Material hardship and 529 college savings plan participation: The mitigating effects of Child Development Accounts

Experience of material hardship can adversely affect a family’s ability to make long-term investments in children’s development. We examine whether material hardship is associated with one indicator of such investments: participation in a tax-advantaged college savings plan (529 plan). Data for this study come from the SEED for Oklahoma Kids (SEED OK) experiment, an intervention that offers Child Development Accounts with financial incentives to encourage the accumulation of college savings for children from the time of their birth. Results show that material hardship is negatively associated with 529-plan participation, and this association varies by treatment status. At all levels of material hardship, treatment-group mothers are more likely to hold accounts than control-group mothers. These findings suggest that CDAs can be a useful policy tool to support families’ financial preparation for college.     

Do disabilities in former TANF families hasten their returns to cash assistance?

This research examines the relationship between disabilities in families and returns to welfare. Past studies of welfare recidivism have long theorized that disabilities played a central role in returns to welfare among former recipients, but lacked data to test the hypothesis. Hypothesis tests support the theory that both child and maternal disabilities, which act as barriers to self-sufficiency, increase rates of TANF re-entry and SSI entry. We show that because past studies did not account for disabilities on the odds of returning to welfare, effects of work, number of children, and past receipt of TANF are somewhat overstated. Our findings add to the literature on welfare recidivism and have implications for welfare reforms that emphasize work and lifetime limits on benefits.     

生育二胎:“双独夫妇”的意愿及相关因素分析

本文通过全国五大城市已婚青年调查数据,以非双独夫妇作为参照,对"双独夫妇"的二胎生育意愿及其相关因素进行了描述与比较分析.研究结果表明,超过60%的"双独夫妇"依旧只希望生育一个孩子,希望生育二胎的"双独夫妇"在30%-40%之间.同时,他们的生育意愿与非双独夫妇之间不存在明显差别.除了不同城市有所不同外,"双独夫妇"的性别、出生年代、文化程度、有无孩子等因素均与其二胎生育意愿没有关系.研究结果对于未来生育率变动的预测,提供了新的参考依据.     

Family structure and the economic wellbeing of children in youth and adulthood

An extensive literature on the relationship between family structure and children’s outcomes consistently shows that living with a single parent is associated with negative outcomes. Few US studies, however, examine how a child’s family structure affects outcomes for the child once he/she reaches adulthood. We directly examine, using the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, whether family structure during childhood is related to the child’s economic wellbeing both during childhood as well as during adulthood. We find that living with a single parent is associated with the level of family resources available during childhood. This finding persists even when we remove time invariant factors within families. We also show that family structure is related to the child’s education, marital status, and adult family income. Once we control for the child’s demography and economic wellbeing in childhood, however, the associations into adulthood become trivial in size and statistically insignificant, suggesting that the relationship between family structure and children’s long-term, economic outcomes is due in large part to the relationship between family structure and economic wellbeing in childhood.     

性别因素与脆弱儿童的长期照顾

性别因素对脆弱儿童的长期照顾的影响主要体现在以下方面:第一,在父死母嫁的情况下,女孩更容易被带入新的家庭,融入新的家庭中,成为其成员;而男孩则更容易被留在原生家庭中,形成与祖父母之间的隔代抚养关系。第二,在收养方面,女孩更容易被收养从而进入正常的家庭环境。以上这些状况的形成与亚洲地区男孩的性别偏好有非常重要的关系,这对于目前的社会福利政策与社会照顾体系提出了新的要求,需要采取一系列的措施与政策。如:通过现有的社会救助体系对祖父母—孙子女的隔代抚养关系给予支持与照顾;充分发挥社区作用,为脆弱儿童提供支持与保护;充分发挥儿童福利院的作用,为脆弱儿童提供专业支持和心理、情感指导,与家庭、社区相结合,共同为脆弱儿童的成长提供支持。     

我国失独家庭现状与对策的研究综述

近年来,关于失独家庭在媒体和学术文章中的讨论越来越多,失独群体不断增长的数量和面临的复杂困境使其成了一个不可回避的社会问题.本文通过梳理与总结,试图回顾对失独家庭的研究历程与现状,在研究动向和实务工作方面给出建议,以更好地为失独群体服务.     

