Beatrice Paolucci

Objective and subjective income adequacy: Their relationship to perceived life quality measures

The study investigated the extent to which income adequacy was related to satisfaction with perceived overall life quality and two of the more economically based domains of life quality: satisfaction with family income and satisfaction with level of consumption. A representative national sample of 1046 adults was interviewed. Findings indicated that as income adequacy increased, whether objectively or subjectively measured, satisfaction with each of the three life quality measures also increased. Income adequacy explained more of the variance in the two economically based domains than in the more global area of overal life quality. Thus income adequacy was a contributor to life quality, but other domains of life experience were also important. Subjective adequacy explained more of the variation in each of the three life quality measures than did objective adequacy. While respondents differed significantly in the congruency in their subjective and objective adequacy levels, that difference explained very little of the variation in satisfaction with the three life quality measures.

A theoretical model for the study of nutritional status: An ecosystem approach

Nutrient intake is recognized as but one of many environmental factors which act upon the genetic potential of the young child to influence his physical development. The syndrome of malnutrition occurs not in isolation, but within the context of an entire constellation of environmental factors which together contribute to the final manifestation of the problem. Because nutrient intake may be associated with various environmental characteristics, the approach taken in the present model is ecological. It is believed that the nutritional status of preschool children must be examined in relation to factors which characterize his near environment, particularly his family. In the theoretical model which has been developed to study nutritional status, the family functions as the near environment for the developing child and thus plays a key role in providing conditions for interchange between him and the components of the more distal environment. Nutrient intake is viewed as an output of the family system result...

Family Interaction: A Study of Shared Time and Activities.

Through developing a way to assess quantitatively family interaction by examining everyday activities in the family, the relations between family interaction and certain characteristics of the family environment were investigated. This study identified the significant relations that existed between total family interaction and those activities categorized as social, eating, and care of family members. The time mothers shared with their children provided major input into total family interaction.

Energy Conservation: Family Values, Household Practices and Contextual Variables.

This study contributed to testing the family management conceptual framework, i.e., relation ships among values, contextual variables and management practices. Primary research objectives were to determine: (1) if differences existed in the adoption rate of household energy conservation practices in families with varying husband-wife commitment to values; (2) if adoption of energy conservation practices varied with contextual variables. Survey data collected from 157 families in a multistage probability sample were used. Based on multivariate statistical analyses, the value of eco-consciousness was found to be a predictor of energy conservation behavior. The value of eco- consciousness was positively related to wifes education, husbands education and his occupation. Although the model is incomplete, it is postulated that a holistic model of management can be built with empirical support found in partial models.

Strengths of the Home and Family as Learning Environments

Where did you learn the alphabet? Who taught you to count? Who taught you how, what, when and where to eat? Where did you learn how to show respect for others? How did you learn about your career choices?

Home-based learning—Implications for nutrition educators

Summary Families were surveyed to determine if and how families were learning at home and the feasibility of the home as a learning center. Thirty-six spokespersons each for three family age groups listed 642 learning activities in 15 categories. Four learning categories were relevant to foods and nutrition: family feeding, child care, adult care, and health. Family feeding was viewed as a long-term learning activity, was ranked first in time pursued, but was not reported as an activity that “ought to be learned at home.” The kitchen was identified as a home learning center, When seeking outside help for learnings, male adults contacted librarians and friends; adult females, parents and friends. Nutrition educators must find acceptable pathways into the family to encourage families to use knowledgeable support systems for accurate information.

An Empirical Reexamination of the Parent Attitude Research Instrument (PARI)

was performed, resulting in the formation of ten clusters. Examination of the content and correlations between these clusters revealed that groupings of clusters were comparable to factors which had been previously described in the literature. This research demonstrates the viability of using cluster analysis to determine appropriate reliability and validity standards for attitude scale development.

Parent as Teacher: What do We Know?

The concept of parents as teachers represents a large and rapidly expanding volume of literature. The proliferation of research studies, reanalyses, and evaluations require extensive organization and integration to discover what is said. The problem is not a lack of information, but rather the ability to use the information we have. In addition, as Leichter (1974) has noted, “The family is a different subject for inquiry because it is so much a part of everyone’s experience that it becomes hard to avoid projecting one’s own values, beliefs and attitudes onto the experience of others” (p. 215). All of this nothwithstanding, the considerable face validity engendered by the concept of parents as teachers has been supported by powerful empirical evidence (Bronf enbrenner, 1974; Lazar, 1981) supporting the position that parent involvement in the education of the child improves the effectiveness of that education. What follows is not a comprehensive state-of-the-art paper nor a comprehensive review of the parent as teacher literature. It is, however, an attempt to respond to the literature, particularly integrative summaries, and further, to place these in a context that we interpret to be important to their synthesis. We hope by so doing to place them in proper introductory perspective to provide the foundation for what follows in other chapters of the volume.

Chapter I: A Look at Today's Homemaking Programs

Harappan Civilization flourished during the third second millennium BCE. It ranks amongst the four widely known civilizations of the world and covers an appreciably larger area than the early dynastic Egypt or Sumer. Like Mesopotamia and other old world civil izations, the Harappan Civilization seems to have grown out of the skilful exploitation of the rivers valley resources in the north –western region of the Indo – Pakistan subcontinent 1 . Excavation in the 1920s had revealed ancient cities which have the vast proportions, with unique artifacts and a level of architectural planning that was unparallel ed in the ancient world. The Harappans sites provided evidence of a systematic town planning, fortifications, elaborate draina ge system, granaries, etc. which throw light on the surplus economy, standardization of brick size, weight and measures, geometric instruments, linear scales and plumb-bobs. The Harappans were the first who gave the idea of the welfare of workers for the f irst time by establishing separate worker‟s quarters which has now become a necessity in a welfare state. 2 A unique type of hydraulic architecture is another legacy of the Harappans besides other important contributions in social, economic and religious fi elds. There was a system of drains. The eli tes who l ived in different