Presence Of Young Children Research Articles

MEN'S CAREGIVING

This article extends recent scholarship on masculinity by analyzing the effects of social structure, social relations, and gendered caregiving ideology on the care men give to kin and friends. To be sure, men spend significantly less time giving care than do women. However, much variation is contingent on the women in men's lives: It is primarily the characteristics of men's families (including wives' caregiving; the presence of young children, especially daughters; and the availability of siblings, especially sisters) more than employment or gendered caregiving ideology that shape the amount and kind of caregiving men provide. Our findings suggest that although men's caregiving is variable and socially patterned, it is contingent on women: Wives and daughters pull men into caregiving, while adult sisters substitute for them.

Drivers' familiarity with urban route network layout in Amman, Jordan

Abstract Advanced traveler information systems (ATISs) have attracted a considerable amount of attention in recent years. By providing drivers with traffic information, these information systems are likely to help in reducing travel time, traffic-related congestion and consequently lead to reduced levels of vehicle emissions. With the presence of in-car navigation and communication systems, the ATIS can benefit commuters as well as unfamiliar drivers. However, in the absence of in-car navigation systems – the case in most developing countries, familiar drivers are likely to use these information systems more effectively and hence are likely to make well-informed route-diversion and other travel-oriented decisions. This paper is devoted to developing driver familiarity models to identify the factors that influence drivers' familiarity with the urban route network layout. A number of non-linear familiarity models are developed and coefficients are estimated. Estimation results indicate that travel characteristics such as familiarity with one alternative route, residence leaving times, travel time to job location and the presence of young children have a profound impact on the driver's level of familiarity. Separate familiarity models for male and female drivers are also specified and estimated. When subjected to the same set of predictors, the familiarity of male drivers turned out to be more responsive than the familiarity of female drivers. This result could reflect, among other things, the fact that male drivers have more frequent and diverse activity stops that expose them to different sections of the transportation network layout.

Influences on the consumer decision‐making process towards fresh meat – Insights from Belgium and implications

The paper reports findings and recommendations from doctoral research in Belgium. The objective is to present insights related to the consumer decision‐making process towards fresh meat. A four‐component conceptual framework is proposed. Information required to investigate links and associations between different elements of the framework is collected through exploratory and conclusive research procedures, with data originating from consumer surveys and household panels. Major attention is paid to the impact of communication and information from mass media, as well as to the impact of socio‐demographic characteristics such as age and presence of young children in the household. Recommendations extend to livestock farming, the meat industry, government, mass media and future research. Key attention points include increased orientation towards satisfying consumer needs and re‐establishment of trust through the production of intrinsically safe products and reliable and effective communication.

Travel-related decisions by bus, servis taxi, and private car commuters in the city of Amman, Jordan

Abstract The purpose of this study is to investigate travel-related decisions undertaken by private car, bus, and servis taxi commuters. Two disaggregate choice models are formulated and estimated. Choice models relate to two essential daily travel-related decisions such as the morning departure time to work and type of “after work” activity. Estimation results suggest among other findings that private car commuters' morning departure time decisions are very much influenced by the presence of young children, whereas bus and servis taxi commuters' departure time decisions are not influenced by the presence of children. In addition, bus and servis taxi commuters tend to pursue household maintenance activities and, less probably, to pursue a chain of activities after work, while private car commuters are likely to carry out a chain of activities after work. Results also show that both home and work locations have differential impacts on commuters' morning departure time decisions, type of “after work” activity, and the choice of mode to pursue the latter. The distance to “after work” activity seems to be instrumental in determining the type of activity to be pursued after work. In addition, the previous day waiting time at the bus or the servis taxi stop turned out to have a profound impact on bus and servis taxi commuters' morning departure time decisions. The work departure time affects the type of “after work” activity. Bus commuters are less likely to pursue social activities if they left work late, whereas private car commuters are likely to pursue social or household maintenance activities regardless of their work departure time. In summary, bus, servis taxi, and private car commuters have different travel patterns at least in the context of the two decisions addressed. These results enhance our understanding of the commuters' travel patterns and behavior, particularly those relating to type of activity after work. This understanding is likely to improve travel demand forecasting mechanisms and hence provide accurate estimates of “after work” travel demand.

