This study assesses adolescents' influence on household purchase decisions. The data analyzed were from a survey of 281 fourteen and sixteen year old male and female students from three area school districts in Western Massachusetts. The sample represented blue and white collar families in suburban, urban and rural areas. The objectives of this study were: to determine the amount of influence teenagers exert over household purchases of low and high priced consumer durables and non-durables; to identify factors that influence teenagers' choice of consumer goods; and to identify adolescents' sources of consumer information. The study utilized a questionnaire developed by the researcher which in addition to questions related to teenagers' influence on household purchases, included items concerning family composition, ethnic background, employment, individual earnings, and parents' employment status. The study revealed that adolescents have an important role in family decision making and represent a substantial economic force in the U.S.

This study attempted to explore further to decreased optimism of college-aged children of divorce regarding their success in marriage by first examining both their vulnerability to divorce and the specific perceptions of marriage in comparison to college-aged children from intact families. To distinguish between the role of parental divorce and the amount of conflict between parents, regardless of marital status, the parents' relationship was also examined. When comparing the parental divorced respondents (PD) with the respondents from intact families (IF), analyses showed that those in the PD group were significantly more vulnerable to and worried about divorce. When asked to rate their changes of divorcing in comparison to other college students and college-aged children of divorce, however, the PD respondents maintained as strong an illusion of invulnerability as their IF counterparts; both groups believed that they were less vulnerable to divorce than either of the targets. The PD group was more likely to believe that people change over time and marriages cannot always accommodate these changes, thus it is unrealistic to expect marriages to last a lifetime. The IF respondents were more apt to agree that people's marriages resemble their parents' and that marriages break up because people do not try hard enough to save them. College-aged children from intact homes were also more likely to stress the importance of developing a close relationship with the partner's family and to see themselves forming this bond. When comparing responses by the amount of parental conflict, the high conflict respondents were more vulnerable to divorce than the low conflict, yet both perceived themselves as less likely to divorce than other students or children of divorce. High parental conflict respondents, however, also indicated they were less likely to marry, perhaps because they too endorsed the notion that marriages cannot last a lifetime. Further exploratory analyses seemed to indicate that the parental relationship and the dissolution of a marriage may affect the perceived vulnerability conjointly; parental conflict may be sufficient to produce this effect, but in its absence, parental divorce may be necessary.

During the past two decades, the recognition of relationship violence as a significant and frequently occurring problem has generated a great deal of interest and study. The extensive body of literature that has been produced as a result has focused on the traits of perpetrators and victims of violence; sociological factors contributing to violent relationships; and gender-related ideology about relationships in which violence occurs. Largely absent from the literature are the voices of the couples who have themselves experienced such violence. This study attempts to take a systematic look at the subjective experiences of these couples. In so doing, the meanings that the couples construct in relation to the events of violence, as well as the processes involved in constructing those meanings are the focus of this inquiry. The primary method of inquiry utilized was indepth, conjoint interviews with couples who volunteered to participate in the study. Three of these couples had experienced some form of physical violence with one another. Of the two remaining couples who were interviewed, the members of one had experienced extreme physical violence but with partners in earlier relationships. The interviews with each couple were scheduled as two or three one-hour-plus, videotaped and/or audiotaped sessions over a period of three to four weeks. The interviews were minimally structured and open-ended. Case studies were constructed from the data collected in the interviews. The case studies were analyzed from several perspectives. First, unique meaning constructions were considered. Second, the roles of each of the participants as narrators were considered. Further consideration was given to the role of the interviewer in the sessions and, finally, to the experience of participating in the research as reflected in comments made by the participants. Several focal aspects emerged from these analyses. First, meanings cannot be removed from the context of within which they are constructed without distortion. Second, meanings are embedded in a complex network of referential domains. Finally, this systematic approach to studying subjective material, validates the importance of listening to the voice of those who have themselves experienced relationship violence.

This dissertation is a deep qualitative examination of intrafamily action during episodes of vacation planning and purchase. It serves as a metatheoretical counterpoint to the positivistic paradigm which dominates the literature. Employing the theory, Co-ordinated Management of Meaning, as theoretical framework, it seeks to reveal the social-constructed reality of intra-family meaning and action. Three cases are reported. Though demographically similar, these families co-construct accounts of vacation planning process and action which are widely divergent. The results indicate that vacation-planning and purchase is a contextually varied phenomenon which is analytically accessible through a rules perspective. Coherent intra-family meaning and action is identified by reference to context markers such as cultural pattern, family narrative, autobiography, biography, relationship, episode and age. Many different constitutive and regulative rules are reported. New light is cast on the varied local meanings of influence, vacation and consensus. Regulative rules are found to be a useful analytic device for examining intrafamily process. Families co-constructed dissimilar accounts of how they dealt with conflict in vacation purchase planning. These accounts rotate around systemic constructions of consensus, compromise and control. The findings call into question the universality of the knowledge claims of the dominant paradigm, whose concepts, constructs and claims do not capture the contextually varied processes expressed in intra-family action.

