The private economic assistance that women experiencing poverty can potentially receive during a marital separation has been largely overlooked. This study investigates determinants of economic aid from family, friends, and private community organizations among women experiencing marital separation and poverty. Such private social help may make the difference between an informal but flexible support network and a formal but routine social safety net. Using panel data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP), this study found that the odds of a woman receiving private help to make ends meet during a period of marital separation and poverty were associated with her human capital, command over marital assets, employment, and duration of the separation. Separated women with fewer economic resources or more urgent economic needs were more likely to receive informal social help. The growing dependency on private assistance over the duration of marital separation also suggests the chronic strain model that economic hardship is a chronic stress for women after separation.

Guided by two architectural design principles, we investigated whether differences in the ways intergenerational households were structured could predict the odds of intergenerational households breaking apart. The two architectural design principles guiding our study were: (a) to classify structures, such as intergenerational households, according to a hierarchical ordering, in our case, a generational hierarchy, first, second, third, and so forth); and (b) to identify a central entity or focal point responsible for maintaining the structure, again for us, the focal generation responsible for a household. Applying both principles to a rich source of data that contained a large sample of intergenerational households, we found striking differences in odds of breakups by generational ordering, focal generation, and race. Whereas white three-generation households headed by grandparents were the most likely to break up, black skipped-generation households headed by grandparents were the least likely to break up.

Though societal acceptance of same-sex unions has grown, resulting in more inclusive government programs and policies and expanded legal protections, analysts remain uncertain about how to identify and enumerate same-sex households. Presently, the counts available of same-sex households in the United States oftentimes disagree. We show that the origins of these conflicting counts can be traced back to definitional and measurement issues in household surveys. In this study, we demonstrate how counts of same-sex households conflict, mislead, and undermine the goal of accurately representing the population of households with same-sex couples. By providing alternative approaches to counting household with same-sex couples we highlight the challenges in enumerating these households. We draw upon three federal household surveys to demonstrate the inconsistencies in the counts of same-sex households and to illustrate our methods. We argue that our proposed methods lead to more comprehensive and credible counts of households containing same-sex couples.

Why households eligible for SNAP do not participate has perplexed scholars. Explanations exist, but few explore whether SNAP nonparticipation coincides with private food assistance. Applying an innovative empirical strategy to SIPP data, we investigate the link between SNAP nonparticipation and private food assistance among vulnerable households with children. We find that SNAP nonparticipation is greater when households are also less likely to receive private food assistance. This finding suggests private food assistance complements SNAP participation rather than acts as a substitute. We frame this finding in terms of the welfare stigma and transactional costs literature.

We examine Thomas Piketty's explanations for steady and rising inequality in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the decline of inequality in the half-century after World War I, and the return of high levels of inequality since the 1970s. We specify empirical and conceptual problems with his analysis, which stem from his presentation of causality at a highly general and vague level. That leads him to confuse rather than clarify the causal relations among implacable economic forces, changes in technological innovation and population growth, ideology, and governmental policies and the outcomes that he seeks to explain. We identify social scientists and historians who are able to account for temporal and geographic variations in the political coalitions that propelled egalitarian reforms, and that in their absence cleared the terrain for reactionary anti-egalitarian policies that the rich incited for their narrow benefit. We explain why Piketty's limited conception of ideology is insufficient for explaining how mass opposition to inequality is mobilized. We show that if we want to combine the study of capital in the twenty-first century with that of politics, we need a broader conception of ideology than what Piketty offers, one that will allow us to specify how ideology affects parties, states, voters, and activists.

This study offers knowledge about factors associated with a key type of family change, namely, two-to- three-generation household transformations, which are poorly understood, despite increasing numbers of three-generation households, especially ones headed by females. Using a representative sample of 5,874 Australian children, results showed that the circumstances of children in two-generation households differed greatly by family structure. Thus, before investigating determinants of three-generation household formation, children were first grouped as living in either two-parent or single-mother households. For both groups of children, several factors were found associated with three-generation household formation. In two-parent households, the odds of three-generation household formation decreased with mothers' ages, fathers' higher educational attainments, and more children, but increased as children grew older. In single-mother households, the odds of three-generation household formation decreased with mothers' higher educational attainments, increasing income, and more children, but increased if mothers had never been married and worked more hours. Living in rural areas decreased odds of three-generation household formation for children in both types of households. Overall, grandparents appear to play a relatively more important resource role in three-generation, mother only households than in three-generation, two-parent households.

Using Australian time-diary data, this study examines the effects of child disability on couples' work patterns. Findings show that while mothers' labor force participation, work hours, and exact scheduling of hours of paid employment over a twenty-four-hour day were associated with raising children with disabilities, these areas of fathers' paid work lives were unaffected. Results for control variables confirmed previous findings in the literature on maternal labor supply. This study offers new knowledge on the impact of childhood disability on the organization of work in two-parent families, broadens debate about the work-family dilemma, and promotes inclusion of families raising special-needs children into future research on work and families.

Because of population aging, many governments are placing greater responsibility on older persons to fund their retirement. Within this context, older persons' financial self-sufficiency during times of stress is important to understand. Using data from the 2002 Australian General Social Survey, this article reports on the prevalence of older persons drawing on financial resources to meet the cost of everyday living expenses when current income is insufficient, identifies the kinds of resources older persons draw on to meet the costs of everyday necessities, and estimates the effects of demographic factors on different necessary dissaving strategies. Results indicate that about 11% of older persons find it necessary to employ some type of dissaving strategy and that the factors associated with asset dissaving differ from the factors associated with liability dissaving. Future research needs to examine the effects of unanticipated events on necessary dissaving and alternative motives for dissaving.

