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The purpose of this research was to examine changes in demographic information and time use patterns over an eight year time period for husbands in Roanoke area families. The information was used to create profiles of three subsamples in the study. Husband’s time use was recorded for both weekend and weekdays in 1978 and 1986. The men were analyzed as a whole and then broken down into three age cohorts so that they could be "tracked" over the eight year period. Analysis of variance and t-tests were used to determine significant differences in time use patterns. Descriptive statistics provided information on demographic changes that occurred. Demographic changes included increases in age, family income, size of homes, education, and hours of employment of both husband and wife. Appliance ownership increased with a specific increase of 78% in microwave oven ownership. Change in use of outside help over the years was most evident in the decrease in help with child care and the increase in help with housecleaning. Changes in time use included increases in employment hours and decreases in household work time, nonwork (leisure) time, and personal maintenance time. Within the category use were physical husbands of household work, significant decreases in time found in both weekend and weekday samples in care of other family members. On weekdays, grouped as a whole, spent significantly less time in household work and eating. On weekend days, significantly less time was spent in physical care of other family members by all husbands, while the middle aged group of husbands spent significantly less time in nonphysical care of other family members. / Master of Science

The purposes of the study were to (1) investigate similarities and differences in household production of men and women in Finland and the United States, and (2) develop and test a structural equation model of socioeconomic factors (age, education, employment and family situation) for household production across countries and across sexes. The results indicate that (a) total household production of Finnish men is only slightly more than that of U.S. men (7 minutes); (b) total household production of U.S. women (417 minutes) is noticeably more than that of Finnish women (323 minutes; (c) equality ratios strongly suggest differences at almost all employment levels being smaller in Finland than in the United States and indicate that men contribute less time to household production; (d) socioeconomic variables explain a modest amount (3-5 percent) of men's household production but a substantial amount (21-23 percent) of women's household production; (e) the fit of the structural model across sexes and across cultures is significant, i.e., the variables explained similarly the causal effects for household production over groups. The results have implications for further development of cross-national time-use research tools and methods; for the development of a theoretical framework that includes both quantitative and qualitative factors related to sex role behavior in household production; and for the need to design separate models for the study of men and women. Data supported the conclusion that women in both countries still contribute the most time to household production. / Ph. D.

published_or_final_version / Social Work and Social Administration / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

Drawing on contemporary theories of intimacy, this study explores the intimacy narratives and practices of single mothers at a time of, it is argued, social and cultural change in terms of intimacy. Narrative interviews of twenty-four single mothers draw out layers of personal, social and cultural complexity in terms of understanding, experiencing and making choices about intimacy in their everyday lives. The concept of ‘intimacy scripts' (developed from Simon and Gagnon, 1973) is deployed to explore how single mothers develop blueprints for their intimate lives, drawing on a range of cultural, social and personal possibilities for intimate practices. This process is viewed within a wider context of gendered power relations and material constraints. Participants were often affected by stigmatizing depictions of single mothers and resisted these through their narratives which tended to emphasize how they had not chosen single motherhood. Indeed the transition to single motherhood was often experienced as traumatic, marked by shame, disappointment and loss. Perceptions of increased fluidity and the possibility for experimentation around intimacy are discernible, chiming with individualisation theorists (Bauman, 2003; Beck and Beck-Gernsheim, 1995; Giddens, 1992). However, basic economic survival often took precedence over the reflexive organisation of intimate lives (Jamieson, 1998). Intimacy narratives were unsettled, in turn depicting opportunities for intimate experimentations and invoking nostalgia for more traditional intimate forms, demonstrating ambivalence and liminality. Heteronormative ideals of coupledom, romance and traditional family remained aspirational for many, although the importance of equality in relationships was also highlighted. Yet many participants struggled to find suitable male partners and were aware of inequalities and the risks associated with re-partnering, often based on negative experiences. Intimate choices were shaped and constrained by socio-economic positioning; the protection of dependents; maintenance of their family unit; continuing gendered expectations and the ongoing centrality of heteronormative romantic couple-centred intimate practices.

