9
The rise and fall of the PTA, 1910–1997
Membership numbers from PTA national headquarters. Number of families with children, 1950–97, from Current Population Reports (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Bureau of the Census, various years), Series P2, T1; for 1900–50, number of families with children estimated from public elementary and secondary school enrollment, as reported in Historical Statistics of the United States, series H420, cross-checked against number of family households and family size. Although these 1900–50 estimates are imprecise, they do not affect the basic pattern in figure 9. For example, public school enrollment in 1935 was somewhat more than 26 million; my method generated an estimate of 21 million families, for a PTA membership rate of eight. It is utterly implausible that the actual number of families was more than 25 million or less than 15 million, which gives bounds of seven and eleven for the PTA membership rate.
10
Active organizational involvement in the United States, 1973–1994
Roper Social and Political Trends survey archive, 1973–94.
11
Club meeting attendance dwindles, 1975–1999
DDB Needham Life Style survey archive, 1975–99.
12
Church membership, 1936–1999
Denominational data from Constant H. Jacquet Jr., Yearbook of American and Canadian Churches, 1984 (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1984), 248, and later editions of this yearbook; Statistical Abstract of the United States (various years); and Benton Johnson, “The Denominations: The Changing Map of Religious America,” Public Perspective 4 (March/April 1993): 4. On methodological weaknesses of the denominational data, see notes in the Yearbook of American and Canadian Churches, 1984 and later editions of this yearbook. Gallup Poll data from George H. Gallup, The Gallup Poll: Public Opinion 1935-1971 (New York: Random House, 1972); George Gallup Jr., The Gallup Poll: Public Opinion (Wilmington, Del.: Scholarly Resources Inc., various years); Statistical Abstract of the United States, 1997, (table 86), based on surveys conducted by the Gallup Organization; Mayer, Changing American Mind, 379; and the Gallup Web site www.gallup.com/poll/indicators/indreligion.asp.
13
Trends in church attendance 1940–1999
Figure is based on average church attendance figures from the Gallup Poll (“last week,” 1940–99), the Roper Social and Political Trends polls (“last week,” 1974–98), the National Election Studies (“regularly,” 1952–68; “almost weekly,” 1970–98), the General Social Survey (“nearly every week,” 1972–98), and the DDB Needham Life Style polls (at least “25 times last year,” 1975–99). Results from the last three of these archives have been recalibrated to match the weekly attendance format of the first two archives; alternative calibration formulas would slightly affect the estimated level of attendance but would not alter the basic trends. The NES question format was changed in 1970 and again in 1990, but those changes do not appear to have substantially altered the results used to construct figure 13. As noted in text, questions have been raised about the reliability of the absolute level of church attendance reported in surveys.
14
Union membership in the United States, 1900–1998
Barry T. Hirsch and John T. Addison, The Economic Analysis of Unions (Boston: Allen & Unwin, 1986), 46–47 (table 3.1); Barry T. Hirsch and David A. Macpherson, Union Membership and Earnings Data Book: Compilations from the Current Population Survey (Washington, D.C.: Bureau of National Affairs, 1998), 10 (table 1).
15
Average membership rate in eight national professional associations, 1900–1997
See appendix III for list of professional associations and relevant “constituency” for each. Membership figures were obtained from the national headquarters of the respective associations, numbers of employed members of each profession from Historical Statistics of the United States, and unpublished data provided by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
16
Social and leisure activities of American adults (1986–1990)
Roper Social and Political Trends archive, surveys of June 1986, April 1987, and June 1990.
17
Frequency of selected formal and informal social activities, 1975–1998
DDB Needham Life Style survey archive, 1975–98.
18
Social visiting declines, 1975–1999
DDB Needham Life Style survey archive, 1975–99; Roper Social and Political Trends archive and Roper Reports (New York: Roper Starch Worldwide, various months): go out to friends’ home: March of 1982, 1984, 1990, 1993, 1995; have friends in: November of 1975, 1977, 1985, 1988, 1993, 1996.
19
Family dinners become less common, 1977–1999
DDB Needham Life Style survey archive, 1977–99.
20
Bars, restaurants, and luncheonettes give way to fast food, 1970–1998
1998 National Retail Census: Report to Retailers, Jack Richman, ed. (New York: Audits & Surveys Worldwide, 1998).
21
The rise of card games in America, 1900–1951
Card sales from tax records: Jesse Frederick Steiner, Americans at Play: Recent Trends in Recreation and Leisure Time Activities (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1933), 138, updated with later data from the Annual Report of the Commissioner of Internal Revenue (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of the Treasury, various years) on excise tax on decks of playing cards; population aged fourteen and over: Historical Statistics of the United States, part I, 10, Series A 29–42.
