Family Structure, Gender, and the Work–Family Interface: Work-to-Family Conflict Among Single and Partnered Parents

This study examined whether single parents experience greater reductions in work-to-family conflict from using resources than partnered parents do. The question of whether single mothers, single fathers, partnered mothers, or partnered fathers experienced differing levels of work-to-family conflict was also addressed. Data were from the 2002 National Study of the Changing Workforce, and only those respondents with at least one child under the age of 18 living in the household were included in the analysis (N = 1325). Findings indicated that single-parent status was not directly related to work-to-family conflict. Rather single-parent status interacted with other variables, including gender, control over work hours, and the number of other adults in the home, in predicting work-to-family conflict.     

Skin lighteners, Black consumers and Jewish entrepreneurs in South Africa

This article considers the rise and decline of South Africa's lucrative and controversial skin-lighteners market through examination of the business history of the largest manufacturers, Abraham and Solomon Krok, and their evolving personas as millionaires and philanthropists. Such examination reveals how the country's skin-lighteners trade emerged as part of the broader growth of a black consumer market after the Second World War and how elements of that market became the target of anti-apartheid protests in subsequent decades. It also demonstrates how the Kroks' experiences as second-generation Jewish immigrants shaped their involvement in the trade and how, later, their self-identification as Jewish philanthropists informed their efforts to rehabilitate their reputations following South Africa's 1990 ban on all skin lighteners. Such efforts include the building of Johannesburg's highly acclaimed Apartheid Museum, modelled after the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. This article explores the profound ironies that some South Africans see in the fact that a museum dedicated to commemorating those who suffered under and, ultimately, triumphed against state racism was financed by a family fortune generated through the sale of skin lighteners to black consumers.     

Theorizing the social: Émile Durkheim's theory of force and energy

This paper offers a new interpretation of Émile Durkheim's The Elementary Forms of Religious Life (1912) as the basis for reconsidering the Tarde–Durkheim debate of 1903 and the distinctions between a theory of social force and a theory of social assemblage. Resisting traditional interpretations of Durkheim's scientism, this essay traces how concepts of force and energy are centrally developed in Elementary Forms to draw new lines between epistemology to ontology for twentieth-century theory. I argue that Durkheim develops an ‘energetic epistemology’ that conceives of the human capacity for shared meaning as a product of invested energy in the form of continually enacted and evolving material practice, thought, and attention. According to Durkheim, when a member of a collective perceives a god or feels belief, he or she actually perceives the accumulated energy of on-going creation and maintenance of objects and ideas by members of a collective. Sacred objects, images, and ideas bear the trace of collective energy the more they are carefully crafted, maintained in spaces that are specially arranged, and written into behavioural codes. This reading of Durkheim allows us to consider him in a lineage of social constructivists and, particularly, in relation to Ludwik Fleck, who has been largely confined to different theoretical discussions when his contributions to sociology have been acknowledged at all. By reconsidering Durkheim, we have occasion to rethink his sociology and understand how he redrew the lines between thought and action, between epistemology and ontology, through the material framework of energy and force.     

Professional Self‐regulation in North America: The Cases of Law and Accounting

Professional and expert work holds the potential for misconduct that can harm clients or the public. According to the traditional model of professional self‐regulation, developed during the “golden age” of the professions in the mid‐20th century, societies grant professional communities freedom from external regulation in return for their commitment to regulate their members' conduct. Professions were said to cultivate distinctive ethical norms, socialize new practitioners, and engage in social control of deviant behavior. In light of dramatic changes in the professional world since that time, this essay reviews research on the legal and accounting professions in North America to assess the extent to which this traditional model still holds. The two professions continue to resemble the traditional model in some respects but diverge from it in others, and on some points, there is insufficient evidence to draw a conclusion. The traditional model of self‐regulation is probably best viewed as an ideal type that can serve as a standard of reference, not as an accurate representation of social reality. This conclusion opens up new topics for research and opportunities to inform policy.     

