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ABSTRACT The federal Early Head Start program provides a relevant context to examine families' experiences with stress since participants qualify on the basis of poverty and risk. Building on previous research that has shown variations in demographic and economic risks even among qualifying families, we examined possible variations in families' perceptions of stress. Family, parent, and child data were collected to measure stressors and risk across a variety of domains in families' everyday lives, primarily from self-report measures, but also including assay results from child cortisol samples. A cluster analysis was employed to examine potential differences among groups of Early Head Start families. Results showed that there were three distinct subgroups of families, with some families perceiving that they experienced very high levels of stress while others perceived much lower levels of stress despite also experiencing poverty and heightened risk. These findings have important implications in that they provide an initial step toward distinguishing differences in low-income families' experiences with stress, thereby informing interventions focused on promoting responsive caregiving as a possible mechanism to buffer the effects of family and social stressors on young children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most homeschooled students would be more accurately described as 'flexischooled,' partly homeschooled and partly enrolled in school. The popularity of these two alternatives to public or private school enrollment has increased over the past several decades to the extent that, by 2012 over 2 million students, 4 percent of the population, were either flexischooled or homeschooled in the United States. To understand why parents have pursued these options over enrollment, we employed a family economy perspective, arguing that family, child, and locational considerations shaped parents' motivations for homeschooling or flexischooling over enrollment. For example, parents' decisions were partially shaped by the interaction between children's disability status and rural location. Using data from the National Household Education Survey 2012, this article first describes the prevalence of flexischooling and full-time homeschooling. Then, it demonstrates how various family, child, and locational factors shape the odds of flexischooling and homeschooling, and then examines the interaction between location and children's disability status in detail. We discuss the implications of our findings for family economy theoretical perspectives, flexischooling, and rural education research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we argue for repositioning geographies of children, youth and families at the centre rather than at the periphery of discussions about the economy. This not only reveals what contemporary and lived experiences of economic change feel and look like, but also exposes deeper problematics about the geographically and socially uneven nature of neoliberalism and the austere state. This paper also introduces a collection which, when taken together, explores intersections between everyday life and austerity, with children, youth and families as the focus of inquiry. Adopting a multi-scalar approach, the collected papers 'zoom in' to explore the everyday realities of austere life in the UK in order to refract our understanding of the broader condition of economic change and concomitant austerity measures. Simultaneously, and speaking to a wider political agenda, the collection can be scaled up, or the framing 'zoomed out', to question and actively address the injustices of austerity and neoliberal retrenchment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The impacts of austerity have permeated many aspects of everyday life in the UK, making this an important context in which to carry out social research. In this paper I consider some of the challenges that austerity poses to how we carry out research into everyday austerities and the ethical implications of researching in austere conditions. Drawing on debates from feminist and moral geographies on ethics, care and responsibility, and on first-hand experiences of researching families in the current economic climate, I argue that the everyday mechanics of research - such as recompensing participants, and the place of the researcher - acquire particular resonance in austerity. In doing so, I also reflect on the significance of social proximity and personal biography, and the ways in which researchers may become enveloped in participants' personal narratives in addition to providing support and care. In the conclusion I identify contributions made to understandings of care and responsibility in fieldwork, the ethics of researching in and about austerity, and the relational space of the field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background. Family studies are an integral part of teaching of community medicine to all undergraduate medical and nursing students. It enhances the understanding of students about social determinants and multifactorial causation of disease. However, there is no standard approach towards it and it is seen as a clinical presentation with some elements of family included. We describe a systematic and comprehensive approach to a family study. Methods. Based on the existing literature and personal experience, we identified 11 domains under the acronym Family ASSESSMENT--Structure, Socioeconomic, Sickness, Nutritional, Educational, Environmental, Affordability, System (health), Mental, Family influence, Threats. Under each domain, we present indicative diagnoses and possible solutions. We also suggest that these