A Social Network Comparison of Low‐Income Black and White Newlywed Couples

Relative to White families, Black families have been described as relying on extended social networks to compensate for other social and economic disadvantages. The presence or absence of supportive social networks should be especially relevant to young couples entering marriage, but to date there has been little effort to describe the social networks of comparable Black and White newlyweds. The current study addressed this gap by drawing on interviews with 57 first‐married newlyweds from low‐income communities to compare the composition and structure of Black and White couples' duocentric social networks. The results indicated that low‐income Black couples entered marriage at a social disadvantage relative to White couples, with more family relationships but fewer positive relationships and fewer sources of emotional support (for wives), fewer connections to married individuals, and fewer shared relationships between spouses. Black couples' relative social disadvantages persisted even when various economic and demographic variables were controlled.     

The Decoupling of Marriage and Parenthood? Trends in the Timing of Marital First Births, 1945–2002

Family formation changed dramatically over the 20th century in the United States. The impact of these changes on childbearing has primarily been studied in terms of nonmarital fertility. However, changes in family formation behavior also have implications for fertility within marriage. The authors used data from 10 fertility surveys to describe changes in the timing of marital childbearing from the 1940s through the 21st century for non‐Hispanic White and non‐Hispanic Black women. Based on harmonized data from the Integrated Fertility Survey Series, the results suggest increasing divergence in fertility timing for White women. A growing proportion of marriages begin with a premarital conception; at the same time, an increasing proportion of White women are postponing fertility within marriage. For Black women, marital fertility is increasingly postponed beyond the early years of marriage. Evaluating the sequencing of marriage and parenthood over time is critical to understanding the changing meaning of marriage.     

Reconfigured Reciprocity: How Aging Taiwanese Immigrants Transform Cultural Logics of Elder Care

Drawing on 55 interviews with older Taiwanese immigrants who relocated to the United States at an earlier life stage, the author argues that changing contextual features involved in the processes of international migration encourage and even demand aging immigrants to reconstruct cultural logics of aging and geriatric care. He develops the concept of reconfigured reciprocity to demonstrate how aging migrant populations transform cultural logics of intergenerational responsibility, obligation, and entitlement to reconcile the tension between ethnic tradition and modernity. First, he reveals how many of the respondents' lack of caregiving for their own parents undermines their sense of entitlement to receive care from younger generations. Furthermore, he highlights how the structural squeeze among work, family, and caregiving with which the younger generation struggles further discourages the respondents from relying on their children. Finally, the author underscores how aging immigrants evoke the concept of Americanization to reconstruct expectations of how they should be taken care of in their twilight years.     

Families,Resources, and Suicide: Combined Effects on Mortality

Important resources from family support systems, employment, and educational attainment inhibit the risk of death. Independently, these factors are particularly salient for suicide, but how they combine to affect mortality is less clear. Analyses of National Health Interview Survey data from 1986 to 2004 (N = 935,802), prospectively linked to mortality through 2006 (including 1,238 suicides), reveals a process of compensation in the way work status and family combine to affect adult suicide: Individuals who are not working experience more suicide defense from more protective family support systems than do working adults. But a process of reinforcement occurs in the combination of education and family: More education associates with more protection from the family than does less education. The findings demonstrate how families and resources combine to affect mortality in unique ways.     

中西方失地农民社会保障体系建设比较研究

同西方发达国家相比,我国在土地征用、职业技术培训、保障基金运转等失地农民社会保障体系建设方面存在很大差异。建立健全我国失地农民社会保障体系,需要借鉴西方的经验教训,规范土地征用程序,切实提高补偿标准;扩大社会保障内容,建立城乡一体保障体系;加强职业技能教育,强化失地农民就业能力培训。     

论劳动密集型企业员工心理危机防护体系的构建

关注人的生命,预防员工发生心理危机,构建企业员工心理危机防护体系,是维系企业安定有序,提高劳动生产率的客观要求.引导年轻的新员工尽快适应企业的新环境,转变观念,构建企业心理危机防护体系的主动模式以及构建预防企业员工心理危机的多级防护体系应是企业预防员工发生心理危机的有效路径.     

农村留守儿童家庭教养方式的社会学分析

通过对农村"留守儿童"家庭教养方式的现状进行描述和归纳,分析产生不同类型的家庭教养方式的原因,以期引起社会各界对留守儿童群体的关注,更好地指导农村"留守儿童"的家庭教养方式,提高家庭教育质量,促进儿童的健康成长。     

美国FIDER评估体系对我国室内设计教育的启示

我国的室内设计高等教育虽然在短时间里取得了较好的成绩,但也存在很多问题,对于这种强调实践和技能的专业,室内设计专业的教育应该有明确的、直观的评价标准,来满足社会发展的需求。本文通过对美国室内设计教育与研究基金会FIDER对本科教育的评估体系的介绍,目的是对我国当前的室内设计教育产生启示作用,并结合美国的FIDER评估体系对我国室内设计教育提出了从培养目标、教学体系到实践环节、教学资源等方面进行改革的对策。     

通过深化体制改革建立扩大内需的长效机制

我国内需不足的根本原因是深层次的体制问题,具体表现在不合理的收入分配体制,政府公共服务支出占政府总支出的比重较低,国有企业借助行政垄断地位挤压中小企业的生存空间．也增加了居民的生活成本,城乡一体化改革进展缓慢。必须通过深化经济体制改革,加快推进收入分配体制改革,加快公共财政体制建设,逐步完善基本公共服务体系,鼓励扩大民间投资,深化国有企业体制改革,加快推进城乡一体化改革。     

非中心城市独立学院人才培养质量保障体系的探索与实践——以南华大学船山学院为例

近年来,南华大学船山学院通过提出现代人才培养理念、科学定位人才培养目标、科学制定人才培养方案、打造一流师资队伍、突出专业特色、完善课程体系、建构教学质量监控体系、搭建实习平台、加强校园文化建设、强化就业指导和服务等一系列对策与措施,探索出了一套适合非中心城市独立学院自身发展的、较为完善的人才培养质量保障体系。