Family Disruption and Support in Later Life: A Comparative Study Between the United Kingdom and Italy

Global population aging has led to considerable disquiet about future support for frail older people; however, the determinants are poorly understood. Moreover, most industrialized societies have witnessed considerable changes in family behavior (e.g., rises in divorce and declining fertility). Such trends may have adversely affected the support systems of older people; nonetheless, only recently has research begun to address this issue. Employing data from the longitudinal British Household Panel Survey (1991–2003) and the 1998 Indagine Multiscopo sulle Famiglie "Famiglia, soggetti sociali e condizione dell'infanzia," we investigated the association between family disruptions due to divorce, separation, or death and three key dimensions of informal support: (i) frequency of contact with unrelated friends (among all respondents aged 65 years and over); (ii) co-residence with children (among unmarried mothers aged 65 years and over); and (iii) regular or frequent help received from children (e.g., household assistance including care) among parents aged 65 years and over. In addition, we conducted a comparative investigation of the relationship between family disruptions and the use of home care services (i.e., health visitor or district nurse; home help; meals-on-wheels) among parents aged 65 years and over. Our findings suggest that in a culture like the U.K.'s, where relations between kin are primarily influenced by individualistic values, support in later life appears to be primarily related to need, whereas in societies with a strong familistic culture (like Italy's), support is received irrespective of the older person's individual characteristics.     

Contributions of Maternal Adult Attachment to Socialization of Coping

This research examined whether maternal adult attachment predicted the coping suggestions mothers made to their children. A sample of 157 youth (M age = 12.42, SD = 1.20) and their maternal caregivers completed semi-structured interviews and questionnaires in a two-wave longitudinal study. Results revealed that maternal insecure attachment predicted fewer engagement coping suggestions (orienting toward stress) and heightened disengagement coping suggestions (avoiding or denying stress) both concurrently and over time. These associations were found after adjusting for other relevant characteristics of the child, mother, and family context. This study contributes to our understanding of the implications of adult attachment for parenting behavior, suggesting that insecure attachment undermines a parent's ability to provide adaptive coping guidance to their children.     

Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) History and Conceptual Overview

The concept of Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) is a system that enables the production of safe meat and poultry products through the thorough analysis of production processes, identification of all hazards that are likely to occur in the production establishment, the identification of critical points in the process at which these hazards may be introduced into product and therefore should be controlled, the establishment of critical limits for control at those points, the verification of these prescribed steps, and the methods by which the processing establishment and the regulatory authority can monitor how well process control through the HACCP plan is working. The history of the development of HACCP is reviewed, and examples of practical applications of HACCP are described.     

Deforestation and the Environmental Kuznets Curve: A Cross-National Investigation of Intervening Mechanisms

Objective . We draw on ecological modernization theory and international political economy arguments to examine the sources of an environmental Kuznets curve (or EKC) that produces an inverted U-shaped rate of deforestation relative to economic development. Method . We use ordinary least squares regression with White's (1978) correction for possible heteroskedasticity to examine the rate of deforestation (1980–1995) in less developed countries. Results . Net of controls for initial forest stock and the quality of deforestation estimates, we find strong evidence for an EKC driven by (1) agglomeration effects linked to the level of urbanization, (2) rural-to-urban migration that partially offsets rural population pressure, (3) the growth of services-dominated urban economies, and (4) strong democratic states. We find little evidence that foreign debt or export dependence influence the deforestation rate. Conclusions . Although deforestation continues to pose pressing and potentially irreversible environmental risks, there is evidence of self-corrective ecological and modernization processes inherent in development that act to mitigate these risks.     

Mutual Contributions of Individuals, Partners, and Institutions: Planning to Remember in Girl Scout Cookie Sales

This paper argues that planning entails distributed, mutual contributions of individuals, their social partners, and their community institutions. We suggest that these mutually involved contributions can be viewed through shifts in focus of analysis, contrasting with analyses of cognitive development that treat individuals as though they exist apart from their social and cultural worlds. We illustrate this argument with a study examining the distributed nature of planning to remember in a complex everyday task. We investigated the personal, interpersonal, and institutional cognitive contributions of 16 Girl Scouts, their mothers and customers and other companions, and institutions (the national organization and the cookie company) in keeping track of deliveries and planning collection of money in Girl Scout cookie sales and deliveries. The article also discusses an analytic methodology (Functional Pattern Analysis) for abstracting findings from the details of rich ethnographic data. Individual scouts, their mothers, customers, and the scouting organization and cookie company all played significant roles in keeping track of progress. In particular, tools and supports provided by the cookie company played a key role in organizing the cognitive tasks, and the scouts collaborated in planning with other people (usually their mothers and customers). Our findings illustrate the importance of examining contributions beyond those of the individual, while still recognizing the active roles of individuals in thinking. We argue that conceiving of individual, interpersonal, and institutional/cultural contributions as mutually constituting aspects of cognitive activities supports this aim beyond the usual focus on separate individual and ‘external’ factors.     

“Transnational” Socio‐Cultural Systems and Ethnographic Research: Views from an Extended Field Site

This article discusses a widespread pattern of migratory moves that is often overlooked in contemporary research on transnational migration. Transnational theory has successfully highlighted the significance of migrants' attachments to people and places transcending the confines of nation‐states. By emphasizing, a priori, the national, this theory tends to overlook the full complexity and meaning of migrants' extra‐local socio‐cultural relations. Through an ethnographic study of dispersed family networks of Caribbean origin, I explore the wide range of migration practices in which differing actors engage and the nature of the sociocultural systems that emerge as migrants move between places.     

Subjective Quality of Life and Self-Esteem in Children: The Role of Primary and Secondary Control in Coping with Everyday Stress

Two major predictors of subjective quality oflife (SQOL) in adults are known to beself-esteem and a sense of primary control.Moreover, secondary control is known to be animportant defence strategy when primary controlfails. This study aimed to determine whetherthese relationships also apply to children. Asample of 66 children aged from 5 to 12 yearswere compared on their use of primary andsecondary control and on their ratings of SQOLand self-esteem. SQOL was measured using theComprehensive Quality of Life Scale,self-esteem by using the CoopersmithSelf-Esteem Inventory, and primary andsecondary control were measured by codingchildren's responses to three short video clipsof children in stressful situations. It wasfound that younger children use more primarycontrol and less secondary control than olderchildren. However, five year olds were foundcapable of producing secondary controlstrategies. Contrary to expectation, primaryand secondary control did not predict eitherself-esteem or SQOL. However, self-esteempredicted SQOL as expected and no sexdifferences were found. These findingsemphasise important differences from the adultliterature and the reasons for this arediscussed.