Using life role salience theory, we investigated the extent to which occupational, parental, marital, and home care roles explained mental health outcomes among female expatriate spouses. Participants (N = 86) were from English-speaking Northern American or Western European countries; the average age was 38. Results of a two-way within-subject…

Conventional social mobility research, which measures family social class background relative to only fathers' characteristics, presents an outmoded picture of families--a picture wherein mothers' economic participation is neither common nor important. This article demonstrates that such measurement is theoretically and empirically untenable.…

The assumption that the family as an institution is experiencing a continuous and rapid loss of functions is challenged. Instead, the institution is seen as assuming new sets of responsibilities in the areas of sexual intercourse, recreation, and therapeutic services. (Author)

Examined relationship between maternal employment characteristics and father participation in child care by comparing trends in sample of 214 homemakers and employed women and sample of 139 professional women. Results indicated that, although husbands were more involved in child care when wives were employed, women were primary caregivers…

Examines the experience of the family arrangement in which fathers choose to stay at home as the primary caregiver while their wives provide the family's income. Results indicate that couples choose this arrangement for both practical and philosophical reasons and that these couples are sharing more responsibilities than couples have…

This article discusses data which indicate that the main reason married women tend to be in poorer mental health than men is because of the roles they typically occupy. The kinds of demands found in the home and associated with children create stress in the spouse (usually the wife) responsible for meeting these demands. (Author/GC)

The assumption of a study was that self rather than role forms the link between individuals and society. Data obtained through participant observation and 142 interviews with elderly women revealed that their identity is deeply embedded within their informal involvements and social network ties. (SK)

Interviewed 63 nonworking and 42 working mothers with a first baby to examine the relationship between previous work involvement and the experience of first-time motherhood. Results showed high-work-involvement women tended to report greater irritability and higher costs of motherhood. For working mothers, work involvement was generally unrelated…

Summarizes the responses of (N=131) adult women to a questionnaire survey of their experiences and activities in homemaking, parenting, volunteer work, recreation, formal and nonformal education, and paid work. Results showed that reentry women have had a wide variety of life experiences through which they have developed job-related skills.…

The 1970 National Fertility Study was used to investigate relationships between sex role attitudes and the childbearing and labor force participation of women. It was found that the most crucial aspect of working and fertility was the extent to which the woman identified the female role as that of housewife and homemaker. (Author)

In the last decade, a number of variant family forms have arisen. One contention is that these experiments are a sign of strain in the traditional nuclear family and an indication of changes it must undergo in order to adapt to contemporary society. (Author/WI)

Mother Centers are a grassroots self-help movement in Germany that help stay-at-home mothers break through the isolation they experience in German society when they have children and are not available for full-time employment. There are about 300 mother center projects currently in Germany, including 40 in the former East Germany. The programs…

To estimate variables describing identity change, Finnish housewives with work skills were interviewed after their children entered school. Thirty mothers who had remained at home with their preschool-age children were interviewed twice: once when their youngest child was 8 years of age and again when the child was 11. Of these mothers 15 were…

Family role theory is the framework used to guide this study of how mother's employment and age of younger child affect mother's time in meal preparation and cleanup, expenditures for meals away from home, and meals shared by the family both at home and away. (SSH)