bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Realizing the Meta-Analytic Potential
Authors: Soeken Karen L. , Bausell R. Barker , Li Yu-Fang
Published: March 2007

A survey of 99 authors of meta-analyses conducted between 1988 and 1993 was undertaken to identify policies and products that might be helpful in the realization of the procedure 's ultimate potential Although a number of differences werefound between medical and social/nonmedically related health scientists, the greatest degree of overall enthusiasm for both groups was observedfor the need to educate journal editors and primary researchers regarding information that needs to be reported in an empirical study. The respondents were also in general agreement that a consensus should be developed and disseminated on minimum standards for published meta-analyses. A number of the other proposals were less popular, although an argument is made that some of these have actually come to fruition since the original survey was conducted.
Validation of the Panic Outcomes Module
Authors: Hollenberg Jan , Rost Kathryn M. , Humphrey Joylyn , Owen Richard R. , Smith G. Richard
Published: March 2007

This article discusses the validation of a module designed to evaluate the outcomes of clinical care for panic disorder The research utilized a longitudinal design to examine cross-sectional relationships and change over time within and between subjects. Baseline, follow-up, and test-retest data were collected on 73 patients. The initialfield test indicates that the Panic Outcomes Module measures outcomes and case-mix characteristics with acceptable levels of measurement error for group data The module's measure of change in panic severity demonstrated encouraging agreement with the structured interviewer's judgement of change. This module, completed in approximately 20 minutes, is short enough to incorporate into outpatient mental health settings. We recommend that providers and administrators interested in monitoring the outcomes of specialty care for panic disorder seek assistance from health services researchers to use the Panic outcomes module. Further research is needed to validate this module for use in primary care populations.
Setting Standards on Performance Assessments of Physicians' Clinical Skills Using Contrasting Groups and Receiver Operating Characteristic Curves
Authors: Clauser Brian E. , Nungester Ronald J.
Published: March 2007

During recent years, the use of performance assessmentsfor high-stakes evaluation ofphysicians' clinical skills has increased. As a result, considerable attention has been given to the identification of appropriate procedures for setting standards on performance assessments. Several articles have described application of the contrasting groups procedure. It appears that the procedure is not well understood. Relatively little has been written about the requirements for using this procedure appropriately. This article provides a discussion of the theoretical frameworkfor setting standards using contrasting groups. The discussion is then extended to include the circumstance in which the contrasting groups data are interpreted using receiver operating characteristic curves. Examples from the research literature involving variations on the contrasting groups method for setting standards on performance assessments of clinical skills are discussed. The article concludes with guidelines for evaluators interested in using the contrasting groups procedure.
Diagnostic Clusters in Infants as Child Health Outcomes
Authors: McConnochie Kenneth M. , Roghmann Klaus J. , Liptak Gregory S.
Published: March 2007

Objectives were to examine geographic variation in rates of infant hospitalizationfor diagnostic clusters in Monroe County (Rochester), New York and to assess these clusters as indexes of child health. ICD-9 codes were used to cluster all 7,883 hospitalizations of infants (< 24 months) between 1985 and 1991 on the basis oftheiravoidability. Environmentally sensitive clusters accounted for 63% of admissions. These clusters included environmental, environmental/constitutional, and other infectious disease. Disparities in morbidity between inner city and suburbs were greatest for the environmental cluster, followed by the environmental/constitutional, and other infectious disease clusters. For the constitutional and quality indicator clusters, differences between inner-city and suburban risk were minimal. Environmental interventions may be more important than improved health services to reducing racial and economic disparities in child health. Analysis of morbidity clusters, ascertained from available administrative data bases and aggregated.for small geographic areas, may guide child health policy well.
Live television is still alive: on television as an unfulfilled promise
Authors: Bourdon Jérôme
Published: March 2007

Although live broadcasting has declined in the long term, and is deemed of little importance by most television theorists, this article maintains that an analysis of `liveness' remains central to an understanding of television in general. `Liveness' is not defined as a technical phenomenon, but rather as the viewers' belief in live broadcasting. This belief depends on the televisual text, on the social context, on the social characteristics of viewers and on the temporal sequencing of television viewing. Based on the combination of sounds (especially the voice) with images, a typology of television sequences is proposed according to the degree of liveness reached: (1) fully live (maximum liveness, as in major media events); (2) continuity (appearance of liveness without certainty, as in game shows); (3) edited (non-fiction and non-live, but influenced by the context of live television, as with some news reports and documentaries); (4) fiction (minimum liveness especially in films, but influence of liveness in some genres). The analysis is applied especially to national and general audience channels. However, a short survey of cable programming shows how liveness has not disappeared, and is related to the possibility of switching, at any given moment, to live channels.
Media and social change: the modernizing influences of television in rural India
Authors: Johnson Kirk
Published: March 2007

