Robert F. Kelly

Work/Family Role Strain among Employed Parents.

The determinants of work/family role strain are explored with the use of an inductive multivariate model of job tension among employed parents. The analysis was based on questionnaire data obtained from 468 working parents in a medium-sized Southeastern metropolitan county in 1979. Three broad categories of independent variables were examined as possible sources of job tension: individual-level, familylevel and work-related variables. It was found that work-related variables, as a group, have the greatest impact on job tension. The paper addresses several policy implications of the findings.

Determinants of Work-Related Family Problems among Employed Parents.

This paper examines the relationships between individual, work, andfamily demands and resources, and work-related family problems among working parents. It is based on questionnaire data obtained from 468 working parents in a medium-sized southeastern metronolitan county in 1979. Hierarchical regression analyses indicate the relative importance of several individual, work, and family characteristics in relation to time shortage and income inadequacy. Differences in sources of time shortage and income inadequacy are outlined. The study presents a conceptual framework for the analysis of work-related family problems and documents the importance of several specific demands and resources among working parents.

Teaching Graduate Applied Sociology Through Internships: Program Development, Management, and Problems.

The relationships between sociological education and internships are analyzed using the experience of the first five years of the Wayne State University Program in Applied Sociology and Urban Policy Studies. I examine several major issues in addressing the subjects of internship program development, management, and problems. First, the multiple goals that an internship program is expected to achieve are discussed. I suggest that product and market research is necessary to maximize the achievement of program goals and to minimize conflict among them. In a related discussion, program policies concerning intern compensation and the degree of responsibility expected of interns by their sponsors are analyzed. Second, I discuss intern preparation, supervision, and evaluation. Third, two structural problems likely to be encountered by intern programs are analyzed, namely the high start-up costs of some internships and the tendency of student interns to rapidly gain full-time employment and to delay the completion of their degrees. Fourth, I present a brief reflection on the new role of internship director and its relationship to the department and the university.

Poverty, Children, and Public Policies: The Need for Diversity in Programs and Research

The articles in the special issue on Families, Poverty, and Public Policies focus on poor families with children and develop a central theme: that current policies are not sufficiently responsive to the emerging reality of large numbers of children living in poverty. This article first provides a context for considering the results reported in these articles by noting recent public policy, demographic, and socioeconomic trends that will influence these families in the future. Second, the articles are briefly reviewed and compared with an emphasis on demonstrating the need for diversity in programs to respond to the diverse needs of these families. Third, a research agenda related to the articles is discussed. The conclusion of the article addresses the role of research in the policy process.

The Family and the Urban Underclass An Integrative Framework

The major innovation of the concept of an underclass is that it treats dependent welfare women and poor urban male criminals as a single social group. A major source of the concept is an implicit synthesis of two bodies of economic theory and research—namely, human capital and dual labor market theory. This synthesis is best exemplified by the National Supported Work Demonstration. A major limitation of the synthesis is that it lacks a clear articulation of the influence of the family in underclass behavior. A theoretical framework is presented here that integrates family theory with the synthesized economic theory of the underclass. The integrated framework is used to examine the impact of current and proposed child support enforcement practices on the underclass.

The Structure and Prediction of Classes of Divorce Settlements Involving Dependent Children in a National Sample

Abstract The structure of divorce settlements involving children reflects complex decisions made by parents and the legal environment in which these decisions are made. With data from the National Survey of Families and Households, a latent class analysis of five settlement outcomes (physical custody, legal custody, visitation, child support and alimony) was used to assess five theoretical expectations about the structure of settlements. We identified four classes of settlements (traditional-mother custody, high-transfer mother custody, disengaged spouses, and joint custody)and found support for several of our theoretical expectations. Next, a multinomial logistic regression model of predictors of membership in the classes was estimated to test seven theoretical expectations derived from an integration of the conceptual frameworks of prior research that have focused on economic and legal dimensions of bargaining, gender, equity, and family structure. Several of these expectations are supported, but the model itself is not powerful.

Family Policy Analysis

Research methodologies employed in family policy research are examined. Using three emerging concepts in family policy analysis—life status transitions, informal economic behavior, and stress mediation—recent policy research concerning low-income families is critically reviewed for its methodological adequacy. It is suggested that by integrating qualitative research methods into quantitative designs, the overall quality and cost-effectiveness of policy-relevant family research can be significantly improved. The implications of this suggestion are examined in the closing section of the article.