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This revised 1997 ex post facto study attempted to identify a lifelong adaptability curriculum from a cultural literacy perspective. It investigated students' lifelong adaptability ratings of 15 general school subjects as predicted by family structure, parental age, parental educational level, student cultural literacy, and student gender; student intelligence was covaried with student cultural literacy. It also incorporated four survey respondent groups in seeking to achieve consensus on a lifelong adaptability curriculum. In a middle-class suburban school district, 215 parents, 80 teachers, 78 total students, 51 culturally literate students, and 6 secondary building administrators provided usable Lifelong Adaptability Survey ratings of 15 general school subjects. Sixty-eight students provided valid Cultural Literacy Test, Form B data; 71 students had Differential Aptitude Tests (DAT) student intelligence proxy scores; and 53 students had parent-provided demographic data. Student intelligence significantly predicted student cultural literacy, and student cultural literacy did not significantly predict students' lifelong adaptability ratings after controlling for student intelligence. There was not a significant additive effect of student cultural literacy and aggregate demography in predicting students' lifelong adaptability ratings. There was a significant main effect of student gender in predicting students' lifelong adaptability ratings in that the female student assigned a significantly higher lifelong adaptability rating to English, to health, and to home economics. There were not any significant two-way interactive effects of student cultural literacy and demography in predicting students' lifelong adaptability ratings. There was partial consensus across respondent groups' lifelong adaptability ratings in that parents, teachers, and students deemed English and computer technology to have the greatest value for lifelong adaptability, whereas they deemed music to have the least value for lifelong adaptability. A Practical Factor appeared to be surfacing with varying degrees of strength in parents', all students', and culturally literate students' lifelong adaptability ratings. Parents', teachers', and culturally literate students' lifelong adaptability ratings shared the Practical-Academic Factor Model consisting of a Practical Factor (driver education, health, home economics, and physical education) and an Academic Factor (English, foreign language, mathematics, science, and social studies). From a cultural literacy perspective, it appears that a lifelong adaptability curriculum would emphasize English, computer technology, foreign language, mathematics, science, and social studies within an Academic aspect of the curriculum along with driver education, health, home economics, and physical education within a Practical aspect of the curriculum. A bibliography is included. (Contains 60 tables, 111 figures, and 29 appendices.)

The purpose of this study was to determine the affects of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) on Family and Consumer Science (FACS) program sustainment in the state of Arizona. FACS programs were not addressed in the NCLB mandates, but are part of the Arizona secondary education programming. FACS programs had seen a decrease in the number of programs being offered in the state of Arizona; therefore, suggesting a decline in enrollment. This quantitative study used two data collection techniques. Arizona public enrollment records represented enrollment trends over a 15-year period and a 15-question Likert scale survey represented the opinions of FACS educators as to the effects of NCLB on FACS programs and their opinions on the views of experts in the literature in regards to aligning FACs curriculum with NCLB mandates. Surveys were administered to 455 FACS educators using the Arizona Department of Education FACS "e-mail" database, 110 participants responded to the survey. Data results indicated that NCLB had an overall affect on FACS programs, but there was little statistical evidence in both data sets that NCLB affected enrollment trends. The results also suggested that FACS educators agreed with experts in the literature in aligning FACS curriculum with NCLB mandates. Experts suggested that FACS curriculum be aligned with Arizona state standards in the areas of reading/writing, mathematics, and science; while FACS educators concurred this would help align FACs programs with NCLB mandates. Experts also expressed the importance of aligning classroom testing procedures with those represented in NCLB mandates in the form of standardized testing. A high number of participants agreed that aligning classroom testing with standardized testing measures introduced in NCLB would help align FACS curriculum to NCLB mandates. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

This exploratory study was an attempt to understand the types of affective learning. The study focused on beginning students who were enrolled in apparel construction/sewing laboratory in community colleges within Los Angeles and Ventura counties during the spring of 2009 (n = 155). The primary purpose of the study was to develop scales that would measure the multiple levels of the affective domain and perceived self-efficacy of student participation in class. The relationships among the scales were investigated. Other scales were developed to measure related variables such as how comfortable students felt participating in class, the students' sense of community, the students overall feelings and general satisfaction with the class, the quality of student work done for the class and the students' attitude toward the class. Factor analysis was used to assess the conceptual validity of each scale. All scales were valid and reliable. Bloom's Taxonomy of the affective domain was used as the basis to create scales to measure the five different hierarchical levels of the affective domain: receiving, responding, valuing, organization, and characterization. Self-efficacy scales were based upon existing scales grounded in the work of Bandura. Illeris' adult learning theory was used to frame the study. In this theory the affective domain works with the cognitive domain when adults internalize knowledge. There is also a social interaction process that has to occur during adult learning. Illeris's theory was supported by the results of this study, as evidenced by some students reaching high scores on the organization and characterization levels of the affective domain, indicating internalization of knowledge. Other findings included high scores for comfort in class participation, but only average scores related to feeling a sense of community. Student's overall feelings and general satisfaction with the class were high. This sample judged the quality of their work and their attitude toward the class to be high. Pearson correlations revealed moderate and strong relationships between most variables. In general, the findings strongly support Bandura's work in self-efficacy and make a case for including affective domain outcomes in community college apparel construction/sewing laboratory classes. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

This study investigated students' learning style participation rate within a blended Family and Consumer Sciences Exploring Childhood constructivist secondary course using an exploratory quantitative approach with descriptive analysis, ANOVA testing, and contingency tables. Howard Gardner's multiple intelligence inventory was used to determine students' learning styles. The learning styles were compared with the participation rate of four course components: individual assignments, group projects, assessment, and discussion. Students' perception of the course components were also examined for the opportunity of the students to use prior knowledge to build concepts. The literature review brought insight on studies focusing on learning style participation rate within course components. The data analysis indicated students participate more in the group projects course component than assessment, individual assignments and discussions. Findings determined there was no significance to students' learning style and the participation rate of the course components. Learning styles were not related to student participation in various blended learning course components. Further research is recommended to determine factors of students' participation within a blended course. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

The major purpose of the study was to obtain from vocational consumer and homemaking teachers in Oklahoma an evaluation of the basic core curriculum prepared for home economics 2 by the Oklahoma State Department of Vocational and Technical Education. Data were collected by means of a mailed questionnaire and personal data information sheet designed to ascertain and evaluate teacher attitudes toward the curriculum and obtain a profile of the participants of the study. Fifty percent of the vocational consumer and homemaking teachers from each of the six supervisory districts were selected at random for a total of 200 teachers. A total of 142 responded to the instrument. It was found that the teachers were making extensive use of the curriculum and finding it helpful in most aspects of their teaching. They also indicated they would like the opportunity to participate in the home economics curriculum development. Many of the teachers were in favor of more inservice training to help them use the basic core curriculum to better advantage. (Author/NJ)

This study examined the problem-solving and decision-making concepts included in the Consumer and Homemaking curricula in Illinois. Data were taken from a larger study, "Evaluating Program Outcomes: Occupation of Homemaking," conducted under the auspices of the Illinois State Board of Education. Through telephone interviews, 333 randomly selected Illinois high school graduates (between 1979 and 1984) rated each concept on a 10-point Likert scale. Each concept was rated twice: once, to rate importance of the concept to adult functioning and second, the graduates' competence. Of the 57 concepts included in the Consumer and Homemaking curricula, 16 related to problem solving and decision making. Using a t-test, differences were found between those who had enrolled in one or more home economics courses and those who had no home economics course. A confounding variable is that consumer education is required of every high school graduate in Illinois. When data were analyzed according to course taken, three courses showed significant differences for competence. Respondents enrolled in home economics courses did perceive the importance of problem-solving and decision-making processes for adult living higher than respondents not enrolled in home economics courses. Results also showed enrollment in home economics courses increases the perceived competence of problem solving and decision making processes. (Eighteen references and the interview schedule are included.) (NLA)

Adult and continuing education programs use an established accountability system that includes an expectation of productivity, whereas other educational programs focus accountability on attainment of stated goals and objectives. As education addresses economic constraints by combining educational programs, these differences in accountability expectations will require a system amenable to the intent of the total program, thereby involving all of the funding agencies. This study compares the productivity measure of cost per contact hour between two educational programs where one program operates by the productivity expectation and the other does not. The 28 Vocational Education Act (VEA) Adult Consumer and Homemaker Education projects (without the productivity expectations) are compared to 28 projects in the Adult Education Act (AEA) Program, which uses the cost per contact hour productivity expectation. In order to determine whether the AEA project's cost-effectiveness is significantly lower, the project costs were divided by the total contact hours generated in fiscal year 1984 for the 56 projects. The two-tailed independent t-test, at the .05 level of significance, shows that the difference in cost per contact hour between the two programs is statistically significant. The program with the productivity expectation operates at a significantly lower cost per contact hour. The results have assured the development of expectation for productivity in the VEA adult program. A system is now being developed that includes an adjusted cost per contact hour, an established standard for teacher output, and a designated cost factor to cover program costs. (Author/KC)

A study in the fall of 1988 investigated counselors' attitudes toward home economics. The sample consisted of 80 counselors, a 48 percent return from all counselors in Delaware's secondary schools with home economics programs. A mailed questionnaire included demographic items and twenty-three 4-point Likert-type attitude items. Data analyses indicated no significant differences in attitude responses by counselors' sex, age, years of service, educational level, work experience, type of school, or size of school. Differences were found when looking at the variable of the counselors' undergraduate degrees. Those with a physical education specialty had the most positive mean attitude score, whereas those with a math specialty had the least positive mean attitude score. There was an overall positive attitude of counselors toward home economics education. The counselors were very favorable toward the purpose and worth of home economics, but less favorable toward the image of home economics education. The counselors agreed strongly that both courses, and that home economics should be part of the total courses and that home economics should be part of the total educational program. (24 references) (CML)

This study set out to understand how one of the poorest, most disadvantaged groups - rural African women - perceive and experience microfinance in the context of extreme poverty. The study employed a qualitative method and purposefully sampled thirty poor rural women entrepreneurs in five villages of South-East Nigeria. Data collected from participant observation, five focus groups and thirty interviews were analysed thematically using the Sustainable Livelihoods Framework (SLF) to develop insight about the many complexities of livelihoods of rural women entrepreneurs. The study therefore contributes to business scholarship by improving our understanding the perceptions and experiences of rural women about microfinance. The analyses demonstrated that poor women entrepreneurs rely on family to operate their microbusiness and in return sustain the family from the business. The family, as an influential institution, with attendant norms and obligations, informs women's entrepreneurial response and family roles. For these poor women, their priorities revolve around providing necessities for their family and paying for their children's education - clearly a livelihood for survival, not economic maximisation. In their opinion, microcredit is debt and presents a great risk with terrible consequences. The practicalities of their reality means that the potential benefits that microcredit could present may be easily swallowed by its perceived dangers. This is because the complexities introduced by vulnerability and basic consumption needs of the household can impact on the prompt repayment of loans. Therefore, microfinance providers should understand that microcredit is viewed differently by the very poor, and they should endeavour to tailor microfinance in such a way that will support women to fulfil their family and business roles by reducing barriers affecting access to microfinance.