This article analyzes the role of television in rural life, and the influence it has had on various social, economic and political processes that have been revolutionizing the landscape of village India in recent years. Data from ethnographic fieldwork in two remote villages in the mountains of Western Maharashtra (Danawli and Raj Puri) are presented in the context of development and social change. In particular, the article establishes the framework and rationale for an ethnographic approach to the research. It discusses the unique characteristics of television that make it an important agent of cultural change. Furthermore, the article analyzes various social processes that include consumerism, urban modeling, restructuring of human relationships, linguistic hegemony, migration and the emergence of an information underclass. Some villagers see these processes as positive, yet others view them as negative developments. The article concludes with a discussion of social change at both the structural as well as psychological levels and argues that the village audience is an active and vibrant participant in the use of media, which has ramifications for `development' both at the village level and beyond.
Witnessing
Authors: Peters John Durham
Published: March 2007

Witnessing is a common but rarely examined term in both the professional performance and academic analysis of media events. This article explores the practice of witnessing in general to clarify such problems in media studies as veracity, reliability, liveness, responsibility and historicity. The long history of puzzlement and prescription about proper witnessing that developed in oral and print cultures is a rich resource for reflection about some of the ambiguities of audiovisual media.
Sending a political message: lessons from the American 1790s
Authors: Schudson Michael
Published: March 2007

Political communication should be understood as a field of human activity comprised not only of discrete political messages but of the political framework in which messaging takes place. A case study of the American public sphere in the 1790s reveals that the American Founders objected to political parties, voluntary associations that discussed politics, and electoral campaigning. They offered very limited support for public education and only intermittently endorsed a free press. This case dramatizes the point that understanding political communication requires seeing it in the context of state structures and political norms.
Newspapers and national identity: the BSE/CJD crisis and the British press
Authors: Brookes Rod
Published: March 2007

Analyses of the relationship between the news media and national identity often tend to focus on explicit, stereotypical representations of nationalism in news coverage of appropriate subjects such as international politics, sport and war. However, there is a danger that the news media's role in the everyday reproduction of national identity through coverage of less obvious issues can be overlooked. This article is based on textual analysis of a specific case study: representations of the nation in British press coverage of the crisis over `mad cow disease' in March 1996. It concludes that whereas images and symbols of explicit nationalism were indeed present, what was more significant was the role of the news media in encouraging commonsense identification with the nation.
Organizational fields, cultural fields and art worlds: the early effort to make photographs and make photographers in the 19th-century United States of America
Authors: Battani Marshall
Published: March 2007

The utility of the production of culture perspective is expanded by incorporating concepts developed for analysis of culture consumption into a framework for the historical investigation of emerging fields of cultural production. The idea of `role as resource' and the concept of `field structuration' processes are linked with Bourdieu's approach to fields of status differentiation and to `art world' analyses to illuminate the creation of photographic meanings in the emerging, and rapidly growing, field of cultural production and economic activity surrounding 19th-century photography in the USA.
Elder-Child Coresidence in the United States
Authors: Schmertmann Carl P. , Boyd Monica , Serow William , White Douglas
Published: March 2007

We examine patterns of coresidence between elders and their adult children using a very large sample ( N greater than 3.5 million) of individuals 60 and older from the 1990 decennial census. The size of the data set allows for very fine demographic detail. The study presents cross-sectional data on the probability that an elder coresides with a child, disaggregated by the elder’s gender, age (in single years), and presence or absence of spouse, and by the child’s gender. Findings include the following: (1) Younger elders are more likely to coreside with sons, and older elders are more likely to coreside with daughters; (2) for men without spouses, coresidence rates with both sons and daughters increase monotonically from age 60 to 90; and (3) among all of the groups that analyzed, only women over age 80 without spouses are more likely to live with daughters than sons.
Health-Related Quality of Life in Persons Younger and Older than 50 Who are Living with HIV/AIDS
Authors: Nokes Kathleen M. , Holzemer William L. , Corless Inge B. , Bakken Suzanne , Brown Marie-Annette , Powell-Cope Gail M. , Inouye Jillian , Turner Joan
Published: March 2007

