Spousal,Family and Gender Effects on Expected Retirement Age for Married Pre-retirees

The overall purpose of this study was to examine the degree to which retirement is a contextually embedded, family decision rather than an individualized, male-centric one. Using data from a 2010 survey of married pre-retirees ages 35–70 in Michigan, US, we created a General Linear Model to predict expected retirement age. The model incorporated the effect of spousal and family variables on expected retirement age, and because the work/family interface is highly gendered, we explored interactions with gender. The study used a life course perspective in its framing and analysis, and found that expected retirement age was related to both personal and family characteristics and that the relationship of spousal and family factors were gendered and complex.     

‘Religious Parents… Just Want the Best for Their Kids’: Young People’s Perspectives on the Influence of Religious Beliefs on Parenting

Challenging some of the current predominantly negative representations of the effects of religion on young people requires further research into faith and family life, particularly from the perspective of young people themselves. This article presents a preliminary report of a study of 40 young people, mostly Christians and Muslims, aged 13–15 years. Three themes – defining religion, religious parenting and life in a religious family – are illustrated with reference to data collected from discussion groups in six schools and recent research literature. We conclude that religion still provides a positive influence on family life and parenting from the perspective of young people.     

Sexuality and the dual‐earner couple,part II: Beyond the baby years

This article reports results from two data sets testing predictions that a couple's sexual relationship suffers if the wife is employed, particularly if she is employed full time or high full time. A multiple‐theory framework was used, fusing the scarcity hypothesis, the enhancement hypothesis, and identity theory. The last suggests that an important individual difference variable, spouse role salience, should be related to a couples sexual functioning. In Study 1, data from the National Health and Social Life Survey were analyzed, focusing on 1,744 married persons. No significant differences in sexuality were found between women employed part, full, or high full time, nor between men employed full or high full time. In Study 2, data from the Wisconsin Maternity Leave and Health project were analyzed, focusing on 261 couples when they had a 4.5‐year‐old child. There were no differences between homemakers and women employed part, full, or high full time for several measures of sexual functioning. Neither were there differences between husbands employed full and high full time. More important were individual differences in spouse role salience.     

Assessment of social work students: Standpoint and strong objectivity

The aim of this paper is to consider epistemological issues relating to the assessment of social work students. It will review the development of social work education and in particular the changes that have occurred in assessing the practice of social work students in England and Wales. It explores models of practice assessment. Factors relating to maintaining professional standards, whilst taking into consideration issues of justice, are addressed. It explores the potential benefits of using a second opinion in the assessment of marginal or failing students on practice placement. Assessment is linked to how students may perform as qualified practitioners; this raises issues related both to the nature of objectivity, and standpoint in assessment.     

Judging childhood

This article brings ethnohistorical inquiry to bear in exploring the certainties of Progressive Era reformers regarding the role of the state, the meaning of childhood, and the power of intervention in the lives of children, youth, and families in Butte, Montana. The author draws on the key themes of the Just Practice perspective (Finn & Jacobson, 2008)—as an organizing frame to explore assumptions and contestations regarding childhood, well-being, trouble, and intervention as expressed through primary source documents and reports of juvenile court proceedings in Butte from 1900 to 1914. Butte, a site of rapid industrialization at the turn of the last century, provides a local context in which to examine ways these certainties were asserted, negotiated, embedded, and resisted in the making of a nascent system of child welfare and juvenile justice. The historical analysis offers a foundation for critical reflection on the certainties embedded in contemporary practice with children and youth.     

The green leaves of love: Japanese romantic heroines,authentic femininity,and dialect1

How is ‘authentic’ linguistic femininity in Japan manifested in popular texts? We analyze the dialogue of female characters in Wakaba, a 2005 Japanese drama set in two very different parts of ‘regional’ Japan – Miyazaki and Kobe. Through this analysis, we examine two contradictory discourses circulated through popular media. The first is that linguistic femininity is based in Standard Japanese – a surprisingly persistent ideology despite a current trend to examine cases in which language ideology and practice do not match. Other studies reflect another dominant discourse, that of the ‘authentic’ dialect speaker, who expresses local alignment by using dialect forms outside the bounds of ideologically modern linguistic forms. The tension between acting linguistically feminine and ‘authentically’ local raises some interesting questions for Japanese language and gender studies, including studies of gendered representations: are women who are speakers of regional dialects authentically ‘feminine’? Can they be? Do some dialects express femininity better than others?     

Hindsight,foresight and insight: The challenges of longitudinal qualitative research

This paper describes a UK based longitudinal qualitative study following approximately 100 young people over 9 years. It provides an overview of the research design, methods of data collection and analysis as well as reflecting on the strengths and weaknesses of the strategies employed. We focus on the value of a devolved research design, complementary cross-section and temporal analytic approaches and the effects of being involved in a longitudinal study on researchers and participants. The paper aims to contribute to a growing understanding of the practical, ethical and epistemological challenges presented by longitudinal qualitative methods, and highlights those challenges that are specific to this method as well as those which are amplified by this kind of approach.     

Constructing an Accounting Journal Website

Abstract

To increase the effectiveness and efficiency of searches for information, accounting students, researchers, practitioners, and regulators could benefit from a Website devoted to the electronic access to journals. The site described here addresses such a need in the business discipline of accounting. On the site, the titles of over 470 journals are listed and categorized by topical areas within accounting. Then, within each accounting category, the journals are grouped according to their Internet accessibility. To provide the user with quick access to the various journals, the site provides links to the homepages of the various journals. Serials Review 2002; 28:201–205.