Since the Start of the Great Recession, More Children Raised by Grandparents

Examines 2000-08 trends in the share of children living with and/or being raised by grandparents by race/ethnicity and poverty level. Analyzes the recession's impact, grandparent caregivers' characteristics, and their own and parents' views of their care

Modern Parenthood: Roles of Moms and Dads Converge as They Balance Work and Family

A lot has changed for women and men in the 50 years since Betty Friedan wrote "The Feminine Mystique". Women have made major strides in education and employment, and the American workplace has been transformed. But with these changes have come the added pressures of balancing work and family life, for mothers and fathers alike. Trends in time use going back to 1965 clearly show how the increased participation of women in the workforce has affected the amount of time mothers devote to paid work. In 2011, mothers spent, on average, 21 hours per week on paid work, up from eight hours in 1965. Over the same period, the total amount of time mothers spend in non-paid work has gone down somewhat. For their part, fathers now spend more time engaged in housework and child care than they did half a century ago. And the amount of time they devote to paid work has decreased slightly over that period. Fathers have by no means caught up to mothers in terms of time spent caring for children and doing household chores, but there has been some gender convergence in the way they divide their time between work and home.The report is divided into two main sections. Section I, Public Opinion Survey Findings, is based mainly on the new Pew Research survey and includes three chapters. Chapter 1 looks at women's growing presence in the labor market and explores changing attitudes about work. Chapter 2 looks at the challenges mothers and fathers face in attempting to balance work and family life. Chapter 3 explores how these challenges are affecting parents -- both in terms of their overall happiness and in how they evaluate the job they are doing raising their children. Section II of the report, Time Use Findings, primarily draws from time use surveys and includes public opinion questions related to time use when available. Chapter 4 provides an overview of how mothers and fathers spend their time in the workplace and at home and how they feel about their time. Chapter 5 goes into detail about the long-term trend in time use among men and women -- and fathers and mothers -- over the past five decades. Chapter 6 looks at current time use patterns among parents of different family types and living arrangements

Women See Value and Benefits of College; Men Lag on Both Fronts, Survey Finds

Presents survey findings about views on the value of higher education, the necessity of a college degree to men and women, financing and affordability of college, and gender composition of college graduates by gender, race/ethnicity, and education

Women in the U.S. Military: Growing Share, Distinctive Profile

The women who serve in today's military differ from the men who serve in a number of ways. Compared with their male counterparts, a greater share of military women are black and a smaller share are married. Also, women veterans of the post-9/11 era are less likely than men to have served in combat and more likely to be critical of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. In other ways, however, military women are not different from military men: they are just as likely to be officers; they joined the armed services for similar reasons; and post-9/11 veterans of both sexes have experienced a similar mix of struggles and rewards upon returning to civilian life. Since 1973, when the United States military ended conscription and established an all-volunteer force, the number of women serving on active duty has risen dramatically. The share of women among the enlisted ranks has increased seven-fold, from 2% to 14%, and the share among commissioned officers has quadrupled, from 4% to 16%.Department of Defense policy prohibits the assignment of women to any "unit below brigade level whose primary mission is direct ground combat." While this policy excludes women from being assigned to infantry, special operations commandos and some other roles, female members of the armed forces may still find themselves in situations that require combat action, such as defending their units if they come under attack.2This report explores the changing role of women in the military using several data sources. Two Department of Defense publications -- Population Representation in the Military Forces, FY2010 and Demographics 2010: Profile of the Military Community -- provide the overall trends in military participation by gender, as well as demographic and occupational profiles of male and female military personnel. The report also draws on data from two surveys of military veterans: a Pew Research Center survey of a nationally representative sample of 1,853 veterans conducted July 28-Sept. 4, 2011, and the July 2010 Current Population Survey (CPS) Veterans Supplement (n=9,739 veterans)

The Digital Revolution and Higher Education

Presents survey findings about the views of college presidents and the public on the value of, prevalence of, and experience with online learning, as well as the role of the Internet and related technologies in education and prospects for future growth

Latinos Online, 2006-2008: Narrowing the Gap

Presents survey findings on Internet use, Internet access at home, and broadband access among Latinos/Hispanics by nativity, age, education, English-reading ability, and income. Analyzes factors behind the trends and compares data with other groups

Orbital Optimization in the Active Space Decomposition Model

We report the derivation and implementation of orbital optimization algorithms for the active space decomposition (ASD) model, which are extensions of complete active space self-consistent field (CASSCF) and its occupation-restricted variants in the conventional multiconfiguration electronic-structure theory. Orbital rotations between active subspaces are included in the optimization, which allows us to unambiguously partition the active space into subspaces, enabling application of ASD to electron and exciton dynamics in covalently linked chromophores. One- and two-particle reduced density matrices, which are required for evaluation of orbital gradient and approximate Hessian elements, are computed from the intermediate tensors in the ASD energy evaluation. Numerical results on 4-(2-naphthylmethyl)-benzaldehyde and [3$_6$]cyclophane and model Hamiltonian analyses of triplet energy transfer processes in the Closs systems are presented. Furthermore model Hamiltonians for hole and electron transfer processes in anti-[2.2](1,4)pentacenophane are studied using an occupation-restricted variant

Parenting in America: Outlook, Worries, Aspirations Are Strongly Linked to Financial Situation

Family life is changing. Two-parent households are on the decline in the United States as divorce, remarriage and cohabitation are on the rise. And families are smaller now, both due to the growth of single-parent households and the drop in fertility. Not only are Americans having fewer children, but the circumstances surrounding parenthood have changed. While in the early 1960s babies typically arrived within a marriage, today fully four-in-ten births occur to women who are single or living with a non-marital partner. At the same time that family structures have transformed, so has the role of mothers in the workplace – and in the home. As more moms have entered the labor force, more have become breadwinners – in many cases, primary breadwinners – in their families.As a result of these changes, there is no longer one dominant family form in the U.S. Parents today are raising their children against a backdrop of increasingly diverse and, for many, constantly evolving family forms. By contrast, in 1960, the height of the post-World War II baby boom, there was one dominant family form. At that time 73% of all children were living in a family with two married parents in their first marriage. By 1980, 61% of children were living in this type of family, and today less than half (46%) are. The declining share of children living in what is often deemed a "traditional" family has been largely supplanted by the rising shares of children living with single or cohabiting parents.Not only has the diversity in family living arrangements increased since the early 1960s, but so has the fluidity of the family. Non-marital cohabitation and divorce, along with the prevalence of remarriage and (non-marital) recoupling in the U.S., make for family structures that in many cases continue to evolve throughout a child's life. While in the past a child born to a married couple – as most children were – was very likely to grow up in a home with those two parents, this is much less common today, as a child's living arrangement changes with each adjustment in the relationship status of their parents. For example, one study found that over a three-year period, about three-in-ten (31%) children younger than 6 had experienced a major change in their family or household structure, in the form of parental divorce, separation, marriage, cohabitation or death