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Family Structure (family + structure)
Selected AbstractsON THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN FAMILY STRUCTURE AND ANTISOCIAL BEHAVIOR: PARENTAL COHABITATION AND BLENDED HOUSEHOLDS,CRIMINOLOGY, Issue 1 2008ROBERT APEL In the last several decades, the American family has undergone considerable change, with less than half of all adolescents residing with two married biological parents. Using the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997, we construct an elaborate measure of family structure and find considerable heterogeneity in the risk of antisocial and delinquent behavior among groups of youth who reside in what are traditionally dichotomized as intact and nonintact families. In particular, we find that youth in "intact" families differ in important ways depending on whether the two biological parents are married or cohabiting and on whether they have children from a previous relationship. In addition, we find that youth who reside with a single biological parent who cohabits with a nonbiological partner exhibit an unusually high rate of antisocial behavior, especially if the custodial parent is the biological father. [source] Reexamining the Effects of Family Structure on Children's Access to Care: The Single-Father FamilyHEALTH SERVICES RESEARCH, Issue 1p1 2008Lindsey Jeanne Leininger Objective. To examine the effects of family structure, focusing on the single-father family, on children's access to medical care. Data Source. The 1999 and 2002 rounds of the National Survey of America's Families (NSAF) including 62,193 children ages 0,17 years. Study Design. We employ a nationally representative sample of children residing in two-parent families, single-mother families, and single-father families. Multivariate logistic regression is used to examine the relationship between family structure and measures of access to care. We estimate stratified models on children below 200 percent of the federal poverty threshold and those above. Data Collection/Extraction Method. We combine data from the Focal Child and Adult Pair modules of the 1999 and 2002 waves of the NSAF. Principal Findings. Children who reside in single-father families exhibit poorer access to health care than children in other family structures. The stratified models suggest that, unlike residing in a single-mother family, the effects of residence in a single-father family do not vary by poverty status. Conclusions. Children in single-father families may be more vulnerable to health shocks than their peers in other family structures. [source] Effects of Family Structure on Children's Use of Ambulatory Visits and Prescription MedicationsHEALTH SERVICES RESEARCH, Issue 5 2006Alex Y. Chen Objective. To examine the effects of family structure, including number of parents, number of other children, and number and type of other adults, on office visits, emergency room visits, and use of prescription medications by children. Data Source. The Household Component of the 1996,2001 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS). Study Design. The study consisted of a nationally representative sample of children 0,17 years of age living in single-mother or two-parent families. We used negative binomial regression to model office visits and emergency room visits and logistic regression to model the likelihood of prescription medication use. Our analyses adjusted for demographic and socioeconomic characteristics as well as measures of children's health and parental education and child-rearing experience. Data Collection/Extraction Method. We combined 1996,2001 MEPS Full Year Consolidated Files and Medical Conditions Files. Principal Findings. Descriptive data showed that children in single-mother families had fewer office visits than children in two-parent families; however, the effect of number of parents in the family on children's office visits or use of prescription medications was completely explained by other explanatory variables. By contrast, children living in families with many other children had fewer total and physician office visits and a lower likelihood of using a prescription medication than children living in families with no other children even after adjusting for other explanatory variables. Children who lived with other adults in addition to their parents also had fewer office visits and a lower likelihood of using a prescription medication than children who lived only with their parents. Conclusions. Children living in families with many other children or with other adults use less ambulatory care and prescription medications than their peers. Additional research is needed to determine whether these differences in utilization affect children's health. [source] Family Structure, Father Involvement, and Adolescent Behavioral OutcomesJOURNAL OF MARRIAGE AND FAMILY, Issue 1 2006Marcia J. Carlson Research has shown that living away from one's biological father is associated with a greater risk of adverse child and adolescent outcomes; yet, the role of the father-child relationship in understanding this association has not been directly investigated. This study