Nuclear Family Households Research Articles

From buildings to cities: How household demographics shape demand response and energy consumption

In the face of rapidly evolving energy landscapes, driven by increasing integration of renewable energy and the transition towards a more sustainable grid, the role of demand response (DR) programs in maintaining grid stability and efficiency has become increasingly critical. This study presents an in-depth methodology for assessing the nexus between household demographics and engagement in demand response (DR) programs, investigating their impact on energy consumption and financial outcomes at both building and urban scales. Six household archetypes are defined: single working individual, single retired individual, working couple, retired couple, nuclear family, and lone parent household. Additionally, three energy-use archetypes— austere, average, and wasteful—are considered. Employing a stochastic load profile generator, the study examined variables like annual occupancy hours, thermal energy needs, and appliance consumption. In a Canadian residential context, a shift from a single working adult to a nuclear family occupant archetype led to an increase in annual occupancy by 24%, causing a 21% fluctuation in Energy Use Intensity (EUI). Additionally, diverse consumption behaviors led to a 41% EUI variance. The study evaluated load curtailment capabilities across various household archetypes; notably, a ‘wasteful’ household could reduce their load by 32% through a 2 °C-thermostat adjustment during DR events, and this rose to 54% with pre-heating. At the urban scale, demographic shifts substantially influence load profiles and cause variable peak load times. Areas with more retirees have higher mid-day energy usage. The research quantified DR benefits in load reduction and fiscal gains. By raising DR participation from 10% to 50%, load curtailment grew by 69% in areas with younger families. Pre-heating further enhanced load curtailment by 12% and reduced energy rebound by 4%. Economically, ‘wasteful’ households could accumulate 11% more credits compared to average homes. This research introduced a flexible framework for incorporating household demographics and energy use behavior into DR studies, which can be adapted and re-applied to different case studies based on the availability of relevant data.

Escolas indígenas, poder e novas desigualidades: efeitos das escolas na economia local Wauja, sistema político e relações domésticas

Abstract Studies argue that formal schooling in Indigenous communities tends to be negatively associated with children acquiring local cultural knowledge, and that formal schooling using a language and world views unrelated to local knowledge contributes to its erosion. Yet the impact of schooling on a community extends far beyond the curriculum itself. School reshapes the daily routine, as well as the nature of work and leisure for children, teachers, parents and the community. In cultures such as that of the Wauja of central Brazil, where, before the arrival of schools, all adults contributed to food production, schooling immediately creates a division of labor between salaried workers who can buy food and people without salaries who must produce it themselves. Salaries change not only labor patterns, but the local economy itself, as well as residence patterns, and even gender roles. Young men who earn salaries can be head of their own nuclear family households, instead of doing bride service and living in extended family households under the authority of a father-in-law. This change in residence patterns, in turn, impacts roles and status of women within their homes. Effects of various disruptive forces associated with introduction of schools are examined.

Pregnancy, Childbirth, and Childcare during the COVID-19 Pandemic for Parents Raising a 4-Month-Old Child

This study examined the situation of raising a four-month-old baby after pregnancy and childbirth during the COVID-19 pandemic. A fact-finding survey was conducted using an anonymous self-administered questionnaire for mothers and their husbands (hereinafter referred to as fathers) who came to A City, Osaka Prefecture, for health checkups of their four-month-old infants. The questionnaire was distributed to 733 mothers (252 responses). Valid responses were received from 247 participants (33.7%). The questionnaire was distributed to 733 fathers (191 responses). Valid responses were received from 184 participants (25.1%). Most participants belonged to nuclear family households. Sixty percent parents were primiparous. More than 90% parents did not participate in online parenting classes or attend childbirth. In addition, more than 80% mothers did not participate in face-to-face or online maternity classes, postpartum face-to-face visits from grandparents in the hospital, online home visits, telephone conversations, or support from non-relatives. Parents could not obtain information about childcare due to COVID-19. There were restrictions on prenatal checkups, visits, and use of facilities. Most of them resolved these problems via social media platforms, cooperating and communicating with their respective partners and relatives, and devising ways to play with their child. Health of nearly 30% mothers was affected by childcare stress and the pandemic, and they were either depressed or despondent. Approximately 70% experienced positive changes in family relationships and mindsets, such as time spent with family and cooperation received in childcare. During the COVID-19 pandemic, parents coped with various changes and problems they experienced during pregnancy, childbirth, and childcare by devising solutions based on their personal perspectives.

