Spousal Interdependence in Turnover Decisions: The Case of Israel's Medical Sector Employees

Gender-related labor behavior traditionally has been sensitive to and symptomatic of changes in the labor force and the social structure. Two developments in family life call into question the traditional gender model of work behavior, which posits the family versus job dichotomy: (a) the greater share of economic responsibilities assumed by female spouses, and (b) the greater male involvement in family life within married couple families. A multivariate model that encompasses demographics, work conditions, and family constraints was regressed on the actual turnover behavior of male and female spouses. The analysis reveals that male and female respondents differ in the importance they assign to employment conditions and work attitudes, but they do not differ in the importance they assign to the other spouse's employment and family responsibilities when a turnover decision is considered. These findings support the notion of spousal interdependence in turnover decisions. This interdependence nevertheless is asymmetrical, since the turnover antecedents are caused by the impact of different predictors for men and women.     

Family Instability and the Transition to Adulthood

Children's experience of repeated family structure change has a robust association with compromised development across the early life course. Implicit in prior research is the expectation that disparities in cognition and behavior accumulate through childhood and adolescence to influence the transition to adulthood. The authors assessed the association of early and later family structure instability with events in the transition to adulthood up to age 24 using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (N = 8,841).They found that early and later family instability are associated with low rates of college completion, early union formation and childbearing, and an early entry into the labor force. The associations are explained by family structure, delinquency, and academic performance in adolescence.     

The Timing of Leaving the Parental Home and Its Linkages to Other Life Course Events in Turkey

Abstract

This study employs the data of the 2003 Turkish Demographic and Health Survey to study the timing of leaving the parental home and the links between home leaving and other life course events (entry into labour force, family formation, and first birth) for three groups of home-leavers: early, on-time, and late. Results of the study suggest that the majority of the home-leavers are late home-leavers in Turkey. This pattern of parental home leaving observed in Turkey resembles the pattern which can found today in Mediterranean and Southern European countries. The median age at home leaving is found to be 24.4 years. In terms of gender differentials, the study implies that the timing of leaving the parental home for males (27.2 years) markedly differs from the timing of leaving the parental home for females (21.6 years). Results also imply the sequence of life-course events for males in Turkey: entry into labour force, marriage, the birth of first child, and home leaving. On the other hand, timing of home leaving for females was found to be in line with the timing of family formation. However, the home leaving experiencing by females does not mean a real home leaving in the context of Turkey; it is just a shifting from their own parental home to their husbands' parental home.     

The Roles of Relationship With Family and Life Values in the Housing Choices of Elderly Koreans

Housing choice is a significant factor in forecasting the housing market. In an aging population in which the wealth of the elderly is found mostly in housing equity, the housing choices of the elderly are an increasingly important yet underrepresented research theme. In addition to lower income and greater leisure time, the change of family relationships of the elderly are likely to result in significantly different housing choices from those made by younger groups. This article investigates the roles of family relationships and life values in the housing choices (tenure and location) of elderly Koreans. Subjective life satisfaction and propensity for expenditure were found to be significant determinants in the choice of housing tenure, whereas the choice of location is influenced by circumstances, especially their relationship with their children. These findings provide new insight into the Asian housing market, in which the elderly of traditional large families have a children-oriented mindset and maintain a geographic proximity with their children despite a growing trend toward family nuclearization.     

A new work–life balance: gender and employment in young people’s perceptions in Chile

The paper explores perceptions regarding family and paid employment expressed by university students in Chile, based on the analysis of quantitative data from the Maule region (southern Chile). We argue that the increasing unpredictability of labor markets has eroded the role paid employment historically has had as the lynchpin of individual’s – particularly men’s – life project, altering the expectations about both work and family life. Likewise, changes in gender roles have shaped youngsters’ ideals about family life. This seems to be the case especially for women, who strongly affirm their economic independence and personal projects, departing from traditional family views. We conclude that young people are demanding a new balance between life (understood mainly as personal and family time) and work. There is also a strong affirmation of the individual project, including a demand for greater gender equality. Although still at the level of projected visions of the future, these findings signal changes in the way the relation work–family is traditionally organized, bringing new challenges for public policy.     

