The effects of sexual orientation and marital status on how couples hold their money

Previous research has shown that intrahousehold bargaining power in different-sex couples affects household expenditures and how families hold their money. This article examines the portfolio of bank accounts held by same-sex and different-sex couples and its relationship to bargaining power and individual and relationship characteristics. Data from the U.S. Survey of Consumer Finances suggest that married couples are much more likely to hold money jointly than are same-sex or unmarried different-sex couples, even after accounting for the effects of other characteristics. However, many couples of all types hold money in joint accounts and do so more often in longer term relationships and when rearing children. Proxies for bargaining power help predict whether money will be held in individual accounts for unmarried different-sex and same-sex couples, but not for married couples. These patterns could reflect greater matching of married couples on preferences or the effects of legal and social institutions that differ by marital status and sexual orientation.

The saving and spending habits of young people

Over 250 British children and adolescents completed a questionnaire on their sources of personal income (pocket money/allowance, part-time job, gifts), as well as how much they had saved, where it was stored, and for what purpose it was intended. Particular attention was paid to bank accounts. The participants also responded to various attitude statements about money and the economic situation in general. Results showed numerous sex and age, but few class differences. Males received more pocket money and presents than females, and older children more than younger children. Over 80% of the children claimed their parents would not give them extra money if they had spent it all. Regressional analyses showed that the best predictors of regularity of saving, as well as the proportion of money saved, were the more money received; the less money spent in the previous week and total amount of money saved in the previous week. The results are discussed in terms of the limited empirical literature on children's pocket money allowances, particularly with respect to demographic differences. Limitations of the methodology are also reported.     

The allocation of money in cross-class families

This paper examines the patterns of income allocation in cross-class families; that is, in families in which the wife is employed in higher level white-collar or professional employment, and the husband in manual work. Following the work of Jan Pahl (1982 and 1983) families are categorised according to their system of money management. The majority of families here employ either a ‘one purse’system based upon joint family funds, or an independent system based upon separate bank accounts. In addition, couples who use an ‘allowance’system, a shared system, or a variant of the independent system with only one-earner are discussed. Whenever possible, qualitative reports from the families interviewed are drawn upon. The paper reveals ways in which gender-specific behaviour may be observed through the study of families’allocative systems. In particular, the wives’propensity to assume responsibility for food shopping, regardless of the couples’sources of income or allocative pattern chosen, is demonstrated. In addition, however, the source of income – specifically cash payments to the husbands – is seen to have an independent effect upon the couples’perceptions of money within the family. The paper concludes with speculation as to why the majority of these affluent families employ a system of joint family funds.     

Heterogeneity in Two‐Parent Families and Adolescent Well‐Being

This study highlights the heterogeneity in two‐parent families and examines how adolescents fare when they reside in simple two‐parent, blended, and stepfamilies. Using the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (N= 1,769), we find that shared biological children in blended families have worse outcomes than children in simple two‐parent families, even though they reside with both of their biological parents. These differences occur for academic performance, delinquency, school detachment, and depression. Current explanations in the family literature do not account for the poorer outcomes of shared children in blended families. We suggest that the presence of half‐siblings creates a unique family situation that is not accurately represented in the current family literature.     

The benefits of joint and separate financial management of couples

Financial management differs across households with consequences for financial outcomes and well-being of partners in households. A large-sample study has been performed, investigating the relationship between financial management of households and the occurrence of financial problems. To our knowledge, this is the first study on this relationship. Data from both partners was collected on having joint and separate bank accounts, on financial decision making, on drivers of financial management, and on financial outcomes. Based on the data, four financial management styles were derived: syncratic/joint, male-dominant, female-dominant, and autonomous financial management. In the syncratic style, partners have a joint bank account and take most financial decisions together. In the male/female-dominant styles, one partner (husband or wife) takes the main financial decisions. In the autonomous style, both partners have their own bank accounts and make their own decisions. As a conclusion, we find that syncratic financial management and having a joint instead of a separate bank account correlates with fewer financial problems, as compared with male-dominant money management and having separate bank accounts. Deciding together as partners is beneficial for the quality of financial management and for avoiding financial problems.     

