Public knowledge,attitudes, and beliefs about homeless people: Evidence for compassion fatigue?

Media reports suggest that the public is becoming impatient with the homeless—that so-called “compassion fatigue” has gripped the nation. This characterization of public sentiment could have important policy consequences—restrictive measures can be justified by growing public impatience, and progressive housing policies seem infeasible within a hostile climate of opinion. But evidence to support the compassion fatigue notion is anecdotal. We examine the issue by tracking the results of public opinion polls and by reporting detailed evidence from a nationwide random-digit dial telephone survey (N=1,507) concerning knowledge attitudes and beliefs about homeless people. To be sure, the public sees homelessness as an undesirable social problem and wants something done about it. However, although the homeless are clearly stigmatized, there is little evidence to suggest that the public has lost compassion and is unwilling to support policies to help homeless people.     

Age,marital status,and labor force participation as related to life satisfaction

This paper replicates and extends a survey research tradition concerning correlates of life satisfaction. The focus is on sex roles, marital status, and labor force participation as predictors of life satisfaction. The data were obtained from a 1973 nationwide, probability-sample survey of the United States population. Cross-tabulations were used as the mode of statistical analysis. Several significant associations were observed between the independent and dependent variables. One of the findings showed that the impact of employment status on the life satisfaction of women varies with level of education.