Ailsa Burns

Environmental quality and the well-being of children

There are many reasons for believing that the environment exerts an influence (directly or indirectly) on the wellbeing of children and families. However, while clear evidence is available that low socioeconomic status is associated with lower than average levels of wellbeing, especially among adults, the evidence linking the social and emotional adjustment of children with the quality of the environment is patchy and equivocal. In this paper we focus on three levels of the family environment: the street, the home and the neighborhood. Neighborhood quality was measured by the Vinson-Homel social problems index, street-type as residential or commercial/retail, and housing quality in terms of upkeep, floor occupied, availability of playspace and occupancy type. The research hypothesis was that after allowing for community selection processes children living in lower quality environments would be less satisfied with various areas of their lives, would experience more negative emotions, and would have more restricted and less positive friendship patterns. The sample comprised 321 families which included a 9–11 year old child, drawn from 18 neighborhoods of Sydney. Neighborhood social problem score and street-type, and some aspects of housing, predicted emotional and social adjustment. Before and after controls for family composition, social class and culture, children living in commercial streets, particularly in inner-city areas, stood out from all others in their feelings of loneliness, dislike of other children and feelings of rejection, worry, fear, anger and unhappiness. Children living in high social problems areas showed a pattern of social constriction rather than maladjustment. These results suggest not simply the influence of social class but genuine community socialization effects. Possible sources of, and mechanisms for, these effects are suggested.

Motivation for return to study as a predictor of completion of degree amongst female mature students with children

The motivation for return to study, as measured by the Continuing Education Women Questionnaire (modified), of 117 mature age female graduates with children was compared with that of 118 former mature age female students with children who had discontinued a degree program before graduation. Motivation was found to relate to a number of predictors, including previous education, age, marital status, family life cycle stage, satisfaction with previous employment and family support for return to study. Interrupters as a group were found to be similar in motivation to graduates. However, certain subgroups of interrupters scored higher on those aspects of motivation which stressed study as a way to ameliorate or escape from unpleasant or difficult life circumstances. These same difficult circumstances in turn made graduation more unlikely and led to discontinuance. The conclusion is drawn that life circumstances may be a more parsimonious predictor of attrition in this population than motivation.

Profiles of Time Perspective and Personality: Developmental Considerations

Time perspective is an important but subtle cognitive construct underlying personality, decision making, and goal setting. This study identified 3 temporal dimensions--temporal extension, temporal attitude, and temporal structure--and reviewed the associations among them. T. J. Cottles (1969, 1977) work on temporal profiles was briefly reviewed; it suggested that 3 types of temporal profiles can be isolated and that 3 broad personality dimensions--human agency, mood, and temperament--from characteristic associations with each of the temporal profiles. The authors expected the profiles to reflect developmental sensitivities as a person moves from adolescence into early adulthood. Two samples (159 high school students and 236 university students) participated in the study. The results provided some limited support for the actualizer and atomist profiles; somewhat surprisingly, the role of temporal extension appeared to be insignificant. No evidence was found for a developmental transition of time perspective between middle adolescence (15-17 years) and early adulthood (18-25 years).

Time perspective: temporal extension, time estimation, and impulsivity.

It has been proposed that time perspective is an important variable that can, in part, explain the differences between people in terms of the development of self-control. One corollary of this position is that time perspective is somehow related to systematic biases in the way people perceive the passage of time. Such a bias may or may not be augmented by an association between time perspective and impulsivity. Two studies were conducted using measures of temporal extension, time estimation, and impulsivity. In general, no consistent effects were found. Neither time perspective nor impulsivity was related to any characteristic pattern of errors. In the second study, time perspective (mediated by age) was associated with predicting very brief time estimation scores, but not longer time estimation periods. It was concluded that whatever the mechanism might be that underlies the purported effect between time perspective and self-control, it is not related to a differential ability to perceive time moving more or less quickly.

Australian women : contemporary feminist thought

This work provides an overview of Australian feminisms from 1970 until the present, and poses the question of whether Australian feminist thinking has developed a distinctive character. Comparisons are made to developments in the US and Europe.