uses data on biological fathers' relationships with their children from the 1979 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (N = 2,733) to assess whether father involvement mediates the relationship between family structure (i.e., father absence) and four measures of adolescent behavior. Differences in father involvement are shown to account for a sizeable fraction of the variance in outcomes by family structure. Father involvement does not affect boys and girls differently but is more beneficial when the father lives with the adolescent. [source] Beyond Material Explanations: Family Solidarity and Mortality, a Small Area-level AnalysisPOPULATION AND DEVELOPMENT REVIEW, Issue 1 2010Jon Anson Social solidarity, being embedded in a network of binding social relationships, tends to extend human longevity. Yet while average incomes in the Western world, and with them, life expectancies, have risen dramatically, the second demographic transition has occasioned a breakdown in traditional family forms. This article considers whether these trends in family life may have slowed the rise in life expectancy. I present a cross-sectional analysis of Israeli statistical areas (SAs), for which I construct indexes of Standard of Living (SOL), Traditional Family Structure (TFS), and Religiosity (R). I show that (1) increases in all three of these indexes are associated with lower levels of mortality, (2) male mortality is more sensitive to differences in SOL and TFS than is female mortality, and (3) net of differences in SOL and TFS, there is no difference in the mortality levels of Arab and Jewish populations. [source] Pathways Among Exposure to Violence, Maternal Depression, Family Structure, and Child Outcomes Through Parenting: A Multigroup AnalysisAMERICAN JOURNAL OF ORTHOPSYCHIATRY, Issue 3 2010T'Pring R. Westbrook The present study examined the impact of proximal (maternal depression, family structure) and distal (exposure to violence) risk factors on parenting characteristics (warmth, control), which were in turn hypothesized to affect child social-emotional functioning. Using the Family and Child Experiences Study (FACES) 2000 cohort, findings revealed that study variables were significant predictors of child social-emotional functioning. Despite limited significant pathways in the structural equation models, the cumulative effect of the variables resulted in models accounting for 21%,37% of the outcome. Multigroup analysis revealed that although the amount of variance explained varied, the model held across subgroups. Findings support theories such as the family stress model that suggest that family risk factors negatively influencing children's development through influencing parenting behaviors. Findings also support considering both warmth and control as key parenting dimensions. It may be impractical for practitioners to address the myriad of potential risks encountered by low-income families, but parents can be equipped with mental health services, parent education, and other assistance to help them maintain positive parenting practices in the face of challenges. [source] Stable Postdivorce Family Structures During Late Adolescence and Socioeconomic Consequences in AdulthoodJOURNAL OF MARRIAGE AND FAMILY, Issue 1 2008Yongmin Sun Using four waves of panel data from 6,954 American young adults in the National Education Longitudinal Study, we compare the long-term socioeconomic consequences of growing up in two types of divorced families. Our findings show that the negative socioeconomic consequences of growing up in unstable postdivorce families are at least twice as large as those of staying in a stabilized postdivorce family environment through late adolescence. The study also finds that variations in parental resources during late adolescence partially explain the divorce effects on most attainment indicators. Further, parental divorce appears to affect the socioeconomic attainment of male and female offspring alike. Overall, the study underlines the importance of including postdivorce family dynamics in studying the effect of parental divorce. [source] The Impact of Parents' Overseas Employment on Educational Outcomes of Filipino ChildrenINTERNATIONAL MIGRATION REVIEW, Issue 2 2010Marie Joy B. Arguillas Family structure, household resources, numbers of siblings competing for those resources, and parents' own educational attainment are often important predictors of children's education outcomes. Overseas migration of parents from the Philippines has resulted in increasing numbers of long-term separations of parents from each other and from their children. Western-based analyses might predict negative education outcomes for children as a result of parental absence. We find that separations caused by overseas migration often are either neutral or can have positive effects on schooling outcomes, at least among older children. Girls fare better in terms of educational attainment than do boys overall. Boys are often more affected by background variables, including parents' international migration. [source] Adolescent toothbrushing and the home environment: sociodemographic factors, family relationships and mealtime