farkas will be collaborating closely with the research group at UT-Austin.
The Women's Employment Survey: Qualitative Supplement
Rukmalie Jayakody, associate professor of human development and family studies and demography, received funding from the Ford Foundation to add a qualitative supplement to an existing panel survey of current and former welfare recipients that focuses on their perceptions regarding work and family issues. Qualitative respondents will all be participants in the Women's Employment Study (WES), a nationally recognized panel survey of current and former welfare recipients, the majority of whom have transitioned off welfare and into employment and many of whom have married or entered cohabiting relationships. Semi-structured qualitative interviews with approximately 60 respondents will collect information about how women navigate the low-wage labor market, and how they make family formation decisions.
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