Family policy and critical science research: Facilitating change

The principles of critical science for policy research are outlined and one research project is used as a case study. The study was intentionally designed to facilitate changes that would positively influence the economic well-being of children from divorced families. The project uses the critical science processes of public dialogue about child support guidelines for purposes of collaborative problem solving. The normative theories of procedural and distributive justice are used to guide the research reporting. The project contributes to changes in the practices of estimating the income needs of children, changes in estimating the relative monetary contributions of their parents, and proposed legislation and modifications in the state child support guidelines. She received her Ph.D. in family ecology from Michigan State University. Her research interests include the valuing issues of family life quality, family decision making, divorce,and the economic adjustments of families to economic stressors. She received her M.A. degree in Family Education from the University of Minnesota. Her research interests include decision making and parenting. She received her Ph.D. degree in anthropology from the University of Minnesota. Her research interests include social and cultural change and the integration of research findings into public policy decision making.     

Pregnant with Possibility: Reflections on Embodiment, Access, and Inclusion in Field Research

Contributing to a body of theory that advocates for reflexivity and consideration of embodiment by social researchers, this article explores aspects of performing qualitative research—fieldwork and interviews—on intersections of the private family and the public state while visibly pregnant. Drawing on the author's personal experience of collecting data while pregnant, the paper shows how being pregnant facilitated access in the field, how it helped to reveal unspoken beliefs about normative and non-normative reproduction, and how pregnancy and parenthood provided a level of credibility with respondents. This article also considers the situated meanings of pregnancy in the context of academia.     

Power,Positionality, and the Ethic of Care in Qualitative Research

Qualitative Sociology - Building on the definition offered by Aspers and Corte, I argue that qualitative research is not qualitative simply because it encodes for the ability “to get...     

Disparities in the Quality of Pediatric Dental Care: New Research and Needed Changes

In the United States, there are significant disparities in the oral health of children from families with high and low socioeconomic status and between majority and minority children. Extant research on these health differences has focused predominately on caregiver knowledge, beliefs, and practices as well as structural barriers such as Medicaid coverage, dentist availability, and transportation issues. Little attention has been paid to the quality of care families experience when taking their child to the dentist or the ways in which dental schools train their students to work with young children. This policy report describes some of the experiences of low-income and ethnically diverse young children and their parents in dental clinics and highlights some of the weaknesses of dental training. We contend that increasing the standards for dental training and practice are necessary for improving young children's oral health and reducing these disparities.     

Decision-Making of Mothers in Hong Kong Regarding the Occasional Use of Alternative Child-Care Arrangements

This study examines the use of alternative child-care arrangements as an everyday life decision in a family context. Interviews with twenty-four mothers from a working class neighborhood in a new town in Hong Kong were transcribed and analyzed using a grounded theory approach. Results of the analysis outlined: (a) the structural components of making a decision regarding alternative care, which consisted of demands, resource options, definitions of the situation, types of decision situations, and the respective decision-making strategies; and (b) the nature of decision-making processes, varying from ad hoc to standing. Together, these aspects illuminate how mothers make decisions regarding the use of alternative child-care arrangements and, in turn, the characteristics of family decision-making in everyday life.     

The use of discrete computer simulation modeling to estimate return on leadership development investment

Organizational leaders seek monetary returns on their investments (ROI). Thus, making decisions to invest in human capital, such as in leadership development interventions, are often difficult due to the lack of research demonstrating monetary returns on leadership development investment (RODI). This study introduces an innovative approach to estimating leadership development investments and expands on previous research conducted by Avolio, Avey, and Quisenberry (2010), which was the first attempt to estimate leadership development RODI using utility analysis. Further, it is a unique study in that it uses computer simulation modeling to generate random distributions of each utility analysis variable to estimate RODI. Computer simulation modeling enables organizations to better estimate RODI for both current and future leadership development programs. Comparisons of RODI methods are conducted. Results demonstrate that potential gains from effective leadership development are greater than previously estimated but potential losses from poorly executed leadership development are also larger than previously estimated.     

Aggressive behaviour in adolescence: Links with self‐esteem and parental emotional availability

Aggressive behaviours during adolescence may be predictive of later conduct disorders, hence it is important to early detect their signals and deepen the study of their possible risk factors. In order to address these issues, our study pursued two main objectives: to evaluate the psychometric properties of the Italian adaptation of the Aggression Questionnaire Short‐Form (AQ‐SF), a form never previously used among Italian adolescents; and to investigate the relation among aggressiveness, emotional relationship with both parents and self‐esteem in a sample of adolescents. Our results highlighted that psychometric properties of the Italian AQ‐SF are satisfactory and encourage a wider use of this tool; in addition, we found that self‐esteem plays a mediation role between parental emotional availability and aggression. Prevention efforts should focus on improving the relationship with both parents and strengthening adolescent's self‐esteem.     

Living Apart Together and Money: New Partnerships,Traditional Gender Roles

Drawing on qualitative interview data from a sample of 54 men and women engaged in living apart together (LAT) partnerships in Belgium (Flanders), this study explored the organization and exchange of money in LAT arrangements. The data showed that the heterogeneity of LAT partnerships is reflected in couples' monetary behavior, with couples who foresee cohabitation (transitional LATs) showing more marriage‐like exchanges of financial support than those who perceive living apart together as a more permanent arrangement (permanent LATs). The economic position of the partners and the importance attached to economic independence and breadwinning mediate the impact of future expectations on the financial practices of LAT couples. The data also showed that traditional notions of gender and coupledom continue to be strongly influential, even in nontraditional types of partnerships.     

Dependence Estimation for High‐frequency Sampled Multivariate CARMA Models

The paper considers high‐frequency sampled multivariate continuous‐time autoregressive moving average (MCARMA) models and derives the asymptotic behaviour of the sample autocovariance function to a normal random matrix. Moreover, we obtain the asymptotic behaviour of the cross‐covariances between different components of the model. We will see that the limit distribution of the sample autocovariance function has a similar structure in the continuous‐time and in the discrete‐time model. As a special case, we consider a CARMA (one‐dimensional MCARMA) process. For a CARMA process, we prove Bartlett's formula for the sample autocorrelation function. Bartlett's formula has the same form in both models; only the sums in the discrete‐time model are exchanged by integrals in the continuous‐time model. Finally, we present limit results for multivariate MA processes as well, which are not known in this generality in the multivariate setting yet.     

FAMILY ADJUSTMENT FOLLOWING DISCLOSURE OF HOMOSEXUALITY BY A MEMBER: THEMES DISCERNED IN NARRATIVE ACCOUNTS

Disclosure of homosexuality by a family member frequently creates a crisis within the family. Previous research has focused primarily on families' response to this initial crisis and how they cope with and transform initial negative reactions. Little attention has been given to how families respond to disclosure over time and to how families integrate a gay or lesbian family member--and his or her relationships--once they have come to accept his or her homosexuality. Using a narrative approach and interviewing whole families, this project explores these questions. We present 12 themes we found consistently recurring in family members' narratives. We discuss the relationship between these themes and current models in the literature within the context of heterosexism and suggest that this approach may represent a first step in developing a model of successful adaptation subsequent to disclosure.