Research has found that "internal" or personal attributions about the causes of problem drinking increase the likelihood of seeking treatment and treatment efficacy, while "external" attributions, such as environmental, social or cultural causations, may hinder treatment efforts. Results of survey data from a sample of 152 US college students found three main causation belief factors; Social, Personal, and Biological. These factors were differentially associated with age, own heavy drinking, protestant religion, and exposure to problem drinkers. The "Social Cause" factor was the most strongly endorsed belief suggesting external, but surmountable attributions for problem drinking. Implications for treatment efficacy are discussed.

It is well established that Asian Americans are fairly represented in professional occupations due to their high educational attainment. However, the representation of Asian Americans in managerial occupations is still small. Despite the dramatic increase of Asian Americans as a percentage of the population in recent decades, not many studies have been conducted to investigate the association between immigrant settlement and occupational disparities in managerial occupations of Asian Americans by ethnicities as well as immigrant generations. In this paper, I examine the characteristics that influence Asian Americans who embark on managerial occupations as compared to other occupations by nativity and the length of their residence in the United States. I also compare trends of native-born Asian Americans with those of native-born non-Hispanic whites to examine whether an occupational disparity has been approaching convergence.

College instructors, as a group, are more liberal than the general US population.  The causes and consequences of this incongruence have been the focus of a considerable amount of discourse.  However, little scholarly attention has been devoted to understanding if and how political ideologies shape students’ classroom experiences. We advance this area of inquiry by assessing empirically how sociology students’ perceived ideological distance from graduate student instructors affects multiple outcomes, ranging from classroom behaviors to course evaluations.  Our findings suggest that students’ perceptions of political ideological distance from their instructors, regardless of the direction of that distance, negatively affect seven out of the eight outcomes we evaluate. We submit that shared concerns about student learning should prompt increased scholarly attention to the role of political ideologies in the college classroom. 

On May 8th, 2012, North Carolina voters passed a constitutional amendment that officially banned same sex marriage.  Whereas statewide the amendment was supported by 61% of North Carolina voters, there was a 67% range in variance of support for the amendment among North Carolina counties.   This paper examines the large variance regarding the state amendment vote, among North Carolina's 100 counties.  Controlling for percent of county residents with a bachelor’s or greater degree had an enormous effect in diminished support for the amendment while age, race and urban demographics were weaker and capricious measures in understanding the county variance of the Amendment One vote.

The homeownership rate in the US reached an all-time high of 69.2 percent by 2006, attributed to factors like favorable mortgage lending practice, economic boom, and incentive policies. The recent subprime mortgage crisis and economic recession, however, widened the gap in homeownership between racial minorities and whites. A sharp drop in housing price also posed a threat to the amount of equity one could accumulate. In this paper, we examined how the changing economy and both structural and individual-level factors affected the racial disparities in homeownership and home equity, using the 2005 and 2009 American Housing Survey national data. The major finding was that the economic recession affected Blacks the most, followed by Hispanics.  Asians, though showing a decline in their home equity, were able to maintain their advantages in the housing market.

Using the Internet has become an essential part of many people's daily life activities. In this information age, the Internet is an indispensible tool for communicating and sharing of information. This transformation of technological incorporation into every aspect of social life has been relatively swift, although not all-inclusive. Lack of access to the Internet produces and perpetuates social inequality. In this paper we present results of a unique data set compiled from six studies conducted across twelve years in the state of North Carolina. Our results show differences in home access to the Internet are associated with various aspects of social stratification. The findings reveal that digital divide persists over time. At least one quarter of respondents with one or more of the following sociodemographic characteristics reported not having home Internet access: African Americans, those with only a high school degree or less, those without school-age children in the home, those with a household income less than $30,000, people age 69 years and older, and rural residents. Future research and policy recommendations are provided. 

This study develops a framework for systematic examination of information and communication technologies (ICTs) usage differences within a group. This framework situates the digital divide and digital inequalities model within a broader conceptual model of digital practice, exemplified by how groups of people use ICTs. I use nationally representative data to examine online activities on social networking sites (SNS) for African Americans and other ethnoracial groups.  The data for this research comes from the Pew Internet and American Life’s “Spring Tracking Survey 2008”. The results from regression analyses support the digital practice framework which moves discussions of ICT usage beyond social and economic advantages or disadvantages, and addresses individual and group needs in using these technologies.

This research explores how typical college students define the American Dream. The central components of the American Dream have persisted in American culture over the course of the last two centuries. Adams defined the American Dream as "that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement…regardless of [circumstances at birth]."  More recently in national polls about the American Dream, Anderson Robbins Research  found that happiness was more highly valued than material gain, and Hanson and Zogby report that many Americans feel that the American Dream is more about spiritual happiness than material goods. However, this research explores how typical college students define the American Dream.   This article also features a PowerPoint presentation illustrating the written text.

Upon arrival in a host country with considerable ethnic diversity, such as the United States, immigrants are frequently confronted with various different perceptions of local, ethnic, and racial categories and identities. Living in the United States often challenges immigrants to reconsider, modify, or reconstruct their previous identities. This has happened, for example, to Eastern and Southern European immigrants in the late 1800s and early 1900s, and more recently to Korean, Filipino, Mexican and African immigrants from Ghana and Cape Verde, who all have had to reinterpret their identities upon arrival in the United States. Many new immigrants start thinking about themselves in ethnic terms for the first time and (re)discover their ethnicity. Through 20 in-depth interviews with Hungarian immigrants this study explores ethnic identity construction among Hungarians in the United States.

Saundra Westervelt and Kimberly Cook have done a great service by asking this question and by exploring the multiple dimensions of tragedy, irony, paradox, and pain that confront those wrongfully convicted of crimes, confronted with death row, and later found to be innocent.  These are, of course, the "lucky ones" -- the mistakes associated with their wrongful convictions were discovered.  But how lucky are they?  All struggle with multiple concerns, practical, social, and psychological.

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