Financial Stress and Marital Quality: The Moderating Influence of Couple Communication

This study explores the negative relationship between financial stress and marital quality and examines couple communication as a moderator in this relationship. Using a sample of 373 married U.S. couples from the Flourishing Families Project, an Actor-Partner Interdependence Model (APIM) was run to determine the influence of husbands’ and wives’ financial stress on both their own and their partner’s reports of marital quality. Results found negative associations between both actor and partner reports of financial stress and marital quality. Couple communication did not moderate the associations between husbands’ and wives’ financial stress and wives’ marital quality. However, it did moderate the negative associations between both husbands’ and wives’ financial stress and husbands’ marital quality. Specifically, the deleterious relationship of financial stress to marital quality for husbands was significantly less severe when coupled with positive couple communication. Implications for financial therapists and avenues for future research are discussed

Perceived Family and Partner Support and the Work-Family Interface: A Meta-Analytic Review

This study employed meta-analytic techniques to elucidate the role of perceived partner and family support in four measures of the work-family interface. We extracted 183 effect sizes from 82 samples and a total of N = 36,226 individuals. We found perceived familial (partner and family) support was negatively associated with work-to-family conflict (r = -.099) and family-to-work conflict (r = -.178). It was positively associated with work-to-family enrichment (r = .173) and family-to-work enrichment (r = .378). Various sample-level moderators were investigated through meta regression and subgroup analyses, including whether the support measure was family or partner focused. Perceived family support showed larger magnitude associations with the two conflict outcome variables than partner support, while there were no significant differences between family and partner support and the two enrichment outcomes. The results suggest that familial support is an essential component of successfully minimizing work-family conflict and maximizing work-family enrichment, and that whether the measure of support is partner or family specific may impact the magnitude of results

Shalom bayit—Peace of the Home: Ritual and Tradition in American Jewish Families

Utilizing a sample of 30 regionally diverse families (N=75 individuals) belonging to various branches of Judaism, we qualitatively explored how Judaism enhanced and facilitated participants' general life strengths and relational strengths (i.e., marriage and parenting). Based on our findings, Jewish rituals, traditions, and observances had a positive influence on participants' personal lives and family relationships. A sense of duty and responsibility felt toward Jewish observance and to family relationships seemed to facilitate much of this influence.12 month embargo; published online: 02 Jul 2018This item from the UA Faculty Publications collection is made available by the University of Arizona with support from the University of Arizona Libraries. If you have questions, please contact us at [email protected]

Modeling long-range cross-correlations in two-component ARFIMA and FIARCH processes

We investigate how simultaneously recorded long-range power-law correlated multi-variate signals cross-correlate. To this end we introduce a two-component ARFIMA stochastic process and a two-component FIARCH process to generate coupled fractal signals with long-range power-law correlations which are at the same time long-range cross-correlated. We study how the degree of cross-correlations between these signals depends on the scaling exponents characterizing the fractal correlations in each signal and on the coupling between the signals. Our findings have relevance when studying parallel outputs of multiple-component of physical, physiological and social systems.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures, elsart.cl

Spenders and Tightwads Among Newlyweds: Perceptions of Partner Financial Behaviors and Relational Well-Being

Finances, and how couples manage their finances, can have important implications for couples’ relational well-being. Using data from 1,585 couples that participated in the CREATE study (a nationally representative dyadic dataset of U.S. newlywed couples), we examined how perceiving one’s spouse as a financial spender (i.e., spending more than they ideally would) or financial tightwad (i.e., spending less than they ideally would) was associated with several measures of relational well-being (i.e., satisfaction, commitment, and power) through actor-partner interdependence structural equation models. Results showed that perceiving one’s partner as a spender was detrimental for both the individual’s and the partner’s marital satisfaction, marital commitment, and marital power. Perceiving one’s partner as a tightwad was detrimental for both the individual’s and the partner’s marital commitment and marital power. The findings suggest that interventions focused on perceptions of financial management behaviors may help strengthen relational well-being among newlyweds

An introduction to video methods in organizational research

Video has become a methodological tool of choice for many researchers in social science, but video methods are relatively new to the field of organization studies. This article is an introduction to video methods. First, we situate video methods relative to other kinds of research, suggesting that video recordings and analyses can be used to replace or supplement other approaches, not only observational studies but also retrospective methods such as interviews and surveys. Second, we describe and discuss various features of video data in relation to ontological assumptions that researchers may bring to their research design. Video involves both opportunities and pitfalls for researchers, who ought to use video methods in ways that are consistent with their assumptions about the world and human activity. Third, we take a critical look at video methods by reporting progress that has been made while acknowledging gaps and work that remains to be done. Our critical considerations point repeatedly at articles in this special issue, which represent recent and important advances in video method

Emerging properties of financial time series in the “Game of Life”

We explore the spatial complexity of Conway’s “Game of Life,” a prototypical cellular automaton by means of a geometrical procedure generating a two-dimensional random walk from a bidimensional lattice with periodical boundaries. The one-dimensional projection of this process is analyzed and it turns out that some of its statistical properties resemble the so-called stylized facts observed in financial time series. The scope and meaning of this result are discussed from the viewpoint of complex systems. In particular, we stress how the supposed peculiarities of financial time series are, often, overrated in their importance

Nanostructured 3D Constructs Based on Chitosan and Chondroitin Sulphate Multilayers for Cartilage Tissue Engineering

Nanostructured three-dimensional constructs combining layer-by-layer technology (LbL) and template leaching were processed and evaluated as possible support structures for cartilage tissue engineering. Multilayered constructs were formed by depositing the polyelectrolytes chitosan (CHT) and chondroitin sulphate (CS) on either bidimensional glass surfaces or 3D packet of paraffin spheres. 2D CHT/CS multi-layered constructs proved to support the attachment and proliferation of bovine chondrocytes (BCH). The technology was transposed to 3D level and CHT/CS multi-layered hierarchical scaffolds were retrieved after paraffin leaching. The obtained nanostructured 3D constructs had a high porosity and water uptake capacity of about 300%. Dynamical mechanical analysis (DMA) showed the viscoelastic nature of the scaffolds. Cellular tests were performed with the culture of BCH and multipotent bone marrow derived stromal cells (hMSCs) up to 21 days in chondrogenic differentiation media. Together with scanning electronic microscopy analysis, viability tests and DNA quantification, our results clearly showed that cells attached, proliferated and were metabolically active over the entire scaffold. Cartilaginous extracellular matrix (ECM) formation was further assessed and results showed that GAG secretion occurred indicating the maintenance of the chondrogenic phenotype and the chondrogenic differentiation of hMSCs

Assessing Communities of Practice in health policy : A conceptual framework as a first step towards empirical research

Peer reviewe

Heterogeneous Agent Models: Two Simple Case Studies

These notes review two simple heterogeneous agent models in economics and finance. The first is a cobweb model with rational versus naive agents introduced in Brock and Hommes (1997). The second is an asset pricing model with fundamentalists versus technical traders introduced in Brock and Hommes (1998). Agents are boundedly rational and switch between different trading strategies, based upon an evolutionary fitness measure given by realized past profits. Evolutionary switching creates a nonlinearity in the dynamics. Rational routes to randomness, that is, bifurcation routes to complicated dynamical behaviour occur when agents become more sensitive to differences in evolutionary fitness