Family Matters articles from September 1999

Family Matters archives from September 1999

Acting Director's Report.
September 22, 1999... In the last edition of Family Matters I foreshadowed the further development of the Institute's research program for the triennium 1999-2001. With the arrival in January of the new Research Manager, Professor Peter Saunders, work on framing the...

Ageing and families.(Brief Article)
September 22, 1999... As the Acting Director's Report noted, this issue of Family Matters has as a theme the United Nations International Year of Older Persons. The United Nations has identified 18 `Principles' for the International Year which are organised...

Families and ageing in the 21st century.
September 22, 1999... OFFICE FOR OLDER AUSTRALIANS Coming as it does at the end of the millennium, the International Year of Older Persons is an ideal opportunity to reflect on the achievements of the century and to look forward and make plans for the new...

Home ownership and social policy in an ageing society.(Statistical Data Included)
September 22, 1999... Recognition of the multiple advantages of home ownership to families, governments and society at large has in effect constructed a social contract (especially for older people), with individual saving for home ownership being rewarded by...

How history is failing our families.
September 22, 1999... PUBLIC POLICY AND THE FALL IN FAMILY FORTUNES SINCE 1970 From the 1930s to the 1960s public policy was dominated by the interests of young adults and families. From the 1970s it has increasingly favoured the interests of the middle aged and...

Independence and Low-income Older Persons.
September 22, 1999... WHEN POLICY MEETS PRACTICE The combination of the `healthy ageing' and the `burden of ageing' theories presents a challenge for policy makers and service providers in addressing the needs of older people on low incomes. The aim of this...

Admission to residential aged care facilities: do families matter?(Statistical Data Included)
September 22, 1999... There has come to be a `taken-for-granted' relationship between the availability of informal care and admission to residential aged care facilities. In previous times people without partners had higher rates of residency in such facilities, but...

Caring for elderly parents.(Polling Data)(Statistical Data Included)
September 22, 1999... What are the benefits and drawbacks of middle-aged people taking responsibility for the welfare of their elderly parents? CHRISTINE MILLWARD draws on Australian Institute of Family Studies survey data and case studies to explore the experiences...

Valuing older Australians.
September 22, 1999... DENYS CORRELL is the National Executive Director of the Council on the Ageing -- an independent national organisation for older people that exists to protect and promote the interests of older people. This article presents his views on how...

Family support and community IN AN AGEING SOCIETY.
September 22, 1999... Given the changes in our population structure, the need to re-examine social and political thought on the issue of caring for older people in the community is becoming increasingly urgent. The evidence suggests that caregivers will face complex...

Elderly Homeless People.(Statistical Data Included)
September 22, 1999... Q. WHAT IS HOMELESSNESS? A. Council to Homeless Persons Victoria defines a homeless person as someone who `is without a conventional home and lacks the economic and social supports that a home normally affords. She/he is often cut off from...

A response to Richard Eckersley.(Critical Essay)
September 22, 1999... In the last issue of Family Matters, we published a lead article by Richard Eckersley, `Redefining Progress: Shaping the Future to Human Needs', in which he argued that economic growth was no longer contributing to an improved quality of life....

RICHARD ECKERSLEY REPLIES.(Critical Essay)
September 22, 1999... The simplest response I could make to Peter Saunders' critique of my paper, Redefining Progress, would be to suggest that people read, or re-read, the paper and draw their own conclusions about the merits of our arguments. I hope some will....

FAMILY RESEARCH THE NEXT THREE YEARS.
September 22, 1999... In February, the Australian Institute of Family Studies issued a Briefing Paper setting out some ideas for future research directions and inviting people to comment. Many did, and much of this feedback helped shape the new Research Plan which...

SOCIAL CAPITAL AN SOCIAL POLICY CONFERENCE.
September 22, 1999... Social Capital and Social Policy was the title for a one-day conference hosted by the Australian Institute of Family Studies on 17 February 1999 in Canberra. Attracting an audience of over 200, the conference is linked to the publication of a...

WORKSHOP ON QUALITY OF LIFE RESEARCH.
September 22, 1999... Of paramount importance to any nation is the quality of life of its citizens. But what is `quality of life'? RUTH WESTON reports on a two-day workshop, organised by Richard Eckersley and hosted by The Australian Institute of Family Studies,...

Factors contributing to personal wellbeing.(Statistical Data Included)
September 22, 1999... While wealth can buy many things to enhance our quality of life, research suggests that there is no strong direct link between money and personal happiness. So what makes people happy? Drawing on data from the Institute's Australian Living...

Measures used in path analysis.(Brief Article)
September 22, 1999... Equivalent household income. This measure provides an estimate of income as a percentage of the poverty line, and is based on the Henderson equivalence scales (Commission of Inquiry into Poverty 1975), with the following modification: unlike...

Recent issues and initiatives.(Statistical Data Included)
September 22, 1999... The Family Court of Australia and the Family Law Act are frequently accused, most commonly by fathers, of gender bias, particularly in relation to the determination of children's matters. Although this is not a new area of concern, Kaye and...

