Divorced Parents’ Qualitative and Quantitative Reports of Children's Living Arrangements

We use data from a sample of divorced parents in Wisconsin (N = 1,392) to examine how parents describe their children's living arrangements. When the children spend substantial time in both parents’ homes, both parents are less likely to use the phrase live with to describe living arrangements. When children spend most nights with their mother, mothers are more likely than fathers to state that the children live with their mother. Together, these findings suggest that family researchers no longer can rely on simple questions to capture complex living arrangements. We need clearer and more careful question wording and, in some instances, follow‐up questions to accurately describe where children live.     

Second-Generation Outcomes of the Great Migration

The mass migration of African Americans out of the South during the first two-thirds of the twentieth century represents one of the most significant internal migration flows in U.S. history. Those undertaking the Great Migration left the South in search of a better life, and their move transformed the cultural, social, and political dynamics of African American life specifically and U.S. society more generally. Recent research offers conflicting evidence regarding the migrants’ success in translating their geographic mobility into economic mobility. Due in part to the lack of a large body of longitudinal data, almost all studies of the Great Migration have focused on the migrants themselves, usually over short periods of their working lives. Using longitudinally linked census data, we take a broader view, investigating the long-term economic and social effects of the Great Migration on the migrants’ children. Our results reveal modest but statistically significant advantages in education, income, and poverty status for the African American children of the Great Migration relative to the children of southerners who remained in the South. In contrast, second-generation white migrants experienced few benefits from migrating relative to southern or northern stayers.     

Families Formed Outside of Marriage

Cohabitation and childbearing outside of marriage are increasingly common family arrangements in the United States. Cohabitation is becoming more like formal marriage in that both are childrearing institutions. Attempts to study the meaning of families formed outside of marriage face the challenge of studying a moving target because the rapid rise in nonmarital families contributes to new meanings and institutional supports. Among these institutions are state policies that formalize ties between members of nonmarital families. This review summarizes the changing demography of cohabitation and nonmarital childbearing, considers the causes and effects of these changes, and describes some recent policies that formalize the relationship between members of families formed outside of marriage. These policies may affect family members' behavior.     

Some results from asian population growth studies

Abstract Coverage estimates of births and deaths derived from the matching experience of a relatively comprehensive group of studies conducted in Asia and employing dual collection systems are resented and analysed. Major conclusions based on these Asian studies include: (1) coverage of live births has generally been more complete than that for deaths; (2) nevertheless, unadjusted rates of natural increase tend to be underestimates; (3) there is great variability within each type of collection system in the coverage rates observed; and (4) one-time household surveys, as a group, seem to be particularly subject to underreporting of vital events.     

TOO MANY MEN? SEX RATIOS AND WOMEN'S PARTNERING BEHAVIOR IN CHINA

The relative numbers of women and men are changing dramatically in China, but the consequences of these imbalanced sex ratios have received little attention. We merge data from the Chinese Health and Family Life Survey with community-level data from Chinese censuses to examine the relationship between cohort- and community-specific sex ratios and women's partnering behavior. Consistent with demographic-opportunity theory and sociocultural theory, we find that high sex ratios (indicating more men relative to women) are associated with an increased likelihood that women marry before age 25. However, high sex ratios are also associated with an increased likelihood that women engage in premarital and extramarital sexual relationships and have had more than one sexual partner, findings consistent with demographic-opportunity theory but inconsistent with sociocultural theory.     

Financial Education With College Students: Comparing Peer-Led and Traditional Classroom Instruction

This project compared the learning gains from teaching financial literacy skills to undergraduate students through two methods: traditional classroom instruction and peer financial counseling. Students at a southeastern university received instruction through either a semester-long course on family economics (N = 78) or a one-hour peer-led session (N = 149). Students in the peer sessions received instruction on either budgeting (n = 94) or credit (n = 55). Students in the course received extended instruction on budgeting, credit, and other topics. Comparisons of posttest learning revealed similar gains between the two methods on shared content and on planned financial behaviors. Results suggest additional investigation to explore peer financial counseling for teaching financial literacy skills may be warranted.     

Community water system privatization and the water access crisis

One of the most pressing challenges faced by the global community in the 21st century is the need to extend potable water access to more than 2 billion people across the planet. Debates concerning how such a project should be undertaken have centered on whether or not water utility systems would be more effectively managed and extended under private ownership than they might be under public ownership models. In this article I explore this issue, providing an overview of recent research concerning the ways in which community water system ownership regimes succeed, and fail, in their attempts to provide access to readily available potable water for as much of the population as is possible. In the course of doing so I provide a discussion of the form that debates over privatization of water resources have taken, as well as how the act of privatization has been found to impact access to water systems and the quality of the service they provide. Ultimately, I explain that, while creative solutions to the water access crisis are clearly necessary, privatization appears to be an inadequate and often counterproductive means of addressing the issue.