routines and disorganisationCOMMUNITY DENTISTRY AND ORAL EPIDEMIOLOGY, Issue 1 2010Kate A. Levin Levin KA, Currie C. Adolescent toothbrushing and the home environment: sociodemographic factors, family relationships and mealtime routines and disorganisation. Community Dent Oral Epidemiol 2010; 38: 10,18. © 2009 John Wiley & Sons A/S Abstract,,, Objectives:, Previous studies have shown that sociodemographic factors are associated with adolescent toothbrushing. While there has been some investigation of parental modelling of oral health behaviour and the association between parental support and oral health, there has been no investigation of the home environment and its effect on oral health behaviour. The current study examines variables related to the family, including mealtime routines and family relationships to determine the best predictors of adolescent toothbrushing. Methods:, Data from the 2006 Health Behaviour in School-Aged Children Survey were modelled using logistic univariate and multivariable modelling with outcome variable twice-a-day toothbrushing. Results:, Higher family socioeconomic and affluence were significantly associated with greater odds of toothbrushing twice a day or more. Family structure was also significantly associated with girls' toothbrushing. However, under the multivariable model, eating breakfast was found to be the best predictor of twice-a-day toothbrushing among boys and girls. The next best predictor of boys' toothbrushing was eating family meals and of girls' toothbrushing, never going to bed hungry, followed by family affluence for both boys and girls. Under the multivariable model, family structure was no longer significantly associated with girls' toothbrushing. Conclusions:, The study shows that the family and home environment should play a central role in the promotion of oral health, through mealtime routines, incorporating a fair parenting style and developing open and positive family relationships. Not only are these strongly associated with twice a day toothbrushing but, unlike sociodemographic factors, they may be relatively easy to adopt. [source] ON THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN FAMILY STRUCTURE AND ANTISOCIAL BEHAVIOR: PARENTAL COHABITATION AND BLENDED HOUSEHOLDS,CRIMINOLOGY, Issue 1 2008ROBERT APEL In the last several decades, the American family has undergone considerable change, with less than half of all adolescents residing with two married biological parents. Using the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997, we construct an elaborate measure of family structure and find considerable heterogeneity in the risk of antisocial and delinquent behavior among groups of youth who reside in what are traditionally dichotomized as intact and nonintact families. In particular, we find that youth in "intact" families differ in important ways depending on whether the two biological parents are married or cohabiting and on whether they have children from a previous relationship. In addition, we find that youth who reside with a single biological parent who cohabits with a nonbiological partner exhibit an unusually high rate of antisocial behavior, especially if the custodial parent is the biological father. [source] The importance of family management, closeness with father and family structure in early adolescent alcohol useADDICTION, Issue 10 2010Cherine Habib ABSTRACT Aims To examine the importance of family management, family structure and father,adolescent relationships on early adolescent alcohol use. Design Cross-sectional data was collected across 30 randomly selected Australian communities stratified to represent a range of socio-economic and regional variation. Setting Data were collected during school time from adolescents attending a broad range of schools. Participants The sample consisted of a combined 8256 students (aged 10,14 years). Measurements Students completed a web-based survey as part of the Healthy Neighbourhoods project. Findings Family management,which included practices such as parental monitoring and family rules about alcohol use,had the strongest and most consistent relationship with alcohol use in early adolescence. Adolescents reporting higher family management were less likely to have drunk alcohol in their life-time, less likely to drink alcohol in the preceding 30 days and less likely to have had an alcohol binge. Adolescents reporting emotionally close relationships with their fathers were less likely to have drunk alcohol in their life-time and less likely to have had an alcohol binge in the preceding fortnight. Conclusions Findings indicate that family management practices may contribute to alcohol abstinence in adolescents. Furthermore, emotionally close father,adolescent relationships may also foster abstinence; however, fathers' drinking behaviours need to be considered. [source] Do maternal parenting practices predict problematic patterns of adolescent alcohol consumption?ADDICTION, Issue 5 2010Rosa Alati ABSTRACT Objective This study examines whether a mother's style of parenting at child age 5 years predicts problematic patterns of drinking in adolescence, after controlling for relevant