Why Parents Pay for College: The Good Parent,Perceptions of Advantage,and the Intergenerational Transfer of Opportunity

This article asks how parents think about the cost of a college education for their children. Based on data from more than ninety in‐depth interviews with upper‐middle‐class parents and children, it is clear that grooming children for college and then paying for their education is intimately linked with ideas about being a “good parent.” We present data on three related aspects of parents' consciousness about paying for college. First, data are presented on how parents view the benefits of college for their children. Second, data illustrate how parents think about the obligations associated with paying. Third, we report on what parents expect in return for their efforts and expenditures. Data also indicate that parents' views are contingent on their perceived ability to pay for the increasing costs of higher education. We conclude by considering how the implicit contract between upper‐middle‐class parents and children may change as new economic and structural uncertainties increase parents' anxieties and challenge their abilities to see themselves as good parents.     

Unrecognised Cosmopolitans: Mobility and Openness Among Globally Engaged Family Farmers

In contemporary cosmopolitanism research, cities are iconic places where cosmopolitan exchanges and actors find their ‘natural’ milieu. Farmers not only are remarkably absent from this literature but have been depicted as operating with a highly localist and agrarian world view and being strongly connected to the land and the farm through history, biography and family tradition. In this paper, we present findings from a three-year study of entrepreneurial family farmers who are globally engaged and undertake extensive mobility as part of their farm business practices. The paper shows how they readily display some of the key hallmarks of contemporary cosmopolitanism: they are highly mobile and frequently engage in the routineness of international travel; they understand the strategic significance of cultural sensitivities and competencies; and they gain pleasure from engaging with difference. Yet, we suggest that these expressions of cosmopolitanism are also contradictory and, at times, may be understood as either ‘instrumental’, ‘banal’ or ‘engaged’. The paper illustrates how ordinary and everyday cosmopolitan repertoires and sentiments can arise outside the usual settings and among actors not readily acknowledged in the cosmopolitanism literature.     

Women and Pensions: Time for a Rethink

This paper presents the results of a research project conducted in Northern Ireland, which focused on women and pensions. The paper suggests that, in the broader rethink of pensions policy in the UK, which is now clearly needed, central consideration should be given to constructing policies which more clearly relate to the needs and circumstances of women.     

Core Competencies in Social Constructionist Supervision?

Family therapy is moving increasingly toward evidence‐based practice and competency‐based training. This article explores what might seem to be an unlikely link between social constructionist supervision, which is based on dialogic and fluid processes of meaning‐making, and the increasing reliance on discrete core competencies in the education and training of family therapists. We propose an alternate approach to competencies for supervision with therapists in training that, among other things, invites accountability and provides evaluative props. The approach we propose is based on a set of orientations that we hope reflect the dialogic and contextual nature of social constructionist practice and supervision. These orientations consist of reflexivity and attention to power, fostering polyphony and generativity, collaborative stance, and focus on client resourcefulness. Ideas and questions for supervisors and therapists in training to address the orientations are articulated.     

Predictors of Cycling in College Students

Abstract

Objectives: To (1) assess cycling-related questions that have been added to the electronic version of the American College Health Association National College Health Assessment II (ACHA-NCHA), (2) examine cycling prevalence, and (3) identify predictors of cycling in college students. Participants: Predominately female (69%), undergraduate (89%), and white (85%) students (N = 949) from a large, urban, northwestern, bicycle-friendly university completed the electronic version of the ACHA-NCHA II. Methods: Thirty cycling-related questions were added to the ACHA-NCHA II and a subsample of questions was analyzed. Results: Cycling questions added to the ACHA-NCHA II scale were reliable and valid, based on the psychometric data analysis. More than half (59%) of this sample cycled; of those, 58% cycled for transportation and 44% for recreation. Facilitators and barriers to cycling were different for cycling in general and cycling for transportation. Conclusions: Cycling questions added to the ACHA-NCHA II can be utilized to enhance knowledge relative to cycling on college campuses.     

“In hunger I am king”—Understanding anorexia nervosa from a psychoanalytic perspective: Theoretical and clinical implications

In hunger I am king (Kazantzakis, 1963) expresses the inner struggle of the anorectic. In the relentless pursuit of thinness, anorexia nervosa is a desperate search for autonomy and a self-respecting identity.The syndrome is a serious emotional disturbance causing mental, emotional, and physical deterioration. Medical complications, such as cardiac arrest, can be fatal.After addressing the development of anorexia as a clinical entity, the anorexia nervosa syndrome is examined from the divergent psychoanalytic theories and treatment philosophies of Freud's Drive-Conflict Model, Ego Psychology, Interpersonal Theory, Object Relations Theory, Self Psychology, and Attachment Theory. Case material is presented to highlight the different psychoanalytic formulations.This paper was presented at the Committee on Psychoanalysis Fourth National Conference Psychoanalytic Explorations: Outer World and Inner Space October 15–18, 1992.     

Mental health differences between men and women caregivers,BRFSS 2009

This study uses data from the 2009 Behavioral Risk Factors Surveillance System (BRFSS) to examine differences between male and female caregivers by demographics, health-related quality of life (HRQOL), and the effect of social support on HRQOL. Roughly two-thirds of caregivers were women, and demographic characteristics differed among men and women caregivers. Women caregivers reported significantly more mentally and physically unhealthy days than men, but there were no differences between men and women in general health or life satisfaction. Men were significantly more likely to report that they rarely or never received social support. Despite this, the effect of social support on HRQOL was stronger in men than in women. Implications of these findings for caregiver support programs are discussed.     

Spillover Between Work and Home,Role Importance and Life Satisfaction

This study of n = 201 knowledge workers examines positive and negative spillover between work and home and its interrelation with life satisfaction. Additionally, it accounts for the direct effect of role importance on life satisfaction and its moderating effect on the interrelation between spillover and life satisfaction. Central to role importance is the degree of attachment that an individual places on family role and career role. Positive spillover from home is interrelated with higher life satisfaction, whereas negative spillover from work is related to lower life satisfaction. Family role importance and career role importance are associated with higher life satisfaction. For respondents with higher family role importance, there is a stronger interrelation between negative spillover from home and lower life satisfaction.