This study examined the role of men's breadwinner status and their gender ideologies in shifting the breadwinning boundary. Data come from a 3-wave panel survey of 522 married men in 1980, 1983, and 1988. A strong effect of men's breadwinner status on their ideologies is found in 1983 but not in 1988, whereas the reversed pattern holds for the…

Although a growing number of child placement agencies are serving lesbians and gay men, a dearth of literature exists for adoption agency policies and practices related to working with this population. This article explores the unique characteristics and strengths of prospective gay and lesbian adoptive parents throughout each of the three phases…

Many recent household surveys include questions about respondents' subjective well-being. Nearly all of them, however, pose these questions only to the household head. This paper addresses an issue with practical and methodological concerns. Can survey designers ask only household heads and expect them to accurately represent the living conditions…

This study examined how the developmental processes of autonomy and relatedness are related to changes in the residential status of 181 first-time, adolescent, urban, low-income, African American mothers over the first 24 months postpartum. Although adolescent mothers were eager to live independently, few made a clear transition out of the…

This paper examines the dynamics of poverty. Previous analyses of dynamics of poverty have either examined only fluctuations in the male head of family's earnings or looked at the frequency of poverty periods over a fixed time frame. A more appropriate way to understand the dynamics of poverty is to define spells of poverty. Using this…

Several recent reports have highlighted the earnings gap between high school graduates and dropouts; however, earnings tell only part of the story. Families rely on income from salary for regular expenses, but real economic security requires accumulated wealth. Education can be the key to higher earnings, but it is even more importantly linked to…

This paper summarizes quantitative and qualitative findings from a 1999 study of Mexican-origin households in Nogales, Arizona. It finds that women's educational progress is facilitated by social support and, even more important, that a household's investment in the education of its members is significantly raised with an increase in the education…

We use data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics to estimate the effect of new saving incentives implemented as part of the 1996 welfare reform on household saving. Economic theory predicts that loosening asset limits will increase total savings for households with a large ex-ante probability of welfare receipt such as female-headed households…

Studies suggest negative employment consequences if the minimum wage is increased. This may not affect poverty among households headed by women because the unemployment rate does not seem to play a statistically significant role in determining the poverty rate for this cohort. (Author)

Using longitudinal survey data on the retirement experience of men, researchers provide insights on the economic situation of families in which the major breadwinner is retired. (JOW)

In order to understand the meaning of wives' labor force participation for dual-earner families and the consequences of that participation, the breadwinner role must be conceptualized more clearly and the concept used more precisely. Researchers must abandon their assumption that all wives who are in the labor force are breadwinners and instead…

This article presents the results of a study that investigated the level of assets and debts that female-headed households have in comparison to those of married-couple households and other types of households. The empirical results revealed that the amounts of net worth of married-couple households and male-headed households were significantly…

A comparison of two-questionnaire households to one-questionnaire households indicates that: the former had a lower response rate; item nonresponse was similar; characteristics of responding households were similar; data-gathering costs were increased somewhat but remained miniscule compared to in-person interviews; and in 26 percent of the…

Reports on a study indicating that most able-bodied heads of poor households demonstrate labor force attachment, but their employment tends to be intermittent, low-paying, or both. (Author/CH)

Burden of unemployment shifted from male household heads to female and teenage family members during the 1962-71 period. (MF)