Probit analysis of fresh meat consumption in Belgium: Exploring BSE and television communication impact

This article focuses on factors influencing consumer decision making toward fresh meat consumption in Belgium. Discrete choice models are specified for explaining consumer decisions to decrease fresh meat consumption since the BSE-crisis and toward to the future. Demographic consumer characteristics, consumption frequency and attention to television coverage are included as explanatory variables in the models. A major focus is the impact of television, which has carried several negative reports about meat safety during recent years. Television coverage is found to have a highly negative impact on decision making toward fresh red meat consumption. Model estimation and computation of predicted probabilities reveal that the likelihood of cutting fresh meat consumption increases with greater attention given to television messages, as well as with the presence of young children in the household and with increasing age of the consumer. Interaction between attention to television and age reveals that younger people's decisions are more susceptive to media coverage. Heavy meat consumers are least likely to cut fresh meat consumption. Findings include implications for future livestock production and communication by the meat industry. [Econ-Lit citations: D120, L660, M390] © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Meta-analysis on the association between environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) exposure and the prevalence of lower respiratory tract infection in early childhood.

The aim of this study was to obtain quantitative information from published data on the association between environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) exposure and the prevalence of serious lower respiratory tract infections (LRTI) in infancy and early childhood. We identified 21 relevant publications on the relation between ETS and the prevalence of serious LRTI by reviewing reference lists in relevant reports and by conducting manual and computer searches (Medline database; Dissertation abstracts index of Xerox University Microfilms) of published reports between 1966 and 1995. Thirteen studies were included in a quantitative overview using random effects modeling to derive pooled odds ratios. Sensitivity analyses were conducted to test the decision rules used in extracting odds ratio data. The results of community and hospital studies are broadly consistent and show that the child of a parent who smokes is at approximately twice the risk of having a serious respiratory tract infection in early life that requires hospitalization. This association was pronounced in children younger than age two and diminished after the age of two. The combined odds ratio for hospitalization for lower respiratory tract infections in infancy or early childhood is 1.93 (95% CI 1.66-2.25); the combined odds ratio of prevalence of serious LRTI at age less than 2 years, between 0 and 6 years, and between 3 and 6 years were 1.71 (95% CI 1.33-2.20); 1.57 (1.28-1.91), and 1.25 (0.88-1.78), respectively. There was no evidence of heterogeneity across the studies in these combined odds ratios. We conclude that this meta-analysis provides strong evidence that exposure to ETS causes adverse respiratory health outcomes such as either a serious LRTI or hospitalization for LRTI. New public health campaigns are urgently needed to discourage smoking in the presence of young children.

The Overworked American or the Overestimated Workweek? Trend and Bias in Recent Estimates of Weekly Work Hours in the United States

Individuals' estimates of their paid working hours in response to the Current Population Survey (CPS) are biased upward. The bias is demonstrated here using two independent alternative sources of work-hour estimates: time-diary studies and the BLS Current Employment Statistics (CES) survey, based on payroll records. Comparison of the CPS and CES suggests that the individual overestimation of hours increased substantially between 1965 and 1990, an increase that cannot be attributed to obvious differences between the CPS and CES in coverage or treatment of moonlighting. Examination of the distribution of reported hours in the CPS shows that the increase in bias is not a consequence of the heaping of individual hours responses on the 40-hour week. Crosssection analysis of 1985 time-diary data indicates that hours overestimation varies systematically by gender, education level, and presence of young children. The changing composition of the workforce by schooling can explain about half the increase in the overestimation of hours.

