Family, Life Course, and Society Commons^™

Unemployment Insurance: A Safety Net For Victims Of Intimate Partner Violence And Their Children, Marybeth J. Mattingly, Laura Dugan

Carsey Publications

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) estimates that over 5 million intimate partner assaults are perpetrated against women each year, and they lose more than 8 million days of work annually. Expanding Unemployment Insurance (UI) benefits to victims of domestic violence is one mechanism for supporting women as they seek to escape the violence in their lives.

Civil Partnership: Your Questions Answered - A Comprehensive Analysis Of The Civil Partnership Bill, Fergus Ryan

Reports

The Civil Partnership Bill 2009 arguably represents the most momentous change in Irish Family Law in a generation. The Bill proposes a substantial new legal status for registered same-sex partners, as well as important changes to the law as it relates to cohabitants. This report addresses the provisions of the Bill as initiated, analysing the potential impact of the Bill in clear and accessible language. The Report also highlights potential difficulties with the Bill, and suggests possible enhancements to the Bill as initiated.

Depressive Symptoms And Marital Satisfaction In The Context Of Chronic Disease: A Longitudinal Dyadic Analysis, Rachel Pruchno, Maureen Wilson-Genderson, Francine P Cartwright

Rowan-Virtua School of Osteopathic Medicine Departmental Research

These analyses examined the longitudinal relationships between depressive symptoms and marital satisfaction over a 2-year period as experienced by 315 patients with end-stage renal disease and their spouses. Using multilevel modeling, the authors examined both individual and cross-partner effects of depressive symptoms and marital satisfaction on patients and spouses, testing bidirectional causality. Results indicate that mean and time-varying depressive symptoms of both patients and spouses were associated with their own marital satisfaction. Although mean marital satisfaction was associated with own depressive symptoms for both patients and spouses, time-varying marital satisfaction did not affect depressive symptoms for either patients or spouses. …

Fathers And Child Welfare: Fathers' Service Experiences With The Child Welfare System, Nick Coady

Partnerships for Children and Families Project

This research report provides an overview of the findings about 18 men’s experiences of service involvement with a Children’s Aid Society in Southern Ontario. The data reported here are part of a larger study that also focused on these men’s daily living realities. Themes discussed in this report include positive aspects of men’s child welfare involvement such as worker characteristics men appreciated, as well as, negative aspects of services including formulaic interventions and anti-male biases. Service implications are discussed. This document is intended as both a standalone document and a companion report to the Father's Life Experiences report. This report …

Parental Divorce: A Protection From Later Delinquency For Maltreated Children, Christopher A. Mallett, Patricia A. Stoddard Dare

Social Work Faculty Publications

Family structure and maltreatment (abuse and neglect) have been identified as predictors of youth delinquency, although the relationship is not clear. This article furthers this research by studying a sample of maltreated children (n = 250) in one Midwest county, and through a multiple regression analysis of many risk factors, the study identified only one significant delinquency variable that made delinquency less likely—children who experience parental divorce. Some established risk factors were surprisingly found not to be predictive of later delinquency: minority race, one-parent families, youth substance abuse, recurrent maltreatment, and youth behind in academic grade level. Implications for the …

Assessing Stakeholder Opinions Of Medical Review Of Impaired Drivers And Fitness To Drive: Recommendations For Massachusetts, Nina M. Silverstein, Kelli Barton

Gerontology Institute Publications

Driving is the main mode of travel for Americans age 65 and older, and although older adults are generally found to be safe drivers, aging often brings about functional limitations and an increase in medications that can impede safe driving and fitness to drive (Rosenbloom, 2003; Kissinger, 2008; Adler & Silverstein, 2008). Effective licensing policies and Medical Advisory Board practices are critical components in identifying medically at-risk drivers and may even have a role in the transition to alternative transportation options; yet, states vary greatly in their approach to licensing and renewal practices and in the utilization, composition, and function …

Child Cognitive Development As Examined Using The Family Stress Model, Aimee Hanvey

All Theses

This study used the Family Stress Model to investigate the relationship between economic distress and child cognitive development. A number of family and community processes have been theorized to mediate the relationship between income and child cognitive functioning. Warm parenting, parental stress, and punitive parenting practices were examined as possible mediators in a sample of 12,440 kindergarten children from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study - Kindergarten (ECLS-K). Cognitive development was evaluated by reading and mathematical standardized tests, and economic distress was measured using the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Food Insecurity Scale. The results of this study found support …

Grieving Together And Apart: Bereaved Parents’ Contradictions Of Marital Interaction, Paige W. Toller, Dawn O. Braithwaite

