Research on Divorce: Continuing Trends and New Developments

Research on divorce during the past decade has focused on a range of topics, including the predictors of divorce, associations between divorce and the well‐being of children and former spouses, and interventions for divorcing couples. Methodological advances during the past decade include a greater reliance on nationally representative longitudinal samples, genetically informed designs, and statistical models that control for time‐invariant sources of unobserved heterogeneity. Emerging perspectives, such as a focus on the number of family transitions rather than on divorce as a single event, are promising. Nevertheless, gaps remain in the research literature, and the review concludes with suggestions for new studies.     

Advances in Families and Health Research in the 21st Century

We review research on families and health published between 2000 and 2009 and highlight key themes and findings from innovative, methodologically rigorous studies. Whereas research in prior decades focused primarily on whether family structure affects child and adult health, contemporary research examines the contextual and processual factors that shape for whom, for which outcomes, and under what conditions families affect mental and physical health. We discuss how family structure, transitions, and processes within families of origin affect children's health over the life course. We then examine the effects of marital status, transitions, and quality for adult health. We point out limitations in current research, discuss implications of recent findings for policy, and highlight theoretical and methodological directions for future research.     

Marriage and Child Well-Being: Research and Policy Perspectives

Over the past decade, the linkages between marriage and child well-being have attracted the attention of researchers and policy makers alike. Children's living arrangements have become increasingly diverse and unstable, which raises important questions about how and why family structure and stability are related to child outcomes. This article reviews new research on this topic, emphasizing how it can inform policy debates about the role of marriage in reducing poverty and improving child outcomes. It also pays special attention to new scholarship on unmarried, primarily low-income families, the target of recent federal marriage initiatives, to appraise the potential contributions of family research to ongoing policy discussions.     

How Does the Gender of Parents Matter?

Claims that children need both a mother and father presume that women and men parent differently in ways crucial to development but generally rely on studies that conflate gender with other family structure variables. We analyze findings from studies with designs that mitigate these problems by comparing 2‐parent families with same or different sex coparents and single‐mother with single‐father families. Strengths typically associated with married mother‐father families appear to the same extent in families with 2 mothers and potentially in those with 2 fathers. Average differences favor women over men, but parenting skills are not dichotomous or exclusive. The gender of parents correlates in novel ways with parent‐child relationships but has minor significance for children's psychological adjustment and social success.     

西安市经济投资效能的势分析

以西安市1995—2008年的数据为基础,对西安市经济现状进行分析,并采用定量和定性研究相结合的方法,运用势分析模型对生产函数进行扩展,力求客观而准确地计算出经济增长要素即劳动力资本、固定资产投资、能源消费量、产业结构变动等的势效系数,进而分析各要素发挥的效能及全部要素投入的综合效能,预测各要素未来的发展趋势,探究提高各投入指标要素投资效能的方法及改变经济增长方式的思路和对策,提升西安市的可持续发展能力。     

Factors associated with placement breakdown initiated by foster parents – empirical findings from Germany

This study investigates the effects of covariates on the probability of placement breakdown in non‐kinship family foster care. Breakdowns are distinguished according to the initiator: children, carers, foster parents and the local child welfare authorities. The children concerned had entered foster care at ages ranging from 0 to a maximum of 17 years (n = 14 171). A significantly higher risk of breakdown on the initiative of the foster parents is found in male children, children whose parents receive financial support, children whose parents were removed from the register of carers, children who were between 6 and 15 years old when they joined the foster family, children who had earlier lived in a different foster family or residential care, children from patchwork families and children whose joining of a foster family was the result of disruptive social behaviour. Two‐thirds of the children from non‐kinship family foster care who stay in the foster family was ended on the initiative of the foster parents are subsequently looked after in residential care. That is three times the rate for all terminated foster relationships. Breakdowns on the initiative of the foster parents thus indicate a high risk of unstable care history developing and accordingly necessitate prevention strategies.     

Gaining knowledge about parental mental illness: how does it empower children?

This study examined the utility of a digital video disc (DVD) intervention, designed to educate children, whose parents have depression and/or anxiety. Twenty‐nine children completed pre‐ and post‐DVD exposure questionnaires, on mental health knowledge and help seeking, and 18 were interviewed about their experiences and use of the DVD. Post‐DVD, children's knowledge of mental illness improved. The DVD also challenged mental illness misconceptions. Most children preferred watching the DVD with a parent. The study explains how children utilize information about mental illness.     

信息人社会的“纠结”与“给力”--信息人社会与势科学理论研究之五

信息化社会以来,中国文化的复杂性有增无减,阐述这种复杂性的一个重要关键词就是“纠结”。纠结的根源是主体占有的信息量小于环境对象的信息量,纠结的本质是主体信息缺失导致的不确定性。“给力”的本质就是主体得到了信息而产生的确定性,确定性与不确定性的根本问题是信息的相互作用。信息可以归结为有序,复杂在本质上是信息急剧增长的结果,面对社会日趋复杂带来的种种纠结,人类唯一有效的应对战略就是信息战略。应对中国复杂文化纠结的根本路径,就是在社会管理过程中的每一个层次和每一个环节中,通过纠结变换,将作为纠结的约束打开,从而大大缩小交易成本,实现卓有成效的社会管理。     

Shifts in the employment outcomes among Mexican migrants to the United States, 1976–2009

Although studies have examined the impact of U.S. immigration policy shifts in the 1980s and 1990s on the employment outcomes of migrants, scholars have paid less attention to how the federal government's shifting approach to worksite enforcement has transformed the conditions in which Mexican migrants work. Consistent with previous research, we find a worsening of conditions for both unauthorized and legal Mexican migrants in the years following the passage of the Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) and that unauthorized status is associated with more unfavorable workplace conditions relative to legal immigrants. However, in the first decade of the 21st century, we also find that unauthorized immigrants’ employment outcomes more closely resemble those of legal immigrants now than in the past, suggesting a dramatic shift in the ways that employers treat unauthorized immigrants on the job. This convergence between authorized and unauthorized migrants is consistent with federal policies and practices related to workplace enforcement.     

Does age affect the efficacy and safety of GreenLight HPS™ laser photoselective vaporization prostatectomy?

Background: To evaluate the efficacy and safety of GreenLight HPS^? (High Performance System) laser photoselective vaporization prostatectomy (PVP) for the treatment of benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) in patients of different age groups. Methods: 164 consecutive patients were stratified into two groups: age <70 (group I, n?=?93) and age ≥70 (group II, n?=?71) years. Transurethral PVP was performed using a GreenLight HPS? side-firing laser system. Voiding parameters were measured preoperatively and at 1 and 4 weeks and 3, 6, 12, 18, 24 and 36 months postoperatively. Results: Among the preoperative parameters evaluated, there were significant differences (p?<?0.05) in prostate volume (I: 58.7; II: 73.6?mL) and serum prostate-specific antigen (I: 1.9; II: 2.9?ng/mL), while American Urological Association Symptom Score (AUASS), Quality of Life (QoL), maximum flow rate (Qmax), Sexual Health Inventory for Men (SHIM) and post void residual (PVR) were similar (p?>?0.05) between groups. No significant differences in laser utilization, energy usage and operating time were noted. Clinical outcomes (AUASS, QoL, Qmax, PVR) showed immediate and stable improvement from baseline (p?<?0.05) within each group, but no significant differences between the two groups were observed during the follow-up period. The incidence of adverse events was low and similar in both groups. Conclusions: The results suggest that age has little effect on the efficacy and safety of GreenLight HPS? laser PVP.