Household Family Structure Research Articles

Associations of Mental Health Service Utilization and Mental Health Diagnosis with Placement Instability Among Foster Children in a Southeastern State

AbstractPlacement instability for children in foster care is high, with children experiencing nearly 4.5 placement moves per 1,000 days in care on average. While prior research has demonstrated a predictive relationship between mental health problems and placement instability, few studies have examined the associations of specific mental health diagnoses or utilization of mental health (MH) services. To this end, this study seeks to investigate associations between MH service utilization, mental health diagnosis, and placement instability (rate of placement moves) for foster children. We analyzed statewide integrated administrative data to examine MH service utilization and mental health diagnosis on placement instability among foster children. We used SAS 9.4 to conduct descriptive, bivariate, and multiple linear regression models to address the objectives of the study. The retrospective cohort was composed of 1,002 children in foster care. The multivariable linear regression reveals that receiving in-patient services, receiving out-patient services, being diagnosed with conduct disorder, being Black children, older children, and female children, being placed in intensive case management, being sexually abused, having a single household family structure at time of removal, and having a high number of intakes significantly increased the rate of placement moves. The findings of this study have significant implications for the provision of mental health services to foster children and the promotion of placement stability, highlighting the role of child welfare professionals in fostering protective factors and mitigating risk factors to promote placement stability. Implications for practice and policy improvement are discussed.

Rates of ecological knowledge learning in Pemba, Tanzania: Implications for childhood evolution.

Humans live in diverse, complex niches where survival and reproduction are conditional on the acquisition of knowledge. Humans also have long childhoods, spending more than a decade before they become net producers. Whether the time needed to learn has been a selective force in the evolution of long human childhood is unclear, because there is little comparative data on the growth of ecological knowledge throughout childhood. We measured ecological knowledge at different ages in Pemba, Zanzibar (Tanzania), interviewing 93 children and teenagers between 4 and 26 years. We developed Bayesian latent-trait models to estimate individual knowledge and its association with age, activities, household family structure and education. In the studied population, children learn during the whole pre-reproductive period, but at varying rates, with the fastest increases in young children. Sex differences appear during middle childhood and are mediated by participation in different activities. In addition to providing a detailed empirical investigation of the relationship between knowledge acquisition and childhood, this study develops and documents computational improvements to the modelling of knowledge development.

Disparate on-site access to water, sanitation, and food storage heighten the risk of COVID-19 spread in Sub-Saharan Africa

COVID-19 is an active pandemic that likely poses an existential threat to humanity. Frequent handwashing, social distancing, and partial or total lockdowns are among the suite of measures prescribed by the World Health Organization (WHO) and being implemented across the world to contain the pandemic. However, existing inequalities in access to certain basic necessities of life (water, sanitation facility, and food storage) create layered vulnerabilities to COVID-19 and can render the preventive measures ineffective or simply counterproductive. We hypothesized that individuals in households without any of the named basic necessities of life are more likely to violate the preventive (especially lockdown) measures and thereby increase the risk of infection or aid the spread of COVID-19. Based on nationally-representative data for 25 sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries, multivariate statistical and geospatial analyses were used to investigate whether, and to what extent, household family structure is associated with in-house access to basic needs which, in turn, could reflect on a higher risk of COVID-19 infection. The results indicate that approximately 46% of the sampled households in these countries (except South Africa) did not have in-house access to any of the three basic needs and about 8% had access to all the three basic needs. Five countries had less than 2% of their households with in-house access to all three basic needs. Ten countries had over 50% of their households with no in-house access to all the three basic needs. There is a social gradient in in-house access between the rich and the poor, urban and rural richest, male- and female-headed households, among others. We conclude that SSA governments would need to infuse innovative gender- and age-sensitive support services (such as water supply, portable sanitation) to augment the preventive measures prescribed by the WHO. Short-, medium- and long-term interventions within and across countries should necessarily address the upstream, midstream and downstream determinants of in-house access and the full spectrum of layers of inequalities including individual, interpersonal, institutional, and population levels.

