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ABSTRACT Based on a twenty percent sample of U.S. counties (621 counties), this research utilizes a series of multiple regression analyses to examine three issues: A) Does median family income [...]

When the male loses his job and struggles to find new employment, many heterosexual couples find themselves in unfamiliar territory. Some couples deliberately pursue situations in which the female is [...]

We extend the literature on the effects of earnings shocks on divorce by identifying separately the effects of transitory and permanent household income shocks and by allowing the shocks to have asymmetric effects across education and racial groups. The econometric evidence suggests negative (positive) transitory household income shocks increase (decrease) the probability of divorce, while there is only weak evidence that positive (negative) permanent household income shocks raise (lower) the probability of divorce. Some differences in the effects of household income shocks on divorce propensities arise for subsamples selected by education and race.

To authenticate to the full-text of this article, please visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-4446.2010.01310.x Byline: Robert Erikson (1), John H. Goldthorpe ([dagger]) Keywords: Social mobility; social class; class mobility; income mobility; educational attainment Abstract: Abstract Social mobility has become a topic of central political concern. In political and also media circles it is widely believed that in Britain today mobility is in decline. However, this belief appears to be based on a single piece of research by economists that is in fact concerned with intergenerational income mobility: specifically, with the relation between family income and children's later earnings. Research by sociologists using the same data sources - the British birth cohort studies of 1958 and 1970 - but focusing on intergenerational class mobility does not reveal a decline either in total mobility rates or in underlying relative rates. The paper investigates these divergent findings. We show that they do not result from the use of different subsets of the data or of different analytical techniques. Instead, given the more stable and generally less fluid class mobility regime, it is the high level of income mobility of the 1958 cohort, rather than the lower level of the 1970 cohort, that is chiefly in need of explanation. Further analyses - including ones of the relative influence of parental class and of family income on children's educational attainment - suggest that the economists' finding of declining mobility between the two cohorts may stem, in part at least, from the fact that the family income variable for the 1958 cohort provides a less adequate measure of 'permanent income' than does that for the 1970 cohort. But, in any event, it would appear that the class mobility regime more fully captures the continuity in economic advantage and disadvantage that persists across generations. Author Affiliation: (*)Swedish Institute for Social Research, University of Stockholm ([dagger])Nuffield College, University of Oxford Article History: (Data accepted: November 2009) Article note: email: john.goldthorpe@nuffield.ox.ac.uk

To link to full-text access for this article, visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2009.11.019 Byline: Mark S. Kaplan (a), Nathalie Huguet (a), David H. Feeny (b), Bentson H. McFarland (c) Abstract: Hypertension is one of the most common chronic conditions worldwide. There is strong evidence that low socioeconomic status is associated with elevated rates of blood pressure-related cardiovascular disease. Few studies have examined the association between socioeconomic circumstances and hypertension among people aged 65 years and older. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between household income and self-reported hypertension prevalence among persons aged 65 and older in the United States and Canada. Data were obtained from the 2002-2003 Joint Canada/United States Survey of Health for 755 Canadian and 1151 US adults aged 65 and older. Aggregate hypertension prevalence rates in the United States and Canada were generally similar (53.8% versus 48.0%). We found a significant inverse linear relationship between household income and the hypertension prevalence rate in the United States, but no evidence of such a relationship in Canada. In Canada, unlike the United States, the burden of hypertension is approximately equal for socioeconomically advantaged and disadvantaged older adults. It is important to consider these findings in the context of long-term and broader institutional policies. Social disparities and barriers to health care access and primary prevention among non-elderly persons in the United States may play a role in the higher hypertension prevalence rate among low-income older adults. Author Affiliation: (a) Portland State University, Portland, OR, United States (b) Kaiser Permanente, Northwest Center for Health Research, OR, United States (c) Oregon Health & Science University, Portland, OR, United States Article Note: (footnote) [star] This research was supported by a grant from the Retirement Research Foundation. All analyses, interpretations, and conclusions based on these data are solely the responsibility of the authors.

