This dissertation examines the role of informal social support networks (family, friends, and mosque members) in the life satisfaction of the Egyptian elderly. Indicators of informal social support were frequency of interaction, and amount of support. / Participants were 60 elderly Egyptians from a senior center in Cairo, Egypt. Personal interviews were used to collect data. The data collection instruments were the Informal Social Support Questionnaire (National Survey of Black Americans, 1980), the Life Satisfaction Index-Z (Wood, Wylie, & Sheafer, 1969), and open-ended interview questions developed by the researcher. / Data were analyzed with univariate, bivariate, and content analysis. The quantitative analysis indicates that monthly income had a significant association with the level of life satisfaction of the Egyptian elderly. The qualitative analysis indicates that the Egyptian elderly were not only receivers but were also givers. Also the findings suggest that family is the most important source of support for the Egyptian elderly, followed by friends, and mosque members. / Based on the findings, implications for social work practice and research with the elderly in Egypt are discussed. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 53-07, Section: A, page: 2547. / Major Professor: Shimon Gottschalk. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1992.

The framework presented in this dissertation seeks to provide a comprehensive view of long-term care that can serve as a unifying structure. Under this framework, the context of long-term care is defined by the "reality structure," "client system determinants," and "mediating variables". Each of these elements represents a cluster of variables that may impact on the specific long-term care situation under consideration. / The reality structure includes those influences that may be conceptualized as values. These stem from the culture in which one lives, organizational structures, and the idiosyncratic experience of each individual. Client system determinants include those factors that operate at the level of the long-term care client system including demographic variation, impairment level, and individual subjectivity. Mediating variables include social resources, economic resources, formal system resources, and environmental moderators. These four subgroups--social resources, economic resources, formal service resources, and environmental mediators--form the larger block of mediating variables. Under the influence of the reality structure, the mediating variables interact with the client system determinants to provide an explanation for the multitude of formal and informal service patterns through which long-term care needs may be met. / In order to operationalize a portion of the reality structure used in this framework, a scale was developed to assess one's Attitude Toward the Provision of Long-term Care (ATPLTC). The reliability of this scale was established to be.86 using Cronbach's alpha. In addition, initial validation for the scale was demonstrated through the use of a variety of correctional techniques and factor analysis. / The ATPLTC was used to assess the relationship between caregiver attitude and several other characteristics. The relationships between attitude and caregiver status, educational level, race, employment status, subjective burden and relationship between caregiver and care receiver were found to be significant. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 49-06, Section: A, page: 1579. / Major Professor: Michael L. Frumkin. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1988.

Thesis (M.A.)--Lehigh University, 2009. / Adviser: Judith Lasker.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2009. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 70-06, Section: A, page: . Adviser: Steve Anderson. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 149-159) Available on microfilm from Pro Quest Information and Learning.

The question which formed the starting point of this research, and which has provided the central thread in this work is 'how can the later integration of Dutch women into the formal economy, compared to British women, in the period between 1940 and 1990, be explained?' This study looks at this question from (1) a macro perspective and (2) from the perspective of a middle-range case-study in the banking sector. In the macro perspective, theoretical discussions on how the post-war increase in women's participation in the labour market may be explained, and how comparative differences between industrialised countries in this respect may be explained, are brought forward. This provides the basis for a comparative historical investigation in which three historical periods are highlighted; the Second World War years, the post-war years (1945-1970) and the contemporary period (1970-1990). Particular reference is made to such issues as the marriage bar in employment and changes in ideological notions around women's paid employment. Changes in the gender composition of bank staff, and comparative differences in these changes, are investigated in their own right. This is done within the context of the same historical periods, though different theoretical considerations are taken into account. This case-study is in turn used to contrast what is occurring on the aggregate level with the banking sector. This highlights (1) the culturally specific histories of each society in relation to the themes investigated and (2) the particularity of the banking sectors in each society and their employment organisation.

The research reported in this thesis is an investigation of identities of primary school leavers (10-13 years old) residing on the Caribbean territory, St. Kitts. Through two main phases and a pilot of an ethnography conducted intermittently between 2008 and 2011, I explored volunteer-participants' individual and collective identities. In particular, I explored their aspirations for the future and everyday living, the influences they perceive, and conceptualizations of and aspirations for the Caribbean. The aim was to gain insights into their understanding of Caribbean, thus, illuminating Caribbean-identity; two terms fuelling debates in the Social Science literature alleging a Caribbean-identity crisis. One of the main innovations of the design was my partnership with a group of primary school leavers who were trained to help as co-researchers to collaboratively generate and partially analyse data. The findings suggest participants have very positive perceptions of themselves as individuals; however, their identities seem more localized. They generally aspire to migrate, especially to America, to achieve success, and their conceptions of Caribbean vary greatly and seem uncertain while their overarching-aspiration for their island and region is for them to become "better" places socially, economically, politically, culturally, and environmentally. In part, this main finding conflicts with the idea of an identity-crisis on an individual-level, but supports ideas of a lack of a resolute sense of self on a regional-collective level for participants. Equally important, participants report many positive impacts resulting from their involvement. For some, the process contributed clarity about self and aspirations, and for others, it helped with not only a clearer-perspective, but also the development of life-skills.

