Exploring Adoptive Motherhood: Adoption-Seeking Among Hispanic and Non-Hispanic White Women

Predictors of ever having sought adoption are evaluated for Hispanic and non-Hispanic White women. Analysis of the 2002 National Survey of Family Growth, a nationally representative study of reproductive health of 7,643 women aged 15 to 44 years, is employed. These include Hispanic and non-Hispanic White women aged 18 to 44 who are currently married and cohabiting (n = 3,118) and Hispanic and non-Hispanic White women aged 18 to 44 of all marital statuses (n = 5,236). Being married, older, and attending religious services are significantly associated with having sought adoption among non-Hispanic White women. Nativity status, language spoken, and resources are significantly associated with having sought adoption among Hispanic women.     

EDITORIAL

ABSTRACT

This paper presents the results of an exploratory study that examined the preparation of children for adoption from the perspective of 55 adoptive parents and 26 caseworkers. Results indicate little consistency in practice and highlight the pivotal role of the adoptive parent. From the caseworker perspective, preparation for adoption is often seen as a process that ends at placement with the adoptive family. Adoption issues often arise at developmentally significant times in a child's life and adoptive parents may need to continue working with the child, building on the foundation of preparation work done by the child's caseworker or therapist. If the preparation work is insufficient or ineffective, adoptive parents may face greater challenges as they help the child resolve issues related to their past, present and future.     

Economic conditions,marital status,and the timing of first births: Results for whites and blacks

Relatively little is known about the effects of aggregate economic conditions on first-birth timing. In this paper, we argue that aggregate economic conditions are important macrolevel forces driving the transition to parenthood. We develop and test a causal model, separately by race, in which economic conditions influence both marital status and first-birth timing. Our results indicate that economic conditions are significant predictors of both outcomes, with economic conditions for females having effects different from those for males. A particularly noteworthy finding is that favorable wage trajectories for females lead to a decreased likelihood of being married and slower birth timing (a finding opposite to that predicted on the basis of opportunity costs). For blacks, the majority of the effects of economic conditions on the transition to parenthood are direct, while for whites a significant proportion of effects are indirect through marital status.     

Spacing Between Births in Odisha,India

Birth spacing is of considerable importance to study the tempo and quantum of fertility. Using data from the National Family Health Survey III, this study explored the birth interval dynamics in Odisha, an eastern state of India. The life table analysis of spacing between births clearly suggests that birth spacing in the recent past has increased and the proportion of women moving to the second, third, and fourth parity has declined, leading to the decline in fertility in Odisha. From the proportional hazards model, educational level of women, age of women at previous birth, sex and survival status of the previous child, and the period effect are found to be important determinants of birth spacing at higher parities. Socioeconomic differences do not show a large effect at lower order births. This highlights the fact that most women in Odisha, regardless of their background characteristics, tend to have second births.     

The Importance of Household Management for the Business-Owning Family

The household managerial behavior of 673 business-owning families from the 1997 National Family Business Survey was examined using a scale adapted from Heck, Winter, and Stafford (1992). The scale was reliable and used to compare the managerial behavior of solo- and dual-role holders in the sample. Although t-tests revealed few significant differences between solo- and dual-role holders, factor analyses showed that the two groups differed noticeably in management style. The differences were not in the frequency of use of managerial activities but in which activities were viewed as related by the two groups.     

Is there a (transracial) adoption achievement gap?: A national longitudinal analysis of adopted children's educational performance

In one of the first longitudinal population-based studies examining adopted children's educational achievement, we analyze whether there is a test-score gap between children in adoptive families and children in biological families. Using data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, we find in aggregate adopted children have lower reading and math scores than their counterparts living in biological families. Yet there is significant variation among adoptive families by their race and health status. On one hand adoptive parents tend to be White and have more economic capital than their non-adoptive counterparts potentially contributing to educational advantages. However adopted children are also more likely to have special educational needs, contributing to greater educational disadvantages. Untangling these variables through a multivariate regression analysis, we find that transracially adopted children have similar test scores to White children living with biological parents. We point to the interaction between race, family resources and children's health status and how these characteristics differentially shape achievement outcomes for adopted children.     