Mexican parent's undocumented status and the educational attainment of the children left behind

Research shows that having undocumented parents lowers the educational attainment of children that grew up in the United States, but we know less about how it affects the education of children left behind in their origin countries. We use fixed effects models and data from the Mexican Migration Project to examine this relationship. We find that having both parents documented increases the educational attainment of children left behind by over two years in comparison to similar children with mixed-status, undocumented, and nonimmigrant parents. The effect is especially robust for boys that migrate as teenagers. These findings reveal that US immigration laws that define most Mexican immigrants as undocumented have had a devastating effect on the education of Mexican children left behind.     

蒙古族文化对民间怪孩子故事形态的影响

蒙古族民间怪孩子型故事非常多,最为丰富的应属神力儿、蛤蟆儿和拇指儿三种类型,其独特的文化特性表现为：动物崇拜、尚力美学追求和神秘宗教色彩。对这些文化特性进行研究,一方面可以丰富世界民间怪孩子型故事的整体研究,另一方面也可以在比较研究中发现民族与地域对于怪孩子故事传播的影响。     

Paternal incarceration and child-reported behavioral functioning at age 9

Within the last few decades our understanding of the importance of non-cognitive skills for socioeconomic success has grown along with our knowledge of the deleterious impacts of paternal incarceration for child wellbeing. Given the importance of early skills and that elementary-aged children constitute the majority of children with incarcerated parents, understanding the connection between paternal incarceration and the socio-emotional component of children’s non-cognitive development is pressing. Using matching models, data from the newest wave of the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, and exploring a larger range of behavioral skills than previous literature, this paper provides estimates of the impact of paternal incarceration on children’s behavioral functioning at age 9 using children’s own self-reports. Comparisons to oft-used parent reports are made and heterogeneity by gender is explored. Findings suggest the incarceration of a father increases the antisocial behaviors children self-report, but has null effects on prosocial skill development.     

福利多元主义视角下失独家庭社会政策建构

失独家庭作为特殊弱势群体,遭遇养老保障、医疗服务、精神慰藉、社会交往等困境。福利多元主义作为一种新兴的政策理论范式,它主张社会福利来源的多元化,福利是全社会的产物,应由国家、市场、社区和民间社会共同合作提供。本文运用福利多元主义视角,尝试建构了失独家庭保障政策。我们认为应将国家作为主导责任主体,市场作为有效的补充,重视家庭和社区的福利供给功能、发挥社会组织的独特优势。     

The risk of divorce as a barrier to marriage among parents of young children

Using data from the Fragile Families Study, we examine how unmarried parents’ risk of divorce influences their decision to marry. Regression results show that unmarried parents with a high predicted probability of marital dissolution (based on estimates of marital dissolution for a sample of initially married mothers with similar characteristics) had significantly lower odds of marriage to the father of their child even after controlling for individual and relationship characteristics expected to influence marriage transitions. The dissolution propensity we examine also includes a measure of the local divorce climate. As such, our results provide support for the argument that high rates of divorce in the population have led to a fear of divorce among unmarried parents which reduces their probability of marriage.     

河北豪族与两汉之际的社会政治

西汉末年 ,河北豪族已发展成为重要的社会势力 ,对两汉之际的社会政治产生了重要影响。河北地区豪族表现为强力 (武质性 )、财富、宗族、权力的结合 ,宗族性、强力性、世官性、大地产性是其基本特征。王莽的败亡及东汉的建立都与河北豪族密不可分。河北豪族集团与其他豪族集团及中央政权之间的权力之争对东汉社会政治产生了深刻影响     

个人住房抵押贷款的政策性担保与制度构建

政府为个人住房抵押贷款提供担保是政府对住房和住房金融市场进行间接干预和调节、保障中低收入者住房权利的重要手段,其目的在于以政府信用增强、补充和提升中低收入者的信用,改善和调节住房金融市场的交易条件,鼓励和引导金融机构向中低收入者发放高比例的个人住房抵押贷款。发展个人住房抵押贷款政策性担保,应高度重视和防范住房市场本身的风险、借款人的信用风险和贷款人的道德风险。     

走进"围城"的独生子女:概念、规模与质疑

本文首先从概念上对与第一代独生子女婚烟有关的现象进行了区分。提出用“已婚独生子女”、“双独夫妻家庭”等概念来分别对相关现象进行界定。其次,依据作者2004年对全国12个城市1786名在职青年的抽样调查结果,从宏观上分析了成年的、已婚的、有子女的独生子女的可能分布和“双独”、“单独”、“双非”家庭的大致比例。从而为认识这一现象的规模和范围提供了经验的基础。最后,论文对现有研究的结果和结论提出了质疑。     

Maternal migration and child health: An analysis of disruption and adaptation processes in Benin

