The Daily Challenges of Caring for Grandchildren: A Daily Analysis of Emotional and Physical Reactivity to Stressors

Grandparents are increasingly providing extensive and custodial care for their grandchildren. Many factors have contributed to a societal rise in caregiving among grandparents, including addiction, incarceration, dual-income families, and the cost of childcare. Past work has highlighted positive effects of grandparenting (e.g. reduced dementia risk); however, research is limited that examines the day to day challenges grandparent caregivers experience. The goal of this research was to examine daily experiences of stressors, positive events, physical symptoms, and daily mood of grandparent caregivers. Participants (n=18 grandparent caregivers) filled out a diary survey for five consecutive days that measured daily stressors and positive events. A total of 90 diaries were completed. Stressors were reported on 97.6% of days. Multilevel analysis examining emotional and physical reactivity to daily events showed that, controlling for age and gender, on days when participants reported more stressors than average, they reported higher negative affect (p=.019), lower positive affect (p=.003) and more physical symptoms (p=.002). Positive events were not significantly associated with daily mood or daily physical symptoms. Overall, the findings supported the hypothesis that grandparent caregivers experience emotional and physical reactivity to the daily challenges they experience. Future research should examine resources and supports to reduce the impact of daily stressors, as well as the particular challenges among underrepresented groups, particularly Black and Latino grandparents, who provide disproportionate levels of care for their grandchildren. The current study highlights the potential vulnerability and daily needs for support among grandparents who provide regular and custodial care for their grandchildren.

The Changing Spousal Differentials in Socio-demographic Characteristics in Malaysia

This paper uses matched couple data from the 1991, 2000, and 2010 population censuses to examine the changes in spousal differentials in age, education, and work status, as well as inter-ethnic and international marriages. The general trend is one of decreasing spousal age and educational gaps between 1991 and 2010. Although older-man younger-woman marriages still predominated, the spousal age gap decreased from 4.6 years to 3.9 years, and the proportion of marriages in which the husband was more than 6 years older than the wife declined from 30% to 24%. Educational homogamy (couples having the same educational level) rose from 53% to 64%, while the proportion of women marrying someone of higher education declined from 33% to 21%. Inter-ethnic marriage hovered around 4.2% throughout the study period, after rising from less than 1% in the 1980s. International marriages made up about 1.2% of all marriages in 2010, up from 0.8% in 1991. The labour force participation rate of married women had increased significantly, resulting in the rise of dual-income households. The changing spousal differentials in socio-demographic characteristics are bound to alter gender roles and relations that will impact Malaysia’s family institution and demographic outcomes.

A STUDY ON WORK-RELATED FACTORS CAUSING DISRUPTIVE FAMILY CONCERNS DURING COVID-19 PANDEMIC WITH REFERENCE TO DUAL INCOME FAMILIES OF HYDERABAD CITY

We all are having commonly certain level of stress and challenges during our normal life. In the face of the Covid-19, we are being stressed in a number of ways because of financial, isolation, lockdown, employment uncertainty and job related pressures. The Nationwide lockdown because of coronavirus has led to people working from home and thus, spending more time with their families and partners. But India is seeing a rise in cases of domestic abuse and more people in China are filing for divorce. Families are complicated and therefore, there is no simple answer to whether the coronavirus lockdown is actually leading to strengthening of relationships or not. For some people, families are the primary triggers of their mental health issues while some others are part of deeply abusive families. In this context, the study focuses on the analysis of the work related factors and its association with demographics like gender, age, job position, experience and family size in relation with disruptive family concerns and also the impact of work related factors on family concerns during covid-19 in relation with the dual income families in Hyderabad city.It is descriptive study in nature. The opinions of 150 jobholders are collected from the Hyderabad City. Non-probabilistic nature of convenient sample technique is applied for collection of data. A well-structured questionnaire is admired. Data analysis techniques that are descriptive statistics, reliability tests, regression analysis and ANOVA were applied. It is revealed that the work related factors namely job security, work timings, payment of salary, workload, communication, team work, leadership, recognition are greatly disrupting the family concerns and also the demographic factors have shown significant association with the work related factors and disruptive family concerns

Impacts of Dual-Income Household Rate on Suicide Mortalities in Japan

To explore impact of enhancing social advancement of females in Japan, this study determined the effects of the dual-income household rate on suicide mortalities disaggregated by attributes of gender, age, and motives between 2009 and 2017 in Japan. This study analysed impact of dual-income household rate, other household-related factors (savings, liabilities and yearly incomes per household, minors and elderly rate per household), and social/employment factors (complete unemployment rate, employment rate, temporary male and female employment rates and certification rate of long-term care insurance) on suicide mortalities disaggregated by attributes of gender, age, and motives using hierarchical linear-regression model. Dual-income household rate was significantly/negatively related to suicide mortality of the working-age female population, but significantly/positively related to that of the elderly female population. Suicide mortalities of the working-age male population and the elderly male population were significantly/positively related to dual-income household rate. Male suicide mortalities caused by family-, health-, economy- and employment-related motives were significantly/positively related to dual-income household rate; however, the dual-income household rate was significantly/positively related to female suicide mortalities caused by family-, health-, economy- and school-related motives, but significantly/negatively related to suicide mortalities caused by romance-related motives. Dual-income households suppress social-isolation and develop economical/psychological independence of females, leading to reduced suicide mortality in working-age females. However, elderly and school-age populations, who are supported by the working-age female, suffer from isolation. Working-age males also suffer from inability to adapt from the traditional concept of work–life and work–family balances to the novel work–family balance concept adapted to dual-income households. These results suggest occurrence of new social/family problems in the 21st century due to vulnerability of traditional Japanese culture and life–working–family balance concepts as well as novel sociofamilial disturbances induced by declining birth rate and ageing population in Japan.

A Study on Community Economic Resilience in Response to Earthquakes in Jailolo Sub-District, North Maluku

Background: The earthquake that hit the Jailolo sub-district in 2015 caused massive damage and loss. This catastrophic event affected not only impacted the local government's economy but also affected many communities, households and individuals living in these communities. Purpose: Aim of this study is to assess the economic resilience of communities in the Jailolo sub-district in response to earthquakes. Methods: This research was based on a descriptive observational study and employed a survey method to assess the economic resilience of communities in the Jailolo sub-district. The study was conducted in five villages, namely Tedeng, Payo, Saria, Matui, and Buku Maadu. The cut-off point for each indicator was classified as very high criteria (>1.05), high (0.95–1.05), moderate (0.85–0.94), low (0.74–0.84), and very low (≤0.73). Results: The proportion of community home ownership was found to be 100% (Resilience Factor Index (RFI)=1.67). The proportion of community work was 33.75% (RFI=0.68). The proportion of dual-income sources of communities in the Jailolo sub-district was 50.89% (RFI=1.02). The proportion of community income that exceeded the provincial minimum wage (PMW) was 8.71% (RFI=0.10). Based on the results of these indicators, the economic resilience of people in the Jailolo sub-district, which was obtained by considering the average RFI of each indicator, was 0.86. Conclusion: Community economic resilience in the Jailolo sub-district was found to be in the medium category. The highest and lowest resilience factors resulted from home ownership and income, respectively.