The central theme of the thesis is how clothing and, to a lesser degree, fashion affected the lives of women in the period from 1919 to 1949. The practical impact of clothing on women is rarely assessed to the same degree as other essentials of life such as food and housing, yet obtaining, maintaining and renewing clothing stocks were issues of the utmost importance to women, particularly those from low-income households, in the inter-war period and the Second World War. The first half of the thesis concentrates upon the role of clothing in the home and in popular culture in the inter-war period. Of particular importance is the role of clothing in the household budget, a subject which has received limited attention from social historians. In households with limited incomes, finding the means to purchase clothing was problematic, and women often resorted to unconventional methods of saving and spending. The role of clothing in middle-class households is examined as well, with an emphasis on the many varieties of shops which supplied ready- to-wear clothing, as well as souces of made-to-measure clothing. And, while antiquarian and sociological studies of fashion abound, little has been written on the practical impact of fashion in the lives of ordinary people. With the development of a mass market after the First World War, the influence of fashion was extended to most of the social classes. Rather than re-examining the changing modes themselves, it is useful to study the impact these fashions had upon people: in the way they regarded and treated one another; and in the way they perceived themselves. The study of the inter-war years thus offers a foundation from which to examine the role of clothing in the Second World War. The price of clothing and footwear rose steeply in the early months of the war, but stabilised once rationing and austerity measures took hold. The ways in which women budgeted, saved for and purchased clothing are discussed, with an emphasis on how these methods differed from pre-war habits. Although the development and implementation of government initiatives is described, the latter portion of the thesis concentrates on the practical effects of such schemes in the day-to-day lives of the British people. The role of fashion in the wartime economy is addressed as well. Austerity programmes stalled any extreme changes in fashion, people wore the same clothing year after year, and uniforms were almost universal. Nevertheless, issues of fashion and style remained important to the public, who in any case were encouraged to maintain high standards of dress and appearance as a sign of patriotism.

This thesis is an account of the 'household and social science' course opened at King's College for Women in 1908 and its evolution up to 1939. The course was a significant departure for women's higher education in England as it was the first attempt to define a special university discipline based upon women's 'domestic' roles. However, historical accounts of women's higher education have either ignored or dismissed it, largely because of the predominance of'separate spheres' analyses in the historiography of women's higher education of the 1970s and early 1980s. Such accounts have presented the household science course in a negative light because of its 'domestic' image. This thesis thus offers a reassessment of the household science movement and those who supported it. The 'household science' concept owed its origin to the American 'home economies' movement which originated in the mid-nineteenth century. Chapter 1 provides a history of the home economics movement in America, tracing its evolution in the context of women's higher education until 1914. Initially home economics was seen as a 'vocational homemaking' course aiming to train women for home life. At the turn of the century, however, a 'scientific' model was developed by women scientists in order to promote research into social problems connected with the domestic sphere. These two models~the vocation and the scientific, have developed in tandem in American home economics. Chapters 2 and 3 consider the origins and early evolution of the 'household science' course in England, which was largely influenced by the American 'scientific' model. Chapter 2 first considers the concept of domestic education in the history of women's education and factors that precluded the development of a 'vocational homemaking' course in English higher education. The rest of the chapter analyses the origins of the household science movement in its social and intellectual context, in particular its connection with Edwardian preoccupations with 'physical deterioration' and infant mortality. Like their American counterparts, the founders of the course saw household science as a reform movement which aimed to promote research into domestic problems such as hygiene and nutrition, as well as to create a more useful and relevant university discipline for women's domestic roles, whether as housewife/mother or in 'municipal housekeeping' roles. Chapter 3 discusses the household science course from a disciplinary standpoint, looking at how the syllabus was constructed, the contemporary educational controversies it engendered, and its evolution up to 1920 when the B.Sc. degree was granted. Chapters 4, 5, and 6 examine the main factors which ultimately undermined the success of household science as a discipline. Chapter 4 evaluates career trends amongst KCHSS students from 1910-49, analysing to what extent the KCHSS administration was able to create a professional career structure for the household science discipline. The interplay between administrative policy, career trends, and professionalization is analyzed in relation to three career fields-social welfare, laboratory research, and dietetics. Chapters considers the professional conflicts between KCHSS and the domestic subjects teaching profession. Chapter 6 analyses KCHSS's failure to carve out a unique academic 'territory' or expertise and the various factors that affected this. The final chapter assesses how successful KCHSS was as an institution, looking at how students themselves experienced the course, their motivations for taking it, and its impact on their lives. Although household science was unsuccessful as a discipline, the course did give students a wide choice of career options, creating openings in less conventional spheres for women who did not want to teach and providing opportunities for the less-able student to follow a scientific career. The conclusion considers how the social climate of the interwar period affected the working out of the original household science ideals.

This dissertation aims to reclaim the significance and innovations of female home scientists in India’s development from 1947 until 1972. Historiographies of India’s development in the post-independence period have largely overlooked how gendered projects, such as the establishment of home science programs in new Indian agricultural universities, were directed by professional women. To discover the ways and to what extent home scientists played an essential role in India’s modernization projects, this study investigates the transnational interactions of U.S. home economists and Indian women who earned advanced degrees in home economics subjects in the United States during the Cold War. Analyzing archival material, personal collections, oral history interviews, online subscription databases, and open-access repositories, this dissertation recovers the voices and lived experiences of these professional women. Additionally, this process uncovered a rich collection of first-person narratives. Over one hundred and twenty-five theses and dissertations written by Indian home scientists during the first three decades after Independence, collectively and individually, illustrate their pioneering leadership. The significance of this research is that it reveals home scientists’ personal and professional renegotiations, setbacks, triumphs, and transnational connections with philanthropic organizations, government officials, and U.S. home economists as they collaborated and led nation-building projects.

The purpose of this quantitative study was to identify which factors may predict the perception of family and consumer sciences curriculum (FCS) programs by administrators and school counselors. The study was centered around Kurt Lewin’s Gatekeeper theory, in which an individual or group acts as a gate through which information passes. Principals and school counselors were chosen as the sample for this study because of their role as gatekeepers in a school, deciding which programs are offered and which information is conveyed to students. A Likert-scale survey was sent to all Virginia public high school principals and school counselors. Data analysis followed a predictive correlational design, utilizing a multiple regression statistical analysis. There were four predictor variables, region of Virginia, gender, total years of experience, and knowledge of FCS content as measured by the Value of FACS in Public schools Survey; with a criterion variable of perception of FCS. Knowledge of FCS content was the only predictor variable that can predict both an administrators’ and school counselors’ perception of FCS. A multiple regression was used for statistical analysis. The linear combination of the four predictor variables indicated there was a significant relationship related to an administrator’s and a counselor’s perception of FCS. Overall results from the survey indicated both administrators and counselors have a generally positive perception of FCS. Recommendations for future research included replication in Virginia due to the low number of responses for a more accurate picture. It is also recommended to add district level staff, including but not limited to: CTE coordinators and directors, director/superintendent of student learning, etc. Decisions made by stakeholders in these positions also act as gatekeepers in an indirect way to FCS programs compared to administrators and school counselors.

A Registered Dietitian Nutritionist (RDN) is a nutrition expert with numerous and varied required skills which are continuing to evolve as scientific advances in healthcare occur and the food industry strives to meet consumer demands for more healthy, nutritious, and sustainable foods. The Accrediting Council for Education in Nutrition and Dietetics (ACEND) introduced the Future Education Model (FEM) Accreditation Standards for Graduate Degree Programs. The goal of the FEM is to measure program outcomes and graduate competent entry-level RDNs. These standards provide insight in what the student knows, still needs to learn, has learned and where programs can improve. This study focused specifically on the 2021 ACEND FG Unit 1 Foundational Knowledge Standards, Competency 1.12. Demonstrating knowledge of and being able to manage food preparation techniques.The experts used for this study were the members of the Food and Culinary Professionals Dietetic Practice Group, the Foodservice Systems Management Education Council, and the Nutrition and Dietetics Educators and Preceptors Council. The set of Core Food and Culinary Professionals Competencies were used as the basis for this study. The purpose of this study was to provide dietetic educators (DE) a list of food preparation techniques DE and experts in the field have identified as the skills essential to meet competency 1.12 and at what level of progression of knows, shows, and does. Results indicated there is still a lack of consensus. These results, like many previous studies, found that familiarity with foods and food preparation techniques are essential if RDNs are going to have a positive impact on remaining a food expert.Implications of the study include DEs now have a better-defined list of skills professionals consider essential for entry-level RDNs. DEs can compare their curriculum with the results of this research and determine whether revisions need made to meet Competency 1.12. Having identified the lack of cooking skills DS bring to the classroom, it may be time for DEs to consider including a basic cooking course or make other changes in their curriculum.

