Family, Life Course, and Society Commons^™

The Relationship Of Race, Socioeconomic Status And Marital Status To Kin Networks, Ferol E. Mennen

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Data from a purposive sample of families of elementary school children in New Orleans regarding contact and assistance with extended family members was analyzed to see if race, socioeconomic status or marital status predicted involvement in a kin network. Analysis of variance revealed that black and lower class families had higher levels of contact and black families had higher levels on one of the assistance measures. However when the distance from the extended family was used as a covariate the relationship disappeared. Marital status had no ability to predict.

Exposure Of Young Welfare Recipients To Family And Peer Receipt Of Welfare And Unemployment Benefits, Viola E. Shuart, John H. Lewko

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

The current study examined exposure to family and peer receipt of unemployment and general welfare benefits for a sample of 262 unemployed youth between 16 and 24 years of age who were in receipt of social assistance. The findings reveal that exposure to receipt of benefits was most pervasive through peers, with moderate exposure via siblings and minimal exposure via parents. The findings are discussed in relation to existing explanations which suggested that the receipt of benefits is intergenerationally transmitted. It is recommended that future investigations of the cultural transmission of poverty and receipt of benefits include the influence of …

Implications Of The One-Child Family Policy On The Development Of The Welfare State In The People's Republic Of China, Fernando Chiu-Hung Cheung

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

The one-child family policy in China, if successfully implemented, will drastically alter the population age structure in the coming years which will in turn affect the demand and supply of the welfare state. Using several population indices projected on the basis of different total fertility rates, it is found that the aged population will increase significantly and hence their needs for social services including social security and health care will increase accordingly. Because the responsibility for caring for the old in China still largely falls on the family, it is important to establish an universal social security system supported by …

Development And Evaluation Of An Infant-Care Training Program With First-Time Fathers, Ronald S. Dachman

Dissertations

We evaluated the effectiveness of a multicomponent package in training infant-care skills to first-time fathers. After developing and socially validating a set of infant-care skills, we assessed the effects of training in a hospital-based program with expectant fathers (Experiment 1) and in a home-based program with fathers having varied degrees of experience with their infants (Experiment 2). In both experiments, a multiple probe design demonstrated that the training package was responsible for producing criterion performance by the expectant and first-time fathers. A one-month generalization probe in Experiment 1 showed that the effects transferred across training conditions (training doll to human …

Not For Poverty Alone: Foster Care Population Trends In The Twentieth Century, Leroy H. Pelton

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Trends in the size of the national foster care population from 1910 to 1983 are examined in the context of child welfare policy toward dependent and neglected children. Several major turning points in the child placement rate are identified, and the reasons for them are explored. The relationship between poverty and foster care placement is discussed, and it is concluded that the child placement rate is not related to the poverty rate, but rather, to how our society chooses to intervene with the children of families living in poverty.

Afdc Encounters Joint Custody: Business As Usual Is Not The Solution, Jan L. Hagen

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

In the fifty years since its enactment, Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) has become increasingly difficult to administer efficiently and equitably. Most recently, this increasing complexity is illustrated by eligibility determinations for divorced families having joint custody of the children. A recent national survey of state agencies administering AFDC programs reveals a diversity of approaches in determining eligibility under the continued absence requirement for joint custody situations. As illustrated by these joint custody cases, the meaningfulness as well as the usefulness of the continued absence requirement for AFDC eligibility has become increasingly questionable in terms of responding to …

A Critical Analysis Of The Impact Of Day Care On The Pre-School Child And The Family, John T. Pardeck, Jean A. Pardeck, John W. Murphy

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Maternal employment has increased dramatically over the last two decades. The result of this increase in the number of working mothers is the expanded use of day care programs for children. Examined in this paper are research findings on the impact of day-care on the child and the family. The implications of these findings for policy development are discussed.

