What's love got to do with it? Homogamy and dyadic approaches to understanding marital instability

The determinants of marital instability is an important area of research for demography, sociology and economics, with a host of public policy outcomes being significantly affected by family breakdown. This paper improves our understanding of the issue through the use of rich longitudinal data and the application of advanced research approaches. In both method and data terms our approach represents a significant advance in this research area. Using data from waves 1–7 of HILDA, 2,482 married couples—where both partners are respondents in the first wave—are traced over six years to identify factors associated with marital instability. The data are analysed dyadically; that is, the characteristics of both partners in each couple are considered in tandem. This allows assessment of whether marriages between partners with similar characteristics (homogamy) are more likely to last than are marriages between dissimilar partners, or whether particular characteristics of wives or husbands—independent of their partners’—are more strongly associated with marital stability. A Cox proportional hazards model with time-varying covariates is used to assess the association of characteristics with marital separation. We find the following factors are associated with higher risk of marital separation: spousal differences in age, education, preference for a(nother) child, and drinking and smoking behaviours; dissatisfaction with the relationship; low household income; husband’s unemployment and perceived financial stress; young age at marriage; separation of parents; second-plus marriage; and resident children born before marriage.marriage, marital separation, divorce, Australia, dyadic, homogamy

Algebraic and combinatorial aspects of sandpile monoids on directed graphs

The sandpile group of a graph is a well-studied object that combines ideas from algebraic graph theory, group theory, dynamical systems, and statistical physics. A graph's sandpile group is part of a larger algebraic structure on the graph, known as its sandpile monoid. Most of the work on sandpiles so far has focused on the sandpile group rather than the sandpile monoid of a graph, and has also assumed the underlying graph to be undirected. A notable exception is the recent work of Babai and Toumpakari, which builds up the theory of sandpile monoids on directed graphs from scratch and provides many connections between the combinatorics of a graph and the algebraic aspects of its sandpile monoid. In this paper we primarily consider sandpile monoids on directed graphs, and we extend the existing theory in four main ways. First, we give a combinatorial classification of the maximal subgroups of a sandpile monoid on a directed graph in terms of the sandpile groups of certain easily-identifiable subgraphs. Second, we point out certain sandpile results for undirected graphs that are really results for sandpile monoids on directed graphs that contain exactly two idempotents. Third, we give a new algebraic constraint that sandpile monoids must satisfy and exhibit two infinite families of monoids that cannot be realized as sandpile monoids on any graph. Finally, we give an explicit combinatorial description of the sandpile group identity for every graph in a family of directed graphs which generalizes the family of (undirected) distance-regular graphs. This family includes many other graphs of interest, including iterated wheels, regular trees, and regular tournaments.Comment: v2: Cleaner presentation, new results in final section. Accepted for publication in J. Combin. Theory Ser. A. 21 pages, 5 figure

Service-Learning and Community Service in K-12 Public Schools

The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) of the U.S. Department of Education used the Fast Response Survey System (FRSS) to conduct the National Student Service-Learning and Community Service Survey in spring 1999. This is the first survey to provide reliable national estimates of the percentage of public elementary, middle, and high1 schools incorporating service-learning into their course curriculum, as well as providing the most recent data on school engagement in community service

Perceptions on the Opioid Epidemic: A Qualitative Study

Background: Opioid use disorder (OUD) and resultant opioid overdoses have amplified over the last 20 years, despite efforts to identify best practices for treatment. Little research has focused on the disconnect between individuals with OUD and their healthcare providers. Hypothesis: We hypothesize that discrepancies exist between individuals with OUD and their healthcare providers with respect to perceptions of and experiences with medical care, the opioid antidote naloxone, and current treatment paradigms. Highlighting these discrepancies will inform future healthcare models. Methods: Using electronic surveys and semi-structured interviews, we will collect qualitative data from both individuals with OUD and emergency providers to assess knowledge, attitudes, and perceptions towards OUD, and to identify perceived barriers and facilitators to OUD treatment. A sampling methodology geared toward hidden populations, respondent driven sampling (RDS), will be used to recruit individuals with OUD. The initial participants will be enrolled from the emergency department (seeds) and will be asked to recruit three individuals in their social network from the community (waves). Results: Recruitment to date has focused on individuals with OUD: we have enrolled six seeds. Recruitment of additional waves by the seeds has been a challenge; there has only been one response out of a total of fifteen possible referrals. Community Engagement: We seek to enhance our emergency department-based seed recruitment strategy by expanding into the Worcester community. We are specifically looking to partner with community based-harm reduction agencies and other groups that engage individuals with active or past OUD

Understanding the Contribution of Intellectual Disability Nurses: Scoping Research

This is a presentation that was delivered at the IASSIDD Europe Congress 6-8 July 2021, Amsterdam, Netherlands