Communication Faculty Publications

The researchers adopted relational dialectics theory (Baxter & Montgomery, 1996) to examine the discourse of 37 bereaved parents. Research questions guiding the study were what dialectical contradictions do bereaved parents experience when communicating with their marital partner after their child’s death and how do bereaved parents and their marital partners communicatively negotiate the dialectical contradictions they experience? Our analysis revealed that bereaved parents experienced a dialectical contradiction between trying to grieve their child’s death together as a couple and apart as individuals. Likewise, parents experienced a contradiction between being both open and closed when talking with one another about their …

Using Communication To Cope With Loss, Paige W. Toller

Communication Faculty Publications

The death of a child is a devastating and life changing event. A child's death leaves parents struggling to somehow pick up the pieces of their shattered life and continue living. In the aftermath of their loss, parents are often surprised and disappointed to discover how difficult it is to talk to one another about their child's death. Likewise, parents may be frustrated to learn that they grieve very differently from their spouse. In many cases, one parent wants to talk a great deal about the child's death while the other does not. In addition, one parent may be more …

Family-Of-Origin Experience And Emotional Health As Predictors Of Relationship Self-Regulation, Matthew Dean Brown

Theses and Dissertations

The general purpose of this study was to understand differences in one's ability to implement relationship self-regulation (RSR) based on the predictor variables of parental marital satisfaction, parent-child relationship quality, and neuroticism. Participants were 380 married couples (760 individuals) in their first marriage who completed the RELATionship Evaluation (RELATE) between 2006 and 2008. This sample was used to test a structural equation model of the study variables. Results were mixed, indicating that proximal factors may have a larger effect on RSR than more distal family-of-origin factors. There was no direct relationship between perceived parental marital satisfaction and RSR for males …

The Hurtful Relationship: A Longitudinal Study Of Relational Aggression And Physical Health In Marriage, Matthew P. Martin

Theses and Dissertations

Previous literature has examined the link between overt marital conflict and physical health and found that negative interactions in marriage may lead to poorer health. Moreover, recent studies have identified relational aggression as a type of covert marital conflict. However, none have tested for effects of relational aggression on physical health in marriage. The purpose of this research is to further study this type of conflict by examining longitudinal dyadic data to determine how subtle, indirect marital conflict like relational aggression affects the health of spouses. Data from 316 couples, from the first two waves of the BYU Flourishing Families …

The Relationship Between Severity Of Childhood Sexual Abuse And Adult Perceptions Of Intimacy With Internalized Shame As A Mediator, Sarah Williamson

Theses and Dissertations

A community sample of adult women (N = 581) were surveyed to determine whether internalized shame mediated the relationship between severity of childhood sexual abuse and adult perceptions of intimacy in couple relationships. Characteristics of abuse, duration of abuse, frequency of abuse, age when the abuse began, and physical force used during the abuse were used to determine severity of abuse. It was predicted that 1) women sexually abused as children (N = 318) and non-abused women (N = 263) would significantly differ in their levels of internalized shame and their perceptions of intimacy; 2) severity of abuse would be …

Negative Marital Interaction And Positive Child Outcomes With Parent/Child Attachment As A Moderating Variable, Chelsea A. Bennett

Theses and Dissertations

This longitudinal study investigated the potential moderating effects of attachment on negative marital interaction and positive child outcomes, specifically school engagement and child self-regulation. Waves I and II of data were drawn from the Flourishing Families Project; participants were 296 two parent families (fathers, mothers and children ages 10-13). Both observational and questionnaire data were used in data collection. Negative marital interaction was assessed using observational codes from the Iowa Family Interaction Rating Scales. All three family members' perceptions were used in assessing parent/child attachment and the potential positive child outcomes of school engagement and child self-regulation. As negative marital …

The Importance Of Using Sem When Studying Multiple Dimensions Of Marital Satisfaction: Measurement Invariance Across Relationship Length And Gender, Eric C. Walker

Theses and Dissertations

Satisfaction is one of the most common dependent variables in the research of adult intimate relationships. Research has demonstrated that length of time married and sex of participants influence the characteristics of marriage, yet little research has been done to determine the characteristic changes in relationship satisfaction over time and across sexes. A review of theory and research suggests both the manners and specific items of satisfaction that vary between groups. RELATE data was used to uncover significant differences in the importance of specific items of marital satisfactions between groups based on relationship length, and between husbands and wives.

