While a single residential move is a common experience for many families with children, residential moves that occur in higher frequency may serve as disruptive events in a child’s life. The present study draws upon data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study of children from birth to 15 years of age to examine associations between residential moves and five measures of health and cognition: emergency room utilization, body mass index, incidence of asthma attack or asthma episode, repeated school grades, and scores on the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test. Age-dependent, cumulative, and differential associations by sex and race are explored. Finally, the present study examines potential moderation of these associations by neighborhood context of a child’s city of birth. Cumulative analyses from the present study suggest that residential mobility is significantly associated with increased emergency room utilization over time, decreased body mass index over time, and a higher likelihood of a experiencing a repeated grade over time, and an increase in PPVT score over time. Age-dependent analyses of all children suggest that mobility in early childhood is significantly associated with emergency room usage and body mass index outcomes, while moves later in life are associated with increased body mass index and higher odds of repeating a school grade. The study further reveals significant sex and racial differences in both age-dependent and cumulative analyses. Evidence for age-dependent and cumulative associations between mobility and odds of an asthma attack emerged only when sex differences were examined. Several racial differences were observed in analyses. Notably, mobility was not a significant predictor of emergency room utilization for Black children at any time point examined nor in longitudinal analyses. Finally, evidence of consistent moderation effects by a child’s birth city neighborhood context was not found; however, significant moderation effects by neighborhood context were found for associations between mobility and emergency room utilization at age 1, BMI at age 3 and BMI at age 5. A central aim of the present study is to contribute to the growing body of empirical research about housing mobility and correlates to developmental outcomes for children. Results from the present study’s analysis can help inform housing-centered strategies to mitigate adverse outcomes for children from families experiencing housing hardship.

Tsunamis represent significant threats to human life and development in coastal communities. This quantitative study examines the influence of household characteristics on evacuation actions taken by 211 respondents in American Samoa who were at their homes during the 29 September 2009 Mw 8.1 Samoa Islands earthquake and tsunami disaster. Multiple logistic regression analysis of survey data was used to examine the association between evacuation and various household factors. Findings show that increases in distance to shoreline were associated with a slightly decreased likelihood of evacuation, whereas households reporting higher income had an increased probability of evacuation. The response in American Samoa was an effective one, with only 34 fatalities in a tsunami that reached shore in as little as 15 minutes. Consequently, future research should implement more qualitative study designs to identify event and cultural specific determinants of household evacuation behaviour to local tsunamis.

This project focuses on the design of interfaces that promote sustainable purchases of laundry appliances (washing machines, and dryers) in Scandinavian countries through raising the consumer’s knowledge about the short and long-term value of sustainable products. The research part is accomplished in collaboration with IKEA and three other master students with business and design backgrounds. The project part started with interviewing house owners in Scandinavia who have  laundry appliances in their house to find out the factors affecting their decision while purchasing laundry appliances. The solution was developed by understanding house owners' laundry habits. The idea is done by applying UX design principles to bring the knowledge and information for the user while purchasing laundry appliances through an online platform.

Digital Financial Services (DFS) such as mobile money apps, have become increasingly recognized as a tool to increase Financial inclusion. Access and usage of mobile money services are expected to be beneficial in more ways than one, but one desirable outcome is enabling women to have greater control over their own finances, and thus enhance Empowerment through increased participation in household decision-making. With data collected through a phone survey distributed to 189 women in Jordan, we attempt to investigate if E-wallets are effective in achieving Financial inclusion and, if we as a result, might see a positive effect on Women’s Empowerment. Impacts on Financial inclusion are measured through a description of how women use their E-wallets, along with an OLS-regression on the likelihood of saving. Empowerment effects are analyzed through a regression on different indicators meant to reflect decision-making in the household. We find some evidence that indicates that E-wallets users might be slightly more likely to have saved money in the last year, however, results regarding empowerment indicators are more unclear. When performing regressions on subsamples of unmarried women, and only employed women, we see some indications that the e-wallet might lead to an increased control of her own finances and expenditures, but this does not seem to translate significantly to other household purchases.