This thesis investigates how lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and queer parents interact with media representations. I identify two significant gaps in current scholarship on this topic. One between queer theory and LGBTQ sociology, where claims about the possibility of radical politics are disconnected from studies of everyday life. The other, between media studies and sociology of the family, where the central role of media in constituting identity drops out of discussions about everyday LGBTQ lives. As a result of this mapping of the field I formulated these key research questions: how do LGBTQ parents negotiate media culture? How do LGBTQ parents negotiate visibility and intelligibility for their families and how do they experience media invisibility? And, what conditions of family and what broader social possibilities are generated by the interactions LGBTQ parents have with media? These research questions framed the design of a project in which I conducted semi-structured interviews with thirty LGBTQ parents living in the UK. The thesis takes this primary empirical material together with reference to scholarship on media culture, family formation, and queerness, and posits that media representation is a core constituent of identity formation and central to how we can understand the making and maintenance of LGBTQ-parented families. I examine how ideas about what a ‘normal' or heterosexual family looks like shape the experiences and quest for intelligibility, legitimacy and visibility; how parents conceptualise their families in relation to the possibility of articulating radical identities; and the notion of generational rupture and inheritance as it is managed through media and community. The key findings of this thesis are that LGBTQ parents employ a variety of strategies to tackle media invisibility; LGBTQ parents both conform to, and resist, narratives of family as intrinsically normative; LGBTQ parents negotiate new representations of family and produce new narratives of the meaning of radicalism. Finally, I show that media is central to the identity work of LGBTQ parents, and is strongly implicated in the construction of home and family life. I offer a thesis which contests the meaning of futurity and normativity in queer theory and interjects in the discussion on the cultural formation and meaning of family.

Thesis (M.A.) --University of Limpopo, 2013 / As the topic states, the research is about the abuse of men in the society (Northern Sotho society in particular). Men, like women and children, are also abused, but unlike in the case of women and children, this abuse is not taken seriously. In most of the cases, this abuse is not reported. It is the aim of this study to scrutinize man abuse as depicted in the following Northern Sotho novels: Nonyana ya tokologo (Kekana, 1985), Ke nako ya ka (Molefe, 2001) and Ngwana Magana go botšwa (Motloutsi, 2004).

The purpose of this study is to provide a better understanding of the coping strategies used by dairy-farm couples. The independent variables of size of farm, where the respondents grew up, off-farm employment, age, amount of formal education, and debt-to-asset ratio of the farm are analyzed to determine their impact on the use of coping strategies by the dairy-farm husbands and wives. A sample of 116 dairy farm-couples was drawn from five counties in Northern Utah. The farm husbands and wives were each interviewed separately using a structured questionnaire. Due to the racial and religious composition of the sample and to its specific nature , the results of the study cannot be generalized to other populations of dairy farmers in other states or to other types of farms. The F-COPES (Family Crisis oriented Personal Evaluation Scales) developed by McCubbin, Larsen, and Olson in 1982 were used to categorize the dairy-farm couple's coping strategies into the following subscales: Passive Appraisal , Reframing, Mobilizing the Family to Acquire and Accept Help, Acquiring social Support, and Seeking Spiritual support. The results of the study indicated there were significant differences between the scores of farm husbands and wives on the coping strategies . The husbands scored statistically higher on the coping strategies Reframing, Passive Appraisal, and Acquiring Social Support than did the wives. Additional results indicated there were also significant differences between spouses in the correlation of coping strategies with the independent variables. Reframing was substantively correlated with age for farm husbands. The farm's debt-to-asset ratio was correlated statistically with Reframing for farm husbands. Mobilizing the Family to Acquire and Accept Help was statistically correlated with age for farm wives. Acquiring Social Support was statistically related to the amount of formal education for farm wives.