Caught in the Middle? Occupancy in Multiple Roles and Help to Parents in a National Probability Sample of Canadian Adults

This paper considers for a Canadian national probability sample of middle-aged women and men the question of how typical is the experience of being "caught in the middle" between being the adult child of elderly parents and other roles. Three roles are examined: adult child, employed worker, and parent (and a refinement of the parent role, being a parent of a co-resident child). Occupancy in multiple roles is examined, followed by an investigation of the extent to which adults in various role combinations actually assist older parents and whether those who provide frequent help are also those "sandwiched" by competing ommitments. The majority of middle-aged children do not provide frequent help to parents. Notably, the highest proportion of daughters who assist elderly parents are those in their fifties whose children are no longer co-resident. For both sons and daughters, being "caught in the middle" is far from a typical experience in this cross-sectional analysis.multiple roles

Women, Work and Caregiving: How Much Difference Does a Great Job Really Make?

This paper examines whether type of job makes a difference in (a) the likelihood that individuals are providing assistance to elderly relatives, (b) the 'costs' associated with this provision, in terms of both job-related and personal costs, and (c) whether observed relationships differ for men and for women. Data are derived from a sample of Canadian employees who participated in a study of work/family balance conducted by the Work and Eldercare Research Group of CARNET: The Canadian Aging Research Network, based at the University of Guelph. The analysis compared full-time employees in three job categories: managerial/professional (n = 1,996); semi-professional (n = 1,270) and clerical, sales, service, craft and trades (n = 2,112). The data indicate no differences between the three occupational groups in the likelihood of providing assistance to elderly relatives. The relationship between job type and both job and personal costs was found to vary in relation to the extent of involvement in the caregiver role. Job costs include lateness, absenteeism, foregoing promotions, missed meetings, and so forth, while personal costs include the perception of work interference with family life, and perceived levels of stress. Among employees providing between 1 and 4 hours of assistance on average per week, gender is associated with significant differences in job and personal costs. This is not true for those providing more hours of care. For both men and women, there appears to be a threshold (5 or more hours of care on average per week) beyond which neither gender nor job type makes a difference in terms of job and personal costs.caregiving; job costs

Age-Gapped and Age-Condensed Lineages: Patterns of Intergenerational Age Structure among Canadian Families

This paper examines intergenerational connections within Canadian families. Its focus is on intergenerational age structure, the interval or 'gap' in years that separates one generation from the next. Intergenerational age structure is measured in terms of the age of a mother at the birth of her first child. Using data from the 1995 General Social Survey of Canada, the study examines the socio-demographic characteristics of women (n=404) in three- and four-generation families (lineages) that are age-condensed (small age distances between generations that are the result of early fertility) and those that are age- gapped (with large age distances between generations that are the result of late fertility patterns). Across two generations of women, there is a striking similarity in the distributions of age at first birth with just under one-third of the sample having early fertility, just over one-half falling into a normative or "on-time" category, and one-seventh having delayed fertility. However, when matched pairs of mothers and daughters are compared across generations, age-condensed and age-gapped lineage patterns show considerable variability. Although just under one-half of mother-daughter dyads show lineage consistency in family age structure across three generations (most typically in age-condensed/age-condensed or normative/normative age structures), low percentages of women whose family of origin was age-gapped repeat that age structure pattern in their own families of procreation. Socio-demographic factors such as mother's and daughter's age, family size, age at first marriage, and level of education are associated with lineage continuity and discontinuity in family age structure.intergenerational age structure; GSS

What is nursing in the 21st century and what does the 21st century health system require of nursing?

It is frequently claimed that nursing is vital to the safe, humane provision of health care and health service to our populations. It is also recognized however, that nursing is a costly health care resource that must be used effectively and efficiently. There is a growing recognition, from within the nursing profession, health care policy makers and society, of the need to analyse the contribution of nursing to health care and its costs. This becomes increasingly pertinent and urgent in a situation, such as that existing in Ireland, where the current financial crisis has lead to public sector employment moratoria, staff cuts and staffing deficits, combined with increased patient expectation, escalating health care costs, and a health care system restructuring and reform agenda. Such factors, increasingly common internationally, make the identification and effective use of the nursing contribution to health care an issue of international importance. This paper seeks to explore the nature of nursing and the function of the nurse within a 21st century health care system, with a focus on the Irish context. However, this analysis fits into and is relevant to the international context and discussion regarding the nursing workforce. This paper uses recent empirical studies exploring the domains of activity and focus of nursing, together with nurses perceptions of their role and work environment, in order to connect those findings with core conceptual questions about the nature and function of nursing

The urban ‘Intangibles of Māori-ness’: an ethnographic study of urban Marae curriculum as decolonial praxis

An ethnographic description of our urban pan-tribal Marae - Hoani Waititi - is described through the lens of a host of poukōrero/participants via a learning conversations research model developed for this study, ‘Whakawhitiwhiti Rua’. The nature of the urban Marae curriculum by way of anticolonial pursuits of Indigenous education within orientations that draw from humanism and social reconstructionism is characteristic of Hoani Waititi Marae. Themes of a constructive view, destructive effects, influences, and cultural maintenance arise. Epistemology and knowledge derivation are explored within a conceptual frame of reference, and are defined as specialised knowledge, as methodology or kaupapa Māori/Māori purpose, and as curriculum. A study of the effects or outcomes of the Marae curriculum reveals themes of sacrifice, choices, mana/prestige, and challenge. The facilitation of the Marae curriculum continues to revise the wānanga/cultures. Implications for the education of Māori in this supposed postcolonial world are uncovered, being the adaptation of Māori, the restoration of Māori, tāngata whenua/people of the land recognition and tāngata whenua not recognised in New Zealand society. Knowledge dissemination and educational implications are celebrated

Cellular subversion: towards a complete repertoire of type-III secretion system effectors in enterohaemorrhagic Escherichia coli O157:H7

Enterohaemorrhagic Escherichia coli (EHEC) O157:H7 is a formidable pathogen that uses a type-III secretion system to inject bacterial ‘effector’ proteins directly into host cells. Most effectors that are encoded within the locus of enterocyte effacement (LEE) have been studied extensively. This study aimed to characterise a selection of recently discovered non-LEE-encoded effectors using a variety of model systems. Firstly, a β-lactamase translocation assay was used to demonstrate translocation of novel effectors into host cells. The localisation of selected effectors was then investigated using mammalian cells and a yeast cell model. The effector EspM2 was shown to induce the formation of actin stress fibres in transfected HeLa cells and caused growth retardation when expressed in yeast. A number of NleG effectors also caused growth retardation and morphological changes when expressed in yeast. Growth retardation caused by the effector NleG8-2 was shown to be dependent on three conserved cysteine, aspartic acid and histidine residues. Transcriptomics and a high copy yeast gene suppression screen revealed that NleG8-2 may disrupt yeast physiology by affecting the secretory pathway. This study confirms that the effector repertoire of EHEC O157:H7 is much larger than previously imagined and provides insight into the function of selected novel effectors