Mother’s,Father’s,or Both? Parental Gender and Parent‐Child Interactions in the Racial Classification of Adolescents1

Research on racial identification in interracial families shows that children are more likely to be labeled as minority if the father is of minority race. Yet, prior studies have not sufficiently considered the role of parent‐child relationships in shaping children’s identification with either mother’s or father’s race. We address this limitation using data on 706 adolescents in interracial families from Wave 1 of Add Health. We examine whether adolescents identify with their mother’s race or with their father’s race, as opposed to selecting a multiracial identity, within specific combinations of parents’ races. We also explore whether indicators of parental involvement (i.e., quantity and quality of involvement, educational involvement, and social control) explain any gender effects. Contrary to prior studies, we find that the tendency to match father’s race is only true in black/white households, particularly if he is white, while adolescents in Asian/white families tend to match mothers regardless of her race. Moreover, while father’s involvement, particularly educational involvement, was more likely than mother’s to influence racial classification, adjusting for involvement does not explain gender patterns. This study shows that the well‐known gender influences on parenting have little to do with the complex ways parent‐child relationships impact racial classification.     

Where Are the Children? Extent and Determinants of Preschoolers' Child Care Time

According to the 1988 National Health Interview Child Health Supplement, half of all children under age six attended nonparental child care on a regular basis. Close to a quarter of all children spent 40 or more hours per week in care. Average time in care was 30.5 hours for children in care. Statistical tests indicate that (a) the predictors of whether parents use any child care differ from the predictors of the number of hours care is used, and (b) estimates for children under three years of age differ from estimates for children from three to five years of age. The probability of attending care is related to a child's age, mother's education, race, family type, number and age of siblings, type of adults living in the household, income, poverty status, and region and size of the community in which a family resides. For children from three to five years of age, hours in care are associated with child's age, mother's education, race, family type, siblings, income, poverty status, and region. For children under three years of age, relatively few factors (mother's education, race, siblings, and region) predict the number of hours spent in child care.     

Impact of Widowhood on Parent–Child Relations: Does Parents' Personality Matter?

The authors evaluated the extent to which the short‐term effect of late life widowhood on parent–child relationships is moderated by 5 personality traits—Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Emotional Stability, and Openness to Experience—and how these interactive effects differ by gender. Data were from the Changing Lives of Older Couples Study (N = 1,532). The results indicated that the effects of widowhood on positive and negative interactions with children were significantly moderated by Agreeableness, Extraversion, and Openness to Experience. An agreeable personality helped widowed persons receive more positive interactions, whereas Openness to Experience reduced negative interactions. Widowed persons with higher Extraversion reported more negative interactions. Furthermore, moderating effects of Extraversion and Openness to Experience differed by gender; specifically, higher Extraversion scores predicted increased positive interactions with children for widowed women but decreased positive interactions for widowed men. The significant association between Openness to Experience and decreased negative interactions with children was more apparent among men than among women.     

Parent–Child Coresidence: Who Moves in With Whom and for Whose Needs?

Using administrative data on all adult children living in The Netherlands age 30–40 and their parents (N = 1,999,700), we investigated the extent to which situations and events associated with the support needs and privacy needs of either generation determine intergenerational coresidence and the transition to coresidence. Logistic and multinomial logistic regression analyses showed that both generations' support needs increased the likelihood of coresidence and of a move of the generation in need into the other's home. Turning to privacy needs, we found that coresidence and the transition to coresidence was less likely when a partner or stepparent was present and more likely when the adult child was a never‐married single parent.     

My Pride and Joy? Predicting Favoritism and Disfavoritism in Mother–Adult Child Relations

In this article, we compare predictors of mothers' differentiation among their adult children regarding emotional closeness, pride, conflict, and disappointment. We distinguish between predictors of relational (closeness, conflict) and evaluative (pride, disappointment) dimensions of favoritism and disfavoritism. Multilevel modeling using data collected from 381 older mothers regarding their relationships with 1,421 adult children indicated that adult children's similarity of values played the most prominent role in predicting mothers' favoritism and disfavoritism, followed by children's gender. Children's deviant behaviors in adulthood predicted both pride and disappointment but neither relational dimension. Contrary to expectations, the quantitative analysis indicated that children's normative adult achievements were poor predictors of both relational and evaluative dimensions of mothers' differentiation. Qualitative data shed additional light on mothers' evaluations by revealing that disappointment was shaped by children's achievements relative to their mothers' values and expectations, rather than by the achievement of specific societal, educational, career, and marital milestones.     