A FAKTOR-FAKTOR YANG MEMPENGARUHI LAMANYA PEMBERIAN ASI PADA BADUTA DI DI YOGYAKARTA

Background : The duration of breastfeeding is an illustration of the amount of nutrition and the high immunity of children against various diseases.
 Methods : In this study, quantitative research methods were using data from the March 2020 National Socio-Economic Survey (Susenas) in the Province of the Special Region of Yogyakarta.
 Results : Most of the baduta who became the object of the study were still breastfeeding by 82.75 percent and male by 55.85 percent, while for the mother most of them had high school education and above by 80.76 percent, 51.84 percent did not work, lived in urban areas by 76.95 percent, aged 22 - 37 years by 84.30 percent, and most of the nuclear family households by 56.06 percent and including non-poor households by 85.21 percent. Conclusion : The results showed that the variables that influenced the duration of breastfeeding for children under two were mother's education, mother's employment status, area of residence, mother's age, child's gender, family type, expenditure per capita per month.

Families of the Past: Was the North-Western European Household System Prevalent in the 19th Century Lithuania?

The paper analyzes family and household types in the mid. 19th century Vilnius and Kaunas gubernijy. The research is based on the large-scale dataset composed of the archival census-like listings of individuals by family units and defined as inventories. The dataset covers the inventories from 1847 and it includes around 20 thousand individuals. Based on the Hammel and Laslett (1974) methodology the research identifies nuclear, extended, and multiple-family households. The research is guided by Hajnal’s (1982) theory on the North-Western and Eastern European household systems. The former could be characterized by the dominance of the nuclear family households. Empirical analysis proves that around 40 percent of all households were nuclear family households. On the other hand, multiple-family households were not dominant. Thus, the main findings corroborate the idea that there was a transitional zone between the Eastern and North-Western household systems in the western part of the tsarist Russian empire.

Prevalence and Determining Factors of Stunting among School-Aged Children in a Rural Nigerian Community: A Cross-Sectional Study

Stunting, an indicator of chronic childhood under-nutrition, is a challenging community health issue among rural Nigerian school children. This study assessed the prevalence and determining factors of stunting among school-aged children (SAC) in a rural Nigerian community. Three hundred and eighty SAC from government primary schools in Achi, Oji-River Local Government Area, Enugu state were selected for the study using multistage sampling technique. Structured and validated questionnaire, anthropometric measurements and biochemical assessments of serum zinc, presence of malaria and intestinal parasites were used for data collection.Stunting, underweight, thinness and overweight prevalence were 21.1%, 17.0%, 16.6% and 10.0%, respectively. Zinc deficiency, malaria and intestinal parasitemia existed in 12.5%, 27.5% and 35.0%, respectively. SAC who were males, 6-8 years, of the third birth order, underweight, overweight, zinc deficient and had intestinal parasitemia had higher odds of being stunted. Having secondary education, farming as an occupation and low monthly income among the mothers; nuclear family system and household size of ≥ 9 were other determinants of stunting observed in the study. These findings suggest the need for targeted intervention against the major determinants of stunting in the area.

