Magic Moment? Maternal Marriage for Children Born Out of Wedlock

To test the existence of the “magic moment” for parental marriage immediately post-birth and to inform policies that preferentially encourage biological over stepparent marriage, this study estimates the incidence and stability of maternal marriage for children born out of wedlock. Data came from the National Survey of Family Growth on 5,255 children born nonmaritally. By age 15, 29 % of children born nonmaritally experienced a biological-father marriage, and 36 % experienced a stepfather marriage. Stepfather marriages occurred much later in a child’s life—one-half occurred after the child turned age 7—and had one-third higher odds of dissolution. Children born to black mothers had qualitatively different maternal marriage experiences than children born to white or Hispanic mothers, with less biological-parent marriage and higher incidences of divorce. Findings support the existence of the magic moment and demonstrate that biological marriages were more enduring than stepfather marriages. Yet relatively few children born out of wedlock experienced stable, biological-parent marriages as envisioned by marriage promotion programs.     

Parents Forever: An Assessment of the Perceived Value of a Brief Divorce Education Program

The intent of this study was to examine the perceived value of a 4-hour divorce education program for adults offered in a Midwestern state. Parents Forever: Education for Families in Divorce Transition is a divorce education program directed toward educating adults about separation, divorce, and the effects on children. Participants included 342 adults who attended the class and responded to retrospective questionnaires assessing their perceived satisfaction, knowledge, and demographic status. Also, 32 legal and community professionals participated in the program and responded to questions designed to assess perceptions of program value. Both respondent groups reported high satisfaction levels and significant knowledge gains through the class experience. Implications of the findings for program support and brief divorce interventions are discussed.     

Resilience in Undergraduate Social Work Students: Social Support and Adjustment to Academic Stress1

The purpose of this exploratory study was to analyze the relationship between academic stress and resilience in American, undergraduate social work students (N = 145), and to identify whether social support functioned as a protective factor amid this relationship. Testing social support within models of mediation and moderation served this purpose. Surveys were submitted to three social work programs and solicited empirical data on academic stress; social support and two subsystems, family and friend support; and perceived resilience. The sample reported moderate levels of academic stress, social support, and resilience. Academic stress significantly (p < 0.05), negatively influenced social support and resilience. Social support systems exerted significant, positive influence with each other and with resilience. No social supports mediated the negative stress effect on resilience. Friend support moderated the academic stress–resilience relationship. Implications for social work educators and field agency practitioners regarding enhancement of supportive peer relationships among undergraduate students are discussed.     

An Examination of Older Immigrants' Use of Dental Services in the United States

The recent influx of immigrants aged 65 and older in the United States triggers an increasing need to understand older immigrants' dental services use. This paper uses data (n = 9,617) from the 2004 and 2006 waves of the Health and Retirement Study to examine the dental services use of older Americans. In particular, this study focuses on differences in dental services use between immigrants and natives and potential contributing factors. Multivariate logistic regression analyses showed, contrary to expectation, that older immigrants were more likely to use dental services than older natives despite numerous barriers (odds ratio = 1.30 in 2004). The results in 2006 confirmed these findings. The results from 2004 and 2006 analyses showed dental insurance coverage, sex, and marital status were associated differently with dental services use for immigrants and natives. Implications for current oral health policies and future research of older Americans are discussed, as well as methods for meeting older immigrants' growing dental services needs.     

Methodological and Validity Issues Involved in the Collection of Sensitive Information From Children in Foster Care

ABSTRACT

The Illinois Child Well-Being Study (ICWBS) established a red-flag reporting system (RFRS) embedded in the Audio Computer Assisted Self Interview (ACASI) portion of its child survey to flag reports of violence toward the child, suicidality, neglect, and/or sexual exploitation. When those RFRS questions were positively answered, the reported incident was relayed to the child's caseworker and investigated. This study describes the RFRS, the analysis of the children's reports, and a content analysis of the caseworkers' investigation. In this study, 166 children were interviewed and 28 children reported 36 RFRS incidents. On investigation, only 6 RFRS incidents were verified; most RFRS incidents were reported in error. The results of this study may help researchers using similar RFRS protocols.     