Do Extended Family Members Protect Children from Disadvantaged Neighborhoods? Focusing on Behavioral Problems of Children

The developmental–ecological model highlights the contextual environments that influence children’s emotional and behavioral adjustment. No previous research considers neighborhood characteristics when examining the influence of extended family members. This study investigates the characteristics of neighborhoods where extended family households reside, and the confounding and moderating effects of extended family household structure and the neighborhood influences of income and co-ethnic concentration levels. Data come from the Los Angeles Family and Neighborhood Study and the decennial census. The analytical sample includes 1553 children between the ages of 3 and 11 years, clustered in 1191 households in 65 census tracts. This study uses multilevel linear regression modeling. Extended family households are more likely than nuclear families to live in lower-income neighborhoods, but with similar proportions of co-ethnics. Children in extended family households show higher levels of both internalizing and externalizing behaviors compared to children in nuclear families, an effect not explained by their neighborhood environments. Extended family members moderate the neighborhood effects, boosting advantages within co-ethnic concentrated neighborhoods. With a higher proportion of co-ethnics in their neighborhoods, children in extended families show lower levels of externalizing behaviors compared to children in nuclear families. Co-resident extended family members not only predict child internalizing and externalizing behavioral problems but also moderate their neighborhood environments. This study provides policy implications, highlighting the potential of extended members to promote child development.

Family Structure and Severe Food Insecurity in Maputo and Matola, Mozambique

The rapid growth of Maputo and Matola (neighbouring cities in Mozambique) has dramatically shifted the vulnerability profiles of these cities. Poor neighbourhoods across these two cities may now face the prospect of becoming food deserts. Scholars have defined African urban food deserts by the co-occurrence of poverty and food insecurity. This study aims to assess the assumed relationship between resource poverty and food insecurity in the African urban food desert concept and to assess the contribution of household demographics to this relationship. Using household survey data collected in 2014 across Maputo and Matola, this investigation demonstrated that inconsistent access to water, electricity, medical care, cooking fuel, and cash was associated with increased odds of severe household food insecurity across both cities. In addition, a nuclear household family structure was associated with reduced odds of severe food insecurity in both cities (even when taking limited resource access into account). These findings suggest that the severe food insecurity vulnerabilities associated with African urban food deserts may differ according to the family structure of households in Maputo and Matola.

The association between living alone and frailty in a rural Japanese population: the Nagasaki Islands study.

Demographic changes in Japan have resulted in an increased number of elderly living alone. The aim of this study was to identify if there is an association between frailty and living alone. We conducted a cross-sectional study of 1602 Japanese men and women living in isolated islands. Information obtained included height, body weight, handgrip strength, and family structure; antihypertensive, hypoglycaemic, and lipid-lowering medication use; history of stroke or ischaemic heart disease, smoking history, alcohol intake, joint pain or swelling. Relevant laboratory test results were obtained from recent health check-ups. The Frailty Index for Japanese elderly, a 15-item self-report questionnaire was completed by participants and the Kessler Psychological Distress Scale (K6) was administered. After individuals aged below 60 years old or those with missing data were excluded, data from 1224 participants were analysed. Living alone (single household family structure) was significantly associated with frailty in men (odds ratio [OR] 3.85; 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.94-7.65), but not in women (OR 1.08; 95% CI 0.72-1.63). This association in men remained statistically significant after adjustment for known risk factors for frailty. In the elderly population in rural Nagasaki, men living alone have a high risk of frailty. Screening and intervention to prevent frailty in this population is urgently needed.

Family structure effects on early sexual debut among adolescent girls in Rakai, Uganda

This study assessed the association between household family structure and early sexual debut among adolescent girls, ages 15–19, in rural Rakai District, Uganda. Early sexual debut is associated with detrimental physical, emotional, and social outcomes, including increased risk of HIV. However, research on the family’s role on adolescents’ sexual risk behaviors in sub-Saharan Africa has been minimal and rarely takes into account the varying family structures within which African adolescents develop. Using six rounds of survey data (2001–2008) from the Rakai Community Cohort Study, unmarried adolescent girls (n = 1940) aged 15–17 at their baseline survey, were followed until age 19. Parametric survival models showed that compared to adolescent girls living with both biological parents, girls who headed their own household and girls living with stepfathers, grandparents, siblings, or other relatives had significantly higher hazards of early sexual debut before age 16. Adolescent girls were significantly more likely to debut sexually if neither parent resided in the household, either due to death or other reasons. In addition, the absence of the living biological father from the home was associated with a higher risk of sexual debut, regardless of the biological mother’s presence in the home. Our study’s findings suggest that family structure is important to adolescent girls’ sexual behavior. There is need for research to understand the underlying processes, interactions, and dynamics of both low and high-risk family structures in order to devise and strategically target interventions for specific types of family structures.

