Missing Work and Quitting Work: Child Care-Related Employment Problems

Qualitative research points to logistical problems in coordinating child care as a key obstacle to maternal employment for low-income mothers. But quantitative research has largely overlooked this everyday aspect of combining work and family. This article provides quantitative analyses of child-care related employment problems among urban working mothers of infants and asks how social support, the complexity of work and care arrangements and demographic characteristics relate to these problems. We use the Fragile Families and Child Well-Being Study to estimate logistic regression models of child care failure and missing or quitting work due to care-related problems. Child-care related problems are widespread regardless of race, class or family structure. Mothers with potential backup providers are less likely to experience care-related problems. Mothers who hold more than one job, use more than one care provider or change providers encounter problems more often. Logistical challenges surrounding child care represent a serious obstacle to continued employment for all urban working mothers. Care-related employment problems are more closely associated with the availability of backup care and the complexity of work and care arrangements than with class. These problems merit further study given their potential impact on the gender wage gap.

Identification of endmembers for magma mixing in Little Sitkin Volcano, Alaska

Little Sitkin island is an Aleutian calc-alkalic volcanic center that has erupted a suite of lavas ranging from andesite through rhyodacite. Whole-rock chemistry of these lavas indicates contrasting evolutionary processes; major-oxide silica variation diagrams exhibit linear trends that are suggestive of magma-mixing while trace-element trends are largely controlled by accessory-phase fractionation. Plagioclase, the dominant phenocryst phase in all lavas, commonly occurs in two distinct populations with markedly different compositions and textures. Both normal and reverse zonation is noted in the plagioclase and clinopyroxene of several samples. In addition, clinopyroxene is found as rims on orthopyroxene grains and as cores with orthopyroxene rims in one sample. These inhomogeneities and indications of disequilibrium are supportive of mixing. The phase chemistry of the Little Sitkin samples indicates that several andesites of intermediate composition formed as a result of mixing. There is considerable overlap of phase compositions in the intermediate andesites and other samples, however the most complete overlap occurs with a rhyodacite. This suggests that the intermediate andesites formed as a result of mixing between a silicic rhyodacite and a more primitive low-silica andesite. The andesitic endmember has not been sampled, although its bulk-rock major-element chemistry has been estimated. Least-squares modelling of four whole-rock mixes shows close agreement between observed and calculated andesite compositions. The sum of the squares of the residuals for these calculations are all less than one. The best match is given by a mixing pair of rhyodacite and the estimated andesite composition, for which the sum of the squares of the residuals is approximately 0.02. Comparison of the petrography and whole-rock chemistry of a sample previously described as a basalt suggests that addition of approximately 35 to 45 weight percent clinopyroxene to an andesite resulted in the observed composition. Least-squares analysis of the Little Sitkin samples indicates that incorporation of a smaller proportion of clinopyroxene, approximately 34 weight percent, plus lesser olivine, plagioclase and magnetite by an andesitic liquid formed the basalt . These phases are possibly cumulate and were incorporated into the andesitic liquid when a fresh pulse of parental magma carried them up to a shallow crustal magma chamber from lower crustal depths. This indicates that andesite, not basalt, is the most primitive composition sampled on the island, and therefore the composition of the parental magma must be inferred. Amphibole compositions indicate that the most reasonable composition of the parent is that of high-alumina basalt (HAB). A model is proposed in which partial melting of mantle peridotite yields an olivine tholeiite liquid. High-pressure fractionation of this liquid at the base of the crust produces the HAB parent magma. The HAB magma then undergoes low-pressure fractionation at upper crustal depths. This process, along with mixing between fresh HAB and more evolved compositions yields the suite of rocks found on the island. Late stage mixing of magmas intermediate between HAB and the silicic component is recorded by intermediate andesite compositions

Disability-free Life Trends at Older Ages: Implications for Longevity Risk Management

Longevity risk, which is typically portrayed as the problem of people outliving their assets, can be viewed as both an aggregate and an individual-level issue. A related issue is that of ‘active life,’ an individual-level phenomenon, or ‘active life expectancy’ (ALE), an aggregate phenomenon. During their lifetimes, members of a covered population may alternate between ‘active’ and ‘disabled’ status; the average amount of time spent in the ‘active’ state is, for the cohort, its ‘active life expectancy.’ ALE does not appear to have consequences for aggregate longevity risk, but it may have major implications at the individual level. A transition from active to disabled status may signal a shorter-than-expected remaining lifetime, with implications for the speed at which one should draw down one’s assets. Moreover, those with severe care needs but lacking access to family-provided care and long-term care insurance may find that they need to draw down their assets in order to achieve eligibility for Medicaid-funded care services. Indeed, Medicaid and family-provided elder care can be viewed as a particular form of ‘public-private partnership’ for sharing the risks of late-life care needs

How Will Declining Rates of Marriage Reshape Eligibility for Social Security?