A descriptive analysis of three-generation households and mothers' employment in Japan, 2002–2019

PurposeThis article aims to explore how Japanese women with younger children changed their commitment to the labour market between 2000 and 2019 by comparing mothers in three-generation and nuclear family households.Design/methodology/approachJapan currently has the highest ageing rate in the world at nearly 30%. Since the 1990s, employment flexibilization and women's labour market participation have proceeded in parallel, and the conservative family values of the patriarchy and gender division of labour that have provided intergenerational aid for care within households have been shrinking, by conducting a descriptive analysis of the Labour Force Survey (LFS).FindingsThis study identified that a conspicuous increase in part-time employment among mothers in both household types and a decrease by half in the working mother's population in three-generation households. These results suggest that the function of inter-generational assistance by multi-generation cohabitation, which was once thought to be effective in helping working mothers with younger children, is declining.Originality/valueA study examining the transformation of mothers' employment behaviour differences between three-generation households and nuclear family households is rare. This paper makes a new contribution to the research regarding the grandparents' caregiving, household types and mothers' employment.

Association of Annual Transition of Implementation of Nonsmoking at Eating and Drinking Establishments with Indices on Population/Household and Economy/Labor: Examination Using Prefectural Data

The purpose of this study was to clarify the relationship of the annual transition of implementation of nonsmoking at eating and drinking establishments with indices of population/household and economy/labor by prefecture. The prefectural rates of eating and drinking establishments implementing nonsmoking (hereafter, nonsmoking rate) were computed in a year using the data from "Tabelog®". Forty-seven prefectures were classified by hierarchical cluster analysis into "prefecture clusters" 1 to 5 in descending order of the median of nonsmoking rates. The indices of population/household (e.g., percentage of the population aged 65 years and over and percentage of nuclear family household) and economy/labor (e.g., prefectural income per capita and percentage of construction and mining workers) were classified by hierarchical cluster analysis into 11 "index clusters", and the representative index in each index cluster was extracted from the results of the Jonckheere-Terpstra test. An ordinal logistic regression analysis was performed using the numbers 1 to 5 of prefecture clusters as dependent variables and the indices representing the index clusters as independent variables. The percentage of the population aged 65 years and over and the percentage of construction and mining workers were positively related to the order of prefectural clusters. To promote implementation of nonsmoking in eating and drinking establishments in prefectures especially in those with larger numbers of elderly people and construction and mining workers, it is important to inform the persons in charge that implementation of nonsmoking does not affect the number of customers.

Television makes room for Trumpism: the persistent “family crisis” in ABC’s rebooted Roseanne

ABSTRACT The 2018 reboot of ABC’s hit sitcom Roseanne was a significant attempt from a major network to reach a new “pro-Trump audience.” Turning its back on the feminist perspective of the original show (1988–1997), ABC green-lighted a rebooted Roseanne, defending it as a “cultural forum” at a time of national division. The historical interdependence of television, family and women coupled with the attempt from a national network to turn Trump voters into Trump publics leads to a renewed debate over the persistent idea of a “family crisis”. Exploring the politics of the reboot shows how it produced fictive stories based on the definition of Trumpism in which “the” family, standing in for “the” people, must be protected from financial difficulties and modern values (e.g. surrogate motherhood, youth emancipation, or immigration). Using the nuclear-family household—television’s best-charted territory since its beginnings—storylines champion a “family crisis” constituted by economic redistribution, welfare programs, or countercultural resources, and staunchly defend familialist solidarity.

Regional Differences in Individualism in Japan: Scoring Based on Family Structure.

The present article reported regional (prefecture-level) differences in individualism in Japan based on family structure in 2005, 2010 and 2015. Previous research calculated 2005 prefecture-level scores of individualism-collectivism in Japan by analyzing five validated indicators of individualism-collectivism (divorce rate, percentage of people living alone, percentage of elderly people aged over 65 living alone, percentage of nuclear family households, and percentage of three-generation households). However, only the scores for 2005 had been presented. The scores and their regional differences may have changed over time. Therefore, the current article calculated individualism scores for 2010 and 2015 following previous research. Analyses showed that the scores were stable over time, indicating that regional differences in individualism were maintained for this period. This report is useful for understanding regional differences in psychological phenomena and validating new indicators at the regional level.

