The time cost of care

Extensive small scale studies have documented that when people assume the role of assisting a person with impairments or an older person, care activities account for a significant portion of their daily routines. Nevertheless, little research has investigated the problem of measuring the time that carers spend in care-related activities. This paper contrasts two different measures of care time – an estimated average weekly hours question in the 1998 Australian Survey of Disability, Ageing and Carers, and diary estimates from the 1997 national Australian Time Use Survey. This study finds that diaries provide information for a more robust estimate, but only after one models the time use patterns in the days of carers to identify care-related activities, which diarists do not necessarily record as care. Such a measure of care time reveals that even people who offer only occasional assistance to a person with impairments tend to spend the equivalent of more than 10 minutes a day providing care. Most caregivers undertake the equivalent of a part-time job to help a friend or family member. Summing the average caregiving time provided by all household members reveals that over a quarter of Australian households caring for an adult or child provide the equivalent of a full-time employee’s labour, and another quarter work between 20 and 39 total weekly hours to provide informal care.Care, unpaid work, time estimation, family and gender roles, informal economic activity

Effects of new and old media on young children’s language acquisition, development, and early literacy : findings from a longitudinal study of Australian children

The current generation of young children has been described as &ldquo;digital natives&rdquo;, having been born into a ubiquitous digital media environment. They are envisaged as educationally independent of the guided interaction provided by &ldquo;digital immigrants&rdquo;: parents and teachers. This paper uses data from the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC) to study children&rsquo;s (aged 0-8 years) development of vocabulary and traditional literacy; access to digital devices; parental mediation practices; the child&rsquo;s use of digital devices as recorded in time-diaries and, finally, the association between patterns of media use and family contexts on children&rsquo;s learning. The analysis shows the importance of the parental context framing media use in acquisition of vocabulary, and suggests that computer (but not games) use is associated with more developed language skills. Independently of these factors raw exposure to television is not harmful to learning. <br /

Domain-specific reasoning for method engineering based on Toulmin's argumentation theory

Methods describe and embody a broad range of relevant knowledge of enterprises. Usually they have to account for requirements stated by a multitude of various stakeholders. These are typically those that are in charge of business related actions and those that are in charge to support such actions with an IT-Infrastructure. The statement of requirements as well as the validation of methods and in particular process models with respect to those requirements relies drastically on natural language. Natural language seems to be a substantial component to explain and to give an understanding about process models or certain aspects of it. This fact requires closing the gap between the natural language and the respective modelling language. This paper proposes argumentative method engineering for purposefully depicting design decisions and convictions for method engineering through arguments. The approach is derived from Toulmin’s Argumentation Model and explicates the process of negotiating with various stakeholders. So, a model, depicting a method, specified by means of argumentative method engineering, not just includes the claims about a certain domain, it further justifies these claims by referring to already established knowledge. While it can’t be ensured that certain requirements are considered in future project, if the reasons for design decisions of method engineering are transcribed in natural language text, but the semi- formalising of arguments regarding these methods allows such an assurance. So the argumentative approach enables the sophisticated management and reuse of knowledge during the development and extension of methods. The approach is evaluated using a case study, in which a software development method was outsourced to contractors

Digital natives? : new and old media and children’s language acquisition

The current generation of young children has been described as &ldquo;digital natives&rdquo;, having been born into a ubiquitous digital media environment. They are envisaged as educationally independent of the guided interaction provided by &ldquo;digital immigrants&rdquo;: parents and teachers. This paper uses data from the multiples waves of the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC) to study the effect of various media on children&rsquo;s development of vocabulary and traditional literacy. Previous research has suggested that time spent watching television is associated with less time spent reading, and ultimately, with inferior educational outcomes. The early studies of the &ldquo;new&rdquo; digital media (computers, games consoles, mobile phones, the Internet, etc.) assumed these devices would have similar effects on literacy outcomes to those associated with television. Moreover, these earlier studies relied on poorer measures of time spent in media use and usually did not control for the context of the child&rsquo;s media use. Fortunately, LSAC contains measures of access to digital devices; parental mediation practices; the child&rsquo;s use of digital devices as recorded in time use diaries; direct measures of the child&rsquo;s passive vocabulary; and teachers&rsquo; ratings of the child&rsquo;s literacy. The analysis presented shows the importance of the parental context framing the child&rsquo;s media use in promoting the acquisition of vocabulary, and suggests that computer (but not games) use is associated with more developed language skills. Independently of these factors, raw exposure to television is not harmful to learning, as previously thought.<br /

What to do when you can’t (afford to) collect your own data? : a test case using the longitudinal study of Australian children to investigate the influence of parental context on media use and obesity

The dramatic rise in childhood obesity prevalence in the last two decades has prompted concern about the risk factors that may precipitate or maintain weight gain, or both, in early childhood. Media use has long been implicated in policy debates in Australia, particularly around limits to advertising. However the Australian research funding ecology and dominant paradigms in Australian communication and media studies have resulted in a lack of independent, nationally representative studies upon which to base advice. Australian researchers often can&rsquo;t afford to collect the kind of data they would like in order to intervene productively as policy actors. As a test case for innovative ways round this dilemma, this paper mobilises secondary data analysis methodologies to explore potential influences of parenting on children&rsquo;s media use and their weight status.The research reported here uses data from the first three waves of the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children. Results from a path model suggest that children of mothers who were less consistent in the way in which they enforce their rules were more likely to adopt unhealthy lifestyle behaviours, such as sedentary behaviour and consuming unhealthy snacks. Of the lifestyle behaviours considered, time spent watching television or DVDs was the only predictor of child weight status in late childhood. These results suggest a clear pathway linking consistent parenting and other parental practices, children&rsquo;s lifestyle behaviours and weight status

Is the perception of time pressure a barrier to healthy eating and physical activity among women?

Objectives To describe the proportion of women reporting time is a barrier to healthy eating and physical activity, the characteristics of these women and the perceived causes of time pressure, and to examine associations between perceptions of time as a barrier and consumption of fruit, vegetables and fast food, and physical activity.Design A cross-sectional survey of food intake, physical activity and perceived causes of time pressure.Setting A randomly selected community sample.Subjects A sample of 1580 women self-reported their food intake and their perceptions of the causes of time pressure in relation to healthy eating. An additional 1521 women self-reported their leisure-time physical activity and their perceptions of the causes of time pressure in relation to physical activity.Results Time pressure was reported as a barrier to healthy eating by 41 % of the women and as a barrier to physical activity by 73 %. Those who reported time pressure as a barrier to healthy eating were significantly less likely to meet fruit, vegetable and physical activity recommendations, and more likely to eat fast food more frequently.Conclusions Women reporting time pressure as a barrier to healthy eating and physical activity are less likely to meet recommendations than are women who do not see time pressure as a barrier. Further research is required to understand the perception of time pressure issues among women and devise strategies to improve women&rsquo;s food and physical activity behaviours