Gillian Stevens
Biographic Data
| ID | 3580940 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Gillian Stevens |
| GIVEN NAMES | Gillian |
| FAMILY NAME | Stevens |
| SIGNATURE | STEVENS G |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 38 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 544 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 38 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1980 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2019 |
| H-INDEX | 12 |
Maintaining one language while learning another: Moroccan children in Belgium
Whether children in migrant households maintain proficiency in their heritage language (HL) may affect their attachment to their cultural heritage, while the extent to which they acquire proficiency in the new language of their destination strongly conditions their success in the country’s educational and occupational institutions. In this paper, we investigate the extent to which children of Moroccan heritage living in Antwerp, Belgium maintain …
How Changes in Sending Countries Influenced Patterns of Interracial Families Through Intercountry Adoption
The racial characteristics of children adopted from abroad by American parents have fluctuated sharply over time in response to changing legislation and attitudes toward intercountry adoptions in the United States and the sending countries. This study investigates how the likelihood of parents adopting a White versus non-White child varies by the characteristics of the adopted child, the parents, and the household. Our analyses, using the 2008–20…
Diversity
In ecology, where the concept is most highly developed, the simplest description of “diversity” is the number of species living in a specific environment: the greater the number of species, the higher the level of diversity. When describing social phenomena, “diversity” generally refers to the distribution of units of analysis (e.g., people, students, families) in a specific social environment (e.g., workplace, classroom, state) along a dimension…
Diversity
The term diversity typically refers to variation in the ethnic or racial characteristics of people in a specific environment such as a neighborhood, a city, or a workplace setting. Low levels of racial and ethnic diversity in a given environment can imply discriminatory processes and require legal attention.
Trajectories of English Acquisition among Foreign-born Spanish-Language Children in the United States
The rapidity with which immigrant children learn the dominant language of their country of residence has important short-term and long-term consequences for their educational achievements and for their future. In this paper I use US Census data to model trajectories of English acquisition among foreign-born children living in Spanish-language households. The results show, as expected, that children's English proficiency increases with length of r…
Utility of telephone survey methods in population-based health studies of older adults: An example from the Alberta Older Adult Health Behavior (Alert) study
Older adults are willing to participate in telephone-based health surveys when randomly contacted. Researchers can use this information to evaluate the feasibility and the logistics of planned studies using a similar population and study design
Marrying into the American Population: Pathways into Cross-Nativity Marriages
Cross-nativity marriages have been a neglected dimension of intermarriage patterns in the U.S., although they provide a vehicle for the easy social and political integration of the foreign-born spouse and the couple's children. We first present U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service data to show that cross-nativity marriages are common among migrants entering the country and appear to be increasing over time. The following analyses based on 200…
Immigration, Internal Migration, and Local Mobility in the U.S
Who Arrived First? The Timing of Arrival among Young Immigrant Wives and Husbands
The strongest predictor of immigrants’ adaptation to the American context is the length of time that they have lived in the United States. Scholars often assume, however, that immediate members of foreign-born families, especially husbands and wives and their foreign-born children, all arrive in the US at the same time and thus have lived there for the same length of time. Using the 2000 US census data, we investigate this assumption and analyse …
The British Journal of Sociology in the 1980s: A Decade of Eclecticism
The 1980s was a time of eclecticism and transition in the styles of research articles published in the BJS. There were articles that could have been published in mainstream American sociology journals alongside articles that evoked a more critical stance in the European tradition. There was also a heavy dose of articles that relied on techniques or approaches from outside the boundaries of the discipline, while other articles moved the sphere of …
Intrafamilial adolescent sex offenders: Family functioning and treatment
This paper examines the families of intrafamilial adolescent sex offenders attending a community-based treatment program. Qualitative and quantitative data were used to measure family functioning before and after 12 months of treatment. Families were characterised as disorganised, uncommunicative and adversarial. Most of the young offenders, many of whom were themselves victims of abuse, came from step, blended or foster families. Seventy-four pe…
Variation Among Siblings in the Use of a Non–English Language
As the concept of “mother-tongue shift,” which explicitly compares the first languages learned and spoken by parents and their children, suggests, the language repertoires of family members may differ across generations. In this study, the authors consider the possibility that language repertoires differ within the same generation. The results, based on recent Current Population Survey data, first show that the language repertoires of siblings ar…
Immigration and Language
