bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The Impact of Formalization, Role Conflict, Role Ambiguity, and Communication Quality on Perceived Organizational Innovativeness in the Cancer Information Service
Authors: Johnson J. David , la France Betty H. , Meyer Marcy , Speyer Jo Beth , Cox Donna
Published: March 2007

Organizational members' levels of perceived innovativeness represent an insider's viewpoint of the organization 's overall approach to innovation. This study tested a model of the impact offormalization, role ambiguity, role conflict, and communication quality on perceived organizational innovativeness in the Cancer Information Service. Data were gathered from self-report questionnaires completed by organizational members (n = 86) within the Cancer Information Service, a geographically dispersed federal government health information program that was implementing innovative intervention strategies related to disseminating health information to the public. Results indicated that although the predicted model provided a good overallfit to the data, there were some problematic paths. A revised model is offered to reconceptualize the relationships among role conflict, role ambiguity, and communication quality. These results are discussed in terms of their implications for managers and scholars who hope to understand the factors that contribute to perceptions of innovativeness in the new organizationalforms emerging in the health service arena. These data suggest that formalization makes an important contribution to innovation in the highly uncertain world of new organizational forms.
Quality Improvement at the National Level
Authors: Marciniak Thomas A. , Mosedale Linda , Ellerbeck Edward F.
Published: March 2007

Most quality improvement projects address care delivered in one service of a hospital, such as the operating suite or the obstetrics service. Some projects are collaborative efforts involving groups of hospitals with similar interests. Few projects attempt to change care on a population basis (i.e., involving all providers in entire states or the nation as a whole.) The Cooperative Cardiovascular Project (CCP), sponsored by the Health Care Financing Administration, is attempting to improve carefor all Medicare patients suffering from acute myocardial infarctions nation-wide. The CCP has been active since 1993 and, in a pilot project, has demonstrated that care can be improved on a population basis (i.e., in four entire states). This article explores the lessons learned from the CCP pilot and from the evolving CCP national experience.
Mass media and the concept of interactivity: an exploratory study of online forums and reader email
Authors: Schultz Tanjev
Published: March 2007

Lack of interaction between the mass media and their audiences has always been a target for media criticism. While the Internet provides a potential for more interactive communication, one wonders how much this opportunity is taken up. The traditional mass media do not seem to become obsolete. Their function as providers of a shared lifeworld might become even more important. Besides their traditional formats, mass media are well represented on the World Wide Web, but it is not clear yet how interactive they will be in the online environment. The article first goes over theoretical implications, taking the perspective of the current Frankfurt School and the American movement of public journalism. Then it identifies concrete settings and levels of interactivity in online journalism. Finally, an exploratory study of New York Times journalists and forum participants helps illustrate chances and problems of mass media online.
`Now you see 'em, now you don't': Jewish visibility and the problem of citizenship in the British Telecom `Beattie' campaign
Authors: Rozmovits Linda
Published: March 2007

The use of a Jewish family as icons of the British middle class in British Telecom's famous `Beattie' campaign of the 1980s and early 1990s raises questions about the place of Jews in British cultural life. By connecting this episode in the history of Anglo-Jewry to more long-standing social dynamics and to recent arguments about advertising and citizenship, it becomes apparent that, rather than expressing a hard won enfranchisement through the democratizing field of consumption, these ads extend earlier forms of the perpetual qualification of Jewish citizenship in Britain.
What counts in cultural studies
Authors: Lewis Justin
Published: March 2007

This article argues that Cultural Studies has tended to ignore questions of research methodology, and that some research methods have been dismissed and abandoned too easily. The article reviews the Cultural Studies critique of quantitative survey methods and, in most cases, endorses them. Nevertheless, while quantitative methods are not without their limitations, they are not irredeemably linked to empiricism. Rather, the quantitative survey may indeed be compatible with a Cultural Studies approach. A number of suggestions are made for the use of survey data within a Cultural Studies framework, both in terms of reinterpreting existing survey data (that may have been designed in terms of conventional empiricist models) and designing surveys that allow us to explore contemporary ideologies, the presence of opposition or resistance and the process of hegemony.
Communication campaigns and the neo-liberal policy agenda
Authors: Scott Jane
Published: March 2007