Sexual Coercion Among Adolescent Women in Rakai, Uganda

Studies on adolescent girls' vulnerability to sexual coercion in Sub-Saharan Africa have focused mainly on individual and partner risk factors, rarely investigating the role the family might play in their vulnerability. This study examined whether household family structure and parental vital status were associated with adolescent girls' risk of sexual coercion in Rakai, Uganda. Modified Poisson regression was used to estimate relative risk of sexual coercion in the prior 12 months among 1,985 unmarried and married adolescent girls aged 15 to 19 who were participants in the Rakai Community Cohort Study between 2001 and 2008. Among sexually active girls, 11% reported coercion in a given past year. Unexpectedly, living with a single mother was protective against experiencing coercion. As much as 4.1% of never-married girls living with single mothers reported coercion, compared to 7.8% of girls living with biological fathers (adj. relative risk [RR] = 2.24, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.98-5.08) and 20% of girls living in stepfather households (adj. RR = 4.73, 95% CI: 1.78-12.53). Ever-married girls whose mothers alone were deceased were more likely to report coercion than those with both parents alive (adj. RR = 1.56, 95% CI: 1.08-2.30). Protecting adolescent girls from sexual coercion requires prevention approaches that incorporate the family, with particular emphasis on including the men (e.g. fathers) who might play an influential role in young girls' sexual development. Understanding the family dynamics underlying the risk and protective effects of a given household structure might highlight new ways in which to prevent sexual coercion.

Avantages et incertitudes des enquêtes annuelles de recensement en France

Résumé Depuis 2004, l’Insee met en œuvre une nouvelle méthode de recensement, comprenant une collecte annuelle sur un échantillon de près de neuf millions de personnes, dont les premiers résultats détaillés seront établis à l’issue de cinq collectes. Cet article, qui s’appuie sur quatre collectes, montre que la population recensée avec la nouvelle méthode est, au début de 2006, sensiblement plus élevée que l’estimation basée sur le recensement de 1999 : 540 000 de plus. L’écart tient davantage au décompte de la population féminine, ainsi qu’à l’effectif des 5-19 ans et des 55-84 ans. Le nouveau recensement surestime également l’effectif des jeunes de 18 ans. Pour la mesure des flux migratoires avec l’étranger, qui est très partielle en France, le recensement complète les informations de source administrative, en particulier grâce à la question sur l’année d’entrée en France. Mais cette question est affectée d’un taux de non-réponse élevé. La comparaison des différentes collectes entre elles et la comparaison avec le recensement de 1999 donnent des indications sur la façon de tenir compte de ces non-réponses, afin de redresser les résultats. Enfin, grâce à la détermination de la structure familiale des ménages, le recensement permet des mesures de la fécondité par la méthode des enfants au foyer. Malgré une légère sous-estimation, cette méthode est bien adaptée pour mesurer les disparités de fécondité suivant le parcours antérieur. Les résultats confirment la faible fécondité des immigrées dans les années précédant leur arrivée et, au contraire, une forte fécondité dans les années qui suivent, par un effet de rattrapage. Sur un autre plan, ces résultats laissent penser que la montée de la fécondité en 2005 et 2006 vient en partie des naissances de rang 2 et plus.

Reinventing fatherhood in Japan and Canada

This article summarizes the findings of a transnational study of Japanese and Canadian families. Fathers' perceptions are presented for a critical developmental phase of life: pregnancy, labor, birth, the early and late postpartum periods. Using qualitative and quantitative research methods, 33 fathers and 194 mothers were interviewed: Japanese in Tokyo and Montreal, and English and French Canadians in Montreal. In addition, the study examines the impact of pregnancy and birth on the relationship of marriage. The results suggest that the social meaning of fatherhood has been transformed, legitimizing the presence of the father in the domestic sphere as a consequence of shifting extended family household structures, economic conditions and the empowerment of women. Other significant ( p<0.05) patterns were identified. (1) Canadian fathers participate in labor and delivery to a higher degree than Japanese fathers in Montreal and Tokyo do (mothers in Tokyo felt more isolated). (2) Canadian men (60%) are more likely to take time off from work during this phase than the Japanese. (3) Overall, the majority of fathers, in all four groups, cared for the child to a higher degree than expected and (4). Birth and early child rearing appears to have a significant impact on marriage in all four groups. Public policy issues are addressed and potential responses provided.

