Perceptions of aging among rural, midwestern senior citizens: signs of women's resiliency

This study utilized both quantitative and qualitative approaches to examine perceptions of aging among rural-dwelling senior citizens (203 women and 112 men), ages 65 and older. Quantitative results revealed that, despite no significant gender differences in the total number of medical conditions reported, women were less likely than men to report that health problems interfered with their daily functioning. Qualitative analyses revealed that women were particularly like to identify relationships, frame of mind, participating in activities, and religion/spirituality as important contributors to successful aging.     

Women–Family in Quality Perspective

Bringing together women and family in quality perspective bring about interesting discussions in this paper. By integrating previous studies and considering expert opinions, we determinate the variables and dimensions with respect to women’s existence regarding their roles both in the family and at work. Many activities carried out by women represent the consumer aspects of their role. Women undertake these activities to fulfill their needs, which can be classified in the order of preference using Maslow’s Hierarchy of Need. Women success can be measured based on their ability to perform their roles successfully. We identify women’s performance by using quality approach of Personal Quality Maintenance (PQM), which is widely applied in many organizations in order to maintain the service delivery, which meets the customer satisfaction. The effort to enhance women’s satisfaction for their success in playing the multirole in the family and at work is our main consideration. This study may contribute a new point of view regarding for the women’s welfare and existence.     

Does parents’ valuation of children’s health mimic their valuation of own health?

A single latent variable model of health status and therapeutic health care utilization is estimated for parents and own children of 6,557 US households. The equation system that identifies latent health status simultaneously determines a number of indicators of general health, including presence of morbidity symptoms, mobility limitations, medication needs, and utilization of therapeutic health care services. The main goal of the paper was to obtain an unbiased estimate of parents’ marginal substitution rate between own and child health. Results indicate that parents’ valuation of their children’s health exceeds their valuation of own health by almost twofold on average.

The politics of midwifery education and training in New South Wales during the last decades of the 19th Century

This paper focuses on the introduction and development of midwifery education and training in Sydney during the last decades of the 19th century. The aim of the training, it is argued, was to displace the lay midwives by trained midwifery nurses who would work under medical control. The lay midwives were one of the largest occupational groups among women and two-thirds of births in NSW were being delivered by them in the late 19th century. It was a period of professionalisation of medicine and medical men laid claim to midwifery as a legitimate sphere of their practice and saw it as the gateway for establishing a family practice. The lay midwife stood in the way of their claim. The training programs were established purportedly to control maternal mortality. From the beginning in 1887 medical men were in control of midwifery nurse training. In addition to training at the Benevolent Society Asylum, three more women's hospitals were established in the 1890s in Sydney making it possible to train a stream of midwifery nurses. The midwifery nurses were charged exorbitant fees for their training; the fees contributed substantially towards running the new hospitals that delivered birth services to the poor and destitute women mostly in their homes. The midwifery nurses worked hard in miserable conditions under the guise of clinical experience required for training. When a critical mass of poorly trained midwifery nurses were in the offing, a Bill was introduced into the Parliament in 1895, restricting registration to midwifery nurses and this would have eliminated the lay midwife if passed. It took more than two decades to get a Registration Bill passed in the NSW Parliament.     

Birth outcome, not pregnancy process: Reply to van der Veen

In a recent article (Frisbie. Forbes. and Pullum 1996) we documented racial/ethnic differences in birth outcomes according to a more fine-grained classification than has typically been employed in the demographic literature. In his commentary, van der Veen focuses on the measurement of one of the dimensions of that classification, maturity of the infant. as proxied by the fetal growth ratio. The crux of the critique is easily seen in van der Veen's statement that “all of my disagreements with Frisbie et al. 's method arise from their particular use of a postnatal standard for the assessment of intrauterine growth.” Our critic misunderstands our objective: He fails to realize our interest in birth outcome, not pregnancy process, and does not perceive that our intent was to extend the research extant in both the demographic and public-health literatures in which patently postnatal (i.e., ex utero) measures are taken as outcomes interesting in their own right and/or as risk factors for infant mortality and infant and childhood morbidity. Specifically, he does recognize that we purposefully expanded our focus to include moderately compromised births to determine if they were at higher risk than the normal births with whom they are conventionally categorized. Our discussion draws on research cited in the original article, on studies cited by our critic, and on a few more recent investigations. Although we have never argued that ours is the only, or even the best, approach in all cases, we try to clarify the rationale for, and adduce additional empirical evidence of, the utility of the method we used.     

Hybridization and speciation in the carabid beetles of the subgenusOhomopterus (Coleoptera, Carabidae, genusCarabus)

Natural hybridization among wingless carabid beetles of the subgenusOhomopterus (Carabidae, genusCarabus) is reviewed, and its significance in the evolution of this subgenus discussed. Natural hybridization occurs between parapatric species of similar size. Two case studies of natural hybridization suggest that natural hybridization could have affected the evolution of this subgenus in different ways. When there is a large difference in genital morphology between hybridizing species, interspecific copulation often results in genital injuries that causes mortality of copulating individuals, and hence reduces the fitness of hybridizing individuals greatly. In such a case, hybridization may be effective in maintaining the parapatric distribution of the two species, and in the long term, may promote reinforcement selection for traits which are effective in prezygotic reproductive isolation. When the morphological difference in genitalia is not so large as to cause genital injury, a hybrid population may be established at the intermediate zone between two parental species, provided that the immigration rates of the two species into the intermediate zone are small. Thus, natural hybridization may have contributed to both divergence and reticulate evolution in this subgenus.     

风险社会背景下大学生的信仰危机

当今,世界正由工业社会向风险社会过渡,信仰危机是当代人类面临的全球性问题,信仰危机的出现要求我们关注信仰教育。受全球化的影响,中国也处于风险社会之中。大学生作为我国社会主义事业的接班人,其信仰状况直接关系到国家的前途和命运。本文首先阐述了信仰以及信仰危机的含义,然后分析了我国大学生当前存在的信仰危机及其产生的原因,最后对于解决我国大学生的信仰危机提出了几点建议。     

Substance use among older youth transitioning from foster care: Examining the protective effects of religious and spiritual capital

Among older youth transitioning from the foster care system, this longitudinal study examined the association of religious and spiritual capital to substance use in the past year at age 19. Participants consisted of African American (N = 179) and White non‐Hispanic (N = 133) older youth in foster care. Drawing from social capital theory, it was posited that religious service attendance (a proxy for religious capital) and belief in a spiritual force (a proxy for spiritual capital) would be inversely associated with substance use. Multiple logistic regression results indicated support for the first and second hypothesis for White foster youth only. Among White foster youth, more frequent religious service attendance and greater belief in a spiritual force were associated with a lower likelihood of illegal substance and polysubstance use. No association between religious or spiritual capital and substance use was found among African American foster youth. The findings underscore the importance of conducting spiritual assessments to help ensure older foster youth who have strong religious or spiritual orientations are in environments where they are accommodated and supported.