Jacob Hernandez | Stephen Klineberg | July 8, 2015

What accounts for differences in people’s evaluations of their financial well-being, both with regard to their current circumstances and their outlooks on the future? In this analysis, we measure the individual impact of gender, age, ethnicity, education, income, religiosity, and political party affiliation in accounting for the ways area residents assess their financial situations. Do the predictors of individual differences in respondents’ assessments of present circumstances also predict their expectations for the future?

The Kinder Houston Area Survey measures current financial assessments with this question: “During the last few years has your financial situation been getting better, getting worse, or has it stayed about the same?” It measures outlooks on one’s financial future by asking, “What about three or four years down the road? Do you think you’ll be better off, worse off, or about the same as today?”

We conducted logistic regression analyses with all seven factors listed above to determine the most significant individual predictors of answers to these two questions. Figure 1 depicts the three most powerful factors that are associated with respondents’ assessments of their current circumstances. For each predictor, the number shown is the probability that individuals with that characteristic will report that their financial situations have been “getting better,” when the effects of the six other factors are controlled.

Thus, as seen in the figure, the respondents aged 18 to 29 have a 60 percent likelihood of indicating that their financial circumstances have been “getting better,” compared to just a 17 percent probability for those aged 60 and older, once the effects of gender, ethnicity, education, income, religiosity, and political party affiliation are controlled. Household income, not surprisingly, is a most powerful predictor: At increasing levels of income, people are more likely to report that their personal financial situations have been getting better. Age, as we have seen, is associated with decreasing feelings of well-being, and women are less likely than men to report that their financial circumstances are improving.

Figure 1: THE MOST POWERFUL PREDICTORS OF RESPONDENTS’ ASSESSMENTS OF THEIR CURRENT FINANCIAL SITUATIONS (2015).

 

Figure 2 presents the probabilities associated with the three most powerful predictors of outlooks on one’s personal financial future. Age is once again negatively associated with these evaluations, but the effects on expectations for the future are stronger than for assessments of current circumstances. African Americans and Hispanics are more likely than Anglos to be optimistic about their future prospects. Income predicts assessments of current finances, but education (and not income) is associated with perspectives on the future: The respondents with college degrees are significantly more likely than those with less education to believe that better times are coming.

 Figure 2: THE MOST POWERFUL PREDICTORS OF RESPONDENTS’ OUTLOOKS ON THEIR PERSONAL FINANCIAL FUTURES (2015).

These are interesting findings: Women are more negative than men in their assessments of their current financial circumstances, but not in their expectations for the future. Age is negatively associated with evaluations of current finances but has a stronger impact on assessments of future prospects. Income predicts the present, but education predicts the future. And ethnic minorities are more inclined than Anglos to believe that better times lie ahead.

---

 

Hernandez, who graduated from Rice this spring, assisted in developing and analyzing the 2015 Kinder Houston Area Survey.

 

Ryan Deal | Jennifer Muturi | Stephen Klineberg | July 1, 2015

America has had a long history of discrimination against blacks based in part on their skin tone. African Americans with lighter skin have traditionally experienced less discrimination than those with darker skin and have had more access to education and to jobs with higher incomes.

Are those historical patterns still evident today? Houston is transforming from a bi-racial southern city into a microcosm of all the world’s people, with attitude changes gradually reflecting the new realities. The recent influx of highly-educated dark-skinned African immigrants and the increasing rates of intermarriage may well be blurring the traditional skin-color associations.

The 2015 Kinder Houston Area Survey asked respondents to describe their skin tone, enabling a preliminary assessment of the extent to which a clear association still exists between skin color and life experiences. The survey participants were asked this question: “Compared to most other [members of your racial or ethnic community], how would you describe your skin color? Would you say: very light, light, medium, dark, or very dark?”