This article summarizes my recent investigation of the political debate, conducted through the media, over a crucial and defining policy in New Zealand's neo-liberal project (begun in 1984). The Employment Contracts Act (1991), representing an overhaul of New Zealand's industrial relations system, was introduced at a particular historical conjuncture. Conditions peculiar to the 1990/1991 period contributed to the passage of legislation which reinforced the construction of neo-liberal hegemony. These conditions were constituted by the `restructured' economy (financial deregulation, floating the currency, privatization of state assets), the prevailing ideological climate (anti-interventionism), the balance of political forces and the character of mediated information. Under the fourth Labour government (1984-90), opposition to the neo-liberal project was weakened or marginalized. The opposition National Party exploited anti-government disillusionment to gain power in October 1990. But the new administration set out to further the neo-liberal project through `restructuring' social welfare and industrial relations. The communications offensive launched by National to accompany its employment contracts proposal was largely successful. To clarify the factors contributing to this outcome, the article compares the passage of the Employment Contracts Act with a communications offensive which failed; namely, the British poll tax (as discussed by Deacon and Golding, 1994).
The Shintoist wedding ceremony in Japan: an invented tradition
Authors: Shida Kiyoshi
Published: March 2007

The Shintoist wedding ceremony in Japan is a typical invented tradition. It began in the 20th century and, in its early years, it seemed to the Japanese a phenomenon of modernization and the anti-traditional. The truly traditional Japanese wedding ceremony took a long time and involved many steps of complicated rituals, involved high expense to both families, and often finished in a vulgar or unsophisticated manner. However, the invented ceremony involved none of these things. It was short and simple, economical and solemn. The intentions of its inventors were modernistic and nationalistic, but the ceremony was accepted because of its convenience. As long as it seemed new and anti-traditional, it was supported by the urban salaried workers and government officials, including military officers, who were the constructors of modern Japan but who hadn't changed the traditional wedding ceremony. The development of the Shintoist wedding ceremony came after the Second World War. High economic growth changed the industrial structure, many people moved from farming areas to the big cities to become salaried workers. The organizations and networks which had maintained local traditional wedding ceremonies fragmented, and the Shintoist ceremony together with the bridal industry took their place. Then the popularity encouraged by the bridal industry, plus the lack of choice, made the Shintoist ceremony a real tradition. At the same time, the Japanese style of wedding reception, newly put together and advertised by the industry, became another tradition.
Inventing the Cosmo Girl: class identity and girl-style American dreams
Authors: Ouellette Laurie
Published: March 2007

Since the mid-1970s, Helen Gurley Brown has been a cultural icon as well as the editor of the hugely profitable Cosmopolitan magazine. Following a cultural studies approach to media historiography, this article traces Brown's rise to fame and analyzes her early advice to women as a `cultural discourse' that managed some of the social and economic tensions of the early 1960s and early 1970s, while also offering certain women the symbolic material to think about themselves as historical subjects in new ways. Brown is often remembered as the feminine piper in the `sexual revolution' of the 1960s, but I suggest that her girl-style American Dream promised transcendence from class roles as much as sexual ones. Brown's early advice to women offers a case study in the cultural construction of class as a fragmented, socially constituted and sexualized identity.
Measurement and Prediction of Aging Anxiety
Authors: Lynch Scott M.
Published: March 2007

Anxiety about aging has been virtually neglected in extant research, but such anxiety should become increasingly important to understand as the population ages. This research addresses three questions pertaining to aging anxiety. First, is aging anxiety a meaningful unidimensional construct? Second, what is the age pattern of aging anxiety? Third, what factors influence aging anxiety? Confirmatory factor analyses are conducted to examine the factorial validity of an aging anxiety scale across age, sex, and race aggregates. Structural equation models are used to determine the influence of several covariates. There were several important findings, including that (1) aging anxiety can be measured as a single construct, although the scale taps a somewhat different dimension for younger persons; (2) fear of social losses does not appear to be a concern about aging; (3) the age pattern of anxiety is declining, except across midlife; and (4) race, gender, socioeconomic status, current health, income, education, and knowledge about aging each affect aging anxiety.
Predicting Self-Related Health among the Aged
Authors: Markides Kyriakos S. , Martin Harry W.
Published: March 2007

Self-rated health among a sample of older persons is investigated via a simple path analysis model. The strongest predictor of self-rated health is a health index measuring reported conditions and confinement at home in bed. Income and education have small but significant direct effects on self-rated health suggesting that elderly of lower SES tend to evaluate their health as poorer than those of higher SES who are of similar health status (measured by the health index). Age, ethnicity, and sex affect self-ratings only indirectly through other variables.
Social Workers' Levels of Knowledge about Old Age and Perceptions of Service Delivery to the Elderly
Authors: Brubaker Timothy H. , Barresi Charles M.
Published: March 2007