Learning parenting.
September 22, 1999... INTERGENERATIONAL INFLUENCES `I always swore I wasn't going to be like my mother as a parent.' So says the mother of a four-and-a-half year old child, when asked to what extent her parenting style replicated the style of her own...

Work and Family Life.(Polling Data)(Statistical Data Included)
September 22, 1999... RECIPROCAL EFFECTS This article draws on data from the Institute's Australian Family Life Course Study to examine the extent to which work and home life impinge on each other. The authors discuss how factors related to the working...

Families and older persons.
September 22, 1999... The following references have been selected from the Australian Family & Society Abstracts database, produced by the Australian Institute of Family Studies to monitor the research, policy, and practice literature on family and social issues....

NEW ON THE AIFS WEB SITE.(The Australian Institute of Family Studies)
September 22, 1999... The Australian Institute of Family Studies Web site provides Institute research, information projects and publications, and access to Institute databases and resource collections. Institute conference 1998 More than 60 papers from the...

RESOURCES FOR OLDER PERSONS.
September 22, 1999... Aged - ageing - crone - decrepit - doddering - elderly- feeble - frail - le troisieme age - old dog - old bag - old geezer - old goat - one foot in the grave - out to pasture-over the hill- senescent- senile - white-haired - wizened - wrinkled....

Costs of Children in Australia.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
September 22, 1999... There are two important differences between results obtained by using the basket-of-goods method and the expenditure survey method as presented in the accompanying Tables. First, the basket-of-goods approach provides only part of the cost of a...

Trial and Error: A Review of UK Child Support Policy.(Review)
September 22, 1999... Trial and Error: A Review of UK Child Support Policy, Helen Barnes, Patricia Day and Natalie Cronin, Family Policy Studies Centre, London, 1998. Price: UK 9.95. This report critically examines the British Child Support Act and the...

Schools and the Social Development of Young Australians.(Review)
September 22, 1999... Schools and the Social Development of Young Australians, by John Ainley, Margaret Batten, Cherry Collins and Graeme Withers, ACER, Camberwell, 1998.Price: $29.95 In our society schools play a much broader role than simply producing...

The Sociology of Social Problems: Theoretical Perspectives and Methods of Intervention.(Review)
September 22, 1999... The Sociology of Social Problems: Theoretical Perspectives and Methods of Intervention, by Adam Jamrozik and Luisa Nocella, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1998. Price: $34.95 This book examines how social problems occur, how they...

Sexually Abused and Abusing Children in Substitute Care.(Review)
September 22, 1999... Sexually Abused and Abusing Children in Substitute Care, by Elaine Farmer and Sue Pollock, Wiley, Chichester, 1998. Commissioned by the British Department of Health, this study examines how sexually abused and abusing children are managed...

Community Health and Wellness: A Sociological Approach.(Review)
September 22, 1999... Community Health and Wellness: A Sociological Approach, by Anne McMurray, Mosby, Sydney, 1999. Price: $52.95. This Australian text is aimed at students in the health sciences field as well as health care professionals. It focuses on the...

Lost Fathers: The Politics of Fatherlessness in America.(Review)
September 22, 1999... Lost Fathers: The Politics of Fatherlessness in America, edited by Cynthia R. Daniels, Macmillan, Basingstoke, 1998. Price: $44.95. The role of fathers in families, and conversely the effects of fatherlessness on families, has come under...

Young Adult Women, Work and Family: Living a Contradiction.(Review)
September 22, 1999... Young Adult Women, Work and Family: Living a Contradiction, by Ian Proctor and Maureen Padfield, Mansell, London, 1998. Price: UK 50.00. This investigation into the work and family lives of young women in Britain in the early 1990s is based...

Dreams in the Shadows: Vietnamese-Australian Lives in Transition.(Review)
September 22, 1999... Dreams in the Shadows: Vietnamese-Australian Lives in Transition, by Mandy Thomas, Allen and Unwin, St Leonards, 1999. Price: $35.00 This book is an account of the experiences of Vietnamese-Australians. As Professor Bruce Kapferer of James...

Spousal Support in Australia: A Study of Incidence and Attitudes.(Review)
September 22, 1999... Spousal Support in Australia: A Study of Incidence and Attitudes, by Juliet Behrens & Bruce Smyth, Working Paper No. 16, Australian Institute of Family Studies, February 1999. Spousal support in Australia A new Institute Working Paper...

Reconceptualising Australian Housing Careers.(Review)
September 22, 1999... Reconceptualising Australian Housing Careers, by Ian Winter & Wendy Stone, Working Paper No. 17, Australian Institute of Family Studies, February 1999. Housing in a risk society Working Paper No. 17, Reconceptualising Australian...

Social Change, Suburban Lives: An Australian Newtown 1960s to 1990s.(Review)
September 22, 1999... Social Change, Suburban Lives: An Australian Newtown 1960s to 1990s, by Lois Bryson and Ian Winter, Australian Institute of Family Studies in conjunction with Allen and Unwin, St Leonards, 7998, 238 pages. $29.95 plus $3.00 postage and...