Financial knowledge has emerged as one of the important factors affecting one’s financial behaviors and decision makings. This dissertation consists of three essays, each with a focus on the effects of the discrepancy between objective financial knowledge and subjective self-assessment of financial knowledge, or financial knowledge overconfidence. Respondents were categorized as having overconfidence in financial knowledge when they had high subjective financial assessment but low objective scores. The first study focuses on early withdrawals from retirement accounts. Early distributions could pose risk on one’s financial stability during retirement by permanently reducing retirement wealth. The first study used 2018 National Financial Capability Study dataset and examined how (1) objective financial knowledge, (2) subjective financial knowledge, and (3) overconfidence in financial knowledge were related to one’s behavior of taking hardship withdrawals and plan loans by conducting logistic regression and Two-Stage Least Squares (2SLS) Instrumental variable (IV) analysis. The analyses found objective financial knowledge being negatively related to hardship withdrawals and plan loans, but subjective financial knowledge being positively related to hardship withdrawals. Respondents with financial knowledge overconfidence were more likely to take early withdrawals than those with other combinations of objective and subjective knowledge. The second study is about respondent perceptions of emergency fund needs. Using the 2016 Survey of Consumer Finances dataset, OLS regression analysis was conducted on the ratio of perceived emergency fund needs to estimated monthly spending. Quantile regressions and 2SLS IV regressions were conducted for robustness checks as well. Based on the OLS regression results, the perceived emergency fund ratio of respondents with financial knowledge overconfidence is 21.4% lower than respondents with appropriately high confidence (above median objective and subjective financial knowledge). Lastly, the third study examined retirement adequacy. Many U.S. households may not be adequately prepared for retirement, and one of the challenges they face is perceiving their retirement preparedness realistically. I examined factors related to appropriately evaluating retirement adequacy, by focusing on the relationship between two discrepancy indices: (1) between objective and subjective financial knowledge, and (2) between objective and subjective assessments of retirement adequacy. Using the 2016 Survey of Consumer Finances dataset, logistic, multinomial, and 2SLS IV regressions were conducted. About 72% categorized themselves as expecting to have enough retirement income, while I projected that 50% would have adequate retirement income. Projected and perceived adequacy aligned for 60% of respondents. Those who are overconfident in financial knowledge were less likely to have enough retirement income and more likely to be categorized as Unrealistic Optimists, who perceive themselves as having enough retirement income, while lack projected adequacy.The main implication of these three studies is that the respondents who are overconfident in financial knowledge might be making suboptimal financial decisions. The importance of financial education needs to be emphasized, and financial education should focus on not only increasing objective financial knowledge but also making people aware of the limitations of their financial literacy. The study also provides implications for policymakers and financial professionals regarding diverse financial behaviors to improve the financial well-being of individuals and households.

This research focuses on the revival of mending clothing to benefit various facets of the fashion industry, including individuals, community and non-profits, and brands and corporations. Multiple studies have highlighted the importance of the use phase of a garment’s life cycle in relation to sustainability. The longer a garment is worn and cared for, the less impact it has on the environment. One effective method of extending a garment’s use phase is mending clothing as it becomes damaged. A popular household activity throughout Western history, mending has faded from popular culture in recent decades, partially due to the emergence of fast fashion. However, due to growing concern for sustainability, renewed interest in DIY fashion and in mending represents an opportunity to promote the latter as a sustainable solution for consumers and for the fashion industry. This study explores this opportunity and focuses on how mending might be used to encourage sustainable practices by consumers, communities, and brands.Data was gathered using three separate methods, including: 1) an online survey; 2) virtual mending workshop with a pre-test and post-test analysis of participant perceived mending skills and mood; and 3) fashion industry expert interviews. This study confirmed a number of persistent barriers to mending, relating to skills, perceptions of what clothing was worth mending, and perceptions of the mending activity itself. Perceptions of sustainability and gender identity also influenced survey participant’s decisions to mend. Based on pre-test and post-test analysis, the mending workshop was highly effective in addressing some of those barriers, including improving participant perceived skills, confidence, and mood. Expert interviews highlighted practical implications to overcome potential barriers and promote mending as an accessible way to practice sustainability at the individual, community, and industry level.

Throughout human history, headwear was a significant item containing various symbolization and aesthetic viewpoints. With earliest documented examples dated from 27,000 BCE, headwear served as an expression of emotion, physical existence, and communication across global cultures (Chico, 2013). The decline of headwear in Western fashion since the 1960s, especially in the United States led to a transformation period from hats as a dominant and essential component of the dress code for daily life to the hatless style that persists into the present (Norwich, 2006). Many scholars explained the reasons for U.S. culture’s drop in hat demands, often in light of switching to casual outfits; however, hat-wearing has seen a significant positive change in recent fashion trends encouraged by current global issues and cross-cultural influences. Despite the majority lack of hat wearing in the U.S., there remain many cases where hats are commonly worn as part of fashion throughout the world. For instance, CA4LA, a headwear brand in Japan, challenges itself to provide artistic, sunshine protection, and personality expression in their head accessories (Lys, 2019). This study aims to observe the Japanese hat-wearing culture and explore the factors that affect the essence of headwear in 21st century America to understand and foster the growth of this aspect in the fashion industry. This research began with five months of practice-based autoethnography with two professional milliners based in Ohio, U.S. These apprenticeships provided a foundation knowledge of millinery techniques for applied sequenced mixed method research design. The main focus was a set of six pieces of fabric hat designs targeting the un-brimmed hat, brimmed hat, and fascinator as a creative scholarship resulting for analysis. The final outcome of this study was presented in a hat instruction book, indicating the preview, construction sketches/notes, and suggested fashion style illustrations to achieve a complete fashion outfit for each fabric hat. The instruction book worked as a journal and communication tool to utilize inspiration from Japanese hat wearing culture to demonstrate the essentials of headwear in completing a fashion outfit. This study created a new aesthetic and merged innovative ideas resulting from exchange between East and West to broaden fashion interculturally. The concentration of U.S. fashion styling in local brand choices provided suggestions that accommodated and encouraged hat wearing and ultimately could stimulate a growth of the millinery industry segment in 21st century America.

The World Health Organization (2020a) labels childhood obesity as ‘one of the most serious public health challenges of the 21st Century’ (para. 1). Schools are avenues for obesity intervention through food literacy education, the delivery of which occurs in Health and Physical Education and in Design and Technologies (Home Economics) in the Australian Curriculum (Australian Institute of Health & Welfare, 2017; Ronto et al., 2017a). In this study, home economics as the subject for the delivery for food literacy education is the focus. An exploratory mixed methods case study was engaged using an online survey instrument for data collection during February-March 2021. The research questions explored Australian curriculum and school-based influences and constraints on years 7-10 Queensland secondary school food literacy programs, how Home Economics teachers, who are members of the Home Economics Institute of Australia (Queensland), currently deliver food literacy through the Australian Curriculum, and the changes in the Australian Curriculum, and school-based support, they require to deliver effective holistic food literacy programs. SPSS and Leximancer were used to analyse quantitative and qualitative data respectively, followed by data convergence to address the research questions. Key findings reveal that 80% of respondents agreed that the current Design and Technologies curriculum needs to be changed, furthermore 61% agreed that school-based change was required to support effective, holistic food literacy education. Curriculum mandated practical food education and transition of nutrition into home economics subjects were core themes in the responses. This study contributes to the growing body of research signifying the value of home economics to deliver school-based food literacy education. It contributes to this evidence base by exploring in depth the influences and constraints experienced by home economics teachers to undertake this work. Given the role of home economics educators as key to addressing the childhood obesity crisis, this study reveals the challenges that serve as impediments to this crucial work.

Medicaid aging waivers provide funding for in-home formal care to seniors. The aim is to incentivize older adults who need long-term care to stay at home rather than move into a nursing facility. However, this policy may inadvertently shift care burdens onto informal caregivers who would not otherwise be required to care for family members were they to enter nursing homes. Chapter 2 tests whether in-home formal care subsidized by aging waivers is a substitute or a complement for informal care provided by adult children to their parents. Using data on state-level Medicaid aging waiver expenditures from 1998 to 2014 linked with the restricted access Health and Retirement Study (HRS), I investigate whether program funding is associated with the probability that an HRS respondent provides informal care to her older parents. Changes to state-level policy funding produce a quasi-experiment, which allows for the use of two-way fixed effects models to estimate a causal relationship between the program and informal caregiving. The findings reveal that a 10 percent increase in aging waiver expenditures increases the overall likelihood that an adult child becomes an informal caregiver to her parents by 0.1 percentage points (0.3 percent). The overall estimate is composed of differential effects on different types of care. While policy expenditures are positively related to the likelihood of providing help with errands, they are negatively related to the likelihood of providing help with personal care (a more intensive form of caregiving). The Medicaid aging waiver funding is positively associated with the likelihood of being a non-intensive caregiver who spends fewer hours providing care, but is unrelated to the likelihood of providing intensive care. Moreover, only female caregivers reduce caregiving for personal care. The results show that non-intensive informal care is a complement to in-home formal care. These results provide the first empirical evidence of the effect of Medicaid aging waivers on the composition of care received by older Americans.Chapter 3 studies the effect of informal care on labor market outcomes. Informal caregiving has enormous costs on caregivers. However, estimating the exact costs of informal caregiving on caregivers is difficult due to the fact that caregivers select into caregiving. Existing estimates, therefore, may suffer from selection bias. In this chapter, I use a new instrumental variable, policy-induced changes in funding to the Medicaid aging waiver program, to estimate the labor-market costs of informal caregiving. Using the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) from 1998 to 2014, I find that labor force participation decreases with informal care. I also demonstrate large differences in selection bias by type of care, and gender of caregivers. Estimates without accommodating for the differences in endogeneity bias generate findings that conflict with previous estimates in the literature. Chapter 4 studies how the Medicaid aging waiver affects health outcomes of older individuals. Medicaid aging waivers subsidize the long-term care of older adults at home or in community- based settings. Little is known about how the Medicaid aging waiver program affects the quality of life among the aging population. Using data from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS), this chapter evaluates the effect of the Medicaid aging waiver program on mortality and morbidity of older individuals. The results show that state-level Medicaid aging waiver funding is associated with increases in mortality rate among adults over age 70. The policy is positively associated with the probability of individuals reporting poor health status, and with the probability that individuals report having difficulty in activities of daily living and mobility. Conversely, funding for the aging waiver policy is negatively associated with reports of heart-related disease diagnoses, and positively associated with cognitive skills of older Americans.