On the structural equivalence of coresidents and the measurement of village social structure

Researchers in the social and biomedical sciences regularly measure networks spanning entire villages in low- and middle-income countries by documenting the social contacts of just one or two representatives from participating households. This “lean” approach to network measurement is cost-effective compared to a sociometric census of a village’s adult population. However, it implicitly assumes that interviewed and non-interviewed coresidents are structurally equivalent — i.e., directly connected to the same network members in the same fashion. Drawing from research on multilevel networks and intra-household heterogeneity, here I argue that this assumption is unlikely to hold for the personal social ties typically of interest to field researchers (i.e., friends and other preferred sources and targets of material, informational and emotional support). I substantiate my claim with an exploratory case study on the similarity of coresidents’ incoming and outgoing ties using data documenting unrestricted roster-based reports on the provision of tangible aid amongst all adult residents of a remote village of indigenous horticulturalists in Nicaragua (108 adults; 32 nuclear-family households). Results indicate that coresidents markedly deviate from structural equivalence and its generalisation in the form of stochastic equivalence (i.e., similar probabilities of being directly connected to the same network members in the same fashion). All in all, it is ill-advised to assume that the personal network of any one coresident, or, more generally, the manner in which a coresident tends to send and receive their personal ties, is representative of their household.

Family structure diversity: Views from rural community leaders and implications for youth engagement

ABSTRACT As family structures continue to evolve, understanding how communities perceive these changes and influences on youth engagement is important. This study examined community leaders’ perceptions of rural youth engagement as influenced by family structural changes. Fifteen rural community leaders were interviewed, and data were analyzed thematically. Three major themes emerged: familial influence on youth development, parents’ beliefs on structurally diverse homes, and community as a resource for youth engagement. Findings suggest that community leaders (a) perceived families as the primary influence in youth development (b) endorsed the view that non-nuclear families are broken, and (c) felt youth emerging from these family types are less motivated to engage in community life than their counterparts from nuclear family households. Community leaders predominantly assumed that family structure diversity was the strongest determinant of youth engagement within their community, without accounting for qualitative differences in resources provided to match youth interest.

Kin-based alloparenting and infant hospital admissions in the UK Millennium cohort

Abstract Background and objectives Kin-selected altruism is an evolutionary explanation for why biological kin other than parents are willing childcare providers or alloparents. Kin alloparents may increase lineage fitness by reducing maternal energy depletion and improving child survival through childcare activities. The aim of this research was to apply the hypothesis that kin-based alloparental care has benefits for child health in a western, educated, industrialized, rich, democratic context. Methodology The hypothesis was tested using the first sweep of the UK Millennium Cohort Study (n = 18 552 infants). The outcome was number of hospitalizations by age 9 months, and the main predictors were kin-based alloparental care during work hours, socioeconomic position and infant health-related variables and their interactions with kin-based alloparenting. Analysis of hospitalizations was carried out using negative binomial regression. Results Kin alloparents were primary day carers in 17% of households. Infants whose main care arrangement during work hours was with kin allocarers had statistically significantly fewer hospitalizations than infants in all other care arrangements combined (Incidence rate ratio = 0.86, P < 0.03), and when contrasted with maternal day care (Incidence rate ratio = 0.79, P < 0.02). Conclusions and implications Kin-based allocare was associated with about a 15% reduction in the risk of infant hospitalization in the first 9 months. The difference appeared to be due in part to a difference in the risk of hospitalization for infectious diseases. Sensitivity analyses indicated that infants cared for by their mother during the day rather than in day-care facilities were most at risk of hospitalization compared with those in kin-based care. Lay summary Modern industrialized societies are generally characterized by nuclear family households, with grandparents and other extended family often living a considerable distance away. Studies carried out in societies which have not undergone the fragmentation of extended families have shown that grandmothers and other biological kin reduce infant mortality, most likely because they distribute the burden of infant care so that it does not fall exclusively on the mother. Here, the hypothesis that grandparental and other family care would be beneficial for infant health in the contemporary UK was testing using the UK Millennium cohort. Infant health was measured as number of hospitalizations in the first 9 months from birth. The main findings were that kin-based infant care, which was most commonly by grandparents, was associated with a 15% reduction in the risk of hospitalization in infants up to 9 months of age. Further analysis suggested that the difference was larger for risk of infant hospitalization due to infectious diseases rather than non-infectious diseases. The results also suggested that the finding may have been driven by increased risk for infants of mothers caring for their infant during normal working hours with no other help, such as from the father or pay-for day-care.

