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Contacts with relatives / visiting parents, parents-in-law, brothers and sisters / financial support of parents and parents-in-law / opinion on relatives, being excessively fond of relatives, asking relatives for help / importance of friends / mothers-in-law. Background variables: basic characteristics/ place of birth/ residence/ household characteristics/ characteristics of parental family/household/ occupation/employment/ education/ religion/ consumption of durables

Detailed background data on marriage and family / religion and occupation / satisfaction with job / household and mutual friends / perceptions of partner / personal worries / relationships with mutual friends / self description / personal problems / opinions on financial matters / socio-cultural and recreational activities of both partners / sexual relationship / relations with family / mutual relationship and the solving of mutual problems / reasons for divorce. Background variables: basic characteristics/ residence/ household characteristics/ occupation/employment/ education/ social class/ religion

The National Association for Centraal Wonen was founded in 1971 with the aim of realizing housing projects with communal areas, with the (prospective) residents participating in all phases of the plans and in the management of the housing. Furthermore, these housing projects are intended for all types of households and must offer independence for individuals and households while nevertheless allowing for the development of social contacts and solidarity.This thesis describes a study on these so-called Centraal Wonen projects, here referred to as co-housing. It is in two parts. Part one is about the prototype project, Centraal Wonen Hilversumse Meent. In part two the perspective is enlarged to cover all co-housing units completed in the Netherlands in the period 1977-1986.The prologue describes the reason for the study and the author's particular interest. The study began in 1976 as a research project commissioned by the Ministry of Housing and Planning. This research forms part one of the thesis. In 1979 the author became an active member of Centraal Wonen. Part two of this thesis deals with data from 36 co-housing units and the knowledge the author gained gained by her involvement in the realization of two projects and since 1985 by her life in one of these units.Chapter one briefly outlines the social context in the Netherlands during the sixties and the background to the plea for co-housing.Chapter two describes the three phases of the research in Centraal Wonen Hilversumse Meent. In the first phase (1976) all prospective residents were interviewed about six months before they moved into cohousing. Other external participants, such as the architect, representatives of the housing society and local civil servants, were also questioned about their contribution to the process of realizing the co-housing project. The adult residents were interviewed again in 1978 and 1979 (one and two years after the move). Households and individuals who had moved out were interviewe

This study of farm family households in the east of The Netherlands is based on a field survey carried out in spring 1984. Rapid changes in the structure and processes of agriculture in the Netherlands since the 1950's and radical change in the family, notably with relation to sex roles, have caused increasing political and academic concern for the future and the viability of family farming. This has also led to women's position in agriculture being subjected to much discussion and increasing scholarly interest. These, the most important motives for initiating this study, are outlined in the first chapter, together with the most important post-war changes in Dutch agriculture. This chapter also includes a review of the literature on the changing forms and functions of family and marriage and of women's position in family and society and it ends by discussing the implications of these changes for farm families and farm women.The second chapter presents a detailed description of the study. It includes a definition of the research problem, a description of its theoretical basis, concepts and hypotheses, an explanation of the design of the study and finally a description of the construction of the questionnaires and the sampling and data collection methods.Farm family households are social institutions composed of complex networks of interwoven and mutually dependent roles. The family and the farm enterprise are thus seen as interdependent social subsystems. This view of the farm family household yields the first main theme of this study: how family and farm are intertwined. The way in which this interconnectedness is shaped, its specific form, is subject to change because it is linked to the particular historical, social and cultural environment in which it is situated.This view of the farm family household leads on to an elaboration of the second main theme of this study: the sexual division of labour and decisions. The way in which husband and wife divide or share la

Contact with friends / relations with parents / leisure time / activities outdoors / drinking / parties / smoking / pattern of interest / relations with other sex / talking about personal problems and sexuality / age at which basic sexual information was acquired / sexual experiences / attitude to sexuality / sexual information / information on contraceptives / premarital sexual permissiveness / attitude to abortion / masturbation / romantic love / been in love / attitude to homosexuality / sexual permissiveness / self-perspective about marriage and family raising / evaluation of marriage of parents / information on personal sexual experience / masturbation / homosexuality / expected opinion of parents about sex life / relation with first and latest sex partner / use of contraceptives / satisfaction / how is sex dealt with personally / use of hard and soft drugs. Background variables: basic characteristics/ residence/ household characteristics/ occupation/employment/ education/ social class/ politics/ religion/ consumption of durables/ readership, mass media, and 'cultural' exposure/ organizational membership