The essays contained herein seek to examine the quantity of identities allowed in a life, specifically when the life is female in nature and American in flavor. Not secondarily examined is the quality of freedoms provided within aforesaid examined identities. Methods of examination include sleepless nights, introspection, substance use, religious practice, and, of course, writing.No conclusive results were found, other than that much work remains to be done in the field of American female identity and freedom.Recommendations for further research include a deconstruction of the workday as provided by the Industrial Revolution and a redefining of equality as misunderstood by the middle and upper classes.

This dissertation consists of three related research studies on life insurance holdings and financial capability. The first research study investigates the association of risk aversion in single-parent households with at least one child under age 18 with life insurance ownership. Analyzing the 1992 to 2013 Survey of Consumer Finances datasets, it reveals that the probability of ownership of term life insurance declines as risk aversion increases, while the probability of owning cash-value life insurance increases as risk aversion increases. Smokers, an alternative measure of risk tolerance, are less likely to have term life insurance but more likely to have cash-value life insurance than comparable non-smokers.The second research study examines the adequacy to which households protect against financial risk in the event of the death of the income earners. Findings show which household characteristics are associated with being adequate in financial protection with newly improved measurements. Analyzing the 2016 Survey of Consumer Finances, this study also investigates the role financial knowledge for the adequacy of financial protection using an innovative instrumental variable approach for financial knowledge. Findings suggests that two distinct constructs of financial knowledge, objective and subjective financial knowledge, are significant determinants of the adequacy of financial protection. The results shed light on the importance of financial knowledge for the protection against financial shocks. Focusing on lower-income adults who are nearing retirement, the third research study explores the relationship between financial-planning behaviors (paying bills on time, emergency savings, and retirement planning) and two key components of financial capability, financial education and financial inclusion. Using data from the 2015 National Financial Capability Study, the results point to the important role of financial inclusion for financial-planning behaviors. Having access to mainstream financial services is more strongly associated with the three financial-planning behaviors than is participating in financial education in the workplace. These results for lower-income older adults held for middle-income households but are weaker for higher-income households. The results highlight efforts targeting financial inclusion for the financial planning of lower-income older adults nearing retirement age. Policy implications include suggestions for interventions to facilitate financial inclusion for those nearing retirement age.

During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, signature quilts were extremely popular. Young girls would use them as remembrance quilts, almost like an autograph book, whereas churches would use the signature quilt as a fundraising tool to raise money for projects such as new church buildings, missionary work, or Sunday school classes. The idea of using quilts for fundraising quickly caught on with other civic organizations. Individuals would donate money in exchange for having their names inked or embroidered on the quilt in the form of a signature. Often, the completed quilt was raffled off with the proceeds going towards the church or other worthy causes.One such signature quilt is in collection of The Summit County Historical Society in Akron, Ohio. This 1901 red and white quilt has 411 names in addition to businesses, cities, and occupations being embroidered on the quilt. A biblical verse and a product advertisement are also featured on two of the blocks. This quilt was made by the Ladies Cemetery Association to raise funds for the Maple Lawn Cemetery located in Darrowville, (now Stow) Ohio. Authentic documentation was found to support the quilt process and the causes of the group.This thesis investigates the participants and the quilts’ intended purpose by using E. McClung Fleming’s artifact study model. I applied this model, to identify, evaluate, interpret, and examine the cultural significance of the quilt and its maker(s).

This thesis outlines the work of the University of Tennessee’s Colleges of Home Economics and Agriculture in India as part of Cold War global development programs funded by the Technical Cooperation Mission to India and, later, the United States Agency for International Development. Through this program, the instructors from the University of Tennessee worked with Indian educators at agricultural and home science colleges and universities throughout India to “improve” home economic and agricultural education and foster pro-American sentiment in the region. By exploring the themes of gender, race, nationalism, rural life, and development, this thesis argues that while the home economics department emphasized cross-cultural connections and the adaptation of westernized domestic practices to better fit the cultural and religious practices of India, the College of Agriculture worked to transplant Appalachian agricultural models directly onto India. Taken together, however, these two programs demonstrate the global connections between two largely rural populations and by doing so, blurs the divide between the “developed” and the “developing” world.

This dissertation investigates the economic and social impacts of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The three chapters explore the main theme in the contexts of homeownership, marriage, and as a social safety net in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic. The first chapter examines the impact of the ACA Medicaid expansion on homeownership among low-income Americans using state, time and income variation in the policy. Medicaid provides direct financial protection in the case of illness or injury, improving financial health and thus lowering barriers to homeownership. Using data from the American Community Survey (ACS), I find that the ACA Medicaid expansion increased the probability of being a homeowner among low-income Americans aged 43-64 by 4 to 8 percent. The marginal household induced into homeownership by the expansion did so with a mortgage. I also explore whether the individual-level behavior changes affect market-level outcomes. Using data from Zillow Research and the Building Permit Survey, I find suggestive evidence that the demand for housing and housing prices increased in areas where large shares of the population became eligible for Medicaid through the ACA, while the supply of new housing units was not affected. My findings suggest that health insurance policy may have important spillovers to other household financial decisions, and that it can impact market-level outcomes.The second chapter evaluates the extent to which the structure of ACA eligibility and generosity criteria impose marriage penalties or subsidies, and whether the incentives embedded in the ACA affect marriage decisions. The debate on whether the ACA may deter marriage was heated in popular press. Similar to the U.S. tax income system and transfer programs, the ACA can generate negative or positive economic benefits that affect the decision to marry. These economic benefits are usually called marriage penalties or marriage subsidies. In this study, the ACA marriage penalty or subsidy is defined as the difference between the total premium payment that two individuals would face if they are married, and the total payment if they are unmarried. I exploit the variation in state, time, number of children, and age to investigate the impact of the ACA marriage penalty (or subsidy) on marital status. Using data from the American Community Survey (ACS), I find that the probability of being married drops by 6 percentage points (or 9 percent) with a $1,000 increase in marriage penalty. I also find the ACA marriage penalties have a larger impact on less educated and racial/ethnic groups other than White. The third chapter studies how access to government subsidized health insurance coverage varies across Black and White people who lost their employer-sponsored insurance (ESI) due to a Covid-19 layoff. I explore the question from three angles. First, I analyze how Covid-19 layoffs interact with gaps in the ACA coverage net to narrow or widen the Black-White disparity in access to health insurance. Second, I evaluate the extent to which Covid-19 federal aid affected the Black-White disparity in access to health insurance. Third, given the uncertainties in the future labor market and continuity of government unemployment compensation, I estimate how the Black-White disparity in access to health insurance will be affected after all unemployment benefits and federal compensation is exhausted in 2021. Using data from the American Community Survey (ACS) and the Current Population Survey (CPS) and a simulation-based approach, I show that the federal unemployment compensation (FPUC) helped reduce the potential increase in the Black-White disparity in health insurance coverage caused by the interaction between Covid-19 layoffs and existing gaps in the ACA. However, the disparity will increase substantially if the economic recovery is slow and unemployed people exhaust all unemployment compensation in 2021. Improving the ACA provisions is essential to enhance racial/ethnic equity in health outcomes.

In this thesis, I explore how predictive modeling can be applied in housing sale price prediction by analyzing the housing dataset and use machine learning models. Actually, I try four different models, namely, linear regression, lasso regression, randomforest and xgboost. Additionally, as the data have 79 explanatory variables with many missing values, I spend much time dealing with the data. I do explorary data analysis, feature enginnering before model fitting. And then using rmse and R-squared to measure the model performance. After I try four different models, I get some results. As for the first model - linear regression, it doesn’t meet the assumption of equality of the variances. Therefore we can’t use the linear model as the candidate of our final model. Then I try lasso regression, but the RMSE and R-squared looks not so good. Then I try Random forest. The R squared in this model of training set is very good, but in the test set the R squared is relatively low, which may show the RF model is a little bit overfitting. Finally I try the fourth model - xgboost. All of the results of this xgboost model seem very good. Therefore, I will use this xgboost model as my final model to predict the housing price. The xgboost model also shows which variables have important effects on sale price.

This study investigates the literacy practice of one rural women’s club that has been meeting in a small, agricultural region of Ohio for over a century. The question that drove my research asks how and why a rural women’s literary club has continued its practice long after most clubs from the women’s club movement have disappeared. The methodology employed is feminist in approach and findings emerged from analysis of three data sources. The results of my study suggest that within the rhetorical space of their practice, clubwomen perform a traditional, rural, gendered identity that stewards their values of “literary culture” and “a social feeling” within the context of their rural values of localism, familism, and historicism (Chenowith and Galliher, 2004). This dissertation adds to Silvia Scribner’s (1988) metaphors of literacy as adaptation, literacy as power, and literacy as social grace, by arguing that the rural women’s practice also suggests two additional metaphors: literacy as belonging and literacy as performance.

This dissertation contains three chapters related to housing markets. First two chapters study the vertical variation in housing prices, and the third chapter models buy-sellers. The first focus is the vertical dimension of housing markets. Location is the most important factor in determining housing prices. However, in multi-unit residential markets, two housing units in one building share the same location but may still have different transaction prices. The first chapter is to explore why. To identify the explanatory factors, the author collects over 200,000 transaction records from 2012-2016 in Beijing and provides rich and valid empirical evidence. Also, this chapter proposes a least nugget effects estimator (LNE) as an alternative to the conventional fixed effects estimator (FE). LNE is essentially a pairwise differences estimator (PD) whose comparison with FE in linear fixed effects models is studied in the second chapter. The second focus of this dissertation is a type of households who are both home buyer and home seller at the same time (called "buy-sellers"). The traditional framework would model such households as two independent identities. However, this dichotomic tradition ignores the essential feature of the buy-sellers, that is, the interdependence between buying and selling decisions. As a buyer, a new purchase depends on a successful sale due to budget and policy restrictions; as a seller, a sale may rely on the success in bidding to avoid renting for a living. This interdependence results in a connected bidding network. One’s success or failure in bidding or selling will influence others’. Chapter three, for the first time, studies this type of households and proposes an agent-based model (ABM) with buy-sellers. Then, the author uses this ABM to analyze the effects of housing purchase restrictions and home brokerage on market outcomes.

