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September 2000
Presenting…Research Notes
This is the first issue of Research
Notes, a summary of Princeton University
research, events and experts of interest to the
media and general public. This issue covers topics
of interest to your readers this fall, including
the Presidential campaign, education,
racial diversity, families, religion, the Olympics,
and a conference on race and film featuring
actress Halle Berry. A separate report on
science research soon will be available.
Research Notes is available on the
Internet at http://www.princeton.edu/pr/news.
For information, contact Marilyn Marks at (609)
258-5748 or mmarks@princeton.edu.
Research
Fragile families: Recent results from the
groundbreaking "Fragile Families and Child
Wellbeing" study shatter myths about unmarried
parents. Princeton researchers conclude that one
common perception -- that births to unwed parents
occur to couples who engage in casual sex and care
little about each other -- is false. Instead, the
study suggests that 82 percent of unmarried parents
are romantically involved when their children are
born, and 70 percent of the mothers believe they
stand a good chance of marrying the fathers.
Moreover, 81 percent of the mothers surveyed said
the father provided financial help during
pregnancy, and virtually all the fathers said they
wanted to be involved in raising their children. A
research brief is available at http://www.opr.princeton.edu/crcw/ff/briefs.html.
A new working paper in the "Fragile Families"
project, "Fathers Behind Bars: The Impact of
Incarceration on Family Formation," concludes that
the prison system is eroding the fabric of family
in poor minority communities by straining marital
and family relationships -- the very things that
tend to keep crime in check. "The American
experiment with mass incarceration may thus be a
self-defeating strategy for crime control," the
paper argues. "Without assistance for families
disrupted by incarceration, the negative social
effects of the penal system may aggravate the
problems it was designed to solve." Read the
working paper at http://opr.princeton.edu/crcw/working%20papers/
WP00-08-WesternMcL-FathersBehindBars.pdf.
Researchers in the "Fragile Families" project,
led by Professor Sara McLanahan, are following
about 4,700 new babies and their parents over four
years. The results will assist policymakers
concerned about children's and family issues,
including education, welfare, healthcare and child
support. For information, contact McLanahan at
(609) 258-4875 or mclanaha@princeton.edu;
or Cathie Sims at (609) 258-5894 or csims@princeton.edu.
Working men: In a book scheduled to be
published this fall, sociology Professor Michele
Lamont explores the worldview of working-class men
and finds it to be rich, coherent and replete with
lessons for those who inhabit the upper tiers of
society.
For her study, The Dignity of Working Men:
Morality and the Boundaries of Race, Class and
Immigration, Lamont interviewed 150 men in the
United States and France. The American men included
plumbers, electricians, truck drivers, and painters
-- members of the large and growing working class
that lacks the college education needed for upward
mobility.
With Lamont, these workers discussed their
values, their heroes and their attitudes toward
race, immigrants and those who hold the power and
wealth. She finds that the workers have a distinct
moral code focusing on personal integrity and
relationships, where how a man supports his family
and treats his friends is the crucial measure of
self-worth. Moral standards differed among black
and white workers, with whites focusing on
discipline and blacks centering on compassion.
"The blue-collar view of the upper class is that
it's often shallow," says Lamont. "We're told that
American workers are losers. In fact, many don't
think of themselves that way. They have alternative
interpretations, where self-actualization and
performance are not the center of everything."
Lamont's book is being published by Harvard
University Press and the Russell Sage Foundation.
She may be reached at (609) 258-453 or mlamont@princeton.edu.
Cinderella redux: Princeton researchers are
studying spending on children in stepfamilies --
and finding that children raised by stepmothers
lose out when it comes to spending on their basic
needs. The research does not support the myth of
the evil stepmother, but suggests that the complex
relationships in stepfamilies mean stepchildren are
likely to have less education, health care and
money spent on food than children raised by their
biological mothers.
In one paper, "Mothers and Others: Who Invests
in Children's Health?" economists Anne Case and
Christina Paxson found that children living with
stepmoms are less likely than other kids to have
routine healthcare or even a regular
pediatrician.