Mortality rates are higher in older persons with AIDS. The Wilson and Cleary health-related quality-of-life model was used to explore whether there were differences on health-related quality-of-life variables between persons aged 50 or older ( n = 73) and younger persons ( n = 640) in a national sample. Depending on the level of the data, either independent t tests or chi-squares were calculated. Older participants reported significantly more medical conditions such as diabetes or hypertension ( p = .000), more limitations in physical functioning ( p = .006), and self-disclosure of HIV infection to fewer people ( p = .000). There were no significant differences on any of the other variables. There are relatively few differences in older as compared to younger persons living with HIV/AIDS, yet mortality rates are higher in older samples. The relationship between the areas where there are differences and whether they affect morbidity and mortality need further exploration.
Midlife
Authors: Perun Pamela J. , Bielby Denise Del Vento
Published: March 2007

In recent years, both theoretical and empirical interest in the middle years has greatly increased. In an attempt to bring some conceptual and organizational clarity to a rapidly expanding area, this paper critically examines past and present research on a prominent issue in current research on the middle years, the "midlife crisis." A careful analysis of this work reveals two models of thought in the literature with fundamentally opposed assumptions about the nature of development in midlife. Our thesis is that these different perspectives serve as alternative paradigms of human development not only in the middle years but throughout the life course as well.
Why Older People Move
Authors: Wiseman Robert F.
Published: March 2007

The theory of elderly migration lags well behind the state of empirical knowledge. Further development is needed to integrate present findings and direct future research. The intent of this article is to stimulate theory development and to suggest ways in which such development might proceed. Two conceptual models are presented: One is a behavioral model which views the migration process as a staged set of interrelated decisions; the second is a typology of migration which includes involvement motivations, migrant characteristics, and migration outcomes. Also discussed are numerous suggestions for further research.
Sexuality and Self-Esteem among the Aged
Authors: Stimson Ardyth , Wase Jane F. , Stimson John
Published: March 2007

This study replicates one done on college-aged students (Stimson et al., 1978) and shows that substantially similar emotional and attitudinal factors underlie integrations of sexuality and self-evaluations for the groups in the earlier and the present studies. The persistence of standards and reference models from youth into age seems to have different effects on men and women. For the older man, an active sex life appears to be crucial to his feelings of self-worth and his feeling that he is respected by his friends and secure socially. As with the younger man, dissatisfaction with sexual activity is related to depression and feelings of worthlessness. For the older woman sexual behavior remains a separate activity dimension. One might think that this would protect older women from disintegrating self-evaluations, but where the younger woman derives confidence from feeling attractive, the older woman feels unattractive and therefore socially rejected and of less value.
Analyzing Topical Oral Biographies of Old People
Authors: Matthews Sarah H.
Published: March 2007

In order to gain understanding of friendship in the context of individuals' lives, over 60 chronologically old informants were asked to relate their biographies to an interviewer using friendship as the constant referent. The strengths and weaknesses for the data obtained in this way are discussed and three frameworks for analysis are specfied. These data have the potential to provide insight into cultural aspects of friendship in American society, the process of friendship through the life course, and social actors' organization of their friendships. The "topical oral biographies method" is suggested as a way to pursue research questions about the relationship between individuals and societies.
The Challenge of an Aging Population
Authors: Goldstein Alice , Goldstein Sidney
Published: March 2007

Policymakers and demographers in China are cognizant of the implications of the one-child family policy for the eventual aging of their nation's population and are beginning to incorporate attention to the elderly into the economic and population policies being developed. A major stumbling block to the acceptance of the one-child family policy, especially in rural areas, has been fear about security in old age. As the one-child family becomes widely established, it will become increasingly difficult for the only child to support two elderly parents.
Homeownership in the Older Population
Authors: Chevan Albert
Published: March 2007

The rise of homeownership in the elderly population from 1940 to 1980 is investigated within the framework of compositional analysis. Recent cohorts have arrived at old age at higher levels of ownership than was previously the case. Using data on all individuals, significant compositional effects on homeownership were found. Changes in the process of homeownership retention have led to higher levels of home ownership among the elderly, but these are comparatively small and became relatively less influential in the latter half of the period investigated. Changes in income distribution and living arrangements accounted for virtually all the increase in homeownership. Developments in living arrangements among the elderly are linked to the increase in homeownership.
Correlates of Preventive Health Behavior in Late Life
Authors: Rakowski William , Julius Mara , Hickey Tom , Halter Jeffrey B.
Published: March 2007

A sample of 172 community-resident older adults (aged 64-96) were interviewed to investigate correlates of their preventively oriented, health-related practices. Four health practice groupings were used: Information-Seeking, Regular Health Routines, Medical and Self-Examination, and Risk Avoidance. Results indicated modest associations among individual behaviors and among the four health practice groups. Gender (i.e., women) and a supportive family environment were among the consistent predictors of good health practices, although each of the four behavior groups tended to have its own set of major predictors.
Primary-Group Support Systems of the Aged
Authors: Peters George R. , Hoyt Danny R. , Babchuk Nicholas , Kaiser Marvin , Iijima Yuko
Published: March 2007