Currently in the United States, over 50 percent of mothers work outside the home; this figure is expected to rise to 75 percent by 1990. The fastest growing segment of the working mother population is among those with children under two …

Assessing The Needs Of Mothers With Mentally Retarded Offspring: An Empirical Approach, Jonathan Rabinowitz

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

This exploratory study assesses the needs of mothers with retarded offspring living at home. Previous studies have focused on meeting those parental needs which would benefit their retarded offspring. This study does not limit parental needs to those needs, which if met would benefit the retarded child, and defines parents as an independent group with special needs.

Retirees As Technoguides: A New Role As Shapers And Makers Of The Future, Arthur B. Shostak

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Retirees nowadays serve in many out-of-the-home roles that make astute use of their maturity, their discretion time, and their flexibility about compensation: Large numbers help as paid or voluntary aides in day care centers, health fairs, home health care, hospice programs, nursing homes, and the vital like.

A brand new role that might appeal to many would have them learn and practice the craft of technology assessment and the process of technology diffusion: With these tools retirees could serve as technoguides, or paid or voluntary aides in the testing, evaluating, and adapting of new products and services to the needs …

Determinants Of Knowledge About Social Security: A Study Of Nonremarried Widows Caring For Children, Martha N. Ozawa, William T. Alpert

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Social security beneficiaries and the general public alike are concerned about the financial solvency of the social security program. But how much do they know about how the system works? This study analyzes the determinants of knowledge about social security among nonremarried widows having children under their care. It builds a research model based on the economic theory of rational decision making. Using ordinary least squares regression estimation techniques, the level of knowledge about specific social security provisions is regressed on family income, implicit tax rate, number of children, human capital variables, and other demographic and locational variables. The findings …

Pre-Retirement Attitudes And Financial Preparedness: A Cross-Cultural And Gender Analysis, John H. Behling, Esther S. Merves

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

The purpose of this research was to examine the differences between males and females across three different cultures in terms of financial resources for retirement years and pre-retirement attitudes and intentions.

Reagan, Pickle And Pepper: The Benefit Reduction Versus Voluntary Approach To Encouraging Later Retirement, Eric R. Kingson

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

The degree to which benefit reduction and voluntary approaches to encouraging later retirement maximize four different and often conflicting policy objectives is assessed as are costs and benefits of these approaches to healthy and unhealthy older workers, minorities and women. While both approaches encourage later retirement, there are clear differences in the approaches in terms of meeting the goal of financing Social Security versus adequacy and social equity

Reaganism And The Poor Family: Life On Afdc After The Budget Cuts, Norman L. Wyers, Robert C. Holloway

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Recent changes in federal and state welfare policies have had negative consequences for public welfare recipients. This paper summarizes a study which focused on the impact of these policy changes on the AFDC population in the most populous region of Oregon. Of particular importance are the changes in income levels, employment, and social service utilization of recipients. Personal reactions of recipients are also reviewed, as are expectations for the future. The differential economic impact of the policy changes on various categories of recipients is stressed.

Eroding Filial Piety And Its Implications For Social Work Practice, Pei N. Chen

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

A pilot study was conducted in the Asian American communities on practitioners' assessment of the effects of compliance/non-compliance with the value of filial piety and its impact on Asian American adult children, aged parents and practitioners themselves.

Eighty-two practitioners in six cities returned mailed questionnaires. Since filial piety was an emotionladen topic, projective technique was used in questionnaire design. Practitioners were asked questions regarding a hypothetical case.

The findings demonstrated a gradual shift of filial responsibilities to health/social service providers with concomitant affective conflicts on the part of Asian American adult children, aged parents and practitioners themselves. With greater understanding …

Rejected Families: Established And Innovative Structures Of Service, Joseph R. Steiner

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

The purpose of this paper is to encourage social workers in family settings to consider alternative structures of services to families, especially those families who are rejected from meaningful extra-familial relationships. Rejected families, the established structure of family service and some innovative modifications to this structure are described. Special attention is given to one type of innovative family-service structure, an experimental family residential center, which was successful in reducing rates of child abuse in Holland. Innovative family-service structures, including residential centers, could help many families which do not benefit from the existing structure of family services.