Living with a stepmother also affects health in
other ways, the researchers found, as these
children are less likely to wear seatbelts and more
likely to live with a cigarette smoker. "Who
invests in children's health? It appears these
investments are made, largely, by a child's mother,
and that stepmothers are not substitutes for birth
mothers in this domain," the paper concludes.
It's not just an matter of health spending. A
second paper by Case, sociologist Sara McLanahan
and research associate I-Fen Lin, "How Hungry is
the Selfish Gene?" concludes that households in
which a child is raised by a stepmother spend less
on food. And in a third study on education
spending, researchers found similar results.
For more information, contact Anne Case at (609)
258-2177. You can download "Mothers and Others"
at
http://www.wws.princeton.edu/~rpds/macarthur/downloads/step04292.pdf,
and "How Hungry is the Selfish Gene at
http://www.wws.princeton.edu/~rpds/macarthur/gene2000.PDF.
Salvation by diet: Last month, about 3,000
people -- nearly all of them white women --
attended the "Weigh-Down Workshop" in Nashville,
drawn by the promise that thinness is godliness.
Their guru is Gwen Shamblin, a thin, stylish woman
who is part corporate executive, part Southern
belle, and part evangelist who preaches, weeps and
consoles on stage. "She teaches that God's grace is
poured upon those who are disciplined and thin,
strengthening her message of bringing one's eating
entirely under God's control," says Marie Griffith,
associate director of Princeton's Center for the
Study of Religion.
Griffith is researching Shamblin's Weigh-Down
Workshop and similar groups in America's growing
religious diet movement as part of a project on
religion and body obsessions in American culture.
Most interesting, Griffith says, is that Shamblin
is turning her devotional weight loss program into
a much larger religious movement, calling for the
creation of churches across the country that would
follow the principles of disciplined submission to
authority -- God's and hers. "The people who
attended this meeting love Shamblin so much that
they may well join her, bringing about a new
revival movement in American evangelicalism,"
Griffith says.
Shamblin harshly criticizes mainstream
Christianity in what Griffith calls "one of the
most radical critiques since the Jesus Movement of
the 1960s," which spawned new churches and
denominations. Griffith, a specialist in
contemporary Christianity, has researched Christian
diet literature and related practices, such as
fasting, through American history. She believes
that religion has played an important role in the
cultural body fixations of our own time, including
eating disorders and compulsive attention to
fitness. She is working on a book called Body
Salvation: American Christianity and Disciplines of
the Flesh.
Phone Griffith at (609) 258-2281 or e-mail her
at griffith@princeton.edu.
Her review of Shamblin's latest book is at
http://www.beliefnet.com/story/8/story_836_1.html.
Smart subs: Princeton is participating in a
new, multi-institutional research project to create
a fleet of unmanned submarines that travel in
formation and navigate obstacles without outside
prompting. A "school" of autonomous underwater
vehicles could greatly improve ocean exploration --
searching for plumes of pollution or airplane
wreckage, for example.
Scientists hope the five-year project will yield
insights into an age-old problem in biology: How
does a group -- whether schools of fish, flocks of
birds or herds of land animals -- move in a
synchronized, seemingly intelligent way in the
absence of any apparent leadership? "We're going to
try to emulate their ability to take the relatively
dumb individuals and come up with a more
intelligent whole," says Princeton scientist Naomi
Leonard.
Researchers hope to develop about a dozen
vehicles to test in Princeton's swimming pool. In
one likely experiment, the scientists would place
an obstacle in front of the group and see whether
it can split in two, pass the obstacle on both
sides, and then come together again.
Leonard, a professor of mechanical and aerospace
engineering, may be reached at (609) 258-5129 or
naomi@princeton.edu.
For more information about this project and other
science research, contact Steven Schultz at (609)
258-3601 or sschultz@princeton.edu.