Current social policy that places the locus of care for the chronically mentally ill in the community offers increased opportunities for parenthood to the chronically mentally ill. However, parenthood and patterns of child care are largely unstudied. A sample of 204 patients in the Ohio state system of care and 409 family members is used to empirically examine biological and social parenthood among the chronically mentally ill and the living and care arrangements for their children. Additionally, "double" and "hidden" aspects of family burden associated with child care are explored. The results indicate that although fifty-two percent of the patients had never been married, fifty-seven percent have a total of 260 minor and adult children. Race and gender are associated with both social and biological parenthood. Sixty-nine percent of the mentally ill females and 46 percent of the males have children. Females have an average of 1.7 children and males.89 children. Seventy-five percent of black females, 63 percent of white females, and 54 percent of black males have children with white males least likely to be parents (38 percent). Whites are more involved with minor children. Overall, there is more patient involvement with sons and younger children. Child care was stable over the course of a year for 75 percent of the children and largely distributed among the well parents, aunts and grandmothers. In the absence of parental involvement, maternal relatives care for minor children. No paternal relatives were involved in child care when the father was the mentally ill parent. When family members are engaged in caregivng to a patient with minor children, they tend to be also involved in child care, thus assuming a double "family burden." When the relationship between the well and ill parent ends, the well parents tend to disengage from patient care but assume the "hidden burden" of total responsibility for minor children.

This study examined the relationship between single-parent and two-parent family interactions, and adolescent moral stage transition. The aim of the study was to identify over a two-year period, through direct observation of these families, the interaction patterns particular to families whose adolescent was making the transition from one moral stage to a higher stage. There were 145 subjects; 54 families. Seventeen single-parent and 37 two-parent Caucasian, middle-class families. The adolescents were in the ninth to the 12th grade at a suburban high-school. Adolescent moral judgment was assessed according to Kohlberg's categories of moral stages, and family discussion of revealed differences on hypothetical moral dilemmas were observed. Powers' Developmental Environments Coding System was revised and used to code observed interactions. The results suggest that adolescents at different levels of moral development may require different kinds of family interactions to stimulate moral development and stage transition. Adolescents at the pre-conventional level who approach moral issues from a concrete perspective may benefit from family behaviors which focus, verify and clarify a discussion. Adolescents at the conventional level may benefit from behaviors which elaborate or defend a particular view point, challenge or criticize another's reasoning, and also benefit from affectively conflictual behaviors.

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No description available.

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The purpose of this study was to examine changes in pre- to postretirement familial relationships as they are perceived by retirees. The goal is to both study the effect of retirement and aging on the late midlife individual and social system, and to create interest and expertise among family clinicians in working with this cohort. The Retirement Life Style Survey, consisting of 23 questions, was administered to 63 retirees, addressing changing familial relationship patterns from pre- to postretirement. Questions were designed to reflect varied response techniques, including (1) forced choice, (2) Likert-type scale, and (3) open ended answers which allowed the respondents to comment on their experiences. The sample population consisted of voluntary subjects from AARP, senior centers, and retiree volunteer and learning organizations. In an attempt to control the influence of aging, subjects were limited to those retired between six months and ten years. The hypotheses were drawn from the literature on retirement and human development, as well as from commonly held myths and stereotypes regarding retirement. Four hypotheses were tested. Hypothesis one states that there will be a correlation between retirement and the perception that roles have shifted. Retirees will see themselves as less influential in family decision-making and less powerful in the family hierarchy. Hypothesis two postulates that retirement will not be shown to adversely affect good familial relationships or positively affect poor familial relationships. Hypothesis three states retirees experiencing financial insecurity will be more likely to feel dissatisfied with retirement and their familial relationships than those who are secure. Hypothesis four states that postretirement life satisfaction will correlate significantly with preretirement life satisfaction. Contrary to the prediction of hypothesis one, there were not significant role shifts from pre- to postretirement. Subjects did not perceive that they had less influence in family decision-making and less power in the family decision-making. The first section of hypothesis two was supported in that good relationships were not adversely affected by retirement, but as 92.1% of the subjects viewed their families as close or somewhat close, the sample did not allow for evaluation of the second section of the hypothesis. Examination of the issue would require selection of either a much larger cohort, or one drawn from a dysfunctional population. Evaluation of this hypothesis is further complicated by a high nonresponse rate on questions concerning relationships with spouse due, in part, to a high percentage of subjects who are widowed. Hypothesis three was also not supported. However, the responses did raise points which would warrant further study. Over 67% viewed their income as adequate or more than adequate to meet their needs, but of those who did not, over half felt this affected their physical and emotional health. Again, examination of this issue would require a different sample. Hypothesis four was supported. There was a correlation between preretirement satisfaction and postretirement satisfaction. Activities changed somewhat, reflecting the increase in discretionary time and enjoyment of family relationships. However, as is to be expected, health declined. Implications for clinical practice focus on both what is supported and what remains unclear.