Supporting One’s Own? Grandparents’ Help to Grandchildren Who Live With Other Unrelated Children

The structures of young families today are becoming increasingly complex, which may impact grandparents’ involvement. I examine whether grandparents’ support to adult children’s households differs for those with biological grandchildren only, versus households with both biological and non-biological (step, unrelated) grandchildren. The resource dilution hypothesis and sociobiology theory suggest that grandparents will be less supportive of grandchildren when other unrelated children co-reside in their households. Grandparents (mean age 62.23) in the Add Health Parent Study (2015-2017) reported on instrumental and financial help given to each of their adult children's families in the past year. These data were merged with information from their adult children (mean age 36.76) who participated in Add Health Wave V (2016-2018). Adult children’s household structures—biological children only (n=400) or biological + other children (n=51)—were determined using their fertility histories and household rosters. No significant differences were found in the likelihood that grandparents offered any instrumental or financial support to these two household types (controlling for grandparent resources and adult child characteristics). Nor was the level of grandparents’ financial support significantly different for the two groups. However, grandparents gave significantly fewer hours of help to adult children heading households including both biological grandchildren and unrelated children. Grandparents appear less willing to devote time to assisting their grandchildren’s families when their investment is diluted by the presence of unrelated children. Perhaps time with grandchildren is less pleasing or comfortable when unrelated children are present. This same issue does not impact financial giving, which need not involve contact.

Social Networks and Charitable Giving: Trusting, Doing, Asking, and Alter Primacy

This study examines social networks and financial giving to charitable or religious causes. Conventional social capital measures of general social trust and size of social network are studied as predictors of charitable giving. To these traditional measures, we add an examination of particular network aspects of giving: ego giving in relation to network alters who give, solicitations to give by network ties, and ego soliciting alters to give. In addition, the study disaggregates alter effects by alter position. Findings indicate that, net of social trust, social network factors significantly predict likelihood of being a giver. In particular, findings are that egos are especially likely to be donors when their primary alter donates. Three configurations of ego–alter giving and solicitations are significant predictors of ego giving, indicating that ego–alter doing matters more than asking. Theoretical contributions for relational and prosocial studies are discussed, as are practical implications for fundraising professionals.

Cyber Security and Habeas Data: The Latin American response to information security and data protection

Habeas Data is not a commonly known concept, yet it is widely acknowledged in certain circles that deal with information security and data protection. Though it has been around for decades, it has recently gained momentum in Latin America. It is the legal notion that protects any and all information pertaining to the individual, from personal to financial, giving them the power to decide how and where such data can be used. At the same time, most Latin American countries have created laws that protect individuals if their information is misused. This article examines the concept of Habeas Data from its inception to its current applications, and explains the different approaches and legislations passed in Latin American countries on data protection due to the rise of global cybercrime.