The sheer size of the baby boomer cohort has prompted a great deal of research on life outcomes and potential social strain or benefit of such a large cohort. A major contingency for the baby boomers was the experience of the Vietnam War. Many young men had their life course trajectories interrupted when they were drafted to military service or enrolled in college in an effort to evade the draft. This study uses the Life Family Legacies data to investigate how the Vietnam War may have affected later-life health outcomes of this cohort. Comparing physical health as captured by activities of daily living (ADLs) and instrumental activities of daily living (IADLs), this study found that baby boomer veterans' outcomes are similar to those of their nonveteran peers. When comparing mental health outcomes by prevalence of PTSD, findings show that those veterans who served in combat or combat support units are much more likely to show persistent signs of PTSD. Findings from this study suggest that the effects of combat are a crucial distinction when comparing outcomes between veterans and nonveterans.

Researchers have taken the adult attachment instruments established in the western countries into other cultural settings. Taiwan is one of the many countries to which cross-cultural adult attachment research has been extended to, and where translated attachment survey instruments were applied. The problem with these translated measurements in Taiwan, however, is that the commonly-used instruments were not peer-reviewed, and often no reliability tests were even done, and the cultural appropriateness of these translated measurements was not evaluated. The usage and results of these instruments may therefore be questionable. The purpose of this current study is to present a Mandarin Chinese version of the Adult Attachment Questionnaire (AAQ) that was translated following common protocols, administered to 320 native Taiwanese participants, and evaluated for measurement invariance. Various statistical analyses (including reliability test, confirmatory factor analysis, , and measurement invariance test) were conducted, and results from the Taiwanese college students who responded to the Chinese AAQ were compared with the results of the same instrument written and administered in its original English format and delivered to 330 participants in the United States. CFA revealed that a revision of the original AAQ was necessary. Measurement invariance test further indicated that while configural invariance was established, the findings on metric invariance were mixed, and the scalar invariance was partially established. These findings suggested a potential lack of equivalence between the Chinese and English adult attachment measurement. Specifically, some items of the scales were less invariant than others, indicating specific possible cultural differences between the two ethnic groups.

This study examines single mothers compared to coupled mothers and the differences in their public and private practices of religiosity. Data come from the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, 2007 U.S. Religious Landscape Survey. The study explores the influence of marital status between single and coupled mothers by using regression models to control for income, age, education, and race. Findings suggest that, while there are differences in single and coupled mothers in both their public and private practices of religiosity, the cause of these differences is being driven by other social factors rather than marital status alone. Income, age, education, and race account for most of the differences between single and coupled mother’s religious practices.

Given the current United States prison population of 1.5 million persons, many states have begun to examine how to effectively reduce correctional expenditures, considering in 2011 healthcare related prison costs increased to approximately eight billion (The Pew Charitable Trusts, 2014). Recent research attributes much of this increase to the prevalence of disease and aging within the prison population (Williams et al., 2012; Dumont et al., 2012; Gallagher, 2001; Ahalt et al., 2013). Alternatively, little attention has been devoted to measuring the disparity in health among minority male inmates or the effects of identifying more cost effective health initiatives that address negative health outcomes. With incarceration and health expenditures rates steadily increasing within the United States, studies have highlighted the positive correlation between incarceration and the costs of inmate health, as well as the implications associated with physical illness and its overarching effects on the performance of correctional health care. This study represents an attempt at bridging the gap between preventative health care and criminal justice efforts within the literature in its examination of the demographics, history of incarceration, chronic illness, and current medical conditions of minority male inmates within the state correctional facilities.

PATCHES OF THE QUILT is a collection of true stories written by the men and women who grew up at the Methodist Home for Children and Youth in Macon, Georgia. These stories began to surface at Homecomings. Whenever former residents got together, they shared old times, and over the years these oral histories have been honed to a richness and texture that is palpable. In this work you are invited to see the world through the eyes of a child beholding the ocean for the first time, or a precocious girl enjoying the pleasures of summer or the wonders of a starry night. You are encouraged to walk in the shoes of a platoon leader in World War II, directing his troops into battle for the first time. You may marvel at the lengths some boys will go to play a prank on an unsuspecting soul, or find a touch of the divine in the most unlikely places. It's all here. The title, "Patches of the Quilt," was derived from a welcoming ritual that began in the early 1980's. Since that time, whenever a child arrives at the Home, he or she is given a new, handmade quilt, and is told, "Like this quilt, you are unique and worthy to be cared for. We will do our best to care for you. You do your best to care for yourself." The beauty and softness of a quilt, the talismans of warmth and nurture, are remembered long after the words are forgotten. The patches that comprise what is the Methodist Home are infinite in number and include every aspect of the Home: especially the more than 10,000 children who have been given a new lease on life since 1872. Because this book is historical in nature, spanning more than one hundred years, it is chronological in spirit with the oldest stories in the earlier chapters and the more recent ones appearing later. / https://dc.etsu.edu/alumni_books/1034/thumbnail.jpg

Dr. Tim Killian’s research interests are generally focused on social connectedness of older adults and how social and community contexts are related to health and well-being. Tim’s doctoral studies examined perceptions of normative obligations for adult children to provide resources and caregiving to their aging parents and step-parents. Dr. Killian was able to transfer that focus on research into secondary analyses of nationally representative data to develop typologies of both upstream and downstream transfers of monetary and caregiving resources between older adults and their adult children. As his career has continued at the University of Arkansas, his focus has shifted to the community context of aging and, in particular, how aging and social connections vary across the spectrum of rurality. Dr. Killian has published a paper with a recent Masters graduate on the relationship between ill-being and its association to engagement in leisure activities within long-term care using data that were mostly collected in rural long-term care facilities. In collaboration with colleagues including nursing faculty at the University of Arkansas, Dr. Killian has also used secondary analyses of data from the nationally representative Health and Retirement Study to examine emergency preparedness of older adults to increase their resilience and recovery outcomes during and subsequent to disasters. His research in progress continues to focus on emergency preparedness and post-disaster recovery among older adults, as well as on the formation of romantic relationships of older adults.

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The workings of admiration and adoration within individuals and the family as attitudes against self-interest were investigated. Interviews with American families in two New England states from ten Christian denominations (n = 20) were analyzed qualitatively. As a result, admiration was observed among almost all the families. Three means-end structures emerged in regard to spouses' configuration of the components of adoration, and these three groups of families indicated different features of family. The spouses of the Holistic Devotion (HD) group devoted all resources to God, rejecting the quest for self-interest, defining marriage/family as a coherent unit to serve God. The children participated in this attitude, expressing a similar devotion to God and rejection of self-interest. The spouses of the Personal God (PG) group perceived God as a meaning-maker and a benefactor who was involved in marriage, having multiple goals including spiritual growth and marital care and togetherness. The children expressed similar goals, including family togetherness and affirmation of satisfaction of self-interest. The spouses of the God-as-Benefactor (GB) group mentioned only admiration, and perceived that God was less involved in marriage; they valued marital care that functioned as mutual satisfaction of self-interest. The children similarly sought family togetherness, were centered in self-interest, and religion was instrumental to their self-interest. Six functions working in the family relationships of the HD group were elaborated, and the unique ontology behind these functions was analyzed.