Languages are a means of communication, and provide access to cultural and social resources. The use of specific languages can also signify speakers' national and racial heritages. Because all but the very youngest migrants learn to speak in their country of origin, their language skills at the time of migration may not overlap with the language skills demanded in their country of destination. Any disparity between migrants' language skills and t…
Non-English language neighborhoods in Chicago, Illinois: 2000
Constructing Interracial Families Through Intercountry Adoption
Objective. This article analyzes the role of race and ethnicity in constructing American families through intercountry adoption. We argue that such adoptions illustrate the fluidity and tenacity of specific racial boundaries in American families. Methods. Data are drawn from the U.S. 2000 Census—the first to contain information on children's adoptive status—to examine whether race of parents and adopted children match and whether racial matching …
Short‐term Migration and the Acquisition of a World Language
English is spreading as a world language. Yet, the means — and the immediate consequences — through which English is spreading as a second language into largely monolingual populations are not fully understood. In this paper, we focus on a specific case: the learning of English as a second language among Koreans. We briefly discuss the background of the English language in Korea and the strong incentives for Koreans to learn English. We then prov…
The Age-Length-Onset Problem in Research on Second Language Acquisition Among Immigrants
Studies investigating the possible effects of age at immigration (a proxy for age at onset of second language learning) on second language acquisition among immigrants often explicitly take the effect of length of residence in the destination country (a measure of exposure to opportunities to learn the second language) into account. A third variable, age at testing, recently has caught the attention of some scholars. However, the three variables …
Assimilation Redux
A century of U.S. censuses and the language characteristics of immigrants
Since 1890, every U.S. census but one has asked about the language characteristics of the U.S. population. This almost uninterrupted data series, however, has been shaped by contemporaneous presumptions about the ties between language and ethnicity, the likelihood of proficiency in English among various subgroups, and practical constraints. I describe shifts across censuses in the phrasing of questions about language, the coding of responses, and…
Age at immigration and second language proficiency among foreign-born adults
Sociologists typically assume that immigrants' acquisition of English as a second language follows the opportunities and motivations to become proficient in English, while many linguists argue that second language acquisition may be governed by maturational constraints, possibly biologically based, that are tied to the age at onset of language learning. In this article, I use U.S. census data to investigate the relationship between age at onset o…
Israel's Changing Society: Population, Ethnicity, and Development
Immigration, Language, and Ethnicity: Canada and the United States
Nonmarital Pregnancies and Marriage in the United States
One important change in postwar American family-formation patterns has been a sharp decline in the probability that single women pregnant with their first child marry during their pregnancies and thus legitimate the birth. In this article we first discuss the social context surrounding this change. Our empirical analysis of four national cross-sectional fertility surveys covering the early 1950s through the late 1980s then documents the decreasin…
Spouses, Homogamy, and Social Networks
In this article, we investigate the factors predicting the inclusion and positioning of a particularly important family member in an American's discussion network: one's spouse. With data from the 1985 General Social Survey, we first investigate factors that underlie propensities among married Americans to include spouses as members of their discussion networks. We then investigate factors underlying their propensities to name their spouse as the…
The Social and Demographic Context of Language Use in the United States
In this study I investigate the relative frequency with which Americans with a non-English first language use English....The analysis...shows that a respondents characteristics--education age nativity length of residence in the United States if foreign born and marital status--strongly influence the relative frequency with which the childhood language is used vis-a-vis English. The analysis also shows that...the size and degree of geographic segr…
A revised socioeconomic index of occupational status
The Social and Demographic Context of Language Use in the United States
In this study I investigate the relative frequency with which Americans with a non-English first language use English....The analysis...shows that a respondents characteristics--education age nativity length of residence in the United States if foreign born and marital status--strongly influence the relative frequency with which the childhood language is used vis-a-vis English. The analysis also shows that...the size and degree of geographic segr…
Age at immigration and second language proficiency among foreign-born adults
Sociologists typically assume that immigrants' acquisition of English as a second language follows the opportunities and motivations to become proficient in English, while many linguists argue that second language acquisition may be governed by maturational constraints, possibly biologically based, that are tied to the age at onset of language learning. In this article, I use U.S. census data to investigate the relationship between age at onset o…
The Linguistic Context of Ethnic Endogamy