This article examines whether the instrumental and affectual support provided the elderly differs among informal social support groups. Cantor's hierarchical-compensatory model postulates an order of preference in the choice of support group regardless of the type of aid sought. Litwak's task-specific model predicts that older people turn to different support groups depending on the type of assistance needed. Our test of these two models indicates that certain network members are more likely to be selected regardless of whether the assistance needed is instrumental or affective. The elderly turn primarily to the spouse followed by adult children, friends, siblings, and "other relatives" in that order. When lacking one of these categories of intimates, no compensatory principle operates.
Is Parent Care Normative? The Experiences of a Sample of Middle-Aged Women
Authors: Rosenthal Carolyn J. , Matthews Sarah H. , Marshall Victor W.
Published: March 2007

In the current literature on parent care, the assertion is made that modern women at some time in their lives may expect to be sandwiched between responsibilities to old parents and their other commitments. This article presents the distribution for a random sample of 163 women aged 40 to 69 with respect to combinations of variables or commitment configurations that have been identified in the literature as contributing to women's being "caught in the middle." In addition, the lifetime caregiving experiences and the likelihood that those who have not yet been caregivers will be "caught" are examined for a subsample of the women. The argument is made that adult children rather than caregivers to frail parents are the appropriate population on which to focus if the incidence and prevalence of the involvement of adult children in parent care are to be ascertained.
Household Patterns of Older Women
Authors: Wolf Douglas A.
Published: March 2007

Comparative analyses based on aggregate data have shown that the percentage of older women living alone has risen dramatically during recent decades, a pattern repeated in many European and North American countries. This article investigates the correlates of the decision to live alone, using individual-level data from five countries and a parallel analytic approach. The major categories of factors analyzed here are kin availability, financial resources, and disability and health status. Several common patterns of findings emerge for the group of countries considered: Larger kin networks and the presence of severe disabilities reduce the probability of living alone, whereas higher income increases the probability of living alone. Despite these similarities in individual-level correlates, there remain some differences across countries in the levels of single-person households, and these might be attributable to macrolevel forces such as housing and social welfare policies.
Assessing Subjective Well-Being in the Old-Old
Authors: Kercher Kyle
Published: March 2007

A review of past research reveals apparent gaps in many current measures of positive affect (PA) and negative affect (NA) including the Bradburn (1969) Affect Balance subscales popular among gerontologists and other social scientists. In many cases, the measures produce PA/NA correlations so high that some researchers claim subjective well-being is unidimensional. A viable alternative measure of positive and negative affect is the PANAS (Watson, Clark, and Tellegen 1988), which appears to distinguish clearly between these two emotional dimensions of subjective well-being. Unfortunately, however, only younger samples have served as subjects in research on the PANAS. Accordingly, the current study assessed the psychometric qualities of the PANAS applied to a sample of the old-old. Consistent with prior studies of younger samples, the results here clearly support the viability of the measure among the elderly. Of particular significance, the PA and NA dimensions appear completely independent of each other. More broadly, the results also support using the circumplex model of emotions when selecting mood adjectives to represent the affective dimensions of subjective well-being.
Factors Influencing Parental Caregiving by Adult Women
Authors: Himes Christine L. , Jordan Anne K. , Farkas Janice I.
Published: March 2007

This article examines a variety of demographic and structural characteristics that influence the provision of care to elderly parents by adult daughters. In particular, variations in these characteristics by the duration and intensity of care provision are examined. Age, education, and marital status are found to be the most important individual characteristics influencing the provision of care. Parental age, the number of living parents, and the proximity of parents and daughters are also important. However, when caregivers are examined by the duration and intensity of their care, only parental age is consistently related to care. Geographic proximity does not appear significant for women who are providing short, intense periods of care, implying that "crisis" care is undertaken by women despite their distance from parents. This researchhighlights the importance of distinguishing among different types of caregiving.
Parliamentary Representation of Women: From Discourses of Justice to Strategies of Accountability
Authors: Sawer Marian
Published: March 2007