Following the assumption that practitioners' levels of knowledge and perceptions of their clients' characteristics affect the delivery of services, 200 clinical social workers were questioned regarding knowledge of and attitudes toward elderly persons. Palmore's (1977) Facts on Aging quiz provides the basis for determining whether respondents can be classified as high or low knowledgeables. Knowledge scores are found to be positively related to age, but not to sex of respondent, number of years with the MSW degree, or exposure to gerontology courses during graduate training. T-tests of mean scores and partial correlation coefficients (controlling for age) on 19 attitude items relating to various aspects of the elderly and their needs reveal few statistically significant differences between high and low knowledgeables. It appears that the high knowledgeables are less likely to see the elderly as a special group in terms of service delivery. However, this lack of clear difference between high and low knowledgeables suggests that an accurate knowledge base is not a primary factor in the perception of service delivery to the elderly.
Sex Roles, Friendship, and the Life Course
Authors: Hess Beth B.
Published: March 2007

A review of the research on aging and friendship reveals distinct patterns by gender that are linked to sex role learning and expectations. Friendship behaviors that are adaptive at one part of the life course may be dysfunctional at another. In old age, it appears that the interpersonal skills of women are highly functional, allowing them greater flexibility in the construction of social networks than is the case for old men.
The Role of Social Security in Retirement Income
Authors: Klemmack David L. , Roff Lucinda Lee
Published: March 2007

Using a probability sample of 1030 adult Alabamans, this study attempted to identify factors related to willingness to have social security play a dominant role in the pension mix of future retirees. Together the factors examined accounted for 32.8% of the variability in willingness to rely on social security. The best predictors of high willingness were welfare orientation and an evaluation of social security as superior to private pensions.
Adult Day Care and the Nursing Home
Authors: Arling Greg , Harkins Elizabeth B. , Romaniuk Michael
Published: March 2007

Adult day-care clients are compared with nursing home applicants who were reviewed and recommended for community or institution-based care. Social, health, and service-use characteristics are contrasted in order to identify factors that distinguish adult day care from nursing home care as an appropriate placement. Socioeconomic status, severity of physical disability, living arrangement, sensory impairment, use of in-home services, and days in the hospital tend to distinguish the groups. The groups are quite similar in demographic characteristics, mental status, frequency of out-patient physician visits, and number and types of diseases. The authors outline criteria that might be used to determine appropriate placement. They also point out the need for future research in order to draw comparisons among different types of adult day-care programs and to develop predictive models for service use and continuity of participation in adult day care.
Marital Status, Living Arrangements, and the Well-Being of Older People
Authors: Lawton M. Powell , Moss Miriam , Kleban Morton H.
Published: March 2007

Three large probability samples of older people are analyzed in terms of the relationships between marital status and living arrangements, on the one hand, and a variety of indicators of well-being including cognitive functioning, health, time use, family interaction, friend interaction, perceived time use, perceived quality family interaction, perceived quality friend interaction, perceived environment, and objective environmental quality. With other background factors controlled, the major effect of marital status was seen in the favorable situation of the presently married. Effects associated with living arrangements were stronger. Those living alone were healthier but notably lower in all types of subjective well-being. Living with children was associated with lower basic competence and subjective well-being, but being married had generally favorable consequences whether or not other people lived in the household.
Metropolitan Elderly Out-Migration in Canada, 1971-1976
Authors: Liaw Kao-Lee , Kanaroglou Pavlos
Published: March 2007

This article analyzes the 1971-1976 out-migration pattern of the Canadian male elderly from the 23 Census Metropolitan Areas (CMAs). Migration is conceptualized within a three-level choice framework, and statistical inference is based on a logit model. The findings include that (1) retirement-oriented migration in Canada takes place long before the official retirement age; (2) compared with the young migrants, the elderly migrants are less likely to be metropolitanward and tend to have a more concentrated destination choice pattern; (3) with respect to metropolitanward elderly migrants from the CMAs, the probability of choosing a particular destination is negatively related to the logarithm of distance, cultural dissimilarity, coldness, and gross rent, and positively related to population size, brightness, and housing growth; and (4) compared with the young migrants, the elderly migrants are more sensitive to the environmental variables.
Informal Support Systems in a Planned Retirement Community
Authors: Sullivan Deborah A.
Published: March 2007

This study evaluates retirement community norms in terms of the hierarchical-compensatory versus the task-specific models of exchange. Data collected in a sample survey indicate that residents form mutual assistance networks for short-term help in lieu of or in addition to distant or nonexistent children and other kin. As hypothesized by the task-specific model, only a minority expect long-term care from local friends. Contrary to both the task-specific and the hierarchical-compensatory models, few rely on any primary group for long-term care. As the community ages, the residual old-old population is made up of individuals with attenuated kin networks or strong reservations about informal support for long-term care. The findings point to the need to develop formal support systems in retirement communities.
Technical Environmental Assessment Predictors of Residential Satisfaction
Authors: Carp Frances M. , Christensen David L.
Published: March 2007