domain diagnoses can be integrated into a single 'web of interaction' which provides a comprehensive understanding of the issues and guides us towards identifying the solutions. Results. We use a worked out example of a case of tuberculosis to demonstrate the use of this approach and develop a rich web of interaction, which is then linked to identification of possible approaches towards mitigating the impact of disease on the individual and the family. Some suggestions to the departments of community medicine on organizing family studies are also provided. Conclusion. Availability of a systematic and comprehensive approach would improve students' understanding of the social model of disease and multifactorial causation of disease. It will also provide a standardized method of teaching this important component of community medicine nationally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) have lifetime consequences for health and development. Identification of ACEs early in childhood provides the potential to intervene before health and development are impaired. This study examined the timing and duration of exposure to ACEs experienced by children from low-income families from ages one to three years to identify whether there were patterns of exposure when infants and toddlers were most vulnerable. We were able to confirm the early negative consequences on cognitive, health, and behavior outcomes previously reported in young children using a national, longitudinal data set of parents and children from low-income households ( N = 2250). Using Finite Mixture Models, five classes of exposure were identified for children, Consistently Low (63.8%), Decreasing (10.3%), High at Age 2 (11.4%), Increasing (10.4%), and Consistently High (4%). The Consistently Low and Consistently High classes had the most and least optimal development across all domains, respectively. When examining child development outcomes among children with variable exposures to adversities, we found that for cognitive, language, and physical development, the most proximal ACEs were more robust for predicting child outcomes. For socioemotional health, exposure at any time from one to three to ACEs had negative consequences. As a whole, findings from this study highlight the need to consider ACEs screening tools that are both time-sensitive and permit a lifetime report. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this longitudinal study was to closely examine the economic status of households that include individuals with intellectual disabilities in South Korea as well as the factors contributing to their poverty dynamics. The 2008 and 2012 panel data from the Korea Employment Agency for the Disabled were used to determine the income movement, poverty dynamics, and income patterns of families in the sustained nonpoverty and sustained poverty groups. Data from 87 households that include individuals with intellectual disabilities was used for analysis. Income mobility was assessed using a transition matrix between 2008 and 2012, and poverty and nonpoverty were determined based on the absolute poverty standard. Poverty dynamics were classified by the changes in poverty status in 2008 and 2012, including sustained poverty, sustained nonpoverty, poverty exit, and poverty entry. Income patterns were composed of earned income, social insurance, property income, and transfer income. The results showed that 66.7% of the households including individuals with intellectual disabilities showed no movement in income distribution and 82.8% of these families stayed in the lowest income distribution for both periods. The demographic characteristics of education level, multiple disabilities, and change in the number of employed members of the household were related to poverty dynamics. The ratio of earned income in the sustained nonpoverty group was significantly higher than that of the sustained poverty group, whereas the public transfer income ratio was significantly higher than in the sustained-poverty group in 2008 and 2012. To reduce the prevalence and severity of poverty among households with individuals with intellectual disabilities, opportunities and quality of employment need to be secured, not only for individuals with intellectual disabilities, but also for their supporting family members. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on the marital correspondence of Isabella Marshall and William John Campbell Allen, an Ulster Presbyterian couple, alongside a number of other Presbyterian families, this article explores how patriarchy was negotiated within Irish Presbyterian marriages, c. 1780–1850. It begins by framing the Campbell Allens as a case-study, and examines how the couple negotiated three elements of the patriarchal marriage ideal: love, obedience and the control of economic resources. Next, it uses the family papers and personal correspondence of two other Presbyterian couples, and considers how typical their examples are of love, marriage and patriarchy. This article argues that patriarchy was not a fixed principle in marriage. Rather, it was subject to a constant process of negotiation and refinement during the course of marriage. The roles played by women and men in marriage were also fluid and elastic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to the influence of traditional culture, housing is regarded as a status good and plays an important role in improving male competitiveness in the marriage market in China. Using data from a recent household survey, we find that urban families with a son are more likely to own a house, with a larger size, and at an earlier date. With the booming of the Chinese housing market since the late 1990s as background, having a son thus generates a substantial effect on family wealth through the channel of house ownership. Using the gender of the first-born child as an instrument, our estimation shows that families with a son have 188 thousand RMB yuan higher housing wealth on average. