scholarly journals Family structure effects on U.S. children’s well-being? Re-examining the family instability hypothesis

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alejandra Rodríguez Sánchez

Previous studies have shown that children who grow up in marriage-based twoparent families fare better in terms of their well-being than children who do not. Other researchers have instead argued that these negative effects are confounded by the children’s parents characteristics affecting selection into specific family structure trajectories, which likewise affect the children’s well-being. However, researchers have been unable to account for the complex and dynamic relation between the socioeconomic conditions of individuals and their trajectories of family formation and dissolution. Here I argue that even when researchers account for selection based on observable background characteristics, the negative effect of changes in family structure experienced during childhood on children’s well-being may be biased. Exposure-confounder feedback bias may be present in this association in the form of time-varying confounders such as socioeconomic conditions which affect family transitions and are affected by them dynamically. Data from the Fragile Families and Child Well-being Study is used to empirically show this is the case. Family instability is here considered as a timevarying exposure. Estimations of effects of family transitions on multiple dimensions of children’s well-being are obtained through estimation of doubly robust marginal structural models and inverse probability of treatment weighting. It is shown that most of the effects of family instability are negative with a few noticeable exceptions. But more importantly, the paper shows that the size of these negative effects can be substantially reduced after partially accounting for an idiosyncratic selection of baseline background confounders and exposure-confounder feedback mechanisms. A discussion of these findings, as they relate to the association between socioeconomic conditions and contemporary family dynamics in the U.S., ensues.

2020 ◽  
pp. 0143831X2097547
Author(s):  
Mojca Svetek

Flexicurity is an integral part of the EU Employment Strategy. Flexicurity promises that it is possible to simultaneously provide organisations with greater flexibility and offer workers the necessary level of security. This is achieved by replacing job security, which stems from a permanent employment contract, with employment and income security. The aim of this article is to present an individual-level investigation of the relationships between various elements of flexicurity, examining how they affect psychological well-being and job satisfaction. A heterogeneous sample of 432 adults employed under various types of employment arrangements participated in the study. The results showed that the type of employment arrangement was the main predictor of perceived job insecurity. Moreover, perceived job insecurity mediated the relationship between employment arrangement and psychological outcomes. Finally, employment and income security failed to mitigate the negative effect of job insecurity. The promise of flexicurity is therefore called into question.


2016 ◽  
Vol 39 (1) ◽  
pp. 271-295 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristin Hadfield ◽  
Elizabeth Nixon

Although research has documented the negative effects of family transitions generally on child and maternal outcomes, transitions into and out of mothers’ relationships with partners who are not the father(s) of their child(ren) are less well understood. Through thematic analysis of semistructured interviews, this study investigated how 21 mothers and their 21 children (aged 9 to 18 years) responded to mothers’ relationship formation following the dissolution of previous relationships. Mothers tried to protect their children from the negative impact of family instability by either limiting contact with partners or maintaining continuity through continued child contact with former partners. When faced with relationship transitions, children endeavored to manage threats to their relationships with their mothers and their mothers’ former partners. When children felt they successfully managed these threats, they were more positive about their mothers’ subsequent partners. The tension between the strategies adopted by mothers and children has implications for family practitioners.


