Caring for a Memory-Impaired Spouse:

Since caregiving is often viewed as an extension of the female's traditional role of caring, it could easily be assumed that women would have the advantage in the role of primary caregiver to an impaired partner. Research however does not support this. Rather, studies have found that women, and particularly wives, who are caring for a memory impaired relative have repeatedly identified greater distress in the caregiving role than their male counterparts. Unfortunately, to date, the differential reactions of women are poorly understood. This limits effective intervention. The purpose of this article then, is to begin to develop a framework for conceptualizing the gendered impact of caring for a memory-impaired partner in order to better understand women's, and particularly wives', reaction. Specifically, using a relational perspective the experience of living with a memory impaired husband will be explored.     

3岁以下随迁子女照料对流动女性就业参与的影响研究

本文把3岁以下随迁子女照料分为家庭照料和社会化托育服务,利用2016年全国流动人口动态监测调查数据,综合运用Probit模型、工具变量法以及交互效应检验,考察3岁以下随迁子女照料对流动女性就业参与的影响。研究结果表明,在纠正内生性偏误后,与母亲作为主要照料人相比,其他家庭照料主体参与照料对流动女性就业参与具有显著的正向作用。其中,父亲参与的照料能够使流动女性的就业概率提升约30%,而祖辈照料则使流动女性就业概率提升约58%。另外,选择社会化托育服务对流动女性就业参与也具有显著的正向作用。进一步的交互检验表明,母亲照料1-2岁和2-3岁随迁子女会使得其就业概率更低,分别是照料0-1岁随迁子女的9.4%和7.7%。     

Do Values Matter? The Impact of Work Ethic and Traditional Gender Role Values on Female Labour Market Supply

This article aims to gain a better understanding of the explanatory value of work ethic and traditional gender role values with regard to variation in female labour market supply. Although women’s labour market participation has increased dramatically over the past decades, it still lacks behind that of men. A high female participation rate is desirable for several reasons, for instance to cover rising costs due to the ageing of society. The existing literature has mostly focused on micro-economic and macro factors to explain differences between women in participation rate. However, more recently it has been argued that women’s values may also play an important role in women’s labour market decisions. Work ethic, expressing the moral duty to work in terms of paid employment, is argued to positively affect women’s labour supply. However, it is argued that it can have negative implications too if women who hold more traditional gender role values interpret work and work ethic in terms of housework or in terms of paid employment for men only. This exemplifies the need to study both values at the same time. We used longitudinal Dutch data (LISS panel, 2007–2010) and estimated both cross-sectional and longitudinal models. Both types of models revealed a similar pattern: work ethic is positively associated with women’s labour market participation, but only if we take into account women’s gender role values, which negatively relate to women’s labour market supply.     

Perspectives on family and fertility in developing countries

Abstract Two aspects of the family in relation to fertility in developing countries are discussed: set stratification within the family and extended family networks. As both these are central to J. C. Caldwell's theory of fertility transition, the paper is structured as a critique of his position. Drawing on examples and data from Asia, it is argued that the causal significance of sex stratification for fertility lies in the economic risks it imposes on women, deriving from their dependence on men, rather than, as Caldwell suggests, in the disproportionate gain that men derive from their dominant position within families. While Caldwell and others associate strong extended family networks of mutual obligation and support with persistent high fertility, it is argued here that such systems should, instead, facilitate fertility decline. Close-knit and strong kin networks can be viewed as alternatives to children as sources of insurance, and may facilitate fertility decline by preventing children from becoming the focal point of parental concerns for security.     

The Strains and Gains of Caregiving: An Examination of the Effects of Providing Personal Care to a Parent on a Range of Indicators of Psychological Well-Being

This study explores the effect of providing regular help with personal care to a resident or non-resident parent or parent-in-law on different aspects of psychological well-being. We use cross-sectional data from the Norwegian Life Course, Ageing and Generation (LOGG) study (N ~ 15,000, age 18–79) and two-wave panel data from the Norwegian study on Life course, Ageing and Generation (NorLAG) (N ~ 3,000, age 40–79). We separate outcomes into cognitive well-being (life satisfaction, partnership satisfaction, self-esteem), affective well-being (happiness, positive and negative affect, depression, loneliness) and sense of mastery. Caregiver status is largely unrelated to these aspects of well-being, both in cross-section and longitudinally. One notable exception is that caring for a resident (but not a non-resident) parent relates to lower affective well-being among women, also longitudinally. This effect is more marked among unpartnered and lower educated women. In addition, caring for a non-resident parent is associated with a positive change in sense of mastery among women. The results reviewed and presented indicate that caregiving has less detrimental effects in the Nordic countries than in other countries, highlighting the role of social policies and care systems in shaping the impact of caregiving on well-being.     