Using data from Australia, health behavior outcomes and the social connectedness of adolescents in immigrant families are contrasted with the outcomes of adolescents in non-immigrant families. Findings suggest that first and second generation adolescents are less likely to drink alcohol and lack social support than third generation adolescents, but more likely not to be physically active and not to have membership to a social club or group than third generation adolescents. Second generation adolescents are more likely to smoke than third generation adolescents. Findings suggest that immigrant adolescents appear protected from negative risks, yet at the same time, do not benefit from Australia's cultural traditions for physical activity and social participation. Across generations, however, social participation and physical activity increase. Lastly, as length of time in Australia increases, the protective effect of the immigrant family against some negative risks wanes. Overall, the assimilation process leads adolescents in immigrant families to adopt Australia's prevailing social customs of health and social behaviors.

Changes in families over the past thirty years have created methodological challenges for research on family variation. Some argue that standard survey methods used for collecting data on families have been outpaced by the transformation of families and hence estimates of family variation are maccurate and opportunities for cross-country comparisons of family variation are hampered. This situation is rectifiable through greater use of relationship matrices. This underused data collection method can precisely portray family variation and facilitate cross-country comparisons. To illustrate the method’s usefulness for family research, relationship matrices data on young persons from Australia and the United States are exploited to: depict individuals’ living arrangements; identify patterns in partnering and childbearing; describe demographic diversity across types of couples; and compare family variation across countries.

This research examines the relationship between disabilities in families and returns to welfare. Past studies of welfare recidivism have long theorized that disabilities played a central role in returns to welfare among former recipients, but lacked data to test the hypothesis. Hypothesis tests support the theory that both child and maternal disabilities, which act as barriers to self-sufficiency, increase rates of TANF re-entry and SSI entry. We show that because past studies did not account for disabilities on the odds of returning to welfare, effects of work, number of children, and past receipt of TANF are somewhat overstated. Our findings add to the literature on welfare recidivism and have implications for welfare reforms that emphasize work and lifetime limits on benefits.

Using the Australian Time Use survey (TUS), this study examined time allocation among working parents raising children with disabilities. Findings showed that raising children with disabilities reduced the time working mothers had for leisure activities, but increased the time for socializing activities. Consistent with the literature, the latter effect probably reflects the special need of working mothers raising children with disabilities for strong social networks offering regular support. While a mother's time for personal care was reduced by a child with a disability, a father's time for personal care was unaffected. Thus, mothers were relatively more disadvantaged than fathers in terms of total time for themselves. This study offers new knowledge on the impact of childhood disability on working parents' time for personal care and leisure, activities that can improve their psychological and physical well-being.

Using data from the Australian Workplace Industrial Relations Survey, this study provides timely evidence on the effects of on-site child care at the workplace and employer-provided family leave on worker absenteeism, turnover, and productivity. The study found that workplaces with on-site child care compared with workplaces with no on-site child care had lower rates of absenteeism and higher ratings for worker productivity. Workplaces that had a family leave policy also had lower rates of absenteeism than workplaces that had no such policy in place. Analyses also suggest that workplace characteristics, such as presence of a human-resources manager or union representative, are associated with higher worker productivity. Firm size, mission, and shift work were other predictors of worker performance. The findings argue strongly for an extensive, new workplace survey that can elucidate how parents today manage to abide by new workplace agreements while still handling the demands of family life.

This study examined the allocation of time to activities among older Australians not in the labor force. Using the 1997 Time Use Survey, findings show that older Australians are actively contributing to their communities in contrast to the outdated depiction of them as dependent and detached. Although their contributions occur outside of the formal labour market, potential economic benefits accrue to the government because many activities mirror publicly-funded human services. This study also offers knowledge of the factors determining older Australian's time allocation across activities. Living arrangements and income sources are found associated with older Australian's allocation of time to household, social, and community activities. Further research on the value of human services produced by older persons is warranted as these services are largely unrecognized and undervalued.

Considerable increases in the numbers of children living with grandparents have prompted concerns over their economic well-being and grandparents’ use of welfare programs. Using data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation, I profile the economic well-being of children living with grandparents and estimate the likelihood of receiving two welfare programs: food stamps and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF). Findings suggest that identifying the exact living arrangements of children is pivotal to understanding differences in economic disadvantage and welfare receipt among children living with grandparents. Although children in grandmother-only, no parent present families are the most likely to be poor, they are not the children most likely to receive welfare. The children most likely to receive welfare live with their single mothers and grandparents in three-generation households.

This research examines the relationship between disabilities in families and exits from welfare. Controlling for variations in characteristics known to be associated with welfare exits, this study investigates and documents that specific configurations of disabilities in families are also strongly associated with reduced rates of welfare exits. The impact of a child with a disability on welfare exits is similar to the mother's own disability, with an impact equivalent in magnitude to minority status. The presence of a child with a disability limits the chances that a mother with disability will leave welfare. Our findings add to the literature on welfare dependency and have implications for welfare reforms that emphasize work, self-sufficiency, and reducing poverty.