Search

We examine the relationship between having an emotionally close and active father in an adult child's social network compared to having a father who is not close, or a father who was not named. We hypothesize that fathers provide both essential and important contributions to their children's psychosocial development, and those contributions continue into active adulthood. Using the 2015 UC Berkeley Social Networks Study (UCNets), we find that adult children who name an emotionally close father in their network tend to have more males as social ties, but not more female ties. We conclude that fathers continue to play an important and active role in their children's lives long after childhood.

INTRODUCTION: Stress from negative life events may be an important risk factor for chronic cardiometabolic conditions, which are increasingly prevalent among young adults. Support from personal networks is known to buffer stress from negative life events. Yet, evidence for these relationships among both young and older adults remains unclear. METHODS: Longitudinal data came from the University of California, Berkeley Social Networks study (2015–2018), which followed young (aged 21–30 years) and late middle age adults (aged 50–70 years) over 4 years. Weighted hybrid fixed and random effects models (completed in 2020) were used to examine causal relationships among 4 negative life events, distinct forms of network support (e.g., social companionship, emergency help), and self-reported chronic cardiometabolic disease outcomes (i.e., hypertension, diabetes, or a heart condition). RESULTS: Among young adults, both the death of a close tie (Average Marginal Effect=0.10, p

Background Sleep is an important, restorative behavior for health, yet many adults report troubled sleep. The existence of a support network may be beneficial for sleep quality, including as a buffer for stressful events, yet few studies have examined these relationships longitudinally. Purpose To examine the causal effect of changes in personal network support on sleep quality both directly and as a buffer of negative life events among young and older adults. Methods The UC Berkeley Social Network survey collected data from young (21–30 year old, n = 475) and late middle-age (50–70 year old, n = 637) adults across three waves between 2015 and 2018. Participants reported on personal network characteristics, negative life events, and number of nights with trouble falling and staying asleep. Fixed effects models are used to examine causal relationships among each age cohort. Results Direct effects of network support on sleep quality were observed among older adults. Insufficient practical support predicted higher rates of trouble falling asleep (incident rate ratio [IRR] = 1.40, p < .01), while a desire for more social companions predicted lower rates of trouble staying asleep (IRR = 0.81, p < .01). Buffering effects of network support on sleep quality were observed among young adults. Changes in partnership status buffer the negative effects of the death of a close tie on trouble falling asleep (IRR = 0.75, p < .01) and persistent difficulties paying bills on trouble staying asleep (IRR = 0.45, p < 0.001) among young adults. Conclusions This study provides evidence for the direct and buffering role of network support on sleep quality. Our results indicate that efforts to improve sleep quality should address personal networks and the support they provide, perhaps especially during times of stress for younger adults.

OBJECTIVE: Associations between social networks and loneliness or social isolation are well established among older adults. Yet, limited research examines personal networks and participation on perceived loneliness and social isolation as distinct experiences among younger adults. Accordingly, we explore relationships among objective and subjective measures of personal networks with loneliness and isolation, comparing a younger and older cohort. METHODS: The UC Berkeley Social Network Study offers unique cohort data on young (21–30 years old, n=472) and late middle-age adults’ (50–70 years old, n=637) personal network characteristics, social participation, network satisfaction, relationship status, and days lonely and isolated via online survey or in-person interview. Negative binomial regression models were used to examine associations between social network characteristics, loneliness, and isolation by age group. RESULTS: Young adults reported twice as many days lonely and isolated than late middle-age adults, despite, paradoxically, having larger networks. For young adults, informal social participation and weekly religious attendance were associated with fewer days isolated. Among late middle-age adults, number of close kin and relationship status were associated with loneliness. Network satisfaction was associated with fewer days lonely or isolated among both age groups. CONCLUSION: Distinct network characteristics were associated with either loneliness or isolation for each cohort, suggesting network factors are independently associated with each outcome, and may fluctuate over time. Network satisfaction was associated with either loneliness or isolation among both cohorts, suggesting perceptions of social networks may be equally important as objective measures, and remain salient for loneliness and isolation throughout the life course.

