Editorial Board:

Editor:
George H. Conklin,
 North Carolina
 Central University


Board:
Richard Dixon,
 UNC-Wilmington


Chien Ju Huang,
 North Carolina
 Central University


Ken Land,
 Duke University


Miles Simpson,
 North Carolina
 Central University


Ron Wimberley,
 N.C. State University


Robert Wortham,
 North Carolina
 Central University

      

® 
Volume 1, Number 2 
Fall 2003 

Special Issue on Poverty and Its Consequences

Outline of Articles

1.  In Search of the Null:  The NCSA 2003 Presidential Address

 by Beth Davison, NCSA President

Sociologists usually publish articles where the results show statistically significant differences between two groups of people.   Results which show the opposite are generally called 'negative findings,' and are not considered publishable.  Davison  argues that we really ought to be looking for and encouraging the null finding,  especially when social inequality and poverty are the issue.  In addition, society as a whole should be working to eliminate poverty and inequality.

 
2. Power in North Carolina Parents:  Is There a Relationship Between Family Structure and Adolescent Self-Efficacy?

 by Angela Lewellyn Jones and Stephen N. Jolly 
Jones and Jolly publish here a null finding, namely that there is zero relationship between  family structure and adolescent self-efficacy.  However, they do find there is a negative relationship between self-efficacy and income.  Low income persons have higher levels of stress than those of higher incomes.  The good news in this study is that the correlation between income and self-efficacy is weak. 
 
3. The Attitude of AFDC Recipients Towards Work

 by Lyndelia Burch Wynn

Welfare reform was based heavily on the notion that the poor simply did not have good work  values.  In this study Wynn finds the null: that welfare recipients have very positive attitudes towards work, but lack opportunities.  Poverty can be thought of as structural, for as long as jobs exist which do not pay very well and do not provide medical benefits needed by many people on AFDC, commitment to work alone does not pay the bills.  The issue is one of structure of the economy, since poor people do not have values different from majority.  (See also the book review below).

 
4. U.S. Poverty in Space and Time: Its Persistence in the South

  by Ronald C. Wimberley and Libby V. Morris

Poverty in the United States is not randomly distributed across the country in an even or fairly even pattern.  As mapped by the authors, places with the worst poverty levels tend to cluster together in areas of persistent poverty.  The authors point out that welfare reforms, whether they work or not, will have important implications for the South and Appalachia. 
• View 1990 Maps of Education and Poverty in the United States
• View Maps of Education and Poverty in Eastern North Carolina
5. Land Loss and Poverty in North Carolina: A Research Report Review

A review of a research report  by Bob Edwards and Anthony Ladd from an earlier Sociation posting, reprinted here.

Large hog farms in North Carolina tend to be placed where opposition to them will be weakest.  The results, however, are quite complex and for the white population farm loss is positively associated with rising incomes, suggesting once again that farming is not a way out of poverty.

    
6. A Book Review of Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America by Barbara Ehrenreich 

by M. Graham Spann

Ehrenreich points out from a journalistic perspective how people who fill the low-paid jobs created in the economy have to struggle to get by.  Regardless of work values, a low income means difficult choices have to be made.  One can work just as hard at an entry-level job as a highly-paid job.  In fact, the author thinks, work at the entry level may be the hardest society has to offer. 

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