This paper examines the surprising case of women who "come out as fat" to test and refine theories about social change, social mobilization, stigma, and stigma resistance. First, supporting theories about "social movement spillover," we find that overlapping memberships in queer and fat activist groups, as well as networks between these groups,…

Gender is one of the primary organizers of social life. Given this importance, gender has been studied from multiple vantages, including biological, sociocognitive, interpersonal, network, and institutional perspectives. The diversity of these approaches illustrates the complex nature of gender as a multilevel social construction and that the…

Modern societies are highly differentiated, with relatively uncorrelated socially salient dimensions and a preponderance of weak, unidimensional (as opposed to strong, multiplex) ties. What are the implications of a society with fewer strong ties and more weak ties for the self? What do these changes mean for our emotional experience in everyday…

This study examines and extends the confluence model of age identity by testing whether young people's self-perceptions as adults are linked to role transitions, self-assessed personal qualities, and social location. We propose that young people's sense of adulthood and the factors associated with it vary based on socially structured experience…

In this study we investigated whether the content of race socialization messages varied by birth cohort, using data from a national probability sample. Most respondents recalled receiving messages about what it means to be black from their parents or guardians; these messages were coded into five mutually exclusive content categories: individual…

Change is examined in life goals, occupational values, and achievement orientations of 5,600 high school seniors from the same 17 Wisconsin high schools in 1964 and 1975. Change is seen in the intensification of feminine patterns consistent with changes in society and in higher female achievement orientation. (Author/MH)

The aim of this study was to examine evaluations of multiple groups by both ethnic majority-group (Dutch) and minority-group (Turkish-Dutch) members during a turbulent political period in the Netherlands, marked by the rapid rise and subsequent decline of a new-rightist, populist movement. The analysis of cross-sectional data from three periods…

I develop a theoretical framework explaining how community social context affects attitude formation via nonfamily institutions and related behaviors. Empirical tests of the framework use data from a study of the Chitwan Valley in rural Nepal. The analyses focus on attitudes toward seven aspects of marriage: child marriage, arranged marriage,…