Objective The aim of the study was to provide new tests of the argument that aspects of personal networks affect psychological distress and moderate the effects of negative life events, leveraging new, rich data on two different cohorts. Method The UCNets project measured psychological distress, life events, and various dimensions of personal networks for 673 50- to 70-year old adults and 485 21- to 30-year old adults. The project used stratified random address based sampling for all the older adults. Such sampling, supplemented with Facebook advertisement and referral sampling, yielded the young adult sample. Networks were measured using several name-eliciting questions and several name descriptors. Results The findings differed for younger versus older adults. Among young adults, personal network characteristics were not directly associated with, nor did they moderate the effect of negative life events on psychological distress. Unlike younger adults, the presence of supportive network ties, including social companions and emergency helpers, were directly associated with lower distress among older adults, while difficult and demanding ties as well as advisors were directly associated with higher distress. There was limited evidence of buffering among older adults, albeit through the presence of difficult and demanding ties. Conclusions In the current sample, network exchange roles (i.e., specific types of network support and burden) were associated with psychological distress among older adults while other characteristics of the network, including size, multiplexity, and social participation were not. Further, network support may be best positioned to have direct, as opposed to buffering, effects on psychological well-being.

This paper presents the overall results of a residential customer survey conducted in service areas of MidAmerican Energy Company, a midwest utility. A similar survey was conducted concurrently in the industrial, commercial and institutional sectors and the survey results are presented in a companion paper. The results of this study are compared with the results of other studies performed in the high cost areas of the United States east and west coasts. This is the first ever study of this nature performed for the residential customers in the United States midwest region. Methodological differences in the study design compared to coastal surveys are discussed. Customer survey costing techniques can be categorized into three main groups: contingent valuation techniques, direct costing techniques and indirect costing techniques. Most customer surveys conducted by different organizations in the last two decades used a combination of all three techniques. The selection of a technique is mainly dependent on the type of customer being surveyed. In this MidAmerican study, contingent valuation techniques and an indirect costing technique have been used, as most consequences of power outages to residential users are related to inconvenience or disruption of housekeeping and leisure activities that are intangible in nature. The major contribution of this paper is that particulars of midwest residential customers compared to residential customers of coastal utilities are noted and customer responses on power quality issues that are important to customers are summarized.

This article examines the impact of parental divorce on the likelihood that an individual has changed their religious identify. Using data from the National Survey of Family and Households, we use a theoretical framework of family structure and community ties to test the hypothesis that religious mobility is more likely among children of divorce compared to those from intact families. Distinguishing between parental divorce in childhood and parental divorce in adulthood allows us to assess the impact of parental divorce on religious socialization. For individuals raised as either moderate Protestant, conservative Protestant or Catholic, parental divorce increases the likelihood of both switching to another religion and apostasy. The impact of divorce is particularly strong for Catholics and conservative Protestants, who are, in general, less likely to be religious mobile. These findings add religious disaffiliation to the set of likely sequelae of parental divorce. In addition, the results of the study highlight the need to consider the relationship between family structure and religious processes in a community context.

A very popular method utilized in quantifying the benefit of power delivery service reliability is to estimate the customer monetary losses associated with power supply interruptions by collecting data with customer surveys. MidAmerican Energy Company, a Midwest utility, recently performed surveys of its customers in the residential, commercial, industrial, and company/organization sectors. This paper presents the industrial and commercial customer results of these surveys with primary focus on the cost results. The results of this paper are compared with the results of other studies performed in high-cost areas of the United States' east and west coasts. This is the first ever paper of this nature performed for the electrical customers in the United States' Midwest region. Methodological differences in study design compared with coastal surveys are discussed. The major contribution of this paper is that particulars of Midwest customers compared with customers of coastal utilities are noted, the impact on customers with backup supply is identified, a suggested approach to enhance customer satisfaction due to advance warning on outages is recommended, and relatively high survey response return rates are elaborated. The customer damage functions derived from the survey results are being routinely used in power delivery project justifications in annual delivery system budgeting processes.