Family Attributes in the Return to Full-Time and Part-Time Employment

The 1992-93 Canadian Survey of Labor and Income Dynamics (SLID) was used in considering the return to full-time and part-time employment as competing risks for people who have been unemployed after a period of employment. SLID is a recently introduced longitudinal household panel survey designed to capture changes in the economic situations of individuals and families over time and the determinants of their well-being. Analysis of the data found family characteristics to play a larger role than human capital factors in the transition. Married men are more likely to return to employment especially on a full-time basis. Married women are not significantly different from single women but cohabitating women are more likely to return to full-time employment. Women are affected by the presence of young children but only in terms of a lesser likelihood to be employed on a full-time basis. Women with young children are not less likely to return to part-time employment. These findings suggest that education and training play lesser roles than the division of paid and unpaid work in re-employment prospects after a period of non-employment.

Social interactions and habit formation in a model of female labour supply

This paper investigates the influence of habit formation and preference interdependence on labour supply behaviour of married females. A novelty of the paper is that we incorporate direct survey information on reference groups of individuals in a neoclassical labour supply model. For that purpose we first estimate a latent variables model relating the direct information to the `true' but unobserved reference groups. One of the most interesting features of the model is that the presence of young children becomes an insignificant factor in the hours equation while it remains a significant factor in the participation decision. In addition, the labour supply curve is much flatter in a model with habit formation and preference interdependence than in a model without it. Both habit formation and preference interdependence contribute significantly to the explanation of female labour supply.

Work incentives and other effects of the transition to social assistance: Evidence from the Slovak Republic

In this paper we investigate whether the potential disincentive effects of the Slovak benefit system have an actual meaning. Using data from subsequent labour force surveys we study the determinants of the outflow from unemployment to a job and the determinants of the outflow to out of the labour force. We find that single unemployed, highly educated unemployed and unemployed living in the capital Bratislava have higher exit rates both to a job and to out of the labour force. The characteristic with a distinctly different effect on both exit rates is the previous labour market position We also find that there are fluctuations in the hazard rate over the duration of unemployment. However, these fluctuations are not very informative. The direct indicators of the type of unemployment benefit do not affect the exit rates, neither do the indirect indicators like, for example, the presence of young children. Although there are potential disincentive effects in the Slovak benefit system we find no evidence that these potential effects materialise.

U.S. Housing: Determinants of Structural Adequacy and Crowding

This paper studies structural adequacy and crowding as dimensions of housing quality. American Housing Survey of Metropolitan Areas data for seven metropolitan areas, Atlanta (Georgia), Baltimore (Maryland), New York (New York), St. Louis (Missouri), San Diego (California), Seattle (Washington), and Washington D.C. are analyzed using a logit model to determine the factors that influence structural adequacy and crowding. We report the prevalence of structural adequacy and crowding in the seven metropolitan areas. A logit model of the determinants of structural adequacy and crowding is specified and estimated. The data reveal that there exist significant disparities in housing quality across metropolitan areas and population groups by race, household type, tenure, and central city or suburban location. The results of the logit analysis indicate that even after statistically adjusting for many factors, race, tenure, location, household type, age of the structure and income are significant in determining housing quality. We find that while structural adequacy has stronger economic and engineering determinants, such as, income, vehicle ownership, unit type and age of the building, crowding has stronger cultural and life-cycle determinants, such as, race, education and presence of young children.

Marital instability after midlife.

"Divorce in later life has been shown to produce dramatic declines in the economic, psychological, and physical well-being of marital partners. This study examines the prevalence and determinants of marital disruption after midlife using Becker's theory of marital instability. Using recent Canadian national data, the marital outcomes of women and men who were married as of age 40 are tracked across the remaining years of the marriage. Cox proportional hazard regression models indicate stabilizing effects of the duration of the marriage, the age at first marriage, the presence of young children, as well as of remarriage for middle-aged and older persons. Other significant risk factors include education, heterogamous marital status, premarital cohabitation, number of siblings, and region."