Accelerometry analysis of physical activity and sedentary behavior in older adults: a systematic review and data analysis

Accelerometers objectively monitor physical activity and sedentary patterns and are increasingly used in the research setting. It is important to maintain consistency in data analysis and reporting, therefore, we: (1) systematically identified studies using accelerometry (ActiGraph, Pensacola, FL, USA) to measure moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) and sedentary time in older adults, and (2) based on the review findings, we used different cut-points obtained to analyze accelerometry data from a sample of community-dwelling older women. We identified 59 articles with cut-points ranging between 574 and 3,250 counts/min for MVPA and 50 and 500 counts/min for sedentary time. Using these cut-points and data from women (mean age, 70 years), the median MVPA minutes per day ranged between 4 and 80 min while percentage of sedentary time per day ranged between 62 % and 86 %. These data highlight (1) the importance of reporting detailed information on the analysis assumptions and (2) that results can differ greatly depending on analysis parameters.     

Going it alone and adrift: the socioeconomic profile and parental involvement of single-father and single-mother families in post-industrial Taiwan

In spite of the rising prevalence of marital dissolution in Asia over the past decades, little is known about single-parent families in Asia. The present study aims to contribute to the literature by investigating the changing socioeconomic characteristics and parental involvement (measured by parent–child activities and parental awareness of children) of single-father and single-mother families in Taiwan around the millennium. Using a nationally representative sample of 641 single fathers and 730 single mothers from the Taiwan Social Trend Survey collected in 1998, 2002 and 2006, this study found that the apparent socioeconomic advantage of single-father families over single-mother families has weakened. Parent–child activities and parental awareness are lower for single fathers than for single mothers and married fathers. The association between higher parental education and more parent–child activities and parental awareness is more pronounced among single fathers than among single mothers. The presence of co-residential grandparents is associated with lower parent–child activities with pre-teen children among single mothers. The results warrant greater attention to the wellbeing and development of adults and children from low SES single-father families in post-industrial Taiwan.     

Economics of Disaster Risk,Social Vulnerability,and Mental Health Resilience

We investigate the relationship between exposure to Hurricanes Katrina and/or Rita and mental health resilience by vulnerability status, with particular focus on the mental health outcomes of single mothers versus the general public. We advance a measurable notion of mental health resilience to disaster events. We also calculate the economic costs of poor mental health days added by natural disaster exposure. Negative binomial analyses show that hurricane exposure increases the expected count of poor mental health days for all persons by 18.7% (95% confidence interval [CI], 7.44–31.14%), and by 71.88% (95% CI, 39.48–211.82%) for single females with children. Monthly time‐series show that single mothers have lower event resilience, experiencing higher added mental stress. Results also show that the count of poor mental health days is sensitive to hurricane intensity, increasing by a factor of 1.06 (95% CI, 1.02–1.10) for every billion (U.S.$) dollars of damage added for all exposed persons, and by a factor of 1.08 (95% CI, 1.03–1.14) for single mothers. We estimate that single mothers, as a group, suffered over $130 million in productivity loss from added postdisaster stress and disability. Results illustrate the measurability of mental health resilience as a two‐dimensional concept of resistance capacity and recovery time. Overall, we show that natural disasters regressively tax disadvantaged population strata.     

Sensation-Seeking,Risk-Taking,and Problematic Financial Behaviors of College Students

College students are at especially high risk for serious financial problems due to easy availability of credit cards, rising tuition, and a declining economy. Arnett (Am Psychol 55:469–480, 2000) proposed 18–25 year olds may be considered emerging adults and are characterized by less stable financial situations than those who perceive themselves to be adults. A survey was given to 450 students at two Mississippi universities. The results showed student financial behaviors were related to age, gender, public assistance, adult status, sensation-seeking, and potential for problem gambling. This study is unique in that it investigated the relationship of emerging adult/adult status and other individual and socio-demographic variables to financial behaviors among college students, a conceptualization that has not been explored in the past.