Applying path analysis to 237 secondary school students and 320 post-secondary students in Singapore, parents' education was found to have important effects on adolescents' educational aspiration as mediated through educational track and adolescents' financial stress and self-esteem. This effect is strong for adolescents in both secondary and…

Describes the impact of economic stressors on marriage. Discusses how Adlerian marital therapy strategies can be tailored to help middle-income couples deal with such stressors. Identifies problems facing middle income families experiencing financial hardship, describes Adlerian counseling for financial conflict in marriage, and delineates…

Cohabitation is now the modal path to marriage in the United States. Drawing on data from 115 in-depth interviews with cohabitors from the working and lower middle classes, this paper explores how economics shape marital decision making. We find that cohabitors typically perceive financial issues as important for marriage, and we delineate several…

Data from two-parent families in midwestern rural county revealed that adverse economic change increased economic pressures and hardship adaptations in ways that matched effect of income level and exceeded influence of unstable work. Pressures and adaptations mediated negative effects of economic adversity on emotional health and family…

New York's Tuition Assistance Program (TAP) is described with emphasis on its effect or lack of effect on access, urban students, and middle-income parents. Its role within the three major higher education systems in the state--SUNY, CUNY, and the independents--is examined. (LBH)

An analysis is made of the way data were treated in several studies which concluded that family incomes have increased as fast as college costs and that there is no special difficulty in paying for higher education for middle income families. Trends in tuition costs are confounded by presenting average tuition data aggregated for all types of…

This report examines the Annie E. Casey Foundation's work with children and families in Camden, New Jersey, providing a framework for assessing public and private investments, policies, and practices undertaken on behalf of Camden's families and neighborhoods. Camden is part of the Casey Foundation's Making Connections initiative, which advances…

As part of a series of field hearings across the nation on the reauthorization of the Higher Education of 1965, the Subcommittee on Postsecondary Education met in Pleasant Hill, California, to hear testimony specifically on access to education for children of lower and middle class families in California. Discussed were the rising cost of higher…

As part of a series of field hearings across the nation on the reauthorization of the Higher Education Act of 1965, the Subcommittee on Postsecondary Education met in Great Falls, Montana, to hear testimony specifically on access to education for children of middle class farm families in Montana. In the course of the hearing witnesses touched on…