Residential satisfaction is important in its own right and as an influence on general well-being. Previous research suggests that objective environmental characteristics amenable to societal manipulation affect residential satisfaction. Environmental predictors were selected on the basis of a theoretical model for relevance to human needs and measured with technical-assessment items scaled independently of subjective judgments. For 88 older women living independently and alone in the community, the objective environmental variables accounted for 28% of the variance in satisfaction with housing and 26% of the variance in neighborhood satisfaction additional to that attributable to personal competence and socioeconomic status.
Strategies for Investigating Effects of Residential Context
Authors: Goldsmith Harold F. , Jackson David J. , Kramer Morton , Brenner Berthold , Stiles Dianne I. , Tweed Dan L. , Holzer Charles E. , MacKenzie Ellen
Published: March 2007

This article calls attention to two procedures for investigating relationships between residential environments and behavior: geocoding of respondent data and a strategy based on age of respondent as an indicator of residential exposure. These procedures are illustrated in terms of data from the Eastern Baltimore Mental Health Survey (Baltimore site of the National Institute of Mental Health Epidemiologic Catchment Area Program) and 1980 census data from the Health Demographic Profile System.
Functionally Disabled Elderly
Authors: Wan Thomas T.H.
Published: March 2007

In order to identify the patterns of health-social services use by impaired elders in the community, it is imperative to examine the relationships among health status, social support, and use of services. The role of social support networks as a mediating factor between psychological symptoms and gerontological health deserves a careful assessment. This study has systematically investigated the use of ambulatory services by 694 elders who had a functionally limiting condition in the Statewide Survey of Older Virginians in 1979.
Determinants of the Seasonal Migration of the Elderly to Sunbelt States
Authors: Hogan Timothy D.
Published: March 2007

For the first time in 1980, the U.S. Census Bureau compiled information relating to seasonal migration. More than one-half million persons were identified as nonpermanent residents of the localities in which they were living on the census day. Interpreting these data as measures of temporary migration flows, this article uses this information for the states of Arizona and Florida to investigate the nature of the seasonal migration of the elderly to Sunbelt states every winter.
A Note on Longitudinal Data Presentation
Authors: Hatch Laurie Russell , Borgatta Edgar F.
Published: March 2007

An example of presenting longitudinal data is provided using a subsample drawn from the Retirement History Study. A progression of age groups through the years of follow-up is examined in tabular form with respect to the number of parents and parents-in-law reported living. Comparisons are made between information that may be inferred from longitudinal and cross-sectional data.
Preventive Health Practices among Older Men and Women
Authors: Hickey Tom , Rakowski William , Julius Mara
Published: March 2007

The preventive health practices of older men and women were examined from interviews with a community sample of 172 adults aged 64-96. Differences between men and women were found with only 10 of the 37 individual health practices. A mixed pattern was found in the relationship of personal and demographic characteristics, life outlook, self-health perceptions, and social network with health practices. The results suggest caution in interpreting how age and gender interact to influence the preventive health practices and health behaviors of older adults.
Environmental Adaptation by Persons in their Later Life
Authors: Wister Andrew V.
Published: March 2007

In an attempt to delay institutionalization among elders while supporting their widespread desire for privacy and independence in living style, it has been deemed necessary to adapt the physical and social milieu to fit declining competence. The theoretical rationale underlying current housing policy can be identified in person-environment theories of aging. The aims of this article are to (1) assess critically and expand Lawton's ecological model of aging as it pertains to environmental decisions among the elderly, and (2) test a series of hypotheses derived from the theoretical discussion using a 1987 study of environmental adaptation among 280 elderly, 74 years of age and over, living in the community. The most striking finding is the tendency for older elderly to engage in psychological processes of adaptation to a greater extent than altering the physical or social characteristics of the home environment. The findings suggest extending the Lawton model to include a wider range of subjective attributes of the individual.
Interactions between Women and their Elderly Parents
Authors: Stueve Ann , O'Donnell Lydia
Published: March 2007

This article investigates the relationship between women's employment and their degree of involvement with elderly parents. It is based on interviews with a random sample of 81 women, all of whom have at least one living parent 70 years of age or older. The article discusses three possible connections between employment and parent caring: (1) that employment diminishes women's involvement with elderly parents, (2) that involvement in parent caring constrains daughters' employment, and (3) that combining employment and parent caring results in role overload. The analysis largely supports the first connection and suggests circumstances under which employment limits women's participation in the parent-carer role.
Measurement of Affective States in Adults
Authors: Usala Paul D. , Hertzog Christopher
Published: March 2007

