Religion as a Determinant of Economic and Demographic Behavior in the United States

This note reviews and synthesizes research on the effects of religion on various economic and demographic behaviors of individuals and families in the United States, including the choice of marital partner, union formation and dissolution, fertility, female time allocation, education, wages, and wealth. Using a theoretical framework based on Gary Becker's contributions to the economics of the family, it demonstrates that religious affiliation affects economic and demographic behavior because of its impact on the costs and benefits of many interrelated decisions that people make over the life cycle. In addition, for behaviors that pertain to married-couple households, religious affiliation matters because it is a complementary trait within the context of marriage. Religiosity, another dimension of religion, also affects economic and demographic outcomes, partly because it accentuates differences by religious affiliation, partly because religious involvement has generally beneficial effects on health and well-being.     

Improving Functioning of the Remarried Family System

This report presents salient issues for therapists in understanding and treating the remarried (Rem, second, blended, reconstituted or step) family. The structure of the remarried family is differentiated from that of the intact family. Specific treatment goals for Rem families are elaborated and various treatment modalities advocated. The need to include former spouses and to consider the meta family system are discussed. Common reactions and difficulties engendered in therapists when working with Rem systems are explicated.     

Infants' Individuation of Rigid and Plastic Objects Based on Shape

Recent research suggests that 12‐month‐old infants use shape to individuate the number of objects present in a scene. This study addressed the question of whether infants would also rely on shape when shape is only a temporary attribute of an object. Specifically, we investigated whether infants realize that shape changes reliably indicate identity changes only in the case of rigid objects, but not in the case of deformable plastic objects. Twelve‐month‐old infants observed how either a rigid or a plastic object was placed in a box. When searching the box, they retrieved either an object with the same (no‐switch event) or with a different shape (switch event). Infants correctly inferred two distinct objects in the switch event in the case of rigid objects, but not in the case of plastic objects. A control experiment confirmed that this result was not due to a lack of salience of the shape transformation. Thus, infants' re‐searching behavior indicated that they viewed shape as being diagnostic in the individuation process of rigid objects only.     

Alcohol Education Project: Preliminary Answers

Abstract

The goal of the five year University of Massachusetts (UMass) Demonstration Alcohol Education Project has been to promote responsible decision making about alcohol use. The UMass/Amherst campus has 25,000 students, of which there is an approximate one third turnover every academic year. Educational methods used to achieve the goal have included community development, mass media, and such intensive approaches as workshops, courses, and guest lectures. Mass media reaches up to 70% of the student body, while intensive interventions reach about 5%.

Data has been gathered from a large number of sources in order to evaluate the following objectives: 1) University students will demonstrate decreased inappropriate alcohol consumption patterns. 2) University students will demonstrate an increased level of planning, conducting, and participation in responsible social activities. 3) University students will demonstrate an increased number of interventions with peers around alcohol issues. 4) University students will demonstrate a decrease in peer pressures which contribute to inappropriate alcohol use among their peers. 5) Key people within the university community will demonstrate an increase in behavior which encourages responsible decisions about alcohol.

Analysis of the program model indicates the initial assumptions were generally valid. For example, predisposing factors such as attitudes toward drinking, and certain demographics are in fact predictors of contexts and quantity and frequency of drinking, which are in turn predictors of negative consequences. Preliminary results from the data collected indicate significant changes in knowledge, but no significant change in individual behavior for the parameters measured. There are indications of trends toward changes in party giving behaviors and heightened alcohol awareness in certain dormitories. Additionally, the university community designed and adopted a set of guidelines for interpretation of the trustees' policy on consumption of alcoholic beverages on campus. The guidelines were designed to be social and educational in nature; their impact was confounded when the minimum drinking age for the state was raised to 20.     

Females' Coping Styles and Control Over Poker Machine Gambling

An investigation of the relationship between impaired control over gambling, coping strategies, and demographic variables was conducted by surveying female poker machine players (N = 163) in their gaming venues. Metropolitan (n = 14) and regional (n = 6) gaming venues in Victoria, Australia participated. Control over gambling was measured using the Impaired Control Over Gambling Scale (Baron & Dickerson, 1994). Coping strategies were measured using (Folkman et al., 1986) adaptation of the Revised Ways of Coping Checklist (Vitaliano et al., 1985). MANOVA supported the hypothesis that the lower the control over gambling the greater the reliance on emotion-focused coping (blamed self, wishful thinking, avoidance) with F = 9.92, 13.35, 14.04 respectively, all significant at p < .001. MANOVA failed to supported the hypothesis that problem-focused strategies (problem focus, seek social support) would be significantly related to control over gambling with F = .82 and .21 respectively. Control over gambling was not related to age, employment, relationship status, education, ordistress from significant life events, further supporting the relationship between control and coping strategies. Ways in which coping styles might be related to pathological gambling are discussed.     

The impact of child mortality on spacing by parity: A Cox-regression analysis

Child mortality may affect spacing through biological and behavioral channels. The death of a child may elicit a desire to have another one soon; further, it may interrupt breastfeeding and shorten the sterile period following childbirth. The hypothesis that the child mortality-spacing linkage varies across parities, being strongest in the middle parities, is examined using microdata from Malaysia and the Cox-regression technique. The empirical results lend support to the hypothesis.     

Preschoolers with working mothers

This research examines the determinants of child care mode choice for the preschool-age children of working mothers. Attention is focused on two main questions. First, do increases in economic resources raise the likelihood that center care arrangements will be employed? And second, is there a quality-quantity tradeoff in the context of child care? A multinomial logit analysis of data on preschoolers from the 1982 National Survey of Family Growth (conducted in the United States) yields positive answers to both of these questions.