This thesis has been inspired by the international trend reports of Reuben Hill and John Mogey on the output of family sociology. Originally the author aimed at the answering of the following fourfold problem: the development of the interest in the study of marriage and the family in the Netherlands; the theoreticcal, thematic and methodological developments of Dutch family research; the impact of theoretical and methodological insights developed abroad upon Dutch family studies; the extent to which Dutch family research meets the ideal of the survey model emphasized by both Hill and Mogey. Influenced by the identity crisis of sociology that arose in the late sixties, the author widened the scope of his study. To the problem as stated above he added the question about the relation between the development of family research per se and the societal evolution (mainly the change in values and norms).After the introductory part of the book five chapters follow, the first four -mainly dealing with the development of family sociology beyond the Dutch boundaries. Chapter 1 gives an impression of the theories on marriage and the family that were developed during the 19th century. The presented material in this chapter makes clear that the political and the scientific approach to problems in the field of marriage and the family are narrowly intertwined. The second chapter deals with the sociology of marriage and the family during the period 1900-1940. This chapter pais special attention to the period 1918-1940. In this period the basis is laid for the theoretical and methodological developments that had a predominant influence on family research after the Second World War.The third chapter deals with the thematic and methodological aspects of family research during the period 1945-1968. As this chapter is mainly based on the data from the trend reports of Hill and Mogey the emphasis is laid on a comparison between family research in the U.S.A. and the activities in this field

This publication presents the results of the study of a corpus of relevant literature on communes and commune movements in Western society. The study is descriptive-analytical, and the communes analyzed belong partly to the past and partly to the present. The analysis was predominantly based upon some 40 descriptions of different communes or commune movements, the relevant characteristics of which are mentioned in an appendix.The social entities selected for this study had to satisfy the following criteria:- they had to be established in the now capitalist West;- they had to have an experimental character when established;- they had to embrace three or more socially autonomous members;- they should not reject per se sexuality, socialization, production/ consumption, and emotional- affective care as activities for their own group, but should rather aim at the fulfilment of at least one of these functions as an activity of the group as a whole;- they had to be territorial units;- their duration as a functioning whole should not have been determined in advance.The problem to be studied was threefold. The first question dealt with the profile of the communes in the now capitalist West. The answer to that question has been given in terms of motivation, membership, social characteristics of the members, selection, the functions of the group in a family sociological perspective (sexuality, procreation, etc.), structural aspects, duration, and causes of success or failure.On a motivational basis the communes and commune movements were classed into three main categories, viz.:I. religious communes (a. old religious communes; b. communes proceeding from convents/monasteries; c. communes originating from new religious movements);II. political communes (a. passive political communes ; b active political communes);III. communes emphasizing interpersonal relations.Communes of type Ia were already established centuries ago, those of type II were not founded before the nineteenth c

This study comprises the results of two investigations, the second of which was carried out more than a decade after the first. The initial project was done in 1960. The motive for starting it at the time were the strains on family life, caused by the profound economic and social changes taking place in steadily opening-up rural areas. The effect on the family brought about by these phenomena was well perceived by policy and extension agencies working on behalf of the welfare of the rural population. They thought it necessary to gain a thorough insight into the nature of the problems the rural family, both agrarian and non-agrarian, was facing.Within the 'Union International des Organismes Familiauz' this consideration has led to the establishment of a special 'Working Group for the Rural Family'. In the working groups' opinion the relation or contrast between the rural and the urban domain was of primary importance in studying the family situation in the country. Particularly, it was a basic question for this working group whether or not there existed specific welfare problems for the rural family as a result of essential differences in value-orientation and/or conditions of life.It was this question which the first investigation tried to answer as far as the Nederlands was concerned. Because of its implications for policy making this study was supported by the Dutch Ministry of Social Work.It was hypothesized that there existed no rural nuclear family as such; in other words, that this family was characterized neither by a different set of values nor by circumstances of a special nature. Family life does not stand completely apart from society, but it always takes place within a specific, social framework. Following changes in the general social constellation, the shape of family life is also transformed. Hence it was stated that together with the transition from an agriculture and craft ruled society to the contemporary urban-industrial one, a traditional family

