When college students come home for the holidays after a few months of independent living, the entire family has to adjust to a different person walking in the door, says a Purdue University expert on family processes.
“Every time a student goes off to college, the family system changes,” says Charles “Chuck” Calahan, assistant clinical professor of family studies. “Families need to revisit their relationships to adjust to the new dynamics.” The process of separation starts when
Living on a cruise ship is a feasible and cost-effective option to assisted living facilities, and the services offered on a cruise ship parallel — even surpass — what is provided in senior care facilities, according to a study in the November issue of the Journal of the American Geriatric Society.
“Offering many amenities, such as three meals a day with escorts to meals, physicians on site and housekeeping/laundry services, cruise ship could be considered a floating assisted li
People living in rural areas are still dependent on their market town, and the town is reliant on them, a new study shows.
However, changes need to be made if residents are to continue using local shops and services, suggest researchers from the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, who examined the situation in Alnwick in rural Northumberland, which is widely known for its castle – the location for Hogwarts wizard school in the Harry Potter films and its multi-million pound water gar
Telephone conference calls are widely used by business, but they also have great value for people outside work. New ESRC funded research, shows people such as the elderly, who may be socially isolated due to mobility problems, enjoy conference calls.
The study was led by Professor Andrew Monk of the Department of Psychology at the University of York. He argues the calls could be made more enjoyable by developing technologies that support electronic socialising, providing visual aids
You and your fellow townspeople are hiding in a cellar from marauding soldiers. Your baby starts to cry, which would alert the soldiers to your presence. The only way to save yourself and the others is to smother your baby. What do you do?
Making such tough personal moral judgments involves not just abstract reasoning or emotion, as shown by the results of a new study by Joshua Greene and his colleagues. Rather, their brain scan studies of people making such judgments revealed th
Executives who downplay ethics and values in their decision making may also be the ones who prefer extraordinarily high salaries for themselves. By comparison, those executives who are more inclined to consider ethics and values in their decisions preferred more fair pay throughout their organizations.
Diane Swanson, associate professor of management and the von Waaden business administration professor at Kansas State University, said this is the most significant implication of
In Britain, 900,000 adults are stalked every year. It’s a crime that devastates lives. Stalking behaviour can lead to assault, rape and in some cases murder. All too often those affected are left to suffer in silence.
For the first time ever, global stalking victims are being given a voice. The University of Leicester and the Network for Surviving Stalking [NSS] are embarking on the most comprehensive study of those affected by the crime.
The researchers aim to find out vi
A substantial number of older persons — from 2 to 10 percent of the elderly population — are physically or mentally abused, and mistreated seniors are three times more likely to die within three years than those who are not abused, report two Cornell University gerontologists in this week’s issue of the medical journal The Lancet.
Reviewing more than 50 articles, Karl Pillemer, professor of human development in the College of Human Ecology at Cornell, has collaborated with D
The current debate about increasing the level of compulsory pension contributions is a contentious one for individuals, trade unions, employers and the state. While trade unions urge increased compulsion, and both employers and government resist this, the needs of a large section of society are being overlooked. Due to women’s typically lower pay, part time employment and interrupted careers while caring for others, compulsory additional payments into private pension schemes would not address the
A University of Southampton academic, who is investigating love songs from the 16th century to the 1970s, claims that not only is that not the case, but also that song plays a vital role in constructing myths of romantic love.
The research, provisionally entitled Silly Love Songs: Gender, Performance and Romance, investigates the relationship between song and romance, tracing the different ways that songs interact with other media, such as novels and films, to articulate the prevaili
A study in the recent issue of Psychological Science in the Public Interest addresses how economic status is no longer a sufficient gauge of a nation’s well-being. The authors argue that the psychological well-being of its citizens is the greatest measure of a nation– not the well-being of its economy. “While wealth has trebled over the past 50 years…well-being has been flat, mental illness has increased at an even more rapid rate, and data, not just nostalgic reminiscences, indicate that t
A recent paper in The Political Quarterly provides insights into the extent of declining electoral participation amongst young British voters and discusses the need to examine in further detail whether we are witnessing a profound generational shift in youth politics.
The relatively lower proportion of young citizens casting their votes at general elections has previously been attributed to differences in stages of the political life-cycle. However, unprecedented declines in turno
Government targets to get lone parents into work may be frustrated because lone parents are twice as likely to leave their jobs as other newly employed people, a new study shows.
The number of lone parents entering work increased over the 1990s, but high job exit rates are impeding efforts to reach the Government’s target of 70 per cent employment for lone parents by 2010. According to new research published today (September 23 2004), up to 15 per cent of lone parents move into work
New research indicates that helping others raises quality of life for British Citizens.
When we volunteer our time to do something for others, such as helping out an elderly neighbour or taking part in a local community project, it can be good news for our health, our children’s education and even reduce the local crime rate too.
Recent research funded by the Economic & Social Research Council (ESRC) has revealed that people who live in areas that record high levels of inf
A new study being carried out at the University of Leicester traces the erosion of the traditional concept of Maasai manhood and the emergence of new role for Maasais- reliving their warrior dreams in paid employment, business or trading in livestock.
The romantic notion of the ‘noble savage’ Maasai warrior, replete with traditional ponytails and weapons- a key image for tourism in Kenya – masks a crisis of cultures that has blighted this once proud tribal race, according to a study
New research into how women view their bodies aims to challenge the as yet untested belief that thin, glamorous, perfect female models in advertising are socially desirable and “sell” products to the consumer more successfully than other body types.
The research, to be carried out by Dr Helga Dittmar, Senior Lecturer in Psychology at the University of Sussex, with Emma Halliwell, from the University of the West of England, will also look at precisely how – and why – ultra-thin media
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