Individual preferences, social mobility and electoral outcomes

This paper models data for the Netherlands in the 1970s on prestige of male's occupation, occupational prestige of the father and ‘left/right’ score of the political party he prefers. One set of hypotheses holds that individuals behave according to economic self-interest, another set postulates a status motive. The former specify additive effects, the latter interaction effects. It is argued that these hypotheses have to be tested with Diagonal Mobility Models. A result of their application is that an economic diagonal model fits best.\ud \ud This paper also discusses macroimplications of these models for individual data. To determine macroeffects of status models, it is necessary to ascertain the total percentage of mobile persons in a society. For the macro-application of economic models, the amount of mobility necessitated by a country's opportunity structure is relevant. The latter is much smaller than the former. As an economic model was corroborated, macroeffects of social mobility on a society's political outcome are smaller than might have been suspected

How important are parents and partners for smoking cessation in adulthood? An event history analysis

Background. The aim of this study is to assess the effect of parental and partner’s education and smoking behavior on an individual’s chance of smoking cessation over the life course. Methods. Self-reported life histories of smoking behavior, education, and relationships were recorded in face-to-face interviews with a random general-population sample of 850 respondents and their partners (if present). The data were collected in 2000. A discrete-time event history model is applied in the analyses of cessation over the life course. Results. Parents’ education and smoking behavior (during adolescence) and partners’ education have no significant influence on cessation. Living with an ex-smoker or never-smoker increases the likelihood of quitting, compared to being single or living with a partner who smokes. Respondents whose partners were ex-smokers are almost five times more likely to quit smoking than single respondents. They are almost twice as likely to quit compared to those living with a never-smoker. Conclusions. The difference between having and not having a partner seems as important for cessation as the difference between having a partner who smokes, has never smoked, or has stopped smoking. An ex-smoking partner stimulates cessation more than a partner who has never smoked. Studies into cessation should take into account partners’ smoking histories.

Zich bekeren en wisselen van kerkgenootschap in Nederland

Conversion and switching between religious denominations in the Netherlands In this article, we examine why people in the Netherlands switch between religious denominations or become a convert. To do so, we use 21 representative surveys held between 1966 and 2003. We derive hypotheses from the integration theory, modernization theory (secularisation theory) and the supply side theory (version of rational choice theory). Becoming a convert or religious switching are rare phenomena in the Netherlands: 4.5 percent of the population switches between denominations and 2.6 percent becomes a convert. In line with secularisation theory, people who are raised nonreligious almost always stay non-religious while people who were raised in a certain denomination are more likely to leave the church or to switch denominations. Also in line with this theory is the finding that over time, less people convert to religion and more and more people leave the church of their parents. In line with the social capital hypotheses, we find that Protestants more often switch between denominations than Catholics. More specifically, orthodox Protestants switch more often than liberal Protestants. Of all factors that influence religious mobility, the denomination of the spouse is most important: people in a religiously mixed marriage switch significantly more often than people in a religiously homogeneous marriage. Switching and converting are almost all towards the denomination of the spouse.

The climate crisis: what sociology can contribute

Climate change provides a major challenge to contemporary societies. Whether the problem is best portrayed as our house being on fire (Thunberg 2019) or as our house being imperceptibly eaten away by dry rot, there is little doubt that we do indeed have a problem. Global temperatures have risen substantially, and heatwaves, hurricanes, floods, and droughts have become increasingly common. There is overwhelming evidence that these trends are, at least for a large part, caused by human activity, with increases in greenhouse gas emissions being the prime culprit (IPCC 2015). According to some analysts, we have entered a new geological era, the Anthropocene, in which humankind has become a global geological force in its own right (Steffen et al. 2011)

Electoral participation in the Netherlands: Individual and contextual influences

AbstractResearch into electoral participation has produced two traditions, one focusing mainly on individual level explanations while the second concentrates primarily on aggregate level explanations. By bringing these two research approaches together, we are not only able to explain individual electoral participation more thoroughly, but we also gain additional insight into the influence of aggregate level characteristics on individual behavior. We combine eight National Election Studies held in the Netherlands between 1971 and 1994 enabling us to study variation on the individual and the contextual (aggregate) level, including interactions between these two levels. Findings show that the addition of contextual characteristics form a significant improvement to an individual level model predicting electoral participation. Findings also confirm our expectation that the influence of individual characteristics such as education or political interest is dependent upon contextual characteristics describing for instance the salience of the election

Partner’s and own education: does who you live with matter for self-assessed health, smoking and excessive alcohol consumption?

This study analyses the importance of partner status and partner’s education, adjusted for own education, on selfassessed health, smoking and excessive alcohol consumption. The relationship between socio-economic factors and health-related outcomes is traditionally studied from an individual perspective. Recently, applying social–ecological models that include socio-economic factors on various social levels is becoming popular. We argue that partners are an important influence on individual health and health-related behaviour at the household level. Therefore, we include partners in the analysis of educational health inequalities. Using data of almost 40,000 individuals (with almost 15,000 Dutch cohabiting couples), aged 25–74 years, who participated in the Netherlands Health Interview Survey between 1989 and 1996, we test hypotheses on the importance of own and partner’s education. We apply advanced logistic regression models that are especially suitable for studying the relative influence of partners’ education. Controlled for own education, partner’s education is significantly associated with self-assessed health and smoking, for men and women. Accounting for both partners’ education the social gradient in self-assessed health and smoking is steeper than based on own or partner’s education alone. The social gradient in health is underestimated by not considering partner’s education, especially for women.

‘Horrors of Holland’:Explaining attitude change toward euthanasia and homosexuals in The Netherlands, 1971-1998

In this article, we investigate changes in public opinion in the Netherlands toward two controversial issues: homosexuals and euthanasia. We find that a rapid decrease in opposition to both issues in the seventies and early eighties was followed by a period of a stable minority opposition. We identify relevant period and cohort indicators to test which characteristics are associated with the changes in the attitudes. We collected period and cohort characteristics that are applicable to both of the attitudes, but specific attitude-related circumstantial conditions as well. For both attitudes, it turns out that the changing composition of Dutch society with regard to religiousness accounts for the largest changes in public opinion. Furthermore, we find that the influence of religion on both the attitude towards euthanasia and the attitude towards homosexuals became stronger over time, whereas the influence of educational attainment weakened over time