Changes and Trends in Family Structure in Taiwan, 1990 to 2010

Taiwan has experienced significant demographic changes since the late 20th century, including decreasing fertility rate, increasing life expectancy, postponement of marriage and childbearing, reduced marriage rate, and rise in divorce. These demographic trends are likely to change the family structure. The objective of this article is to describe and summarize the changes in family structure between 1990 and 2010 in Taiwan using the Population and Housing Census data. During this period, the average household size decreased from 4.1 to 3.0 persons per household. Also, the share of couple households with unmarried children decreased by 15.1%, and the share of single-person households increased by 8.6%. Nuclear-family households, though they became less common, remained the dominant household type. Single-person households surpassed stem-family households as the second most common household type in 2000 and 2010. Households that are at greater risk of economic hardship, such as single-parent households and skipped-generation households, also increased their respective share during this period.

Relationship between population change and resident characteristics: The case of the Nagasaki Prefecture in Japan

Population decline is currently a serious problem in Japan. In this study, the population change rates of municipalities in the Nagasaki Prefecture were examined using a classification of the resident characteristics of small areas. A total of 14 variables were selected from the small area data of the 2015 census to examine the resident characteristics of the small areas, and these variables were analyzed via factor and cluster analyses. As a result, the variables were classified into six resident characteristic clusters. The classified resident characteristics are Cluster 1: urban professionals, Cluster 2: nuclear families with children living in rental housing, Cluster 3: areas without residents, Cluster 4: blue-collar workers, Cluster 5: manufacturing and industry workers, and Cluster 6: typical farmers. We conducted a regression analysis using the population change rate in each municipality as a response variable and each of the six regions classified in the municipalities as the explanatory variable. We found that Cluster 2 has the greatest influence on the population growth rate. We examined the distribution of each regional classification. It is suggested that the areas classified as Cluster 2 are often distributed in areas outside densely inhabited districts and that emerging residential areas for nuclear family households with children are formed in the suburbs of cities. Municipalities with a high proportion of Cluster 2 are likely to be commuting towns in the Nagasaki and Sasebo employment metropolitan areas, suggesting that the population reduction rate is low due to the accumulation of residents from surrounding areas.

Help whom and help what? Intergenerational co-residence and the gender differences in time use among dual-earner households in Beijing, China

An extensive literature has documented the conflict between employment and household responsibilities and its impacts on the gendered patterns of daily activities in dual-earner households. However, most studies have focused exclusively on the division of household labour in nuclear households, with insufficient attention paid to the impact of alternative household strategies such as co-residence with extended family members. This article investigates the extent to which the presence of elderly parents shifts gendered activity patterns and even reduces the gender inequality in time use in urban China. By drawing on an activity diary survey conducted in Beijing in 2012, we compare and contrast the gendered patterns in time use between nuclear family households and extended family households. We find that co-residence mitigates the tension between employment and household responsibilities for women and leads to greater gender equality in the division of household labour and a reduced gender gap in the time spent on employment. However, co-residence only enables women to shift their time allocation from household responsibilities to employment rather than to pursue discretionary activities, and therefore its positive role is limited. We further discuss the policy implications given the limitations of intergenerational co-residence as an individual-based solution for childcare and other social services in transitional urban China.

