Tarzan, Jane, the baby and the boss

Purpose This study aims to examine the two (and perhaps the most) important outcome variables of the interface between work and family, namely, overall job performance and parental functioning, in the context of performance appraisal. Design/methodology/approach Each of 844 respondents (managers or self-employed who supervise workers, half of them men) evaluated a briefly portrayed employed married parent on his/her job performance and parental functioning. Male and female respondents were randomly and equally allocated to one of 16 research conditions. They evaluated an employed married parent portrayed as a mother or a father, who increased or decreased his/her weekly workhours following the mother's return from maternity leave, invested relatively high or low effort in his/her work and exhibited relatively high or low work achievements. Findings Parents who invest a relatively high effort in their work were evaluated as having a higher level of job performance than those who invest a relatively low effort. Parents who exhibit relatively high work achievements were evaluated as having higher levels of job performance and parental functioning than those who exhibit relatively low work achievements. Parents who increased their weekly workhours following the mother's return from maternity leave were evaluated as having a lower level of parental functioning than those who decreased their weekly workhours. Originality/value This is a rare study implementing a factorial design with five independent variables (parent's time investment in work following the mother's return from maternity leave, his/her relative work effort, his/her relative work achievements, parent's gender and the evaluator’s gender) never manipulated simultaneously before.

Extended Kin and Children’s Behavioral Functioning: Family Structure and Parental Immigrant Status

Using the Los Angeles Family and Neighborhood Survey (L.A. FANS), this paper examines the association between the presence of co-resident extended kin and children’s internalizing and externalizing behaviors. The paper demonstrates the differential role of extended kin by family structure, as well as across parental immigrant status – specifically, nativity and documentation status. Children in the sample were found to be disadvantaged in extended family households, especially with regard to internalizing behaviors. This disadvantageous association was found mostly among married-parent extended family households, whereas there was no association between the presence of extended kin and behavior problems in children from single-parent families. This pattern emerged more clearly among children of documented immigrants, compared to those with native-born parents and those whose parents were unauthorized immigrants. These findings suggest a need to modify previous theories on extended family living arrangements; they also provide policy implications for immigrant families.

Single and Cohabiting Parents and Poverty

This article examines the interrelationships among poverty rates, inequality, and nonmarital family structures, focusing on households with a never-married parent, usually the mother, or with cohabiting parents. It first considers marriage and fertility patterns around the world and how these patterns exhibit characteristics of the so-called second demographic transition in which marriage and fertility have become increasingly disconnected. It then discusses the reasons why nonmarital families tend to be poorer than marital families and also why the correlation between poverty and nonmarital family structures does not causally explain between- or within-country variation in poverty rates. It also describes some methods for addressing high poverty rates among nonmarital household structures, arguing that policies other than marriage promotion would be far more effective at reducing poverty for nonmarital households. The article concludes with an assessment of some implications of nonmarital fertility for economic inequality.

Does Marital Status of Parents Relate to Family Communication Regarding Finances?

How do youth and parents perceive their communication with each other? How do they perceive communication about money with each other? Are there differences between married-parent families and single-parent families? The reported study examined the discrepancies in perception between parents and youth and compares these differences between married and single-parent families. Although single-parent families had greater discrepancies in perceptions regarding communication in general, there was no evidence of such differences in discrepancies regarding communication about money. The finding suggests the importance of youth development programs to provide information and encouragement to both youth and their parents.

A Single Father's Shopping Bag

Using data from the 1980 to 2003 panels of the Consumer Expenditure Survey, this article examines purchasing decisions in father-headed single-parent families. Single-father expenditures are compared to both married-parent expenditures and single-mother expenditures on 17 broad categories of household-level goods and services. Multivariate analysis finds that single fathers' consumption choices differ from bundles within married-parent households and single-mother households. Compared to married parents, single fathers spend more on food away from home, alcohol, and tobacco products and spend less on publications, toys, and children's education. Single fathers differ from single mothers by spending more on food away from home, alcohol, and tobacco products and less on books and children's education.

Marriage, Family and Loneliness: A Cross-National Study

Previous research on loneliness has often neglected the role of marriage and family ties, comparative analysis, and cohabitation. It is not clear if the married/parent - loneliness relationship is consistent across nations, is stronger than a cohabitant-loneliness relationship, and applies to both genders. The present study addresses these issues. Data are from 17 nations in the World Values Survey. The results of multiple regression analyses determined that (1) Marriage is associated with substantially less loneliness, but parenthood is not (2) being married was considerably more predictive of loneliness than cohabitation, indicating that companionship alone does not account for the protective nature of marriage (3) both marriage and parental status were associated with lower levels of loneliness among men than women, (4) marriage is associated with decreased loneliness independent of two intervening processes: marriage's association with both health and financial satisfaction, (5) the strength of the marriage-loneliness relationship is constant across 16 of the 17 nations. Theoretically, the results are consistent with a social causation hypothesis on marriage and well-being, but also suggest possible support for a social selection thesis. The findings provide wide sweeping, strong, and largely consistent support for the married-loneliness thesis, but only weak support for a relationship between parenting and loneliness.