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The aim of this study was two‐fold: to demonstrate a general construct of schools called academic optimism and to show it was related to student achievement in urban elementary schools, even controlling for socioeconomic factors, and school size.

Data were collected from 99 urban elementary schools in Texas and multiple regression and factor analyses were used to test a series of hypotheses guiding the inquiry.

The major hypotheses of the study were supported; academic optimism was a second‐order construct comprised of collective efficacy, faculty trust, and academic optimism. Moreover, academic optimism is a school characteristic that predicts student achievement even controlling for socioeconomic status.

The results support Bandura's social cognitive theory, Coleman's social capital theory, Hoy and Tarter's work on organizational climate, and demonstrate the existence of a cultural property of schools called academic optimism. Further, the findings have practical implications for developing strategies to improve the academic performance of urban schools.

The findings demonstrate the existence of a new collective construct, academic optimism, which has the potential to help improve the effectiveness of schools.

The purpose of this paper is to determine the relationship between socioeconomic status (SES) and oral health among Thai adults.

This study is a cross-sectional analytical study using secondary data from the 7th Thailand National Oral Health Survey (2012). Age group 35–44 years old samples were used to represent the working age population. Oral health outcome was determined by untreated dental caries. SES was indicated by income, education and occupational groups. Demographic background, oral health-related behavior and access to dental service were adjusted for analysis. Binary logistic regression analysis was performed to determine the relationship between independent variables and oral health outcome.

People with lower education showed a higher odds ratio for having untreated dental caries before and after controlling for related variables. Those living in the north and northeast, using additional cleaning tools and going to the public provider for dental service also showed better oral health.

The limitation of this study is that the cross-sectional study cannot indicate casual relationships. The national oral health survey was not designed to find relationships between factors. The access to data and measurement of SES was limited. The policy maker should emphasize on people with lower education which have a higher risk for dental caries to improve oral health in disadvantaged groups. Future research should include all related factors in the study including diet and knowledge about oral health. Moreover, oral health outcome is a long-term effect which accumulated through a lifetime. The social class might change over time and so do behaviors.

There is socioeconomic inequality in dental caries of Thai working age population.

This chapter studies the social reproduction of the traditional heterosexual engagement ritual in which men propose marriage to women, even as many women now occupy positions of power, surpass men in educational attainment, and provide their own incomes. We draw from 37 semi-structured interviews with middle-class, heterosexual women in which they discussed their marriage proposals. We argue that three related types of socioeconomic incentives encourage women to participate in traditional proposals: (1) the social status of being chosen to marry, (2) the value of gifts, especially an engagement ring, which also reflects the fiancé’s implied taste, and (3) the proposal story itself as scrip for inclusion in heterosexual women’s social groups. By considering social factors that mediate relationships among women, we show that economic and status incentives are important explanations for the perpetuation of the traditional engagement ritual. Specifically, the middle-class, heterosexual women in our study exchange socioeconomic status in their female-centered reference groups for their participation in gender-normative relations with their male partners.

The “Social Determinants of Health” construct is well-entrenched in the way that both health care providers and researchers think about the effects of social conditions on health. Although there are a number of theories that fall under this rubric for the social production of health and illness, the core of this construct is the idea that social stratification leads to health disparity. In this chapter we show how such a mechanism might work for relating social stratification and job stress.

We used the pooled 2002, 2006, 2010 Quality of Work Life modules of the General Social Survey to test a model of the relationships between gender, age, education, and nativity with “bad jobs” and indicators of health status.

Findings show that social status is positively associated with job quality and with health in turn. Lower social status characteristics are related to bad jobs and poorer health.

Health disparities are thus “explained” by the consequences of social status for occupation and job quality, thereby depicting exactly how health disparities arise in normal social life. The theory and results underscore the importance of explicitly modeling social status factors in explanations of health disparities.

It is common to relate health disparities to social status but it is not common to show the mechanisms whereby social status actually produces health disparities. Addressing health disparities means addressing the consequences of social inequalities for normal activities of social life such as work. Improving job quality would be a health “treatment” that addresses health disparities.

