Reported are findings from a study of the relation of family configuration to family functioning and to young children's cognitive and social development. Each of the 500 participating families had at least one child in elementary school and was interviewed and observed for an average of 15 hours. Findings reported in this paper concern families…

Recent attention to literacy, rather than focusing on literacy for social mobility as in the 1960s, promotes literacy for basic, entry-level employment, a position that supports the existing power structure rather than redistributing power in our society. Therefore true universal literacy--which involves the potential redistribution of power--is…

Home care has not consistently proven to prevent institutionalization, reduce mortality rates, reduce hospital use, or improve functional status and morale; and indeed, these objectives may be unreasonable. Rather, the purpose of home care should be to meet immediate needs of recipients which they can no longer meet themselves. Publicly-funded…

Recent retrieval of pre-nineteenth century feminist thought provides a telling lesson in the politics of knowledge creation and control. From a feminist perspective, very little research carried out within the critical research paradigm questions the "basic assumptions, conventional wisdom, media myths and the accepted way of doing…

Because of increases in life expectancy and early retirement, the quality of life during retirement is of concern to many people. Previous research has found that health and adequate income have consistently been related to life satisfaction during retirement. Several satisfaction measures were administered to a group of 55 retired coal miners.…

While numerous studies have identified economic, social, and environmental conditions related to stress, greater stress has been found to be related to poverty, unemployment, assembly line work, crowding, and chronic exposure to noise. These stressful situations most frequently confront people with little personal, economic, or political resources…

Dual career families were exceptions to the norm in the 1960's but have steadily increased in prevalence. Dual career professional couples (N=34) were studied to assess the determinants of marital quality and stability in their relationships. Results revealed that couples in high quality marriages reported satisfaction with all aspects of…

Research has confirmed the prevalence of depression in women, based on theoretical explanations that encompass genetic/endocrinological factors, the learned helplessness model, the cognitive model of depression, the effects of marital and occupational roles, and/or social discrimination. Women (N=215) completed a questionnaire which examined…

The current, popular time-and-motion approach to faculty productivity suggests an antiquated strategy not currently in use in business and industry. Higher education needs to develop an idea of productivity that focuses on quality of product, not quantity. The institution must have a commitment to the physical, emotional, and intellectual…

Ways in which health professionals may improve the quality of life for older adults are considered. Needs must be met in the following areas: (1) safe housing; (2) convenient transportation; (3) protection against street crime; (4) improved communication systems; (5) educational programs; (6) nutrition for the elderly; and (7) physical fitness and…

The existing physical forms of housing are not always compatible with prevalent social patterns. To investigate the relationship between family system characteristics and attitudes about residential space, 64 Indiana families in 4 stages of the family life cycle (early years with no children, crowded years with at least one preschool child, peak…

Developing social indicators of basic human needs involves (1) recognizing the problems in selection, (2) identifying the criteria for making selections, (3) choosing which basic needs to cover, and (4) selecting the indicators. The social indicators are to help formulate U.S. foreign policy and will be used by the State Department's Bureau of…

This paper reports the results of an interview survey of 108 Chinese American residents of San Francisco, California's Chinatown. Subjects' attitudes were examined in six areas: quality of life, environment, physical health, mental health, psychological attitudes, and employment. Chinatown residents were found to be two to three times more…

Basic considerations in the assessment of an individual's quality of life include: (1) the nature of the scales used for reporting; (2) the domains included in the overall assessment and their relative importance to the individual; (3) the time frame of the reporting period as either stated or implied; (4) the extent to which the personal report…

One hundred widows were interviewed to determine their patterns of coping with problems they encounter in widowhood. Utilizing McClusky's theory of margin, the self-identified problems encountered in widowhood were viewed as "load" factors, while the services and resources the widow used were considered "power" factors. A…