Russian Parenting: Interactions With Relational Aggression Over Time, Emily Kim Keister

Theses and Dissertations

The current study considers Russian parenting (psychological control) and child relational aggression across a decade. We used parent and child driven path analyses to test whether peer-directed and romantic relational aggression is associated with psychological control both concurrently as well as longitudinally. Using AMOS, parent and child driven models were compared and the parent driven models were found to have more significant concurrent and longitudinal linkages. Maternal psychological control was significantly stable over time; relational aggression was also stable over time for girls. Maternal psychological control at Time 1 was associated with relational aggression for girls at Time 1 and …

Triangulation Process: An Examination Of Differentiation And Family Stress As Indicated By Bowen, Michael Robert Whitehead

Theses and Dissertations

This study examined the Bowenian notion that triangulation is precipitated by the interaction between a person's level of differentiation-of-self and the amount of chronic familial emotional anxiety. Another aspect of this study was to examine the relationship between marital quality and child triangulation. The sample for this study was taken from the Flourishing Families project and included only the families that indicated marriage as their relationship status, resulting in a total of 336 families with a target child between the ages of 11 and 14. Initial bivariate analysis indicated that differentiation-of-self, and family stress would be associated with child triangulation. …

Premarital Couple Predictors Of Marital Relationship Quality And Stability: A Meta-Analytic Study, Jeffrey Brown Jackson

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine the most important premarital couple protective and risk factors associated with marital relationship quality and stability by utilizing meta-analytic procedures to calculate standardized effect sizes for each factor. Extant research was identified and evaluated using the following inclusionary criteria: the dependent variables had to measure some form of marital quality or stability, the independent variables had to be premarital in nature, the participants had to have married after 1969, and the statistics necessary for the computation of a zero-order correlation effect size had to be available. Meta-analytic procedures were then utilized to …

The Pension Factor: Assessing The Role Of Defined Benefit Plans In Reducing Elder Hardships, Frank Porell, Beth Almeida

Gerontology Institute Publications

Traditional defined benefit (DB) pension plans have long been an important source of income for elder households seeking to maintain a middle-class standard of living after a lifetime of work. Under traditional DB plans, retirees receive a guaranteed, regular stream of income after retirement that continues until death.

The monthly pension benefit is typically based on years of service to the employer, age, and salary history. Retirees also have the option to elect a joint-and-survivor benefit, to ensure that pension payments continue to a surviving spouse. DB plan participation rates among private sector American workers have sharply decreased from about …

Open-Ended Questions In Web Surveys: Can Increasing The Size Of Answer Boxes And Providing Extra Verbal Instructions Improve Response Quality?, Jolene D. Smyth, Don A. Dillman, Leah Melani Christian, Mallory Mcbride

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

Previous research has revealed techniques to improve response quality in open-ended questions in both paper and interviewer-administered survey modes. The purpose of this paper is to test the effectiveness of similar techniques in web surveys. Using data from a series of three random sample web surveys of Washington State University undergraduates, we examine the effects of visual and verbal answer-box manipulations (i.e., altering the size of the answer box and including an explanation that answers could exceed the size of the box) and the inclusion of clarifying and motivating introductions in the question stem. We gauge response quality by the …

Marriage Preparation Education Programs: An Evaluation Of Essential Elements Of Quality, Geniel Childs

Theses and Dissertations

The efficacy of marriage preparation education (MPE) continues to be demonstrated through participant outcome research. However, understanding the elements that make MPE effective is still unclear and standards for quality have not been established. In an effort to address these deficits and promote improvement in the field of MPE, currently available and widely recognized marriage preparation education programs were examined according an evaluative model created by Hughes (1994). The four components of the Hughes model (content, instructional process, implementation process, and evaluation) outline research-supported elements that are essential in the development of quality family life educational programs. Eight MPE programs …

Stay Or Leave Coos County? Parents' Messages Matter, Corinna J. Tucker

Carsey Publications

When it comes to deciding whether to stay in New Hampshire's rural Coos County or leave for other opportunities, young people are listening to their parents. Surveying 78 percent of all seventh and eleventh graders in public schools in Coos County, researchers found that young peoples' future intentions to migrate from Coos in search of economic or educational opportunities or to remain in Coos to pursue a future close to home are closely aligned with the messages their parents deliver to them.

