Do Socioeconomic Differences in Family Size Reflect Cultural Differences in Confidence and Social Support for Parenting?

This article details family size differences by socio-economic area in metropolitan South Australia and suggests that these differences may be linked to cultural differences in parenting confidence and skills, and in social supports for parenting. The paper analyses Census data on average completed family size and family size distribution in six different areas. In all age groups this shows a negative correlation between family size and the socio-economic status of the area. Secondly, based on analysis of interview data with 38 mothers and 24 fathers and a small survey of 44 parents-to-be, the article suggests that the quantitative patterns may partly reflect differences in the proportions of people in each area who see being parents and having larger families as desirable and achievable undertakings for which they have the requisite personal skills and social supports to minimise adverse impacts on their own parental health and lifestyle. The article concludes by hypothesising that differential fertility levels between groups or areas partly reflect differences in levels of confidence, skills and social support for parenting, and that a cultural “crisis in parenthood” as well as a greater focus on intensive parenting may be more widespread in higher status groups which is reflected in their lower fertility.     

Paternity Establishment for Men’s Nonmarital Births

This paper uses the 2002 National Survey of Family Growth to examine paternity establishment among men’s nonmarital births. Using births as the unit of analysis, I find that paternity establishment for first births (n = 661) is linked to race/ethnicity and relationship status at birth, and these characteristics are associated differently with the timing and location of paternity establishment (in-hospital or at some later point). For higher-parity births (n = 429), paternity establishment for a particular birth is strongly related to prior paternity and fertility behaviors. Paternity is less likely to be established for a higher-parity birth if the father failed to establish paternity for at least one earlier birth, and third or higher-parity births are far more likely to have paternity established at a subsequent point than at the hospital.     

Evaluating Item Discrimination Power of WHOQOL-BREF from an Item Response Model Perspectives

Quality of life (QOL) has become an important component of health. By using the methodology of psychometric theory, we examine the item properties of the WHOQOL-BRIEF. Samejima’s graded response model with natural metrics of the logistic response function was fitted. The results showed items with negative natures were less discriminating. Items written in a specific way were more suitable to assess certain subgroups. The national items showed variation in discriminatory power. Questions measuring objective and specific issues performed worse than items assessing general aspects of the QOL.     

Investigating the Structural Validity of Ryff’s Psychological Well-Being Scales Across Two Samples

Ryff’s (1989b) Psychological Well-Being (PWB) scales measure six related constructs of human functioning. The present paper examined the validity of Ryff’s 6-factor PWB model, using data from a life events study (N = 401) and an organisational climate study (N = 679). Previous validation studies, using Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA), have identified alternative PWB models, but limitations include the use of shorter scale versions with items relating to a number of life domains within the same PWB factor, and failure to examine the influence of participants’ socio-demographic characteristics on PWB. In this study, Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) mostly found consistency in the PWB items and structure between the two studies whereby a 3-factor model delineated between items relating to Autonomy, Positive Relations and a super-ordinate factor comprising the other PWB factors. Using CFA, Goodness of Fit indices reached acceptable levels for the adjusted PWB model identified by the EFA, whilst differences between adjusted models of PWB previously identified in the literature were hardly evident. Post-hoc analysis by gender demonstrated socio-demographic effects on the structure and items that comprise PWB. Further development of PWB measures is needed to reflect its hierarchical and multi-dimensional nature. In the scales’ current form, the construct validation of the PWB factors will continue to be problematic and will fail to adequately evaluate the nature and impact of PWB.     

Exploratory Study on Drug Users’ Perspectives on Quality of Life: More than Health-Related Quality of Life?

In drug treatment outcome literature, a focus on objective and socially desirable indicators of change (e.g. no drug use) has predominated, while outcome indicators that are important for drug users themselves (e.g. quality of life, satisfaction with treatment) have largely been neglected. Nonetheless, Quality of Life (QoL) has become an important concept to evaluate effectiveness of treatment in mental health care research and disability studies. Given the almost exclusive focus on Health-related Quality of Life (HRQOL) in substance abuse research and the neglect of clients’ perspectives in this field, we explore in this study the concept of QoL as perceived by drug users. Focus group discussions (n = 9) were organised in various treatment settings and community services for drug users in the region of Ghent, Belgium to identify important dimensions of QoL and their interpretation by drug users. Data were clustered and analysed based on the theoretical framework of Robert Schalock (Quality of life. Volume 1: Conceptualization and measurement, 1996). The domains ‘personal relationships’, ‘social inclusion’ and ‘self-determination’ were discussed most frequently by the participants. They stressed the importance of a supportive social network in particular. It can be concluded that QoL is not primarily associated by drug users with health and it involves much more than the aspects typically represented in measures of HRQOL.     

Veblen in Reverse: Evidence from the Multinational Time-Use Archive

This paper explores the historical change in the work-leisure balance using time-diary evidence. Much of the recent discussion of this balance in the developed world has focused on paid work alone. What follows takes a different approach, considering the balance of all work time (paid plus unpaid) against leisure time and observes a tendency over recent decades for leisure to decline relative to work in this broad sense. Much is changing, in employment, family and consumption terms over this period. One possibility is that the relative increase in work time reflects the reversal of the status/leisure gradient: the financially privileged classes, which once had more leisure than others, now have less. But the paper closes with the speculation that this increase in work time for both men and women may be indirectly connected with the phenomenon of the women’s “dual burden”, via an unconsidered but nevertheless important principle of fairness in the distribution of work within households.     

Synthetic Indicators of Quality of Life in Europe

For more than three decades now, sociologists, politicians and economists have used a wide range of statistical and econometric techniques to analyse and measure the quality of life of individuals with the aim of obtaining useful instruments for social, political and economic decision making. The aim of this paper is to analyse the advantages and disadvantages of three possible methodologies for obtaining synthetic indicators for the area of welfare and quality of life. These methodologies are Principal Components Analysis, Data Envelopment Analysis and Measure of Distance P₂. Furthermore this paper analyses quality of life in the European Union (EU), as a methodological exercise to demonstrate the principles of calculation, implications and differences between the three indicator-construction approaches. This analysis is particularly useful in a scene like the EU, immersed in a deep transformation process and with profound cultural, economic and social inequalities. Therefore, an analysis of the quality of life and well-being of its inhabitants can play a major role in ironing out such differences.