Facial-mapping augmented reality interactive technology (ARIT) has enabled consumers to virtually wear beauty products (Weinswig, 2016). For consumers, this technology is considered “a revolutionary way of self-expression (Ongley, 2016)”. For beauty retailers, it is viewed as a new “guided selling tool” effectively transitioning online shoppers to actual beauty product buyers (Milnes, 2016). With the increasing importance of consumer experience (CX) in marketing (Kruman, 2017), satisfaction as emotional evaluation has attracted more attention as a key to understand consumer behavior toward retailer services. Belk (1988) explained a consumer’s purchasing behavior as the effort of “extending self” or enhancing self-image. Recently, the traditional self-concept established in the physical world has been blurred by social media, clouds, and digital technologies (Belk, 2013). A consumers' overall sense of self now exists across the physical and the digital world (Elwell, 2013). Accordingly, consumer behaviors influenced by self-image are expected to have changed with the digitally blended retailing environment.The proliferation of selfie in social networks has created perceived gaps between “ideal-look” online and “daily-look” offline self-images (Rettberg, 2017). According to self-image discrepancy theory (Higgins, 1987), the beauty consumers in social networks are likely to engage in behaviors that reduce appearance self-image discrepancies between the physical (offline) and digital (online) dimensions. As consumer’s experience of AR/digital makeup, selfie experience is expected to strengthen the satisfaction effect of ARIT makeup on behavior intention, and to encourage the individual to conform to the appearance ideal in society.This dissertation introduced state appearance self-esteem (i.e., satisfaction with ARIT makeup) as a key factor for converting ARIT makeup service triers to loyal customers in reality. Two studies were conducted for this research. Study 1 developed the model that examined the relationship between perceived AR makeup service quality and a beauty consumer’s behavioral intention, mediated by AR reflected self-esteem and attitude toward the app. After that, moderation effects of selfie experiences and appearance self-image discrepancy were tested. Study 2 examined a similar model with alternative self-discrepancy factors and investigated the relationship between selfie experiences and self-discrepancies. Structural equation modeling (SEM) and ANCOVA were used to analyze data collected from Amazon MTurk.

This novel tells the story of an unconventional family, Karen, Lily, Helen, and Perley, living in a manner dictated partly by circumstance, partly by choice, in the hills of Appalachia. They attempt to build a life on their own terms but are torn from each other. Most of the story is about the women trying to get Perley, the child back from foster care. The novel is preceded by a creative critical essay, entitled “By Fight I Mean Fight”, which explores conflict as a craft point in the art of fiction writing. The essay makes the argument that conflict, while often touted as a fundamental ingredient to fiction writing, is underexplored and often relies on received cultural ideas about what conflict is for and what its possibilities are. The essay engages a variety of storytellers, writers, conflict workers, activists, and scholars, as well as using examples from the novel, to expand the conversation about conflict as craft.

Rachel Vannatta Reinhart, AdvisorThe purpose of this study was two-fold: (1) to explore the relationship between investments that students make in themselves while enrolled in a higher education program and their post-graduation career satisfaction, and (2) to gather information about the importance apparel and textile professionals place on selected competencies identified by the International Textile and Apparel Association (ITAA).Graduates (n=123) of an apparel and textiles (A&T) program at a four-year, public research institution were surveyed to examine which investments in self best predict post-graduation career satisfaction. The Survey of A&T Graduates’ Career Satisfaction consisted of 86 items measuring perceived importance and preparation of the ITAA meta-goals and competencies, career satisfaction, co-curricular activity involvement, on-the-job training, health and well-being, career competencies, and willingness to relocate. Multiple regression showed that Career Competencies and Health and Well-being best predicted participants’ post-graduation career satisfaction. Participants rated the Professional Development meta-goal; the Ethics, Social Responsibility, and Sustainability meta-goal; and Critical and Creative Thinking meta-goal of highest importance. These same meta-goals received highest perceived preparation ratings.Lastly, ANOVA findings revealed that buyers, retail managers, marketing professionals and others indicated differences in perceptions of competencies and meta-goals. The buyers/merchandisers rated the Industry Processes and the Critical and Creative Thinking meta-goals of higher importance than retail managers. Retail managers perceived the Global Interdependence meta-goal as less important than marketing professionals did. The Ethics, Social Responsibility, and Sustainability meta-goal was perceived more important by retail managers than “others” category did. Graduates’ career satisfaction differed mostly by Income levels. Those who reported earning lower salaries were overall less satisfied with their careers. Results suggest that current leaders of apparel and textile programs should enhance their curricula with pedagogy methods that facilitate learning of teamwork, leadership, clear communication, ethics, and social responsibilities. Internships and experiential learning are recommended to enhance the on-the-job training of students in A&T programs. In addition, all investments in self, with exception of Willingness to Relocate, are related to Career Satisfaction. Lastly, Post-graduation career satisfaction is best predicted by graduates’ Career Competencies and Health and Well-being.

In this dissertation, I focus on how households adjust their expenses in response to changes in income as well as the asymmetric responses in expenses behavior by distinguishing between income increases and decreases. To account for the prospect theory hypothesis, which emphasizes that utility of consumption depends not only on current consumption but also reference status in terms of how current consumption deviates from past consumption, I use a variable introduced in the 2010 Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF), current expenses relative to usual expenses, as a dependent variable. In the current study, a reference status is measured by subjective assessment of normal income and normal expenses level, rather than by an objective measurement such as lagged income and lagged consumption. I estimate asymmetric income effects on expenses across income quartiles based on a binary variable of income shocks and a continuous variable of income shocks, respectively. To do so, I employ pooled data from the 2010 and 2013 SCF and run Multinomial logit regression, which allows for estimates of the effects of changes in income on each category of a dependent variable, compared to the reference category for the dependent variable.The results with a binary variable of income shocks show that the negative income shock decreases expenses (statistically significant) across all income group, while the positive income shock has a statistically significant effect on increased expenses compared to usual expenses only in the lowest- and highest-income groups. Based on F-tests, I find the asymmetric effect of changes in income on changes in expenses. However, this asymmetry (i.e. the decrease in expenses in response to negative income shocks is greater than the increases in expenses in response to positive income shock) is not consistent with loss-aversion behavior. But it also does not make sense to interpret it as a of the result of liquidity constraints, especially for the highest income group. The results with a continuous variable of income shocks show that the negative income shocks have a statistically significant effect on decreasing expenses, compared to usual expenses across income groups. Yet the positive income shocks have a statistically significant effect on increased expenses, compared to usual expenses, only in the highest-income group. Based on F-tests, the magnitude of the effect of negative income shocks for predicting less versus usual expenses is statistically significantly different from magnitude of the effect of positive income shocks for predicting more versus usual expenses only for the highest income group. That is, there is evidence of loss-aversion behavior only for households in the highest income quartile. The results suggest people may pay more attention to negative shocks and adjust their consumption level given their limited resources, compared to people who experience positive income shocks. Another plausible interpretation is that people in the highest income group are not seriously affected by reduced income and have ability to keep consumption level, while they can easily increase expenses in response to positive income. All in all, the loss aversion assumption seems to be more relevant to high income households. The findings provide implications for financial planners, households, and future researches.

The objective of this study is to explore whether trends in data that suggest social relationships are related to financial planning behaviors. I draw from social capital theory to define the relationships and resources analyzed. Social capital theory is most effective in producing information channels and knowledge exchanges that may influence individuals to practice certain normative financial behaviors. The financial behaviors analyzed as outcome measures are topics set forth by the Certified Financial Planner Board as comprehensive financial planning topical areas.For this study, I use the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 (NLSY79) and National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 Young Adult (NLSY79YA) surveys. I analyze data on Black, Hispanic, and White males in 2008, 2010, and 2012 for the NLSY79 and in 2006, 2008, and 2012 for the NLSY79 Young Adult survey. Due to limitations of the social capital and financial outcome variables available in the surveys, I primarily use multiple years of cross-sectional data to explore and analyze the relationships between social capital and financial planning. Financial outcomes are divided into three categories: 1) planning for expected financial events in the current period (money management), 2) planning for expected future financial events (investment planning), and 3) planning for unexpected financial events that may arise from day to day or in the short-term (emergency planning). Money management consists of saving and dealing with day-to-day financial matters. Investment planning includes retirement planning and willingness to take financial risks. Emergency planning looks at individuals having a 3-month emergency fund. Three forms of social capital are considered as key independent variables: general, bonding, and bridging. Trust is used as an indicator of general social capital. Bonding social capital is derived from relationships with family and close friends and is operationalized by using a proxy of frequency of attendance at religious services. Bridging social capital is measured using information on networks acquaintances and peers outside of the circle of family and friends. Specifically, I use a measure of volunteering as a proxy measure for bridging social capital.Logistic regressions and multinomial logistic regressions are used to estimate the models. As a check of the cross-sectional results in money management, I use an ordered logistic regression to estimate a random effects, two-period panel model. Descriptive statistics are presented using weighted data. Multivariate estimates use unweighted data. Regression results suggest social capital is positively associated with money management and investment planning among Black, Hispanic, and White males, though only White males have an association between social capital and emergency planning. Results suggest financial planners should consider exploring mechanisms that build trust between client and advisor. Likewise, educators and policy makers may consider ways to increase Black, Hispanic, and White males exposure to diversity and heterogeneity within their networks.

The objective of this study was to improve the apparel design process through the integration of personas within the research phase. A persona is an imaginary character, developed through consumer research and analysis, which is then refined for the purpose of design. A mixed methods approach was used in order to collect statistical data and participant narratives from individuals within the BMX community in order to develop accurate personas and validate what item of clothing needed improvement. As hypothesized, the majority of respondents (48.21%), stated that the design of pants could be improved to better meet the needs and requirements of the BMX sport. From the data analysis, only one persona was evident within the BMX community, but several purchase profiles emerged with the persona. Regarding the design of pants, respondents proclaimed that fit, ventilation, and flexibility were the most frustrating aspects about the current selection available, specifically identifying the crotch, knees, and legs as problem areas. When analyzing prospective pants, participants revealed that comfort, functionality, quality, and flexibility were the most the desired features. Research considered and after extensive sampling, a new and improved pants design was developed based on the persona and three separate pairs were constructed as versatile styles. Based on participants’ feedback, the improved design was approved and deemed a success. Therefore, it was concluded that the development of better functional and aesthetic clothing for BMX riders was improved by applying personas into the research phase of the apparel design process.