Children of migrant mothers have lower vaccination rates compared to their peers with non-migrant mothers in low-income countries. Explanations for this finding are typically grounded in the disruption and adaptation perspectives of migration. Researchers argue that migration is a disruptive process that interferes with women’s economic well-being and social networks, and ultimately their health-seeking behaviors. With time, however, migrant women adapt to their new settings, and their health behaviors improve. Despite prominence in the literature, no research tests the salience of these perspectives to the relationship between maternal migration and child vaccination. We innovatively leverage Demographic and Health Survey data to test the extent to which disruption and adaptation processes underlie the relationship between maternal migration and child vaccination in the context of Benin—a West African country where migration is common and child vaccination rates have declined in recent years. By disaggregating children of migrants according to whether they were born before or after their mother’s migration, we confirm that migration does not lower children’s vaccination rates in Benin. In fact, children born after migration enjoy a higher likelihood of vaccination, whereas their peers born in the community from which their mother eventually migrates are less likely to be vaccinated. Although we find no support for the disruption perspective of migration, we do find evidence of adaptation: children born after migration have an increased likelihood of vaccination the longer their mother resides in the destination community prior to their birth.     

Factors associated with two types of child custody loss among a sample of African American mothers: A novel approach

African American families are overrepresented in the Child Welfare System; however, extant research on this phenomenon has (1) focused mostly on Caucasian or mixed-race samples and (2) has not examined informal custody arrangements alongside official child custody loss. This research addresses these gaps in the literature by examining factors associated with both official and informal child custody loss among a sample of African American mothers. Multinomial regression results show that having ever been incarcerated following a conviction increases the odds of experiencing both types of custody loss relative to no loss. Additionally, mother’s experiences of childhood victimization increase the likelihood of informal custody loss relative to no loss, while being older, past year homelessness, number of minor children, being lesbian or bisexual, crack/cocaine use, and more family social support increase the odds of official loss versus no loss. Finally, increases in social support from friends decrease the odds of official loss. Implications are discussed.     

民国《良友》画报与予且早期散文的“市民趣味”

予且的早期散文较多地刊载在民国时期的《良友》画报上。这些散文在内容上以市民生活为表现对象,认同市民价值观念,重视日常生活的意义;在艺术上以丰富的日常知识作为基础,以生活中的小智慧加以调适,在肆意放谈中呈现出浓郁的市民趣味。这种趣味性呼应了《良友》画报的编辑宗旨,与画报的日常生活图景相互映照,满足了庞大的市民群体的文化消费需要,对海派文学和中国现代散文的发展具有一定的积极意义。     

Filling holes in the safety net? Material hardship and subjective well-being among disability benefit applicants and recipients after the 1996 welfare reform

Some of the rapid recent growth in disability income receipt in the United States is attributable to single mothers post-welfare reform. Yet, we know little about how disability benefit receipt affects the economic well-being of single mother families, or how unsuccessful disability applicants fare. We compare disability recipients to unsuccessful applicants and those who never applied among current and former welfare recipients, and examine how application and receipt affect material hardships and subjective measures of well-being. We then examine whether alternative ways of making ends meet mediate differences in well-being. After controlling for alternative sources of support, no significant differences in overall actual hardships or difficulty living on current income remained between the three groups. However, even after controlling for these strategies, unsuccessful applicants were significantly more likely to report that they expected hardships in the next two months. Our results suggest a pervasive level of economic insecurity among unsuccessful applicants.     

宋美龄与战时儿童保育会

抗战初期,中国儿童大量流离失所,不少沦陷区儿童被日军施以奴化教育,甚至被杀害或劫到日本。儿童是国家民族的未来,抢救和保护流离失所的儿童成为战时中国的一个重要任务。为此,宋美龄领导的中国妇女界于1938年3月成立了战时儿童保育会,并在各省设立分会,筹建保育院,积极抢救难童,对难童进行保护和教育。宋美龄领导的战时儿童保育会在抗战期间共抢救和保育难童近3万名,成为战时中国儿童救济事业的重要部分。     

美国儿童保护强制报告制度及其对我国的启示

儿童保护强制报告制度,要求特定的人员在发现儿童虐待或忽视行为时向特定机构报告,未能报告的责任主体将承担相应的民事或刑事责任。该制度包括初步审查、启动调查、评估分析、公布结论、服务安置等措施。这项制度对我国儿童保护制度的构建有着重要的启示,包括重视儿童虐待构成的特殊文化、增加儿童免受虐待的具体规定、形成儿童保护救助的完整体系和强调儿童权利保护的社会责任等。