Figure 1 shows the distributions of the responses given by the 233 U.S.-born African Americans who participated in the survey. The equal number indicating that their skin tone was either darker or lighter than “medium” is one indication that this question may be providing a viable measure of the respondents’ actual skin tone. An additional indication of the question’s validity can be seen in its relation to another survey item, asking about racial ambiguities: The African-American respondents who described their skin tone as “light” or “very light” were much more likely (at 44 percent) than those who said their skin color was “medium” (20 percent) or “dark” (11 percent) to report that strangers sometimes think of them as being of a different ethnic background than they really are.

Figure 1: SELF-DESCRIBED SKIN TONES AMONG THE U.S.-BORN AFRICAN AMERICANS IN THE 2015 SURVEY (N=233).

 

Despite the small sample, the data offer intriguing indications that the importance of skin color as a determinant of life outcomes may indeed be declining in America today. The survey revealed no significant relationship whatsoever among the U.S.-born black respondents between their self-reported skin tone and any of the usual measures of socioeconomic status, including education, income, homeownership, health insurance coverage, or having difficulty paying for the groceries to feed their families.

The most powerful and intriguing relationships with skin color were found with regard to questions measuring respondents’ beliefs about and experiences with continuing discrimination. Figure 2 presents the association between skin tone and the experience of discrimination among the 102 males and the 131 females in the sample of U.S.-born black respondents. African-American men with darker skin were much more likely (at 72 percent) to report personally feeling discriminated against in Houston either “very often” or “fairly often,” compared to those with lighter skin (at 52 and 46 percent). Interestingly, there was no linear relationship at all between skin tone and perceived discrimination among African-American women.

 

Figure 2: THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SKIN TONE AND THE EXPERIENCE OF DISCRIMINATION AMONG U.S.-BORN AFRICAN-AMERICANS (2015).

A similar pattern was found when the respondents were asked if they thought discrimination is still a major problem in America. The African-American males with dark skin tones were significantly more likely (at 89 percent) than those with light skin (68 percent) to disagree with the suggestion that “discrimination against ethnic minorities is no longer a serious problem in the United States today.” Again, no relationship with skin color was found among black females in their beliefs about the impact of discrimination today.

Skin tone thus continues to influence the lives of African Americans, but it does so in more subtle ways than was true in the past. The survey evidence strongly suggests that, as a result of ongoing demographic and attitudinal changes, skin color is now less closely associated with African Americans’ socioeconomic circumstances. With regard to other life experiences, however, skin tone still seems to matter.

The findings indicate, in particular, that among black males (but not females), the survey participants with darker skin were more likely than those with lighter skin to believe that discrimination against ethnic minorities is still a serious problem in America and to report that they have often personally felt discriminated against in Houston. Further research is clearly needed to develop a fuller appreciation of race relations as they are unfolding today across an entire spectrum of human colors.

Deal is a rising senior at Rice University and Muturi graduated from Rice this spring.

Vicky Yang | Stephen Klineberg | June 24, 2015

Texas has a long history of enacting laws that seek to restrict abortion rights, despite the pro-choice views of the general public. Texas Senate Bill 5, for example, enacted and signed into law in July 2013, bans abortions after 20 weeks of gestation and requires abortion facilities to meet all the regulatory standards for surgical healthcare facilities, thereby forcing many of the state’s abortion providers to close their doors.

The Kinder Houston Area Survey has asked about abortion attitudes in all of its 34 annual surveys. Strikingly, as seen in Figure 1, there has been virtually no change in area residents’ views of these complex and consequential issues over the years: Harris County residents have been consistently both anti-abortion and pro-choice. The 2015 survey, for example, found that 58 percent assert that abortion is “morally wrong,” but 63 percent are opposed to “a law that would make it more difficult for a woman to obtain an abortion.”

 

A large portion of area residents thus espouse traditional values for themselves, yet respect the rights of others to make different decisions in their own lives. Of the 809 Harris County residents who participated in this year’s survey, 439 (58 percent) asserted their belief that abortion is “morally wrong.” Of those 439, 244 (56 percent) were nevertheless opposed to “a law that would make it more difficult for a woman to obtain an abortion”; the remaining 195 (44 percent) were in favor of restricting the right to choose.

