N. Davis

SOC 100

COMPUTER PROJECT 4: AMERICAN LIVING ARRANGEMENTS

Due in class on Monday November 18

General Instructions: Make sure that you label on your StudentChip tables the question(s) it goes with, the directory/filename that the table came from, and the sample the table refers to (e.g., American men age 25). Staple all of your work together.

1. Dramatic changes have occurred in the last 40 years in the living arrangements of American adults. Limit your sample to Americans ages 25+ and combine the marital status categories "divorced" and "separated" (CenTrend/Marr5090). Construct a pie chart that shows the marital status distribution of the U.S. population in 1950. Construct a second pie chart that shows this distribution in 1990. 8 pts.

2. Examine the trends in marital status between 1950 and 1990 for African-Americans (CenTrend/Marr5090). Which marital status group has experienced the most dramatic growth in this period? Are the trends as striking for non-blacks? 6 pts.

3. Poverty in the U.S. is especially concentrated among young household heads and their children. Examine households headed by 15-24 year olds in 1990 (Cen1990/HHolds9). How much does it matter if a young family household is headed by a married couple (MrrdCp) versus by a woman (FemlFa) in terms of its likelihood of being poor? Looking at your StudentChip table, does the poverty of young female-headed families seem to be primarily because those families are headed by a single adult or because they're headed by a woman? 6 pts.

% poor among female-headed families ________

% poor among married-couple families _______

4. Unmarried couples living together has increased in the last forty years. Which group of American women--the never-married, divorced, separated. or widowed--have the highest rates of cohabitation relative to their proportion in the population? (Cen1990/Cohab9-F and Cen1990/Marital9). Why do you think this is? 6 pts.

Marital status group: _______________ % of cohabitors from this group________%

5. Using the file Cen1990/MarEd9 from the 1990 U.S. Census, limit your sample to Americans ages 25+ who have been married at some point in their life. Does education affect the likelihood that such a person is currently married? Write a paragraph that explores the reasons for this relationship between education and the likelihood of being currently married. 12 pts.

6. Historically in the U.S., miscegenation laws existed that prevented marriage across racial lines. These laws have since been declared unconstitutional. Examine married men ages 15+ in 1990 to determine the extent of intra- and inter-racial marriage among these men. Use the variables HRaceLat (husband's race) and WRaceLat (wife's race) on the file Cen1990/SpRac9-H. Print a frequency table that shows husband's race by wife's race. Add up the appropriate frequencies to fill in the "Number" column in the table below. From these numbers, calculate the percent of married men who are in intra-racial marriages and the percent who are in inter-racial marriages and put these percents in the table below. (Hint: The total number of married men in the sample is shown after "N =" in the line below "Total." 6 pts.

HUSBANDS AGE 15+

______________________________________________________________________________

Number Percent

In intra-racial (same race) marriages _______ ____

In inter-racial (different race) marriages _______ ____

______________________________________________________________________________

_________ 100%

7. Are younger men more likely to marry outside their race than older men? For this question, skip the racial category "NLOther" on the HRaceLat and the WRaceLat variables. Print a table for 15-24 year old husbands and another one for 55+ year old husbands that shows the racial distribution of wives for each racial group of husbands. For example, for Asian husbands, your table will show the percent who are married to non-Latin white women, the percent married to black women, the percent married to Latinas, and the percent married to Asian women. Summarize the results of your tables. 6 pts.

8. Examining your StudentChip table for 15-24 year old husbands, fill in the appropriate percents in the table below: Write a paragraph elaborating on the factors likely to account for the racial differences in the extend of inter-racial marriage.

12 pts.

PERCENT WHO HAVE MARRIED OUTSIDE THEIR RACE:

Husbands Ages 15-24 in 1990

Asian husbands _____%

Latino husbands _____%

Black husbands ______%

Non-Latin white husbands ______%

9. Which race are young Asian, Black, and Latino men most likely to marry into (excluding their own racial group)? In a paragraph, elaborate on the factors that are likely to explain why this is. 10 pts.

10. Homogamy refers to marriage between people with similar characteristics. Examine young husbands today, those ages 25-34 (Cen1990/SpEd9). Does educational homogamy prevail? Cite figures from your StudentChip table that support or refute the adage that if one wants to marry a college graduate, one needs to get a college degree oneself. 6 pts.

11. Write a paragraph that explores the reasons behind the patterns you found. What sorts of dynamics are likely to be operating? 10 pts.

12. Historically, most American men married women who were considerably younger than themselves. Using the 1990 Census file of twenty-five year old married men (Cen1990/SpAge9-YM), collapse the wife's age variable (WAge) into the following categories: < 24 years old, 24-26, and >26. Assume that 25 year old men whose wives are 24-26 have married age equals. Is it still the case that most American men marry women younger than themselves? ________ What percent do? __________% 6 pts

13. Focussing on these same twenty-five year old husbands, does their educational level affect the age of the woman they marry? Construct two pie charts, one that shows the age distribution of wives for men who are college graduates and the other showing the age distribution of wives for men who have less than a high school education. Again, you should have three categories for age of wife: <24, 24-26, and >26). What's the independent variable in your analysis? __________________________ 10 pts.

14. Write a paragraph that elaborates on likely reasons for the pattern that you found in question 13. Speculate on the reasons men may marry an age equal, a younger woman, or an older woman. What role might a man's educational level have in this? How might women's preferences play a role? 10 pts.