Experts
Presidential leadership: Fred Greenstein,
a nationally known political scientist and
Presidential scholar, is available to speak about
the personal qualities needed to be an effective
president. Greenstein's latest book, The
Presidential Difference (Free Press), analyzes
FDR through Bill Clinton, and Greenstein can
discuss leadership qualities of today's
presidential and vice-presidential candidates as
well. Reach him at fig@princeton.edu
or 609-258-4938.
Campaigns and voting: Larry Bartels, a
professor of political science and public affairs,
specializes in voting behavior, including the
impact of television news, money, charisma,
ideology and party decline. He recently led a
national task force on campaign reform. You can
reach him at (609) 258-4794 or bartels@princeton.edu.
Olympics and sports: Political scientist
Michael Danielson is one of the nation's few
academics to study the interplay of sports,
politics and business. Among the topics he can
address are the Olympics and national loyalties,
the Olympics as business, and regulation of sports
and sports teams. Danielson is the author of
Home Team: Professional Sports and the American
Metropolis, and teaches a popular course on the
political economy of sport. Contact him at (609)
258-4778 or mnd@princeton.edu.
Diversity in college admissions: Sociology
Professor Marta Tienda and Research Fellow Kim
Lloyd are heading a major research project on the
impact of changed admissions policies on minority
college enrollment in Texas. Implemented after a
1996 federal appellate court decision, the Texas
plan allows graduates in the top 10 percent of
their high school class to attend the public
university of their choice. The policy has spawned
similar plans in California and Florida.
In another project, Tienda and Lloyd are
exploring the changing participation of Hispanics
in higher education to understand what accounts for
success and failure in college and beyond. Tienda
may be contacted at 609-258-5808 or tienda@princeton.edu;
Lloyd is at (609) 258-5514 or kimlloyd@opr.princeton.edu.
School vouchers: Cecilia Rouse, an associate
professor of economics and public affairs is
researching the impact of Florida's school voucher
program on children and schools. In a recent
working paper on vouchers in other parts of the
country (http://www.irs.princeton.edu/pubs/pdfs/440.pdf),
Rouse concludes that there may indeed be small
achievement gains for African-American and Hispanic
students who use vouchers, possibly because of the
smaller class size at private schools.
In the Florida study, Rouse and three other
researchers are investigating questions such as who
chooses to use the vouchers; effects on students
who use the vouchers and on those who don't; how
public schools respond; and how private schools
react to the added demand for seats. Although
results are not yet available, Rouse can speak
about her research and the issues raised by voucher
programs. Her phone number is (609) 258-4042.
Events
Actress Halle Berry will give the keynote
address at a conference on race, women and film,
Sept. 22-23. Berry will speak at 8 p.m. Friday,
Sept. 22 in McCosh Hall. After her talk, she will
take reporters' questions about race, women and
film. On Sept. 23, the program continues with three
panel discussions featuring scholars from across
the country. Everything is free and open to the
public. For the schedule, visit http://www.princeton.edu/~aasprog/imitatinglife.html.
To meet with Berry, contact Yvonne Chiu Hays at
(609) 258-3601 or ychays@princeton.edu
by Sept. 11.
As part of its celebration of the Centennial of
the Graduate School, Princeton will host the annual
meeting of the Association of Graduate
Schools, Sept. 23-26. Leaders of approximately
50 top institutions will discuss issues of critical
importance to graduate education today, including
the validity of the Graduate Record Examination,
distance learning, the non-academic job market for
new Ph.D. recipients and women in science. Although
the meeting will be closed to reporters,
participants will be able to speak about the issues
discussed. For information, contact David Redman,
associate dean of the Graduate School, at (609)
258-3020 or dnredman@princeton.edu;
or Christopher Simmons of the Association of
American Universities at (202) 408-7500.
Notable
Historian Sean Wilentz, a witness for the
White House in the House Judiciary Committee's
impeachment hearings, will teach a seminar about
the impeachment this fall. His course description
notes that students will be expected to master the
arguments presented on both sides of the debate.
Wilentz testified as a co-organizer of the
anti-impeachment group Historians in Defense of the
Constitution. You can reach him at 609-258-4702 or
swilentz@princeton.edu.
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