Reconceptualising co-residence in post-growth Japanese society

ABSTRACTThree-generation co-residence, derived from the pre-war family system, was a common living arrangement among Japanese families until the proportion of nuclear family households became dominant in the period of economic growth following the Second World War. Financial affluence among ageing parents due to pensions and personal savings, and changes in lifestyle and attitudes, stimulated the growth of elderly-only households from the 1970s. In contemporary Japanese society, patterns of co-residence are changing again. Growing numbers of ageing parents are living with their unmarried adult children, largely due to precarious employment and falling marriage rates among the younger generation. In response to ultra-low fertility, population ageing and low economic growth, current policy discourse and initiatives are encouraging co-residence. Using Census data and attitudinal surveys, this article examines changing post-war patterns of co-residence and conceptualises their shifting functions in post-growth Japan. While ‘de-familialisation’ underpinned the development of long-term care policy in the 1990s reducing the caring responsibilities of families by expanding services and provisions, current policy rhetoric and measures largely focus on ‘re-familialisation’. The article argues that policies encouraging a revival of co-residence through tax incentives and subsidies are, therefore, failing to address contemporary housing and fertility issues facing young adults.

Demographic transitions in South African cities: An analysis of household structures in the City of Tshwane

AbstractThis study examines demographic transitions in South African neighbourhoods by analysing household composition, the relation between household types and neighbourhood characteristics, and patterns of convergence and divergence of household structures in the City of Tshwane between 1996 and 2011 at neighbourhood level. The study finds the growth of households linked to high population in‐migration, ageing populations, declining birth rates and declining household size. Nuclear family households are declining in favour of single person households and extended family households. Spatially, nuclear family households are also increasingly clustering, while single person households are concentrating in rural areas. Associated with these shifts in household structures is increasing poverty and decreasing real household incomes, despite decreasing unemployment. The regressions indicate a club convergence, with single person households tending to poverty, racial segregation, migration, and inferior housing, whereas nuclear family households tending to locational stability, newer and housing, and high owner occupancy in housing. There is also a club convergence towards extended family households among poorer households in previously disadvantaged areas. Household structures still evidence historical inequalities, but racial diversity is increasing in predominantly white neighbourhoods, in association with declining neighbourhood poverty in those areas.

Intra-household resource allocation and familial ties

In this paper, we investigate the link between intra-household resource allocation and familial ties between household members. We show that, within the same geographic, economic and social environments, households where members have ‘stronger’ familial ties (nuclear family households) achieve near Pareto efficient allocation of productive resources and Pareto efficient allocation of consumption while households with ‘weaker’ familial ties (extended family households) do not. We propose a theoretical model of the household based on the idea that altruism between household members vary with familial ties which generates predictions consistent with the observed empirical patterns.

Ageing and changing patterns in familial structure for older persons in India: a decomposition analysis

Purpose– At the turn of twenty-first century, India is facing rapid population ageing coupled with consequential socio-economic development changes. Against the backdrop of such changes, its traditional familial support system of living arrangements for older persons is swiftly changing, undergoing rapid transition towards nuclear family systems. The paper aims to discuss these issues.Design/methodology/approach– This paper examined: first, the changing trends and patterns in joint family systems defined in terms of households with older persons and total households; and second, socio-economic and demographic determinants of changes in the proportion of nuclear households with older adults. The decomposition analysis segregated the contribution of determinants of the change in nuclear households with older persons in three different components: propensity, composition, and interaction. The study used data from three successive rounds of the National Family Health Survey.Findings– Results indicate that a lower proportion of households with older persons were nuclear compared to total households. However, for both types of households, nuclear households increased by nine percentage points during 1992-2006. Households with older persons that were headed by old aged persons, illiterates or females, situated in urban area, not owned agriculture land, lower affluent level, and from Southern India were at most risk of being nuclear than their counterparts.Originality/value– This study provided ample evidence of the increase in nuclear familial structure for older persons in the course of population ageing. Population ageing, urbanization and increase in education, primarily contributed to the increase in nuclear family households of older persons.