CHILDHOOD FAMILY STRUCTURE AND ENTRY INTO FIRST MARRIAGE

The present study uses data from the National Survey of Families and Households to examine socialization and stress hypotheses which link family structure during childhood with entry into first marriage. Results from logistic regressions show evidence for both hypotheses. The findings show that years lived with mother only during early childhood and change from both biological parents to mother-only families significantly increase chances for delayed marriage for whites. One other factor, being born into a mother-only family, increased chances for early marriage. Thus, for whites, we found counteracting influences of family structure during childhood on marriage. For blacks, the family structure measures, overall, show little effect on entry into marriage. Finally, we found that family structure had a stronger impact for those born in the 1940s than for those born later.     

The effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on infant development and maternal mental health in the first 2 years of life

We investigated how exogenous variation in exposure to the COVID-19 pandemic during the first year of life is related to infant development, maternal mental health, and perceived stress. Ninety-three socioeconomically diverse pregnant women were recruited before the pandemic to participate in a longitudinal study. Infants ranged in age at the beginning of lockdown (0–9.5 months old), thus experiencing different durations of pandemic exposure across the first year of life. The duration of pandemic exposure was not associated with family demographic characteristics, suggesting it captured exogenous variability. We tested associations between this exogenous variation in pandemic exposure and child and family outcomes. We also examined whether mother-reported disruptive life events were correlated with child and family outcomes. We found no association between duration of pandemic exposure in the first year of life and infant socioemotional problems, infant language development, or maternal mental health and perceived stress symptoms, at 12 or 24 months. However, we found that self-reported exposure to pandemic-related disruptive life events predicted greater maternal depression, anxiety, and perceived stress at 12 months, and greater depression and anxiety at 24 months. Socioeconomic status did not moderate these associations. These findings suggest cautious optimism for infants raised during this period.     

Economic Penalties and Rewards of Family Formation,Gender and Education in the Low‐income Sector in Germany1

This article examines the differential effects of changes in family formations on men's and women's economic vulnerability. The motivating question is whether investments in education provide sufficient resources to escape the risk of poverty in the low‐income sector or if changes in household characteristics are more important determinants of one's living standard. Changes in household characteristics are defined in terms of partners' entry into and exit from households and partners' different labour market profiles. The analysis focuses on households in the low‐income sector in Germany, a population that is at high risk of poverty in a social welfare state that is expected to mitigate the effects of changes in family formation independent of gender. Findings from panel regression analysis demonstrate that women, in contrast to men, benefit economically as much as or more from investing in traditional family formations than in their own labour market position. This is especially the case for women with lower levels of education.     

Attitudes Toward Aging and Retirement Homes Before and After Entry Into a Retirement Home

The change of one's habitual living conditions in favor of institutionalized living in a retirement home can be a stressful event. Therefore, the question arises: How does entry into a retirement home affect attitudes toward one's life and aging and toward retirement homes? In order to answer this question, we used longitudinal data from 53 older individuals who were surveyed before and after entry into a retirement home. The data revealed that attitudes toward one's life and aging changed negatively and attitudes toward retirement homes changed positively; however, there are gains and losses in both attitudes.     

Liberia 2008:The Reality of War

This Dear Diary entry,in the year's last issue of Women of China,is written by Judy Cheung,a British woman of Chinese descent.Cheung,a business executive who lives and works in China,writes about her humanitarian experiences in Liberia,and she offers her insights into the effects of war.     

