Charlotte Chorn Dunham

Relationships Among Life Events and Psychological Well-Being: More Evidence for a Two-Factor Theory of Well-Being

Relationships between 11 major life events and changes in psychological well-being were examined in a three-generation sample: grandparents, their adult children, and their young adult grandchildren. Psychological well-being was measured using the Bradburn Affect Balance Scale. Life events included marriages; divorces; births of children; deaths of spouses, children, and parents; health declines; hospitalizations; improved standard of living; retirement; and retirement of ones spouse. Both positive and negative affect demonstrated similar stability over 14 years and were equally predictable from the life events. However, consistent with a two-factor conceptualization of psychological well-being, for all generations, desirable life events predicted change in positive affect whereas undesirable events predicted change in negative affect; cross-domain prediction was minimal. Results further indicated that whether life events are expected may be more important in predicting subsequent psychological well-being than whether they are desirable or undesirable.

GENDER, GENDER IDEOLOGY, AND ANIMAL RIGHTS ADVOCACY

Research on womens preponderance among animal rights advocates explains it exclusively as a product of womens socialization, emphasizing a relational orientation of care and nurturing that extends to animals. The authors propose a more structural explanation: Womens experiences with structural oppression make them more disposed to egalitarian ideology, which creates concern for animal rights. Using data from a 1993 national sample, the authors find that an egalitarian gender ideology is a key difference in womens and mens routes to animal rights advocacy: It differentiates those more likely to endorse animal rights among women but not among men. Neither this ideology nor other variables in the analysis, however, account for womens greater overall support of animal rights in the combined sample. Reasons for this latter finding are explored.

“They're still in control enough to be in control”: Paradox of power in dementia caregiving

Based on an interview study of 26 employed women dementia caregivers, we have found that caregiving involves a complex relationship that is characterized as a paradox in which the exercise of power creates an experience of powerlessness on the part of the caregiver; that the care recipients are not powerless, but encourage as well as resist attempts at providing care; and this relationship occurs in the context of a culture that influences and controls the family through the production of knowledge that is used to shape the caregiving relationship and give direction to the caregivers actions. The control achieved by the use of knowledge of medicine and gender is incomplete and is thus embraced yet resisted by caregivers who see the inadequacy of the knowledge for achieving the goal of loving, dignified care.

Gender, Relational Role Orientation, and Affinity for Animal Rights

Research based mainly on non-national samples reports a greater affinity for animal rights among women than men, and proposes a greater relational role orientation among women that emphasizes caring for others to explain this difference. Using a recent national sample comprised of 11% African American and 89% white American respondents, we find that a relational role orientation fails to account for women’s greater support of animal rights. It does provide minor help in distinguishing animal rights advocates from nonadvocates, but only among women and only on one of two measures of animal rights support. We conclude by proposing women’s structural locations as well as the interplay between these locations and women’s role socialization as alternate explanations for gender differences in affinity for animal rights.

Differences in value and attitude change over the life course

An abundance of research has asserted that there are predictable changes that occur to a persons values and attitudes over the life course. This assertion follows the claim by some theorists that values and attitudes are similar in structure and function. This report tests the assertion that values and attitudes are mutable early in the life course, change to a conservative orientation over time, and eventually stabilize in the later stages of the life course. Period and cohort effects are discussed as possible sources of change and stability. Results are used to reconsider the idea that values and attitudes are similar in structure and function. This effort concludes that values and attitudes show marked differences in both their mutable nature over the life course and in the function each plays in the evaluation process.

A Link Between Generations Intergenerational Relations and Depression in Aging Parents

This research examined the relationship between three aspects of intergenerational relations—a problem in the life of an adult child, conflict with an adult child, and social support from an adult child—and depression in aging parents in a sample of three-generation California families. Of the three issues, only support from an adult child was consistently related to depression in parents. Using a nonevaluative measure of support, it was found that those parents who receive support from a child are more depressed than those who do not, and those who have less conflict between the generations are more depressed when they receive support from an adult child.

Representing the Other in Sociology of the Family Texts.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the concept of otherness as it applies to the content of sociology of the family texts. We conducted a study of the content of the indexes and the body of texts on sociology of the family, examining the way in which the experiences of whites were addressed relative to families of color. We found that whites were more often presented as a comparison group to families of color rather than as groups with histories and experiences of their own. We recommend that textbooks avoid separate sections for families of color, examine whites with the same scrutiny as families of color, examine white privilege as well as minority disadvantage, and focus on the positive experiences of families of color.

Older Adults Navigating Medicare: When Benefits Are Denied

Guided by Bourdieus theory of practice and symbolic violence, this qualitative study explored experiences and perceptions of elderly beneficiaries who had been denied rehabilitation services by Medicare. In semistructured interviews, 12 beneficiaries or family members told of the physical, psychological, and financial consequences of service denial/termination. The resulting perception of Medicare was as a cumbersome, difficult to negotiate system. Findings have implications for future research on service denial and indicate the need for better communication with, and support of, consumers by health care professionals when this occurs.