Supporting Blended Families to Remain Intact: A Case Study

More than 40% of U.S. adults have at least one step-relative in their family. Whereas there is much research on providing support for ex-partners and their children, there has been a lesser focus on trying to keep newly blended families intact. Because many members of a failed relationship repartner and have children from these new relationships, we find there is a need to provide support for stepfamilies. The Survival Strategies Workshop provides advice on strategies for blended families. In this article, we illustrate, through the use of case studies, that most of the problems occurring in blended families are not unique and if appropriate strategies are followed the prospect of a happy future is greatly enhanced.     

Parental Expenditures on Children's Education

This study examined selected factors related to parents' allocation of money for children's primary and secondary education and, if money was spent on education, the variation in the amount spent. Cragg's double-hurdle model was utilized to analyze data from the 1996 Consumer Expenditure Survey on 331 families that spent money on their children's primary and secondary education and 827 families where parents reported no such expenditures. Factors that were significantly related to spending money on children's primary and secondary education, included after-tax income, parent's education, region, and season of the year. Variables significantly related how much was allocated to children's primary and secondary education, included after-tax income, parent's education, age, and race.     

The Blended Family Life Cycle

Blended families face unique challenges that differ greatly from those encountered by nuclear families. Societal stereotypes that view blended families as abnormal, taking nuclear family functioning as the prototype for all family units, create a lack of role clarity for each of the members involved. Although many strategies exist with which to help families, many are based on nuclear family systems and thus are inapplicable to blended families. The creation of a blended family life cycle specific to blended family systems could help members of a blended family create a successful family unit as they work with a counselor.     

How to Deal With Moral Tales: Constructions and Strategies of Single‐Parent Families

This study explored how normative understandings based on the nuclear family ideology are linked to constructions of single‐parent families and sheds light on the strategies single parents and their children adopt in dealing with negative accounts. Guided by social constructionist and configurational approaches, the in‐depth analysis is based on an Austrian qualitative study, comprising interviews with 50 ten‐year‐old children and their 71 parents, living in nuclear, reconstituted, and single‐parent families. The results showed that single‐parent families are constructed predominantly in terms of deficits and disadvantages, with the nuclear family serving as an ideological code along the dimensions of normalcy, complementarity, and stability. To deal with negative accounts, single parents and their children use three basic types of strategy: (a) imitation, (b) compensation, and (c) delimitation.     

Girls,boys, money. Economic socialisation,gender, and generations in Italy

The aim of this article is to discuss the issue of economic socialisation in Italy from a gender perspective. What do boys and girls know about money and economy? How do they acquire this knowledge? What roles do the family, school, and the media play?

The empirical material making up the base of our observations is composed of in-depth interviews with a group of Milanese families on the questions of economic socialisation and practices of money management. Gender differences emerge in the construction of the relationship with money by children and young adults: girls, in particular, undergo the strongest pressure, i.e. they are still more driven towards discipline and self-control.

Our results also suggest the need to activate targeted, gender-sensitive training programmes in economic education.     

Psychological factors in consumer debt: Money management, economic socialization, and credit use