Craving closeness: a grounded theory analysis of women's experiences of mothering in the Special Care Nursery

AIM: The aim of the study was to increase knowledge and understanding of how women begin their roles as mothers when their infant is in the neonatal nursery. BACKGROUND: Research is limited into how women experience mothering in contexts such as the neonatal nursery. Consequently many nurses and midwives remain inadequately informed of parents' experiences which we know may have long-term family outcomes. METHOD: This paper presents the overarching synthesis of a grounded theory analysis of data collected from 28 Australian women whose infants were in Special Care Nurseries. It draws together a number of previous publications that have described in detail the categories derived from the analysis that explain the actions, interactions and reactions women engage in as they seek to 'connect' with their infant. Data collection consisted of two in-depth interviews conducted with women, 333h of taped cot side recordings, field notes and interview data collected from 20 nursery staff, 19 of whom were midwives. FINDINGS: Six major categories were identified that, when combined, explained the intense emotional, cognitive and worry 'work' women undertook with both their infants and the nursery staff in an effort to learn how to mother in the nursery. Four explained how women worked to get to know and connect with their infants. The first three were labelled 'just existing', 'striving to be the baby's mother' and 'trying to establish competence'. The fourth, 'learning and playing the game', overlays the first three and represents the reality of having to undertake these already difficult and unexpected activities of mothering in the nursery. Two categories 'becoming connected' and 'struggling to mother' were identified as the consequences of women's actions and interactions. A significant finding of the study was the impact of the interactions between nurses and mothers' mothering. The nurse-mother relationship had the potential to significantly affect how women perceived their connection to the infant and their confidence in caring for their infant which occurred through a three way interaction. CONCLUSIONS: It becomes clear that the intense work women undertake as mothers in the nursery is focused on not only the infant, which might have been expected, but also the nursery staff. It is driven by their desire to develop or re-establish some sense of competence in the eyes of the nurse and to achieve control over the situation. Achieving physical closeness with the baby was a major strategy through which women not only learned about and gained intimate knowledge of their infant, but also demonstrated authority and ownership. It appears that reorientating the delivery of services from the infant to the mother-infant dyad would improve the care women and families receive during their nursery experience.     

Fertility differences in Andean countries: A reply to W. H. James

Abstract The lower fertility of the Indian-speaking parts of Bolivia, Ecuador and Peru compared with the Spanish-speaking parts of these nations has been the topic of several previous articles in this journal. In last year's journal William H. James argued that higher altitude was the chief cause of this reduced fertility level, whereas D. M. Heer has earlier argued that it might be accounted for by higher proportions of women in the labour force. James's data and Heer's further computations suggest that James's explanation has substantially more merit than that originally advanced by Heer.     

Non-surgical cosmetic procedures: older women's perceptions and experiences

This paper analyzes findings from in-depth interviews with 44 women aged 50-70 regarding their perceptions of and experiences with non-surgical cosmetic procedures such as Botox injections, laser hair removal, chemical peels, microdermabrasion, and injectable fillers. While 21 of the women had used a range of non-surgical cosmetic procedures, 23 women had not. The data are discussed in light of feminist theorizing on cosmetic surgery which has tended to ignore the experiences of older women and has been divided in terms of the portrayal of cosmetic surgery as either oppressive or liberating. We found that some of the women used the procedures to increase their physical attractiveness and self-esteem, others viewed the procedures as excessively risky, and still others argued that the procedures stemmed from the social devaluation of later life. Treatments that involved the alteration of the surface of the body tended to be viewed as less risky than the injection of foreign substances into the body.     

On the relation between economic status and family size preferences when status differentials in contraceptive instrumentalities are eliminated

Abstract In this paper an attempt is made to formalize the essential elements of a theory of reproductive motivation outlined by Judith Blake in a recent article. On the basis of the results of that exercise, it is argued that the theory, as it stands now, is not specific enough to 'predict' whether the affluent would choose to have fewer children than the poor, if contraceptive instrumentalities were to be equalized among the economic strata. It is also argued that the negative (though weak) association between ideal family size and economic status and the non-negative association between desired number of children and economic status, observed in survey data, are both consistent with the basic premisses of the theory under reference.     

二代流动人口——对新生代流动人口的新划分与新界定

"新生代流动人口"或"新生代农民工"的提法将随着时间的推移越来越不符合现实情况的需要,本文在全面梳理国外二代移民研究成果的基础上,提出"二代流动人口"的概念和划分方式,通过与现有的"新生代流动人口"从理论上进行对比论证了"二代流动人口"群体在未来流动人口研究中的重要意义,最后为人口普查和各项有关流动人口的专项调查提供了数据采集方法上的建议,并提出了未来一些相关的研究议题.     

Maternal mortality: What can we learn from stories of postpartum haemorrhage?