22
Card playing and other leisure activities, 1975–1999
DDB Needham Life Style survey archive, 1975–99.
23
The decline of neighboring, 1974–1998
General Social Survey archive, 1974–98.
24
Informal socializing as measured in time diary studies, 1965–1995
Americans’ Use of Time data archive, 1965–95. See appendix I for more details on this archive.
25
Stagnation in fitness (except walking)
DDB Needham Life Style survey archive, 1975–99.
26
The rise and decline of league bowling
American Bowling Congress Annual Report, 1994 (Greendale, Wisc.: American Bowling Congress, 1994), updated with information from American Bowling Congress headquarters.
27
The growth of spectator sports, 1960–1998
Historical Statistics of the United States: Statistical Abstract of the United States (various years)
28
Volunteering fostered by clubgoing and churchgoing
DDB Needham Life Style survey archive, 1975–99.
29
Schmoozing and good works
DDB Needham Life Style survey archive, 1975–99.
30
Blood donation fostered by clubgoing and churchgoing
DDB Needham Life Style survey archive, 1981–84, 1986, 1992–94, and 1999. “Regular” blood donor means gave blood at least once in the last year or twice in the last three years or three times in the last five years.
31
The rise and fall of philanthropic generosity, 1929–1998
Contributions 1929–70: David Hammack and Dennis A. Young, eds., Nonprofit Organizations in a Market Economy (San Francisco: Jossey Bass, 1993), table 2.1; this series applies improved estimating procedures to the data provided in the Internal Revenue Service Statistics of Income: Individual Income Tax Returns and replaces earlier estimates such as series H399 in the 1975 edition of Historical Statistics of the United States. Like the earlier series, this one compensates for “overreporting” of contributions and contains estimates of contributions by those not reporting them to the Internal Revenue Service. The trends in both series are essentially identical, but the Hammack-Young series implies a slightly greater level of generosity throughout the period. Contributions 1967–98: Giving USA 1998, Ann E. Kaplan, ed. (New York: American Association of Fund-Raising Counsel Trust for Ph
ilanthropy, 1998). Income: Historical Statistics of the United States, part I, 225, series F25, and Bureau of Economic Analysis, National Income and Product Accounts (U .S. Department of Commerce, Washington, D.C., 1998). The 1929–70 and 1967–98 series closely coincide for the four years in which they overlap (1967–70), suggesting that the two are generally comparable.
32
Trends in Protestant, Catholic, and United Way giving, 1920s–1990s
Protestant trends: John and Sylvia Ronsvalle, The State of Church Giving through 1995 (Champaign, Ill.: empty tomb, 1997), 37. Catholic Trends: Andrew Greeley and William McManus, Catholic Contributions: Sociology and Policy (Chicago: Thomas More Press, 1987), updated in Andrew Greeley, The Catholic Myth: The Behavior and Beliefs of American Catholics (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1990), 130, and further updated through 1989 by my own calculations from the General Social Survey archive, the source of Greeley’s 1987–88 data. United Way: Data for numerator provided directly by United Way of America; for the period 1925–50, I have confirmed these data with the data given in F. Emerson Andrews, Philanthropic Giving (New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 1950), 142. Income data from Bureau of Economic Analysis, National Income and Product Accounts.
33
Reported charitable giving declined in the 1980s and 1990s
Unpublished data from Yankelovich Partners, Inc. (1981–99); Roper Political and Social Trends survey archives (November 1980, 1981, 1983, 1985, 1986, 1989, 1991, 1992, and 1994).
34
Volunteering up, community projects down, 1975–1999
DDB Needham Life Style survey archive, 1975–99.
35
Trends in volunteering by age category
DDB Needham Life Style survey archive, 1975–98.
36
Trends in participation in community projects by age category
DDB Needham Life Style survey archive, 1975–98.
37
Declining perceptions of honesty and morality, 1952–1998
1952, Ben Gaffin and Associates; 1965 and 1976, Gallup, 1998 Washington Post survey. The first three are taken from the POLL on-line survey archive of the Roper Center for Public Opinion Research, University of Connecticut; the last from David S. Broder and Richard Morin, “Struggle over New Standards,” Washington Post (December 27, 1998): A01.