2021 ◽  
Vol 15 (37) ◽  
Author(s):  
David Havíř

Purpose of the article: The purpose of this article is to identify the role the customer experience plays in the transformation of the customer and to develop a theory that brings together related concepts in order to position the phenomenon of customer experience in the macromarketing context.Methodology/methods: The grounded theory development approach is based upon the sequential search and content analysis of the research papers acquired primarily from Scopus and Web of Science databases and by the process of citation chaining.Scientific aim: The aim of this article is to identify customer experience related concepts and relationships between them to lay the foundation for empirical research in the area of customer experience and transformation management.Findings: The research points out to the significant role of the customer experience in the transformation of the customer and therefore to the necessity to approach marketing initiatives to customer experience management thoroughly to achieve the desired marketing results, but also responsibly and ethically to promote growth not the degradation of the society.Conclusions: The cycle of the customer transformation as outlined through the conceptual model contains weak spots which can provide free space for negative effects of the company’s outputs on the customer. The trend of digitisation and digital products can significantly amplify this possibility and increase the overall negative effect. From another standpoint, several problematic spots can cause difficulties for companies intentionally trying to transform the customer through their outputs, namely intent-result gap, reality-perception gap, single-part gap, and experience-memory gap.Scientific research in this area might support the effectiveness of marketing initiatives, increase transparency in the field of customer experience and transformation, and lead to increased customers’ well-being, long-term happiness, life satisfaction, and quality of life.


2019 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 158-164
Author(s):  
Ann D. Bass ◽  
Bart Van Wijmeersch ◽  
Lori Mayer ◽  
Mathias Mäurer ◽  
Aaron Boster ◽  
...  

Abstract Background: The vsMS survey was conducted to better understand the negative effects of fatigue, cognitive impairment, emotional burden, and decreased physical functioning on the personal, professional, and social lives of individuals with multiple sclerosis (MS). Methods: The vsMS survey was an online survey conducted in Australia, Canada, France, Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States that assessed the impact of MS on individuals’ daily activities, emotional well-being, relationships, and employment. Results: The survey included 1075 participants with relapsing-remitting MS. Almost 42% of participants reported that their ability to perform and manage daily activities had worsened during the previous 2 years. More than 50% reported limitations in daily activities due to fatigue, physical weakness, problems with balance/coordination, heat/cold sensitivity, memory problems, numbness/tingling, trouble concentrating, impaired movement/muscle stiffness, and impaired sleeping. Participants also reported a negative effect on emotional and social factors, including self-esteem, general outlook, well-being, maintaining/starting relationships, ability to progress in their career/keep their job, and ability to cope with life roles. Conclusions: These data highlight the importance of addressing the impact of MS and the social and emotional disease burdens on daily activities when planning the care of patients with MS.


2020 ◽  
Vol 44 (6) ◽  
pp. 974-1001
Author(s):  
Asif Khan ◽  
Sughra Bibi ◽  
Jiaying Lyu ◽  
Asad Raza ◽  
Hizar Hayat ◽  
...  

This study attempts to highlight the role of tourism and terrorism in shaping well-being measures and, to address the mechanism of how tourism and well-being measures can lead to terrorism in developing economies. Thus, it examines the causal relationship between well-being measures (overall well-being, social well-being, health well-being, and material well-being), tourism, terrorism, and inequality by focusing on Pakistan as a case study. We applied several time series techniques and procedures that include the bounds test, autoregressive distributed lag model mechanism, and Granger causality to analyze the relationships between the aforementioned variables. The findings suggest significant positive relationships between tourism and well-being measures. However, terrorism has a significant negative effect on well-being measures. Inequalities in the distributions of income and facilities have substantial negative effects on well-being measures and tourism; besides, it shows a significant positive association with terrorism. This study indicates that through effective tourism planning, policy makers can improve well-being measures, hence, leading to a reduction in terrorism. However, along with progress in well-being dimensions, policies, and long-term planning should be developed to ensure the equal distribution of income and facilities.


2017 ◽  
Vol 51 (4) ◽  
pp. 927-963 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthijs Kalmijn

Data on secondary school children in England, Germany, the Netherlands, and Sweden show that large differences exist in family structure within the minority population: In some groups, father absence is more common than among natives; in others, it is less common. These patterns reflect the differences in family structure in the origin countries, but the migration process also plays a role. Next, it is found that father absence has negative effects on immigrant children's well-being, but these effects appear weaker in minority groups where father absence is more common. Heterogeneous effects are interpreted in terms of different degrees of institutionalization of father absence in different minority groups.


