The role of perception in the intention to change the family financial situation

The study investigates factors associated with the individual intentions to change the family financial situation of 337 farm respondents. The hypotheses are that intentions to change are influenced by (a) resource flexibility or constraints existing at the time of the decision situation, including off-farm employment, education, age, and household size, and (b) perceptual factors of perceived income adequacy, locus of control, degree of discrepancy between standard and level of the family financial situation, and dissatisfaction or satisfaction with the discrepancy. Older respondents and those experiencing more external control are less likely to intend to change. Younger respondents and those who perceive their incomes as more adequate are more likely to perceive that they have control over their situation. The lower the perceived income adequacy, the greater the discrepancy between standard and level of the family financial situation and the lower the satisfaction with the discrepancy. Significant indirect effects were consistent with theoretical expectations.Research was supported by the Minnesota Agricultural Experiment Station Projects 52-055, 52-054, and 52-058 and the Minnesota Extension Service. The authors wish to thank Jean W. Bauer, Ph.D., for research collaboration and Susan Keskinen and Cathy Schultz for research assistance.Her research interests include social, economic, and technical decision processes, discrepancies between standards and levels, and the interrelationship of work and family roles, particularly for farm women. Her Ph.D. is from Iowa State University.Her research interests in family resource management theory include social decision making processes and social decision rules, family life quality, and the economic consequences of divorce. Her Ph.D. is from Michigan State University.     

The older lesbian

This research uncovers a pattern of support and the existence of a relationship network that runs strongly counter to the stereotyped view that lesbians in later life find themselves friendless and without support. The hypothesis that the older lesbian has developed friendship networks to replace missing or weak kin ties is substantiated. The findings are based on 20 in-depth, structured interviews with lesbians whose ages range from 50 to 73.     

THE PROFESSIONAL INVOLVEMENT OF HIGHLY EDUCATED WOMEN: THE IMPACT OF FAMILY

The purpose of this article is to examine factors related to the professional involvement of highly educated women. Three indicators of involvement are considered: nonemployment, part-time work, employment not making use of highest degree. The sample consists of 663 women who received high-level degrees from a large midwestern university between 1964 and 1974. Results indicate that both family role position and role bargaining outcomes play a major role in determining the level of involvement. Indicators of the latter, including previously untested measures of the timing of family and career beginnings and husband's moves for his wife's career, were important determinants of all three measures of involvement. As a caveat, we question the culturally pervasive assumption that lower involvement is necessarily negative. Information from a small number of in-depth interviews suggests that these women value an overall balance between work and family rather than consistently high levels of professional involvement. Future research must explore this possibility.     

The fate of alternative lifestyles in an era of “pro-family” politics

The pro-family movement combines religious and political motivations and organizational activities. A major goal of the conservative backlash is to restrict or control alternative lifestyles. Through single issue campaigns and political pressure, the movement attempts to influence legislative and administrative policy. The extent to which the government is an agent of pro-family interest groups is explored here. An important question is whether there is a hidden agenda in the sense that the human services orientation has been exchanged for a control orientation. Do proposals for restoring rights to the family apply only to the traditional patriarchal family?     

Farm Business-Owning Couples: Interrelationships among Business Tensions,Relationship Conflict Quality,and Spousal Satisfaction

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationships among business tensions, relationship conflict quality, and satisfaction with spouse for 206 farm business-owning couples. The Sustainable Family Business Model and the Family FIRO (Fundamental Interpersonal Relations Orientation) model guided the path analysis. For both husbands and wives, locus of control was negatively related to business tensions; decision involvement discrepancy was positively related to relationship conflict quality; and business tensions were negatively related to relationship conflict quality. For husbands, relationship conflict quality was positively related to satisfaction with spouse; for wives, business tensions were negatively related to satisfaction with business-owning spouse. This material is based on work supported by the Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service, US Department of Agriculture under Agreement No. 95-37401-1820. Any opinion, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the view of the US Department of Agriculture.     

Online surveys for BGLT research: issues and techniques

Online surveys are becoming increasingly popular for accessing less visible and decentralized populations, including bisexual, gay, lesbian and transgender (BGLT) populations. Advances in technology and convenience for the both the researcher and the participant have facilitated this trend. In this paper, we explore issues related to conducting BGLT survey research online, such as making decisions about survey formats, target populations and recruitment, compensation, access.     

Marital Decision Making: Congruence of Spouses' Responses*

The relationship between spouse's perceptions concerning who makes decisions and the importance of decisions was investigated through interviews with 140 couples. A positive relationship was found between the husbands' decision-making scores and the importance of decisions. In addition, the paper emphasizes the need to (1) analyze decision-making and importance of decisions within couples rather than among all husbands and all wives separately and (2) collect data from both spouses.     

Abuse and deaf children: Some factors to consider

Deaf children are uniquely disadvantaged in terms of access to information on safety and abuse. This is often due to misunderstood linguistic and cultural needs which relate to the deaf community. Consequently, a greater number of children who are deaf are placed in potentially abusive situations when compared to their non-deaf peer group. A high percentage of deaf children have also acquired negative self-concepts. This is often due to external influences such as educational experiences and family communication. Many deaf children believe that abuse is part of their being deaf. The implications of this are that deaf children are at risk of neglect and abuse as well as long-term damage to their emotional development and self-esteem. A number of survivors of physical and sexual abuse have been referred to the National Centre for Mental Health and Deafness, Preston. Some of these referrals have been inappropriate and due to a dearth of local resources. Extremely little support is available for deaf people who have been or are being abused. There are few appropriately trained counsellors equipped with the necessary skills in communicating with deaf people and even fewer trained in deaf awareness. A number of risk factors have been identified and are illustrated in this article. Three case studies are described to highlight the issues involved.     

Guilty or not? A path model of women's sexual force fantasies

This study estimated a path model of women's forceful sexual fantasies. Constructs examined were childhood sexual abuse, feminist beliefs, sexual guilt, erotophilia, and sexual experience. The study clarifies how these factors mediate one another in relationship to forceful sexual fantasies, and is first to examine the effects of feminist beliefs on forceful sexual fantasy. Adult women (N = 261) participated by completing an online survey. A path from sex guilt to forceful sexual fantasy, mediated by erotophilia, was found, wherein low levels of sex guilt and high levels of erotophilia were found to predict forceful sexual fantasy. A direct path between childhood sexual abuse and forceful sexual fantasy was also found. The resulting model is discussed in relation to previously-proposed theories on the role of force in women's sexual fantasies.