Because ethnic endogamy allows the transmission of unique cultural attributes to younger generations it is a necessary feature of the persistence of ethnic descent groups in the United States. Like other patterns of in-marriage levels of ethnic endogamy can be altered by characteristics of the demographic and social contexts in which marriages occur and are maintained. This study examines 2 important aspects of the demographic environment but its…
Nativity, Intermarriage, and Mother-Tongue Shift
This study is concerned with the process of the continuation of unique language among native-born generations of immigrants in the United States. author examines changes in language between generations in relation to linguistic and ethnic intermarriage. The analysis based on 1976 Survey of Income and Education data shows that non-English languages disappear between generations as patterns of social interaction widen to include intimate associatio…
Socioeconomic indexes and the new 1980 census occupational classification scheme
Occupational prestige and the 1980 U.S. labor force
Constructing Interracial Families Through Intercountry Adoption
Objective. This article analyzes the role of race and ethnicity in constructing American families through intercountry adoption. We argue that such adoptions illustrate the fluidity and tenacity of specific racial boundaries in American families. Methods. Data are drawn from the U.S. 2000 Census—the first to contain information on children's adoptive status—to examine whether race of parents and adopted children match and whether racial matching …
Linguistic Intermarriage in the United States
Linguistic homogamy allows the transmission of a couples non-English language to the younger generation and thus plays a key role in the persistence of non-English language groups in the US. Like other kinds of assortative marriage linguistic homogamy is influenced by the prevailing demographic opportunities for people to meet and marry persons with similar language characteristics. This paper examines linguistic and educational marriage patterns…
Nonmarital Pregnancies and Marriage in the United States
One important change in postwar American family-formation patterns has been a sharp decline in the probability that single women pregnant with their first child marry during their pregnancies and thus legitimate the birth. In this article we first discuss the social context surrounding this change. Our empirical analysis of four national cross-sectional fertility surveys covering the early 1950s through the late 1980s then documents the decreasin…
Education and Attractiveness in Marriage Choices
between the brides' and the grooms' educational attainments and between their levels of attractiveness. After controlling for people's tendency to marry others with attributes similar to their own, however, the analysis shows that less attractive people are just as likely as more attractive people to have highly educated spouses. In particular, more attractive women are no more likely than less attractive women to have highly educated husbands. W…
Social Mobility and Fertility: Two Effects in One
Sudman, Seymour and Norman Bradburn 1974 Response Effects in Surveys. Chicago: Aldine. Swafford, Michael 1980 Three parametric techniques for contingency table analysis: a nontechnical commentary. American Sociological Review 45:664-90. Taylor, Garth 1980 Procedures for evaluating trends in public opinion. Public Opinion Quarterly:86-100. Taylor, Garth, Paul B. Sheatsley, and Andrew M. Greeley 1978 Attitudes toward desegregation. Scientific Ameri…
The Age-Length-Onset Problem in Research on Second Language Acquisition Among Immigrants
Studies investigating the possible effects of age at immigration (a proxy for age at onset of second language learning) on second language acquisition among immigrants often explicitly take the effect of length of residence in the destination country (a measure of exposure to opportunities to learn the second language) into account. A third variable, age at testing, recently has caught the attention of some scholars. However, the three variables …
Marrying into the American Population: Pathways into Cross-Nativity Marriages
Cross-nativity marriages have been a neglected dimension of intermarriage patterns in the U.S., although they provide a vehicle for the easy social and political integration of the foreign-born spouse and the couple's children. We first present U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service data to show that cross-nativity marriages are common among migrants entering the country and appear to be increasing over time. The following analyses based on 200…
A century of U.S. censuses and the language characteristics of immigrants
Since 1890, every U.S. census but one has asked about the language characteristics of the U.S. population. This almost uninterrupted data series, however, has been shaped by contemporaneous presumptions about the ties between language and ethnicity, the likelihood of proficiency in English among various subgroups, and practical constraints. I describe shifts across censuses in the phrasing of questions about language, the coding of responses, and…
Variation Among Siblings in the Use of a Non–English Language
As the concept of “mother-tongue shift,” which explicitly compares the first languages learned and spoken by parents and their children, suggests, the language repertoires of family members may differ across generations. In this study, the authors consider the possibility that language repertoires differ within the same generation. The results, based on recent Current Population Survey data, first show that the language repertoires of siblings ar…
Non-English language neighborhoods in Chicago, Illinois: 2000
Propinquity and educational homogamy
Spouses, Homogamy, and Social Networks
In this article, we investigate the factors predicting the inclusion and positioning of a particularly important family member in an American's discussion network: one's spouse. With data from the 1985 General Social Survey, we first investigate factors that underlie propensities among married Americans to include spouses as members of their discussion networks. We then investigate factors underlying their propensities to name their spouse as the…