Why do so many area residents endorse both the anti-abortion and pro-choice positions? We conducted a regression analysis among the 439 respondents who asserted that abortion was morally wrong to determine which factors were most powerful in predicting opposition to a law restricting access to abortion. Figure 2 presents the most important predictors.

The pattern shown in the figure suggests that empathy has much to do with tolerance in this  connection. The respondents with lower household incomes and lower levels of education are more likely than those in better socioeconomic circumstances to recognize that some women may be forced to make this difficult decision because of the situations in which they find themselves. This is also the case for the respondents age 30 and older (at 62 percent) compared to those under the age of 30 (at just 29 percent), and for blacks and Hispanics (at 55 and 61 percent, respectively), compared to Anglos (46 percent).

Figure 2: THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THOSE WHO SUPPORT THE “RIGHT TO CHOOSE” AMONG THE RESPONDENTS WHO BELIEVE ABORTION IS “MORALLY WRONG” (N=439; 2015).

Social support also clearly makes a difference in this connection. The anti-abortion respondents who are Democrats and therefore identify with a group that generally supports abortion rights are considerably more likely than Republicans to express support for a woman’s right to choose. Similarly, the anti-abortion respondents who attended religious services in the past month, interacting closely with people who are generally opposed to abortion rights, are much less likely to take the pro-choice position.

The majority of Harris County residents have indicated consistently over the years of surveys that they personally believe abortion is “morally wrong,” yet most are nevertheless unwilling to impose a hard-and-fast rule on all persons regardless of the circumstances in which they might find themselves. That reluctance is one of the reasons why Houston has been able to develop into a modern, generally progressive, and tolerant city.

---

 

Yang, a rising junior at Rice University, assisted in developing and analyzing the 2015 Kinder Houston Area Survey.

Emily Burnett | Stephen Klineberg | June 17, 2015

We live in a society where economic inequality divides us along racial lines, and Americans differ importantly in their beliefs about the reasons for these divisions. There are essentially two different types of explanations for inequality. Individualistic explanations place the responsibility on the people themselves for their own financial situations, citing a lack of ability or motivation as reasons for the economic disadvantages of certain racial groups. Structural explanations, on the other hand, attribute racial inequality to larger social structural forces, such as unequal access to quality education and the effects of continuing discrimination.

Previous research has found that Anglos generally offer individualistic explanations for the inequalities suffered by blacks, whereas blacks themselves typically refer to structural explanations. Research has also found that white conservative Protestants (evangelicals and fundamentalists) are more likely than other whites to invoke individualistic explanations, but black conservative Protestants are more likely than other blacks to offer structural explanations.

What are the reasons for these racial differences in the effects of religious conservatism? The individualism invoked by white conservative Protestants is thought to stem from religious values having to do with individual initiative, hard work, and God’s grace, whereas the structuralism of black conservative Protestants is attributed to the important role played by the black church in fighting for social justice during the civil rights era of the 1950s and ’60s.

Using data from the 2015 Kinder Houston Area Survey, we ask if black and white evangelical Protestants continue to differ in the same ways today in the explanations they offer for racial inequality. The Houston surveys confirm that blacks as a group are much more likely than whites to point to the structural barriers that make success so difficult for minority communities. When asked this year, for example, about the statement, “Black people in the U.S. are still a long way from having the same chance in life that white people have,” 62 percent of African Americans agreed, compared to just 37 percent of Anglos.

As in previous research, the data also indicate that being a conservative Protestant is a powerful predictor of the explanations people give for racial inequalities. As indicated in the chart, white conservative Protestants in the 2015 survey were much less likely than other Anglos (by 29 to 41 percent) to accept the view that blacks have fewer chances in life than whites. We also find that whites with less education, lower household incomes, and who are Republicans rather than Democrats are significantly more likely than other Anglos to give individualistic explanations for racial inequalities.

