Random Families

Author(s):  
Rosanna Hertz ◽  
Margaret K. Nelson

This is a book about unprecedented families—networks of strangers linked by genes, medical technology, and the human desire for affinity and identity. It chronicles the chain of choices that couples and single mothers make—how to conceive, how to place sperm donors in their family tree, and what to do when it suddenly becomes clear that there are children out there that share half their child’s DNA. Do shared genes make you family? Do children find anything in common? What becomes of the random networks that arise once the members of the families of donor siblings find one another? Based on over 350 interviews with children and parents from all over the United States, Hertz and Nelson explore what it means to children to be a donor sibling and what it’s like to be a parent who discovers four, six, or even a dozen children who share half the DNA of one’s own child. At the heart of their investigation are remarkable relationships woven from tenuous bits of information and fueled by intense curiosity. The authors suggest that donor siblings are expanding the possibilities for extended kinship in the United States.

Author(s):  
Guido Pennings ◽  
Edgar Mocanu ◽  
Janne Rothmar Herrmann ◽  
Anne-Bine Skytte ◽  
Corey Burke ◽  
...  

Author(s):  
Dorothy O. Rombo ◽  
Anne Namatsi Lutomia ◽  
Inviolata L. Sore

This study investigated African diaspora parenting in the United States. Three different sources of data were analyzed: parents' focus group discussions, interviews from children and parents, and YouTube videos made by African immigrant children living in the United States. This study applied the thematic analysis methodology, and the results validate other studies that found that parenting is influenced by culture. The results also show that African immigrant parents in the United States use abstract yet multifaceted approaches to parenting, while their children acculturate faster but are also aware of their African cultural heritage. Overall, this chapter underscores the importance of triangulation in studying ethnic minority groups, not only in the way that it precludes lumping their stories together, but also how this method reduces bias and increases the relevance of data.


1995 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 78-101
Author(s):  
Wendy Silberman ◽  
Laura Sherman

On October 1, 1994, the United States and Japan reached agreement on Japanese government procurement of medical technology products and services. This agreement consists of: (1) an exchange of letters between the Governments of Japan and the United States, which include goals, quantitative and qualitative criteria by which to evaluate progress toward the goals and consultation provisions; (2) Measures Related to Japanese Public Sector Procurement of Medical Technology Products and Services, adopted by the Government of Japan on March 29, 1994; (3) Operational Guidelines, which supplement and clarify the Measures; and (4) detailed data collection requirements.


2019 ◽  
Vol 686 (1) ◽  
pp. 310-338 ◽  
Author(s):  
V. Joseph Hotz ◽  
Matthew Wiswall

We analyze policies that support and affect the provision and costs of child care in the United States. These policies are motivated by at least three objectives: (1) improving the cognitive and social development of young children, (2) facilitating maternal employment, and (3) alleviating poverty. We summarize this policy landscape and the evidence on the effects they have on the development of children and parents. We provide a summary of the use and costs of nonparental child care services; and we summarize existing policies and programs that subsidize child care costs, provide child care to certain groups, and regulate various aspects of the services provided in the United States. We then review the evidence on the effects that child care policies have on these objectives. We go on to discuss the existing evidence of their effects on various outcomes. Finally, we outline three reform proposals that will both facilitate work by low-income mothers and improve the quality of child care that their children receive.


2018 ◽  
Vol 48 (2) ◽  
pp. 249-269 ◽  
Author(s):  
OWEN DAVIS

AbstractThis article provides new evidence on the relationship between benefit conditionality and mental health. Using data on Temporary Assistance for Needy Families policies (TANF) – the main form of poverty relief in the United States – it explores whether the mental health of low-educated single mothers varies according to the stringency of conditionality requirements attached to receipt of benefit. Specifically, the article combines state-level data on sanctioning practices, work requirements and welfare-to-work spending with health data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System and evaluates the impact of conditionality on mental health over a fifteen-year period (2000 to 2015). It finds that states that have harsher sanctions, stricter job search requirements and higher expenditure on welfare-to-work policies, have worse mental health among low-educated single mothers. There is also evidence that between-wave increases in the stringency of conditionality requirements are associated with deteriorations in mental health among the recipient population. It is suggested that these findings may reflect an overall effect of ‘intensive conditionality’, rather than of the individual variables per se. The article ends by considering the wider implications for policy and research.


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