Studying at-home income generation: Issues and methods

Methods used to locate and study 899 home-based workers and their households in nine states are described in detail, with emphasis on the rationale behind the decisions about the definition of home-based work, sampling, the development of the interview schedule, data collection procedures, and data preparation. More than 10% of all households in the nine states include someone who is engaged in home-based work; 7% of the households have a member who has been engaged in the activity for more than 1 year and who spends at least 312 hours annually in the activity. The respondents have a mean age of 42.5 years, and have completed a mean of 13.8 years of education. More than half live in communities of 2,500 or over, and have lived there for more than 10 years. More than 40% of the sample consist of individuals who are married and have children living in the home. The average household income in 1988 was just over $42,000.This article reports results from the Cooperative Regional Research Project, NE-167, entitled, At-Home Income Generation: Impact on Management, Productivity and Stability in Rural/Urban Families, partially supported by the Cooperative States Research Service, U. S. Department of Agriculture and the Experiment Stations at the University of Hawaii, Iowa State University, Lincoln University (Missouri), Michigan State University, Cornell University (New York), The Ohio State University, The Pennsylvania State University, Utah State University, and the University of Vermont.In addition to at-home income generation, her research interests include divorce settlements and time use. She received her Ph.D. from Cornell University in 1978.Her current research interests include family resource management in Mexico, determinants and consequences of intergenerational co-residence, as well as family management in households in which there is at-home income generation. She received her Ph.D. from The Pennsylvania State University in 1970.Her dissertation involves the estimation of a reservation age for home-based workers.She has had 15 years of experience in survey research, 10 years as Projects Coordinator, and served as Project Manager for this study.     

Using satellite remote sensing and household survey data to assess human health and nutrition response to environmental change

Climate change and degradation of ecosystem services functioning may threaten the ability of current agricultural systems to keep up with demand for adequate and inexpensive food and for clean water, waste disposal and other broader ecosystem services. Human health is likely to be affected by changes occurring across multiple geographic and time scales. Impacts range from increasing transmissibility and the range of vectorborne diseases, such as malaria and yellow fever, to undermining nutrition through deleterious impacts on food production and concomitant increases in food prices. This paper uses case studies to describe methods that make use of satellite remote sensing and Demographic and Health Survey data to better understand individual-level human health and nutrition outcomes. By bringing these diverse datasets together, the connection between environmental change and human health outcomes can be described through new research and analysis.     

Poverty Among The Elderly: An Application of a Collective Consumption Model in Brazil

Social Indicators Research - The growth of the elderly population and changes in household composition raise important questions regarding the level of well-being of the elderly in developing...     

A community of singers: employing exploratory cluster analysis to reveal profiles of psychosocial characteristics among members of a street choir for homeless and formerly homeless individuals

This exploratory study employed cluster analysis to identify profiles of resilience, social support, stress, and mental health among members of a homeless and formerly homeless street choir; we examined the association between choir attendance and cluster membership, and the interaction of cluster membership and race. Respondents (N?=?111, 66% African American, 84% homeless) had participated in the choir for an average of 12 months (SD?=?12.02). We stratified the analysis according to homelessness status. Among those housed, k-means cluster analysis revealed two profiles: (1) relatively resourced but lower resilience, and (2) high resilience. Three profiles emerged among the homeless: (1) psychologically vulnerable, high stress and mental health concerns; (2) relatively resourced, showing average levels of mental health concerns and social support, minimally elevated stress, and higher resilience; and (3) low resilience. Examining the interaction, non-African American, housed participants in the high resilience cluster reported the most frequent choir attendance (M?=?4.00, SD?=?0.00); among the homeless, non-African Americans in the psychologically vulnerable cluster reported the most frequent attendance (M?=?3.88, SD?=?1.25). Results support the need for programs that address higher order needs concurrently with housing; they also highlight the ongoing need to provide particular outreach to minority populations.     

Recalibrating Management: Feminist Activism to Achieve Equality in an Evolving University

In this paper we examine the process of incorporating gender equality into a higher education institution as it evolves into a managerial university. The case illustrates the ongoing processes between structure, activism and features of gender equality, and provides insights into how activists adapt to changes in governance and influence managerial responses to equality. Tracing the interaction of employee activism with new managerialism over nearly two decades, four phases of change are identified. These provide a basis for generating two concepts – managerial recalibration and individual activism – while challenging the social abeyance hypothesis of social movements.     

Negotiating with Gatekeepers in Research with Disadvantaged Children: A Case Study of Children of Mothers with Intellectual Disability

Child‐oriented researchers have long recognised children's right to be heard in research about their lives and, as experts about childhood, their perspectives should inform social policy and research. While it is encouraging that more children are consulted about matters of importance to them, some children's voices remain silenced. When researchers have to liaise with adults, such as parents and social workers, to recruit children, these adults make decisions about who participates. An account of recruiting children of mothers with intellectual disability, a potentially disadvantaged group, is presented. The reasons for gatekeeping and the implications of this are explored.