BEHIND THE LABELS: LIBBY PAYNE, FASHION DESIGNER FOR “MRS. MAIN STREET AMERICA”AbstractThis research sought to explore the life and career of Elizabeth “Libby” Miller Payne (1917-1997). The history of American ready-to-wear (RTW) is filled with unknown fashion designers who worked “behind the scenes” for manufacturers. This was especially true in the mid-20th century between the advent of manufactured women’s clothing and the rise of the celebrity fashion designer. In downtown department stores and boutiques all over the country, consumers purchased moderately-price styles created by names that never appeared on a label. One of these was Elizabeth “Libby” Miller Payne (1917-1987), a prolific designer whose career spanned fifty years in the New York ready-to-wear industry. Libby Payne designed hundreds of garments for “Mrs. Main Street America” under well-recognized moderate price-point labels such as Bobbie Brooks, Jonathan Logan, Beau Baker, David Warren, and John Henry. Libby’s designs “sold like hotcakes.” One of Libby’s most successful, Bobbie Brooks Style #862, sold 100,000 in its first two months on the market. The purpose of this research study was to investigate the life and work of creative talent, Libby Payne, situating her in the context of the mid-20th century American fashion industry, and utilizing her history as a vehicle for understanding the evolution of moderate price-point labels, designers, suppliers, manufacturers, retailers, and consumers during this critical time. Although the name, Libby Payne was previously unknown, her creations filled the retail selling floors and closets of “Mrs. Main Street America” from the 1930’s through the 1980’s. Throughout her long career, Libby experienced the evolution of the fashion industry first-hand, from her first position in a New York manufacturer’s workroom to retirement as a sometime freelance designer with a showroom and offsite production. Her story can provide insights to the business behind accessible ready-to-wear clothing, the evolution of the fashion designer, and secrets to success in this role. Libby Payne worked in fashion for more than half of her life, and her experiences can be viewed as a lens that reflects the American industry’s growth and change. Her legacy can inform us of the way the ready-to-wear industry has evolved into what it is today.

In this study, I investigate whether and how much parents save for their children’s college when they have more information about the costs and benefits of college. I combine data from Consumer Expenditure Survey, 2004 – 2012, Simmons National Consumer Survey, and a self-collected dataset of magazine articles. Using principal-agent model, the paper first lays out the theoretical framework and predicts that parents with different amount of information about the costs of college or about the available scholarship will have different saving behaviors. Further, these saving behaviors will also vary with the demographic characteristics of households holding the same amount of information. Results show that there is indeed heterogeneity among different groups of parents. The marginal effect of information affects the amount of and share of resource allocate to the annual principal payments for their home mortgage. Specifically, there is a sharp contrast between families with lower income and families in the highest income group in the sample. Parents with some college education or college degree are more sensitive to information about the costs of college, while parents with no college education at all are more sensitive to information about available scholarships. Comparing parents with different race/ethnicity, information about the available scholarships have the largest marginal effect on Hispanic parents, then on the non-Hispanic, non-Black parents, and least on black parents with children younger than 16. With the only consideration of the number of children are about to go to college, there are not many significant marginal effects of information among parents with more children who are 16 or 17 years old. However, information shows consistent marginal effects on the non-Black, non-Hispanic parents who have at least one child is ready to go to college.

The following is an interpretive synopsis of Henri de Lubac and Karl Polanyi's particular thought about how human sociality is organized around the formal influence of theological and economic structures, giving shape to the practice of everyday life. For De Lubac, social fragmentation and unity are central theological categories for understanding both the first instance of sin and the unfolding of salvation in history. God is at work in the world as an active agent in the reparation of discordant humanity, restoring humankind to its original state as one collective body in the Church. Karl Polanyi's analysis of the rise of market economics gives us a historical instance of social and ecological fracture, providing the possibility of relating de Lubac's theological argument in a particular historical context. Two competing logics of social formation emerge: 1.) the Eucharist implicates human sociality toward deep forms of community in the Church; and 2.) the mechanism of the self-regulating market actively dissolves these thick forms of community, organizing sociality around capital markets and production. Placing de Lubac and Polanyi in conversation provides a way of thinking theologically about the history of unity and break in an increasingly dispersed social era.

This study focused on households’ expectations of the likelihood of a substantial income decrease during the Great Recession, and examined whether or not they behaved rationally based on the rational expectation hypothesis. In Study 1, the objective was to examine which factors were related to whether households experienced substantial income decreases during the recession. The 2007-2009 Panel of the Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF) was used to estimate the likelihood that a household would have a decrease in income of at least 50% between 2006 and 2008. Over 8% of U.S. households experienced at least a 50% decrease in income, and a logistic regression model showed that many household characteristics were related significantly to the probability of suffering such a dramatic decrease. From the results of Study 1, the estimated likelihood that households would experience a substantial decrease in income was used as an independent variable in Study 2. In economics, the rational expectation hypothesis posits that if rational households expect future income to decrease, current saving should increase. Thus, the purpose of Study 2 was to examine whether or not households behaved in a rational manner in holding emergency funds, based on having a substantial income decrease. In Study 2a, the ratio of monetary assets to spending in 2007 was regressed on the likelihood of having a substantial decrease in income decrease. The higher the likelihood of a substantial income decrease, the higher the ratio, controlling for other household characteristics in 2007. In Study 2b, the ratio of the subjective need for emergency funds to estimated annual spending in 2007 was used as a dependent variable. The estimated likelihood of a substantial income decrease was related positively to the ratio of subjective need to spending. Not only households’ actual behavior in accumulating liquid assets, but also their perceptions of the need for emergency funds were related positively to the likelihood of substantially decreased income. The empirical results from this study confirmed that households that could have anticipated a relatively high likelihood of a substantial income decrease held more emergency funds relative to spending, which suggests that they tended to behave in a rational manner. The positive relationship between the amount of emergency funds held relative to spending and the likelihood of a substantial income decrease implied that households might have made realistic predictions of their future income. The results suggested greater rationality in household decisions about holdings for precautionary savings than previous researchers have inferred based on cross-sectional analyses. The findings from this research provide implications for financial professionals and future research.

This dissertation provides insights into the impact of the Great Recession upon the retirement decisions of U.S. households. The expected retirement age is used as a proxy for an individual’s retirement decision. In the face of the Great Recession, U.S. workers would have three options to adjust the timing of their retirement; delay retirement, retire earlier or retire at the same expected retirement age. Based on the 2007-2009 Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF) panel dataset, the analytic sample is restricted to currently working households whose heads were aged from 30 to 60 in the first survey wave. More than three-fourths of households changed their retirement expectations during the survey period; in 2009, 38% of households responded that they expected to retire earlier age by comparison to their responses in 2007, while 37% of households in 2009 responded that they expected retire at a later age than the age they had given in 2007. Only 25% gave the same anticipated retirement ages in both years. This study utilizes difference-in-differences (DID) model to analyze factors related to changes in the expected retirement age before and after the Great Recession. The Difference-in-Difference ordinary least squares (OLS) regression results indicated that the constructed financial wealth shock had a negative influence on changes in expected retirement age, implying that the increase in financial wealth shock during the recession is correlated with a delayed expected retirement age. However, the average impact of financial shock on the retirement expectations of most working households was very small. Based on the unweighted OLS regression, households that were in the 25th percentile of the effect of the wealth shock (greater shock than 75% of the households) had an increase in expected retirement age of only about 0.17 years, while those in the 10th percentile had a predicted increase of 0.41 years. The weighted OLS results indicated that a household with a financial shock in the 25th percentile would have a 0.33 year increase in expected retirement age. Those with a financial shock in the 10th percentile had a predicted increase of 0.78 years in expected retirement age. Among health variables, households that reported the same health status tended to have a greater decrease in expected retirement age compared to those that reported worse health in 2009. Further, those that are fully covered by health insurance coverage in 2007 but not in 2009 tended to have more of a decrease in expected retirement age than those in which all household members were covered in both years. Those households that changed composition from single to couple or from couple to single tended to have a greater decrease in expected retirement age, compared to those that were in couple households during both years. This dissertation contributes to the growing literature on household finance, especially for future retirement research that will use the 2007-2009 SCF panel dataset. Implications and limitations to this study are also discussed.

Concerns that consumers are making poor choices in higher education are widespread. Popular media, administrators, and policymakers are primarily concerned about student loans, defaults, student financial wellness, and labor market outcomes. However, a key aspect that is overlooked in the national conversation regarding consumer higher education choices is that human capital investments are risky. That is, there is a great deal of risk involved in the decision to pursue higher education. Since the field of behavioral economics suggests that, in general, consumers are prone to make mistakes in choices when risk is involved, the lack of research on higher education enrollment as a risky choice is surprising. The extent to which consumers understand the risk involved and make rational choices has not been thoroughly explored in the literature regarding human capital investments. Therefore, the purpose of this research was to investigate the ceteris paribus effect of consumer risk preferences on the decision to enroll in higher education. A sample from the 1997 cohort of the National Longitudinal Study of Youth (NLSY97) was analyzed by using logistic regression to model the likelihood of higher education enrollment among young adults. Using the NLSY97 allowed for strong individual-level controls in the empirical model, including explanatory variables that have been consistently demonstrated in the literature to predict college enrollment. In addition to the standard individual-level controls, this study advanced the understanding of enrollment decisions by including measures for time preferences, subjective perceptions of risk in pursuing higher education, and risk preferences, all of which were identified as important predictors in a risky human capital theoretical model. Since the literature regarding human capital accumulation and the returns to education is vast and spans multiple disciplines, this research also contributes to the literature by providing a thorough review of research and theoretical models across disciplines.The results of the logistic regression indicated that consumer risk preferences have a significant effect on the likelihood of enrollment. Specifically, there was a positive relationship between risk tolerance and the likelihood of enrollment. This finding was robust to a number of empirical specifications, including sample restrictions, measurement of risk tolerance, and timing of variable measurement. Other findings were generally consistent with previous literature, including positive and significant effects of academic ability, parental education, and family net worth and income. Women were also significantly more likely to enroll than men and Blacks were significantly more likely to enroll than Whites.The finding that more risk tolerant individuals are more likely to enroll in higher education implies that to consumers, attending higher education seems riskier than entering the labor market directly. A number of productive areas for future research are identified, including the need for qualitative research to further investigate risk perceptions regarding higher education and the extent to which consumers are making informed choices. A number of implications for higher education stakeholders and policymakers are also discussed. Lastly, this research has highlighted several methodological issues regarding higher education decision making research using the NLSY97.