Social Network Analysis: A New Tool For Understanding Individual And Family Functioning, Jane H. Pfouts, Ellen J. Safier

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

During the last decade, social work, along with the other helping professions, has moved toward conceptualizing practice within a social systems framework. Intrapsychic variables are still important but, increasingly, the emphasis is on the clients' intimate social network as both cause and solution of a wide range of social problems. It is now widely believed that clients' well-being is enhanced when system functioning is enhanced (Gitterman and Germain, 1976).

Most of what social workers know about social systems theory comes from the sociological literature, particularly the social action system of Talcott Parsons. Although this orientation has great heuristic value for …

Like Other Women: Perspectives Of Mothers With Physical Disabilities, Susan Shaul, Pamela Dowling, Bernice F. Laden

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

This article is based on interviews with ten women, ranging in age from 19 to 45 and living in the Puget Sound area of Washington State. Their disabilities are neurmuscular or musculoskeletal and include spinal cord injury, multiple sclerosis, post-polio and spina bifida. Their children range in age from 11 months to adulthood. The article focuses on specific issues and concerns regarding early childhood ranagement, and includes some discussion of pre-natal and cbstetrical care. Cann misconceptions concerning motherhood and disability are also discussed. men with disabilities also have special concerns as parents. Although their concerns are not addressed in this …

The Changing Family And Family Policy, Ronald J. Mancoske

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

The concern for the loss of family functions ii, the process of social change has led some to call for a family policy to support the family to cope with stress in meeting its basic functions. Change in functioning of the family is inclusive of various spheres: economic, status giving, educational, religious, recreational, protective and affectional. These changes are seen as indicative of the decline in the family. This view is moderated by the spectrum of change in the family interactions. Support for family policy is essential though it can not be developed on the idea of the perilous decline …

Making It Legal: A Comparison Of Previously Cohabiting And Engaged Newlyweds, Ingrid Moeller, Basil J. Sherlock

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

In view of the recent emergence of cohabitation as an alternative form of courtship, it is important to determine its possible effects on the subsequent marital union. Are the premarital experiences, marital goals, patterns of marital power and levels of conflict discernably different for those who have lived together before marriage? Comparing cohabitors with noncohabitors , we attempted to pursue this question in a sample of 139 recently married, nonparental, college matriculating, young adults using a lengthy focused interview.

Largely due to parental pressures "to make it legal", both cohabitors and noncohabitors moved towards matrimony with equal speed, marrying at …

Historic Trends In The Delivery Of Services To Teenage Parents, Nancy Aries

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

This paper will examine the political, social, and economic factors which underlie the transition in services from unwed mothers to teenage parents over the past 15 years. The experience of agencies in the Boston area serves as the basis for this case study. Data have been collected from open-ended interviews with key service providers who have developed and implemented policy related to adolescent parents.

The findings indicate that, prior to 1960, agencies were responding to what was perceived as individual problems or circumstances. Illegitimacy was thought to be an unconscious attempt by white middle class women to fulfill psychological needs. …

Planning For A National Social Policy For The Family, John T. Pardeck

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

The American family performs two important functions for family members - providing physical care and socialization, and meeting psychological needs. Current family trends suggest that the American family may be having difficulty in carrying out these basic functions. Since the United States lacks a comprehensive family policy, it is argued that a national social policy should be created to better support the American family. A social policy is presented which would assist the American family in performing its basic functions. A suggested strategy for implementation of this family social policy has also been developed.

The Social Construction Of Ages And The Ideology Of Stages, Victoria Fries Rader

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

It is the thesis of this paper that the images and beliefs about any age group in a society indicate the kind of social order prevailing in a particular time and place. This paper critically analyses the developmental life cycle model from a sociology of knowledge perspective. It is argued that life's major activities and individuals' basic needs have increasingly become compartmentalized according to chronological age in modern Western society. This separation of basic activities and needs into specialized age roles is explained and legitimated by a popular belief in a model of inherent progressive life "stages", a model largely …

Age, Race, Life Conditions, Use Of Social Welfare Services And The Morale Of The Elderly, Mary L. Waring, Jordan I. Kosberg