Vehicle-Ownership Model Using Family Structure and Accessibility Application to Honolulu, Hawaii

Vehicle ownership plays a key role in determining the number of trips made by a household and the modes that the household will use to make those trips. Predicting vehicle ownership is a challenge due to the complexity of relationships affecting the choice of vehicles for a particular household. The income of the household, the accessibility of activities by alternative modes, and the family makeup of a household all affect the choice of the number of vehicles. The Honolulu metropolitan statistical area, which encompasses the island of Oahu, is the primary study area. On Oahu, vehicle ownership varies widely, from the dense neighborhoods in Waikiki to the semirural areas on the fringe of the region. Consequently, the vehicle-ownership model will be a crucial component of the new travel forecasting models for the island. Using 1995 Oahu household interview survey data, a vehicle-ownership model that takes into account income, accessibility, and household family structure has been estimated and found to predict rather accurately the shares in each vehicle-ownership class by geography, household size, and number of workers. In addition, 1990 census data have been used to test a variation of the vehicle-ownership model on several other American cities such as Atlanta, Kansas City, San Francisco, and New York. The resulting models for these regions parallel the Honolulu vehicle-ownership model very closely in structure and statistical significance, thereby demonstrating the model structures’ transferability between regions.

Immigration and Changing Patterns of Extended Family Household Structure in the United States: 1970-1990

The long-term downward trend in the percentage of extended family households in the U.S. came to a halt during the 1980s, a change that coincided with a growing gap between immigrants and natives in the percentages of households adopting extended family structures. Using 1970, 1980, and 1990 census data, this research assesses the degree to which changes in the volume and composition of immigration have contributed both to the increase in the proportion of the U.S. population residing in extended family households and to the widening gap between immigrants and natives. Our results demonstrate that immigration explains only a little of the total increase in extended living arrangements in the total population, but that the increasing differential between immigrants and natives during the 1980s resulted from increases in horizontally extended households among immigrants. Mexican, Guatemalan, and Salvadoran immigrants accounted for most of this increase, primarily because of increases in the proportion of young, single adults living with relatives and increases in poverty rates among immigrants from these countries. Key Words: extended family, household composition, immigration. One important focus of postwar American social science has involved studying changes in family household structures and their determinants, including changes in extended family living arrangements or the tendency for relatives to coreside in the same household (Cherlin, 1992; McLanahan & Caspar, 1995; Ruggles, 1994). Studies of changes in family household structures in the U.S. generally have documented a longterm downward trend during the 20th century in the prevalence of extended family households (Goldscheider & Goldscheider, 1989; Sweet & Bumpass, 1987). For example, among Whites in the U.S., households containing nonnuclear relatives dropped continually from 20% in 1910 to a low of 7% in 1980; among Blacks, the percentages have fluctuated from 24% in 1910 to 17% in 1980 (Ruggles, 1994). During the 1980s, however, the decline in extended living arrangements came to an end. Among all households, those containing extended family members increased from 10% in 1980 to 12% 1990, a shift that raises the question of whether a fundamental change has occurred in the factors affecting the commonality of extended family living arrangements. What might explain recent changes in the prevalence of extended family households? One factor is immigration. During the 1970s and 1980s, the U.S. experienced dramatic shifts in the volume and composition of immigrants (Edmonston & Passel, 1994). Average annual immigration increased from 332,000 people per year during the 1960s to 449,000 people per year during the 1970s and 734.000 people per year during the 1980s. Immigrants coming from Canada and Europe declined from 68% of all arrivals during the 1950s to 13% during the 1980s, whereas those from Asia and Latin America increased from 31 % to 84% over the same period (U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, 1995). Moreover, among immigrants, extended family households have increased steadily over the past 30 years, growing from 16% of recent immigrants coresiding as dependents in other relatives' households in 1960 to 30% in 1990 (Biddlecom, 1994) and thereby increasing the gap in extended family living arrangements between immigrants and natives. The rise in the number and proportion of immigrants from less developed countries where extended family structures are more common (De Vos, 1995) thus constitutes a potential explanation of (a) the recent increase in the percentage of extended family households in the total U.S. population, (b) the 30-year increase in the percentage of extended family households among immigrants and the growing gap in the percentage of family households between immigrants and natives, which we term the nativity gap. Insight into the extent to which immigration has affected coresidential relationships also can be obtained by examining different types of extended family household structures. …