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to explore the socio-economic impacts of AIDS on families caring for AIDS-orphaned children in Mbeya rural district, Tanzania. Design/methodology/approach - A qualitative inquiry employing one-on-one in-depth interviews was conducted in 2015. Purposive sampling technique was used to recruit participants (n=24) comprising 20 heads of families caring for AIDS-orphaned children, two local government staff and two staff from Isangati Agricultural Development Organisation - a non-government organisation. Qualitative data were analysed using thematic and framework approach. Findings - Results demonstrated that families caring for AIDS-orphaned children experienced severe socioeconomic impacts of the epidemic. Reduction in household savings, increase in living expenses on health care and increased education fees were the identified economic impacts on these families. Social impacts included labour shortage, withdrawal of children from school and increased demand for food. Social implications - There is a need for urgent responses and for scaling up programmes delivered by organisations, institutions and the government of Tanzania to help families cope with these impacts. Originality/value - This study provides evidence on socio-economic impacts of AIDS on families caring for AIDS-orphaned children in Tanzania. An understanding of these impacts can help governmental and nongovernmental institutions and programme planners to address the problem in their policies and develop evidence-based strategies and interventions in responding to the problem in Mbeya and Tanzania. Moreover, responses to reducing the impacts of AIDS on families require a holistic approach that encourages the involvement of all sectors and agents outside of the health sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Waiting is an under-explored area of social stratification and domination. Lower-income Americans frequently endure long waits, including waits to secure social welfare benefits, and these waits may serve the purpose of instilling in clients the need for compliance. Using qualitative interview data, this paper explores how low and moderate-income women in a US state understand their waits for public benefits; how those understanding shape their responses to the wait; and what those responses tell us about waiting as a form of social control as it is negotiated between the parties. Despite describing the process of obtaining benefits as one of “waiting it out,” women ascribe different meanings to their waits and take action based upon their assessments of the cause of the delay, the complexity of the situation, and past experiences with public bureaucracies. These approaches allow women to assert some control over a situation in which so much is out of one’s control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports the findings of an analysis of a collection of Statutory Declaration forms completed by teachers seeking exemption from dismissal under theNSW Married Women (Lecturers and Teachers) Act(1932–1947). Most sought exemption on hardship grounds, recording details of their husbands’ inability or unwillingness to provide them with ‘adequate’ support. The collection offers insight into the gendered finances of a particular group during the 1930s Depression, revealing some complex interdependencies—such as the need to support extended kin—and offering insights into the role of the state in the making of the family as a social and economic unit. The bureaucratic apparatus of regulation and standardised paperwork operated materially and discursively to distinguish the exceptional (salaried married women) from the more desirable or legitimate order of gendered responsibilities (financially dependent wives). Finally, the forms are strikingly silent about the professional teaching work of the women. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Background: Financial risk protection and equity are major components of universal health coverage (UHC), which is defined as ensuring access to health services for all citizens without any undue financial burden. We investigated progress towards UHC financial risk indicators and assessed variability of inequalities in financial risk protection indicators by wealth quintile. We further examined the determinants of different financial hardship indicators related to healthcare costs. Methods: A cross-sectional, three-stage probability survey was conducted in Bangladesh, which collected information from 1600 households from August to November 2011. Catastrophic health payments, impoverishment, and distress financing (borrowing or selling assets) were treated as financial hardship indicators in UHC. Poisson regression models were used to identify the determinants of catastrophic payment, impoverishment and distress financing separately. Slope, relative and concentration indices of inequalities were used to assess wealth-based inequalities in financial hardship indicators. Results: The study found that around 9% of households incurred catastrophic payments, 7% faced distress financing, and 6% experienced impoverishing health payments in Bangladesh. Slope index of inequality indicated that the incidence of catastrophic health payment and distress financing among the richest households were 12 and 9 percentage points lower than the poorest households respectively. Multivariable Poisson regression models revealed that all UHC financial hardship indicators were significantly