JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org. This content downloaded from 128.235.We examine factors that influence the process by which foreign-born persons whose mother tongue is not English acquire English-language proficiency. We argue that the determinants of English-language proficiency include cultural and other traits that U.S. immigrants acquire either at birth or while growing up in their home countries, the human capital and other endowments they possess at the time they migrate to the United States, and the skills and other experiences they accumulate after their arrival in this country. Based on data from the November 1989 Current Population Survey, our results confirm that both pre-and post-immigration phases of the life cycle contain elements that are associated with how well immigrants to the United States speak English. A n important factor that sparks anti-immigrant sentiment in the United States is the perception that new immigrants are unwilling or unable to learn English as readily as did earlier waves of immigrants (Espenshade and Calhoun 1993). This hostility is heightened when, as today, the volume of immigration surpasses historical thresholds and when immigrants increasingly come from such nontraditional regions as Asia and Latin America (Friedberg 1991; U.S. Bureau of the Census 1993a). The changing national origins of recent immigrants to the United States are associated with a relative decline in their average skill levels and educational attainments (Borjas 1994), leading to renewed concerns about the pace of socioeconomic and cultural adaptation for new immigrants, including their acquisition of English-speaking ability (Lopez 1987).Although the United States has no official language policy, English is the predominant language used in social discourse and in business transactions, and the ability to communicate in English is thus linked with success in adjusting to life in America (Gordon 1964). Conversely, the lack of English proficiency has been blamed for numerous economic, social, and health problems encountered by immigrants. Economists argue that English proficiency is a form of human capital in the workplace, and that limited knowledge of English is associated with lower earnings (McManus, Gould, and Welch 1983;McManus 1985). Tienda and Neidert (1984) show that immigrants' poor command of English may curtail schooling for adolescents. Others suggest that language and communication barriers between health-care providers and clients undermine the effectiveness of public health systems (Quesada 1976).Despite widespread evidence that a limited command of English curtails opportunities for immigrants, and notwithstanding an abundant literature on language-use patterns generally, there has bee...

The usefulness of the NSFG remains extremely limited for analyses involving unintended pregnancy and abortion.

Levels of contraceptive failure vary widely by method, as well as by personal and background characteristics. Income's strong influence on contraceptive failure suggests that access barriers and the general disadvantage associated with poverty seriously impede effective contraceptive practice in the United States.

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This study investigates the link between health-related variables and risks of divorce. The findings indicate that physical characteristics associated with poor health -namely, obesity and short stature -are not significantly related to risks of marital dissolution for either men or women. On the other hand, risk-taking behaviours -such as smoking and drug useare strongly related to higher risks of divorce for both sexes. Overall, the results emphasize the need to accommodate health-related variables in the dominant economic and social psychological theories of marital dissolution.