THE ASSOCIATIONS FOR ANGLOS AND BLACKS OF RELIGION AND POLITICS WITH STRUCTURAL EXPLANATIONS FOR RACIAL INEQUALITIES (2015)

Strikingly, as also seen in the chart, being a black conservative Protestant has the same association with the explanations people offer for inequality as it does for white conservative Protestants.  Black conservative Protestants are significantly less likely than other African Americans (by 51 to 71 percent) to assert that blacks are still a long way from having the same chance in life as whites.

What accounts for the change among blacks in the relationship between conservative Protestantism and explanations for inequality? Is the structural focus of the black church shifting? Are blacks attending different kinds of churches today compared to 30 years ago? The 2015 survey raises provocative questions that call out for further research.

 

---

Burnett, a rising senior at Rice University, assisted in developing and analyzing the 2015 Kinder Houston Area Survey.

Audrey M. Smith | Stephen Klineberg | June 10, 2015

In an industrial city like Houston, air pollution is omnipresent, and its health consequences can be serious. The dangers are particularly evident for the residents of Houston’s 10 zip codes specified on the “Air Pollution Watch List (APWL)” compiled by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. Is living in a polluted neighborhood enough to make people more acutely aware of the risks of toxic exposure? Are the area residents who live in Houston’s most polluted locations more concerned than others about local contamination? And does that greater sensitivity translate into broader concerns about climate change and the global environment?

The 2015 Kinder Houston Area Survey asked area residents about environmental issues both at the local and global levels. Respondents were asked how worried they were about the effects of air pollution on their family’s health and if they believed that global warming is mainly caused by human activities or by normal climate cycles.

We hypothesized that people living in the more polluted areas would express more concern about local environmental issues and that place of residence would have little or no effect on their beliefs about the causes of climate change. As indicated in the chart, this was not quite what we found. Living in or near the APWL zip codes was indeed associated with greater concern about the local environment: 47 percent of the residents living in or near the designated zip codes said they were “very concerned” about the health effects of air pollution, compared to 31 percent of those living elsewhere in Harris County. Interestingly, that effect seems to carry over to assessments of the global environment as well, but less strongly: As indicated in the chart, 64 percent of those living in or near the APWL areas, compared to just 51 percent from elsewhere, attributed the high global temperatures to human activity.

Political party affiliation, however, was a much stronger predictor on both questions: Democrats (by 45 percent) were more likely than Republicans (at 19 percent) to say they were “very concerned” about the effects of air pollution on their family’s health, and 71 percent of the Democrats, compared to just 30 percent of Republicans, believed in anthropogenic climate change. Political party remained the most powerful predictor of both global and local environmental concerns after the other variables were controlled in a regression analysis.

These results make it clear that environmental issues have become a matter of political ideology, like so much else in this increasingly polarized society, and ideology even trumps personal exposure to environmental hazards as a predictor of concerns about local pollution. Educational initiatives and community protests may well be important in helping to raise awareness of environmental issues among vulnerable populations, but the most critical need is to reduce the perception gap between the political parties and work to elevate environmental protection as a high priority on everyone’s agenda.

 

---

Smith, a senior at Rice University, assisted in developing and analyzing the 2015 Kinder Houston Area Survey.

Jie Min | Stephen Klineberg | June 3, 2015

Since the passage of the Immigration and Nationality Act in 1965, the United States has once again become a “nation of immigrants,” and among the immigrants who have come since 1965, more than 30 percent are from Asian countries. Houston, as one of the nation’s most important “gateway” cities, is a major destination for the new immigrant waves. More than 70 percent of all the adult Asians in Houston today are first-generation immigrants.

How well are these Asian immigrants adapting to U.S. society? Do they come to think of themselves as “Americans” the longer they are here? Do they develop close friendships with people from other racial and ethnic communities? Do they gradually loosen their connections to the cultures of their home countries as they become increasingly “Americanized”?