Who Arrived First? The Timing of Arrival among Young Immigrant Wives and Husbands
The strongest predictor of immigrants’ adaptation to the American context is the length of time that they have lived in the United States. Scholars often assume, however, that immediate members of foreign-born families, especially husbands and wives and their foreign-born children, all arrive in the US at the same time and thus have lived there for the same length of time. Using the 2000 US census data, we investigate this assumption and analyse …
Short‐term Migration and the Acquisition of a World Language
English is spreading as a world language. Yet, the means — and the immediate consequences — through which English is spreading as a second language into largely monolingual populations are not fully understood. In this paper, we focus on a specific case: the learning of English as a second language among Koreans. We briefly discuss the background of the English language in Korea and the strong incentives for Koreans to learn English. We then prov…
Sex-Differentiated Patterns of Intergenerational Occupational Mobility
Previous research on men's and women's intergenerational occupational mobility patterns has focused on only one pattern of possible sex differences: differences by sex in the influences of father's occupational characteristics. Thus general conclusions of few differences by sex in patterns of intergenerational occupational mobility are premature. In this study, five possible sex-differentiated patterns of intergenerational mobility are proposed a…
Maintaining one language while learning another: Moroccan children in Belgium
Whether children in migrant households maintain proficiency in their heritage language (HL) may affect their attachment to their cultural heritage, while the extent to which they acquire proficiency in the new language of their destination strongly conditions their success in the country’s educational and occupational institutions. In this paper, we investigate the extent to which children of Moroccan heritage living in Antwerp, Belgium maintain …
Trajectories of English Acquisition among Foreign-born Spanish-Language Children in the United States
The rapidity with which immigrant children learn the dominant language of their country of residence has important short-term and long-term consequences for their educational achievements and for their future. In this paper I use US Census data to model trajectories of English acquisition among foreign-born children living in Spanish-language households. The results show, as expected, that children's English proficiency increases with length of r…
Intrafamilial adolescent sex offenders: Family functioning and treatment
This paper examines the families of intrafamilial adolescent sex offenders attending a community-based treatment program. Qualitative and quantitative data were used to measure family functioning before and after 12 months of treatment. Families were characterised as disorganised, uncommunicative and adversarial. Most of the young offenders, many of whom were themselves victims of abuse, came from step, blended or foster families. Seventy-four pe…
The Importance of Mother: Labor Force Participation and Intergenerational Mobility of Women
Previous research concerning the linkages between women's occupational origins and destinations has applied models developed for the study of men's intergenerational occupational mobility. In this paper, we use an approach that incorporates two unique aspects of women's occupational experiences. First, we consider housework to be a possible occupational outcome for women. Second, we consider the occupations of mothers as well as those of fathers …
A revised socioeconomic index of occupational status
Social Mobility and Fertility: Two Effects in One
Sudman, Seymour and Norman Bradburn 1974 Response Effects in Surveys. Chicago: Aldine. Swafford, Michael 1980 Three parametric techniques for contingency table analysis: a nontechnical commentary. American Sociological Review 45:664-90. Taylor, Garth 1980 Procedures for evaluating trends in public opinion. Public Opinion Quarterly:86-100. Taylor, Garth, Paul B. Sheatsley, and Andrew M. Greeley 1978 Attitudes toward desegregation. Scientific Ameri…
Population and Society: A Sociological Perspective
Socioeconomic indexes and the new 1980 census occupational classification scheme
Nativity, Intermarriage, and Mother-Tongue Shift
This study is concerned with the process of the continuation of unique language among native-born generations of immigrants in the United States. author examines changes in language between generations in relation to linguistic and ethnic intermarriage. The analysis based on 1976 Survey of Income and Education data shows that non-English languages disappear between generations as patterns of social interaction widen to include intimate associatio…
Sex-Differentiated Patterns of Intergenerational Occupational Mobility
Previous research on men's and women's intergenerational occupational mobility patterns has focused on only one pattern of possible sex differences: differences by sex in the influences of father's occupational characteristics. Thus general conclusions of few differences by sex in patterns of intergenerational occupational mobility are premature. In this study, five possible sex-differentiated patterns of intergenerational mobility are proposed a…
Occupational prestige and the 1980 U.S. labor force
The Linguistic Context of Ethnic Endogamy
Because ethnic endogamy allows the transmission of unique cultural attributes to younger generations it is a necessary feature of the persistence of ethnic descent groups in the United States. Like other patterns of in-marriage levels of ethnic endogamy can be altered by characteristics of the demographic and social contexts in which marriages occur and are maintained. This study examines 2 important aspects of the demographic environment but its…
Linguistic Intermarriage in the United States