Decision-making style: Impact on satisfaction of the commuter couples' lifestyle

The entry of many women into the labor force in recent years has precipitated some changes for families. Commuter marriage is an attempt by some families to integrate work and family life. This article examines the decision-making style that 39 commuter couples use to make a decision if they should commute. The results indicate a more highly planned and systematically structured decision style relates to increased satisfaction with one's decision. Specific family and couple commuter style variables are discussed in relation to desirableness of lifestyle and coping strategies for commuter couples.Special acknowledgment is extended to Jane W. Spruill for her assistance with data collection and computer analysis. Support for computer analysis is acknowledged to the University of Maryland Computer Center. This research was supported in part by a Graduate Research Board Grant and a Divisional Small Grant Award, The University of Maryland, College Park, MD. This article benefited greatly from the suggestions of Charles Hennon and two anonymous reviewers.Her research interests include family policy issues, and work and families. She received her Ph.D. from The Pennsylvania State University.     

Motives for flexible work arrangement use

This study investigated employees’ motives for using two types of flexible work arrangements (FWA), flextime and flexplace. Using a sample of workers with high job flexibility (university academics), we examined both the prevalence of different motives (life management and work-related) and how these motives vary according to several individual differences (gender, family responsibility, marital status, and work-nonwork segmentation preferences). Overall, results indicated that employees are more driven to use FWA by work-related motives than by life management motives. Those with greater family responsibilities and those married/living with a partner were more likely to endorse life management motives, whereas individuals with greater segmentation preferences were more motivated to use FWA by work-related motives. Findings regarding gender were contrary to expectations based on traditional gender roles, as there were no gender differences in life management motives but women more highly endorsed work-related motives than did men. The main implications of the findings are that individuals recognize FWA as not only a work-family policy, but also as a potential means to increase productivity. Individual differences relate to why workers use available flexible policies. Additional theoretical and practical implications are discussed.     

On Becoming a Good Enough Stepmother

Studies have shown that conflict over parent–child relationships are frequently at the root of stepfamily dissolution and that the stepmother/daughter relationship is the most problematic stepfamily relationship. This paper explores the stepmother–daughter relationship in the family where the biological mother is an active parent and discusses the unique challenges and internal conflicts that the stepmother confronts on entry into the family and its web of preexisting relationships and transferences. “An internal parental stance” which underlies “good enough” stepmothering is conceptualized and the complex psychological processes which underlie this achievement are explored in this paper along with implications for clinical strategies. The term good enough stepmothering is a play on Winnicott’s concept of the good-enough mother—the maternal figure whose attunement to her child enables her to adapt appropriately to her child’s stage of life thus allowing an optimal environment for the child’s development.     

From communal charity to national welfare: Jewish orphanages in Eastern Europe before and after World War I

This article examines Jewish institutions for the care of orphans in an attempt to understand several aspects of Jewish life in Eastern Europe: (1) attitudes towards orphans on the part of communal leaders, intellectuals, and political activists; (2) the transition of Jewish charitable and (in the modern period) philanthropic institutions from the pre‐modern communal charity of the early nineteenth century to modern “scientific philanthropy” at the fin de siècle to national welfare in the interwar period; (3) and, to a lesser extent, the experiences of orphans themselves, as far as is possible to ascertain from documents relating to the institutions that cared for them. Marginal figures such as orphans were of growing concern to the organised Jewish community in its increasingly complex encounter with modernity in the Russian Empire, and traditional patterns of charity, family life, and relations between socioeconomic classes were cast into doubt by new government policies and modern scientific attitudes arriving from Western and Central Europe. The religiously mandated charity of the pre‐modern kehillah gave way to a paternalistic philanthropy that aimed to mould a generation of “productive” working‐class Jews. However, the upheavals of World War I and the mass politicisation of East European Jewry brought about a transformation in attitudes towards orphans and other marginal groups, whose care was made a centrepiece of national, and nationally minded, Jewish communal life in the interwar Polish Republic.     