A cross-sectional sample of adults, ages 20-79, were administered a adjective rating scale instrument measuring multiple affective states, including items from the Profile of Mood States (POMS) instrument. Confirmatory item factor analysis supported, for the most part, a priori assignments of items to scales based upon prior research, but revealed a few small, additional item factors that were cross-validated in a second sample. Items measuring different aspects of psychological distress, including anxiety and depressive affect, showed appreciable skew and kurtosis, with a substantial proportion of respondents indicating no perceived distress. Items measuring psychological well-being tended to show more normal response distributions. Tests of age-related invariance in item factor structure indicated that the unstandardized factor pattern weights (loadings) were not fully equivalent across two age groups, but showed that the same configuration of items loading on factors was supported. The scales perform well enough to justify continued use in older populations, but further research on the contributions of item distributions to age differences in factor loadings is needed.
Historical Trends in Status Attainment
Authors: Nickinovich David G. , Kamo Yoshinori , Farmer Yvette M. , Ries Lynn M. , Borgatta Edgar F.
Published: March 2007

Inquiry into the question of historical trends in status attainment will, in this article, involve the comparison of different age groups and different age groups across time. Mindful of limitations in interpreting differences between age groups as historical trends, this study provides such an analysis. Data for this study are from the NORC General Social Survey (July 1988, University of Chicago) and cover the time period from 1973 to 1988. The data offers an opportunity to both examine certain features of historical change as well as to ascertain its stability.
Demographic Factors Reshaping Ties to Family and Place
Authors: Morrison Peter A.
Published: March 2007

This article explores the broad topic of how the selective character of human migration and changing family circumstances may shape the intensity of local need among the future elderly. At origin, it is the healthier, better educated, and more affluent elderly who venture to migrate; and although people migrate from a broad spectrum of origins, they flow selectively to a narrow spectrum of destinations. At the same time, contemporary changes in family makeup and internal division of labor alter their capacity to care for elderly members. These demographic realities define a policy issue ripe for study. 1990 census data can reveal how the pressures of population aging will diffuse spatially, in terms of timing and intensity, and, given the complex interaction of migration selectivity and family transformation, who will be distanced from whom, and with what consequences. Scattered evidence from earlier years casts light on certain facets of this issue: (a) the ties between elderly and their children, (b) the differing configurations of migration flows generating elderly concentration in locales, and (c) the changing nature of elderly concentration in recent decades. With 1990 census data, it will be possible to extend certain findings and consider their implications for how future aging and dependency may express themselves locally.
Appalachian Elderly Migration
Authors: Watkins John F.
Published: March 2007

This article seeks to explore the patterns of population aging and elderly migration in Appalachia, with a focus on two distinct and different subregions: eastern Kentucky and western North Carolina. Although the framework of the study is demographic, the foundation is more related to overarching concerns of the implications of migration, particularly with respect to local economies and services, and the potential use of elderly migration as a development strategy.
Changes in the Helping Behaviors of Adult Children as Caregivers
Authors: Dwyer Jeffrey W. , Henretta John C. , Coward Raymond T. , Barton Amy J.
Published: March 2007

This research uses data from the longitudinal file of the 1982-1984 National Long-Term Care Survey to (a) describe changes in the caregiving responsibilities of adult children over time and (b) estimate the effect of adult child, impaired elder, and sibling participation characteristics on changes in the participation of adult children as providers of ADL and IADL assistance. The results show that 5.2% of adult children who did not provide ADL help and 12.6% of those who did not provide IADL help at Time 1 were helping with these tasks at Time 2. Conversely, 50.7% of adult children who provided ADL assistance and 29.9% of those who provided IADL assistance at Time 1 had stopped providing such care by Time 2. Logit models used to predict changes in the helping behaviors of adult children indicate that there are both differences and similarities in the factors that affect the likelihood of becoming a caregiver and of discontinuing assistance over time.
Evaluating Retrospective Measures in Gerontological Research
Authors: Kosloski Karl , Datwyler Mary McGlinn , Montgomery Rhonda J.V.
Published: March 2007

The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the quality of retrospective assessments of a number of commonly used measures in gerontological and caregiving research. Data were taken from interviews with 242 caregivers participating in a longitudinal study of caregiving. Results indicate moderate to high 1-year retrospective reliability for measures of ADL, obligation to the elder, affection for the elder, and global assessments of the caregiver's health. In contrast, retrospective assessments of objective and subjective burden were found to be of relatively low quality.
Care of the Dying by Physicians- in- Training
Authors: Muller Jessica H.
Published: March 2007