Are Inter‐Minority Contacts Guided by the Same Mechanisms as Minority–Majority Contacts? A Comparative Study of Two Types of Inter‐Ethnic Ties in the Netherlands

Research on inter‐ethnic contacts in European countries has mainly focused on the interaction between ethnic minorities and the native majority. Our contribution is to examine inter‐minority contacts and compare them to minority–majority contacts. Drawing on a theory of preferences, opportunities, and third parties, we expected some determinants of contacts with natives to relate similarly and others differently to inter‐minority contacts. Using data on four non‐Western minorities in the Netherlands, we found that education, Dutch language proficiency, and outgroup size are positively associated with both inter‐minority and minority–majority contacts. Further, occupational status relates positively to contacts with natives and negatively to contacts with other minorities, whereas ingroup identification is positively associated with inter‐minority contacts and negatively with contacts with natives. These diverging findings underline the importance of studying interaction between minorities as a separate phenomenon.     

Religious individualization or secularization? Testing hypotheses of religious change – the case of Eastern and Western Germany

The individualization thesis advanced by sociologists of religion such as Grace Davie, Danièle Hervieu-Léger, Michael Krüggeler, Thomas Luckmann, Hubert Knoblauch, Wade Clark Roof, Wayne E. Baker, and others has become increasingly widespread especially in Europe within the sociology of religion. In contrast to the secularization theory it assumes that processes of modernization will not lead to a decline in the social significance of religion, but rather to a change in its social forms. According to the individualization theory, traditional and institutionalized forms of religiosity will be increasingly replaced by more subjective ones detached form church, individually chosen, and syncretistic in character. The article examines the empirical applicability of the individualization thesis on the basis of how religiosity and church affiliation have evolved in Germany over the past 50 years. It comes to the conclusion that the rise of individually determined non-church religiosity cannot compensate for the losses of institutionalized religiosity, since non-church religiosity remains rather marginal and is interwoven with traditional Christian religiosity. Religious individualization is only a component of the predominant secularization process.     

Here or There? Shifting Meanings and Practices in Mother–Child Relationships across Time and Space

In this paper, I analyse the changes that mothers and children experience in their relationship due to the physical separations and reunions entailed by the international migration process. I argue that the different geographical configurations that migrant families take over time are the outcome of a negotiation of care responsibility and desired geographies of family life, and are accompanied by changing meanings and practices in intimate relationships: the location of care relationships is influenced by the relatives' capacity both to take part in family negotiations as well as to overcome the constraints imposed by policies. Time is relevant because it leads to shifting meanings and practices of transnational family life, as well as to the changing role of children in the family.     

Social Work Intervention in Child Abuse—An Ever-Widening Net?

This paper considers some of the issues concerning the social work response to child protection which are currently being debated by professionals involved in this field. In particular, the paper considers where there is an imbalance in the system, with too much emphasis being placed on child protection at the expense of child welfare. It describes how one authority has sought to focus its child protection investigation system. This has been achieved firstly through the use of management information to measure performance and make comparisons between different areas. This information was then used as the basis of training, encouraging staff to renew their practice and ensure that an appropriate response is made to child care referrals and that children are not drawn into the child protection net inappropriately but are dealt with within a child welfare framework. Examination of a sample of child protection investigations showed that where welfare needs were investigated, attempts were made to use available resources to meet these needs.     

Discourses of rurality: Loose talk or social struggle?

This paper is critical of the existing usage of ‘rural’ and ‘rurality’. It does not simply dismiss the terms as either irrelevant, wrong, or as a chaotic conception. The paper attempts to plot the implications, and account for the existence, of a multiplicity of meanings of the term ‘rurality’. Rather than adjudicating on the ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ use of the term it is suggested that the disputation over the use and meaning of the term ‘rurality’ demonstrates the rupture of sign and signification that has been discussed in debates concerning ideology and hegemony, and more recently post-structuralism. The paper argues in favour of a productive dialogue between Gramscian notions of political struggle and post-structuralist concerns with language and meaning. It is suggested that a more adequate explanation of social change should be sensitive to the multiple discourses that constitute our ‘reality’ (‘urban’ or ‘rural’), and the resources that are mobilised in their favour.     

What if the Custodial Parent Refuses to Cooperate With Child Contact Decisions?