Linguistic homogamy allows the transmission of a couples non-English language to the younger generation and thus plays a key role in the persistence of non-English language groups in the US. Like other kinds of assortative marriage linguistic homogamy is influenced by the prevailing demographic opportunities for people to meet and marry persons with similar language characteristics. This paper examines linguistic and educational marriage patterns…
Education and Attractiveness in Marriage Choices
between the brides' and the grooms' educational attainments and between their levels of attractiveness. After controlling for people's tendency to marry others with attributes similar to their own, however, the analysis shows that less attractive people are just as likely as more attractive people to have highly educated spouses. In particular, more attractive women are no more likely than less attractive women to have highly educated husbands. W…
Propinquity and educational homogamy
Ethnic Identity: The Transformation of White America
The Social and Demographic Context of Language Use in the United States
In this study I investigate the relative frequency with which Americans with a non-English first language use English....The analysis...shows that a respondents characteristics--education age nativity length of residence in the United States if foreign born and marital status--strongly influence the relative frequency with which the childhood language is used vis-a-vis English. The analysis also shows that...the size and degree of geographic segr…
Immigration, Language, and Ethnicity: Canada and the United States
Nonmarital Pregnancies and Marriage in the United States
One important change in postwar American family-formation patterns has been a sharp decline in the probability that single women pregnant with their first child marry during their pregnancies and thus legitimate the birth. In this article we first discuss the social context surrounding this change. Our empirical analysis of four national cross-sectional fertility surveys covering the early 1950s through the late 1980s then documents the decreasin…
Spouses, Homogamy, and Social Networks
In this article, we investigate the factors predicting the inclusion and positioning of a particularly important family member in an American's discussion network: one's spouse. With data from the 1985 General Social Survey, we first investigate factors that underlie propensities among married Americans to include spouses as members of their discussion networks. We then investigate factors underlying their propensities to name their spouse as the…
Israel's Changing Society: Population, Ethnicity, and Development
A century of U.S. censuses and the language characteristics of immigrants
Since 1890, every U.S. census but one has asked about the language characteristics of the U.S. population. This almost uninterrupted data series, however, has been shaped by contemporaneous presumptions about the ties between language and ethnicity, the likelihood of proficiency in English among various subgroups, and practical constraints. I describe shifts across censuses in the phrasing of questions about language, the coding of responses, and…
Age at immigration and second language proficiency among foreign-born adults
Sociologists typically assume that immigrants' acquisition of English as a second language follows the opportunities and motivations to become proficient in English, while many linguists argue that second language acquisition may be governed by maturational constraints, possibly biologically based, that are tied to the age at onset of language learning. In this article, I use U.S. census data to investigate the relationship between age at onset o…
Assimilation Redux
Constructing Interracial Families Through Intercountry Adoption
Objective. This article analyzes the role of race and ethnicity in constructing American families through intercountry adoption. We argue that such adoptions illustrate the fluidity and tenacity of specific racial boundaries in American families. Methods. Data are drawn from the U.S. 2000 Census—the first to contain information on children's adoptive status—to examine whether race of parents and adopted children match and whether racial matching …
Short‐term Migration and the Acquisition of a World Language
English is spreading as a world language. Yet, the means — and the immediate consequences — through which English is spreading as a second language into largely monolingual populations are not fully understood. In this paper, we focus on a specific case: the learning of English as a second language among Koreans. We briefly discuss the background of the English language in Korea and the strong incentives for Koreans to learn English. We then prov…
The Age-Length-Onset Problem in Research on Second Language Acquisition Among Immigrants
Studies investigating the possible effects of age at immigration (a proxy for age at onset of second language learning) on second language acquisition among immigrants often explicitly take the effect of length of residence in the destination country (a measure of exposure to opportunities to learn the second language) into account. A third variable, age at testing, recently has caught the attention of some scholars. However, the three variables …
Variation Among Siblings in the Use of a Non–English Language
As the concept of “mother-tongue shift,” which explicitly compares the first languages learned and spoken by parents and their children, suggests, the language repertoires of family members may differ across generations. In this study, the authors consider the possibility that language repertoires differ within the same generation. The results, based on recent Current Population Survey data, first show that the language repertoires of siblings ar…
Sociology (29 works) · Demography (21 works) · Psychology (19 works) · Population (18 works) · Political science (16 works) · Economics (15 works) · Demographic economics (14 works) · Demography (12 works) · Geography (11 works) · Linguistics (11 works)