Author(s): Lawton, Leora; Sullivan, Michael; Van Liere, Kent; Katz, Aaron; Eto, Joseph | Abstract: A clear understanding of the monetary value that customers place on reliability and the factors that give rise to higher and lower values is an essential tool in determining investment in the grid. The recent National Transmission Grid Study recognizes the need for this information as one of growing importance for both public and private decision makers. In response, the U.S. Department of Energy has undertaken this study, as a first step toward addressing the current absence of consistent data needed to support better estimates of the economic value of electricity reliability. Twenty-four studies, conducted by eight electric utilities between 1989 and 2002 representing residential and commercial/industrial (small, medium and large) customer groups, were chosen for analysis. The studies cover virtually all of the Southeast, most of the western United States, including California, rural Washington and Oregon, and the Midwest south and east of Chicago. All variables were standardized to a consistent metric and dollar amounts were adjusted to the 2002 CPI. The data were then incorporated into a meta-database in which each outage scenario (e.g., the lost of electric service for one hour on a weekday summer afternoon) is treated as an independent case or record both to permit comparisons between outage characteristics and to increase the statistical power of analysis results. Unadjusted average outage costs and Tobit models that estimate customer damage functions are presented. The customer damage functions express customer outage costs for a given outage scenario and customer class as a function of location, time of day, consumption, and business type. One can use the damage functions to calculate outage costs for specific customer types. For example, using the customer damage functions, the cost experienced by an "average" customer resulting from a 1 hour summer afternoon outage is estimated to be approximately $3 for a residential customer, $1,200 for small-medium commercial and industrial customer, and $82,000 for large commercial and industrial customer. Future work to improve the quality and coverage of information on the value of electricity reliability to customers is described.

Until recently, the family of procreation, not the family of origin, was the focus of research on the family. Increasingly, scholarly attention has shifted from relations with one’s spouse and dependent children to relations with adult siblings, aging parents, grown children, and other kin. Because members of recent cohorts have married later and later (if at all), the principal family relations of early and middle adulthood are very frequently with parents and siblings. The development of a life-course perspective on the family has contributed to the appreciation that relationships begun in childhood also have a place in adulthood.

The extent of mobility and changes in living arrangements associated with disability were studied using data from the 1984-86 Longitudinal Study of Aging. It was hypothesized that persons with significant limitations in their ability to perform normal daily activities (ADLs and IADLs) in 1984 would be more likely to move, more likely to be living with others in 1986, and more likely to have entered an institution between 1984 and 1986 than those without limitations. When only those variables that were measured in 1984 were used as predictors, this turned out to be true for institutionalization and for living with others in 1986. However, among those remaining in households, residential mobility showed little relationship to disability when other variables were controlled. When the change in disability between 1984 and 1986 was added to the prediction equation, there were strong relationships between changes in disability and both residential mobility and adjustment in living arrangement, suggesting that people respond quickly to significant changes in disability. However, because we cannot be sure that the changes in disability preceded the mobility or changes in living arrangements, we cannot claim to have established a causal link between these events.

FRANCES K. GOLDSCHEIDER Brown University LEORA LAWTON TechSociety Research* We test the affluence interpretation of the decline in intergenerational coresidence, which implicitly affirms that close kin would still offer housing to those in need, by examining the factors that influence attitudes about coresidence with young adult children and aging parents. Using national data, we model the effects of living in a multigenerational household in childhood and living independently from parents prior to marriage on respondents' obligation to allow aging parents and adult children who are in need to coreside. We find strong effects of living arrangements experiences on attitudes that differ by the type of intergenerational coresidence. Key Words: affluence, attitudes, coresidence, intergenerational relations, living arrangements. Home is the place where, when you have to go there, they have to let you in. Robert Frost, "Death of the Hired Man" Shelter is a fundamental resource that family members attempt to provide each other when necessary. Although levels of intergenerational coresidence have declined dramatically in recent decades in the United States and in other developed countries, most analysts interpret these changes as the result of increases in affluence that have allowed previously dependent relatives to split off from the nuclear family to live in a home of their own (Kuznets, 1978; Michael, Fuchs, & Scott, 1980). Given that splitting off increases the privacy of both those who split off and their relatives, the increased number of young adults leaving home prior to marriage (Goldscheider, 1997) and the greater likelihood that widowed parents live alone (Ruggles, 1996) are usually seen as strictly beneficial. The affluence interpretation underlies this positive view, and it suggests that although the necessity for coresidence has declined, there has been no reduction in the commitment to provide it. Rather, ascribing change to affluence implicitly affirms that close kin would still offer housing to those in need. However, changes in preferences may have been as important as increases in affluence in the splitting off of extra relatives from American families (Pampel, 1983). The outcry in the popular press (Cowan, 1989; Gross, 1991; Lindsay, 1984) and from some scholars (Schnaiburg & Goldenburg, 1989) against the recent increase in grown children living with parents, despite the dramatic increases in housing costs and youth unemployment (Levy, 1987), suggests that Americans may have become increasingly opposed to parents and adult children sharing a residence, even if the parent or child is in a difficult situation and lacks the physical or financial resources to make separate living feasible. In fact, the commitment to provide housing to close kin in need may be weakening. Many may no longer feel that they have to let you in. These two explanations-changes in affluence and changes in preferences-are not contradictory, given that changes in attitudes and preferences are likely to occur as a result of changes in behavior. The decline in coresidence has been under way for most of the twentieth century (Ruggles, 1994). Through social-psychological behaviorist mechanisms of social learning and through the interpretation of experiences via processes such as those set forth by cognitive theorists, people develop attitudes about their family relationships and obligations (Caspi & Elder, 1988; Sroufe & Fleeson, 1988). Children watch what significant others like their parents do, hear what they say, and learn by imitating many of their parents' attitudes and behavioral choices. If increases in affluence mean that families need to provide intergenerational coresidence less often, children are less likely to observe such living arrangements and are more likely to conclude that such solutions are inappropriate or unnecessary. Of course, not all learning takes place in childhood, and most people find that the economic and family commitments of adulthood restructure their choices and priorities and increase their concern for the needs of others. …