現代化中家庭結構和功能的改變 : 對北京、香港和雲南家庭的研究 = Are Impacts Of Modernization On Family In Structure And Function Universal? A Study Among Beijing, Hong Kong And Yunnan Families, Ting Cao, Cheung Ming, Alfred Chan, K. M., William Lee

Conference on “Improving the Human Destiny"

框架

--背景介绍

--“现代化”的定义

--现代化对家庭的影响

--结论和讨论

Contents

--Background

--Definition of Modernization

--Modernization and Its Impacts on Family

--Conclusion and Discussion

Strengthening Family Functions And Building A Neighborhood Network, Cheung Ming, Alfred Chan

Conference on “Improving the Human Destiny"

內容

---2006-2007年施政撮要

---先瞭解社會／家庭轉變帶來的挑戰

---香港家庭現時面對的挑戰

---如何鞏固現有家庭網絡

---建構新文化、新服務模式創建社區鄰里網絡：營造跨代團結，擴展社域家庭

---願景：以家庭鄰里為基礎，學校為平台

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/="/">Content

---Policy Address: family Crisis

---Understand changes & impacts

---Challenges to family

---Strengthening family network

---Need for a new culture – building a network

---Neighbourhood communities & schools becoming family networks

Chat-Room Voices Of Divorced Non-Residential Fathers, Pauline Irit Erera, Nehami Baum

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

This study uses postings by divorced fathers to an unmoderated Internet chat room to sound and analyze their voices. The findings show that the posters expressed an acute sense of powerlessness with respect to their status as non-residential fathers, the imposition of child support, the mothers of their children, the family courts, and lawyers and helping professionals. Although most of their grievances have already been reported in the literature on non-custodial post-divorce parenting, the anonymous postings allow us to hear an intensity of feeling that comes through much more faintly in studies based on interviews or focus groups. Since the …

Primetimes Newsletter, Summer 2009, Office Of Lifespan Studies

PrimeTimes Newsletter

PrimeTimes is the newsletter of the Office of Lifespan Studies in the College of Science at Coastal Carolina University.

Fathers And Child Welfare: Stories Of Men’S Everyday Lives And Service Experiences, Gary Cameron

Partnerships for Children and Families Project

This volume of stories from fathers involved with child welfare services acts as both a stand-alone document and a companion document to the research reports on father’s life experiences and child welfare service experiences. This volume is intended for multiple audiences including child welfare service providers, community organizations working with men, students and instructors interested in men’s issues, and fathers. This volume of stories may be useful for teaching purposes, service provision decisions, and general interest.

Mothers And Child Welfare: Stories Of Women’S Everyday Lives And Service Experiences (Story Volume), Gary Cameron

Partnerships for Children and Families Project

This volume of stories from mothers involved with child welfare services acts as both a stand-alone document and a companion document to the research report on mothers’ experiences of child welfare services entitled Stories of Mothers and Child Welfare. This volume is intended for multiple audiences including child welfare service providers, community organizations working with women, students and instructors interested in women’s issues, and mothers. This volume of stories may be useful for teaching purposes, service provision decisions, and general interest.

The New, Longer Road To Adulthood: Schooling, Work, And Idleness Among Rural Youth, Anastasia Snyder, Diane Mclaughlin, Alisha Coleman-Jensen

Carsey Publications

This report focuses on the education and work experiences of rural youth during the emerging adult years (age 20 to 24), as they make the transition from adolescence to adulthood. It documents how rural emerging adults combine work and school and experience idleness, closely examines their educational attainment, and compares their experiences with those in central city and suburban areas.

The Right To Die Debate: The Demonization Of Dr. Kevorkian And The Creation Of A Moral Panic Surrounding Physician-Assisted Suicide In The United States, Dana White

Honors Scholar Theses

The Right to Die Debate is a recent but highly controversial moral matter. In particular, physician-assisted suicide (PAS) is an issue that has been evaded by the medical community for years. As of 1990, most states had never encountered the issue before and therefore did not have any laws in place to prohibit PAS (Strate et. al, 2005). Dr. Jack Kevorkian, a retired pathologist from Royal Oak Michigan was the first to publicly address PAS. He brought the issue into the limelight through a bizarre and crude series of assisted deaths that had a lasting impact on not only the …

Gay Parenthood And The Revolution Of The Modern Family: An Examination Of The Unique Barriers Confronting Gay Adoptive Parents, Nicholas Arntsen

Honors Scholar Theses

Abstract: In recent decades, the structure of the American family has been revolutionized to incorporate families of diverse and unconventional compositions. Gay and lesbian couples have undoubtedly played a crucial role in this revolution by establishing families through the tool of adoption. Eleven adoptive parents from the state of Connecticut were interviewed to better conceptualize the unique barriers gay couples encounter in the process adoption. Both the scholarly research and the interview data illustrate that although gay couples face enormous legal barriers, the majority of their hardship comes through social interactions. As a result, the cultural myths and legal restrictions …