The island of St. Eustatius is one of the least known and forgotten places within the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Yet the island does have an illustrious history and it played an important part in trade within the Caribbean area, particularly in the eighteenth century. St. Eustatius was an important intermediary in the smuggling trade - especially of weapons - between Europe and the English colonies of North ,America who were fighting for their independence. From the nineteenth century onwards, however, the social economy of the island has, for a variety of reasons, continuously gone downhill. The construction of the oil refineries on Curaçao and Aruba, which also created jobs for many inhabitants of St. Eustatius, was not able to bring this economic decline to a halt.At the present time the island has to contend with numerous social and economic problems. There are few sources of income: agriculture and fishing stagnate, there is no industry of any importance and the island's Public Works Service functions as a disguised form of relief employment. it must be feared that the execution of infrastructural works, in particular the restorations of buildings of historic interest, can only offer incidental relief for the unemployment problem. In any event it is no real financial-economic reorganisation, since the necessary funds are largely made available by the Netherlands on an ad hoc basis. It is possible that small scale tourism can offer more perspective in the future.There is little social cohesion within the Statian society. This does not mean that the different social levels live in conflict or enmity with each other, but rather that there are certain social forces present within the society which stand in the way of a co-operative spirit or feelings of solidarity. The absence of these feelings is not coupled to particular characteristics inherent to the separate strata, but appear in all levels of society. We are thinking here principally of the autochthonic popu

To accomplish a financial policy is an event with which every young couple has to deal. In addition to which problems can occur that cannot be resolved in everyday customs and habits. Regarding the latter if that is the meaning of one or both of the married couple, in that case you can say that there is a financial crisis.Via an inquiry conducted with 93 young married couples who were representative of all the young married couples in the Netherlands municipal borough of Ede (chapter 2), it was to investigate which of the young couples had experienced a financial crisis. From these young married couples it appeared that a total of 32 were experiencing a financial crisis.Using Reuben Hill's work as a model there are at least three different variables at work to determine whether a given event becomes a crisis for any given family (chapter 1):1. the hardships of the situation or event itself,2. the resources of the family;3. the definition the family makes of the event.The hardships of the situation were widely varied for different young married couples (chapter 3). Hardships identified were as follows:- a low salary rate;- a marriage of necessity;- an unplanned pregnancy during the first year of marriage;- not saved sufficient money or very little before the marriage;- usage of hire-purchase or personal loan.Apart from the inquiry of the financial resources we spent a lot of time on systematic study of the more basic resources. Family integration is generally seen as such a basic resource. Family integration is the stability of a family in practising of its functions and the security which it obtains from it. In this investigation it was tried to discern in what degree the family integration determines the invulnerableness of young married couples for financial tension. Indeed it proved that a married couple that was notably less integrated, was relatively often in financial difficulties.An important addition to the classification of family integration was achieved t

This report investigates future trends in marriage and the family. The project was started because of the revolutionary changes in marriage and family life in the Netherlands since about 1965 (Chapter 1). A brief review of the history of marriage and the family shows that the characteristics and functions of this institution have changed considerably with time. A search of the scientific literature on the future of marriage and the family shows a need for well founded research on future trends in marriage and the family as a whole (Chapter 2). Experts were consulted to study the future of marriage and the family, and results were processed by the Delphi method, developed in research on the future.Chapter 4 discusses the merits and shortcomings of research on the future in general, specially by the Delphi method.Research was concentrated on the following questions: (Chapter 3)1. What changes did the selected experts expect in marriage and the family in the next fifteen years? (to about 1990)2. What factors influenced to the experts' opinion the changes in marriage and the family?3. What changes did the experts want in marriage and the family in the next fifteen years?4. To what extent did the experts' field of expertise and personal values in fluence their expectations and desires for changes?The concept of expert was defined widely in this research, namely persons who are professionally strongly involved in marriage and the family in view of their publications, their field of activity or other things. The experts were consulted in two rounds, each time by a mailed questionnaire. The purpose of the second round was to clarify and deepen the results from the first round. Respondents in the first round were 155 and in the second 126 persons from four sectors of society and from eleven scientific disciplines. Respondents from the four sectors of society were scientists, field workers, policy makers and opinion formers. The data were collected in the period from the end