For most older people in the United States, Social Security is the major source of income: nine out of ten people age 65 or older receive benefits, which represent an average of 41 percent of their income. Largely as a result of Social Security, poverty rates for the elderly are at an all-time low, just 10 percent. But pockets of poverty persist: older unmarried persons, blacks, and Hispanics experience poverty rates in excess of 20 percent, and over 40 percent of all older single black women live in poverty. People quality for Social Security based either on their work record or their marital status. Most older women receive noncontributory Social Security spouse of widow benefits on the basis of their marital history. For these women, marital status is more important than employment status in shaping old-age financial security. However, the trend to marry and stay married has declined over time in the United States, particularly among black women. This, we hypothesize, means that fewer women will qualify for spouse and widow benefits in coming decades. As a result, Social Security benefits will shrink among the very population that currently reports higher poverty rates, older single women, particularly black women. In this policy brief, we ask: Compared to earlier cohorts, what proportion of white, black, and Hispanic women born in the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s will enter old age without a marriage that qualifies them for Social Security spouse and widow benefits? We find that the proportion who will reach age 62 without a qualifying marriage, and thus be ineligible for Social Security spouse and widow benefits, is increasing modestly for whites and Hispanics but dramatically for African Americans. Most of these women will be eligible for retired worker benefits under Social Security, but those benefits are not likely to be as large as the benefits they would have received as spouses and widows, had they been eligible. We then discuss a range of policy alternatives, including the possibility of a minimum benefit.Social Security, spousal benefits, widow benefits, poverty, elderly, social welfare, income security.

Fertility history, health, and health changes in later life: a panel study of British women and men born 1923-49.

We investigated associations between later-life health and fertility history for women and men, using the British Household Panel Survey. We modelled health and its rate of change jointly with sample retention over an 11-year period. For women, childlessness is associated with limitation of activity for health reasons and faster acquisition of the limitation. High parity (four or more children) is associated with poorer health for both women and men. For the parous, this association is also found when age at first birth is controlled. Early parenthood is associated with poorer health. For parents of two or more children, a birth interval of less than 18 months is associated with having a health limitation and an accelerated rate of acquiring it. We conclude that biosocial pathways link parenthood careers and the later-life health of both women and men, and that implications of closely spaced births for parents merit further attention

Allowing Cities to Raise the Minimum Wage Could Prevent Hundreds of Infant Deaths Annually

This research brief discusses findings that show each additional dollar of minimum wage reduces infant deaths by up to 1.8% annually in large U.S. cities. Over 1,400 infants could be saved annually if localities were allowed to raise the minimum wage to $15. State laws that prevent cities and counties from raising their minimum wage contribute to infant deaths

Stability and Change in the Living Arrangements of Older Italian Women, 1990-1995

In this work we analyze the living arrangements of elderly unmarried women in Italy. We use data from three surveys, collected in 1990, 1994, and 1995 by the Italian statistical agency ISTAT. We consider unmarried women aged 65 and older, and three household types (living alone, with children, or with others), taking into account the availability of children with whom they might share a household. During this period the percentage of elderly living alone fell slightly. We investigate these patterns with a structural analysis based on multinomial models. Results indicate that some individual variables (living in southern Italy, health status) have lost their significance in explaining the probability of living with children or with other persons. We conclude that, in contrast to the past, when there was an emphasis on the mother’s dependency in coresidence, choices in living arrangements in Italy seem to reflect the needs of both generations

Traditionality, Modernity, and Household Composition: Parent-Child Coresidence in Contemporary Turkey

We investigate the patterns and correlates of currently married adult children’s coresidence with their parents in Turkey, using data from the 1993 Turkish Demographic and Health Survey. We are particularly interested in “traditional” patterns of coresidence—that is, coresidence with one or both of the husband’s parents—and the effects of variables measuring traditionality at the individual and contextual levels on coresidence with any parent, and with the husband’s parents. The results indicate that coresidence among currently married children is not the norm. However, the odds of coresidence with the husband’s parents, given that a couple coresides with any parent, are very high. In addition, we find substantial effects of traditionality measures on coresidence especially with the husband’s parents. Continued economic development, and the social changes that accompany it, can be expected to reduce the prevalence of parent-child coresidence in Turkey

Shrinking Kin Networks in Italy Due to Sustained Low Fertility

Among the closely watched demographic trends of the late 20th Century is a pronounced drop in fertility rates throughout much of the world. Italy presents a particularly interesting case for study: in 1960, Italy’s total fertility rate (TFR) was 2.41; by 1995 it had fallen to 1.17. According to United Nations projections, by 2050 Italy will be the second oldest country in the world, with 3.4 persons aged 60 or older for each person under age 15. Besides overall population aging, another implication of sustained low fertility is smaller families and kin groups. We investigate the consequences of projected changes in Italy’s birth and death rates on the composition of kin groups using microsimulation techniques. Using a starting population taken from the 1994 “Indagine Multiscopo sulle Famiglie” survey and projected rates of mortality and fertility by age and parity produced by the Italian Institute of Statistics, we simulate the path of kin-group patterns in Italy during the period 1994-2050. While we reproduce the aggregate population patterns found in official projections, we conduct our estimates at the “micro” level, keeping track of the relationships between individuals, which underlie kin group patterns. We show the effects of the demographic trends on the existence of daughters and sons for older mothers, on the number of sisters and brothers with whom an adult woman could share the responsibilities of caring for an elderly mother, and the effect of the joint action of the increase in longevity and the mean age at fertility on the proportion of adult women with a living mother

Absence of singular superconducting fluctuation corrections to thermal conductivity

We evaluate the superconducting fluctuation corrections to thermal conductivity in the normal state which diverge as T approaches T_c. We find zero total contribution for one, two and three-dimensional superconductors for arbitrary impurity concentration. The method used is diagrammatic many-body theory, and all contributions -- Aslamazov-Larkin (AL), Maki-Thompson (MT), and density-of-states (DOS) -- are considered. The AL contribution is convergent, whilst the divergences of the DOS and MT diagrams exactly cancel.Comment: 4 pages text; 2 figure