This article considers the failings at present of the judicial system in not being even handed in providing justice for the noncustodial parent, who has for whatever reason been ousted from the relationship and has poor, if any, contact with his or her children. The advice being provided by the current psychologist dealing with such cases is for the judiciary to adopt a much firmer approach. This will lead to the judiciary being respected rather than being considered unjust. The article is concerned with severe parental alienation and provides a solution to the situation to prevent further emotional abuse of children against an absent parent. The author encourages mediation to commence with and then continue when making decisions as to who should have custody of the children who have been emotionally abused via an alienating parent.     

Whatever Happened to Drama? A Configurational–Comparative Analysis of Genre Trajectory in American Cinema, 1946–2013

Although usually conceived of and studied as individual types, genres are frequently combined in practice. This research examines how genres are combined in popular American films, and how the popularity of particular combinations changed between 1946 and 2013. Distinguishing between “contextual genres” (which identify a film's subject matter) and “affective genres” (which identify a film's intent), we find marked differences between the postwar and blockbuster eras of the Hollywood film industry. The blockbuster era exhibits less generic diversity than the earlier postwar era. Furthermore, the popular postwar‐era films dealt with serious subjects and were set in realistic settings. The blockbuster era replaced these with intense, nonrealistic films. We also find that the relationship between contextual and affective genres changes within industry eras, with affective genres dominating at the beginning of new periods and the popularity of contextual genres growing as the period progresses.     

Jackpot? Gender Differences in the Effects of Lottery Wins on Separation

In this study, information on small to modest lottery wins from the British Household Panel Survey (N = 2,563) was used to investigate the effect of income on separation. The analysis demonstrated that money matters within relationships. Lottery wins temporarily reduced the odds of separation after men won. Men spent more on leisure and became more satisfied with their leisure time and social lives after winning. Nevertheless, most of the effect of lottery wins on union stability was not mediated by changes in satisfaction; instead, a direct effect of wins on the threshold to leave relationships was observed. No effect on union stability was found when women won. Women did not spend their winnings on leisure time but instead saved or spent money on durable items. These types of spending did not increase satisfaction. The findings suggested that, within families, men acted relatively independently, whereas the behavior of women was more family oriented.     

Parenting Disputes After Separation and Divorce: Who Needs a Family Lawyer?

Australia's family law system continues to be plagued by serious delays. This article acknowledges the need for legal interventions in post‐separation parenting disputes in which individuals may be at risk, or in cases of genuine emergency. The article next contrasts cases involving significant risk or urgency with the many ‘ordinary’ (even if sometimes complex) post‐separation disputes over parenting in which these circumstances are not present. I argue that in such cases, legal advice, legally informed dispute processes, and court hearings are remnants from earlier attitudes to separation and divorce. These interventions are expensive, frequently destructive of ongoing parental relationships, and at their heart, inappropriate for considering the needs of children. They also divert time and resources from the critical investigative and legal decision‐making processes needed in urgent or risk‐related cases. I propose that legal narratives in ‘ordinary’ post‐separation parenting disputes be replaced by narratives focused on the main drivers of these disputes, which are invariably expressed in terms of relationship difficulties. Such narratives are amenable to facilitative, therapeutic, and systemic interventions aimed at achieving self‐determined resolutions. They contrast markedly with narratives reflecting common law notion of normative resolutions derived from the application of legal precedent. Key issues in the first section of the article are then teased out via the reflections of an imaginary separated parent in an ‘ordinary,’ albeit difficult and emotionally intense, dispute about how to care for the children. In the final section, I offer brief clinical and systemic reflections on past practice and on future narratives focused on individual self‐determination.     

Does religion influence the labor supply of married women in Germany?

Using behavioral theories, this article analyzes whether religion influences married women in Germany in their decision to supply labor. Gender roles and accompanying attitudes toward the division of labor among spouses might differ across religious groups depending on the groups’ strictness. Examining data from the GSOEP, the findings suggest that denominational affiliation itself only weakly influences women’s labor participation decisions. However, women who participate regularly in religious activities are less inclined towards paid employment. Furthermore, there is evidence that the presence of a spouse with a strong belief also affects a woman’s supply of labor negatively.     

Doubled Homes — Doubled Social Ties? Children's Relationships in Post‐Divorce Shared Residence Arrangements

Although an increasing number of children live in shared residence arrangements after parental divorce, studies on their social relationships are rare. We address this research gap by relying on configurational approaches, social capital and social networks. Building on qualitative case studies (ego‐centred networks, interviews) with 14 children aged 10–14, results show that respondents constructed social ties based on two key categories: emotional closeness and constancy. Having two places of residence did not multiply close relations, and relations that entered the network after parental divorce (e.g. step kin) were particularly distant. Children's networks at both homes had limited interconnections.