Gender, Values, and Intentions to Move in Rural Thailand

This article explores gender differences in the intentions to move among a sample of young adults in rural northeastern Thailand. Based on the value-expectancy framework of migration decisionmaking, an explanatory model is tested which includes migration-related value measures along with individual, household and community-level determinants of both intentions to move and change in intentions to move. Multinomial logistic regression results based on data from the 1992 Thailand National Migration Survey provide some support for the hypothesis of gender-specific determinants of both intentions to move and the reconsideration of migration intentions. For men, value measures of affiliation and comfort, social networks, the presence of young children in the family, and land holdings are significant determinants of migration decisionmaking; for women income and comfort values, the presence of elderly persons in the household, community size, and crop losses are the salient factors. The results are discussed in light of traditional and current cultural expectations for men and women in rural Thailand.

Childcare Choice and Constraints in the United States: Social Class, Race and the Influence of Family Views

One of the most pervasive aspects of the Cultural war (Hunter 1991; Wolfe 1993) over family life in the 1990s and next century is over the raising of children. Daycare versus within the family for children under school age is one highly contested aspect of this battle. Because of ideological conflicts, especially over family forms and family norms (Hartmann and Spalter-Roth 1994),and because of the history and politics of attempted family policy, there is no recognizable or coherent proactive family policy in the United States (Pleck 1992) but only a regulatory function unevenly present and enforced (Maynard and McGiniss 1992). In the absence of policy-making in the United States and societal agreement that would legitimate access to a variety of types of non-family for young children, couples are forced to make individual, complex, time-consuming decisions. As a result, and with trepidation, couples rely on community and extended family to inform and legitimate their decisions. Each couple alone comes to terms with integrating two jobs and the presence of young children in the household. Ideology in the U.S leads us to expect that we are constantly exercising free-will and that we are agents acting on our preferences. This paper will demonstrate that decision-making is as much influenced by constraint as by choice. Unlike all other industrialized countries (cf. Moen. 1989; Hartmann and Spalter-Roth 1994), the U.S does not provide either universal subsidized childcare (except Headstart) at any age or paid and extended parental leave. By contrast, in European countries, between 73% and 95% of children, aged three to five, are in publicly funded daycare. Even in these countries, for children under age three is largely not subsidized and pieced together. Parents use a combination of some subsidized in-home care, cooperative arrangements among families, family daycare, and center-based for infants. The overall absence of direct childcare subsidy for infants and young toddlers is mitigated somewhat by generous parental leave policies which allow the mother or father to remain home with the child during infancy without loss of income. For example, in Sweden most children under the age of nine months have one parent at home, which is made possible by State mandated policies (Ferber and O' Farrell 1991).' Despite ideological controversy in the U.S. over who should raise the next generation of children, mothers of young children remain in the work force in dramatically large numbers (Hayes et al. 1990). Thus, daycare is a reality for most U.S. families regardless of social class (Hayes et al. 1990; Pleck 1992). Because childcare is largely not subsidized in the United States, besides rent or mortgage payments, childcare is the single largest cost couples have. However, cost is not commonly the most important factor in choices about childcare. In this study reported below, we found that childcare decisions were embedded in implicit family sentiments. We discuss changing family practices and views of motherhood, the factors couples consider in the selection of childcare arrangements, the meaning of altering the mother's role and replacing her. Then, we turn to an examination of various consequences of workplace constraints and the strategies couples develop in order to participate in daily childcare. These concerns are also addressed by the kinds of childcare options from which parents can choose. The broad range of types of childcare are represented by the couples in this study: including live-in or live-out providers (nannies or persons who are not relatives), relatives, family daycare (based in the provider's home), center-based daycare (which include centers opened from 7 to 6.30 five days a week and centers which have more restricted hours). Additionally, most families supplement their primary arrangement with other adults who provide either back-up care when a child is sick, or occupy transitional hours from primary childcare arrangements to home. …

