Australian National University's Centre for Continuing Education has been studying changing societal patterns in family life, education, and work. Although continuing education can help insure the consideration of women's perspectives, its role is limited in regard to economic and technological change. (SK)

Family policy makers must first understand changes taking place and factors influencing Australian society so that they can then ease the burden on the disadvantaged poor. Growing affluence, increasing de-institutionalization of women's roles, later marriage, delayed and smaller families and an elongated family life duration are among the trends…

This paper comments on and suggests alternatives to assumptions concerning child-rearing currently held by many Australians. That family-child relationships change as societies and economies change is a fact not commonly taken for granted, but is a conclusion reached by scholars examining the history of childhood. Recently in Australia, as…

This report discusses trends in the way Australian families are forming and re-forming, factors determining families' access to income, and proposals regarding reform of the income transfer system. The current shape of families in Australia is described in terms of a shift to marriage at a later age; leaving-home behavior of young people; the…

Supplemented with 20 tables of data, this discussion focuses on the changing environment of Australian families and society. Specifically offered are descriptions of child care arrangements, a rationale for children's services, and policy suggestions. With respect to child care arrangements, it is noted that the family environment has been altered…

These free papers presented at an International Committee on Family Research (CFR) seminar include (1) Frances E. Baum's "There's No Room in the Nuclear Family: Sharing As an Alternative Housing Option"; (2) Paula W. Dail's "Parental Role Perceptions among Young, Dual Parent Families in America: Family Policy Implications for the…

Family life is the focus of this sixth volume in a series containing the proceedings of the 1983 Australian Family Research Conference. The papers are organized under two major sections: Children and Families and Family Environments. Papers and authors included are: "Family Conflict and Child Competence" (Gay Ochiltree and Paul Amato),…

This book contains nine papers that were presented to the Sociology and Social Policy section of the British Association for the Advancement of Science. The first paper, "Introduction: Work and Employment in the 1990s" (Richard Brown), puts work and employment in a historical context and examines how globalization of the economy has…

Most of the research on women and vocational education and training (VET) in Australia and elsewhere that was published in 1987-1998 may be characterized as follows: (1) it was undertaken to inform or support policy decisions and is therefore framed by political and ideological agendas; (2) it is piecemeal; (3) it tends to consider women as…

A study examined psychological and contextual influences on the courses of Australian women's lives and careers. Data were obtained from two sources: (1) the Career Development Project (CDP), a longitudinal study of 3,000 Australian men and women who were selected from an initial sample of 17-year-olds in 1973 and whose educational and career…