Participant observation is a method used in qualitative research, where the investigator typically has daily sustained contact with a group of people in their natural setting, observes and participates in their activities, and records as much of what occurs as possible. Traditionally used by anthropologists to investigate unfamiliar small-scale societies, participant observation is now employed by researchers from numerous disciplines in a variety of settings. In aging research in the United States, participant observation studies have been carried out in nursing homes, day care centers, senior citizen centers, and retirement communities. The benefits of participant observation include flexibility of research design, the perspective of the "insider," the inclusion of context, the experience of "being there" day after day, and an understanding of changes over time. These benefits are discussed and illustrated in this article by examples drawn from the author's participant observation study of physicians-in- training and their interactions with dying elderly patients. The types of inquiry in the field of aging that could benefit from participant observation research are also explored.
Judgments about Stereotypes of the Elderly
Authors: Hummert Mary Lee , Garstka Teri A. , Shaner Jaye L. , Strahm Sharon
Published: March 2007

In this study, 125 adults in three age groups (young, middle-aged, and elderly) rated the typicality and approximate age of individuals representing 11 stereotypes of the elderly. Participants indicated their attitudes toward the individuals on a set of bipolar adjective scales. Attitude results conformed to the pattern predicted. Attitudes toward individual stereotypes varied according to the valence of each stereotype rather than participant age. Likewise, age judgments varied with the valence of the stereotype. Participants of all ages chose the older age ranges for the more negative stereotypes and younger age ranges for the positive stereotypes. Finally, elderly participants gave lower typicality ratings to the stereotypes than those in the other two age groups, although those in all age groups ordered the stereotypes similarly in terms of their typicality. Results are discussed in terms of their relationship to the cognitive representations of aging held by those in the three age groups.
Aging and Identity in Premodern Times
Authors: Warren Carol A.B.
Published: March 2007

In premodern as in modem (and postmodern) times in the West, the social and personal identity of the aging and aged is mediated through the decay of the gendered and biomedicalized body. The social identity of the premodern aged was marked by ambivalence: images of the wise, spiritual, or useful elder contrasting with that of the spiteful, fearful, and ugly aged person. Both social place and personal identity were shaped, for aging men, by war, work, and sexual potency, and for aging women, by the reproductive, domestic, and cosmetic body. The movement toward collective identity in modem times is not likely to change Western cultural ambivalence toward the aging self, since aging, unlike gender, race, or sexual orientation, represents and is represented by physical decline.
The Effects of Earlier Intergenerational Affection, Normative Expectations, and Family Conflict on Contemporary Exchanges of Help and Support
Authors: Parrott Tonya M. , Bengtson Vern L.
Published: March 2007

This article extends previous research by examining the relationship between prospective accounts of intergenerational affection, normative expectations, and conflict on current patterns of supportive exchanges between parents and adult children. Research questions are addressed using data from 680 parent-child dyads participating in the 1988 and 1991 waves of the University of Southern California Longitudinal Study of Generations. Findings indicate that a history of affection in a parent-adult child relationship is associated with equitable and reciprocal exchanges of support and a greater likelihood of receiving and giving various forms of help and support. A strong sense of obligation to family at an earlier time period was related to exchange relationships with fathers but not with mothers: Duty-driven exchanges were less equitable, with adult children giving much more than they received. Earlier conflict in parent-adult child relationships did not interfere with contemporary exchanges of help and support.
Hyperpolitics: Hypertext, Concepts and Theory-Making
Authors: Calise Mauro , Lowi Theodore J.
Published: March 2007

Political theory begins with respect for the complexity of its conceptual universe. Hypertext, a language for organizing knowledge on a modular rather than a sequential basis, provides an opportunity to unscramble this verbal mixture and to reconstitute it with new understandings and a new source of creative political discourse. This article reports on an experiment in computer-assisted advancement of political theory. It presents the initial results of a hypertextual approach to the conceptual basis of the literature by: (1) selecting the concepts most frequently employed in a sample of political science dictionaries; (2) linking them to a number of textual and bibliographical sources for in-depth analysis; and (3) developing multi-dimensional linkages by placing each concept in a matrix of logically consistent relationships. Thanks to the Web, Hypertext opens the door to unlimited navigation through wider and wider domains. The Hyperpolitics platform is an attempt to make this compatible with the logical structure and informed guidance of higher learning.
Might Cleaning Up Elections Keep People Away from the Polls? Historical and Comparative Perspectives
Authors: Schaffer Frederic Charles
Published: March 2007

Many democracies in the developing world have enacted reforms to make their elections cleaner. It is often assumed that such reforms will make elections more participatory. The reality, however, is that we know little about the consequences of current reform efforts on voter turnout. In examining both historical and contemporary cases, this article identifies three mechanisms by which clean election reform today might actually keep potential voters away from the polls: legal disfranchisment, cutting out the go-between, and buying abstention.
On the Transformation of Post-communist Societies: The Inefficiency of Primitive Capital Accumulation
Authors: Kowalik Tadeusz
Published: March 2007

