The sociology of aging draws on a broad array of theoretical perspectives and social theories from several disciplines, but rarely has it developed its own theories or theoretical perspectives. We build on past work to further advance and empirically test a model of mental health framed in terms of structural theorizing and situated within the…

Previous research on China's labor market gender gaps has emphasized the human and political capital disadvantages of women and new discrimination in the reform era. Analyzing the China Urban Labor Survey/China Adult Literacy Survey, this paper shows that while women are significantly disadvantaged by various measures of human and political…

The literature on the black middle class has focused predominantly on married-couple families with children, reflecting a conception of the black middle class as principally composed of this family type. If that conception is correct, then declining rates of marriage and childrearing would imply a decline in the presence and vitality of the black…

A key challenge facing western welfare states is that they offset income risks faced by those in breadwinner families. Social Security is an excellent example. It best protects individuals with lengthy work histories or individuals who get married, stay married, and are never employed. Most women fit neither model. Thus, I analyze…

Multivariate hazards regression analysis of data from the 1979-85 National Longitudinal Mortality Study provided mixed results concerning the social integration hypothesis of suicide. Among white males, divorced or separated men and those living alone had significantly higher risks of suicide mortality, but single and widowed men did not have…