This chapter demonstrates the value of explicitly tracing the consequences of status differences on differences in social context such as work conditions and then health. In the study of health disparities this is not often done. In this chapter we show how social inequality leads to occupational and job quality differences that, in turn, lead to health differences.

It has long been established in educational stratification research that teachers play an important role in shaping children's school experience, which is closely associated with children's educational outcomes. Children's family background has been considered as one of the factors that may influence how teachers form their evaluations of children's behavior and academic competence, and their educational expectations for children. Going beyond the conventional modeling of using measures of the family's socioeconomic situation alone, this chapter incorporates the teachers' perceptions of the importance of children's family background into the examination of teachers' evaluations and expectations. Using a unique data from northwest China, this study provides a case study to highlight the importance of bringing teachers' perspectives into examining the relationship between children's family background and their educational outcomes. The analysis results reveal that teachers' perceptions of the importance of children's family background, above and beyond children's previous academic achievement and their family's actual socioeconomic situations, are closely associated with teachers' evaluations and expectations. Teachers' expectations at early time point help to predict children's later school persistence.

The protective aspects of relationships for health have been extensively studied. Here, we assess whether different dimensions of partnership status at the time of a child’s birth are associated with better self-assessed health later in mid-life. Data are from three countries with different social welfare policies relating to union status and parenting: the US, the UK, and Norway. Results indicate that women who were partnered at first birth had better health at midlife in all three countries than women who were unpartnered. The analysis indicates no differences in the mid-life health of Norwegian women who were married or cohabiting at birth, whereas for US and UK women, being married at the birth of a first child is more beneficial for mid-life health than bearing the child in a cohabiting union. In the US, women who are least likely to marry do not demonstrate better mid-life health if they had wed relative to cohabiting. In the UK, in contrast, the women least likely to be married at the birth experience better returns if they marry. These findings highlight the importance of paying closer attention to heterogeneous treatment effects as they relate to childbearing, relationship status, and mid-life health.

The current study aims to use bioecological theory to examine the effects of different contextual factors such as husbands’ desire for children, visit by a family planning worker, media messages, and province level on women’s use of contraception in Pakistan. Two cross-sectional data sets were taken from the Pakistan Demographic and Health Surveys (PDHS), conducted in 2006–07 and 2012–13, which included 3,811 and 4,871 currently married, lower socioeconomic status (SES) women aged 15–49 years, respectively. Using logistic regression, the results showed that women’s perception of a husband’s desire for children and visit by family planning workers were significant predictors of women’s use of contraception in both periods (i.e. PDHS 2006–07 and PDHS, 2012–13). Specifically, those women who had a desire for children similar to their husband were more likely to use contraception than those who either were not sure about their husband’s desire for children or whose desire for children was less or more than their husband. Moreover, those women who had at least one visit from a family planning worker during the 12 months prior to the survey were more likely to use contraception than their counterparts.

This paper investigates the determinants of compulsive buying behaviour (CBB) and ascertains the effect of CBB on the propensity of an individual to be dependent on loans and fall into financial trouble. The study additionally examines the moderating effect of financial management on the hypothesized relationships.

The survey method of research was adopted using questionnaires as the principal means of data collection. The predicted relationships of the study were tested using the partial least square structural equation modelling technique.

The authors’ results suggest materialism, socioeconomic status and financial management skills of an individual are significant predictors of CBB. The authors also find CBB to be positively associated with loan dependence and the authors’ analysis suggests financial management skills moderate the hypothesized relationships.

Findings of this study suggest buying compulsively increases the risks of over-dependence on loans and can be indirectly associated with the risk of individuals falling into financial trouble.

The findings highlight the adverse effects of CBB on loan dependence and financial trouble and the moderating effect of financial management on the dominant factors that influence CBB.

In 2010 the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act boosted the expansion of community health centers (CHCs) with $11 billion in mandatory funding from 2011 to 2015. This study used data from the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) and the North Carolina Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) to assess the cost savings associated with the use of community health centers compared to other primary care providers. After controlling for various demographic, socioeconomic characteristics and health conditions, we found savings at an average of $3,437 in total expenditures and $1,211 in ambulatory care expenditures. These results suggest that continuing investment in health centers are important during times of budget cuts in order to improve access to care and to generate cost savings to the healthcare system.