Desired family-size correlates for single undergraduates

Some single Caucasian undergraduates of Protestant religious preference, 115 men and 105 women, were tested to find correlates of, and to compare social-psychological to demographic variables in predicting, subjects' desired family sizes. Men had a mean desired family size of 2.04 children and women, 1.91 children. Women seem more accepting of childless families than men, perhaps perceiving new attractiveness in careers. Men and women wanting small families are less religious and are from smaller families. These men are more anxious and lower in need achievement, and the women have a less traditional sex-role self-concept. Women may see larger families as confirming a traditional sex-role, while men may see them confirming an achievement-oriented, possibly traditional, male role. Demographic variables, which best predict desired family size, may represent the continued influence ot subjects' family backgrounds. However, social-psychological variables may also become important desired family-size influences as women enter their early twenties.     

Personality and Situation in the Prediction of Women's Life Patterns

The present study examined the importance of both personality variables and family situational variables in determining the career activities of young women. In a longitudinal design, family situational variables producing constraint (marriage and children) predicted strongly negatively both career persistence and career activity pattern. Within various family situations, two personality variables—Self-definition and the need for Achievement—predicted these same life outcomes. Results were strongest in indicating that self-definition was associated with professional career activity among relatively unconstrained women, but with "freelance activity in the home" among married women with children. These effects were strengthened further when the length of time a woman had been relatively constrained or relatively autonomous was considered. Results indicate that at least in this sample of young women still caring for small children situational variables may set broad limits on probable behaviors, while personality variables may predict the choice of particular behavior within those broad limits. Personality variables may be most salient and predictive when considered in the context of a temporally stable situation.     

Pathways of identity development in college women

In order to study pathways of identity achievement, the identity statuses of college women were assessed through an interview procedure. Based on areas of identity achievement, the women were designated as following a female pathway, a male pathway, an androgynous pathway, or no pathway. Women in the female pathway were significantly higher on self-esteem than women in the male pathway. In addition, youthfulness was positively related to self-esteem. The results were interpreted to indicate difficulties of choice confronting modern women. Commitments in nontraditional areas such as career and ideological concerns may raise anxieties for women which are reflected in lower self-esteem.The authors wish to thank Dave Drissel, Jimmy Hahn, Randy Herschel, and Sue McGovern for their assistance in interviewing and rating the interviews.     

Homeless women with children. The role of alcohol and other drug abuse.

For some women with children, alcohol and other drug use may be an important risk factor for homelessness because it may interfere with a woman's capacity to compete for scarce resources such as housing, employment, or services. The impact of various policy decisions on homeless women, their dependent children, and the family unit is considered, including women's right to privacy, criminalization of drug use, and scarcity of appropriate treatment programs for homeless women.     

Story telling in families with children: A therapeutic approach to learning problems

Story telling can be used as an original method to restructure families with children. It actively involves parents in communicating with children in their own language, helping the family to switch from a rational language to an emotional/imaginary one, circumventing resistances and permitting its members to resume a natural path in parent-child communication. This paper illustrates how stories can be used in family interaction for treating problems of family origin. Selected stories were given to parents and children for them to read-listen/make comments/dramatize during the phase of family treatment which dealt specifically with learning problems. Three family cases in which story telling was useful in solving children's disabilities through promoting changes in the family structure and creating or enlightening parental functions of orientation and guidance are analyzed.This work was done at CERF, Buenos Aires, Argentina, and received the Margarita Ravioli Award from the Asociacion Argentina de Psiquiatria Infantil for the best paper in mental health and education, Buenos Aires, September, 1987. We wish to acknowledge psychologists Helen Lamuraglia, Julia Koremblit, and Susana Sola for their therapeutic cooperation with the family cases P and F respectively. We especially thank Harry Aponte, Alberto Gonzalez, and Helen Lamuraglia for their support, comments, and review of the paper, which enriched our scope and discussion.     

Changes in Predictors of Gender Role Ideologies Among Women: A Multivariate Analysis

Using data from the National Opinion ResearchCenter's General Social Surveys for 1974-1994, weanalyze changes in gender role ideology among women inthe U.S. We focus on women tied to previous research indicating increasing labor force participationamong various groups of women such as those withpreschool children and those of Hispanic origin, and thepurported egalitarian impact of labor forceparticipation on gender role attitudes. The General SocialSurveys include 9833 women who responded to the genderrole questions, with 1132 black (11.5%) and 351 Hispanic(3.6%) women. Our results refine earlier bivariate findings about the impact of specific types oflife experiences and family power dynamics on women'sviews about appropriate roles for men and women. Mostimportantly, we find that there may be an ubiquitous shift toward more egalitarian gender roleattitudes among women in the U.S. regardless of theirindividual characteristics and circumstances.     