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Although concerned professionals such as Kutner (1956), Cumming (1961), and Lawton (1972), have made strong beginnings in researching the psychological functioning of the elderly, only a few have explored the social and medical conditions of the aged, and especially their use of social welfare services, as these relate to a sense of well-being. Streib (1956) and Maddox (1968) were among the first to relate life-long patterning of social activity to later social activity and life satisfaction. Carp (1966), in a controlled study of housing, reported that housing did not affect the morale of low and middle income elderly. Lawton and …

Administrative Thinking On Youth And Youth Programs, John F. Longres, Norman Wyers

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Administrators have a lot of influence over the nature of youth programs. Because of this, their thinking on the causes of delinquency, the nature of ideal youth programs, and the role of youth workers were tapped. In the past, people in the field of delinquency have been accused of assuming an individual, personal problem or deficiency point of view. This study of administrators in the Portland, Oregon metropolitan area suggests that, while some evidence for a more social structural understanding exists, in general the individual problem perspective prevails. An explanation for the persistence of a personal problem perspective is advanced …

Parity, Family Size Preference And The "Value Stretch", Virginia Aldige Hiday, Steven Polgar

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

A two-wave survey of women in their reproductive years living in poverty areas of New York City is used to investigate family size preferences among the poor. The hypotheses that parity affects family size preference and that current parity affects future parity are supported. Implications for future trends in family size preference and for family planning programs are discussed.

Attitudes Toward Abortion: A Comparative Analysis Of Correlates For 1973 And 1975, Theodore C. Wagenaar, Ingeborg W. Knol

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

This paper contains an analysis of both the level of support for abortion and the correlates of such support for both 1973 and 1975, as indicated by National Opinion Research Center data. In comparison to previous research, which focused primarily on bivariate analyses of demographic variables, we examine the role of demographic and other variables (such as work status, unemployment history, receipt of government aid, and belief in an afterlife) at both the bivariate and multivariate levels of analysis. The result indicates an abatement of the previously increasing level of support; this datum plus the increase in persons responding "don't …

Work Incentive Policies: An Evaluation Of Their Effects On Welfare Women's Choice, Jacqueline Ballou

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

It is argued here that Work Incentive Policies treat the symptoms rather than the basic causes of poverty with high costs to society. The writer's own experience with WIN participants as well as attitudinal surveys has suggested that there is a very high motivation to work among welfare mothers, however, the low-wage jobs available to them are not very competitive with benefits available through AFDC with its various in-kind programs such as Medicaid and day care. As Sawhill (1976) notes, the combined benefit-loss rates associated with work incentive programs remain high, as budgetary constraints associated with raising net welfare- wage …

The Women's Liberation Movement And Its Various Impacts On American Men, Arthur B. Shostak

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Writing in 1974 about women and athletics 26 years ahead in the year 2000 journalist Lucinda Franks foresees a sexist backlash she tags the "New Male Chauvinist Movement." It all begins with a rebirth of the Age of Reason which, after 1980, includes a new celebration of the humanizing potentialities of sport and games. Women, as prime agents of this pivotal cultural reform, will have advanced so fast and so far in competitive and non-competitive athletics that "the Total Human has been born" and " the average body is no longer just a neglected dormitory for the mind." There is …

The Interests Of Children And The Interests Of The State: Rethinking The Conflict Between Child Welfare Policy And Foster Care Practice , A. Pare, J. Torczyner

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

The social welfare literature -- whether embodied in the ideology of the profession, claimed in its social policy, substantiated through empirical research, or espoused in practice -- suggests that children should not be removed from their natural hones as a solution to economic woes or to the unavailability of social support services. This apparent convergence of ideology, policy and practice -- buttressed by social values which recognize the importance of family life -- would suggest that few children, if any, would enter foster care because of inadequate income or the absence of social services. Yet, in 1977, between one quarter …

The Family - 100 Years Of Neglect, Frank J. Montemuro

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

The following address was made at an All-Day Institute convened by the Family Court Division of the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas in conjunction with the Family Institute of Philadelphia to explore issues and new responsibilities faced by public and private agencies dealing with the myriad changes in family life in this last decade of social upheaval.