Women in the workforce and family structure in Australia

The purpose of this paper is to set out some of the changes that have taken place in the economic status of women in Australia and to discuss the relationship between economic factors and family structure. I look at the position of women in the workforce and examine some of the possible explanations for the increase in female participation. These include the increase in the female wage, demographic changes and changes in the industrial composition of the economy. In a final section, I examine some of the evidence for the effect of economic variables, particularly the wage, on fertility. I would like to thank Bob Gregory, Bruce Chapman, George Fane, Francis Teal and the Journal’s referees for valuable comments on an earlier draft. All responsibility for remaining errors is mine.     

Differences between the public and private communication of rumors. A pilot survey in Belgium

Liu et al. (2010) and Gelders et al. (2007) called for evidence-based research on differences between public and private sector communication. This article offers such data by focusing on an increasingly important domain of public relations (i.e., corporate communication about rumors vis-à-vis internal and external stakeholders).Our results show government communicators are more frequently confronted with harmful rumors than business communicators but a similar number of respondents from each group have experienced the listed effects and these respondents rate the effects as equally severe. However, fewer public sector communicators have applied most of the proposed strategies, and those who did found them to be in most cases less effective than private sector respondents. In other words, government communicators hear more rumors, experience equally often the negative effects and find them equally severe as business communicators, but they often do not react to them and if they do, they do not find the strategies to be very effective.This study suggests that typical features of public sector organizations, such as the capricious political climate and the influence of party politics, might offer an explanation for these findings.     

The food-related role shift experiences of spousal male care partners and their wives with dementia

Spousal male care partners and their wives with dementia encounter challenges as they deal with food-related role changes. There are limited studies describing male care partners who adopt food roles previously performed by their wives and none have described this process from the perspective of the women who lose these food roles. This study explores the experiences of nine male care partners and their wives as they adjust to these role changes. Theoretically sampled participants were interviewed (dyad and individually) as part of the Eating Together (Phase 1) study. Using grounded theory methodology, 3 years of interview data from these participants were analysed. The substantive theory developed describes the process of sliding into food-related roles. This shifting of roles is driven by the need to reciprocate nurturance. Spousal couples reciprocate nurturance by keeping standards and watching over one another. Additionally, they navigate through the sliding into food role process by coming to terms with the need for food-related role changes and working things out. Spousal couples find the process of sliding into roles less challenging when they were successful in promoting each others' self-worth and preserving identities throughout the process. This study shows the need to provide support to male care partners and their wives with dementia, especially in the area of food roles.     

Time,Gender, and the Negotiation of Family Schedules

I examine the interactive processes by which women and men negotiate family time schedules. Based on fifty interviews with seventeen dual‐earner couples, I focus on the ways men and women define time in gendered ways, exert different controls over the way time is used, and align their time strategies in the course of managing everyday family life. The results indicate that there are both continuities and discontinuities with the past: women continue to exert more control over the organization of time in families, but time negotiation itself has become a more complex and demanding activity. The way that couples carry out these negotiations reflects a variety of adaptive strategies, with some couples being very reactive in contending with present demands and others being highly structured and seeking to anticipate and control the future. Although some couples worked to negotiate balance in their time responsibilities, it was wives who maintained control over time and, ultimately, the orchestration of family activity.     

County government resources associated with dependent-adult abuse investigations in Iowa

This study evaluated on a county level the association of Iowa's domestic dependent-adult abuse investigations with the location of adult protective services (APS) offices, rurality, government resources, felony charges and prosecutions, child abuse reports, and census demographics. In 2003, the rate of dependent-adult abuse investigations for Iowa was 0.70 per 1,000 population age 18 and older. Higher rates of child abuse investigations, felony prosecutions, sheriff's annual salary, and lower rates of child abuse substantiations are associated with higher rates of dependent-adult abuse investigations and substantiations.     

Sleep Behaviors in Older African American Females Reporting Nonmalignant Chronic Pain: Understanding the Psychosocial Implications of General Sleep Disturbance

This study examined factors that influence sleep quality in older African American women (N = 181) reporting chronic pain. Participants completed a series of questions assessing demographic and behavioral characteristics, health status, pain intensity, and sleep disturbance. Findings indicated that younger participants and those experiencing poorer physical functioning reported more difficulty sleeping due to pain. Similarly, participants who reported being awakened from sleep due to pain were younger and experienced greater pain intensity. Understanding the relationship between sleep and pain in this group of women may be useful in promoting effective disease management and sleep awareness among patients, caregivers, and healthcare professionals.     

Characteristics of Women With Children Who Divorce in Midlife Compared to Those Who Remain Married

This study evaluated characteristics that distinguish women who end a first marriage in midlife from those who remain married. The sample consisted of 459 married and 180 divorced women who had participated in 3 waves of the National Survey of Families and Households (NSFH). Discriminant analyses were used to assess differences that occurred between the two groups in financial and psychological well-being in the 10 years between NSFH Waves 2 and 3. The major finding was that midlife divorce appears to have long-term financial consequences for women, especially in regard to wealth accumulation. The findings provide some initial information about the long-term effects of midlife divorce that will be useful to professionals working with women who are considering divorce at this stage of life.     

Preservice Teachers and Religion: Serious Gaps in Religious Knowledge and the First Amendment

Recognizing the influence of religion on people's worldview and daily lives, we wondered if elementary and secondary social studies preservice teachers knew enough about religions not only to be culturally responsive in a classroom but also whether they knew enough to teach about these religions within the appropriate curriculum. We used questions from previously tested surveys to ascertain the students’ knowledge about world religions, the First Amendment's religion clauses, and the application of religion in schools. Our findings suggest that preservice teachers’ knowledge about all religions, including their own, and about the First Amendment's intent, is lacking.     

Managing Employee Compliance with Information Security Policies: The Critical Role of Top Management and Organizational Culture*

We develop an individual behavioral model that integrates the role of top management and organizational culture into the theory of planned behavior in an attempt to better understand how top management can influence security compliance behavior of employees. Using survey data and structural equation modeling, we test hypotheses on the relationships among top management participation, organizational culture, and key determinants of employee compliance with information security policies. We find that top management participation in information security initiatives has significant direct and indirect influences on employees’ attitudes towards, subjective norm of, and perceived behavioral control over compliance with information security policies. We also find that the top management participation strongly influences organizational culture which in turn impacts employees’ attitudes towards and perceived behavioral control over compliance with information security policies. Furthermore, we find that the effects of top management participation and organizational culture on employee behavioral intentions are fully mediated by employee cognitive beliefs about compliance with information security policies. Our findings extend information security research literature by showing how top management can play a proactive role in shaping employee compliance behavior in addition to the deterrence oriented remedies advocated in the extant literature. Our findings also refine the theories about the role of organizational culture in shaping employee compliance behavior. Significant theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.