Informal Work in Nonmetropolitan Pennsylvania1

Abstract It is well recognized that the informal economy—unregulated economic activities that generate real or in-kind income—features prominently in the day-to-day lives of many in the developing world. Researchers have begun to explore the informal economy in developed countries but this work has focussed primarily on urban areas to the neglect of rural areas. In this paper the nature and correlates of informal work in nonmetropolitan Pennsylvania are described through an analysis of survey data on 505 families. Results indicate that participation in informal activities is widespread, is not more typical of the poor, does not contribute greatly to family income on average but does help many poor families weather difficult economic times, is both economically and noneconomically motivated, and, net of other sociodemographic variables, is positively related to rurality of residence and formal labor supply.     

Good health and the bridging of structural holes

Bridges that span structural holes are often explained in terms of the entrepreneurial personalities or rational motivations of brokers, or structural processes that lead to the intersection of social foci. I argue that the existence and use of bridges in interpersonal networks also depends on individuals’ health. Poor health may make it more difficult to withstand the pressures and to execute some of the common tasks associated with bridging (e.g., brokerage). I examine this possibility using egocentric network data on over 2500 older adults drawn from the recent National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project (NSHAP). Multivariate regression analyses show that both cognitive and functional health are significantly positively associated with bridging, net of sociodemographic and life-course controls. The relationship between functional (kinesthetic) health and bridging appears to be partially mediated by network composition, as older adults who have poorer functional health also tend to have networks that are richer in strong ties. Several potential mediation mechanisms are discussed. Cognitive function remains significantly associated with bridging net of network composition, suggesting that the inherent challenges of maintaining bridging positions may be more difficult to cope with for those who have cognitive impairments than for those who have functional impairments such as limited mobility. An alternative explanation is that cognitively impaired individuals have more difficulty recognizing (and thus strategically using) bridges in their networks. Theoretical implications and possibilities for future research are discussed.     

Children's Experiences of Time When a Parent Travels for Work

This qualitative study focuses on the different ways time is experienced by children in families who face time challenges because of a family member's job that required work travel. Data are from a family‐level study that includes interviews of all family members older than age 7. Using grounded theory methodology, this study illustrates the ways in which job demands and family processes interact. The analysis centers on 75 children's perspectives from 43 families. Holding together assessments of having enough time while wanting more time with their parents, children express emotion, generally unrecognized by parents, around the topic of family time. Children's experience of time with parents is rushed or calm, depending on the activities done in time and the gender of the parent with whom they spend time. Findings are interpreted through a feminist social constructionist lens.     

Mathematical forms of the distribution of the product of two normal variables

This paper finds the mathematical forms of the distribution of the product where x and x follow a bivariate normal distribution In this paper the distribution when PT0 is expressed as an integral, a new, fundamental result. From this general form, six different cases can be distinguished depending on what is known about the parameters and p. The special cases are Aroian $year:1959 and (6) Additionally, we prove that if and as the distribution of the product approaches the Type III distribution. When p=0# Aroian $year:1959 and Aroian and Meeker $year:1977, give tables for various values of 6., 6 . The results in this paper will be used to provide brief tables for p^O in a separate paper     

In the Right Place at The Right Time: An Interview with Brian Stagoll

Few in Australia have done more than Brian Stagoll to develop and critique a local family therapy within an international context, to define its political and intellectual challenges, and to give the field organisational substance. He has been at the centre of Australian family therapy for more than two decades, as both creator and iconoclast. Brian is a psychiatrist who has always pursued social justice and community health initiatives along with a busy life as a therapist, and is a keen reader of history, politics, philosophy and literature. He was a co‐founder of our annual conferences. He co‐founded and organised the Williams Road Summer Schools in the 1980s. He was a co‐founder of this journal, its first Associate Editor and book review editor. He has contributed some of our most significant papers, as well as publishing elsewhere nationally and internationally. He was influential as a Board member and later as President. He is an Honorary Life Member of VAFT, which he co‐founded, and in 2001 he received — in his home city of Melbourne — the Journal Award for outstanding contributions to family therapy.     

Family Therapy … What's in a Name?

In the search for therapeutic efficacy, we vacillate from ‘certitude’ to ‘certitude’, repetitively embracing and then discarding the objects of our intellectual passion(!). The following juxtaposition of images and sounds is intended to suggest that ‘wisdom’ and ‘truth’ may derive from a more judicious and multi-layered integration of enquiry and fidelity. The idea of narrative implies not only a story but also a range of possible relationships between narrator and listener, and raises for examination the qualities of both parties. A ‘good story’ may lie as much in the probity of the relationship as in what is told or heard. It is even possible a ‘good story’ may not always be a story for ‘good’.