higher among household that had members who received inpatient care or were in the poorest quintile. The presence of a member with chronic illness in a household increased the risk of impoverishment by nearly double. Conclusion: This study identified a greater inequality in UHC financial hardship indicators. Rich households in Bangladesh were facing disproportionately less financial hardship than the poor ones. Households can be protected from financial hardship associated with healthcare costs by implementing risk pooling mechanism, increasing GDP spending on health, and properly monitoring subsidized programs in public health facilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Despite the ongoing controversy regarding which types of stressors or resources contribute to psychological distress, there has been little research examining the relationship between war trauma, normative stressors, family resources for management and psychopathology. Aims: This study investigated the differences between mothers and fathers in psychological distress, normative stressors and war atrocities experienced, and family’s resources for management. It was hypothesized that a combination of risk variables and protective variables would be predictive of psychological distress in parents. Methods: Questionnaires were used with 205 Palestinian parents from Gaza Strip. Results: Mothers had more psychiatric disorders than did fathers. Although, mothers and fathers were exposed to comparable levels of normative stressors, mothers concerns about intrafamily strains, and family legal violations were greater than they were for fathers. Results revealed that fathers possess a larger repertoire of resources for management when compared to mothers reflected in esteem and communication, mastery and health, extended family social support and financial well-being. However, mastery and health seem to buffer the effect of war traumas and normative stressors on neuroticism in both parents. Conclusion: The different patterns of predictor–outcome relations have practical as well as theoretical implications. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

We study the role of family wealth for children's educational achievement using novel Swedish register data. In particular, we focus on the relationship between grandparents' wealth and their grandchildren's educational achievement. Doing so allows us to reliably establish the independent role of wealth in contributing to long-term inequalities in opportunity. We use regression models with extensive controls to account for observed socioeconomic characteristics of families, cousin fixed effects to net out potentially unobserved grandparent effects, and marginal structural models to account for endogenous selection. We find substantial associations between grandparents' wealth and their grandchildren's grade point averages (GPA) in the 9th grade that are only partly mediated by parents' socioeconomic characteristics and wealth. Our findings indicate that family wealth inequality--even in a comparatively egalitarian context like Sweden--has profound consequences for the distribution of opportunity across multiple generations. We posit that our estimates of the long-term consequences of wealth inequality may be conservative for nations other than Sweden, like the United States, where family wealth--in addition to its insurance and normative functions--allows the direct purchase of educational quality and access. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective We examined the role financial issues played in African Americans' marriages using a strengths-based perspective. Background Few studies have examined the importance of finances in African Americans' marriages. Those that have done so have mostly focused on money as a stressful contextual problem. Allowing African American couples to describe their own marital experiences expands our understanding regarding the interface of finances and relationships. Method Using qualitative data from 37 African American couples ( N = 74 individuals) who felt they had strong marriages, we took a phenomenological approach to identify themes in the data. Results Many participants portrayed money as a stressor. Furthermore, participants discussed financial behaviors and attitudes that helped their marriages be strong. Finally, participants described transcending, or rising above, financial issues. Conclusion The participants in this study, African Americans who felt they were in strong marriages, talked about the marital role of finances in multiple ways. It was clear that they actively strived to shape the way that financial issues influenced their marriages, whether through making decisions that would help them financially and relationally or by shifting their focus to more important matters like the well-being of family members. Implications These findings offer researchers new ideas about the intersection of money, family, and race, and show diversity among African American couples. The findings may also help practitioners recognize both the circumstances by which finances are stressors in some African American marriages, and how some African American couples navigate financial challenges while maintaining strong relationships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explores the impact of having a first-born child on couples' work and family, which covers economic resources, gender attitudes, workplace flexibility and availability of non-parental childcare. Topics discussed include factors playing on mothers' decision to continue working, how work hours govern mothers' decision to stay or change her occupation, and factors that affect allocation of childcare time for both first-time parents.