To authenticate to the full-text of this article, please visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1741-3729.2009.00563.x Byline: Chih-Yuan S. Lee (1), Jared R. Anderson (2), Jason L. Horowitz (3), Gerald J. August (4) Keywords: family income; mediation; moderated mediation; parental depression; parenting; social support Abstract: This study examined the relations among family income, social support, parental depression, and parenting among 290 predominantly rural families with children at risk for disruptive or socially withdrawn behaviors. Structural equation modeling and multiple regression were used, and the results showed that low family income was related to high levels of parental depression, which in turn were associated with disruptive parenting. The findings also showed that social support mediated the adverse relationship between low family income and parental depression. Social support was directly related to positive parenting and indirectly related to parent-child relational frustration via parental depression. Social support also moderated the indirect relationship between low family income and parenting. Implications for prevention intervention are discussed. Author Affiliation: (1)University of Minnesota Medical School (2)Kansas State University* (3)University of Wisconsin** (4)University of Minnesota Medical School*** Article note: Division of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, University of Minnesota Medical School, F256/2B West, 2450 Riverside Avenue, Minneapolis, MN 55454 (leex1235@umn.edu).

Families who work for low wages face impossible choices--buy food or heat the house, feed the children or pay the rent. The result can be spiraling debt, constant anxiety and [...]

Byline: Yannis Georgellis (1), Nicholas Tsitsianis (2), Ya Ping Yin (2) Keywords: Comparison income; Happiness; Life satisfaction; European Social Survey Abstract: Using data from the first two rounds of the European Social Survey, we examine the link between income, reference income and life satisfaction across Western Europe. We find that whilst there is a strong positive relationship between income and life satisfaction, reference or comparison income exerts a strong negative influence. Interestingly, our results confirm the importance of personal values and beliefs not only as predictors of subjective well-being, but also as mitigating factors in the relationship between income, reference income and life satisfaction. While our findings provide additional empirical support for the relative utility hypothesis, they are also consistent with Rojas' (J Econ Psychol 28:1--14, 2007) Conceptual-Referent-Theory (CRT), which is based on the premise that the salience of income and comparison income depends on one's intrinsic values and personal beliefs. Author Affiliation: (1) Department of Economics and Finance, School of Social Sciences, Brunel University, Uxbridge, Middlesex, UB8 3PH, UK (2) Department of Accounting Finance and Economics, Business School, University of Hertfordshire, Hatfield, Hertfordshire, AL10 9AB, UK Article History: Registration Date: 06/10/2008 Accepted Date: 06/10/2008 Online Date: 06/11/2008

From 1975 to 2005, the variance in incomes of American families with children increased by two-thirds. In attempting to explain this trend, labor market studies emphasize the rising pay of college graduates, while demographers typically highlight the implications of family structural changes across time. In this article, we join these lines of research by conceiving of income inequality as the joint product of the distribution of earnings in the labor market and the pooling of incomes in families. We develop this framework with a decomposition of family income inequality using annual data from the March Current Population Survey. Our analysis shows that disparities in education and single parenthood contributed to income inequality, but rising educational attainment and women's employment offset these effects. Most of the increase in family income inequality was due to increasing within-group inequality, which was widely shared across family types and levels of schooling.

In 1996, part of the creation of TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families) required minor teen parents to live in an adult-supervised household in order to receive cash assistance. This literature review discusses the positive and negative consequences of coresidence. Research has suggested that coresidence may be beneficial for the educational and financial success of teen mothers. However, there is some evidence that coresiding teen mothers have poorer parenting skills than teen mothers who do not coreside. Implications for policy implementation are discussed. Case managers should be aware of the possible risks of coresidence and weigh these risks against potential benefits. In addition, families of teen mothers, especially grandmothers, should be included in programming and interventions in order to provide positive living environments for teen mothers and their children. Keywords Policy * Teen motherhood * Intergenerational households

A study was conducted to present evidence that individuals' concern for relative consumption depends on their relative consumption. Findings show that individuals who have consumption levels above society average consumption level have lower concern for relative consumption. The results support Duesenberry's study that indicates people's concern with upward social comparison.