Family Well-Being Concerns of Grandparents in Skipped Generation Families

This study examined the family well-being concerns of grandparents in skipped-generation families. Co-resident grandparents who are responsible for raising their grandchildren completed surveys, focus groups, or individual interviews. Service providers to skipped-generation families also participated in individual interviews to provide an additional perspective to grandparents' concerns. Results indicated 5 levels of concerns: intrapersonal, interpersonal, organizational or institutional, policy, and societal. Concerns at different levels were interrelated and pointed to the need for multilevel interventions to help these families. Implications of the findings for future interventions with skipped-generation families are discussed.     

Community-Wide Job Loss and Teenage Fertility: Evidence From North Carolina

Using North Carolina data for the period 1990–2010, we estimate the effects of economic downturns on the birthrates of 15- to 19-year-olds, using county-level business closings and layoffs as a plausibly exogenous source of variation in the strength of the local economy. We find little effect of job losses on the white teen birthrate. For black teens, however, job losses to 1 % of the working-age population decrease the birthrate by around 2 %. Birth declines start five months after the job loss and then last for more than one year. Linking the timing of job losses and conceptions suggests that black teen births decline because of increased terminations and perhaps also because of changes in prepregnancy behaviors. National data on risk behaviors also provide evidence that black teens reduce sexual activity and increase contraception use in response to job losses. Job losses seven to nine months after conception do not affect teen birthrates, indicating that teens do not anticipate job losses and lending confidence that job losses are “shocks” that can be viewed as quasi-experimental variation. We also find evidence that relatively advantaged black teens disproportionately abort after job losses, implying that the average child born to a black teen in the wake of job loss is relatively more disadvantaged.     

媒介、文化、身份--麦克卢汉思想映照下的当代媒介与文化转型分析

麦克卢汉认为,任何媒介或任何技术都将改变人类活动的规模、进度或形态①Marshall McLuhan, Understanding Media, Die magischen Kanäle, 1968, pp.22.。在此意义上,麦克卢汉强调的是媒介本身的文化意义,而非媒介传达的内容。这为传统上认为媒介非中立的媒介研究提供了一个新的视角。事实上,媒介是对应于特定社会的文化模式的,因此此社会中的媒介的形成与分布也就不是偶然的。文章将首先具体探讨麦克卢汉此观点在当今世界的现实意义:面对跨越国家及社会制度的数字媒介全球化传播及应用,以及由此带来的媒介化进程,媒介生态的发展趋势是什么？接下来,作者尝试联系文化和公民来对当代数字媒介传递的信息作出解读。      

Distribution,Composition and Exclusion: How School Segregation Impacts Racist Disciplinary Patterns

This paper investigates a broad two-pronged social problem: the persistent segregation and fragmentation of school districts alongside the disproportionate application of school discipline to students of color. Previous work suggests many factors within schools that contribute to the unequal application of school discipline. We use hierarchical linear modeling to move beyond this immediate school context and ask how broader social processes, specifically multiple forms of school segregation, impact the disproportionate discipline administered to black students in secondary schools. Results demonstrate that schools located in more segregated districts tend to have lower racial disparities in suspensions for black students, thus painting a complex picture of the consequences of segregated schooling for students of color. The findings suggest that racial inequality can arise in many guises and that efforts to create racially integrated schools do not release districts from other important work related to racial equity. Integrated school districts should be even more concerned with creating policies and practices to raise awareness of and reduce racial disparities, specifically in school discipline.     

Green logistics management and performance: Some empirical evidence from Chinese manufacturing exporters

The value chain of many business enterprises is increasingly required to demonstrate the profitability of their primary activities, starting from inbound logistics to operations, outbound logistics, marketing sales, and finally to services. The adoption of green logistics management (GLM) presents an opportunity for Chinese manufacturing exporters to competently respond to the escalating expectation of the international community for resources conservation and to achieve environmental performance profitably. This study makes several important contributions to the literature on managing logistics with environmental considerations. First, the authors identify the components of GLM: (i) procedure-based practices, (ii) evaluation-based practices, (iii) partner-based practices, and (iv) general environmental management practices. Second, they relate GLM to environmental and operational performance in a developing country context. Third, they identify the institutional and operational antecedents that prompt the adoption of GLM by export-oriented manufacturing enterprises in China. Fourth, they examine the moderating effect of environmental regulatory pressure on the GLM-performance linkage. The results are based on a survey of manufacturing exporters in China. The commonly held view that economic motivation is related to the adoption of GLM is not supported. However, GLM positively affects both environmental and operational performance, and regulatory pressure enhances the GLM-performance relationship.