Family policy addresses some of the important challenges of post-industrial societies, and represents an important dimension of the recent transformation of advanced welfare capitalism. This article analyses the development of family policy in the two East Asian latecomer countries of Japan and South Korea, where we witness significant policy expansion starting in the 1990s—with the latter displaying much bolder expansion and defamilization. Explaining the difference in policy expansion, we show that the Korean electorate displays a much stronger pro-welfare orientation, which produced an environment for much fiercer party competition on the grounds of social and family policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bullying has been examined by a variety of international professionals, all intent upon stopping this challenging problem in the school setting. Many experts have designed and implemented strategic whole-group, anti-bullying campaigns that are purchased by school administrators in the attempt that bullying will be thwarted by a one-size-fits-all “fix” of the pervasive and troublesome behaviors. Bullying continues to impede the efforts of school officials, regardless of the program by which they are educating students. The reason? There are no anti-bullying campaigns that adequately address the dynamics of class, race and gender. These factors act as a catalyst for different manifestations in the definition of bullying, the perceptions of bullying, and the reactions of teachers and staff toward bullying situations. These factors also account for the differences in behavioral manifestations among students. Race, class and gender are major determinants of “how,” “why” and “what” perpetrators and victims experience when faced with a bullying incident. Therefore, it is necessary to understand these complex dynamics in order to develop a more substantial and pertinent solution to the bullying epidemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using discursive policy analysis, we analyse recent Australian childcare policy reform. By examining the policy framings of two successive governments and a childcare union, we demonstrate how the value of care work was strategically positioned by each of the three actors, constructing differing problems with different policy solutions. We argue that women's care work was recognised by one government as valuable and professional when it aligned with an educational investment framing of enhanced productivity. This framing was capitalised upon by a union campaign for 'professional' wages, resulting in a government childcare worker wage subsidy. However, prior to implementation, a change of government re-framed the problem. The new government cast mandatory quality standards as placing unnecessary financial pressure on families and business. Within this frame, the remedy was to instead subsidise employer staff-development costs without increasing workers' wages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a recent article in the American Economic Review, Dahl and Lochner (2012) use changes in the Earned Income Tax Credit to estimate the causal effect of family income on child achievement. Their instrumental variable (IV ) estimates imply that a $1,000 increase in income raises combined math and reading test scores by about 6 percent of a standard deviation. I document a variable coding error. Correcting this error reduces the IV estimates by 32 percent; correcting this error does not change the qualitative conclusions of the study. (JEL H24, H31, I21, I38, J13) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We set up a unified growth model with intra-household bargaining of spouses. In line with the data for less developed countries, we assume that women desire to have no more children than men and to invest no less in education per child. We show analytically that women's empowerment promotes the transition from a state of high fertility, low education, and sluggish economic growth towards a state of low fertility, high education, and fast economic growth if the child quantity-quality preferences of spouses differ substantially. In this case, targeted policies to empower women represent a promising development strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the multi-ethnic transnational families with increasing globalisation. The article discusses the movement of people from one to another and how that affects our lifestyle through national borders and traditional ideas. It is suggested the alternative ways of communication which depend on our lifestyle and needs.

The article offers information on young onset dementia including signs and symptoms, coping strategies and the role of family in dealing with it.