Wishing for Change in Japan and Canada

Japanese and Canadian university students were compared on the changes they wanted in their lives. Contrary to their characterization as self-effacingly relational and group-minded, Japanese were no more likely than Canadians to wish for social or collective goods. Rather, Japanese were more likely than Canadians to wish for money or material goods, and less likely than Canadians to wish for better family relations, increased self-understanding, and improved academic performance. Whether these findings reflect dissimilar cultural priorities, unequal opportunities and constraints, or both, is discussed.     

Behavior Therapy in a Family Context: Treating Elective Mutism

This paper discusses the necessity of using both behavioral and family approaches in combination, while working with electively mute children. The symptom and its significance within the family system is presented along with a rationale for avoiding the pitfalls of individual approaches with such children. A case history outlining specific behavioral techniques is described in detail with an exploration of the use of reinforcement theory, counter-conditioning, and successive approximations in bringing about change in electively mute children. The need for bringing about changes within the family system so as to maintain the changes that have occurred through use of the behavior techniques is discussed and presented as crucial to the treatment process. The paper takes the position that either approach, by itself, will not be effective in helping electively mute children but that the treatment of choice is a combination of therapeutic techniques.     

Tampering with Tradition: Rationales Concerning Women��s Married Names and Children��s Surnames

Despite advances in gender equality in recent decades, the majority of women continue to change their names upon marriage and parents overwhelmingly opt to give children the father??s surname. In two correlational studies, both involving undergraduate samples from Toronto, Canada, we examined gender differences in naming preferences and in justifications underlying a traditional name choice. Men were more likely to prefer traditional choices in both women??s married names (Study 1; N?=?68) and children??s surnames (Study 2; N?=?63), and were also more likely to endorse most potential rationales for these choices. Traditional choices were associated with such factors as concern regarding family dynamics, whereas nontraditional choices were associated with such factors as a desire to increase gender equality.     

Raising American Citizens: Socialization Goals of Low-Income Immigrant Latino Mothers and Fathers of Young Children

Based on ecocultural theory, this study utilizes focus group interviews to explore the ways Latino immigrant mothers and fathers transmit the values and beliefs they wish their young children to internalize. Findings suggest that parents purposely “pick and choose” values they deem “Latino,” such as the importance of family and values they deem “American,” such as independence, to pass on to their children. Parents recognized three main barriers that might stand in their way of teaching their children to adapt to two cultural groups: balancing work and family, low self-esteem, and lack of good parental role models. However, they also pointed out two sources of strength that can help them overcome these barriers: optimism and motivation. This study provides a basis for generating hypotheses to be tested with larger datasets and informs the development of theory and culturally sensitive interventions and measures to evaluate Latino parenting.     

The timing of psychosocial transitions and changes in women's lives: an examination of women aged 45 to 60

Sixty-four middle-class women from four cohorts aged 45, 50, 55, and 60 participated in a retrospective interview concerning psychosocial changes in their adult lives. Their responses provided self-report data relating to specific psychosocial changes, and judges who read the interview protocols provided independent ratings of major psychosocial transitions. The results indicated that major psychosocial transitions were more likely to be associated with phases of the family cycle than with chronological age; within the family cycle, transitions were more likely to occur during the preschool (28% of the women), launching (42% of the women), and postparental (33% of the women) phases than during the no children, school-age, or adolescent phases; transitions associated with the preschool and launching phases were characterized by dissatisfaction, personal disruption, marital unhappiness, and decreased personal development, whereas transitions associated with the postparental phase were characterized by personal mellowing and improved marital relations; and finally, numerous self-reported psychosocial changes were associated with family cycle phase, and a small number of changes was associated with chronological age.     

Having it all? Combining work and family in a male and a female profession

Are women in a female-dominated profession more successfully able to combine work and family obligations than women in a male-dominated profession? To explore this question, a comparison was made between the family status and careers of 747 women librarians (a female-dominated profession) and those of 449 women MBAs (a male-dominated profession). It was expected that the librarians would marry earlier and have more children. This general prediction was not supported. Over half of both groups of women were married, and after controlling for age, there were no differences in number of children. However, many women without children in both groups reported that they would like to be mothers. This disparity between wanting children and not having them was more common for women MBAs than women MLSs. MBAs and librarians were about equally likely to have had job interruptions, but librarians were more likely to have worked part-time. Reasons for an interruption to full-time work were as likely to be for problems finding (full-time) work as for family responsibilities. Librarians' salaries were much lower, but job interruptions and part-time work had a more negative effect on the salaries of women in business. In sum, the data suggest that many of the women surveyed have not combined motherhood with a professional career and that it is probably somewhat more difficult to combine a family with a career in business than with a career in library science.     