individual, maternal and social risk factors. Methods Data were used from the Mater-University Study of Pregnancy, an Australian longitudinal study of mothers and their children from pregnancy to when the children were 14 years of age. Logistic regression analyses examined whether maternal parenting practices at child age 5 predicted problematic drinking patterns in adolescence, after controlling for a range of confounding covariates. Results Physical punishment at child age 5 did not predict adolescent alcohol problems at follow-up. Results indicated that low maternal control at child age 5 predicted adolescent occasional drinking patterns at age 14. More frequent maternal partner change coupled with lower levels of control was the strongest predictor of more problematic patterns of drinking by adolescents. Conclusions These findings highlight the importance of family structure and level of parental control in the development of problematic patterns of drinking in adolescence. [source] Differences in the measured alcohol content of drinks between black, white and Hispanic men and women in a US national sampleADDICTION, Issue 9 2009William C. Kerr ABSTRACT Aims To measure and describe drink alcohol content differences between Hispanic, non-Hispanic white and non-Hispanic black men and women in the United States. Design A telephone survey re-interview of 397 respondents who participated originally in the 2005 National Alcohol Survey, of whom 306 provided complete information on home drinks. Setting United States. Participants Adults aged 18 years and older from across the United States. Measurements Direct measurement by respondents of simulated drink pours in respondents' own glassware using a provided beaker and reported beverage brands were used to calculate drink alcohol content. Findings Black men were found to have the largest overall mean drink alcohol content at 0.79 oz (23 ml) of alcohol. This was significantly larger than the mean for white men or for black women and added 30% to black men's monthly alcohol intake when applied to their reported number of drinks. Spirits drinks were found to be particularly large for men. Multivariate models indicated that drink alcohol content differences are attributable more to income and family structure differences than to unmeasured cultural factors tied to race or ethnicity per se. Models predicting alcohol-related consequences and dependence indicate that adjusting drink alcohol content improves model fit and reduces differences between race/ethnicity defined groups. Conclusions Differences in drink alcohol content by gender, race/ethnicity and beverage type choice should be considered in comparisons of drinking patterns and alcohol-related outcomes. Observed differences can be explained partially by measured characteristics regarding family structure and income. [source] Parental Rights in Diverse Family Contexts: Current Legal Developments,FAMILY RELATIONS, Issue 4 2002Denise A. Skinner Here, we review case law as it applies to parental rights. Specifically, we examine two issues: (a) Who has been awarded the right to parent? and (b) What rights have been bestowed to parents? The review demonstrates how family law in the United States reflects and perpetuates society's ambivalence about family structure and, subsequently, parental rights and responsibilities. On the basis of this analysis, we recommend a broadened legal perspective that not only communicates society's expectation of responsible parenting but, in addition, gives legal recognition to diverse family forms in which members carry out these responsibilities. [source] Gendering the Black Death: Women in Later Medieval EnglandGENDER & HISTORY, Issue 3 2000S. H. Rigby This review article of Mavis Mate's Daughters, Wives and Widows after the Black Death: Women in Sussex, 1350,1535 (1998) locates Mate's work within the broader context of the debate about changes in women's social position caused by the collapse in population following the Black Death. Was demographic decline accompanied by growing social and economic opportunities for women or should historians emphasise the continuity of female work as low-skilled, low-status and low-paid throughout the late medieval and early modern periods? How did women's role in the labour market affect the age of marriage, fertility rates and long-term population change? In general, Mate's conclusions offer support to the ,pessimists': women's work was vital to the household but economic centrality did not bring a commensurate social power or legal rights and the ideology of female subordination remained firmly in place. The main problem with Mate's case is, inevitably, a lack of evidence, for family structure, for the sexual division of labour and, above all, for affective relations. Nevertheless, this detailed, empirically based local study shows how successfully women's history has moved into the historical mainstream. [source] A multiple splitting approach to linkage analysis in large pedigrees identifies a linkage to asthma on chromosome 12GENETIC EPIDEMIOLOGY, Issue 3 2009Céline Bellenguez Abstract Large genealogies are potentially very informative for linkage