Who Is Looking After the Elderly?

STATSTICS from the All-ChinaCommittee of the Elderly show that,since 1990,the population of thecountry's elderly has grown annually by3.32 perercent.According to experts,it willreach 132 million by the end of thiscentury;that will be 10.5 percent of theChinese population.By that time,Chinawill have become another of the world’s“aged” nations.What kind of conditions arethe elderly in China living in today?Howare their families and society treating them?     

Marriage Advantages in Perinatal Health: Evidence of Marriage Selection or Marriage Protection?

Marriage is a social tie associated with health advantages for adults and their children, as lower rates of preterm birth and low birth weight are observed among married women. In this study the author tested 2 competing hypotheses explaining this marriage advantage—marriage protection versus marriage selection—using a sample of recent births to single, cohabiting, and married women from the National Survey of Family Growth, 2006–2010. Propensity score matching and fixed effects regression results demonstrated support for marriage selection, as a rich set of early life selection factors account for all of the cohabiting–married disparity and part of the single–married disparity. Subsequent analyses demonstrated that prenatal smoking mediates the adjusted single–married disparity in birth weight, lending some support for the marriage protection perspective. The study's findings sharpen our understanding of why and how marriage matters for child well‐being and provide insight into pre‐conception and prenatal factors describing intergenerational transmissions of inequality via birth weight.     

Social Work Educators in a Changing Higher Education Context: Looking Back and Looking Forward 1982–2005

Abstract

The present paper is based on initial findings from an online survey of Australian social work educators conducted as part of the Australian Research Council Linkage Project “Social Work in the Enterprise University: A national survey of social work educators 1982–2005”.1 1. The chief investigators in the project are Associate Professor Elizabeth Ozanne and Professor Craig McInnis, from The University of Melbourne, and Associate Professor Wendy Weeks, who sadly passed away in July 2004. The Australian Association of Social Work and Welfare Education is the industry partner in the project and the researcher is Kylie Agbim (nee Brown), PhD scholar, School of Social Work, The University of Melbourne. The article contributes to empirical data on the Australian social work education workforce and draws attention to the need for greater exploration of the challenges and opportunities confronting social work educators. It is argued that the characteristics of Australian social work academics and their visions for contemporary and future social work education are of increasing importance in a more competitive and global higher education market and in an era when the nature of welfare practice is being radically transformed. Initial findings from the 2005 national survey are compared with findings from the only previous national survey of social work educators and contemporary studies of other academic populations. The data highlight possible implications for contemporary and future social work education in universities.     

Variation in the Relationship Between Education and Marriage: Marriage Market Mismatch?

Educational expansion has led to greater diversity in the social backgrounds of college students. We ask how schooling interacts with this diversity to influence marriage formation among men and women. Relying on data from the 1979 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (N = 3208), we use a propensity score approach to group men and women into social strata and multilevel event history models to test differences in the effects of college attendance across strata. We find a statistically significant, positive trend in the effects of college attendance across strata, with the largest effects of college on first marriage among the more advantaged and the smallest-indeed, negative-effects among the least advantaged men and women. These findings appear consistent with a mismatch in the marriage market between individuals' education and their social backgrounds.     

Marriage: for love,for money…and for time?

Married couples enjoy meaningful economies in time, often choosing to specialize where one spouse focuses on market work and the other on household production and childcare. Using data from the American Time Use Survey 2003–2008, I estimate significant marriage effects upon time use. Most married women gain 33–34 min of leisure each weekday when compared to single women. While marriage does not lead to more leisure for husbands, it allows them to allocate time away from home and towards market work. Lower-income couples work more at home and for pay, and spend less time in leisure than their single counterparts. The temporal and financial gains from marriage for most people are inconsistent with its declining prevalence.     

‘Being young and LGBT,what could be worse?’ Analysis of youth LGBT activism in Indonesia: challenges and ways forward

Young Indonesian LGBT people are currently mobilising against a wave of conservatism and violence in an increasingly anti-LGBT context. Young LGBT people are showing remarkable courage and strategic thinking and mobilising in a range of ways. These include grassroot peer support, advocacy, and partnerships with government, adult-led non-government organisations and the private sector. However, these youth also face multiple challenges. This article highlights findings from a 2016 study of mobilisation by youth LGBT activists, using in-depth feminist qualitative research methods. The aim of the research was to highlight the resilience of young LGBT people in Indonesia, the barriers they face, and to consider what feminists and development policymakers and practitioners can do to support them.     

