Family Work Trends and Practices:1971 to 1991

Families are allocating their time in an increasingly market-oriented fashion, with a decreasing proportion of labor hours being devoted to unpaid work. This article analyzes two aspects of the changing allocation of time. First, using longitudinal data from 1971 to 1991, the nature of the changes in how the families have changed their allocation of time between market and non-market alternatives is examined. Next, how family types have changed their allocations over the same period are examined. The Panel Study of Income Dynamics is used for this analysis.Results of this research indicate that the proportion of time spent on household labor among men has increased over individual men's life cycles and between cross-sectional cohorts. However, women continue to devote more hours to household labor than men. The number of hours women spend in the labor force are increasing, but the number of hours women spend in the labor force is still less than the number of hours men spend in the labor force. While the families in the longitudinal analysis have been able to maintain fairly stable work and income patterns, the cross-sectional data indicate that families need to devote an increasing number of hours to the labor market to maintain economic stability.     

Does the Reason Matter? Variations in Childlessness Concerns Among U.S. Women

Does the reason why women have no children matter with regard to level of childlessness concerns? Reasons include biomedical barriers, situational barriers, delaying motherhood, and choosing to be childfree. The concept of “childlessness concerns” captures the idea that holidays and family gatherings are difficult because of not having children or feeling left out or sad that others have children. Life course and identity theories guided the structural equation model analyses of a representative sample of 1,180 U.S. women without children from the National Survey of Fertility Barriers. The results indicated that women with the least control over pregnancy, those with biomedical barriers, had the highest childlessness concerns. As hypothesized, the association between reasons and childlessness concerns was mediated by the identity‐relevant measure, importance of motherhood. Contrary to the authors' hypothesis, the association was not mediated by social messages to have children. Thus, it is primarily involuntarily childless women who have high childlessness concerns.     

Workers' perspectives on self-directing mainstream return to work following acute mental illness: Reflections on partnerships

Objective: To examine barriers and facilitators influencing self-direction of return to mainstream work following acute mental illness.Participants: Five individuals who had attempted return to mainstream work following acute mental illness. Methods: In depth, semi-structured qualitative interviews with the five participants selected through purposive sampling. Results: The three main themes related to the workers' self-direction of their return to work experience were (a) worker self-management, (b) workers' 'personal' partnerships and (c) workplace partnerships. Conclusion: Personal and workplace partnerships are integral to supporting workers as they take ownership of their full potential and self-direct return to mainstream work.     

Construction of a survey to assess workload and fatigue among AMT operators in Mexico

Operators of machinery classified as Advanced Manufacturing Technology (AMT) are exposed to high levels of workload and fatigue. However, only few studies have been conducted on this topic in Hispanic-American countries workers. Several instruments be used to assess workload and fatigue; however, only few of them have been adapted to Spanish language. This paper reports on the development and validity testing of a survey instrument in Spanish, aiming to subjectively assess workload and fatigue among AMT operators in Mexico. Method: After an exhaustive literature review in search of already available measurement instruments, they were adapted for content and later translated into Spanish; a pilot test was conducted to evaluate validity and reliability; afterwards appropriate modifications were made to the testing instruments. Final version of the instrument was applied to a group of 121 operators of CNC lathes. Reliability was analyzed using KMO and Cronbach alpha indices. Results: For the assessment of workload, both NASA-TLX and ISTAS 21 methods were incorporated to the survey instrument. As for fatigue assessment tools, these were SOFI-S, FAS and OFER questionnaires. Results show KMO value and Cronbach alpha above 0.6.Conclusions. The survey instrument as designed, allows the collection of reliable and valid data regarding workload and fatigue among AMT operators in Mexico.     

Profiles of High School Students’ STEM Career Aspirations

Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields have a need for recruiting and retaining a diverse workforce. Understanding students’ aspiration to STEM careers is important for supporting underrepresented populations. Data from a nationally representative sample (N = 20,010) of high school students who reported career aspirations were analyzed. Analyses revealed significant relations between students’ aspirations and demographic variables, and differences in aspirations based on students’ race and gender. Findings highlight a need for counselors to implement career interventions that address students’ cultural contexts.     

Fertility and Infertility: Toward an Integrative Research Agenda

In this article, we show that social science research on fertility and infertility consists of largely separate research traditions, despite shared interest in pregnancies and births (or lack thereof). We describe four ways these two traditions differ: (1) publication trajectories and outlets, (2) fields of study and major theoretical frameworks, (3) degree of attention to the other topic, and (4) language and definitions used. We then discuss why future integration of these bodies of research would be beneficial, outline potential steps toward rapprochement, and provide common areas of dialogue that could facilitate and enrich these bodies of research. We offer a more holistic framework using the reproductive career as an extension of existing lifecourse approaches in both fertility and infertility research. We conclude with a brief empirical example and discussion of methodological issues for measuring and modeling reproductive careers.     

Patterns of Mental Health Care Utilization Among Sexual Orientation Minority Groups

Prior studies of the utilization of mental health professionals by sexual minority populations have relied on data that are now dated or not nationally representative. These studies have also provided mixed findings regarding gender differences in the utilization of mental health professionals among sexual minority individuals. Using data from the 2013–2015 National Health Interview Surveys, this study investigates (1) how sexual minority individuals compare to heterosexual participants in their utilization of mental health professionals; and (2) gender differences in that utilization. The results indicate sexual minority individuals utilize mental health care professionals at higher rates than heterosexual individuals even after controlling for measures of mental health and other demographic characteristics; this is true for both men and women. However, gender moderates the sexual minority effect on utilization rates. Sexual minority men utilize mental health professionals at a high rate, such that their utilization rates are similar to sexual minority women, contrary to the gender gap seen among heterosexuals.