The Changing Predictors of Confidence in Science: Using Time-Varying Effects Models to Understand Dynamic Population Characteristics

This article presents a useful methodological tool for examining the changing associations between population-level variables over time. Specifically, Time Varying Effects Models predict potentially dynamically changing levels of confidence in science in the U.S. with simultaneously fluctuating political politicization and educational attainment with data from the General Social Survey. These models allow for non-linear trends to arise from the data, and as such facilitate theoretical insight into the relationship between changing societal characteristics over time. Confidence in science and how it is influenced by educational attainment and political views is an ideal case-study to discuss the benefits of these models. Results indicate that the crisis of legitimacy within science may be concentrated within higher education and that there appears to be a decoupling of educational attainment and confidence in science in more recent years. The discussion highlights the usefulness of these models in evaluating sociological phenomenon as well as developing educational theory.

High School Completion and College Enrollment across the Great Recession in Brazil, Mexico, and the U.S.

Educational attainment is rising in many countries across the world, but this long-term increase could be vulnerable to short-term economic shocks. Countries with a more historically institutionalized educational system might better weather these shocks, in terms of avoiding declines in enrollment in general and exacerbating enrollment disparities in particular. To explore this phenomenon, this study used an income and substitution effects framework to compare rates of high school completion and college enrollment in the United States, Mexico, and Brazil across the Great Recession, with special attention to disparities by family socioeconomic status. Logistic regression models predicting enrollment in nationally representative data sets revealed that, in the aftermath of the Great Recession, educational attainment increased in the United States and stagnated or declined in Mexico. For Brazil, analyses pointed to a modest decline in socioeconomic disparities in educational attainment during and after the Great Recession.

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