After adoption: dissolution or permanence?

Results are presented on the whereabouts of 516 adopted children, based on a random sample of children adopted from placement in New York City in 1996. Data from interviews with adoptive parents were augmented by information from adoption subsidy records and state child tracking files, as well as interviews with caregivers of children whose adoptive parents were deceased. There were few dissolutions, but postadoption service needs were many.     

Bigamy: Neither Love nor Marriage,but a Threat to the Nation?

In a computer search of 18 national newspapers over a three-year period (1993–1945) 420 mentions of bigamy were identified. 110 items (or 26 per cent) referred to 26 current criminal cases involving bigamy. Seven cases attracted 70 per cent of the coverage. The comments of the presiding judge were widely reported in five of these cases together with titillating detail. Two other cases included comments by judges. Using Phoenix's (1996) distinction between threats to the nation-state from 'inside' and 'outside', the analysis indicates that two issues of wider socio-political importance – familism and immigration – were central to the judges' comments reported in the press and produced an important counterpoise to the titillating features of these cases. It is argued that the newspaper reporting of bigamy constructs bigamists as being a threat to Britain from 'inside' to the institution of marriage, while the threat from 'outside' is from minority ethnic men marrying female bigamists to gain residential status in Britain. It is the latter challenge which brings the most significant condemnation.     

Adult Children's Relationships With Married Parents,Divorced Parents,and Stepparents: Biology,Marriage, or Residence?

The author compared the strength of the relationships that adult children have with different types of parents: biological parents who remained married, stepparents, and biological parents who divorced. He analyzed Dutch life history data containing detailed measures of living arrangements and used multilevel models to make comparisons both between and within children (N = 4,454). The results revealed large differences in the strength of ties across parent types, but these were strongly reduced when differences in the length of shared residence during childhood were taken into account. Nonetheless, even after differences in investment opportunities were considered, there were negative effects of divorce and positive effects of biological relatedness. The “marriage protection” effect was stronger, especially for fathers, than the biological relatedness effect, pointing to the primacy of marriage over biology for parent–child relations in adulthood.     

Path to Poverty Alleviation: Marriage or Postsecondary Education?

We examined the role of human capital in determining economic well-being and marital status of mothers with children. We analyzed 1996 data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP), a nationally representative survey of 36,700 American households conducted by the Census Bureau. The results indicate that among the human capital variables postsecondary education significantly improves the economic well-being of mothers irrespective of their marital status. Also, educated mothers are more likely to be married. These findings are especially relevant as we debate the importance of marriage in poverty alleviation.

Iranian College Students’ Attitudes Toward Premarital Sex,Marriage, and Family Before and After the Islamic Revolution

ABSTRACT. Objectives: The purpose of this study was to examine Iranian college students’ attitudes toward premarital sex and marriage before and after the Islamic Revolution. Methods: Responses to a survey from 526 students at University of Shiraz in 2011 were compared to those from another study of 392 students from the same university who completed the same survey in 1977 (2 years before the Islamic Revolution). Results: No substantial changes were observed to indicate that college students adopted theocratic views on premarital sex and marriage after the Islamic Revolution. Conclusions: The Islamic regime's efforts to cultivate conservative attitudes toward sexuality and marriage have not achieved their goals.     

Forbidden Fruit? A Longitudinal Study of Christianity,Sex, and Marriage

Does religion still play a role in explorations of romance and sexuality among adolescents and young adults in a secular society such as Norway? Does it influence the type of living arrangements chosen? A population-based sample (n = 2,454) was followed longitudinally from their midteens to their late 20s using survey and register data. Christian involvement in teenage years was associated with subsequent less “precoital” exploration, less masturbation, delayed sexual intercourse, and a smaller number of sex partners. However, there were no associations with prevalence of same-sex experiences. Christians also postponed initiating romantic relationships and chose marriage over cohabitation. Associations were reduced after controlling for confounding factors but remained significant. Some associations (for example, the form of residential union chosen) were present only in the most “active” Christians. In other areas, such as “precoital explorations” and the age at which intercourse is initiated, Christian norms seem to play a role in much broader segments of the population. The findings indicate that Christianity may continue to influence young Norwegians’ experiences of sexuality and cohabitation more than has been expected.     