The 1990s have witnessed a wide range of initiatives at national and international levels to increase the parliamentary representation of women. It is argued here that the “underrepresentation of women” is an inherently ambiguous slogan that has wrapped up in it quite different families of arguments, including the right to represent, the need for representativeness, and the representation of interests. This ambiguity is politically powerful but may cause problems for the practice of representation. The article concludes that “making a difference” discourse may lead to an over-emphasis on embodiment and a neglect of issues of accountability.
The Developmental Theory of the Gender Gap: Women’s and Men’s Voting Behavior in Global Perspective
Authors: Inglehart Ronald , Norris Pippa
Published: March 2007

Studies carried out in many countries in previous decades found that women were more conservative than men and less likely to participate in politics. Here, it is examined whether this traditional gender gap persists today, or whether gender cleavages in the electorate have converged, and whether the phenomenon of the modern gender gap, with women more left wing, has become evident elsewhere. The article draws on evidence from the World Values Surveys in the early 1980s, and the early and mid-1990s carried out in over sixty countries around the world. This study establishes that gender differences in electoral behavior have been realigning, with women moving toward the left of men throughout advanced industrial societies (though not in postcommunist societies or developing countries) and explores the reasons for this development, including the role of structural and cultural factors. The conclusion considers the political implications of the findings.
Verba Ultima: Order or Freedom? On the Plurality of Binding Patterns of Behavior and Their Systems
Authors: Ehrlich Stanisław
Published: March 2007

Challenging the popular dichotomy of law and morals, the author puts forward the thesis of a plurality of binding patterns of behavior, law being one of them. In the system of norms of the global organization of society, the state plays a coordinating role. State sovereignty is constantly shrinking, squeezed as it is by the growing density of international relations, the push toward decentralization and the proliferation of organized crime. Thus, it is necessary to couple the emerging new international order with new diversified binding patterns of behavior. The implementation of a new normative infrastructure for mankind's social organization is a matter of survival. The alternative is Kant's fight for lasting peace on global, regional and national levels or perishing by installments.
Ethnicity, State, and World-System: Comments on the Ways of Making History
Authors: Bigo Didier
Published: March 2007

Relating state, ethnicity, and globalization throughout history raises the question of the durability of concepts capable of transcending historical time in order to produce appropriate explanatory models. The article, which offers a critical commentary on the articles by Fred Riggs, Thomas Hall, Jonathan Friedman, and Majid Tehranian, shows the strength of long term ( longue durée) historical models to explain what appears “new” or a “return” to nationalism. The author discusses the position taken by the four authors concerning ethnic conflicts and immigration and concludes with the observation that natural history is an illusion.
Myths and Realities of Raising Children and Creating Family Life in a Rural County
Authors: STRUTHERS CYNTHIA B. , BOKEMEIER JANET L.
Published: March 2007

The purpose of this study is to examine the myths that surround rural areas and the expectations parents have of family life based on residence in a rural Michigan county. In face-to-face interviews with rural parents, we find that expectations for the creation and maintenance of family life are often at odds with the economic, political, and material conditions of rural living. Yet, parents adhere to myths about self-sufficiency, safety, family life, and community solidarity, myths that are separate and distinct from beliefs and perceptions they have of what family would be in an urban area. Myths about rural places are incorporated into parents' perceptions of their family life. Parents' perceptions are shaped by farm or nonfarm rural residence, whether they grew up in a rural or urban area, and whether or not they have other family or kin that live in the same rural county.
Migrants and Their Parents
Authors: BALDOCK CORA VELLEKOOP
Published: March 2007

This article reports findings from exploratory interviews with migrants involved in caregiving for elderly parents who have remained “back home.” The findings indicate that such distant carers make an important contribution to the caring process through letters, phone calls, and caregiving visits. This is a contribution that has not been recognized in literature on aged care. The study also shows that such caregiving may involve an ongoing dialogue with the home country over many years and even the consideration of remigration as the consequence of family obligations and the perceived need for caregiving of family members in the home country.
Reconnecting Household and Community
Authors: SCANZONI JOHN H.
Published: March 2007

The aim of this article is to sketch the outlines of a social and spatial arrangement linking the household with its neighborhood. The fundamental theoretical and policy issue considered here is the sufficiency of the model of household isolation that has prevailed in the United States since the post-World War II era. Contrary to Talcott Parsons, who viewed that model as the end point of family evolution, critics at the time perceived it as having serious structural flaws. They argued for the reinvention of a meso layer of society linking the household more closely with its neighborhood. This article elaborates that theme by suggesting four spheres in which households might form pacts or alliances. These include gender, children/youth, mature persons, and economic disadvantage. To be fully implemented, the last issue in particular requires a partnership of some type with government.
Grandparents and Coresident Grandchildren in a Youth Cohort
Authors: CAPUTO RICHARD K.
Published: March 2007