This study examines the roles that gender, family economics, ethical dissonance, event judgment, and humor style play in cyberbullying. This cross-sectional study was conducted through an online survey, and 360 Chinese college students participated. The results show that boys have more cyberbullying (flaming) experience than girls and are more likely to use aggressive humor in daily life; girls feel more ethical dissonance than boys in denigration events, are more likely to correctly judge this as bullying, and more often use self-enhancing humor. Students from well-off families are more likely to use affiliative humor than students from moderate and disadvantaged financial situations; students from moderate and well-off families are more likely to correctly identify denigration as bullying behavior than students from economically disadvantaged families; and students from economically disadvantaged families perceive a higher level of ethical dissonance in flaming events. In addition, the variables were correlated with each other to a certain extent and significantly jointly predicted the three types of cyberbullying behaviors; event judgment and aggressive humor were the common predictors. • Boys have more flaming type cyberbullying experience than girls. • Girls and students from moderate and well-off families are more likely to correctly identify denigration as bullying. • Girls and disadvantaged students perceive stronger ethical dissonance in denigration and flaming events, respectively. • Students of different genders and economic situations tend to use different forms of humor. • Event judgment and aggressive humor were determinants for all cyberbullying behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using four waves of data from Secondary 1 to Secondary 4 ( N = 3328 students at Wave 1), this study examined the development of delinquent behavior and its relationships with economic disadvantage, family non-intactness, family quality of life (i.e., family functioning) and personal well-being (i.e., positive youth development) among Hong Kong adolescents. Individual growth curve models revealed that delinquent behavior increased during this period, and adolescents living in non-intact families (vs. intact families) reported higher initial levels of delinquent behavior while those living in poor families (vs. non-poor families) showed a greater increase in delinquent behavior. In addition, with the demographic factors controlled, the initial levels of family quality of life and personal well-being were negatively associated with the initial level of delinquent behavior, but positively associated with the growth rate of delinquent behavior. Regression analyses showed that family quality of life and personal well-being were related to the overall delinquent behavior concurrently at Wave 4. However, Wave 1 family quality of life and personal well-being did not predict Wave 4 delinquent behavior with the initial level of delinquent behavior controlled. Lastly, we discussed the role of economic disadvantage and family non-intactness as risk factors and family functioning and positive youth development as protective well-being factors in the development of adolescent well-being indexed by delinquent behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we draw on the Growing Up in Ireland (GUI) data to examine the impact of pre-recession socio-economic characteristics on the economic stress levels of households with children. Our results provide some support for the polarisation argument, with the largest increases in absolute percentage point terms occurring towards the bottom of the socio-economic hierarchy. However, this was accompanied by sharp attenuation of socio-economic inequalities in stress and a dramatic increase in the heterogeneity of economically stressed households. The analysis shows that the reality is more complex than either the "class polarisation" or "middle class squeeze" hypotheses would suggest. The results create a new set of challenges for policy that require a careful balancing of issues of legitimacy, the need to meet very broad-based needs for services and the more traditional targeted assistance to vulnerable groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista Crítica de Ciências Sociais is the property of Centro de Estudos Sociais and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Continuing a long-standing trend in the U.S. Social Security Administration database of first names ( N = 358 million), American parents were less likely to choose common names for their children between 2004 and 2015, including the years of the Great Recession (2008-2010). These trends were similar in California (severely affected by the recession) and Texas (less affected). Over a longer time period (1901-2015), cyclical economic indicators were either not correlated with common names (e.g., stock market performance) or worse economic times predicted fewer common names. The results are consistent with increasing individualism, with limited support for the idea that economic threat leads people to embrace uniqueness and no real support for the idea that economic deprivation leads to more communal name choices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent decades have seen growth in the level, geographic distribution, and repercussions of income inequality, with unequal access to enriching resources hypothesized to support the intergenerational transmission of inequality. Yet little evidence delineates economic or contextual variation in resources directed at children. Using data from the Consumer Expenditure Survey on 31,842 families, this study assessed how family expenditures vary across income and urbanicity strata. Results found that high income families spent proportionally more of their total budget on child resources and proportionately less on basic needs compared to lower income families. These patterns buttress arguments that access to enriching resources may be an important