Marriage: for love,for money…and for time?

Married couples enjoy meaningful economies in time, often choosing to specialize where one spouse focuses on market work and the other on household production and childcare. Using data from the American Time Use Survey 2003–2008, I estimate significant marriage effects upon time use. Most married women gain 33–34 min of leisure each weekday when compared to single women. While marriage does not lead to more leisure for husbands, it allows them to allocate time away from home and towards market work. Lower-income couples work more at home and for pay, and spend less time in leisure than their single counterparts. The temporal and financial gains from marriage for most people are inconsistent with its declining prevalence.     

A Preliminary Comparison Study of Online and Face-to-Face Counseling: Client Perceptions of Three Factors

This preliminary study examined the similarities and differences between online and face-to-face counseling with regard to general mental health, working alliance, and social presence. Participants included 50 current counseling clients (37 face-to-face, 13 online) who all were recruited through online mediums. Results indicated that online counseling clients perceived a significantly stronger working alliance on the total Working Alliance Inventory-Short Form as well as the Goal subscale than did those who received face-to-face only counseling. No significant differences existed between the groups on general mental health or social presence. These results suggest that a more controlled study with a larger sample might find that a strong working alliance can be developed through online counseling.     

Mindfulness in financial literacy

ABSTRACT

Financial education is becoming imperative in a society that has pitfalls for unwary consumers. To ensure effectiveness, educational strategies must take into consideration the readiness of consumers to learn the curriculum. Behavioral economics highlights the obstacles that educators face in promoting financial efficacy. Such obstacles include envy, fear, greed, and other all too familiar human failings. One innovative model, mindfulness, provides insight into the human dynamics of personal financial behaviors. This article ties together financial education, mindfulness techniques, and transtheoretical stages of readiness. The impact of gradually introduced educational tasks is presented with an eye toward clients’ stages of readiness, and mindfulness addresses the emotional burdens of altering a financially profligate lifestyle.     

Quality and the 2010 Census

The U.S. Census Bureau has a long tradition of evaluating the results of its censuses. This paper presents evaluation results from the 2010 Census, comparing them to earlier results. The paper discusses net coverage at the national and state level, as well as by age, sex, race, and ethnic group. It discusses components of error, including estimated number missed and counted in error. It also presents data on whole-person and item imputation.     

Quality of Life in a City: The Effect of Population Density

There exist a number of concepts andoperational definitions of quality of life. Inthe present study the aim has been to develop acomprehensive, global index of quality of life,and relate the sub-indexes and global index tovarious socio-demographic variables, somatichealth and density of population in theresidential area. The sample consisted of 2066individuals between 18 and 65 years old fromthe common population. Seven sub-indexes weredeveloped. They constituted one factor withmoderate intercorrelations between thesub-indexes. Good somatic health, living in astable relationship with a partner, preferablymarried, in a less densely populated area,having a good education, a good income andbeing a younger female were the independentstatistical determinants of global quality oflife. However, various sub-indexes were relatedto different socio-demographic variables. Agewas oppositely related to differentsub-indexes. The study shows the importance ofwhat type of quality of life is investigated.To our knowledge, this is the first study ofthe effect of population density on quality oflife.     

The impact of mental health issues, substance use, and exposure to victimization on pregnancy rates among a sample of youth with past-year foster care placement

The purpose of this study is to (1) compare youth entering substance abuse treatment with and without a history of foster care placement to determine any differences in mental health, substance use, and exposure to victimization, and (2) determine if mental health, substance use, and/or exposure to victimization predict past pregnancy among the sample with a history of foster care placement. The pooled dataset consisted of 17,124 adolescents (12-17 years of age) who completed the Global Appraisal of Individual Needs at intake for substance abuse treatment in 2009. Of these, 366 (2.1%) reported having been in foster care in the past year. When compared with a non-foster care sample, the foster care sample reported significantly higher internal mental distress scores, behavior complexity scores, and general victimization scores, after controlling for race, gender, and level of care. Problems associated with substance use did not differ between groups, though regular tobacco use was present at a higher rate in the foster care sample. Multivariate logistic regression results revealed that, within the foster care sample, internal mental distress and gender predicted past pregnancy. There may be room for intervention within substance abuse treatment centers for youth with a history of foster care, who may be at risk for pregnancy if their levels of internal mental distress are high.