38
Four decades of dwindling trust: adults and teenagers, 1960–1999
The primary sources for this figure are General Social Survey (1972–98); National Election Study (1964–98); DDB Needham Life Style survey archive (1975–99); Monitoring the Future survey archive (high school students, 1976–96). The first three sources are described in appendix I. The fourth is an annual survey conducted by the University of Michigan Survey Research Center and available through the Interuniversity Consortium for Political and Social Research. Additional data points were gleaned from the POLL on-line survey archive of the Roper Center for Public Opinion Research, University of Connecticut; Tom W. Smith, “Factors Relating to Misanthropy in Contemporary American Society,” Social Science Research 26 (1997): 175; the World Values Surveys (1980, 1990, 1995), available from the Interuniversity Consortium for Political and Social Research; Robert E. Lane, “The Politics of Consensus in an Age of Affluence,” American Political Science Review 59 (December 1965): 879; and Richard G. Niemi, John Mueller, and Tom W. Smith, Trends in Public Opinion (New York: Greenwood Press, 1989), 303. Missing data were excluded from all calculations. DDB Needham question is six-level agree/disagree item: “Most people are honest.” The twenty-five-year trend for this question is essentially identical to that for the standard question “Most people can be trusted” vs. “You can’t be too careful,” although the absolute level of agreement to the DDB Needham question is c. 10 percent higher.
39
Generational succession explains most of the decline in social trust
DDB Needham Life Style survey archive, 1975–1999.
40
The changing observance of stop signs
John Trinkaus, “Stop Sign Compliance: An Informal Look,” Psychological Reports 50 (1982): 288; Trinkaus, “Stop Sign Compliance: Another Look,” Perceptual and Motor Skills 57 (1983): 922; Trinkaus, “Stop Sign Compliance, A Further Look,” Perceptual and Motor Skills 67 (1988): 670; Trinkaus, “Stop Sign Compliance: A Follow-up Look,” Perceptual and Motor Skills 76 (1993): 1218; Trinkaus, “Stop Sign Compliance: A Final Look,” Perceptual and Motor Skills 85 (1997): 217–218.
41
U.S. crime rates, 1960–1997
Statistical Abstract of the U.S. 1997; Crime in the U.S. 1997 (Washington, D.C.: Federal Bureau of Investigation,
42
Employment in policing and the law soared after 1970
1900-70: Historical Statistics of the United States, part I, D589-D592, 144; 1970-96: Statistical Abstract of the United States and data provided directly by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). These data refer to actual employment, not professional qualification, so law school graduates who no longer practice law are excluded. Both the BLS and the Census Bureau have gone to great lengths to maintain the comparability of the operational definition of the various professions over time.
43
Explosive growth of national environmental organizations, 1960–1998
Post-1970: Bosso, “The Color of Money,” and Bosso, “Facing the Future.” Pre-1970: Mitchell, Mertig, and Dunlap, “Twenty Years of Environmental Mobilization.” In a few cases I have interpolated data for missing years in order to avoid severe distortions in the series.
44
Initiatives on statewide ballots in the United States, 1900–1998
Data provided by M. Dane Waters of the Initiative and Referendum Institute.
45
The graying of protest demonstrations
Data for 1974 from Samuel H. Barnes, Max Kaase, et al. Political Action: An Eight Nation Study, 1973–76; for 1981 from M. Kent Jennings, Jan W. van Deth, et al. Political Action II, 1979–81; for 1980 and 1990 from World Values Study Group, World Values Survey, 1981–84 and 1990–93. All these survey archives are distributed through Interuniversity Consortium for Political and Social Research (University of Michigan: Ann Arbor, Michigan). Data for 1995 from World Values Survey provided directly by Ronald Inglehart.
46
Trends in telephones, calls, and letters
Household penetration: Trends in Telephone Service (Washington, D.C.: Federal Communications Commission, September 1999) staff estimates based on data from Historical Statistics of the United States, II: 783, except 1980 and 1990, which are from the decennial censuses. Prior to 1920 household penetration rates are estimates extrapolated from data on telephones per capita. Personal phone calls and letters: Roper Social and Political Trends survey archive, 1973–1994.
47
Working by choice and by necessity among American women, 1978–1999
DDB Needham Life Style survey archive, 1978, 1980–99.
48
More women work because they must, 1978–1999
DDB Needham Life Style survey archive, 1978, 1980–99.
49
Working full-time reduces community involvement
DDB Needham Life Style survey archive, 1978, 1980–99.
50
Community involvement is lower in major metropolitan areas
Roper Social and Political Trends survey archive, 1974–94.
51
Church attendance is lower in major metropolitan areas
DDB Needham Life Style survey archive, 1975–98.
52
The suburbanization of America, 1950–1996
For 1950-70: Historical Statistics of the United States, I: 40, series A276-287; for 1980-90, 1990 Census Population and Housing Unit Count (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1995), table 48. For 1992 and 1995: data provided directly by Census Bureau. Note that to maintain comparability 1980 figures are based on standard metropolitan areas as defined i
n 1990.
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