Parental Marital Quality and Family Conflict

Abstract Recent studies by Amato and Booth (1997) and Wallerstein, Blakeslee and Lewis (2000) have reported that the children of highly-conflicted parents who remained together, and the children of low-conflict parents who separated, were as adults more poorly adjusted than others, and less successful in themselves forming and maintaining intimate relationships. These associations were explored in a longitudinal study of 67 adolescents aged 13-16 when first interviewed, at which time half the families involved were at the point of divorce. Mothers, fathers and adolescents initially rated the level of conflict in the family, and parents also rated their marital adjustment and their satisfaction with marital conflict resolution (in the case of the divorce group, at the time just before the decision to separate). The adolescents also reported whether they got involved in their parents disagreements, and completed standardised measures of self-image, anxiety and depression. Ten years later the now-adult children repeated these items, along with measures of readiness for intimacy and wariness about relationships, and some further family conflict items. Family conflict at Time 1 (as perceived by the child) predicted self-image and anxiety at Year 1, but not at Year 10. However, the adult childrens current rating of happiness in the family of origin predicted current self-image. As adults, daughters were more anxious than sons, and daughters who had previously rated their families as highly conflicted were more depressed than other sample members. Parents marital status was relevant only to wariness about relationships. Children from the divorce group were more wary overall. Their level of wariness was unaffected by their Year 1 reports of involvement in parental disagreements, but within the intact group, greater wariness was associated with greater involvement in parental conflict at Year 1. These findings indicate a different pattern of long-term outcomes from those reported by Amato & Booth (1997) and Wallerstein, Blakeslee and Lewis (2000).

Is this a good place to grow up in? Neighbourhood quality and children's evaluations

Abstract A random sample of 9–11-year-old children living in 18 suburbs of Sydney, Australia, were interviewed regarding their likes and dislikes about their neighbourhood, and their overall evaluation of their area as a “place for children to grow up in”. The 18 suburbs were selected to represent a range of scores on the Vinson-Homel risk scale, a composite index of neighbourhood quality derived from health, income, employment, education and welfare statistics that are available on an areal basis. Childrens evaluations were strongly related to areal risk scores, with the two highest-risk (inner city) neighbourhoods particularly disfavoured. The major reasons advanced for liking or disliking a neighbourhood were plotted against risk scores, showing a complex pattern of associations, with parks particularly valued by children in the highest-risk areas. A canonical correlation analysis of likes, dislikes and overall ratings showed two canonical variables to be statistically significant. The first was a good-bad dimension, which was strongly associated with risk score. The second contrasted open playspace with private peace and quiet, bringing together the six highest- and lowest-risk areas in comparison to the twelve middling-risk areas. No variables other than risk were found to be predictive of childrens evaluations of their neighbourhoods.

Conditions of life and parental values

Abstract The study constitutes an expansion of Kohns work on social class and parental values, in two directions: firstly a search for value dimensions other than Kohns self-direction/conformity; and secondly, an investigation of three aspects of social structure: immigrant status, quality of neighbourhood and housing type. Data were collected from parents of 305 9-11-year-olds resident in Sydney. Kohns parental values instrument was used, but analysed using a multivariate linear model rather than the traditional way (factor analysis followed by a univariate multiple regression). Immigrant status, neighbourhood quality, family income, childs sex and street type all predicted particular parental value sets. Non Anglo immigrnts differed from other groups in their strong emphasis on school performance, sex role performance and sibling relations. Parents in higher quality neighbourhoods put greater value on childrens sociability than did those in higher risk neighbourhoods. Self-control, school performan...

Turning Points in the Lives of Midlife and Older Women

Abstract The study explored the turning points in their lives reported by 60 married or previously married lower-income midlife and older women (born 1931-1936, 1941-1946 and 1951-1956), and considered the importance of age and cohort effects. Following a life-review interview, respondents were asked to nominate the turning points in their lives. The turning points that were identified were classified as involving predominantly a role transition, an adversity, or an experience of personal growth. There were significant cohort differences in that the youngest cohort nominated significantly more adversities and the oldest cohort correspondingly fewer. In the total sample, role transitions and adversity turning points were most commonly experienced between the ages of 21 and 40 years, while personal development experiences increased after midlife. It is noted that the turning point approach allows respondents to select and prioritise their own significant life events, and these are not always those that are ...

Well-being in aging: Mental engagements in elderly men as a moderator of losses

Abstract To explore the intrapsychic components of adjustment in aging, this study investigated whether mental and emotional engagements with the present and the past contribute positively to well-being in elderly men, and whether any of these engagements can moderate the negative effects of losses on well-being. Mental engagements are the cognitive components of both the outer and the inner world. They comprise the activities and interests with which the individual is mentally involved and which occupy his mind. Emotional engagements with significant others include the relationships with significant people in ones life cycle. Mental and emotional engagements with significant others also consist of preoccupation with the past through representation in the inner world of significant objects, events, and people. Participants were 60 elderly retired Australian men. The results indicated that all the engagements were positively associated with well-being, but that only mental engagement with the present buffered the negative impact of loss of work and loss of health on well-being.