Keywords: single parent, income, race, gender Abstract Over the past four decades, income inequality has increased and family structures have diversified. We argue that family structure has become an important mechanism for the reproduction of class, race, and gender inequalities. We review studies of income inequality and family structure changes and find a wide range of estimates of the correlation. We discuss how increases in income inequality may lead to increases in single motherhood, particularly among less educated women. Single motherhood in turn decreases intergenerational economic mobility by affecting children's material resources and the parenting they experience. Because of the unequal distribution of family structure by race and the negative effects of single motherhood, family structure changes exacerbate racial inequalities. Gender inequalities also increase as mothers incur more child-related costs and fewer fathers experience family life with children.

A study analyzes the independent and interactive effects of income, family structure, and maternal work on measures of substandard parenting. The results reveal that children in mother-partner families are more likely to be exposed to substandard parenting than children in mother-father families.

Studies in various countries have reported that older people who are married have better health than older widows. This paper reports a replication of these analyses with Brazilian data. The main objective was to explore the relationships between marital status, individual and household income, and the health of men and women using ordered logistic regression with self-assessed health as the dependent variable. The explanatory variables of interest were gender, marital status, and individual and family income. The data are from a survey of 7,920 non-institutionalised older people resident in the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul in 1995. The survey used a structured, multi-disciplinary questionnaire, which collected information on demographic attributes, household composition, social relations, occupation, income and health status. The results show that widows were 20 per cent more likely to report better health than married women. The women without individual income had worse health than those who did, even after controlling for family income. For men, there were no significant differences in health by marital status. The main recommendation is that the health status and economic circumstances of married elderly women should be given more attention in both research and policy, certainly in Brazil and probably in other Latin American countries. Programmes of income support to the poorest households should include specific transfers to these elderly women. Brazil's Family Health and Older People's Health public programmes should place more emphasis on the health of elderly home-makers. KEY WORDS--older people, marital status, health, income, Brazil.

To link to full-text access for this article, visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2005.06.051 Byline: Svenn-Erik Mamelund Keywords: Spanish influenza mortality 1918-19; Socioeconomic factors; Contextual effects; Norway; Event history analysis; Cox proportional hazards Abstract: The Spanish influenza pandemic of 1918-19 was one of the most devastating diseases in history, killing perhaps as many as 50-100 million people worldwide. Much of the literature since 1918 has favored the view that mortality from Spanish influenza was class neutral. This view has prevailed, even though several contemporary surveys showed that there indeed were clear differences between the classes in disease incidence and that case fatality rates from influenza and pneumonia also varied according to socioeconomic status. Furthermore, studies of more recent influenza epidemics have also shown that there can be clear class differentials in mortality in this type of illness -- is there any reason to believe that Spanish influenza was different? This paper is the first study in which individual- and household-level data which are unique for the period are utilized to test the conservative hypothesis that Spanish influenza was a socially neutral disease with respect to mortality. Through the use of Cox regressions in an analysis of two socially contrasting parishes in the Norwegian capital city of Kristiania, it is shown that apartment size as an indicator of wealth of a household, in addition to social status of place of residence, were the only socioeconomic variables that had an independent and significant effect on mortality after controlling for age, sex and marital status. Author Affiliation: Department of Economics, University of Oslo, P.O. Box 1095 Blindern, 0317 Oslo, Norway

