More Work for Mother: How Spouses, Cohabiting Partners and Relatives Affect the Hours Mothers Work

This paper investigates the determinants of work hours for mothers ofsmall children living in households with one other adult. We hypothesize that the presence and characteristics of the other adult affect a mother's work-related decision-making, and that the nature of the effect varies by the relationship to the otheradult—whether a spouse, an unmarried partner, or a relative. The results indicate that relationship type shapes how mothers' weekly hours of work respond to financial need, childcare pressures, and their own human capital. Married mothers appear to be more able to call on the earnings of their partners to reduce their work hours than mothers in other household situations. There was little evidence that female relatives freed mothers to work.     

State social benefits in South Africa

The growth of South African state-provided social security is traced from its origins in British colonialism, through the consolidation under apartheid of racially discriminatory benefits mainly to protect white interests, to the present time of political change when there is a rapid move towards racial parity. It is a difficult system to understand, because of the fragmentation created by apartheid: benefits are delivered through 17 separate “governments”, geographically different from each other, using different information systems and, until recently, characterized by secrecy regarding information. This paper is based on interviews conducted in all administrations in 1991, and it focuses on the state social pensions and grants for elderly people, disabled people, child and family care, and poor relief. Major problems with the system are those of access, racial discrimination, inefficiency, corruption, and the way in which the means test is implemented. Does the social security system have a role to play in addressing the inequality and poverty produced by apartheid? In rural areas most beneficiaries live in three-generational families, and the benefit is consumed by the household. It is suggested that its potential is greatly underestimated, and rather than being seen as an expensive burden, the social security system should be enthusiastically embraced. It is already in place; it can relatively easily be made more efficient.     

Correlation-adjusted estimation of sensitivity and specificity of two diagnostic tests

Summary. Models for multiple-test screening data generally require the assumption that the tests are independent conditional on disease state. This assumption may be unreasonable, especially when the biological basis of the tests is the same. We propose a model that allows for correlation between two diagnostic test results. Since models that incorporate test correlation involve more parameters than can be estimated with the available data, posterior inferences will depend more heavily on prior distributions, even with large sample sizes. If we have reasonably accurate information about one of the two screening tests (perhaps the standard currently used test) or the prevalences of the populations tested, accurate inferences about all the parameters, including the test correlation, are possible. We present a model for evaluating dependent diagnostic tests and analyse real and simulated data sets. Our analysis shows that, when the tests are correlated, a model that assumes conditional independence can perform very poorly. We recommend that, if the tests are only moderately accurate and measure the same biological responses, researchers use the dependence model for their analyses.     

Asian immigrant entrepreneurs and non-entrepreneurs: A comparative study of recent Korean and Filipino immigrants

Many immigrants go into business for themselves, rather than enter the salaried labor market. Immigrant business owners in the United States are admired for their enterprising spirit, but they may also be the target of envy and hostility, as was evident in the attacks on Korean businesses during riots in Los Angeles in 1992. Recent research shows that Koreans are more likely than members of many other U.S. immigrant groups to go into business. While a number of theoretical frameworks have been developed that explain group differences in entrepreneurship, very few studies have dealt empirically with the actual process of choosing between salaried employment and self-employment. Why do some immigrants go into business while others do not? This paper examines that question from a comparative perspective, drawing upon survey data on recent Korean and Filipino immigrants to the United States. Implications of the findings with respect to U.S. immigration policies are also discussed.     

Migration intentions and behavior: Decision making in a rural Philippine province

The relationship between intentions and behavior is basic to micro-level migration decision research. This study, set in the rural Philippine province of Ilocos Norte, provides evidence on personal and structural background factors and value-expectancy perceptions of place utility that predict migration intentions and behavior. Separate analyses are conducted for general intentions to move and for destination-specific migration intentions, the latter pertaining to both internal migration (Manila) and international migration (Hawaii). Logistic regression analyses applied to the data from a 1980–82 longitudinal survey show that the empirical models are highly efficient in explaining migration intentions but less efficient in explaining actual migration behavior in this Third World setting. Important explanatory variables for both intentions and behavior include family pressure to move or stay, family auspices at alternative destinations, money to move, prior migration experience, and the life cycle stage (marital status and age). However, the determinants of internal and international migration behavior are not the same. The data only partially support the Ajzen and Fishbein (1980) position that intentions are the dominant determinant of behavior. Personal and structural background factors are shown to exert independent direct effects on migration behavior.Revised version of a paper presented at the annual meeting of the Population Association of America, Minneapolis, Minnesota, May 2–5, 1984. Research for this paper was supported by NIH Grant No. R01-HD13115, the Population Center Foundation, The Philippines, the East-West Population Institute, Honolulu, Hawaii, and the Population Issues Research Center, University Park, PA. The other coinvestigators for this project are Fred Arnold, East-West Population Institute, and Benjamin V. Carino, University of the Philippines.     

Living arrangements and the transition to adulthood

The sharp decline with age in the percent of young adults who live with their parents is usually attributed to other concurrent life-cycle changes in the "transition to adulthood." We investigate this presumption using data tracking high school seniors seven years after graduation. Although marriage and military service strongly reduce residential dependence on parents, other life-cycle changes such as employment and parenthood are only weakly associated with living arrangements and often affect returning home more than leaving. "Leaving home" is often independent of other transition events and should be studied directly to understand recent patterns of family change.     

A portrait of the nest-leaving process in early adulthood

This paper provides an in-depth portrait of the nest-leaving process in early adulthood as it emerged in the 1980s. Event histories are used to describe transitions in and out of the parental home during the years from age 15 through age 23. We focus on the role of the “new” forms of living arrangements in the leaving-home process, namely nonfamily living and cohabitation. The results show that the transition to full residential independence is more gradual, with more intermediate steps, than previous studies suggested. Cohabitation is rare as a route out of the parental home, and both nonfamily living and cohabitation lead to much higher return rates than does marriage.     

Psychosocial correlates and antecedents of abortion: An exploratory study

Longitudinal data are used to examine the relation between young adult women's abortion experience and a variety of antecedent and subsequent personality, perceived environment, and behavior variables. About one-quarter of the women in two separate samples reported that they had had an abortion. Bivariate analyses show that young adult women who have had an abortion are characterized by greater psychosocial unconventionality than women who have not had an abortion. Similar differences along an underlying dimension of conventionality-unconventionality distinguish, antecedent to the abortion experience, women who would later have an abortion from those who would not. The findings are consistent with the expectations of Problem-Behavior Theory (Jessor & Jessor, 1977).This paper is a report from the Young Adult Follow-Up Study (R. Jessor, princial investigator) supported by Grant No. AA-03745 from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.We are grateful to Dr. Lee Jessor for her contribution to the overall longitudinal project and to several of the measures employed in this report.