How Early Life Religious Exposure Relates to the Timing of First Birth

This article examines intermediary processes explaining how religious socialization and involvement early in life are related to the timing of first births for women in the United States. The theory of conjunctural action forms the basis for hypotheses for how religious schemas and materials operate to influence birth timing. Using the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth data and event history methods, the study finds evidence for expected family size, work–family gender ideology, educational attainment and enrollment, cohabitation, and age at marriage as mediators of associations between early life religious exposure (affiliation and attendance) and the timing of nonmaritally and maritally conceived first births. These findings corroborate other research identifying the long reach of religious socialization and involvement in youth, elucidate some of the pathways for these connections, and motivate further work to understand linkages between religion and family behaviors in the United States.     

Family Structure States and Transitions: Associations With Children's Well‐Being During Middle Childhood

Using longitudinal data from the Maternal and Child Supplement of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (N = 3,862) and Hierarchical Linear Models, we estimated associations of family structure states and transitions with children's achievement and behavior trajectories during middle childhood. Results suggest that residing in a single‐mother family was associated with small increases in behavior problems and decreases in achievement and that residing in a social‐father family was associated with small increases in behavior problems. Family structure transitions, in general, were associated with increases in behavior problems and marginally associated with decreases in achievement. Transitioning to a single‐mother family was associated with increases in behavior problems, whereas transitioning to a social‐father family was associated with decreases in reading achievement.     

Differential Labeling of Mental Illness Revisited: Patterns Before and After the Rise of Managed Care

With the National Comorbidity Survey of the early 1990s, Thoits (2005) recently showed that lower-status mentally ill individuals were not more often hospitalized or pressured into psychiatric treatment than comparably ill persons of higher status, disconfirming a central hypothesis of labeling theory. However, that finding may have been due to changes in the mental health treatment system introduced by the spread of managed care. The differential labeling hypothesis is reexamined here with data from the Epidemiological Catchment Area Studies (ECA) collected in the early 1980s before managed-care plans began to dominate the insurance marketplace and from the National Comorbidity Survey Replication conducted in the early 2000s when managed care had saturated the market. Little systematic support for the differential labeling hypothesis was found in the three studies, although, over time, the higher rates of mental hospitalization among less educated and low-income individuals found in the ECA survey disappeared. Trends across the studies suggest that educated and affluent persons with psychiatric problems more frequently sought hospital care. These findings further undermine the validity of the differential labeling hypothesis and suggest that service utilization or treatment-seeking factors may help explain mental hospitalization rates.     

Purchases,Penalties, and Power: The Relationship Between Earnings and Housework

Studies examining the association of housework with earnings have not tested for causal directionality despite competing theories about causal ordering. Autonomy theory and the relative resources, gender display, and gender deviance neutralization hypotheses suggest personal and relative earnings affect time in housework, whereas human capital theory implies the opposite. Using data from N = 3,719 continuously married couples in Waves 1 and 2 of the National Survey of Families and Households and structural equation modeling, the authors found that wives' personal earnings and housework are reciprocally related; her earnings have a stronger effect on housework than vice versa. For husbands, time in routine housework affects earnings only. The authors observed little evidence that relative earnings affect husbands' or wives' housework time; rather, they identified a significant effect of housework on one's share of couples' earnings. These results support autonomy theory for wives and a human capital perspective for both spouses.     

Editorial

The UK Government agencies have an interest in making greater use of administrative data. This paper discusses the methodological challenges of using administrative data held by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) for constructing an alternative sampling frame for the Family Resources Survey (FRS) and for replacing income data collected in the FRS. The analysis shows that administrative data would provide a good basis for sampling the FRS by linking to socio-demographic data held administratively, which would be advantageous for sampling specific sub-populations (e.g. types of benefit recipients or households with children). Sampling using administrative data also potentially offers more representative population sampling by including some addresses currently excluded from the small users Postcode Address File (PAF) but which are important to DWP, such as people living in care homes. However, comparing FRS questions and income data held administratively, suggests little overlap. Therefore, limited gains may be realised from shortening the length of the FRS by using income data from administrative sources.     

Open Adoption and Post-Adoption Birth Family Contact: A Comparison of Non-Relative Foster and Private Adoptions

This study used data from the National Survey of Adoptive Parents (NSAP) to compare post-adoption contact in families with non-relative private domestic and foster care adoptions. This study is the first to use a nationally representative sample to examine and compare the extent of post-adoption contact in both private and foster adoptions. The results suggest that children adopted from foster care were less likely to experience post-adoption contact with their birth families than children adopted privately despite the fact that they were more likely to have lived with their birth families.     

