Suchergebnisse

ABSTRACTUsing 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.

Little is known about why parents choose kin‐provided child care and less is known about how kin‐provided child care is related to other forms of in‐kind support from relatives close‐at‐hand. Previous models of the choice of kin‐provided child care assumed that the presence of other forms of in‐kind support from relatives nearby was inconsequential to estimating effects of economic and demographic factors on the decision to use kin‐provided child care. Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of the Class of 1972, this study shows that this assumption is incorrect because use of kin‐provided child care and intrafamily in‐kind resource exchanges are interrelated. When the association between use of kin‐provided child care and the presence of other family in‐kind exchanges is ignored, the study shows that estimated effects for income, the price of child care, and maternal characteristics are underestimated. The findings provide a better understanding of why parents choose kin‐provided child care by confirming that this decision is a part of a larger set of parental decisions about involvement in resource exchanges within extended families. My findings support recent child care bills aiming to increase parental choice of child care provider, broaden the definition of a provider to include non‐coresident relatives, and expand price subsidies for kin‐provided child care.

The dramatic changes in family composition have profound implications for studying relationships of children to other adults in a household. However, methods for studying such relationships have been outpaced by the transformation of families and thus today's studies, for example, often inaccurately assess whether a child lives with one or two parents and whether he or she is the biological child of those parents. Despite needing increased detail about relationships of children to adults in a household, few surveys gather such data. An exception is the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey, which collects detailed household relationship data. Analyses of these data suggest that there is tremendous diversity in Australian children's living arrangements; that the circumstances of the arrangements are equally varied; and that Australian children are more likely to live with unmarried parents than American children. HILDA could enormously benefit studies of the relationships of children to adults in a household and future family-oriented policies.

AbstractThis study examined the child care arrangements of children in immigrant families. Using data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP), the study found great diversity in the child care arrangements of children according to their nativity status. Children in immigrant families, especially those in low‐income immigrant families, were found less likely to use centre‐based child care. Mexican, Asian, and other Hispanic children are also less likely to use centre‐based child care. Because quality centre‐based child care has been shown to benefit preschool‐age children and help prepare them for school, both scholastically and psychologically, less use of centre‐based child care among children in immigrant families compared to children in non‐immigrant families is a potentially troubling finding. Public policies promoting greater access to and more use of centre‐based child care, especially for low‐income immigrant families and two‐parent immigrant families, may make a significant difference to their children's long‐term adaptation, and their children's school readiness and achievement.

Little is known about the living arrangements of first- and second-generation immigrant children. Using data from the Current Population Survey and a multivariate approach, I compared living arrangements of immigrant children to U.S.-born white children with U.S.-born parents. Findings show, except for foreign-born black and some Hispanic children, that foreign-born children lived with married parents more frequently than did U.S.-born white children with U.S.-born parents. However, by the third generation, a pattern emerged showing a decline in living with married parents among some immigrant children and a rise in living with single parents. The noticeable "downward assimilation" among some second- and third-generation immigrant children fits a theory of segmented assimilation and is concerning because single-parent families confront more social problems and sociodemographic risks.

This study investigates whether financial agreements between husbands and wives, the cost of child care, mothers' wages, and sources of income, rather than just aggregate income, affect a mother's decision to use child care. This study finds that for working mothers, the price of child care is what matters, not their wages; for nonemployed mothers, the reverse is true. However, similar patterns for income effects are found for all mothers. Husbands' incomes do not affect mothers' child care choices, but mothers' own abilities to pay and sources of nonwage income do affect their child care choices. The only detected effect of spouses' incomes on wives' child care choices occurs when husbands pool their incomes with their wives' incomes. Hence, although market child care is a collective consumption good, not all wives in two-parent families have access to husbands' incomes with which to pay for child care.