A postal survey study of factors correlated with consumer debt investigated several psychological variables which have been suggested as causes or effects of debt. The survey was conducted with the help of a public utility company, and questionnaires were sent to three groups with different debt histories over the preceding two years: Non-Debtors (no debt to the company), Mild Debtors (late payment to the company), and Serious Debtors (sued for debt recovery by the company). Economic and demographic factors predicted debt category well, supporting previous results. Further variance between groups was accounted for by people's money management skills and facilities, by measures of their time horizons, and by aspects of their consumer behaviour. Non-debtors had more money management facilities (e.g. bank accounts) than debtors, and rated their abilities at money management more highly. Debtors had shorter time horizons than non-debtors. Debtors were more likely to buy cigarettes and Christmas presents for children than non-debtors. No group differences were found for attitudes to debt or locus of control. There were significant group differences for measures of economic socialization, social comparisons, use of credit, and other aspects of consumer behaviour, but these differences were not independently significant on multivariate analysis. Conclusions must be qualified because of low return rates, but the results suggest that a complex of psychological and behavioural variables affect debt and are affected by it. It is argued that these variables are linked to the psychology of poverty.     

Inflation and the real rate of interest

To test the published statement that ‘the rate of interest that people expect to receive from saving and investment is always positive’, a survey was conducted of 450 New York savings bank depositors, asking them the rate of interest that they were earning on their savings and the rate of inflation that they expected in the next twelve months. The results show that the great majority of respondents seem well informed concerning both inflation rates and the rates of interest that banks are paying. Eighty-seven percent expected either a zero or negative real rate of interest on their money. A few conjectures are added as to why this might be so.     

‘All my worldly goods I share with you’? Managing money at the transition to heterosexual marriage

Studies in the 1980s and 1990s revealed that financial arrangements in marriage tended to disadvantage women, especially those with young children. However, much of that research focused upon relatively well‐established married (or remarried) couples, and we have little insight into the choices that today's newly‐weds are making, or what influences their choices. To address this gap in our understanding, in‐depth, semi‐structured interviews were conducted with forty‐two heterosexual couples on the brink of their first marriage. We explored their monetary practices and the way that they thought about money in the relationship. The results of a grounded theory analysis showed that six couples were pooling all or most of their money, fifteen were using a partial‐pooling system, twenty were using an independent management system (with separate accounts), and one couple had an arrangement where all the money was controlled and managed by one partner. A key factor was perceived ownership of money, and this influenced the extent to which finances were being merged and treated as a collective resource. Other factors included the couple's current living arrangements and beliefs about the importance of sharing and independence within the relationship.     

Episodic Cessation of Gambling: A Numerically Aided Phenomenological Assessment of Why Gamblers Stop Playing in a Given Session

The topic of permanent cessation of gambling behavior has received increased attention as the rates gaming (and pathology) increase with accessibility and legalization. Despite this increased attention there is a paucity of research on why people stop gambling in a given session, i.e. episodic cessation. We propose that the study of first-person experiential accounts of why gamblers stopped engaging in play within a given session will shed light on the progression and maintenance of wagering behavior. Using numerically aided phenomenology, we systematically examined accounts of episodic cessation. In doing so, we were able to identifying recurrent themes and then clustering these accounts according to similarities in theme profiles. People reported that episodic cessation occurred because they had lost all their money or because they were forced to (Cluster I), a sufficient amount of money had been won or lost (Cluster II), and a priori limits on wins or losses had been reached (Cluster III). As predicted, gamblers with maladaptive reasons for episodic cessation (Cluster I and II) reported more illusory perceptions of control and negative attitudes toward treatment seeking than those who engage in responsible gambling behavior (Cluster III). Moreover, illusions of control mediated the effect of cluster membership on attitudes toward treatment seeking. The findings of the present research help to integrate recent studies of gambling progression and maintenance.     

Childbirth on the Canadian Prairies 1880–1930

Abstract One of the issues faced by families who migrated to the Canadian prairies during the settlement years was the lack of affordable and accessible health care practitioners to assist women during pregnancy and childbirth. Maternal and infant mortality rates on the prairies during the first decades of the twentieth century bear witness to the risks which homestead women were forced to take to deliver their children and the primitive conditions in which many childbirths took place. In this article, homestead women's personal accounts of their childbirth experiences are blended with analysis of the social and political environment in which proposed solutions to this serious social problem were addressed.     