The present study examined both self and cross-partner associations between personal, moral, and structural commitment, maintenance behaviors, and relationship maintenance schema. Participants were both partners from 180 heterosexual couples in dating, engaged, and marital relationships who were between the ages of 18 and 35 years old with no children. Partners independently completed self-report questionnaires, which included measures of relationship commitment (Stanley & Markman, 1992), relationship maintenance behaviors (Canary & Stafford, 1992), and relationship maintenance schema (Sternberg, 1998). Results suggest that individuals' personal, moral, and structural commitment are associated with their own maintenance behaviors and that some maintenance behaviors, especially assurances, are also associated with their partner's personal, moral, and structural commitment. In addition, having a relationship maintenance schema which states that relationships require effort to be successful is positively related to maintenance behaviors. These results provide some support for Johnson's contention that the different types of commitment have different implications for relationship maintenance.

This study argues that domestic skills--accumulated, transferred, and elicited by different aspects of the life course--act as a major influence on men's household labor participation. Specifically, I argue that as men increase their skills via independent living, as they are presumed to have more relevant skills when raising older biological/step male children, or as they become more proficient in skills relative to other household workers, they are more or less likely to assume (or be assigned) different responsibilities in the household. First, I tested to what extent the years a man lives without some kind of caregiver--whether that caregiver is tied to him through consanguinal, romantic, or institutional ties--affected the amount of housework he does once married. I discovered that men who live independently for long periods of time are responsible for creating less housework than men who are not. They do not do any more or less housework than their peers who are married, cohabiting, or in military service longer, but their wives have less of it to do. A man's years of independent living is unrelated to his own contribution to housework. I also tested whether a husband's holdings of particular occupational characteristics--namely, high levels of female sex composition, a service orientation, and routine and repetitive work tasks--affect the amount of housework he does in the home and his share of the overall housework that is done. I found mixed effects of these characteristics on household division of labor. Men whose jobs are especially routine and repetitive create more housework and do more of the additional housework they create. Conversely, wives do spend more time doing housework when their jobs are more masculine in composition and/or less service oriented than their husbands' jobs. Finally, I investigated the relationship between children's characteristics--sex, age, birth order, and relationship to the father--and their father's contributions to both housework and childcare interactions. I found no effect of children's characteristics on men's housework particiatipation and limited effects of children's characteristics on men's childcare interactions; men spend more time in unorganized play/non-play activities when they have male children.

To understand variations in the stress response, two separate research traditions have developed: one that focuses on appraisal and the other on stressors. Research on stressors informs our understanding of the social conditions that expose individuals to potentially stressful situations, whereas research on appraisal informs our understanding of why different people respond to stressors in different ways. The present study seeks to integrate findings from these two research traditions and extend our understanding of the stress process by investigating the possibility those variations in sources of stress trigger different appraisals. In addition, this study also attempts to untangle the separate effects of appraisal and stressor by examining each construct at a more granular level than has previously been undertaken. Finally, this study examines the relationships between stressors and appraisal to understand how they may, in combination, influence distress. The data for these analyses are merged from the National Survey of Midlife Development in the United States (MIDUS) and the National Study of Daily Experiences (NSDE). The MIDUS participants are a representative sample of 3032 adults aged 25 to 74 obtained through a random-digit dialing process. The NSDE participants are a subsample of 1031 participants from the MIDUS. The participants for the present study are the 534 men and women who participated in the NSDE who experienced at least one interpersonal tension during the 8-day telephone diary. Results from multilevel modeling analyses indicated that there was more within-person variability in appraisal of interpersonal tensions than between-person variability. Findings from this study also provide empirical support that stressors and appraisal are separate constructs with independent effects on distress. Further, there are multiple pathways through which dimensions of appraisal and attributes of the stressor in combination influence distress.

This study provides a better understanding of both adolescent Web-use and the factors that influence teen Web-consumption. To this end, a hierarchical, cognitive-behavioral decision-making model of personal values → innovativeness → Web-consumption was proposed and tested. More specifically, Web-consumption behavior was thought to dichotomize into hedonic and utilitarian domains. Two hundred high school students from a Southwestern state, representing various socio-economic and ethnic backgrounds, anonymously completed surveys. Exploratory and confirmatory analyses identified three latent factors of personal values (personal-self, ambition, power); four factors of innovativeness (vicarious-pensive, vicarious-future, adoptive, use); and two factors of global Web-consumption (hedonic, utilitarian). The global Web-consumption scales were cross-validated against specific Web-consumption behaviors. Global utilitarian behaviors were practical and obligatory, while global hedonic behaviors were experiential and discretionary. Specific hedonic Web-consumption included escape from reality, use with friends, and music activities, while specific utilitarian Web-activities included use for future planning, doing homework, and, coaching parental Web-searches. The two-stage structural equation model analysis with nested comparisons confirmed the hierarchical flow of the relationships. Results indicated that innovativeness served as a middle-level variable, and mediated between the Web-consumption behaviors of teens and their personal values. Each personal value factor displayed unique predictive power on unique factors of innovativeness, which, in turn, displayed unique paths to each Web-consumption factor. For instance, the "ambition" value predicted "vicarious-future" innovativeness which, in turn, predicted both "utilitarian" and "hedonic" Web-consumption. Also, the "personal self" value linked to "vicarious-pensive" innovativeness, which, in turn, predicted "hedonic" Web-consumption. The findings suggest that teens are intrinsically motivated to use the Web and benefit from computer use, even if the use is hedonic in nature. However, parents and educators may choose to monitor adolescent Web-consumption more closely. The paradox of technology can create cognitive dissonance, and teens report regular visits to sites that their parents would not approve of. The study has theoretical and practical import. New measures, and a confirmed a priori hierarchical structure, will be useful tools to researchers of consumer behavior. Professionals are advised to consider applications that would benefit adolescents, including structured after-school activities and curriculum that further integrates the Web and the classroom.