Het hoofddoel van deze studie is een beschrijving te geven van ongehuwd samenwonende heteroseksuele paren in vergelijking met gehuwde paren in Nederland en in de Verenigde Staten.De snelle toename van ongehuwd samenwonen in West-Europa en in de Verenigde Staten in het afgelopen decennium, het gebrek aan voldoende wetenschappelijke kennis over deze samenlevingsvorm, alsmede de huidige levensbeschouwelijke, maatschappelijke en politieke discussies naar aanleiding hiervan vormden de voornaamste redenen waarom dit onderzoek werd ondernomen.De probleemstelling van deze studie luidt als volgt (Hoofdstuk 3):1. Verschillen ongehuwd samenwonende paren van een parallel groep van gehuwde paren (die niet eerst hebben samengewoond), en zo ja - in welk opzicht?2. In welke mate komen verschillen tussen beide groepen (ongehuwde en gehuwde paren) in Nederland overeen met verschillen in de Verenigde Staten?Aangezien de verschillen tussen ongehuwde en gehuwde paren wat hun "Individuatiegraad" betreft één van de belangrijkste onderzoeksthema's is, wordt dit thema reeds in Hoofdstuk 2 geintroduceerd. "Individuatiegraad" is gedefinieerd als de uitkomst van het zoeken naar een balans tussen de paradoxale verlangens naar enerzijds individuatie (persoonlijke vrijheid en onafhankelijkheid) en anderzijds naar identificatie (geborgenheid in tweezaamheid). Dit uitgangspunt leidt vervolgens tot enige filosofische en sociologische beschouwingen en tot een opsomming van dichotome verlangens inherent aan de intieme paarrelatie (Chart 3, pg. 22).In Hoofdstuk 3 wordt met behulp van enkele grondbegrippen uit het functionalisme als ordenende principes, een overzicht gegeven van recente literatuur en theoretische ontwikkelingen op het gebied van ongehuwd samenwonen in Europa en in de Verenigde Staten. Eveneens worden hieruit voortvloeiende hypothesen geformuleerd (Bijlage B).De methodiek van het onderzoekwjordt in verkorte vorm geintroduceerd in Hoofdstuk 1 (Paragraaf 2) en meer gedetailleerd verslagen

The Netherlands National Fertility Survey, conducted in 1969, was the first national fertility survey in the Netherlands. Its findings led to the conclusion that conventional social-demographic variables were no longer of very much significance in accounting for differences in fertility and that it was necessary to look for socialpsychological factors to account for differential fertility (Moors, 1974). A literature study was then carried oud with the aim of finding a research instrument which would be able to help identify social-psychological factors which would account for differences in fertility behaviour (Niphuis-Nell, 1974). The number of alternatives was very limited and the choice fell on a set of questions out of an as yet experimental questionnaire which had been used by James T. Fawcett in Hawaii (United States) in preparing the first phase of the international Value of Children project. The set of questions which we took over contained two open-ended questions on the advantages and disadvantages of having children as compared with not having children, nine scales based on Likert items and relating principally to the perceived satisfactions and costs of having children, and a number of structured questions about the reasons why people did or did not want (more) children.Using the chosen set of questions, a pilot study was carried out in 1974 amongst 100 married women aged 35 or below. Chapter 2 contains a report of this pilot study, concentrating on the choice of instrument and construction of the scales. While the scales are to a large extent comparable with those from the Value of Children project, they are not in fact entirely comparable because a number of new items was added and the items were not grouped in exactly the same way. When various things had been taken into account, the result was five scales which measure various satisfactions from having children: continuity and security, motherhood satisfactions, social identity, happiness and affecti

