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Home Sweet Homes

Who Moves? Who Stays Put? Where's Home?

Home Sweet Homes
29 Dec 08 Americans are settling down: Only 11.9% of the U.S. population changed residences between 2007 and 2008, the lowest share since the 1940s. A new national survey by the Pew Research Center and an analysis of Census data explore geographic mobility in the United States.

Fully 63% of all adults have moved to a new community at least once in their lives while 37% have never left their hometowns. Job or business opportunities are the biggest reasons people say they moved. Those who never left their home towns list family connections as the reason they moved away.

Also, more than one in five adults say the place "in their heart" they consider home isn't the place they're living now.

Americans Say They Like Diverse Communities;
Election, Census Trends Suggest Otherwise

Diverse Political Communities
2 Dec 08 About six-in-ten Americans say they like the idea of living in politically, racially, religiously or economically mixed communities while about a quarter take the opposite view: they would rather live in communities made up mostly of people like themselves., according to a new Pew Research Center national survey. Despite these pro-diversity attitudes, American communities appear to have grown more politically and economically homogenous in recent decades, according to election returns and U.S. Census data.

A Paradox in Public Attitudes

Men or Women: Who's the Better Leader?

A Paradox in Public Attitudes
25 Aug 08 Americans believe women have the right stuff to be political leaders. When it comes to honesty, intelligence and a handful of other character traits they value highly in leaders, the public rates women superior to men, according to a new nationwide Pew Research Center Social and Demographic Trends survey.

Nevertheless, a mere 6% of respondents say that, overall, women make better political leaders than men. About one-in-five (21%) say men make the better leaders, while the vast majority -- 69% -- say men and women make equally good leaders.

In an era when women have made many strides, relatively few have made it to the highest levels of political or corporate leadership. Why not? The public cites gender discrimination, resistance to change, and a self-serving "old boys club" among the biggest reasons.

The Couples Quiz

25 Sep 08 Who calls the shots in your home? Take our quiz to find out, then read the survey report on family decision-making.

Couples Quiz National Survey

Revisiting the Mommy Wars

15 Sep 08 Who has the better chances of winning an election – a mom or a dad? It depends on whether the candidate is a Republican or a Democrat.

Personal Progress Grinds to a Halt

Inside the Middle Class: Bad Times Hit the Good Life

America's Four Middle Classes
9 Apr 08 Most Americans feel stuck in their tracks. A majority of adults say that in the past five years they either haven't moved ahead in life or have fallen backwards – the most downbeat assessment of personal progress in nearly a half century of polling.

You're Laid Off

16 Apr 08 A Worsening Economy Couldn't Come at a Worse Time for Many U.S. Workers.

The Four Middle Classes

29 Jul 08 There isn't one American middle class; there are four, according to a Pew Research Center survey.

The Partisan Happiness Gap

Republicans: Still Happy Campers

Republicans: Still Happy Campers
23 Oct 08 Chin up, Republicans. Despite the imploding stock market, the looming recession, the unpopular president and the dismal political polls, there's very good news in the one realm of life that's always been a special sanctuary for you: Personal happiness.

Some 37% of you say you're "very happy" with your lives, compared with just 25% of Democrats who feel the same way--one of the largest partisan happiness gaps ever recorded, according to a new nationwide Pew Research Center survey.
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Noted Elsewhere
Noted Elsewhere

Gender Balance and Sexual Harassment

Posted: 5 Jan 09
Ohio State University
Women are more likely to be sexually harassed when they are in work groups with similar proportions of men and women, psychologists report in the journal Work and Occupations. That’s because opportunities for social contact of all kinds—including unwanted interactions—are greatest in groups with equal numbers of men and women. In these situations, women were more likely to experience taunting, patronizing and “predatory behaviors,” they found.
Read a summary

Babes of Winter

Posted: 29 Dec 08
NBER
Research shows that children born in the winter tend to have lower education levels and wages as adults than children born in warmer seasons, but why? A new National Bureau of Economic Research working paper, based on data from birth certificates and the Census Bureau, concludes that winter newborns face more obstacles from the start: Their mothers are younger than other mothers, less educated and less likely to be married.
Read the abstract

Is a Good Cry Always Good?

Posted: 22 Dec 08
Current Directions in Psychological Science
Conventional wisdom and some psychological theories suggest that crying has a cathartic effect. But psychologists from the University of South Florida who examined existing studies on crying found no evidence that a good cry consistently makes people feel better. . “The empirical record is at best spotty, with many studies finding no benefits of crying,” they wrote in Current Directions in Psychological Science.
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About the Project
The Pew Research Center's Social & Demographic Trends project studies behaviors and attitudes of Americans in key realms of their lives, including family, community, health, finance, work and leisure. The project explores these topics by combining original public opinion survey research with social, economic and demographic data analysis. Read more
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