This article examined correlates of grandparent-grandchild coresidency in 1998, using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. Among parents 40 years of age or younger in 1998 ( N = 5,019), 107 reported grandchildren in the same households. Compared with other parents, coresident grandparents were older, less educated, much younger at the time of the birth of their first child, and 2 to 4 times as likely to be female, single, Black, poor, and unemployed. The majority (81.3%) of coresident grandparents had one grandchild living with them. Only 5.5% lived in skipped-generation households.
Grandparents Raising Grandchildren
Authors: TARG DENA B. , BRINTNALL-PETERSON MARY
Published: March 2007

The 1999 national videoconference Grandparents Raising Grandchildren: Implications for Professionals and Agencies educated professionals about the problems grandparents face as they parent a second time and encouraged professionals to work together on community-based solutions. Congruent with an ecological perspective, the videoconference portrayed problems and solutions as based in individuals and families, local communities, and the larger society. Those in attendance had a better understanding of the issues and programs that could address them. Many participants reported they planned to work locally with others to provide educational programs. Follow-up evaluations confirmed that participants actually did get involved in their communities. They addressed the situation of grandparents raising grandchildren through new or expanded local task forces or coalitions. The impact of this videoconference documents that a videoconference is a viable method of educating professionals and grandparents on issues of parenting again and can help facilitate community members to work together on emerging needs.
Family Conversations About Television
Authors: MESSARIS PAUL
Published: March 2007

This is an examination of two kinds of conversations that parents and children sometimes have about television programs: first, conversations in which parents and children seek and / or exchange information about some aspect of reality portrayed or referred to on television; second, conversations in which family members discuss the appropriateness or inappropriateness of behavior shown or mentioned on television as a model for their own or other people's conduct. Examples taken from an observational study of families watching television in their homes are used to illustrate some of the forms these conversations can take, and, on the basis of these illustrations and of some previous research, speculations are offered about the role such conversations might play in family members' developing relationships to one another and to the “outside” world.
Marital Disruption
Authors: KINARD E. MILLING , REINHERZ HELEN
Published: March 2007

Recent research has demonstrated the importance of assessing the effects of marital disruption on the psychological functioning of children in the context of family characteristics and situations. However, few studies have been able to address this issue in a study of a community population. This article examines the effects of marital disruption on behavioral and emotional functioning in a cohort of thirdgrade children, using ratings of psychological functioning obtained at three time periods from multiple sources. The findings suggest that marital disruption has some negative consequences for children's adjustment in certain areas of functioning. The implications for mental health interventions are discussed.
The Family and the Professions
Authors: MORONEY R. M. , DOKECKI P. R.
Published: March 2007

If families are to be strengthened they should not only be viewed as means to societal ends (such as economic and social stability) but also their well-being should be recognized as a valied end in its own right. Interdependence should characterize optimal family-society relations. Society should be built on the values of community, mutual aid, cooperation, reduction of alienation, shared responsibility, human development, and Competent Society. This article explores the rationale for such a paradigm shift, identifies structural and professional barriers that would need to be addressed, and concludes with a number of recommendations.

This article explores the rationale for such a paradigm shift, identifies structural and professional barriers that would need to be addressed, and concludes with a number of recommendations.
Predicting Divorce and Permanent Separation
Authors: BOOTH ALAN , JOHNSON DAVID R. , WHITE LYNN K. , EDWARDS JOHN N.
Published: March 2007

Using longitudinal interview data, we examine the predictive ability of a scale designed to predict divorce and permanent separation. We find that high scorers are nine times more likely to divorce than low scorers. Divorce rates for components of the scale indicate that dissolution is a process, becoming more likely as overt actions succeed attitudinal factors. Finally, discriminant analysis is used to test a model predicting the likelihood of individuals moving from instability to divorce. The results indicate that individuals are more apt to move on to divorce or permanent separation if alternative attractions are present, there are few barriers to divorce, or when the marriage retains fewer attractions. The results indicate that the marital instability index in conjunction with information on barriers and attractions provides the basis for a comprehensive model predicting divorce.
Researching Developmental Careers
Authors: WHITE JAMES M.
Published: March 2007

An interval scale is developed to measure deviation from the normative sequencing of first job, marriage, and birth of first child. The scale scores have predictive utility for marital instability and work interruptions. Use of the scale scores as an independent variable provides information over and above that provided when Hogan's temporal sequence categories are used as the independent variables, and use of the former allows use of more powerful analytic techniques.
Marital Intimacy Among Older Persons
Authors: LEE GARY R.
Published: March 2007

