Recent Research Reports and News: December
2003
Fathers—Research | Children
& Families | Fatbers/Mothers
in Prison | Census Data
| Systemic Barriers
| Welfare Reform
| NCOFF Abstracts
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Healthy Marriage Compendium, Child Trends, 20003.
Announcement text:
One of the goals of the Healthy Marriages initiative is to inform
current discussions regarding marriage by addressing the measurement
of aspects of the quality of healthy marital relationships. With funding
from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration
for Children and Families (ACF) (click here for ACF's formal description
of the project), Child Trends is currently involved in a project that
is examining the conceptualization and measurement of "healthy
marriages" that can advance future empirical research and evaluation
studies.
The project involves the completion of five (5) tasks, the first
of which is creation of a compendium of measures. The Healthy
Marriages Compendium is a compilation of existing measures that
have been used to examine couple relationships. Part 1 of
the Compendium draws from 24 nationally representative studies that
contain constructs pertaining to couple relationships. Part 2
is composed of measurement instruments that have been developed
and widely used in the field of marriage research. The Compendium
is intended to serve as a resource in the development of measures
for future studies.
The 511-page Compendium is separated into sections, by table of
contents, and each section can be downloaded in PDF format by clicking
on the title of the section. Alternatively, a searchable CD-ROM
of the Compendium can be purchased for $20.
The 270-page Recommendation Memos were prepared to provide
insight on the conceptualization and measurement of "healthy marriages."
They were commissioned from professionals representing a variety of
disciplines and perspectives related to family formation and relationships.
To obtain copies of these reports in PDF format, visit the Child
Trends web site.
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Family Support During the Transition to Adulthood, Robert
Schoeni and Karen Ross, University of Michigan, October 2003.
Press Release excerpt:
Between the ages of 18 and 34, young adults receive an average of
$38,000 in cash and two years' worth of full-time, 40-hour-a week
labor from their parents, according to a study by researchers at the
University of Michigan Institute for Social Research (ISR).
The study, supported by a grant from the John D. and Catherine
T. MacArthur Foundation Research Network on Transitions to Adulthood,
also tracks how parental support for young adults has changed since
1970.
"A successful transition to adulthood depends, perhaps more
than ever, on continuing support from parents," said lead author
Robert Schoeni, an economist at the ISR, the world's largest academic
survey and research organization. "Today's middle-income families
spend $170,460 on each child through age 17, studies have shown.
But this study provides the first empirical evidence that the giving
goes on for another 17 years, during which parents spend 23 percent
of the amount they provided during childhood and adolescence."
The study, which appears in On the Frontier of Adulthood, forthcoming
from the University of Chicago Press, was conducted by Schoeni and
U-M graduate student Karen Ross. It is based on an analysis of data
on more than 6,000 young adults from the ISR Panel Study of Income
Dynamics and on U.S. decennial census trends.
For information on obtaining a copy of this brief, please contact
Robert Schoeni at 734-763-5131, or email bschoeni@isr.umich.edu.
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2003 Fact at a Glance, Child Trends, November 2003.
Press Release excerpt:
The percentage of high school students having sex has continued to
decline, falling from 54 percent of all teens in 1991 to 46 percent
in 2001. At the same time, the percentage of sexually active teens
who reported using drugs or alcohol before their last sexual encounter
increased slightly during from 22 percent in 1991 to 26 percent in
2001.
The national teen birth rate continued its dramatic decline in
2002, falling 31 percent between 1991 (61.8 births per 1,000 15-19-year-olds)
and 2002 (42.9 births per 1,000 15-19-year-olds). Despite this progress,
an estimated 18 percent of girls who are currently 15 years old
will have a baby before age 20.
"When we see that 18 percent of 15-year-olds will become mothers
before they are out of their teens, it reminds us of how far we
still have to go," said Angela Romano Papillo, M.A., who wrote the
report with Jennifer Manlove, Ph.D. and Kristin Anderson Moore,
Ph.D. "More than 400,000 teens had a baby in 2002 in the United
States, possibly limiting their futures and the futures of their
children."
These and other statistics on teen childbearing, sexual activity,
and contraceptive use - some previously unpublished - appear in
the just-released 2003 Facts At A Glance, Child Trends' annual newsletter
on teen childbearing and related issues.
To download a copy of this publication in PDF format, visit the
Child Trends
web site.
New Citations from NCOFF's
FatherLit Database
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