In this study the matter of mate selection at marriage in the Netherlands has been raised. Apart from a literature study this study has been based on two field surveys carried out in March and April 1976. The problem dealt with in this report has been formulated as follows: has a change appeared in successing generations in the Netherlands in the complex of factors and/or the power of relations within the complex of factors which influence mate selection and what are the consequences of this eventual change for the theory building about mate selection. Within this framework 21 hypotheses have been put to the test. These hypotheses are partly based on existing literature.In the first chapter the most important concepts emerging from literature about mate selection have been treated. The central idea has been formed by homogamy. In this chapter homogamy has been related to geographic propinquity, racial and ethnic background, religious denomination, level of education and social class. Moreover the incest-taboo and a number of psychological theories have briefly been treated. Also some general theories concerning mate selection have been dealt with. In the final part of this chapter mating and dating behaviour and the first meeting have been discussed. With regard to mating and dating behaviour the matter of marriage bureaus (in 1981: about 9.000 candidates registered at bona fide bureaus) has also been investigated and so has the phenomenon of marriage advertisements. With regard to the first meeting, the geographic propinquity has been treated next to the cause of this meeting.On setting up the inquiry (chapter 2) three conditions had to be fulfilled:a. questioning of the marriage partners has to happen in such a way that mutual influencing was avoided as much as possible; b. couples from the marriage cohorts 1972, 1973, 1974 and 1975 had to be questioned (field survey March 1976);c. questioning of the parents of the marriage partners who had been asked in the first

This research on voluntarily childless married women was carried out by the direction of the "Netionaal Programma Demografisch Onderzoek (NPDO) (National Program for Demographic Research). To all appearances, the percentage of voluntarily childless married couples is increasing in various western countries, including the Netherlands. This makes this relatively new topic of research extra interesting.The problem-definition of the research was as follows:- Which factors influence the choice for voluntary childlessness? How does the decision-making process around this choice take place?- What role does women's emancipation play?- As the number of women who do not conform with traditional sex-roles increases, will the number of voluntarily childless women also increase?In the research design I tried to link the findings of research abroad (Bram, 1974; Veevers, 1973b) and my own observations on the role of women in society with the Fishbein theoretical model on behavioral intention (Fishbein & Ajzen, 1975).The sample was drawn from the 90,000 inhabitants of a city in the western part of the country. All the women who had been married for at least 3 years, were under age 35 and who had no children were sampled (about 1200). A control group of 100 mothers with the same characteristics, but with one child no more than 2 years old, was also drawn from this population. These preliminary subjects received a letter of introduction and a small screening questionnaire. As a result of these questionnaires four groups of women were selected (N=170). Because of the non-normal distribution of the voluntarily childless in the general population, the childless sample was supplemented by subjects chosen in a purposive manner. A lengthy (2-4 hours) personal interview was conducted with open-ended and pre-coded questions. (Material collected in 1978). A total of 158 of the respondents was used in the final analysis, the four groups are:1- Voluntary childless WC): 65 women who ware sure th

HUSBANDS AND WIVES OF PSYCHIATRIC PATIENTS: a study of differences pertaining to (marital) experiences and psychological well-being.SUMMARYThe present study has been designed in order to explain differences in psychological well-being between husbands and wives of psychiatric outpatients, found in preceding investigations. Chapter 1 contains an introduction to the study and the outline of the report. In chapter 2 the literature m general sex-differences in psychological wellbeing is reviewed as well as that on the correspondence on psychological distress between husbands and wives. The explanations for the sex-differences can be divided roughly into two models. in the first one, which starts from sex- differences in socialization, it is assumed, that women are better trained than men to discern and express emotions. There is more cultural acceptance of psychological difficulties when expressed by females than when expressed by males. Therefore women will sooner be inclined to report psychological symptoms. The second explanation contradicts the first by noting that the overrepresentation of women on psychological symptons is mainly caused by married women whereas among the never married, males report more feelings of distress than females. According to this explanation, it is the difference between the traditional social roles of married men and women that accounts for the higher rate of married women with symptoms of psychological distress. Compared to their husbands wives occupy fewer social positions, experience less variation, receive fewer structural reinforcements, and are psychologically more dependent on their marital and family lives. Consequently married women have less opportunities to compensate for stressful events with satisfaction derived from a job or from social contacts with colleagues: life areas less bound to the nuclear family. This implies that the risk of boredam and of dissatisfactory conditions of life is higher for married women From a role

Consensus of opinions and background matching of partners in marriages in the Netherlands. Background data on marriage and family / voting behaviour / religion / satisfaction in household and job / social contacts in relation with personal problems and worries / self-description / partner description / general attitude towards marriage, financial affairs, leisure time, sexuality, upbringing of and care for children, working married women / socio-cultural and recreational activities of both partners / the role of marriage in happiness of life. Background variables: basic characteristics/ residence/ housing situation/ household characteristics/ characteristics of parental family/household/ occupation/employment/ income/capital assets/ education/ social class/ politics/ religion