This article reports on a study of the choice of confidant among a sample of married persons aged 55 and over. Although 85% of the women and 70% of the men reported having a confidant, less than 30% of the women and 40% of the men reported confiding in their spouses. Those who do confide in their spouses have markedly higher levels of marital satisfaction than others and also generally score higher on measures of overall emotional well-being. In many cases, the estimated negative effects of confiding in someone other than one's spouse are as large as or larger than the negative effects of not having a confidant. These findings indicate the import of identity of the confidant for both marital and general well-being.
Communes and Changing Family Norms
Authors: AIDALA ANGELA A.
Published: March 2007

This article examines attitudes and behaviors regarding marriage, parenting, and lifestyle among former members of communal groups. A follow-up sample of 635 individuals who lived in a variety of communes in the early 1970s was restudied using personal interviews and self-administered questionnaires. Ex-commune members are less likely to have married than others in their age group. Sizable proportions currently live in multi-adult households. The vast majority of respondents hold open the possibility of collective living some time in the future. Attitudes show continuity of ideological criticisms of traditional life styles and a commitment to emotional openness and negotiated role relations within the family. Findings support a cohort-historical explanation of the commune movement. Communal experimentation was both a manifestation of and a contributor to the larger process of family change.
The Perceived Burden of Children
Authors: GOLDSTEEN KAREN , ROSS CATHERINE E.
Published: March 2007

We expect that mothers vary in the degree to which they perceive their children as burdensome, and that this variation may help explain why past research on the effect of children on mothers' psychological distress often finds insignificant or inconsistent effects: mothers who feel their children are a burden may have high distress levels compared with mothers who do not feel burdened. We find that mothers experience their children as differentially burdensome at different stages in the life cycle: younger mothers' perceived burden increases with each additional child, but older mothers are less affected by increasing numbers of children. Preschool children increase all mothers' perceived burden because they tend to make mothers feel that they cannot be alone when they want to. Employed mothers feel less burdened by their children than the nonemployed. Social context - the density of people in the home, integration into the neighborhood, and the presence of relatives in the area - had a number of unexpected effects. Crowding in the home increased the perception that children are burdensome by way of subjective crowding - the perception that there is too much activity in the home, the perceived inability to be alone, and dissatisfaction with living space. However, controlling for subjective crowding, the more adults in the home, the less the burden of children, presumably because these other adults can help care for the children. Integration into the neighborhood increased the likelihood of sharing child care with friends and neighbors, but this shared child care increased the perception of burden. We had expected the opposite. Possibly it increases perceived burden because it increases the obligation to care for one's neighbors' children in return for their help. Having relatives in the area increased the likelihood that these family members would care for one's children, but this child care had no significant effect on reducing burden. Instead, relatives in the area increased a mother's perception that she could not be alone when she wanted to, which increased burden. Thus, we find a number of costs of social integration for mothers.
Family Work
Authors: THOMPSON LINDA
Published: March 2007

The purpose of this article is to use a distributive justice approach to understand women's sense of fairness about family work. Previous research on family work is reviewed and organized around three factors that contribute to sense of fairness: Outcome values, comparison referents, and justifications. Women sense an injustice if they lack some outcome they desire, have a high standard for comparison, and believe there is no acceptable justification for being deprived of desired outcomes. To understand women's sense of fairness, researchers need to consider (a) valued outcomes other than time and tasks, (b) between-and within-gender comparison referents, and (c) gender-specific justifications for men's small contribution to family work.
Women in Age-Discrepant Marriages
Authors: SHEHAN CONSTANCE L. , BERARDO FELIX M. , VERA HERNAN , CARLEY SYLVIA MARION
Published: March 2007

This research seeks to identify salient sociodemographic correlates of women's likelihood of marrying outside the normative age patterns. The data were drawn from the Public Use Sample of the 1980 Census. Logistic regression analyses show that Black women are significantly more likely than White women to be in age-heterogamous marriages. Marital history appears to be the strongest predictor of age-discrepant marriages - remarried subjects exhibit the highest probability of entering such unions. The analysis also suggests that wives who are heterogamous on other dimensions vis-à-vis their husbands are also more likely to be in age-heterogamous marriages.
Recent U.S. Child Care and Family Legislation in Comparative Perspective
Authors: HOFFERTH SANDRA L. , DEICH SHARON GENNIS
Published: March 2007

