The Loneliness of Older Adults Associated with Various Types of Thai Families

The structures of Thai families have changed, and therefore increased the number of factors negatively affecting older adults. The most common is loneliness, which affects older adults and is closely related to mental state. The purpose of this research was to analyze and compare the level of loneliness of older adults in different family types and study the differences between personal factors, family factors, and social factors of the older adults toward the loneliness of the older adults within a variety of family types. The population was 346 older adults aged 60 years and over. The analysis found that 76% of older adults in the study have low levels of loneliness. The older adults in different family types had a statistically significant difference level of loneliness. The older adults who lived alone had a higher level of loneliness than others. Factors related to the moderate level of loneliness among the older adults within different family types were not participating in family activities of a parent-child family and income inadequacy in a three-generation family. The outcome of this research could be used to promote and improve care for older adults to reduce and prevent loneliness based on their specific family types.

Flexible, Family-friendly: Developing an alternative high-density, vertical housing option

<p>There are many benefits associated with living in low density, detached housing conditions. However, the increase in housing demands have prompted Auckland’s surge of peripheral land to be developed into homes and the amplified cost of housing. Defined as urban sprawl, many of these housing types are standalone and built on private land, as the preferred type of housing. Studies have demonstrated that Auckland families' housing preference is the standalone dwelling. The objective for this thesis is to gain a better understanding of urban sprawl, higher-density and vertical development conditions, and recognise the various family types and their associated living preferences. The collected data influences what is considered family-friendly housing attributes, which are reviewed in three different scales of urban, building and unit. This is with the aim to propose another housing option that considers and addresses a family’s housing requirements, as an alternative to the standalone housing option. The resulting design proposes flexible, expanding and contracting units as a solution to provide families the freedom to adapt their living spaces to suit their requirements. By providing family friendly, higher-density dwellings as a suitable option, this could off set the Auckland families’ preference of the standalone house, which is currently contributing towards Auckland’s sprawl.</p>

Flexible, Family-friendly: Developing an alternative high-density, vertical housing option

<p>There are many benefits associated with living in low density, detached housing conditions. However, the increase in housing demands have prompted Auckland’s surge of peripheral land to be developed into homes and the amplified cost of housing. Defined as urban sprawl, many of these housing types are standalone and built on private land, as the preferred type of housing. Studies have demonstrated that Auckland families' housing preference is the standalone dwelling. The objective for this thesis is to gain a better understanding of urban sprawl, higher-density and vertical development conditions, and recognise the various family types and their associated living preferences. The collected data influences what is considered family-friendly housing attributes, which are reviewed in three different scales of urban, building and unit. This is with the aim to propose another housing option that considers and addresses a family’s housing requirements, as an alternative to the standalone housing option. The resulting design proposes flexible, expanding and contracting units as a solution to provide families the freedom to adapt their living spaces to suit their requirements. By providing family friendly, higher-density dwellings as a suitable option, this could off set the Auckland families’ preference of the standalone house, which is currently contributing towards Auckland’s sprawl.</p>

Wealth of children from single-parent families: Low levels and high inequality in Germany

Families’ economic wealth is a resource that can provide children with crucial advantages early in their lives. Prior research identified substantial variation of wealth levels between different family types with children from single-parent families being most disadvantaged. The causes of this disadvantage, how much the disadvantage varies between children and how the non-resident parents’ wealth may potentially reduce the disadvantage remain unclear. To address these research gaps, we use data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (2002–17) to examine the level of and inequality in wealth for children from single-parent families using recentred influence function regression and decomposition analysis. We replicate earlier findings of a large wealth disadvantage for children in single-parent families. We find that the wealth disadvantage can be mainly explained with compositional differences in household income and employment characteristics. Beyond level differences, inequality between children from single-parent families is higher than for other family types and this inequality can only partly be explained by observed demographic and socio-economic characteristics. When considering the wealth of non-resident parents, the wealth disadvantage of children in single-parent families is reduced but remains substantial. JEL-codes: D31, D1, J1

Caregiver Services: Needs, Benefits, and Best Practices

Just under 1 in 5 Americans (19.2%) are caregivers for adults with chronic illnesses. Caregiving is the great equalizer as caregiving remains an activity that occurs among all generations, racial/ethnic groups, income or educational levels, family types, gender identities, and sexual orientations. This presentation will provide a snapshot of the current status of caregiving in the United States. It will explore why caregiver services are needed and will highlight the impacts many caregivers face as a result of their stepping up to help family and friends. In addition, this presentation will discuss what is considered best practice in caregiver services and how the public and private sectors can work together to develop solutions to support family caregivers and those under their care.

Typology of Family Relationships and 6-Year Mortality Risk

Durkheim’s “family protection” thesis indicated that family could protect individuals from death. However, there are heterogeneities in family types. It remains unclear whether all family types play a protective role in older adults’ later life. This study aims to test the relationship between family types and 6-year mortality. Data were derived from a prospective cohort study from 2011 to 2017 of 3,018 U.S. Chinese older adults in Chicago. Family typology was clustered by Latent Class Analysis, including tight-knit (high solidarity and low conflict), unobligated ambivalent (high solidarity and high conflict), commanding conflicted (low solidarity and high conflict), and detached (low solidarity and low conflict). Cox model was used. The result showed that older adults in detached type have higher mortality risk than those in tight-knit type after controlling age, gender, education, income, and medical conditions. Future study could explore the mechanisms through which family types affect mortality risk.