Patterns of Informal Job Matching across the Life Course: Entry‐Level,Reentry‐Level,and Elite Non‐Searching*

The character and outcomes of informal job matching vary at different stages during people's lives. This is illustrated through an examination of non‐searchers—people who get their jobs without searching thanks to receiving unsolicited information about job openings. Examining data from the 1979 cohort of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, I identify three distinct patterns of non‐searching. Early in the work career, “entry‐level” non‐searchers acquire their first few jobs often while still in school. During the mid‐career, “reentry‐level” non‐searchers tend to be women with little work experience who have been out of the labor market taking care of family responsibilities. Finally, “elite” non‐searchers tend to be male, highly experienced in their field, with very short gaps between employment. All three lack an economic urgency to get a job, but only the elite non‐searchers match prevailing assumptions of non‐searchers as the best connected and most advantaged workers. These findings highlight the importance of incorporating a life course perspective into the study of informal job matching.     

Families in the Middle and Later Years: A Review and Critique of Research in the 1990s

Research on families in the middle and later years came into its own during the 1990s, documenting the complexity, malleability, and variety of older family connections. We examined 908 articles on family gerontology topics, observing 4 trends: Conceptually, an appreciation for pluralism and resilience as individuals and families age is apparent. Theoretically, life course, feminist, socioemotional selectivity, and family solidarity theories are increasingly applied to intergenerational family relations. Methodologically, new interest in qualitative methods for studying diverse groups has improved the depth with which aging studies can account for variability in old age; new quantitative methodologies have allowed greater sophistication in dealing with longitudinal data. Substantively, there is greater understanding of family caregiving, social support, parent‐child relationships, marital transitions, and grandparenting relationships. The field is poised to take even greater risks in fulfilling the promise of studying linked lives over time.     

Impact of Adolescents' Filial Self‐Efficacy on Quality of Family Functioning and Satisfaction

In this prospective study, we tested a structural model in which adolescents' perceived self‐efficacy to manage parental relationships affected their satisfaction with family life both directly, and indirectly, through its impact on family practices. Findings based on 380 Italian adolescents showed that perceived filial self‐efficacy was linked directly and indirectly to satisfaction with family life, and that these relations held both concurrently and longitudinally. In particular, the greater adolescents perceived their self‐efficacy, the more they reported open communication with their parents, the more accepting they were of their parents' monitoring of their own activities outside the home and the less inclined they were to get into escalative discord over disagreements. Regardless of whether perceived filial self‐efficacy was placed in the conceptual structure as a contributor to the quality of family interactions or as a partial product of family functioning, it consistently predicted satisfaction with family life.     

Strengthening family cohesion through shared participation of family members in religious activities in Croatia

This article presents research results pertaining to an examination of the relation between family members’ participation in shared religious activities, perception of family cohesion, satisfaction with family life, and the level of conflict in the family. The survey of 503 parents of preschool children was conducted in Zagreb, Croatia. The findings demonstrate a significant correlation between shared participation of family members in religious activities, perception of family cohesion and satisfaction with family life, but not with perception of the level of conflict in the family. The results suggest that spiritual and religious matters are an important element necessary for understanding family functioning, and that cultivating shared religious practices in the family can contribute to the strengthening of family cohesion and greater satisfaction with family life.     

Serving children and adolescents in the school: Can social work meet the challenge?

Educators recognize that social, personal, and environmental conditions can interfere with childrens' learning. As a result, educational reforms have emphasized family support services and the provision of social and related services at or near the school. However, the entry of agency based social workers into the school has not sufficiently taken into account the role of pupil personnel staff, including school social workers. Findings from a state study that examined the population served and services provided by school social workers are discussed in light of the implications they have for collaboration between school and agency social workers working within the school.     

Canadian families into the year 2000

"Canadian families are pluralistic and varied, with a mix of traditional, modern, and post-modern characteristics. This paper looks at families into the immediate future.... Consideration is given to ethnicity, cohabitation, fertility, childrearing, sexuality, family policy, adolescence, and general family life. The state will continue to influence family life. Non-familial associations will affect family values and activity."