The Effects of Gender and Marital Status on Accrued Debt in Retirement Planning

The effects of gender and marital status on accrued debt in retirement planning becomes an urgent concern because unmarried women face greater financial challenges in retirement than their counterparts. This study used data from the National Financial Capability Study (NFCS), designed by FINRA. We identified debt that influences retirement planning among a sample of pre-retirees, aged 51 to 61 years, and consider the associations of gender, marital status, debt, and retirement planning. Our results indicated that mortgage debt and credit card debt were negatively associated with retirement planning for women. Having a retirement account is positively associated with retirement planning and it also mediates the relationship between credit card debt and retirement planning. We urge women and financial planning executives to take time during the pre-retirement years to assess their various forms of debt and determine how it affects retirement planning objectives given current marital status.

Factors affecting addiction severity index (ASI) among clients enrolled in methadone maintenance treatment (MMT) program in Myanmar

Background Opioid substitution with methadone maintenance treatment (MMT) is shown to reduce illicit opioid use and renew social functioning. Understanding factors that undermine clients’ social functioning during MMT treatment is vital for improving treatment compliance and quality of life. Method A total of 210 respondents who were already enrolled in a formal MMT program in Myanmar were recruited from five cities through stratified random sampling for this cross-sectional study. The addiction severity index (ASI) was used to objectively assess respondents social functioning in the last 30 days. Higher ASI scores denote poorer social functioning. Result Respondents total ASI scores in the respective domains were: employment (47.4%), alcohol (44.4%), drug use (7.2%), legal (49.2%) and social–family relationship (10.7%). Those reported to have never injected drugs in the last 30 days had lower ASI total scores than those who reported injection drug use (p = 0.01). After identifying the differences in ASI total scores, we found there were significant associations in the clients’ hepatitis C status, age category, frequency of heroin injection, quality of life score, marital status, current leisure status with family/friend, current history of injection in the last 30 days, income status, satisfaction with current marital status, as well as reported drug and alcohol use (p < 0.05). Stepwise binary logistic regression showed that alcohol and higher frequency of heroin injection were associated with higher ASI scores. Meanwhile, older age, respondents those who had leisure time with family, and satisfied with current marital status had lower ASI scores (p < 0.05). Conclusion Our results indicate that those enrolled in the MMT program in Myanmar faced many challenges in their daily social functioning. Treatment providers must take heed of these apparent impediment to ensure clients chequered social functioning does not undermine their treatment compliance. Trial registration: NA

Factors Affecting Addiction Severity Index (ASI) among Clients Enrolled in Methadone Maintenance Treatment (MMT) Program in Myanmar

Background: Opioid substitution with methadone maintenance treatment (MMT) is shown to reduce illicit opioid use and renew social-functioning. Understanding factors that undermine clients’ social-functioning during MMT treatment is vital for improving treatment compliance and quality of life. Method: A total of 210 respondents who were presently enrolled in formal MMT program in Myanmar were recruited from five cities through stratified random sampling for this cross-sectional study. The Addiction Severity Index (ASI) was used to objectively assess respondents social-functioning in the last 30 days. Higher ASI scores denotes poorer social-functioning. Result: Respondents total ASI scores in the respective domains were; employment (47.4%), alcohol (44.4%), drug use (7.2%), legal (49.2%) and social-family relationship (10.7%). Those reported to have never injected drugs in the last 30 days had lower ASI scores than those who reported injection drug use (p=0.026). After identifying the differences in ASI total scores, we found there are significant associations in the clients’ Hepatitis C status, age category, frequency of heroin injection, quality of life score, marital status, current leisure status with family/friend, current history of injection in the last 30 days, income status, satisfaction with current marital status, as well as reported drug and alcohol use (p<0.05). Stepwise binary logistic regression showed alcohol and higher frequency of heroin injection is associated with higher ASI scores. Meanwhile, older age respondents, those who had leisure time with family, and satisfied with current marital status had lower ASI scores (p<0.05). Conclusion: Our results indicate that those enrolled in MMT program in Myanmar faced many challenges in their daily social-functioning. Treatment providers must take heed of these apparent impediment to ensure clients chequered social-functioning do not undermine their treatment compliance. Trial registration: NA

The Influence of Parents and Families

This chapter begins to explore how parents and families influence emerging adults’ beliefs about marriage. Parents are the primary focus. Two key roles parents play in their children’s lives in terms of future behavior and current orientations are socialization and the intergenerational transmission of values. For emerging adults with happily married parents, many of the marital paradoxes appeared to vanish. The authors discuss how having never-married or divorced parents affects marital beliefs. Observing conflict generally appears to diminish many emerging adults’ view of marriage regardless of the current marital status of their parents. The influence of siblings is also explored. Parents and other family influences appear to be one of the key foundations on which emerging adults have built their internal conceptualization of modern marriage.

Marital Biography and Health at Mid-Life

This article develops a series of hypotheses about the long-term effects of one's history of marriage, divorce, and widowhood on health, and it tests those hypotheses using data from the Health and Retirement Study. We examine four dimensions of health at mid-life: chronic conditions, mobility limitations, self-rated health, and depressive symptoms. We find that the experience of marital disruption damages health, with the effects still evident years later; among the currently married, those who have ever been divorced show worse health on all dimensions. Both the divorced and widowed who do not remarry show worse health than the currently married on all dimensions. Dimensions of health that seem to develop slowly, such as chronic conditions and mobility limitations, show strong effects of past marital disruption, whereas others, such as depressive symptoms, seem more sensitive to current marital status. Those who spent more years divorced or widowed show more chronic conditions and mobility limitations.

Health Care Utilization and History of Trauma Among Women in a Primary Care Setting

Participants were 150 women seen consecutively by a female family physician in an HMO setting for nonemergent medical care. Each participant completed a questionnaire that explored three areas of trauma. Twelve months after the administration of the questionnaire, medical records of each participant were reviewed for several measures of health care utilization (i.e., number of telephone contacts, physician visits, ongoing prescriptions, acute prescriptions, specialist referrals). Age, education, and current marital status were unrelated to medical utilization. Participants’ acknowledged history of physical and emotional abuse significantly correlated with most measures of health care utilization, whereas sexual abuse generally did not. The implications of these findings are discussed.