Labour Force Interruptions: The Influence of Marital Status and Presence of Young Children

Les AA. cherchent a determiner si le statut marital et la presence d'enfants sont des elements importants pour expliquer les variations dans les interruptions de travail. L'Enquete sur le Marche du Travail, realisee entre 1988 et 1990, permet de mesurer les interruptions de travail sur une periode de trois ans, ainsi que des ajustements pour divers facteurs d'ordre demographique, socio-economique et socio-culturel. L'analyse par regression logistique indique que le statut marital et la presence de jeunes enfants sont tous deux importants pour expliquer les differences selon le sexe dans les interruptions de travail. Le mariage et le fait d'avoir de jeunes enfants tendent a reduire les interruptions de travail pour les hommes. Chez les femmes, la presence d'enfants augmente la probabilite d'interruption, surtout si elles ne sont pas mariees

Gender, Values, and Intentions to Move in Rural Thailand

"This article explores gender differences in the intentions to move among a sample of young adults in rural northeastern Thailand. Based on the value-expectancy framework of migration decisionmaking, an explanatory model is tested which includes migration-related value measures along with individual, household and community-level determinants of both intentions to move and change in intentions to move. Multinomial logistic regression results based on data from the 1992 Thailand National Migration Survey provide some support for the hypothesis of gender-specific determinants of both intentions to move and the reconsideration of migration intentions. For men, value measures of affiliation and comfort, social networks, the presence of young children in the family, and land holdings are significant determinants of migration decisionmaking; for women income and comfort values, the presence of elderly persons in the household, community size, and crop losses are the salient factors."

Household Life-Cycle Stages, Transitions, and Product Expenditures

Data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics' Consumer Expenditure Survey provide empirical verification of changes in household spending across a wide variety of products as households pass from one stage of the household life cycle to another. Three spending patterns emerged: (1) a generalized inverted U pattern, with spending rising sharply as households shift from young single to young married, then remaining relatively high, and falling sharply at the older married and/or older single stages, (2) generally increasing expenditures across stages until the last one or two stages, and (3) generally decreasing expenditures across the life cycle. Expenditures are especially influenced by the presence of young children in the household.

Occupational injury in female aerospace workers.

We conducted a population-based case-control study in women in high-risk manufacturing occupations to examine occupational injury and its association with possible risk factors inside and outside the work place. The primary hypothesis was that women with young children are at greater risk of occupational injury than are women without young children, owing to the responsibility and fatigue associated with raising young children. The odds of reported injury was 2.9 times greater in women with a child less than 6 years of age than in women without children less than age 6 [odds ratio (OR) = 2.9; 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.5-5.6]. The same effect was not observed for women with older children. Other predictors of injury were a history of previous injury (OR = 2.7; 95% CI = 1.8-3.9) and a body mass index greater than or equal to 25 (OR = 1.6; 95% CI = 1.08-2.4). We found small or zero effects for age, years of work experience, total number of children at home, ethnicity, marital status, and shift worked. These findings indicate that factors outside the work place, such as the presence of young children at home, may increase the risk of occupational injury for women employed in manufacturing jobs.

Mothers' Labor Force Participation in New York City: A Reappraisal of the Influence of Household Extension