Longitudinal Psychological Family Studies in Austria: A Scoping Review

Objective: To summarize psychological longitudinal research (including population, method, and design characteristics) on family-related outcomes in Austria using a scoping review approach.Background: Evidence-based family policy and practice rely on country-specific research and evidence syntheses to aid in decision making. Longitudinal psychological research on family outcomes provides crucial information about families in a changing society, but an evidence synthesis for Austria is currently lacking.Method: Adhering to PRISMA guidelines, we searched five scientific databases (PsycInfo, PSYNDEX, Pubmed, Scopus, Web of Science) and conducted manual searches to identify additional grey literature. Ten sources (range sample sizes: 22 to 5,000) reporting on six data collection efforts between 1991 and 2015 were identified. Results were summarized narratively.Results: The majority of the samples consisted of heterosexual nuclear families, while research on more diverse family types is needed. Methods were primarily quantitative and conventional in design, but noteworthy exceptions exist. Comprehensive longitudinal data collection efforts across child development are lacking for the new millennium.Conclusion: State-of-the-art research implementing a triangulation of methods, designs, and perspectives that incorporates diverse family types using an intersectional approach is needed to draw accurate conclusions about the changing family landscape in Austria.

Probabilistic Modelling of Demographic Changes in Singapore’s Neighbourhoods

Predicting the temporal evolution of the demography and the residents’ spatial movements would immensely aid the estate development and urban planning. The evolution of population in three townships of Singapore is simulated at neighbourhood scale using a novel agent-based probabilistic approach with inputs from large-scale survey and statistical data. The demographic changes due to age-dependent rates of death and fertility are studied by considering the inter-ethnic marriages that has a varying probability depending on the ethnicities of the male and female partners. The predicted changes in the age and household compositions and family types have been found to reflect the population trends in Singapore over the past years. The decline in family types that contain children and the structure of age composition over years underline the issue of prevailing low fertility rates. The strategies for incorporating the population relocation to consider the long-term spatial movement are also discussed. In Singapore’s context, we consider in the relocation model an added complexity of ethnic quota for the residential units developed by public housing board. The ethnicity dependent parameter coupled with other parameters that represent the number of children in a household besides their size, the household income, the proximity of children’s schools, and the places of employment could play a strong role in predicting the spatial evolution of the residents. These predictions can be used by the urban planners and policy makers to improve the quality of life in Singapore.

Socialization Skills & Family Types: A Report in Three Jamaican Communities Among Young Adults

A child's learning and socialization are most influenced by their family since the family is the child's primary social group. Ultimately, the family will be responsible for shaping a child and developing their values, skills, socialization, and security. This research paper sheds light on the problem in the society that socialization among adults become difficult based on their social background. The research was conducted on two types of families nuclear and single-parent and the impact of these families on the social development of children. The families were selected from three local communities in the parish of Clarendon and Manchester (Rocky Point, Chantilly, and Palmers Cross). The people taken in consideration for this research are of age group 18-35 years old. The basic aim of this research was a statistical analysis on how the economic conditions and home environment contributes to the participant’s socialization behaviors. The research shows how socialization and challenges varies among the families, and how a stable family where both parents are present and resources are readily available, plays a vital in a child’s social development.

Genome-wide association study of multiethnic non-syndromic orofacial cleft families identifies novel loci specific to family and phenotypic subtypes

Orofacial clefts (OFCs) are among the most common craniofacial birth defects and constitute a high public health burden around the world. OFCs are phenotypically heterogeneous, affecting only the lip, only the palate, or involving both the lip and palate. Cleft palate alone is demonstrably a genetically distinct abnormality from OFCs that involve the lip, therefore, it is common to study cleft lip (CL) in combination with cleft lip plus cleft palate (CLP) as a phenotypic group (i.e. cleft lip with or without cleft palate, CL/P), usually considering CLP to be a clinically more severe form of CL. However, even within CL/P, important genetic differences among subtypes may be present. The Pittsburgh Orofacial Cleft (Pitt-OFC) multiethnic study is a rich resource for the study of non-syndromic OFC, comprising a large number of families (~12,000 individuals) from multiple populations worldwide: US and Europe (whites), Central and South America (mixed Native American, European and African), Asia, and Africa. In this study we focused on the CL/P families from this resource grouped into three non-overlapping family types: those with only CL affected members, only CLP affected members, or both CL and CLP. In all, seven total subtypes besides the combined CL/P phenotype, were defined based on the cleft type(s) that were present within pedigree members. The full sample for these analyses includes 2,218 CL and CLP cases along with 4,537 unaffected relatives, as well as 2,673 pure controls with no family history of OFC. Genome-wide association analyses were conducted within each subset, as well as the combined sample. Five novel genome-wide significant associations were observed: 3q29 (rs62284390, p=2.70E-08), 5p13.2 (rs609659, p= 4.57E-08), 7q22.1 (rs6465810, p= 1.25E-08), 19p13.3 (rs628271, p=1.90E-08) and 20q13.33 (rs2427238, p=1.51E-09). In addition, five significant and four suggestive associations confirmed regions previously published as OFC risk loci - PAX7 , IRF6 , FAM49A , DCAF4L2 , 8q24.21, ARID3B, NTN1 , TANC2 and the WNT9B:WNT3 gene cluster. At each of these loci, we compared effect sizes of associated SNPs observed across subtypes and the full sample, and found that certain loci were associated with a specific cleft type, and/or specific family types. Our findings indicate that risk factors differ between cleft and family types, but each cleft type also exhibits some degree of genetic heterogeneity.