To link to full-text access for this article, visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2005.06.028 Byline: Amy J. Schulz (a), Barbara A. Israel (a), Shannon N. Zenk (b), Edith A. Parker (a), Richard Lichtenstein (c), Sheryl Shellman-Weir (a), Laura Klem A.B. (d) Keywords: Neighborhood disorder; Symptoms of depression; Length of residence; USA; Discrimination; Stress Abstract: Patterns of mental health are clearly associated with life circumstances, including educational and economic opportunities, access to safe and supportive neighborhoods, socially structured exposures to stressors and to supportive relationships. In this article, we examine the social and economic correlates of depressive symptoms among African American women residing within a predominantly African American urban neighborhood in Detroit, USA, with relatively few economic resources. We identify distinct stressors associated with financial strain, neighborhood social disorder (concern about police responsiveness, safety stress), and experiences of discrimination. We test the extent to which each of these stressors mediates relationships between household income, length of residence in the neighborhood, social support and depressive symptoms. Our results suggest that for women in this racially segregated area with a high concentration of poverty, relationships between household income and symptoms of depression are partially mediated by financial stress and social support, but that stressors associated with neighborhood disorder and discrimination influence depressive symptoms independent of household income. Furthermore, we find that length of residence in the neighborhood is negatively associated with financial stress and positively associated with police stress and social support, with no significant net effect on symptoms of depression. We conclude that higher household income may help reduce symptoms of depression by reducing financial stress and strengthening social support even within neighborhoods with high concentrations of poverty. However, increased household income does not protect African American women residing in a high poverty community from distress associated with neighborhood disorder or experiences of discrimination. Author Affiliation: (a) University of Michigan, School of Public Health, Department of Health Behavior and Health Education, 1420 Washington Heights, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-2029, USA (b) University of Illinois at Chicago, Program in Cancer Control and Population Sciences, Institute for Health Research and Policy, 1747 W. Roosevelt, MC 275, Chicago, IL 60608, USA (c) University of Michigan School of Public Health, Department of Health Management and Policy, USA (d) University of Michigan, Center for Statistical Consultation and Research, USA

In the relation between income and health it has been suggested that individual level mechanisms are related either to absolute or to relative income. Both absolute income level and the individual's own income in relation to that of others are likely to affect health, but to distinguish between these effects in analyses has been difficult. The aim of this study is to distinguish between the effect on health of one's own position in the income distribution and the effect on health of the individual's ability to consume. Combining data from Sweden, Finland and Norway provides a setting where individuals with the same absolute income level may occupy different positions within their national income distribution. The data come from Swedish, Finnish and Norwegian surveys of living conditions from the mid 1990s. Both the position in the income distribution and the ability to consume is measured by household disposable equivalent income. In order to eliminate differences in price levels, household income is adjusted for purchasing power parities. The outcome measure used is limiting long-standing illness. There was a clear income gradient in health over the individual's relative position in their national income distribution. Stratifying for groups of household income adjusted for purchasing power parities, we still find a significant effect of the individual's relative position. In Nordic welfare states the relative position in the income distribution is related to limiting long-standing illness independently of the ability to consume among individuals with high ability to consume. Keywords: Absolute income; Relative income; Inequality; Limiting long-standing illness

The main aim of this study was to explore the mediating role made by work environment to health inequalities by wage income in Sweden. Gender differences were also analysed. Data from the Swedish Survey of Living Conditions for the years 1998 and 1999 were analysed. Employed 20-64-year olds with a registered wage were included (nearly 6000 respondents). Sex-specific logistic regressions in relation to global self-rated health were applied. Those in the lowest income quintile had 2.4 times (men) and 4.3 times (women) higher probability of less than good health than did those in the highest quintile (adjusted for age, family status, country of birth, education level, smoking and full-time work). The mediating contribution of work environment factors to the health gradient by income was 25 per cent (men) and 29 per cent (women), respectively. This contribution was observed mainly from ergonomic and physical exposure, decision authority and skill discretion. Psychological demands did not contribute to such inequalities because mentally demanding work tasks are more common in high income as compared with low income jobs. Using sex-specific income quintiles, instead of income quintiles for the entire sample, gave very similar results. In conclusion, work environment factors can be seen as important mediators for the association between wage income and ill health in Sweden. A larger residual effect of income on health for women as compared with men suggests that one's own income from work is a more important determinant of women's than men's ill health in Sweden. Keywords: Wage income; Self-rated health; Gender; Work environment; Job control/demands; Sweden

A study examines the impact of income and housing prices on people's attitude toward owning a house.