With increasing income uncertainty during the Great Recession, many households might have had difficulty in projecting future income changes. Ideally, a household should consider lifetime wealth and the distinction between transitory and permanent income changes in making saving decisions, but during the Great Recession it was probably very difficult for households to identify which income changes were transitory. Gain-loss utility based on prospect theory assumes that household inter-temporal decisions are determined not only by current or permanent income but also by their own expectations or assessment about income and income uncertainty in the first period. In this study, how households’ perception of their past and future income compared to reference points in the first period and how households’ perception of their income uncertainty change affect saving decisions in the second period and between the periods were examined with estimates of future income change. Saving decisions were tested based on relative gain and loss utility using loss aversion theory of consumption and a two period model. Possible asymmetric saving responses between positive and negative changes in reference dependent income and uncertainty were also analyzed. The 2007 and 2009 Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF) panel dataset was used. Both total and subsamples were analyzed based on the expected income change measure to identify possible asymmetry of saving in response to a set of reference dependent income and uncertainty variables, such as deviation from normal income, expected income change, and income uncertainty change, as well as the effect on saving measured in two ways, savings between 2007 and 2009 and whether or not saved in 2009. This study found a set of reference dependent income and uncertainty variables had significant effects on saving decisions of households and asymmetric saving responses between negative and positive changes in those variables. Households with a negative deviation from normal income or expected income change had smaller savings between 2007 and 2009 and less likelihood of saving in 2009 than households with a positive deviation from normal income or expected income change. For income uncertainty, those differences were identified in stayed negative income uncertainty and stayed positive income uncertainty compared to decreased income uncertainty as well as between stayed positive and stayed negative income uncertainty. The results provide weak empirical evidence consistent with loss aversion theory. The findings were not explained by classical theories such as the life cycle hypothesis (LCH) and the permanent income hypothesis (PIH), which do not include asymmetric saving responsesor the influence of reference dependent income and uncertainty variables on saving decision. This study contributes to an extension of the discussion of saving by diversifying measures and estimating asymmetric saving responses to assessments of past income and income uncertainty change as well as expectations about future income change. The findings provide insights for financial planners, educators, and policy makers to improve saving decisions.

This research establishes that home economics and spiritual health and well-being are inextricably linked. Home economics as a profession and field of study has featured in education systems across the globe for more than a century. Recent United Nations literature about various global crisis concerns identified spirituality as key to human well-being and planetary health. Yet, there is a deficiency of health and education research which focuses on spirituality. Well-being, health and quality of life are variously defined, and typically include social, emotional, intellectual, physical, environmental and spiritual dimensions. These concepts are considered foundational knowledge for home economists. However, insufficient evidence-based research has been conducted to inform official educational policy, which means that spiritual dimensions of health and well-being remain largely unexplored in home economics. This research highlights the significance of spiritual health and well-being for home economists in order to provide guidance for teaching practice and policy interpretation. To this end, three research aims guided this study: 1) develop and refine a conceptual framework to observe spiritual health and well-being in home economics sites, literally forming the ‘signs’ of spirituality; 2) locate produced, recontextualised and reproduced language-in-use and spiritual discourses within a variety of home economics sites; and 3) discover shared meaning for spiritual health and well-being amongst home economists from cross-cultural backgrounds.

This study identifies and articulates the interrelationships between six key components essential for authentic learning to maximise the student-centred learning opportunities in kitchen and garden-based learning projects. Interpretative case study methodology using multiple qualitative methods for data analysis were used to direct three layers of inquiry around kitchen and garden-based learning: the context, content and characteristics of kitchen and the garden-based learning, the student learning, and the teachers’ work. Review of the literature indicated significant gaps in understanding how teachers can foster children’s interest in nature, and plan for effective authentic learning experiences in the garden. Through analysis of the literature, together with the perspectives of the Grades 4, 5 and 6 children, and their teachers, key components for authentic, contextualised learning were identified. These included: a real-world context, the opportunity for working as professionals, within a collaborative learning community, work requiring higher-order thinking, ownership of learning and authentic integrated assessment. Teachers’ pedagogy and practices are often hidden but were nevertheless significant factors affecting student outcomes. Teachers made the learning experiences more meaningful by ensuring student reflection was embedded in learning tasks. Planning and providing arenas or “safe platforms” for discursive reflection was an essential step in transforming tacit understandings to explicit knowledge enabling children to connect their personal experiences with the experiences of others. From this discourse deeper understanding of ecoliteracy emerged with one cohort, and understandings about the intricacies of collaborative teamwork with another. The focus group discussions about common experiential learning experiences had wider implications for teaching; they were a key step in making the children’s tacit understandings explicit. Examination of the staff and students’ immersive experiences within a kitchen garden learning environment, led to the development of a model of learning that provides educators with a comprehensive approach to scaffold authentic learning opportunities.

With increasing life expectancy and the trend toward increased prevalence of defined contribution plans, decisions regarding annuities have become critical to the financial well-being of the majority of households. This research investigates the household decision to annuitize an occupational pension using a marital bargaining approach. The purpose of this research is to observe how each spouse’s preference for annuitization is reflected in the household decision to annuitize a pension through his/her bargaining power. Based on the literature on annuity demand and the literature on marital bargaining models, each spouse’s risk aversion is included as a preference shifter and each spouse’s share of earnings is included as the relative bargaining power measure in the empirical models. Three research hypotheses are developed. First, the effect of husband’s financial risk aversion differs from the effect of wife’s financial risk aversion on the pension annuitization decision. Second, the relative bargaining power of the spouses affects the pension annuitization decision. Third, the relative bargaining power of the spouses changes the effect of each spouse’s financial risk aversion on the pension annuitization decision.Empirical models are estimated for the husband’s decision and the wife’s decision to annuitize, as well as the household set of decisions to annuitize. In the analysis of the husband’s annuitization decision and the wife’s annuitization decision, logistic regression models are used. For the household’s annuitization decision, multinomial logistic regression models are used.Using data from the 2010 Survey of Consumer Finances, this research finds that own risk aversion positively affects own annuitization decision but negatively affects spouse’s annuitization decision. This implies that each spouse views own annuity as secure but views the other spouse’s annuity as risky to oneself. Also, the measure of relative bargaining power significantly affects each spouse’s annuitization decision. The effect of the husband’s earnings share is found to be negative on his own annuitization decision but found to be positive on his wife’s annuitization decision. This result is not consistent with the assumption of self-interested individuals but is consistent with the view that the husbands are benevolent decision makers. Lastly, each spouse’s risk aversion weighted by his/her relative bargaining power significantly affects the husband’s annuitization decision but not the wife’s annuitization decision.By employing a marital bargaining approach, this research expands the focus of the annuity decision research from the individual level to the household level and the dynamics inside of the household are able to be explored. To policy makers and financial professionals who are concerned about the limited annuity demand and interested in promoting annuities, the findings from this research provide important implications regarding survivor protection.

Retirement expectation is a meaningful topic for both financial planners and public policymakers. Previous studies on retirement expectation have usually focused on retirement expectations with a specified retirement age. Never retire as a retirement expectation has been understudied. Using the combination of 1995, 1998, 2001, 2004, 2007 Survey of Consumer Finances, I present descriptive analyses, a logistic regression on the head’s plan to never retire, and a multinomial logistic regression comparing the head’s expectation to never retire to each of three categories of expected retirement ages for non-couple household heads. Using the 1995 to 2007 SCF datasets, 14% to 16% of non-couple household heads stated that they expect to never retire. Based on the logistic regression results for never retire versus any specific expected retirement age, the likelihood of planning to never retire decreases with financial variables (net worth, perceived adequacy of retirement income and health insurance overage) and saving ability variables (setting retirement as a major saving goal and being an actual saver); but increased with work hours per week and being self-employed. The multinomial logistic regression results are similar, but more complex because of multiple comparisons, but the main differences between the never retire and specific retirement age workers are in financial resources and saving ability. Generally speaking, non-couple household heads who expect to never retire are those with less financial resources and insufficient saving ability; they usually have lower leisure preference and lower earning ability (earning ability is measured by education level, occupation, and job security). These results have implications for retirement planning and for assessment of retirement adequacy, as the usual assumption is that expected retirement age is exogenous. For each spouse/partner in a couple household, the male delay retirement expectation or never retire expectation are usually related to the household’s financial variables, his own leisure preference, and his and his spouse/partner’s earning ability. Few variables are found to be significant on the female side. However, each spouse/partner’s retirement expectation is highly related to the other spouse/partner’s retirement expectation.

The purpose of this paper was to understand the nature, or the mindset, pertaining to women that were the leading consumer base during World War II regarding the years between 1935 to 1945. The theoretical framework in the research is used to illustrate the motives behind female consumer behavior during this time period; one of the theories included Harry Triandis's theory of interpersonal behavior which is comprised of social behavior relations involving the consumer field. Solomon Asch's theory of conformity is also utilized in this study to demonstrate the context of cultural influences among the participants. The focus of the research was on the purchases of propaganda textiles which consist of any clothing item or cloth that adorned the body that had political or military inspiration.This study included a mixed methods analysis containing a holistic view that encompassed past and present explanations that surround cultural influence pertaining to consumerism, then subsequently relating these theories and ideas to a past cultural experiences concentrating on World War II. It was found that the participants did support propaganda textiles on a small scale; for example, buying USO scarves, even though the women did not refer to these items as propaganda textiles. Fashion choices relating to conformity of what their peers were wearing, such as the use of leg paint, as well as certain items being rationed during the war were significant themes that emerged from the respondents interviewed.This research provides further comprehension into future studies relating to fashion and times of conflict or war pertaining to women. This study was limited to women living mostly in the South-East Ohio region. Further study would include women from more geographical diverse areas as well as researching different generations of women during times of conflict.