Giving (Money) Back To Parents: Racial/Ethnic and Immigrant–Native Variation in Monetary Exchanges During the Transition to Adulthood

Scholars consistently find that parents provide economic support to their young adult children through the transition to adulthood. However, scholars rarely examine whether young adults contribute monetary resources to their parents. To test this proposition, I use the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health, and the case of “money for living expenses.” Overall, monetary independence is the modal category for all groups. However, when I compare across groups, I find that White young adults with native-born parentage are more likely to report monetary independence, African Americans are more likely to report monetary interdependence and Asian and Latino children of immigrants are more likely to report child-to-parent assistance compared to each other, with SES explaining most, but not all, of these differences. I argue that young adult offspring in non-White families are more likely to provide monetary support to their parents during the transition to adulthood. These transfers may deplete resources for non-White young adults and may exacerbate racial/ethnic inequality during the transition to adulthood.     

The enforcement of normalcy in schools and the disablement of families: unpacking master narratives on parental denial

The notion that some parents may be ‘in denial’ is a pervasive theme in dominant discourses on families of children with disabilities. In this analytic essay, I deconstruct cultural and institutional master narratives on parental denial and discuss their role in the marginalization of students with disabilities in schools. I argue that discourses on parental denial privilege the perspectives of those in positions of power and control, leave the practice of ability-based segregation in schools unexamined, and discredit agency among families. Additionally, drawing from existing narrative-based research, I explore alternative interpretations of parents’ responses to their children’s differences, situating these in the framework of critical disability studies.     

Das Tabu brechen: Gemeinsam über Geld sprechen Ein Werkstatt-Bericht

The paper shows work in progress. Several years ago I started forming groups of men and women who want to reflect about their different money styles. I assume that the special way a person deals with money reflects its personality, especially the conflicts he or she has with him or herself and with others. The conventional economic view ignores such symbolism. It fails to provide an adequate understanding about the big influence of emotions, norms and values on what people think about money and how they use it in different social situations. But people seldom make rational decisions. In most cases they only rationalize their irrational desires. It is therefore necessary to develop a financial competence which is based on the insight in ones own psychic structure. The groups I report about here offers sheltered spaces where such insights can be gained.     

The effects of financial management strategies on quality of family life in remarriage

A conceptualization of financial management behavior in remarriage forwarded by Fishman (1983) is refined and used to study 91 remarried couples. Couples are categorized into three financial management strategy groups: those having only joint accounts, only separate accounts, and a combination of joint and separate accounts. The different groups' demographic characteristics and satisfaction and happiness regarding family life are compared. Overall few differences between groups are found on the demographic characteristics, and no differences are found on satisfaction or happiness. Her research interests are in remarriage and stepfamily relationships, fathering postdivorce, and stress and coping in adolescents. She received her Ed.D. from Indiana University. He received his M.S. degree in Human Development and Family Studies at Colorado State University, Ft. Collins, CO 80523. His research interests include factors affecting adjustment in remarriage and multiple remarriages and problem solving and creativity in families. before her death in December 1993. Her research interests were financial management and families in transition. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville.     

Why Parents Pay for College: The Good Parent,Perceptions of Advantage,and the Intergenerational Transfer of Opportunity

This article asks how parents think about the cost of a college education for their children. Based on data from more than ninety in‐depth interviews with upper‐middle‐class parents and children, it is clear that grooming children for college and then paying for their education is intimately linked with ideas about being a “good parent.” We present data on three related aspects of parents' consciousness about paying for college. First, data are presented on how parents view the benefits of college for their children. Second, data illustrate how parents think about the obligations associated with paying. Third, we report on what parents expect in return for their efforts and expenditures. Data also indicate that parents' views are contingent on their perceived ability to pay for the increasing costs of higher education. We conclude by considering how the implicit contract between upper‐middle‐class parents and children may change as new economic and structural uncertainties increase parents' anxieties and challenge their abilities to see themselves as good parents.