Examines implications of having data on only the resident parent in child support analyses and in ignoring nonresident parents. Findings indicate that the characteristics of nonresident parents are central to understanding levels of child support, underscoring the need for data collection that includes resident and nonresident parents. (RJM)

Used census data for U.S. metropolitan area African Americans to examine relationships of measures of sex ratio to each other and to indicators of family formation and family structure. Found that, when measures of sex ratio were properly formulated, they had strong associations with marriage prevalence; nonmarital fertility ratios; and prevalence…

Amplifies a recent article by the author on influences for religious endogamy. A more appropriate indicator, called the Index of Influences for Endogamy, indicates influences of virtually equal strength for Catholics and Protestants, challenging the earlier conclusion of stronger Catholic than Protestant influences. (JAC)

Considers whether research on family violence can be applied to clinical practice. Suggests limitations of the knowledge base constrain the application of research on family violence to clinical work, and certain aspects of the research paradigm also limit the transfer of research knowledge to clinical practice. (Author)

Discusses some problems encountered in doing cross-cultural research and reports on the approaches used to solve the difficulties. (HMV)

Notes the inconsistent findings that characterize research on marital instability and proposes several potential methodological sources of these inconsistencies. Presents an illustrative application to data from two recent national representative probability samples. (JAC)

Following an overview of historical and current orientations to the study of housework, prevailing assumptions that underlie this research are examined. As most research has emphasized technical, economic, and political dimensions, it is suggested that housework be reconceptualized as family work with its basis in moral obligation. (JPS)

Notes that family researchers can examine extent of self-selection bias in samples by using range of "plausibly correlated characteristics" such as marriage and divorce public records. Provides extensive case example of analyses and discusses compensation techniques of weighting and hazard rate models. (Author/NB)

Reviewed 283 data-based articles containing material about Black Americans in the "Journal of Marriage and Family" from 1939-87 using a sociohistorical framework of analysis. Results indicated that focus on the culture-of-poverty thesis has been a prominent and obvious source of distortion in substantive research on Black families in America.…

Presents procedure, mixed-radix positional number algorithm, for reducing set of numerous changes and stabilities in multiple roles at given time to a single empirical code. Demonstrates applicability and utility of procedure to wide array of complex family analyses through a simple pedagogical example. (Author/NB)

A review of 8,000 articles in family research journals revealed that research on lesbian and gay families is limited and that studies that do exist have been problematized and their diversity has been overlooked. Challenges the neglect of this population in family studies, and discusses theoretical implications. (JPS)

Notes that nearly all existing empirical work on stepfamilies has been published in 1980s. Describes demographic context for this work and surveys research on stepchildren, remarriage, and stepfamily functioning. Identifies problems in extant research and suggests areas for future research. Emphasizes explicit and implicit theories that guided…

A review of articles that report study results based on couple samples indicated response rates are rarely high enough for statistical inference. Four procedures that can be used to compensate for insufficient response rates (collecting information from nonparticipants, census comparisons, adjustment in analysis, and replication) are examined.…

Discusses family influence on health care by addressing questions about appropriate selection of informants and data sources when investigating family and health concerns, questions about sample selection and the ability to generalize findings to the population as a whole, and questions concerning the subject's ability to differentiate between…

Used data from 195 children and 207 adolescents to assess and compare quality of data from those age groups. Interviewer rating of child's behavior, quantity of missing data, and percentage of agreements between parents and children on objective family characteristics all suggest that quality of data was high for children and significantly higher…