Asset building has been proposed as a critical strategy to assist low-income households in exiting the cycle of poverty. With recent budget cuts at the federal level, the future of programs such as Individual Development Accounts is uncertain. As a result, this study was interested in exploring saving behavior among low-income households. Specifically, this research sought to understand these households by (1) determining asset difference between saving and non-saving households, (2) exploring factors related to saving behavior, and (3) identifying the effects of using different measures of saving. Through the application of the institutional theory of saving behavior, a framework is established for understanding determinants of savings among low-income households. Multiple survey years from the Survey of Consumer Finances were used to investigate the research questions through the use of means testing and logistic regression. Two different savings measurements were used: a broad measure and a narrow measure.The results indicate that saving households have greater levels of net worth, financial assets, and non-financial assets than non-saving households. Additionally, the results show that the institutional theory of saving has substantial explanatory power in understanding low-income saving behavior. Factors that significantly increase the likelihood of saving include owning a bank account, greater net worth, greater income, having a reason to save, having an employer-sponsored retirement plan, and having access to resources through family or friends. Factors that were associated with significantly lower likelihoods include being rejected or discouraged from a credit application, respondents of older ages, and responding in more recent survey years.Differences in significance, magnitude, and even direction of effects were observed between to the two measures of savings that were used. As a result, this study highlights the importance of the definition and measurement of key concepts. In terms of implications, helping households identify reasons to save and providing bank accounts should help increase saving rates. Social expectations also seem to be an important factor in saving behavior. Therefore, mentorship or peer counseling programs may be a plausible alternative to typical asset building programs. Policymakers should consider these findings when considering alternative programs and initiatives to help low-income households build assets. Future research directions are also discussed.

This dissertation provides insights into definitional issues of small business owner-managers and which factors affect their financial vulnerability. In particular, the primary purposes of this dissertation are to: (1) provide a thorough review of the extensive literature on definitional issues of small businesses and their owners; (2) suggest more complete classifications of small businesses and new measures of financial vulnerability that are suitable for households who own or manage a small business; and (3) examine factors affecting the level of financial vulnerability of small business owner-manager households, based on three major aspects of household financial status: assets, income, and financial burden. This dissertation analyzes the factors affecting financial vulnerability of small business owner-managers using the 1992 to 2007 Surveys of Consumer Finances. The financial vulnerability of the owner-managers is measured by three financial ratios: the business asset ratio (BAR), the business income ratio (BIR), and the financial obligations ratio (FOR). This dissertation defines the business asset ratio (BAR) as the ratio of business assets to total household assets, the business income ratio (BIR) as the ratio of business income to total household income, and the financial obligations ratio (FOR) as the ratio of monthly household financial obligations to monthly household pre-tax income. These three ratios provide a measure of the level of diversification in assets, a measure of the level of diversification in household income, and a measure of the level of financial burdens, respectively. The factors to be tested are divided into three sub-categories: social-demographic factors, economic status factors, and attitudinal/expectation factors. Using ordinary least square (OLS) regression models and a logistic regression (Logit) model, this dissertation tests the effects of those factors on financial vulnerability and finds that several common factors such as household type, education attainment, self-employment status, home-ownership, income and net worth, and health insurance coverage are significantly related to financial vulnerability. In particular, household types, self-employment status, and health insurance coverage have statistically significant and have consistent effects on financial vulnerability in all three regression models. Compared to married households, single headed small business owner-managers are more likely to be financially vulnerable. Small business owner-managers with self-employment status are also more likely to be financially vulnerable, compared to those with other types of employment status such as salary earners, retirees, and unemployed. On the other hand, uninsured small business owner-managers tend to be less financially vulnerable.

Recent studies across a number of countries evidence a substantial decline in household consumption expenditure around the time of retirement. This phenomenon, coined as the retirement consumption puzzle, brings a challenge to the traditional life-cycle model. The life-cycle model implies that household consumption should be continuous over time including the transition to retirement, provided that retirement is a foreseeable event.To address the retirement consumption puzzle, this dissertation brings current evidence by carrying out four studies on U.S. household consumption behavior at retirement. Study 1 is a cross-sectional study using the latest available data wave from 2009 HRS CAMS. The main interest is to compare consumption behavior between non-retired and retired households. Based on the life cycle hypothesis, regardless of employment status, households sharing similar socioeconomic characteristics should exhibit similar consumption behavior. The empirical findings, however, show that the consumption behavior between non-retired and retired households is significantly different, holding all other factors constant. Spending for retired households is 8.5% lower than spending for non-retired households. Study 2 is an aggregate-panel study using data from 2001-2009 HRS CAMS. The difference between Study 1 and Study 2 is that Study 2 tracks household consumption behavior over time and investigates whether there is a significant change in consumption pattern after retirement. Fixed-effects analysis is conducted to appropriately account for the effect of individual heterogeneity. The life cycle hypothesis predicts that when retirement is as planned by the household, there is no significant change in consumption after retirement. The fixed-effects regression indicates that there is an insignificant increase of 3% in household consumption after retirement. The discrepancy in the results from Study 1 and Study 2 regarding the retirement consumption puzzle comes from the lack of control of individual heterogeneity in the cross-sectional analysis. Study 3 is a subsamples-panel study. Within the life-cycle framework, if retirement is voluntary and expected, there should be no significant change in household consumption after retirement. However, if the household head is laid-off or experiencing poor health, this household may be forced to be out of the labor market, resulting in early retirement. Because involuntary early retirement reduces the household’s lifetime resources, the household must reduce consumption and re-allocate to a new optimal consumption path. As predicted by the life-cycle model, the findings show that households with voluntary retirement have an insignificant increase in household consumption after retirement by 6%. Involuntary-retirement results in a decrease in consumption after retirement by 6-7%. The percentage difference in the household consumption change between these the two groups of households is 11-12% and statistically significant. Accordingly, these findings suggest that household consumption behavior differs by household type (voluntary versus involuntary retirement). These three studies use log consumption as the dependent variable. Alternatively, Study 4 uses consumption growth as the dependent variable to test the retirement consumption puzzle. The regression results provide no evidence of a retirement consumption puzzle, finding an insignificant 3% increase in consumption after retirement.

The objective of this study is to determine whether financial literacy is able to moderate the effects of self-control on financial outcomes. Financial literacy is an oft cited solution to the myriad financial complexities faced by consumers. If financial literacy is effective it should help consumers overcome issues of self-control to encourage more fiscally responsible behaviors. Both economic and psychological theories of self-control are explored, and a conceptual model using the Big Five personality trait of conscientiousness as a measure of self-control is utilized. Data for this study come from the 1997 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY) and the sample used in the study is comprised of 5,892 respondents. The measure of conscientiousness was collected in Round 13 as part of the Ten-Item Personality Inventory (TIPI). Financial literacy was assessed using three questions, collected in Round 11, on compounding interest, inflation, and stock risk. The five dependent variables modeled in this study are net worth, illiquid assets, liquid assets, credit card debt, and negative financial events. Multivariate linear and logistic regressions are used to analyze the data and an interaction term (financial literacy*conscientiousness) is used to test for moderating effects.Aside from education, conscientiousness is the most consistent predictor of positive financial behaviors. Those scoring high in conscientiousness have more net worth, illiquid assets, and liquid assets. They also have lower credit card debt and are less likely to have experienced more than one negative financial event, such as the use of payday loans or late mortgage/rent payments. A one standard deviation increase in conscientiousness is correlated with a 35% increase in net worth, a 24% increase in illiquid asset holdings, a 33% increase in liquid asset holdings, and a 14% reduction in credit card balances. A one standard deviation increase in conscientiousness decreases the likelihood of experiencing one or more negative financial events by 21%. Financial literacy is positively correlated with liquid and illiquid assets, though not associated with credit card debt, net worth, or negative financial events. A one standard deviation increase in financial literacy is correlated with a 27% increase in illiquid asset holdings and a 30% increase in liquid asset holdings. While financial literacy is not a significant predictor of net worth it is able to moderate the effect of conscientiousness on net worth. Likewise, financial literacy is able to moderate the effect of conscientiousness on illiquid assets. Financial literacy lessens the effect of conscientiousness on net worth, but strengthens its effect on illiquid assets. These findings suggest that both conscientiousness and financial literacy are important and that a dual emphasis on increasing conscientiousness and financial literacy is likely to have a positive impact on consumer finances. Based on the findings, implications are drawn for the use of educators, financial planners, policy makers, and consumers. Alternative approaches to financial literacy are suggested as a means to encourage better financial behaviors of consumers. These alternatives include a number of policy-based approaches including information disclosure, educational programs, planned choice architecture, product/service design, and product/service regulation.

The sexualization of preteen girls’ fashion is a concern in America. Girls are given the opportunity to wear clothing that accentuates and reveals their figures. They are encouraged to dress in styles shown by the media, most especially in popular fashion magazines. For this study, I looked at Teen magazine from 1960 to 2005 and performed a content analysis using advertisements and fashion spreads from the months of April and September. I measured provocative dress, as defined by Kennedy, identified specific characteristics that increased the image’s sexual nature, and ran descriptive statistics on the data pulled. The history of the preteen dress, adolescent development, and the marketplace was explored. Research showed that an intense focus on appearance led to self-objectification and a lack of attention on other activities, including school and play. According to the APA Taskforce on the Sexualization of Girls, preteens became sexualized when their values came from their sex appeal. The increase in provocative preteen apparel could be indicative of more relaxed social attitudes. The results of the study showed a subtle, but progressive increase in provocative fashion in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. The majority of the provocative images reported were published after 1985. Fifteen characteristics were analyzed, but only those with the highest numbers were discussed. The number of accentuating garments, exposed breasts, exposed legs, and low waistbands reported often reflected the era’s most popular fashion trends. Results also showed an increase in the number of characteristics reported over the time span of the study.