Death from pregnancy is rare in developed countries such as Australia but is still common in third world and developing countries. The investigation of each maternal death yields valuable information and lessons that all health care providers involved with the care of women can learn from. The aim of these investigations is to prevent future maternal morbidity and mortality.Obstetric haemorrhage remains a leading cause of maternal death internationally. It is the most common cause of death in developing countries. In Australia and the United Kingdom, obstetric haemorrhage is ranked as the 4th and 3rd most common cause of direct maternal death respectively. In a number of cases there are readily identifiable factors associated with the care that the women received that may have contributed to their death. It is from these identifiable factors that both midwives and doctors can learn to help prevent similar episodes from occurring.This article will identify some of the lessons that can be learnt from the recent Australian and UK maternal death reports. This paper presents an overview of the process and systems for the reporting of maternal death in Australia. It will then specifically focus on obstetric haemorrhage, with a focus on postpartum haemorrhage, for the 12-year period, 1994–2005. Vignettes from the maternal mortality reports in Australia and the United Kingdom are used to highlight the important lessons for providers of maternity care.     

A modified hurdle model for completed fertility

In this paper it is argued that models for completed fertility have to take into consideration that childless couples and couples with an only child are qualitatively different from couples with two or more children. Indeed, these differences may be the cause of the underdispersion that characterizes completed fertility data. An empirical illustration using Portuguese data suggests that accounting for the qualitative difference between having zero, one, or more children leads to considerable improvements over a model of the type generally used to describe this sort of data.     

Some comments on ‘the structure of subjective well-being in nine western societies’ by andrews and inglehart

This paper makes a number of critical comments on a recent article by Andrews and Inglehart (1979), where the similarity of subjective well-being data from nine different countries was investigated. It is first shown that different MDS representations can be constructed for the data which differ considerably among each other and with respect to the similarity hypothesis. The goodness of the MDS solutions is discussed by using finer indices than overall Stress. Then, the measures of configurational similarity are evaluated statistically. Finally, it is shown that other, equally valid measures lead to completely different conclusions. It is argued that this poses an insurmountable problem. A facet theoretical approach which looks for prototypical structures rather than a single similarity index avoids this dilemma.     

Non-Surgical Cosmetic Procedures: Older Women's Perceptions and Experiences

ABSTRACT

This paper analyzes findings from in-depth interviews with 44 women aged 50–70 regarding their perceptions of and experiences with non-surgical cosmetic procedures such as Botox injections, laser hair removal, chemical peels, microdermabrasion, and injectable fillers. While 21 of the women had used a range of non-surgical cosmetic procedures, 23 women had not. The data are discussed in light of feminist theorizing on cosmetic surgery which has tended to ignore the experiences of older women and has been divided in terms of the portrayal of cosmetic surgery as either oppressive or liberating. We found that some of the women used the procedures to increase their physical attractiveness and self-esteem, others viewed the procedures as excessively risky, and still others argued that the procedures stemmed from the social devaluation of later life. Treatments that involved the alteration of the surface of the body tended to be viewed as less risky than the injection of foreign substances into the body.     

Industrial shifts,female employment,and occupational differentiation: a dynamic model for American cities, 1960–1970

Sex-linked occupational differentiation has been seen as influenced by both the industrial structure of the economy and the sex composition of the labor force. Here, with a sample of 70 SMSAs, it was found (a) that the odds of men relative to women of joining professional and managerial occupations increased between 1960 and 1970, and (b) that this increase was dependent on the growth of tertiary industries and the greater number of women joining the cash economy. The observed effect of industrial shifts on sex-occupational differentiation, however, is argued to be a spurious consequence of the gender-composition of the work force. Specifically, the development of tertiary industries generates greater demand for female labor. Intensive recruitment of women to the labor force in turn increases occupational differentiation because females, in sex-typed labor markets, are likely to be channeled in disproportionate numbers away from upper-status occupations. The findings demonstrate that traditional modernization theory is unable to account for this. However, the results lend support to expectations derived from a labor market sex-segmentation approach.     

Childbearing Postponement and Child Well-being: A Complex and Varied Relationship?

Over the past several decades, U.S. fertility has followed a trend toward the postponement of motherhood. The socioeconomic causes and consequences of this trend have been the focus of attention in the demographic literature. Given the socioeconomic advantages of those who postpone having children, some authors have argued that the disadvantage experienced by certain groups would be reduced if they postponed their births. The weathering hypothesis literature, by integrating a biosocial perspective, complicates this argument and posits that the costs and benefits of postponement may vary systematically across population subgroups. In particular, the literature on the weathering hypothesis argues that, as a consequence of their unique experiences of racism and disadvantage, African American women may experience a more rapid deterioration of their health which could offset or eventually reverse any socioeconomic benefit of postponement. But because very few African American women postpone motherhood, efforts to find compelling evidence to support the arguments of this perspective rely on a strategy of comparison that is problematic because a potentially selected group of older black mothers are used to represent the costs of postponement. This might explain why the weathering hypothesis has played a rather limited role in the way demographers conceptualize postponement and its consequences for well-being. In order to explore the potential utility of this perspective, we turn our attention to the UK context. Because first-birth fertility schedules are similar for black and white women, we can observe (rather than assume) whether the meaning and consequences of postponement vary across these population subgroups. The results, obtained using linked UK census and birth record data, reveal evidence consistent with the weathering hypothesis in the United Kingdom and lend support to the arguments that the demographic literature would benefit from integrating insights from this biosocial perspective.