In Search of One's Past: An Identity Trip

The experience of being “cut off,” either emotionally or physically, from one's family of origin and extended families is an experience that at times confronts us all, be we the children of natural, adoptive, foster or divorced parents. The goal of this paper is to show that a person's identity is profoundly related to, and affected by, his sense of connection to his family of origin. This paper will take as its point of departure the author's story as a foster child and will describe his successful effort to get himself reconnected to his natural family. The story raises questions about the policies of foster-care agencies and, by implication, questions about adoptive agency policy. Finally, the paper may have something to say not only to family therapists and researchers but to all of us who wish to more fully “know” our parents and our extended families.     

A study of satisfactions and stresses of single women in midlife

Sixty single women 35 to 65 years old, previously married or never married, were interviewed about the satisfactions and stresses of the single status. Respondents were categorized as having high, medium, or low life satisfaction. Life satisfaction was found to be significantly correlated to such factors as good health, not being lonely, living with a female housemate, having many casual friends, and being invested in work. Half the women mentioned having sexual needs, which were or were not fulfilled. The other half stated that they did not have sexual needs. These two groups did not differ in life satisfaction. Regrets about not having had children occurred in one-quarter of the childless women, without necessarily implying low life satisfaction. Only 15% of the entire sample had low life satisfaction, a percentage similar to that found in the general population.The authors wish to express sincere appreciation to George Loewenstein for his aid with the computer analysis of the data.     

Sex-role differences in time use

Analysis of how men and women spend their time reveals much about patterns of underlying sex-role relationships. This article examines national sample data on time use by men and women in order to determine systematic sex differences in the division of work and leisure in society. Particular attention is directed to how time-use patterns shift as both paid work and marital and family burdens are added to the woman's role. To determine time use, subjects kept diaries of their activities for a particular day. In addition, attitude questions about time use were also analyzed. Paid employment was found to constrain the free time of women far more than any other single role factor, including marriage and parenthood. Consequently, employed married women have significantly less free time than do employed men or women not in the labor force. While the free time of a married woman with children decreases when she becomes employed, a husband's free time may actually increase with his wife's employment. Nevertheless, few women indicated that they would like more help with housework and child care from their husbands. Several explanations for women's resistance to more male help are examined. Implications of these results for the career development of employed women and for future changes in marital role relationships are discussed.     

As the Twig Is Bent? The Myth of Child-Rearing Influences on Personality Development

Social scientists and laypersons alike believe that child-rearing styles and family environments are formative of personality traits such as shyness and activity level, intellectual traits such as IQ, and psychopathology. After 100 years of behavioral genetic research, however, including new studies of twins raised apart and together, little factual support for this “common sense” proposition can be found. Nonintellectual traits seem to be determined instead by genetic influences and by relatively specific environmental influences, most of which are not particularly tied to the family or parental treatments. Intellectual traits show modest family environmental influence, but that influence may diminish in importance after childhood. I conclude that parents should be given less credit for children who turn out well and should take less blame for children who turn out poorly. Counselors who blame parents less for children's behavioral outcomes—especially extreme traits and psychopathology—may find those parents to be more willing helpers in those intervention processes that have been shown to work.     

Clinical application of attachment theory in permanency planning for children in foster care: The importance of continuity of care

Permanency planning is a critical issue facing all children in foster care. Foster children frequently suffer from developmental delays and severe behavior problems, often leading to repeated displacements that in turn increase the risk for attachment disorders. To prevent the emergence of such disturbances, an Attachment Clinic was developed in Montreal to offer consultation to Youth Protection workers. A specific problem has frequently been identified in this Clinic: Should a child who has developed a significant attachment to his or her foster parents return to the biological parents or stay in the foster family? The choice between the two families is even more difficult when the parenting competencies of the biological parents seem to have progressed while the child has developed secure attachments in the foster family. Clinical cases will be presented to illustrate such dilemmas. Concepts rooted in attachment theory have been very useful to understand such problems, and have led us to believe that children's best interests lie in the preservation of their attachment ties and that repeated ruptures of such ties constitute a severe trauma. Resistances of the milieu to our position will be discussed as well as the Court's decisions in light of Canadian jurisprudence.     

Assessment of coping strategies, social support, and general health status in individuals with diabetes mellitus

This study examined 51 individuals (30 men, 21 women) who participated in an outpatient diabetes education program. Participants with higher perceived support by friends and problem-solving coping strategies were healthier, while those exhibiting a wish-fulfillment coping style were less healthy. Perceived family social support was much greater for Type II (noninsulin-dependent) individuals than for Type I (insulin-dependent) individuals. Men perceived greater family support, were more likely to use problem-solving coping, and were healthier than women; however, both wish fulfillment and detachment coping were more prevalent in women. Perceived support from family and friends increased with education. Implications for diabetes education programs are also introduced.