analysis. However, the software available for exact non-parametric multipoint linkage analysis is limited with respect to the complexity of the families it can handle. A solution is to split the large pedigrees into sub-families meeting complexity constraints. Different methods have been proposed to "best" split large genealogies. Here, we propose a new procedure in which linkage is performed on several carefully chosen sub-pedigree sets from the genealogy instead of using just a single sub-pedigree set. Our multiple splitting procedure capitalizes on the sensitivity of linkage results to family structure and has been designed to control computational feasibility and global type I error. We describe and apply this procedure to the extreme case of the highly complex Hutterite pedigree and use it to perform a genome-wide linkage analysis on asthma. The detection of a genome-wide significant linkage for asthma on chromosome 12q21 illustrates the potential of this multiple splitting approach. Genet. Epidemiol. 2009. © 2008 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source] Influence of Race on Household Residential UtilityGEOGRAPHICAL ANALYSIS, Issue 3 2000M William Sermons Residential location choice models are an important tool employed by urban geographers, planners, and transportation engineers for understanding household residential location behavior and for predicting future residential location activity. Racial segregation and residential racial preferences have been studied extensively using a variety of analysis techniques in social science research, but racial preferences have generally not been adequately incorporated into residential location choice models. This research develops residential location choice model specifications with a variety of alternative methods of addressing racial preferences in residential location decisions. The research tests whether social class, family structure, and in-group racial preferences are sufficient to explain household sensitivity to neighborhood racial composition. The importance of the interaction between the proportion of in-group race neighbors and other-race neighbors is also evaluated. Models for the San Francisco Bay metropolitan area are estimated and evidence of significant avoidance behavior by households of all races is found. The results suggest that social class differences, family structure differences, and in-group racial preferences alone are not sufficient to explain household residential racial preference and that households of all races practice racial avoidance behavior. Particularly pronounced avoidance of black neighbors by Asian households, Hispanic neighbors by black households, and Asian neighbors by white households are found. Evidence of a decrease in household racial avoidance intensity in neighborhoods with large numbers of own-race neighbors is also found. [source] The role of permanent income and family structure in the determination of child health in CanadaHEALTH ECONOMICS, Issue 4 2001Lori J. Curtis Abstract We use data from the Ontario Child Health Study (OCHS) to provide the first Canadian estimates of how the empirical association between child health and both low-income and family status (lone-mother versus two-parent) changes when we re-estimate the model with pooled data. Two waves of data provide a better indication of the family's long-run level of economic resources than does one wave. Our measures of health status include categorical indicators and the health utility score derived from the Health Utilities Index Mark 2 (HUI2) system. Consistent with findings from other countries, we find that most outcomes are more strongly related to low-average income (in 1982 and 1986) than to low-current income in either year. Unlike some previous research, we find the quantitative impact of low-income on child health to be modest to large. Lone-mother status is negatively associated with most outcomes, but the lone-mother coefficients did not change significantly when we switched from low-current income to low-average income. This implies that the lone-mother coefficient in single cross-sections is not just a proxy for low-permanent income. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Reexamining the Effects of Family Structure on Children's Access to Care: The Single-Father FamilyHEALTH SERVICES RESEARCH, Issue 1p1 2008Lindsey Jeanne Leininger Objective. To examine the effects of family structure, focusing on the single-father family, on children's access to medical care. Data Source. The 1999 and 2002 rounds of the National Survey of America's Families (NSAF) including 62,193 children ages 0,17 years. Study Design. We employ a nationally representative sample of children residing in two-parent families, single-mother families, and single-father families. Multivariate logistic regression is used to examine the relationship between family structure and measures of access to care. We estimate stratified models on children below 200 percent of the federal poverty threshold and those above. Data Collection/Extraction Method. We combine data from the Focal Child and Adult Pair modules of the 1999 and 2002 waves of the NSAF. Principal