This study investigates the following questions: whether greater affection between adult children and their parents leads to more social contact, whether frequent social contact leads to greater affection, or whether each of these mutually influences the other. Using nationally representative data collected in 1990 by the American Association of Retired Persons, we examine predictors of each dimension of solidarity and then estimate a causal model that tests the indirect and reciprocal influence among these dimensions. After finding a reciprocal influence between contact and affection in the mother-child relationship, but not in the father-child relationship, we conclude that the motivations for contact are different in adult-child relations with mothers compared to those with fathers. These differences are important for understanding the consequences of family disruption for intergenerational solidarity in adulthood. Also, parallels are drawn between parent-child relationships and voluntary friendships. Over the last decade, research on family relations has increasingly taken a multidimensional approach to studying adult intergenerational relationships, focusing on frequency of visits and phone calls, helping behavior, geographic distance between generations, and, more recently, the affection that one generation has for another. Each dimension of family relations is further interconnected with the others in ways that affect the well-being of both generations. For example, geographic mobility increases physical distance between generations, impeding the exchange of social and instrumental support (Dewit, Wister, & Burch, 1988; Litwak & Kulis, 1987). Additionally, because the dimensions are interconnected, the social forces that influence one dimension of the family relationships will indirectly influence the others. Changes in family structure, such as the increase in divorce and remarriage, may thus alter the functioning of intergenerational relationships by reshaping access to family members (Furstenberg, 1981, 1988). Therefore, a more accurate knowledge concerning parent-child relationships can be gained by considering the interrelated and mutually reinforcing dimensions as a system. In this article, we consider the mutual impact of affection, contact, and distance. A question arising in discussions about parent-child relations in later life is: Does greater affection lead to more frequent visiting, does more frequent visiting lead to greater affection, or does each of these mutually influence the other? Despite its theoretical plausibility and relevance to a more accurate interpretation of parent-child interactions in adult life, this question has remained unanswered. We address this question by examining three dimensions considered key to understanding the nature of adult parent-child relationships: affection, frequency of social contact, and geographic distance. First, we investigate each dimension of solidarity independently and then we develop a causal model to understand the interconnections among these dimensions, specifically how they mediate and reciprocally influence each other. BACKGROUND The literature on intergenerational family relations is generally sanguine about the state of intergenerational relationships in the contemporary family. Studies find that despite fears of mass alienation and abandonment, the vast majority of parents visit or speak once a week or more with at least one child (Shanas, 1979) and most live within an hour of one child (Lawton, Silverstein, & Bengtson, in press). Also, aging parents can and do rely on their children to provide caregiving and other forms of assistance (Brody & Schoonover, 1986). In spite of the generally optimistic tone of these conclusions, there are substantial sources of variation in the quality of intergenerational relations. For instance, while the level of affection between parents and children is generally high, it is weakened in the case of parental divorce, especially between divorced fathers and their children (Cooney & Uhlenberg, 1990; Lawton, 1990). …

This article examines the effects of the availability of kin and disability on the ability of elderly persons to live alone in the United States. The first part of the article uses a sample of women aged 65 and over from the 1980 census to study the factors associated with both living in group housing and living alone. Disability and absence of a spouse or children are strongly associated with living in group housing, whereas lack of disability and lack of children are associated with living alone. In the second part, data from the Supplement on Aging to the 1984 National Health Interview Survey are used to investigate the source and amount of help received among those with difficulties in performing Activities of Daily Living (ADLs) or Instrumental Activities of Daily Living (IADLs). Those living alone or with nonrelatives are most likely to rely on paid help and this is more likely if they have few living children.