This article reviews the history and content of recently passed U.S. child care and family legislation. This legislation is compared to the child care and family policies of four European nations in terms of five major policy objectives: (a) increasing supply, (b) supporting maternal employment, (c) easing the burdens of child rearing, (d) permitting parental choice, and (e) raising the quality of programs. All four European nations have been concerned with promoting childbearing and assisting parents to balance work and family responsibilities. They have also increased national responsibility for the care and education of children ages 3-5 and employer responsibility for parental leave. In contrast to the state-run systems in France, the United States has a market-based system with middle- and upper-income parents making the choices and being reimbursed by the state for part of those expenses. Low-income parents receive targeted subsidies. Recent parental leave legislation brings the United States only slightly closer to Europe because the leave is unpaid.
Rural-Urban Differences in Black Family Structure
Authors: HORTON HAYWARD DERRICK , THOMAS MELVIN E. , HERRING CEDRIC
Published: March 2007

The nature and structure of the African American family continues to be a topic of importance in sociology. Since the much-maligned Moynihan report of the 1960s, sociologists have linked Black family structure to persisting disadvantage. However, the overwhelming majority of past studies have focused on the urban Black family. Accordingly, this article employs data from the 1990 Public Use Microdata Samples to compare the rural African American family to its urban counterpart. Results from the logistic regression analysis reveal that for rural Blacks, family structure is less important than community type and race relative to poverty status. These findings suggest a need for a refinement of the underclass debate.
“Supermoms” of the Nineties
Authors: DeMEIS DEBRA K. , PERKINS H. WESLEY
Published: March 2007

Mothers employed in full-time careers and full-time homemaker mothers were surveyed to examine relationships among their employment status, role behaviors as mothers, and perceptions of the mother role. Women in both groups were graduates of the same undergraduate liberal arts college, thus providing groups with similar sociodemographic characteristics. Although homemaker mothers devoted more hours to homemaking than did employed mothers, both groups reported the same range of household and child care activities within a 48-hour period. Both groups also perceived equally little choice in performing household tasks they had done. With regard to their perceptions of whether mothers in general typically performed the child care activities, full-time employed mothers perceived 5 of the 12 behaviors as less typical than did homemakers. Results suggest the importance of examining mothers' perceptions of the role along with their objective behaviors in studying employment effects.
Neighborhood Poverty, Family Characteristics, and Commitment to Mainstream Goals
Authors: QUANE JAMES M. , RANKIN BRUCE H.
Published: March 2007

A causal model is used to understand the direct and mediated effects of neighborhood disadvantage and family structure on youth expectations. Using data obtained from face-to-face interviews with African American mothers and their children, we demonstrate that the employment expectations of adolescents are significantly lower in both nonintact and welfare homes in comparison to youth in other households. In addition, neighborhood disadvantage is shown to be indirectly related to reduced expectation by exposing youth to nonnormative peers. The findings have important implications for social policy, especially in light of the recent welfare reforms that place considerable emphasis on a work requirement for single mothers.
The Boys are Back in Town
Authors: Hughson John
Published: March 2007

The article draws on ethnographic fieldwork done with the Bad Blue Boys (BBB), a group of young, male, Australian/Croatian soccer fans who reside in the western suburbs of Sydney. The group, which uses soccer support to parade a rugged nationalistic identity, is examined as an aggressive masculine youth subculture. Social practices indicative of misogyny and homophobia are outlined. The extent and manner of ethnic influence on these attitudes is addressed. The article follows Segal’s approach of looking at a form of masculinity specific to a group rather than an overarching or monolithic masculinity. The article concludes with a consideration of Elias’s concept of the “civilizing process” as developed in the work of Eric Dunning and his associates at the University of Leicester. This consideration is grounded in a comparison of their study of the Kingsley Lads with that of the BBB.
New Sports
Authors: Heino Rebecca
Published: March 2007

The life cycle of a new sport, and its cultural implications, is apparent in the sport of snowboarding. Snowboarding was born in youthful resistance to the popular sport of skiing and the values of sport it represents. The media has appropriated the image of youthful rebellion in snowboarding and commodified it. Snowboarding is now going through the process of becoming more mainstream, suffering from pains of growth and discipline.
Social Disorganizational Aspects of Professional Sports Careers
Authors: Rosenberg Edwin
Published: March 2007

Social disorganization, approached as either structure or process, personal or institu tional, is discussed as it applies to the career of the professional team athlete. Conditions leading to social disorganization are delineated, as are the locations and types of social disorganization likely to be encountered by the athlete. Issues such as institutionalized racial discrimination, cheating, violence, the "win" ethic, the stigma of failure, and athletic retirement are examined as potential sources of disorganization. Sports careers are compared to non-sport careers, and four disorganizational elements unique to sport careers--the superfluity of formal education, accelerated social mobility, the inevitability of a second career, and the nature of athletic retirement--are elaborated.