Conducted telephone interviews with 320 pet owners and 116 nonowners. Found sociodemographic differences between groups. Remarried people, families with children, and families in middle stages of life cycle were most likely to have pets. Widows, empty-nesters, families with infants, and those with annual incomes of $8,000 or less were least likely…

Explored evolution of urban African-American children's living arrangements in community-defined population. Examined living arrangements of children in first grade and again during adolescence. Found that children's living arrangements were diverse, including nuclear and extended household family structures. Living arrangements were fluid, as…

General contact patterns, obligatory contact motivation, and discretionary contact motivation were examined regarding sibling relationships among 313 urban adults aged 25 or older. Emotional closeness, sibling responsibility expectations, and geographic proximity were most important in explaining dimensions of sibling interaction. (Author/TE)

Explored correlates of change in short-term economic dependency in households of 307 urban African-American adolescents, approximately one-half of whom bring babies into the family. The presence of a baby significantly affected the adolescent's job dependency but not welfare dependency once prior welfare status was controlled. Multivariate models…

Examined incidence of urban nuclear and stem families in China and impact of government policies on urban family structure since 1949 through analysis of 1982 Five-City Family Survey of Chinese urban families (N=5,057). Concluded that rapid decrease in stem families is not soon likely because of traditional, social, political, and economic…