Does grandparental child-care provision affect number, satisfaction and with whom leisure activities are done?

This study investigates the impact of non-intensive and intensive supplementary grandparental child care on grandparents’ involvement in leisure activities. Three aspects of leisure activities are investigated: the number/frequency of activities, with whom they are carried out and the subjective satisfaction with them. Beside the possibility of a cumulation effect, the literature suggests that providing grandparental child care might compete with other activities, especially for women. Thus, we consider role enhancement and role strain theories to derive our hypotheses. We use longitudinal data from the German Ageing Survey (DEAS) which contains rich information on the leisure activities of people aged 40 and older. To account for selection into the provision of grandparental child care, we use a within-unit estimation approach (fixed-effects panel models). Our results show that both grandfathers and grandmothers tend to engage in more leisure activities when they provide grandparental child care. While care-giving grandfathers become more likely to engage in activities with family members without changing their engagement outside the family, we found no effect for women in this respect. Nevertheless, grandparental child-care provision modifies satisfaction with leisure activities only for women, reducing it, independently from with whom leisure activities are carried out. These findings suggest that a higher quantity of leisure activities does not necessarily imply higher quality.

Does the Health of Adult Child Caregivers Vary by Employment Status in the United States?

Objective: This study investigates whether the health effects of informal caregiving for aging parents vary by employment status in the United States. Two opposing hypotheses are tested: dual role strain and role enhancement. Method: Using national longitudinal data from the U.S. Health and Retirement Study, multivariate regression models predicted self-rated health and mental health among older adult children caregiving for their parents (2009-2012) and noncaregivers. Results: A statistically significant interaction was found between caregiving duration and employment, indicating that employed caregivers had significantly worse health than retired caregivers. Caregiving duration also predicted significantly higher levels of depressive symptoms. Discussion: Our results support the dual role strain hypothesis and suggest that caregiving for a parent up to 4 years is enough to predict significantly worse health among older adult Baby Boomers, especially those in the labor force. The broader implications for public health and workplace policies are discussed.

Competence approach to descriptive geometry syllabus

In connection with the introduction of third generation educational standards, which are designed to form the educational programs adequate to global trends and labor needs, the descriptive geometry syllabus for bachelors seen from the competence approach positions is discussed. The objectives, aimed to overcome the higher education’s inertia and weak response to the external factors are considered. The task of employers’ role enhancement in professional personnel’s competences training is putting forward. The idea of including the computer graphics questions in the descriptive geometry syllabus is considered. It is arguing that improving of descriptive geometry syllabus’ quality will contribute to achievement of a number of competencies.

Juggling Balls and Roles, Working Mother-Coaches in Youth Sport: Beyond the Dualistic Worker-Mother Identity

Despite the ubiquitous presence of mothers in sport contexts, mothers’ voices are often absent in the sport literature, particularly at the youth sport level. A phenomenological approach was used to explore the experiences of working mother volunteer youth sport coaches. A role-triad model based on the work-family enrichment and role enhancement literature provided the theoretical framework. The purpose was to understand how and why working mother-coaches mange this role triad and to identify mother-worker skills which may transfer to youth coaching and vice versa. Semistructured interviews were conducted with eight working mother-coaches and analyzed for themes. Findings suggest that notions of being a good mother and reasons for coaching are very similar, including spending time together, developing life skills and role modeling. Participants negotiated multiple roles using cognitive tools, such as reframing and separation of roles. The reciprocal benefits of motherhood, working and coaching for themselves and others were highlighted.