In the post-communist countries (PCC) several phenomena reminiscent of primitive capital accumulation (mass and permanent unemployment, impoverishment of the majority of people, growing criminality) have emerged. The PCC have to “tread the tortuous road” of a primitive accumulation of capital, well known since eighteenth-century England and other Western countries. Such a point of view has been expounded earlier by Bauman in the IPSR. He based his view on two assumptions: that these countries have backward, pre-industrial economies and that the transition to a market economy must be correlated with growing income disparities as a precondition of rapid economic growth. Hence, an impoverishment or at least a delay in gratification of the large social groups is inevitable. The argument in this article is that both assumptions are false.
Mate Selection Among Married and Cohabiting Couples
Authors: BLACKWELL DEBRA L. , LICHTER DANIEL T.
Published: March 2007

This article examines comparative patterns of educational and racial assortative mating or homogamy among married and cohabiting couples and evaluates whether women and men trade in socioeconomic status and racial caste prestige. The 1990 decennial census identifies for the first time individuals in cohabiting relationships. Log-linear models of partner cross-classified data provide several conclusions. First, married and cohabiting couples are highly homogamous with respect to race and education. Second, cohabiting couples are less homogamous than married couples. Third, cohabiting women are less likely than married women to be living with partners with greater education than themselves. Fourth, racially homogamous unions tend to be educationally homogamous and vice versa. Fifth, heterogamous marriages (but not cohabitors) suggest spousal trades: high education in one spouse is associated with higher color status in another. We conclude that research can no longer ignore the qualitatively different mate selection processes of cohabiting couples.
Differences Between Heterosexual-Nonparent Couples and Gay, Lesbian, and Heterosexual-Parent Couples
Authors: KURDEK LAWRENCE A.
Published: March 2007

Both partners from gay, lesbian, heterosexual-parent, and heterosexual-nonparent couples completed surveys at seven time points ( ns = 150, 102, 90, and 108 couples, respectively, at the first assessment) that assessed variables from the following five domains relevant to close relationships: individual differences, relationship schemas, conflict resolution, social support, and relationship quality. Although the type-of-couple differences that were significant were nearly all small in size, relative to partners from heterosexual-nonparent couples, those from gay or lesbian couples reported less social support from family members, those from lesbian couples reported more positive relationship quality, and those from heterosexual-parent couples reported more negative relationship quality.
Manifestations of Levels of Functioning in Grieving Families
Authors: DAVIES BETTY , SPINETTA JOHN , MARTINSON IDA , McCLOWRY SANDRA , KULENKAMP EMILY
Published: March 2007

This article describes processes and patterns that are characteristic of levels of functioning in family systems where a child has died of cancer from two to nine years earlier. A beginning classification system is developed from Crosby and Jose's (1983) description of elements of functional and dysfunctional coping in families following a death. The analysis is based on 111 families in six states and one Canadian province. Validity is demonstrated with one subset of this sample.
Work Scheduling and Family Interaction
Authors: GRAMLING ROBERT , FORSYTH CRAIG
Published: March 2007

This article offers an expansion of the construction of reality paradigm as proposed by Berger and Kellner (1964) as an appropriate theoretical perspective for the examination of the link between work scheduling and family interaction. The argument is that not only does this perspective allow an examination across a continuum of family member absences, but that this perspective is applicable across the family life cycle, and with increasingly evident nontraditional family structures.
Relative Deprivation, Equity/Inequity, and Psychological Well-Being
Authors: KEITH PAT M. , SCHAFER ROBERT B.
Published: March 2007

The research reported here compared the extent to which relative deprivation, based on general social comparisons and perceptions of equity/inequity derived from specific comparisons in an intimate relationship, influenced the psychological well-being of men and women in one- and two-job families. Data were analyzed from interviews with 130 couples in one-job families and 135 families in two-job families. Beyond the discomfort and unfair treatment accompanying them, both relative deprivation and inequity were associated with depression when they were considered in the same model.
The Courtship Process and Adolescent Sexuality
Authors: THORNTON ARLAND
Published: March 2007