Findings. Children who reside in single-father families exhibit poorer access to health care than children in other family structures. The stratified models suggest that, unlike residing in a single-mother family, the effects of residence in a single-father family do not vary by poverty status. Conclusions. Children in single-father families may be more vulnerable to health shocks than their peers in other family structures. [source] Effects of Family Structure on Children's Use of Ambulatory Visits and Prescription MedicationsHEALTH SERVICES RESEARCH, Issue 5 2006Alex Y. Chen Objective. To examine the effects of family structure, including number of parents, number of other children, and number and type of other adults, on office visits, emergency room visits, and use of prescription medications by children. Data Source. The Household Component of the 1996,2001 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS). Study Design. The study consisted of a nationally representative sample of children 0,17 years of age living in single-mother or two-parent families. We used negative binomial regression to model office visits and emergency room visits and logistic regression to model the likelihood of prescription medication use. Our analyses adjusted for demographic and socioeconomic characteristics as well as measures of children's health and parental education and child-rearing experience. Data Collection/Extraction Method. We combined 1996,2001 MEPS Full Year Consolidated Files and Medical Conditions Files. Principal Findings. Descriptive data showed that children in single-mother families had fewer office visits than children in two-parent families; however, the effect of number of parents in the family on children's office visits or use of prescription medications was completely explained by other explanatory variables. By contrast, children living in families with many other children had fewer total and physician office visits and a lower likelihood of using a prescription medication than children living in families with no other children even after adjusting for other explanatory variables. Children who lived with other adults in addition to their parents also had fewer office visits and a lower likelihood of using a prescription medication than children who lived only with their parents. Conclusions. Children living in families with many other children or with other adults use less ambulatory care and prescription medications than their peers. Additional research is needed to determine whether these differences in utilization affect children's health. [source] Trends in disposable income among teenage boys and girls in Finland from 1977 to 2003INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CONSUMER STUDIES, Issue 4 2007Tomi P. Lintonen Abstract This article explores changes in the money Finnish young people aged 12,18 years have at their disposal, over a 26-year period 1977,2003. Previous studies suggest that the amount of money young people have is not necessarily dependent on traditional socio-economic variables, but there are no systematic studies on the development of the disposable income of the teenagers. The analyses of this study are based on a series of 14 biannual nationally representative surveys of 12-, 14-, 16- and 18-year-olds in Finland from 1977 to 2003, with a total of 84 404 respondents. Time-trends are shown and analysed by gender, family structure, place of residence and socio-economic status of family using analysis of variance and linear regression modelling. The results show that teenagers' disposable money has increased little between 1977 and 2003 in comparison with the general income development. Economic booms and depressions can be seen in rising and falling amounts of disposal money, particularly among 16- to 18-year-old respondents. There were also significant differences between the genders. Young boys clearly had more money at their disposal than young girls. Children of single parents had more money than their peers from nuclear families. Urban youth had more money than those living in the countryside and the difference increased during the period under examination. The socio-economic position of the family had little impact. [source] Debt as a source of financial stress in Australian householdsINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CONSUMER STUDIES, Issue 1 2006Andrew C. Worthington Abstract This paper examines the role of demographic, socio-economic and debt portfolio characteristics as contributors to financial stress in Australian households. The data are drawn from the most recent Household Expenditure Survey and relate to 3268 probability-weighted households. Financial stress is defined, among other things, in terms of financial reasons for being unable to have a holiday, to have meals with family and friends, to engage in hobbies and other leisure activities, and general money management. Characteristics examined include family structure and composition, source and level of household income, age, gender and marital status, ethnic background, housing value, debt repayment of various types and credit card usage. Binary logit models are used to identify