The global amount of waste generated by households, including food packaging waste, has been increasing continuously across the world, posing a massive threat to societies and the environment. Proper waste management, therefore, has become a challenging environmental issue and a priority for governments. Along with the technological advances, such as material recovery technologies, more stress has been placed on the strategies for moving away from disposal to waste prevention, separation, and recycling. Considerable efforts are being made to not only limit the overall production and the negative impact of waste on the environment and human health but also to minimize the cost of waste management. Separation of wastes at the source (i.e., source separation) is an integral part of such efforts toward enhancing the purity of collected waste and improving the quality of materials for recycling. Furthermore, sorting of waste as a habitual performance can serve as a practice for improving residents' recycling/sorting behavior. The packaging waste, including food packaging, forms a significant part of the municipal solid waste. The design of food packaging, therefore, has received a lot of attention as a useful tool to influence the consumers' sorting behavior, making it an interesting concept for research related to waste management. Presumably, the design of food packaging can meet consumers' sorting demands while being instructive and facilitating the sorting process, thus enhancing the recycling rate of the food packaging waste. Finding the ideal form of food packaging, however, requires an in-depth understanding of the packaging-consumer interactions throughout the sorting process. Considering the different characteristics of food packaging, it is expected that different food packages tend to influence a consumer in different ways. Nevertheless, the current knowledge is somewhat too general to be used by packaging developers to improve the sorting of the food packaging. Hence, the present thesis aims to provide a more in-depth insight into the influence of food packaging, as a product and service provider, on the consumer's/user's decision-making on sort of food packaging waste. The results assert that packaging to be sorted properly requires proper design to manifest its sorting related abilities such as easy to empty, easy to clean, and easy to fold, for the consumer. Selecting material, visual attributes, form, and function can amplify or reduce these sorting abilities of food packaging.

In previous works, we have shown two-car households to be better suited than one-car households for leveraging the potential benefits of the battery electric vehicle (BEV), both when the BEV simply replaces the second car and when it is used optimally in combination with a conventional car to overcome the BEV’s range limitation and increase its utilization. Based on a set of GPS-measured car movement data from 64 two-car households in Sweden, we here assess the potential electric driving of a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) in a two-car household and compare the resulting economic viability and potential fuel substitution to that of a BEV. Using estimates of near-term mass production costs, our results suggest that, for Swedish two-car households, the PHEV in general should have a higher total cost of ownership than the BEV, provided the use of the BEV is optimized. However, the PHEV will increasingly be favored if, for example, drivers cannot or do not want to optimize usage. In addition, the PHEV and the BEV are not perfect substitutes. The PHEV may be favored if drivers require that the vehicle be able to satisfy all driving needs (i.e., if drivers don’t accept the range and charge-time restrictions of the BEV) or if drivers requires an even larger battery in the BEV to counter range anxiety. We find that, given a particular usage strategy, the electric drive fraction (EDF) of the vehicle fleet is less dependent on whether PHEVs or BEVs are used to replace one of the conventional cars in two-car households. Instead, the EDF depends more on the usage strategy, i.e., on whether the PHEV/BEV is used to replace the conventional car with the higher annual mileage (“the first car”), the less used car (“the second car”), or is used flexibly to substitute for either in order to optimize use. For example, from a fuel replacement perspective it is often better to replace the first car with a PHEV than to replace the second with a BEV.

Increasing amounts of food waste is becoming a problem in developed countries. This research project is about how to reduce food waste by tracking fridge inventory and the best-before date of fridge stored food by a smartphone application. Food waste occurs in several different ways. It can be found in the household, retail stores and in the catering and events sector. Food waste can also be classified as avoidable waste, possibly avoidable waste and unavoidable waste. This project focuses on the household sector and the use of a mobile application to track fridge inventory and best-before date. The purpose of the application is to try to reduce household food waste. There is previous research about reducing household food waste using mobile applications and they all take different approaches. This study focuses on building upon these previous approaches together with data gathered from our own questionnaire with Sweden as primary focus. The combined data results in our own mobile application solution that has been tested by users in Swedish households. The study’s research question is addressed by the use of the application during a period of one-week observation. Our data collection consists of the participants being interviewed at the end of the observation period. The interviews gathered information related to whether the users successfully reduced food wastage in their households.

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The purpose of this thesis is to explore how stay-at-home fathers view their role as the primary caregiver, and how they encounter opposing masculinity issues. This is explored through discussion about daily life, the decision to stay home, and household labor, a particularly interesting reflection of gender roles and equality. The two research questions used to explore this included: How do stay-at-home fathers understand their masculinity and social role? How does talk about the negotiation of household labor in stay-at-home father/career mother families illustrate masculinity issues? Through an analysis of interviews of eight present or past stay-at-home fathers, I capture the ways that these fathers describe and discuss the stay-at-home parent role. By looking at how these men define and interpret the specific challenges they face while in this role, I help tell the stories of stay-at-home father/career mother families, and understand whether these families, too, experience Hochschild's "stalled revolution."

Magister Scientiae (Nutrition Management) - MSc(NM) / Micronutrient deficiencies are of public health concern in South Africa. These deficiencies affect pregnancy outcomes, growth, functional and cognitive development of children and, the health and productivity of women. As an intervention, the South African government implemented the National Food Fortification Programme (NFFP), which was mandated in 2003 and according to which, the staple foods consumed by most of the population e.g. maize meal and wheat flour (and thus bread) are fortified with a premix of thiamin, niacin, riboflavin, vitamin A, folate, vitamin B6, iron and zinc. There is limited data which looks at the contribution fortified staple food to the dietary intakes and measures of nutrient assessment among South African women of reproductive age (WRA).