United States public policy and the elderly

Cross-sectional comparisons show that poverty among the aged in the United States has dropped dramatically over the last two decades. We use longitudinal data to identify economic events associated with unfavorable economic outcomes and to trace the influence of these events on women and men at different ages. We find that while social insurance programs appear to prevent severe financial hardship from the most frequent work-related events, they are far less effective in cushioning the economic impact of widowhood and divorce, especially for women. We suggest a number of policy changes that would provide some measure of social insurance against adverse family-related events.This paper was presented at the ISPE Conference on the Fiscal Implications of an Aging Population, Limburg, The Netherlands, May 30, 1990. The authors shared equally in writing the paper and are listed alphabetically. The paper was completed while R. V. Burkhauser was a fellow at The Netherlands Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities and Social Sciences. Deborah Laren provided superb research assistance.     

Just say no to data listings!

Sponsor companies often create voluminous static listings for Clinical Study Reports (CSRs) and regulatory submissions, and possibly for internal use to review participant-level data. This is likely due to the perception that they are required and/or lack of knowledge of various alternatives. However, there are other ways of viewing clinical study data that can provide an improved user experience, and are made possible by standard data structures such as the Study Data Tabulation Model (SDTM). The purpose of this paper is to explore some alternatives to providing a complete set of static listings and make a case for sponsors to begin considering these alternatives. We will discuss the recommendations from the PHUSE white paper, “Data Listings in Clinical Study Reports.”     

Addressing Emotional Communication in Family Relationships in the Treatment of Young People with Anorexia: A Case Study

Family‐based treatment (FBT) is an evidence‐based approach to anorexia nervosa in young people. Because it is not always successful, attention has been given to how families experience the treatment. A number of therapists have proposed possible additions to, or improvements in, the model. In successful cases relational containment may be achieved in the first phase of treatment. The treatment is often successful, but when initial goals, such as weight recovery, are not achieved, continuing to use the techniques described in the manual may become unhelpful. Sometimes therapists may need to address issues such as emotion coaching that are not specifically addressed in the FBT model. We describe a case in which the therapist addressed the family's emotional style in the first stage of treatment. This focus enabled progress to be achieved despite the adolescent's continuing difficulty in eating without parental support, and her escalating symptoms of anxiety and obsessional compulsive disorder (OCD). Therapy helped the adolescent and family understand that anorexic and OCD symptoms can be understood as a way of distracting from and managing distress. When this connection was made in therapy, the parents could help their daughter to manage distress in more adaptive ways. Parents may need help with their own difficulties in processing distress. In this case the parents needed the opportunity to resolve feelings of grief about a miscarriage in order to do so. We propose that therapy should address family difficulties with managing distress from an early stage.     

Maternal Age and Child Development

Although the consequences of teen births for both mothers and children have been studied for decades, few studies have taken a broader look at the potential payoffs—and drawbacks—of being born to older mothers. A broader examination is important given the growing gap in maternal ages at birth for children born to mothers with low and high socioeconomic status. Drawing data from the Children of the NLSY79, our examination of this topic distinguishes between the value for children of being born to a mother who delayed her first birth and the value of the additional years between her first birth and the birth of the child whose achievements and behaviors at ages 10–13 are under study. We find that each year the mother delays a first birth is associated with a 0.02 to 0.04 standard deviation increase in school achievement and a similar-sized reduction in behavior problems. Coefficients are generally as large for additional years between the first and given birth. Results are fairly robust to the inclusion of cousin and sibling fixed effects, which attempt to address some omitted variable concerns. Our mediational analyses show that the primary pathway by which delaying first births benefits children is by enabling mothers to complete more years of schooling.     

(Re)Conceptualising inclusive education in New Zealand: listening to the hidden voices

This article explores the experiences of 14 students with severe and complex behaviour, their caregivers, and teachers/principals as the students transition from a disestablished residential school back to mainstream schools, with support from the Intensive Wraparound Service (IWS). Interviews were the primary source of data collection. Data were collated into 14 cases, and analysed using a general inductive approach. Two broad themes are addressed in the article: education and relationships/communication. The research found that the IWS is not living up to its rhetoric. Suggestions made for improvement are based on approaches that participants found worked for them.     

<Emphasis Type="Bold">Increasing Inequality in Parent Incomes and Children’s Schooling</Emphasis>

Income inequality and the achievement test score gap between high- and low-income children increased dramatically in the United States beginning in the 1970s. This article investigates the demographic (family income, mother’s education, family size, two-parent family structure, and age of mother at birth) underpinnings of the growing income-based gap in schooling using data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics. Across 31 cohorts, we find that increases in the income gap between high- and low-income children account for approximately three-quarters of the increasing gap in completed schooling, one-half of the gap in college attendance, and one-fifth of the gap in college graduation. We find no consistent evidence of increases in the estimated associations between parental income and children’s completed schooling. Increasing gaps in the two-parent family structures of high- and low-income families accounted for relatively little of the schooling gap because our estimates of the (regression-adjusted) associations between family structure and schooling were surprisingly small for much of our accounting period. On the other hand, increasing gaps in mother’s age at the time of birth accounts for a substantial portion of the increasing schooling gap: mother’s age is consistently predictive of children’s completed schooling, and the maternal age gap for children born into low- and high-income families increased considerably over the period.