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Ideational Factors

In recent decades scholars have increasingly come to appreciate the role of ideational influences on everyday life. Important research is conducted at Michigan on how values, attitudes, and beliefs shape union formation and fertility behavior, childrearing and child well-being, intergenerational dynamics, education and labor force participation, health risk behavior, the well-being of the elderly, migration and assimilation, and residential segregation. These influences have been investigated in many regions of the world and across history as well as in contemporary society.