This article examines adolescent sexuality within the context of a life course developmental model and considers the causal interrelationships of sexual behavior with dating, courtship, and planning for marriage. Data from a sample of 18-year-old men and women document the importance of dating and courtship development on the initiation of intimate heterosexual relations. Young people who begin to date at an early age also tend to develop steady relationships relatively early and continue to date more frequently. Both the timing of the initiation of dating and the development of steady dating relationships have substantial implications for the development of sexual relations. Young women and men who begin dating early and who develop steady relations early are more likely to be sexually experienced, to have had sexual relations with more partners, to be more sexually active during their late teenage years, and to have more permissive attitudes concerning premarital sex. Among those who experience sexual intercourse, those who had their first experience at a relatively young age had the most partners and had intercourse more frequently when they were 18.
Illusions and Ignorance About the Family-Responsive Workplace
Authors: KINGSTON PAUL W.
Published: March 2007

After reviewing the operational meaning of the “family-responsive” workplace and assessing relevant data about its extent, it is concluded that American businesses have made modest headway in instituting such practices and that it is illusory to expect that market solutions will deliver good or equitable family policy in the forseeable future. The economic benefits of these policies for businesses have not been demonstrated, and impending labor shortages offer uncertain promise of basic change in business policy. Considering the political weakness of “profamily” forces and the organizational and ideological obstacles they face, halting, uneven realization of the responsive workplace is predicted.
The Organizational Effects of Workplace Family Policies
Authors: RAABE PHYLLIS HUTTON
Published: March 2007

In the absence of the national policies of Western Europe that facilitate the integration of family and work roles, workplace family policies and programs are important supports for some Americans. However, such employer initiatives depend on claims of organizational benefits. In this context, evaluation research on the organizational effects of policies is highly germane. This article discusses some past weaknesses of such research, recent methodological improvements, and conceptual refinements and research findings about important characteristics of work/family policies, varying organizational outcomes, and relationships between the two.
Gender Differences in the Performance of Household Tasks by Adults and Children in Single-Parent and Two-Parent, Two-Earner Families
Authors: HILTON JEANNE M. , HALDEMAN VIRGINIA A.
Published: March 2007

This study was conducted to determine gender role differences between adults in two-parent, two-earner families; their children; and children from single-parent families in time spent on household work. Stepwise discriminant analyses were used to assess data from 47 single-parent and 47 two-parent families. Conclusions drawn from these analyses were that parents were highly sex segregated in their household task behavior, that household tasks were sex related for the female parent, and that children were less sex segregated in their household task behavior than were parents. Boys in two-parent families were the least sex segregated of the males in the sample, and girls in single-parent families were less sex segregated in their household task behaviors than all other adults and children in the study.
Children Held Hostage: Mothers' Depressive Affect and Perceptions of Family Psychosocial Functioning
Authors: LADEWIG BECKY H. , JESSEE PEGGY O. , STRICKLAND MARTHA P.
Published: March 2007

The primary purpose of this study was to learn more about how strain, family coping, and family hardiness were related to depressive affect among mothers of children who were held hostage by two gunmen in a private church-sponsored elementary school. Using a questionnaire procedure to collect data, relationships between mothers' depressive affect (measured 2 weeks and again 4 months after the episode) and perceived strain resulting from the hostage incident, family hardiness, and family coping were assessed. In addition, 1 year following the episode, mothers were asked to provide qualitative data concerning useful coping strategies and perceptions of the long-term impact of the event. Results indicated that family hardiness and coping may have played a more important role in relation to depressive affect measured at 4 months than for initial responses, whereas feelings of strain specifically related to the hostage incident may have been more important in relation to initial depressive affect. Perceived control (as a dimension of family hardiness) along with the use of social support and spiritual support were particularly important for positive outcomes. In addition, mothers who were more depressed initially reported more negative long-term outcomes.
An Economic Approach to the Study of Child Well-Being
Authors: PETERS H. ELIZABETH
Published: March 2007

This article describes the economic approach to analyzing family behavior pioneered by Becker, focusing on two areas: household production and altruism. The household production model addresses the important question of how costs, technological changes, and social changes affect the ways in which families rear children and, in turn, reflect the importance of children in our society. Becker's work on altruism explores the nature of parent-parent and parent-child relationships and how these relationships affect resource allocation within the family. Modeling altruism also provides insights into how parent's behavior toward their children is affected by government policies.
Men's Retirement and Marital Quality
Authors: MYERS SCOTT M. , BOOTH ALAN
Published: March 2007

Using longitudinal data from a national sample of married persons, we explore a wide range of contextual factors that may influence the effect of retirement on marital quality. Characteristics of the husband's job, the division of labor, health, social support, and marital quality are preretirement factors found to affect the influence of retirement on marital quality. Leaving a high-stress job improves marital quality, whereas factors signifying gender role reversals, poor health, and reduced social support lower marital quality. Changes that accompany retirement involving role reversals and decreased social support lower marital quality as did the amount of change in the individual's life. Retirement has a more powerful and pervasive influence on marital quality than prior research suggests.