Author(s):  
Pawel Holas ◽  
Melanie Kowalczyk ◽  
Izabela Krejtz ◽  
Katarzyna Wisiecka ◽  
Tomasz Jankowski

Abstract Fear of evaluation and a negative view of the self are the core aspects of social anxiety. Self-compassion and self-esteem are two distinct positive attitudes toward the self, which are positively related to each other, well-being and good psychological functioning. It is less clear, however, how they interplay in socially anxious individuals and if self-compassion may reduce the negative effect of low self-esteem on social anxiety. The current research aimed at evaluating the directional links between those constructs to check if self-compassion mediates the effect of self-esteem on social anxiety. In this study, 388 adult participants with elevated social anxiety completed measures of self-compassion, self-esteem and social anxiety. As expected, both self-esteem and self-compassion correlated negatively with social anxiety and positively with one another, with lower self-esteem being a stronger predictor of social anxiety. Importantly, self-compassion partially mediated the relationship between self-esteem and social anxiety. These findings suggest that self-compassion partially explains the negative effects of deficits in self-esteem on social anxiety. Practical implications of the research are discussed.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andreas Eberl ◽  
Matthias Collischon ◽  
Tobias Wolbring

Scarring effects of unemployment on subjective well-being (SWB), i.e., negative effects that remain even after workers reenter employment, are well documented in the literature. Nevertheless, the theoretical mechanisms by which unemployment leads to long-lasting negative consequences for SWB are still under debate. Thus, we theorize that unemployment can have an enduring impact mainly through (i) the experience of unemployment as an incisive life event that, for example, affects health and (ii) unemployment as a driver of future unemployment. Using advanced longitudinal modeling that controls for group-specific trends, we estimate SWB scarring through unemployment using German panel data from the Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP). Our results consistently show a large negative effect of unemployment on SWB as well as significant lasting scarring effects (for both men and women as well as for short- and long-term unemployment spells). Further analyses reveal that repeated periods of unemployment drive these effects, implying that there are hardly any adaptations to unemployment that buffer its effect on SWB. We conclude that scarring effects through unemployment mainly work through unemployment increasing the probability of future unemployment. Regarding policy implications, our findings suggest that preventing unemployment, regardless of its duration, is beneficial for individual well-being.


2007 ◽  
Vol 28 (12) ◽  
pp. 1611-1638 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nadine F. Marks ◽  
Heyjung Jun ◽  
Jieun Song

Guided by a life course perspective, attachment theory, and gender theory, this study aims to examine the impact of death of a father, a mother, or both parents, as well as continuously living with one or both parents dead (in contrast to having two parents alive) on multiple dimensions of psychological well-being (depressive symptoms, happiness, self-esteem, mastery, and psychological wellness), alcohol abuse (binge drinking), and physical health (self-assessed health). Analyses of longitudinal data from 8,865 adults in the National Survey of Families and Households 1987-1993 reveal that a father's death leads to more negative effects for sons than daughters and a mother's death leads to more negative effects for daughters than sons. Problematic effects of parent loss are reflected more in men's physical health reports than women's. This study's results suggest that family researchers and practitioners working with aging families should not underestimate the impact of filial bereavement on adult well-being.


2021 ◽  
pp. 026461962110099
Author(s):  
Nigel Halpern ◽  
Jillian M Rickly ◽  
Marcus Hansen ◽  
John Fellenor

In response to the Coronavirus disease, the United Kingdom (UK) government introduced lockdown measures requiring people to isolate and adhere to social distancing. This article uses Constraints Negotiation Theory to examine effects of the lockdown on people with vision impairment (PwVI). The research is based on an online survey of 639 PwVI in the UK. The analysis was conducted using partial least squares structural equation modelling in SmartPLS. The findings show that the lockdown had a negative effect on the participation and well-being of PwVI. However, they also show that the negative effects could be negotiated by adapting activities. This emphasises the need for a more inclusive response to current or future pandemics that recognises the vulnerabilities of PwVI and helps them to overcome the challenges associated with any measures that are introduced.


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