This qualitative study explores instrumental aid as social support in family crises. Focus group interviews were conducted with six groups of women to explore their thoughts and feelings about giving and receiving instrumental aid. Women gave many examples of instrumental aid, stating it was important, but only helpful if it met a recognized need. Mutual definition of need appears to be negotiated informally within group or family memberships, as well as more formally using society's manners and customs. Individual and community resources were mentioned frequently. Affirmation of one's perceptions of an event also contributes to definition of a need. Social support is an interactive process; several women gave examples of a "state of shock" following a death and other circumstances that left a person unable to acknowledge aid.

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This dissertation centers on the role of adverse shocks to household balance sheets in understanding consumer default behavior. The first chapter studies the role of foreclosure contagion: the role of proximate foreclosures in causally triggering other nearby residential defaults and foreclosures. I find that foreclosure activity causally increases nearby rates of consumer defaults. This paper uses an instrument further examined in the second essay which analyzes the role for adverse selection and moral hazard in mortgage markets; using as a distinction the initial and post-reset interest rates paid on Adjustable-Rate Mortgage contracts. The final essay analyzes the role for cancer diagnosis shocks on household default behavior.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 1999. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 255-270). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (M.R.E.)--Conservative Baptist Theological Seminary, 1958. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves [104]-119).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, San Diego and San Diego State University, 2003. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 238-252).

Normative ideas of age and stage-based transitions are built into policies and practices related to aging. However, how the issues of loss and depression impact older people's experiences of transition are often less prevalent. This paper discusses the sub-theme of loss identified within data from the Late Life Transitions Project; a SSHRC funded research project. In this thesis, qualitative interviews were analyzed from 30 community-residing seniors from diverse social backgrounds. Focused exploration of the everyday ways in which older people discussed major transitions and turning points revealed a strong subtheme of loss. Findings presented are related to the types of loss, the various barriers to integrating loss, coping mechanisms and the impact of social location on loss. Such discussions inform understandings of the ways in which older people discuss and make sense of their loss, and may provide guidance to plan interventions that are more relevant to older people's late life experiences.

The purpose of this study was to examine if video game usage was influenced by family structure. Family structure was measured in two ways; the first, the amount of time one spends with their family, and second, family disruption. The amount of time one spends with their family was measured with specific amounts of time; for example, the number of weekly days one would engage with his or her family. Family disruption was broken into four categories; parental marriage, parental divorce, adoption, and guardian death. Video game usage was measured in two categories; weekly days one plays video games, and daily hours one plays video games. The evidence from the 701 surveys suggests there is no correlation between video game usage and the amount of time one spends with their family. The evidence also suggests that family disruption does not influence whether or not one plays video games either. / Department of Sociology

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 1989. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Toronto, 2004. / Adviser: Keith Oatley. Includes bibliographical references.