mechanism through which economic advantage is passed on to the next generation. Results further found that income disparities in expenditures were heightened in large urban areas and tempered in rural areas. Together results highlight both income and urbanicity disparities in families' expenditures on child-promotive resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Comprehension monitoring has received substantial attention as a reading comprehension strategy. However, comprehension monitoring is not limited to the reading context, but applies to the oral context for children's listening comprehension, which is a critical foundation for reading comprehension. Therefore, a systematic and explicit instructional routine for comprehension monitoring in oral language contexts was developed for prekindergartners from low-income families. Instruction was provided in small groups for approximately 5 min a day for 4 days a week for 8 weeks. Results showed that children who received comprehension monitoring instruction were better at identifying inconsistencies in short stories than those who received typical instruction with a medium effect size (d = .57). These results suggest comprehension monitoring is malleable and can be taught in the oral language context to prereaders from low socioeconomic backgrounds. Furthermore, the instructional routine reported in this study is flexible for individual, small group, or whole class settings, and likely can be easily delivered by educators such as teachers and paraeducators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Parental involvement in children’s education is a critical factor associated with children’s socio-emotional and educational outcomes. However, low parental involvement occurs more often among economically disadvantaged families. It is unclear what mechanisms may explain the association between family economic status and parents’ educational involvement. Using a large low-income sample from northwestern China (N = 12,724), we examined the influence of two proximal processes in parents – expectation for children’s highest educational attainment and perceived barriers to involve – in linking family economic status and the involvement of parents in children’s education. We also examined whether these relations may vary by parents’ level of education. Results of structural equation modeling suggested that parents’ expectation and perceived barriers mediated the relationship between family economic status and parental involvement. These relations were particularly prominent among highly educated mothers. Findings elucidate proximal processes in parents and highlight the unique effects of economic status and parents’ level of education in understanding the link between family economic status and parental educational involvement in Chinese families. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study builds on the explanatory power of the 'doing gender' perspective to understand the effects of family economic structure on the family and career satisfaction of husbands and wives. Using data from a two-panel, couple-level survey of full-time employed middle-class families in the Northeastern United States, we find that when wives' earnings increase relative to their husbands', their career satisfaction significantly increases whereas their husbands' is significantly depressed. In contrast, family economic structure has little effect on women' and men's level of family satisfaction, although we find a significant reduction in family satisfaction among couples who have recently shifted towards a more equal-earner economic structure. Our findings underscore the importance of considering both husbands' and wives' attitudes towards work and career in understanding how 'gender is done' in couples, and in addressing the resulting family and work relations and dynamics. Focusing on the disjuncture between longstanding gender norms and current employment and earning patterns, we highlight the potential impact of these findings for couples, counselors, and organizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Higher birth order positions are associated with poorer outcomes due to smaller shares of resources received within the household. Using a sample of Panel Study of Income Dynamics-Child Development Supplement children, we investigate if the negative birth order effect we find in cognitive outcomes is due to unequal allocation of mother and father time investments. Exploiting the presence of siblings in the sample, we show that birth order differences in parental time are mostly driven by between-families variation rather than within-family variation. This finding suggests that birth order effects are unlikely to be driven by differences in quality time spent with either parent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ways in which couples in South Europe manage their money has received little attention. This study uses regression analysis to evaluate the allocative systems of Portuguese couples and their predictors. To do this we use a sample of 3,331 households in Portugal with at least one heterosexual couple. Couples' allocative systems were classified based on Pahl's typology. The results confirm what has been found in previous studies regarding the prevalence of joint pooling management and the predictors of the different models for managing money. However, some particularities have been found: decisions taken in multi-generational familes favour partial joint pooling, as the distinctive characteristics of households in South Europe play a role in assigning intra-family resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Agricultural Economics & Social Sciences is the property of Egyptian National Agricultural Library (ENAL) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Families with student loans in 2007 have higher levels of financial distress than families without such loans, and these families also transitioned to financial distress