Search

Increasing women in state legislatures is associated with greater legislative support for social policies serving families with children. We examine whether the family friendly impact of women legislators extends to supporting family elders. We draw on a cross-sectional data set of the American states in conjunction with regression. We find that, controlling for prominent alternative factors shaping state policies, women's legislative presence exerts a strong positive influence on state elderly friendliness. Our results are more exploratory than definitive, but they suggest that states with more extensive legislative representation of women better meet the growing challenges of an aging population. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

All the U.S. states create residential property tax abatement policies that provide important benefits for a rapidly growing older population. These policies vary sharply, and we seek to explain variation in their generosity. We employ regression in conjunction with a cross-sectional data set of the 50 states focused early in the current decade. Several variables prominent in explaining cross-state variation in other public policies exert only modest effects on these programs. Rather, the primary influence is a positive one for a cultural orientation toward government helping a broad swath of the citizenry. We attribute this unusual pattern of explanatory factors to (1) abatement programs' older target populations; (2) their tax expenditure status; and (3) their tendency to be categorized as economic development rather than social programs. This explanatory pattern holds theoretical importance inasmuch as it provides few constraints on the growth of at least some programs serving older citizens. Todos los estados de la Unión Americana establecen políticas de reducción de impuestos para las propiedades residenciales que dan beneficios importantes para la población, en rápido crecimiento, de adultos mayores. Estas políticas varían bruscamente y buscamos explicar la variación en su generosidad. Empleamos una regresión conjuntamente con datos transversales de 50 estados y enfocados en el principio de la década actual. Diversas variables que explican la variación entre estados en otras políticas públicas sólo ejercen efectos modestos en estos programas de reducción de impuestos. En cambio, la influencia más importante es una positiva para la orientación cultural relacionada con la ayuda del gobierno para una amplia porción de la ciudadanía. Atribuimos este diseño inusual de factores explicativos a: (1) la población objetivo de adultos mayores de estos programas de reducciones; (2) al estatus de los adultos mayores en los programas de reducciones y (3) a la tendencia de que la reducción de impuestos para las propiedades residenciales sea categorizada como desarrollo económico en lugar de programas sociales. Este patrón explicativo mantiene una importancia teórica dado que provee pocas restricciones para el desarrollo en el futuro de al menos algunos programas de ayuda a la ciudadanía de adultos mayores. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

States employ home and community-based services (HCBS) increasingly in Medicaid support of long-term care and rely less on nursing facilities. We examine how states' nursing facilities and HCBS programs compare and whether states' long-term care responses match their ideological inclination toward, material capacity for supporting, and their citizens' need for these public social programs. We use cross-sectional panel data on structural, process, and outcome quality for nursing facilities and HCBS congregate residential programs. We rank states, correlate these measures, and use regression to link inclination, capacity, and need to quality. We find that states' nursing facility and HCBS program quality are not closely related and that state HCBS congregate residential program quality is independent of inclination, capacity, and need. This latter result underscores a need for uniform HCBS standards and better data on quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We address two issues in this exploratory study. First, to what degree do variables prominent in explaining cross-state variation in the generosity of other public assistance programs also help to explain the resources states devote to nursing facility long-term care for the elderly, a service supported largely by states' Medicaid programs? Second, to what degree do the resources that states commit to this purpose influence the quality of state nursing facility processes and, in turn, translate into state nursing facility residents' quality-of-life outcomes? We find unusual features to the pattern of factors explaining state resource levels. We also find surprises in relations among the three aspects of quality, but overall, raising resource adequacy improves nursing facility process quality, which, in turn, bolsters nursing facility residents' quality-of-life outcomes. We close with suggestions for further improvement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Elderly Americans commit suicide at higher rates than other age groups. We contend that macro- and micro-social variables contribute distinct aspects to explanations of this tragic loss: the former focus on circumstances that affect overall rates, the latter reveal why certain individuals succumb to suicide. Our analysis focuses on the macro-social end of a causal sequence including variables at both levels. We describe how elderly suicide rates vary among states, show that macrosocial indicators of social integration contribute to cross-state variation in elderly suicide rates, and explain how selected aspects of state-level public policy contribute to reducing elderly suicide rates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The United States faces a rapidly growing population of elderly citizens. To learn more about their prospects, we engage in three tasks. First, we develop and operationalize a five-dimensional concept, "state elderly friendliness," that facilitates assessing various political, economic, and social aspects of state environments that influence the well-being of elderly persons. Second, we rank states on the five dimensions of this concept. We find large differences both within states across various dimensions and across states on individual dimensions. Third, we demonstrate that differences in states' ranks on our dimensional scales are associated with sharp variations in particular societal outcomes of importance for the well-being of various segments of the elderly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents a study which examined the degree to which ex-spouses share the parental role when at least the custodial parent is remarried. Overview of parental role sharing following remarriage; Assessment of the quality of the relationship between an ex-spouse and a remarried parent; Impact of the quality of stepfamily environment on the pattern of role sharing and the quality of relationships with ex-spouses.

Presents information on the reports and confirmation of child abuse in the United States. Examination of the major rates of child abuse in stepfamilies; Comparison of the theoretical perspectives applied; Discussion on the implications for research and practice.

Recently, some researchers have argued that high state rates of Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Online Survey, Certification and Reporting (OSCAR) nursing facility deficiencies indicate stringent enforcement, leaving the impression of better-quality care soon to follow; others maintain that the rank ordering of states' quality of nursing facility care remains fairly constant, resting on deep-seated state characteristics that change slowly, so that short-term improvement in poor-quality care is unlikely. The authors examine change in the process and outcome quality of states' Medicare nursing facility long-term care programs across 1999 to 2005, using linear and two-stage least squares regression. They find that (1) nationally, process quality generally falls across this period while outcome quality generally increases; (2) neither a prominent enforcement stringency index nor state culture, a relatively stable state characteristic, exerts much influence on state process and outcome quality scores over time, but (3) the relative costs and benefits for CMS compliance appear to contribute to explaining change in states' quality of resident outcomes over time; and (4) states' process quality is much less stable than outcome quality, and outcome indices distinct from OSCAR deficiency data provide more reliable and possibly more valid measures of care quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]