This study examines whether living with other adults enables married and single mothers in New York City to enter the labor market. Multivariate analyses of data on over 8,000 households revealed that living with coresident adults increased the participation of Puerto Rican, Dominican, and Asian single mothers, and enabled all mothers of young children and all foreign-born mothers to enter the labor market. In a separate analysis of extended households, the proportions of elderly and employed coresident adults increased women 's labor force participation, while the proportion of coresident adults who reported child care/family responsibilities as their reason for not being in the labor force decreased women's paid labor activity. Our findings suggest that coresident adults serve different functions within the household, which in turn influence women's labor force decisions in various ways. In recent years attention has focused on the various ways in which families manage social and economic difficulties. One strategy that has received considerable research attention is household extension, or the incorporation of adults other than the husband and wife into the household. Incorporating other adults may benefit the household in a number of ways. Co-resident adults may contribute to the household's pool of financial resources, thereby potentially increasing the economic well-being of household members. Or they may provide domestic labor, which might enable the wife or female householder to devote more time to paid employment. Angel and Tienda (1982) argued that household extension may be an important adaptive strategy for minority families, in that additional income contributions may compensate for low earnings or sporadic unemployment. In this article we analyze the relationship between household extension and mothers' labor force participation among six racial and ethnic groups in New York City. In so doing, we largely replicate an earlier analysis by Tienda and Glass (1985) using current data from one of the nation's most diverse cities. However, we expand upon the earlier analysis in three ways: by including an indicator of the supply of child care in the household, by examining a broader array of racial/ethnic groups, and by analyzing the role that birthplace plays in influencing women's labor market behavior. DETERMINANTS OF WOMEN'S LABOR FORCE PARTICIPATION Family structure has long been recognized as an important determinant of women's labor force participation. Typically, family characteristics--such as marital status, the presence of young children, and the presence of coresident adults--affect the amount of time women can spend in domestic and market activities. Including other adults in the household may ease the strain of balancing domestic and market responsibilities, especially for single mothers and mothers of young children who may have the least flexibility in devoting time to the labor market. Prior research has shown that women who live in extended households are more likely than women who do not live with coresident adults to be in the labor force, yet this relationship varies by race/ethnicity (Barry Figueroa & Melendez, 1993; Stier, 1991; Stier & Tienda, 1992; Tienda & Glass, 1985). Moreover, women's labor force behavior appears to be influenced by the specific characteristics of coresident adults. For example, as the number of coresident adults increases, married mothers' participation decreases, suggesting greater domestic burdens; by contrast, as the proportion of female coresident adults increases so does single mothers' participation, suggesting that coresident women function as surrogate domestic workers (Tienda & Glass, 1985). Living with coresident employed adults increases labor force participation among young mothers, while living with coresident nonworking adults--presumably a source of child care--depresses paid labor activity (Parish, Hao, & Hogan, 1991). …

Migration and Union Dissolution among Puerto Rican Women

The aim was to examine the impact of migration on family formation and dissolution among mainland Puerto Ricans at the individual level. Aggregate data have shown significant effects of residential mobility and migration on divorce but operational mechanisms have not been identified. Data for this study were obtained from pooled life history data on Puerto Rican women aged 15-49 years in the US and Puerto Rico available from the 1982 Puerto Rican Fertility and Family Planning Assessment and the 1985 New York Fertility Employment and Migration Survey. Retrospective event histories provided data on cohabitation marriage fertility education employment and migration. Migration is taken to be time varying: nonmigrants return migrants first generation US migrants second generation US residents and US-born return migrants. Union dissolution behavior is analyzed for each status group in multivariate models. The assumption was that differences among status groups in divorce may be due to factors other than migration. Religion number of siblings and mothers age at first birth were included as background variables. Other factors at the start of the union were womans age preunion births union type education and employment experience. Time varying respondent attributes were union type employment and number and ages of children born within the union. The results support prior individual level theories. Puerto Rican women who had early union formation were pregnant at the start of coresidence and had a preunion birth were more likely to have disruption. Employment was also a contributing factor if the woman did not work prior to union formation. Social integration and support also affected union stability. Life tables showed that nonmigrants had the lowest proportion experiencing disruption and disruption rose with exposure to the US. Logistic regressions confirmed the differences between migrants and nonmigrants. The rate of disruption was 50% lower among women who entered legal marriage and the presence of young children <6 years reduced the likelihood of union disruption. The rate of disruption was 57% more likely among women who migrated during the previous year and particularly high among recent migrants in informal unions.