Drawing on the two most recent Kinder Houston Area Asian Surveys, conducted in 2002 and 2011, we assess these aspects of Asian assimilation. To measure self-reported national identity, the survey participants were asked, “Do you think of yourself as primarily Asian, equally Asian and American, or primarily American?” As shown in the accompanying chart, the longer the Asian immigrants have lived in the United States the more likely they are to say that they consider themselves to be “Americans.”

The survey participants were queried about their interethnic friendships through three questions, asking them if they have close personal friends who are (1) Anglo, (2) black, or (3) Hispanic. As indicated in the chart, half of the Asian immigrants who had lived in the United States for more than 20 years said they had close personal friends from all three ethnic communities, but this was the case for only a quarter of the immigrants who had lived in this country for fewer than 10 years.

To measure the extent of continued participation in Asian cultural activities, the respondents were asked how often during the past year they had participated in the following: (1) an Asian holiday or cultural event, (2) the meetings of an Asian organization in Houston, or (3) making a special effort to teach younger family member about their Asian background. Strikingly, as indicated in the chart, participation in these kinds of cultural activities is totally unaffected by the length of time the Asian immigrants have been in America.

We have seen that the longer Asian immigrants have lived in this country, the more likely they are to see themselves as Americans and the more fully integrated they are in the multiethnic community that is Houston (and America) today. At the same time, however, the assimilation process does not appear to entail losing the traditions and customs of their countries of origin or participating any less in Asian cultural activities.

Asian immigrants are becoming fully “American” while also retaining deep connections to their countries of origin. In this era of transnational economies, instantaneous communications, and inexpensive travel, those networks are easier to maintain and nurture than they were during the last great wave of American immigration at the turn of the last century. All of us benefit enormously from the international and cross-cultural relationships that Asian Americans continue to develop, helping immeasurably to strengthen Houston’s connections to the global economy of the twenty-first century.

THREE MEASURES OF ASIAN ASSIMILATION BY TIME IN THE UNITED STATES (2002, 2011)

_{Min, a second-year graduate student in Rice University’s sociology department, assisted in developing and analyzing the 2015 Kinder Houston Area Survey.}

Stephen Klineberg | @SteveKlineberg| June 3, 2015

We are delighted to post this collection of seven blogs presenting some of the most interesting findings from our preliminary analyses of the 2015 Kinder Houston Area Survey. These blogs reflect the work of eight Rice University students who participated this spring in the academic course that developed the questionnaire and analyzed the findings from this year’s survey. We hope readers will gain some new insights from these brief reports and will be able to share in the fun of uncovering the often non-obvious underlying patterns in the survey findings.

The blogs will be posted sequentially on Wednesdays over each of the next seven weeks (from June 3 through July 15). They explore a variety of questions, reflecting the wide-ranging interests of the student researchers:

1. Asian-American assimilation: The longer Asian immigrants are in this country, the more they come to see themselves as “Americans” and to report having close personal friends from other ethnic communities, but they show no signs of becoming any less involved in Asian events or cultural traditions or any weakening of the strong ties with their countries of origin.
2. Environmental concerns: The importance of political party affiliation and of direct exposure to environmental toxins in predicting concerns about the health effects of air pollution and in accounting for beliefs about the causes of global warming.
3. Why the widespread racial inequalities? The relationship among Anglos and blacks between conservative Protestantism and explanations for the racial inequalities in America.
4. Abortion attitudes: The role of empathy and social support in accounting for why a clear majority of Harris County residents have managed consistently over the years to endorse both “anti-abortion” and “pro-choice” positions simultaneously.
5. Does skin color still matter? The significance of skin tone in predicting African Americans’ life circumstances and their reported experiencing of discrimination.
6. Current and future economic circumstances: Differences in the factors that predict respondents’ assessments of their current financial situations and those that account for their beliefs about how they’ll be doing financially 3 or 4 years down the road.
7. Rethinking the death penalty: The evidence that support for capital punishment has been declining among Harris County residents in recent years and the importance of beliefs about the extent of racial discrimination in shaping attitudes toward capital punishment.