the source and magnitude of factors associated with financial stress. The evidence provided suggests that financial stress is higher in families with more children and those from ethnic minorities, especially when reliant on government pensions and benefits, and lower in families with higher disposable incomes and housing values. There is weak evidence that Australia's historically high levels of household debt cause financial stress. [source] Social Change and Social Policy in JapanINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF JAPANESE SOCIOLOGY, Issue 1 2009Masayuki Fujimura Abstract This paper aims to present and discuss social change and social policy in Japan after the mid-20th century from a sociological viewpoint. Japanese social change and social policy from the mid-20th century onward can be categorized into three models in chronological order: escape from mass poverty by means of industrialization, improvement of the social security system to establish a welfare state, and parallel progress of aspiration for a welfare society and workfare. Defined concretely, these are (1) the period that established and improved social security, which started immediately after the end of World War II and ended in 1973, when Japan began to suffer from low growth after enjoying high growth; (2) the period in which finance for social security was adjusted, halfway through which the country experienced a bubble economy; and (3) the period after the 1990s, in which the structural reform of social security went hand-in-hand with labor policy and the advent of globalization. In each of the three periods, the direction of social policy was affected by factors that caused changes in such areas as industrial structure (the decline of agriculture), demographic structure (an aging society), and family structure and work pattern (the growing trend of nuclear families, single-person households, and irregular employment). In Japan, life security now attracts increasing attention, and employment security rather than social security has been the central issue. As it is greatly affected by globalization, employment security grows less conspicuous and makes the vulnerability of social security grow more conspicuous. Social policy has the potential to become an area with which to struggle for national integration and fissures between social groups. [source] Determinants of perceived health in families of patients with heart diseaseJOURNAL OF ADVANCED NURSING, Issue 2 2004Päivi Ĺstedt-Kurki PhD RN Background., Heart disease is a severe long-term illness, which often requires lifestyle changes and self-care and affects the life of the whole family. Perceived family health is highly complex. It combines people's values and everyday experiences, such as knowledge about their own health, what they do to promote their health, how their life progresses, and how they feel physically and emotionally. Aim., The aim of this paper is to report a study to describe the perceived health of families of patients with heart disease and to ascertain factors related to family health. Methods., Data were collected by questionnaire with a convenience sample of 161 family members of patients receiving treatment on two medical wards of a university hospital in southern Finland. Data were analysed using means and medians and tested by parametric and non-parametric tests. A stepwise regression analysis was also used. Results., The most important predictors of family health were family structural factors, effect of illness symptoms on daily life, and family relationships. The strongest predictor was family structural factors. It was found that the better the family structure and relationships, the better the family health. Similarly, the greater the effect of the illness on the patient's daily life, the worse the family health. Conclusion., The findings suggest that supporting family functioning in the families of people with heart disease is an important challenge for family nursing. [source] An examination of the role of perceptions in neighborhood research,JOURNAL OF COMMUNITY PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 3 2009Mark W. Roosa Accumulating research demonstrates that both archival indicators and residents' self-reports of neighborhood conditions are useful predictors of a variety of physical health, mental health, substance use, criminal, and educational outcomes. Although studies have shown these two types of measures are often related, no research has systematically examined their relationship. With a sample of Mexican Americans, this study examined this relationship and demographic factors that might account for variations of residents' perceptions of their neighborhoods. Results showed that country of birth, social class, family structure, and gender moderated relations between archival variables and adults' perceptions of danger. Thus using information from both archival data and self-reports should improve the ability of neighborhood researchers to understand individual differences in responses to neighborhood conditions. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [source] Developing cultural competence in working with Korean immigrant familiesJOURNAL OF COMMUNITY PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 2 2006Irene J. Kim The authors provide an in-depth examination of the historical background, cultural values, family roles, and community contexts of Korean Americans as an aid to both researchers and clinicians in developing cultural competence with this particular group. First, the concept of cultural competence is defined. A brief history of Korean immigration patterns to the United States and demographic information about Korean Americans are reviewed. Second, Korean cultural values, family structure, and family roles are examined as they impact relationships in research and clinical contexts. Three indigenous concepts (cf. L. Kim, 1992) that may be useful in developing cultural competence include haan (suppressed anger), jeong (strong feeling of kinship), and noon-chi (ability to evaluate social situations through implicit cues). Clinical case examples and accounts from a community-based research perspective illustrate these cultural values. Third, important community resources in the Korean American context are highlighted. Links between cultural competence and "ecological pragmatism" (Kelly, Azelton, Burzette, & Mock, 1994) are discussed. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [source] African American Therapists Working With African American Families: An Exploration of the Strengths Perspective in TreatmentJOURNAL OF MARITAL AND FAMILY THERAPY, Issue 3 2009LaVerne Bell-Tolliver With the exception of Hill's (1971, 1999) work, historically much of the literature on African American families has focused more on pathology than strengths. This study used interviews with 30 African American psychotherapists, self-identified as employing a strengths perspective with African American families, to investigate which strengths they identified in the families and how they use those strengths in therapy. Themes emerging from data analysis confirmed the continued importance of the five strengths Hill noted. In addition, two new strengths were identified by the participants: a willingness of a greater number of families to seek therapy, and the importance of family structure. Strategies used in engaging the families in therapy and practice implications for family therapists are discussed. [source] Marriage and Child Well-Being: Research and Policy PerspectivesJOURNAL OF MARRIAGE AND FAMILY, Issue 5 2010Susan L. Brown Over the past decade, the linkages between marriage and child well-being have attracted the attention of researchers and policy makers alike. Children's living arrangements have become increasingly diverse and unstable, which raises important questions about how and why family structure and stability are related to child outcomes. This article reviews new research on this topic, emphasizing how it can inform policy debates about the role of marriage in reducing poverty and improving child outcomes. It also pays special attention to new scholarship on unmarried, primarily low-income families, the target of recent federal marriage initiatives, to appraise the potential contributions of family research to ongoing policy discussions. [source] Families With Children and Adolescents: A Review, Critique, and Future AgendaJOURNAL OF MARRIAGE AND FAMILY, Issue 3 2010Robert Crosnoe This decade's literature on families with children and adolescents can be broadly organized around the implications for youth of family statuses (e.g., family structure) and family processes (e.g., parenting). These overlapping bodies of research built on past work by emphasizing the dynamic nature of family life and the intersection of families with other ecological settings, exploring race/ethnic diversity, identifying mechanisms connecting family and child/adolescent factors, and taking steps to address the threats to causal inference that have long been a problem for family studies. Continuing these trends in the future will be valuable, as will increasing the number of international comparisons, exploring "new" kinds of family diversity, and capturing the convergence of multiple statuses and processes over time. [source] Family Structure, Father Involvement, and Adolescent Behavioral OutcomesJOURNAL OF MARRIAGE AND FAMILY, Issue 1 2006Marcia J. Carlson Research has shown that living away from one's biological father is associated with a greater risk of adverse child and adolescent outcomes; yet, the role of the father-child relationship in understanding this association has not been directly investigated. This study uses data on biological fathers' relationships with their children from the 1979 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (N = 2,733) to assess whether father involvement mediates the relationship between family structure (i.e., father absence) and four measures of adolescent behavior. Differences in father involvement are shown to account for a sizeable fraction of the variance in outcomes by family structure. Father involvement does not affect boys and girls differently but is more beneficial when the father lives with the adolescent. [source] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||