Marriage migration: just another case of positive assortative matching?

It is a stylized fact that marriage formation involves positive assortative matching on education. We also find this in the case of immigrants, even when they tend to “import” their spouses and potentially trade off education for other favorable characteristics. For Pakistanis, we find positive compensating differentials in terms of high education to youth having adopted host country norms, when marrying a marriage migrant. This indicates that Pakistani marriage migrants pay a premium to be able to marry and live in Denmark. For Turks, individuals having source country norms pay a premium in order to import a partner, indicating that unspoiled traditional norms are traded off for education.

How Does Religion Influence Marriage? Christian,Jewish, Mormon,and Muslim Perspectives

Abstract

Seventy-six highly religious Christian, Jewish, Mormon, and Muslim married mothers and fathers were interviewed regarding how and why three dimensions of religion (i.e., faith community, religious practices, and spiritual beliefs) influence marriage in both beneficial and challenging ways. Through qualitative data analysis the author identified eight emergent themes that link religion and marriage: (1) the influence of clergy, (2) the mixed blessing of faith community service and involvement, (3) the importance of prayer, (4) the connecting influence of family ritual, (5) practicing marital fidelity, (6) pro-marriage/anti-divorce beliefs, (7) homogamy of religious beliefs, and (8) faith in God as a marital support. Qualitative data are presented in connection with each theme, and clinical implications are offered.     

Developments in Spousal Power Relations: Are We Moving Toward Equality?

We present an analysis of developments in perceptions of spousal power relations, as reflected in decision-making and division of household labor. Based on research conducted from as early as the 1960s to the present, we analyzed theoretical approaches ranging from the classic resource theories and gender role ideology to more complex approaches. We also examined contextual factors that may impact spousal relations. In addition, we addressed spousal power relations in new family configurations, such as cohabiting and homosexual families. Regardless of the type of family under discussion, the core research question examined in this article was whether women's acquisition of increased resources has generated a trend toward more egalitarian spousal power relations. The findings reveal that today spousal decision-making patterns are more egalitarian than in the past. However, with regard to division of household labor, women still bear the main responsibility for household chores.     

Forward,Ever Forward: a reading of Robert Harris,Photographic Album of South African Scenery,Port Elizabeth,c.1880–1886

Early copies of the Photographic Album of South African Scenery that was published between c.1880 and c.1888 by Robert Harris in Port Elizabeth consisted of 28 double-card pages with two, occasionally one, tipped-in photographs per page. During the near-decade of its production, the number of images increased, printed captions replaced handwritten captions and both the selection and arrangement of images became gradually more coherent and programmatic. The paper interprets these changes as Robert Harris’s attempt to construct a public identity for South Africa at the moment its economy and society were being transformed by the diamond mines at Kimberley and elsewhere that constitute the focus of the later form of the form Album. In the developed form of the Album, a narrative progression is suggested to move from Cape Town and the Western Province, to Port Elizabeth and the Eastern Province, to the Kimberley Diamond Fields, Natal, etc. In order to read this journey critically, the paper is arranged to demonstrate the constituent parts of this journey in the representation of cities and towns, laid out in grid plans on the African veld; the depiction of individual buildings with their expressive vocabulary of architectural style; and the idea of commerce – represented in street scenes, markets and seaports – and the facilitation of commerce through roads, bridges and mountain passes. The disproportionately large number of photographs of Kimberley, with both its mining operations and no less than three commercial markets, underlines the significance of commerce and industry in the new South African identity. The emphasis on commercial achievement in the Album leaves an obviously subordinate role for images of nature in both agriculture and landscape. Farming is represented through such exploitative practices as forest clearing and hunting, rather than the developed forms of agriculture of wine farming, sheep farming and wheat farming. And landscape in the Album is either a landscape subdued to the wants and needs of a settler population that would bludgeon its way through mountain passes or divert the course of rivers to facilitate commerce, or a landscape that is defined by the imported aesthetic conventions of the picturesque and sublime. Similarly, grouping the photographs of indigenous peoples that are scattered throughout the Album, one may see that their representation is entirely instrumental, divided crudely into roles of either war-like barbarians or pliant labourers. In these ways, the Photographic Album may be understood as a true mirror of the colonial achievement.