Exploring Physical Health of African Americans: A Social Determinant Model

The objective was to examine the relationships between socioeconomic, structural, community, and individual factors and health outcomes of African Americans in the United States using a modified version of the social determinants of health model in a nationally representative sample of 2,926 non-elderly African American adults. This empirical evidence supports the hypothesis that there is a positive relationship between socioeconomic/structural determinants and health outcomes of African Americans. Results show poor housing and low income contribute to poorer health outcomes; therefore, in order to improve the health outcome, programs are needed that provide their residents with adequate and safe housing and employment. Moreover, local, state, and federal governmental entities need to work together to rebuild and revitalize the housing in African American communities.     

Exiting and Returning to the Parental Home for Boomerang Kids

Young adults commonly exit from and return to the parental home, yet few studies have examined the motivation behind these exits and returns using a life course framework. Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997, the authors examined associations between mental health problems and economic characteristics and exits from (n = 8,162) and returns to (n = 6,530) the parental home during the transition to adulthood. The average age of the respondents was 24 years. The authors found evidence that mental health and economic characteristics were related to home leaving and returning. Emotional distress was associated with earlier exits from and returns to the parental home; alcohol problems were associated with earlier returns to the parental home. The findings regarding economic resources were unexpectedly mixed. Greater economic resources were linked to delayed exits from and earlier returns to the parental home. The implications of these findings for young adults are discussed.     

Youth homelessness and self identity: a view from Canada

ABSTRACT

This paper is based on the analysis of data collected from the National Canadian Homeless Youth Survey and addresses the question: why do some youth who received support from social service agencies that cater to the needs of homeless youth self-identify as being homeless while others do not? According to self-report survey data obtained from 1103 young people from over 50 youth homeless service centres from across Canada, findings show that youth who self-identified as being homeless shared several backgrounds and current situational characteristics not common among youth in the sample who did not consider themselves to be homeless. The findings illustrate the importance of past trauma and the intensity of day to day hardship in self-identifying as a homeless young person.     

Adoptions by Single Parents

Adoptions by single parents are thought by the public and by adoption professionals to be a plan for children needing adoption which is less advantageous for the child than a two parent adoption. For this reason, children who are difficult to find homes for are often placed with single parents; these are usually older children whose experiences have led to emotional and behavioral problems. Single persons who wish to parent an infant often adopt a child from another country. A review of the literature concerning single parent adoptions, and examination of the findings of a longitu- dinal study, indicate that the single persons who adopt are well able to carry out the responsibilities of parenting. They handle the special issues of adoption competently. Because children placed with single parents are frequently children with complex needs, and because single parents do not have a partner to share the responsibilities of parenting, continuing support from family and friends, the commu- nity, and from the adoption agency are important. Children adopted by single parents are as well adjusted as children adopted into two parent homes. There is some evidence that single parent homes may have unique strengths and be the placement of choice for some children.     

Participation and level of play in the UK National Lottery and correlation with spending on other modes of gambling

The paper analyses UK data, collected from the Family Expenditure Survey, for over 6000 households. The focus is on participation in, and level of expenditure on, the national lotto game. Controlling for standard demographic, socio-economic and income variables, and some non-standard lifestyle indicators, it examines correlation between lotto play and expenditure on six other forms of gambling as well as on alcohol and tobacco. Correlations with lotto participation and expenditure are found to be positive and strong in most cases. Implications for the regulation of the gambling sector and for taxation policy are outlined and discussed.     

Childhood Family,Ethnicity, and Drug Use Over the Life Course

Using multiply imputed data from 5 waves of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (N = 8,294), we investigated whether childhood family characteristics and childhood religious affiliation explain ethnic differences in marijuana and cocaine use in the last year. None of the childhood factors explained ethnic differences in drug use, though ethnicity and several childhood factors had age‐specific effects. Over the life course from young adulthood to middle age, ethnic differences in drug use changed and the effect of childhood religious affiliation declined. Having a more intellectually rich family in childhood increased the risk of drug use at younger ages but reduced it at older ages. The study demonstrates the significance of childhood family experiences for understanding adult drug use.