at higher rates during the early stages of the Great Recession. This correlation persists once we control for a host of other demographic, work-status, and household balance sheet measures. Families with an average level of student loans were 3.1 percentage points more likely to be 60 days late paying bills and 3 percentage points more likely to be denied credit. Families with other types of consumer debt were no more or less likely to be financially distressed. ( JEL D14, H81, I22) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study is a systematic review of empirical literature from the last 35 years on families' responses to economic distress in the context of macroeconomic crises. Thirty-nine studies published between 1983 and 2015 in 12 countries were identified, resulting in 3 main findings. First, economic distress was associated with negative changes in family dynamics, specifically couple relationships and parenting. Second, protective factors were found to buffer the adverse effects of economic distress on family and individual outcomes. Third, the results suggest that individual responses to macroeconomic crises may be moderated by sex. Implications for future research encompass using validated assessment instruments, including participants beyond 2-parent families with adolescent children and conducting both longitudinal and qualitative studies that focus on the processes and meanings of adaptation within this risk context. Conclusions highlighted the need to assist families dealing with macroeconomic crises' demands, encouraging the development and validation of macrosystemic intervention programs. (PsycINFO Database Record [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Investigating the impact of family instability is important as more and more children experience different family changes in many industrialized countries. In this paper we examine the dynamics of family structure, looking at the potential effect of yearly maternal partnership transitions on adolescents' locus of control. We aim at combining research on family instability with research on non-cognitive skill formation. We use rich and nationwide German data to identify the relationship between family instability and adolescent locus of control. Combining entropy balancing with a novel econometric method to assess potential bias from omitted variables, we find that experiencing maternal partnership transitions is negatively associated with adolescents' belief in self-determination and that internal locus of control is reduced by about a fifth of a standard deviation among those affected, even after conditioning on a large number of covariates. This is particularly true if the transitions take place during 'middle childhood.' [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Globalization has strong impact on individuals and societies at large and family as most the most essential and fundamental cell in society is no exception. Nowadays, family has lost some of its basic internal functions whilst widespread and all present technological aids, strong needs for independence and individualism furthermore contribute to estrangement of and family members' alienation. At the same time, status and roles of family members within family are changing as well. Despite these global trends and changes, family continues to be considered the most essential and supremely significant social institution, which gratifies and serves many individual and collective functions. This paper surveys family systems and transformations in Bosnia and Herzegovina, especially post-war and contemporary family developments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many aggregate-level studies suggest a relationship between economic inequality and sociodemographic outcomes such as family formation, health, and mortality; individual-level evidence, however, is lacking. Nor is there satisfactory evidence on the mechanisms by which inequality may have an effect. We study the determinants of transitions to a nonmarital first birth as a single parent or as a cohabiting parent compared to transitions to marriage prior to a first birth among unmarried, childless young adults in the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, 1997 cohort, from 1997 to 2011. We include measures of county-group-level household income inequality and the availability of jobs typically held by high school graduates that pay above-poverty wages (i.e., middle-skilled jobs). We find that greater income inequality is associated with a reduced likelihood of transitioning to marriage prior to a first birth for both women and men. The association between levels of inequality and transitions to marriage can be partially accounted for by the availability of middle-skilled jobs. Some models also suggest that greater income inequality is associated with a reduced likelihood of transitioning to a first birth while cohabiting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public discourse of late has drawn attention to increases in number of married women in the U.S. who serve as their families’ primary breadwinners. Contributing to these conversations, this study examines how breadwinning mothers (BWMs) reproduce, resist or challenge hegemonic gender relations through an analysis of different ways these women discursively position their identities and tasks as earners. Findings from a discourse analysis of interviews with 44 female breadwinners married to stay-at-home fathers are presented in relation to 5 aspects of conventional breadwinning that emerged across BWMs discourse: (a) breadwinning as career-primary, (b) breadwinning as obligation, (c) breadwinning suitability and personality, (d) breadwinning as relational power and (e) breadwinners as ideal workers. Practical applications of these findings are considered in relation to women’s work–life conflict, martial role negotiation, and workplace interactions and interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]