Household family structure and children??s aggressive behavior

Household family structure and children??s aggressive behavior

Household family structure and children's aggressive behavior: a longitudinal study of urban elementary school children.

The relationship between contemporary household family structures at fourth-grade and sixth-grade parent- and teacher-rated aggression was examined in an epidemiologically defined population of urban school children. The relationship between family structure and aggression varied by child gender and by parent and teacher ratings in the home and school, respectively. After taking into account family income, urban area, and fourth-grade aggressive behavior, boys in both mother-father and mother-male partner families were significantly less likely than boys in mother-alone families to be rated as aggressive by teachers. No significant relations between family structure and teacher- or parent-rated aggression were found for girls.

Family Migration in a Developing Country

A family model of migration is developed and empirically tested by using longitudinal data for respondents living in Ilocos Norte Province, Philippines. Based on the framework of a family-migration system, family migration is assumed to depend on the character of linkage to the migration system, family household structure, socio-economic resources, family pressure to migrate, family/kin ties to place of origin, and previous mobility experience of family members. Family-migration behaviour is specified as migration of some (one or more) family members, or of the entire family. The findings support the importance of linkage to a family-migration system by way of remittances and the previous mobility experience of family members in the prediction of both types of family migration. Migration of some family members is also predicted by fewer parcels of land owned, higher levels of education, larger household size, and an early life-course stage. Family pressure to migrate, indicating the interactional context ...

Gender Reproduction and Further Education: domestic apprenticeships

Abstract This paper explores how a group of 83 young, white, working class women became involved in the state's most recent attempt at restructuring social relations through vocational initiatives. Using ethnographic research conducted in a caring course department of a northern further education college, it examines how the students everyday practical experiences of the vocational caring curriculum involves them in the construction of subjectivity and gender and class reproduction. The central argument is that caring courses are little more than domestic apprenticeships which anticipate both the family household structure and the labour market. The students implicate themselves in this process, through their attempts to gain autonomy and self‐esteem, by constructing ‘ideal’ caring standards, which come to prioritise exclusive, familial forms of care over and above occupational roles. Thus, they socialise themselves out of the labour market and establish familial responsibilities, which can be drawn upon ...

Diversity among Northwest Hispanics

This article analyzes differences in the Northwest Spanish origin population by age, household—family structure, labor force participation, education, and poverty status. Comparisons are made with the white population to see if there are greater differences by county of residence. Contrary to findings in other studies, Hispanic females and more likely to be in the labor force when compared to white females. However, on variables indicating disadvantaged status, Northwest Hispanics follow patterns set in other parts of the country. In addition, there are generally greater differences by county of residence for the Hispanic population than for the white population. The implication of these findings for the status of Northwest Hispanics is discussed.

Time and Social Structure: a Yugoslav Case Study

Cyclical and linear time perspectives on family household structures are defined. They are utilized in a case study of the father-son dyad in a central Ser bian village over the past 150 years. This relationship is critical to understanding the transitions in the South Slav extended family household, the zadruga. Data are based on oral recall and on vital, tax, and census records. Linear time measures include vital rates such as declining fertility and mortality as well as decreasing household size. Cyclical time measures, which have not varied in the period studied, include age at marriage and age of parent at birth of first child. All these elements are shown to affect the continued existence of extended house hold structures and condition their alteration from predominantly lateral exten sion including collateral kin to units of linear form emphasizing relations across three, and even four, generations. Analyzing these temporal processes is seen as a way of understanding the dynamics behind notions of stability and change in social structures.

The myth of the elementary family: a comparative account of variations in family household structure amongst a group of South African whites

The myth of the elementary family: a comparative account of variations in family household structure amongst a group of South African whites