Understanding the Association Between Perceived Financial Well-Being and Life Satisfaction Among Older Adults: Does Social Capital Play a Role? The article “Understanding the Association Between Perceived Financial Well-Being and Life Satisfaction Among Older Adults: Does Social Capital Play a Role?”, written by JeongHee Yeo and Yoon G. Lee, was originally published electronically on the publisher’s internet portal (currently SpringerLink) on 19 June 2019 with open access.

Female Earnings and the Returns to Spousal Education Over Time Abstract Using U.S. Census data from 1960 to 2000 and American Community Survey data from 2010, this paper estimates the relationship between the husband’s educational attainment and his wife’s annual labor earnings. For full-time working wives, each additional year of completed schooling by the husband was associated with a 2% increase in his wife’s earnings. The returns to spousal education were larger when the couple worked in the same occupation. The estimated relationship has increased slightly since 1970. This increase was larger for younger wives. These results are consistent with cross-productivity and documented increases in educational homogamy.

Labor Force Attachment and Maternity Leave Usage of Cohabiting Mothers in the United States Abstract This paper studies the labor supply decisions of new mothers in cohabiting relationships in the United States. Using cross-sectional data from the 1997 Cohort of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth as well as from the March Current Population Survey Annual Demographic Supplement, this paper analyzes how the birth of a child impacts a mother’s labor supply. Different subgroups of women based on relationship status are analyzed and compared. Both cross-sectional analyses show that new mothers in cohabiting households behave differently than their married counterparts when it comes to their labor supply after the birth of a child, taking significantly shorter leaves and working more hours in the year of birth. The results also suggest that their partner’s income is not a significant factor in determining their labor supply, which differs from married mothers. This research gives us important insights into the economic decision-making behavior of these nontraditional households.

Determinants of Household Alcohol and Tobacco Expenditures in Turkey Abstract In line with the recommendation by the World Health Organization (WHO), prices are used as policy instruments in many countries in discouraging the consumption of alcohol and tobacco products. Due to the complexity in the interplay of the household sociodemographic and economic factors in these countries, the effectiveness of price-related intervention tends to be limited in scope and unsustainable. We aim at determining the key factors in the spending decisions and the levels of spending on alcohol and tobacco products using a multivariate sample selection model, estimated with recent survey data collected by the Turkish Statistical Institute. We identify a number of sociodemographic and economic factors related to the excessive use of these products in the country. These findings can inform policy deliberation in curbing the use of alcohol and tobacco products.

Attitudes About Wife-Beating and Incidence of Domestic Violence in India: An Instrumental Variables Analysis Abstract This paper explores how spousal violence varies with respect to women’s attitudes regarding acceptability of violence. This association is important to investigate because increased justification of marital violence by women can reduce their likelihood of seeking help or fleeing the violent marriage, which in turn could increase their risk of facing spousal violence in the future. Using nationally representative data from India and after controlling for the potential endogeneity of women’s attitudes, results suggest a strong positive link between attitudes regarding violence and the incidence of violence. The findings highlight the difficulties confronted in dismantling the problem of marital violence.

Mental Health Disorders and Their Relationship with Work-Family Conflict in Upper Egypt Abstract Data for mental health disorders and its relation to work and family issues in Egypt are scarce. We conducted this cross-sectional study among 1021 participants aged 18–59 years from Minia, Upper Egypt to measure the prevalence of mental health disorders and their associations with work-family conflict. Mental disorders were assessed by the Mini International Neuropsychiatry Interview (MINI-Plus) diagnostic interview and work-family conflict was assessed by the National Study of Midlife Development in the US. Work-to-family conflict (WFC) was associated with a 5.2% increase in the probability of mental health disorders; the multivariable-adjusted OR (95% CI) in subjects with high versus low WFC was 2.26 (1.18–4.34). On the other hand, there was a 2.0% increase in the probability of mental health disorders with high family-to-work conflict (FWC); OR (95% CI) was 1.37 (0.78–2.41). One point increment in the total score of work-family conflict was associated with a 3.4% increased probability for having a mental health disorder. The highest probabilities for having mental disorders were found among participants whose jobs require a lot of travel away from home (3.4%) or take much energy (3.5%) and among those whose family activities stop them from getting the amount of sleep needed to do their jobs (3.4%).

Does the Happiness of Contemporary Women in China Depend on Their Husbands’ Achievements? Abstract The paper investigates the spillover effect of identity within the family, that is, whether and how the spouse’s political identity affects happiness in the family. Using the Chinese General Social Survey, we show that the wife’s Communist Party of China (CPC) identity has a null effect on a husband’s happiness, but a husband’s CPC identity has a heterogeneous spillover effect on a wife’s happiness: it has a positive effect on a non-CPC wife’s happiness but a null effect on a CPC wife’s happiness. Nearest neighboring matching further corroborates these results. CPC membership is regarded as important social capital; thus, the findings reflect a glaring social phenomenon that the well-being of women in disadvantaged positions (e.g., living in rural areas and having less education) continues to be related to their husbands’ achievements. Additionally, women in advantaged positions (e.g., living in urban areas and having more education) can eliminate their dependence on their husbands after receiving equal political and economic opportunities.

Relative Income and Subjective Well-Being of Urban Residents in China Abstract The purposes of this study are to examine subjective well-being and to test its correlation with social reference and self-expectations of urban residents in China. Data are obtained from the 2015 Chinese General Social Survey, and we focus on urban residents (N = 4857). Because the dependent variable is a sequence variable, the ordered logit model is used for data analysis. We find that absolute income remains an important factor in determining people’s subjective well-being. We also find that when relative income factors are included, the correlation between absolute income and subjective well-being is reduced. This suggests that the subjective well-being of urban residents is influenced not only by absolute income itself, but also—more importantly—by relative income based on social comparison and self-expectations. These findings have implications for the formulation of social policies to improve citizens’ happiness.

The Socialization of Financial Giving: A Multigenerational Exploration Abstract Previous research has found that family socialization influences financial giving behaviors and that financial giving predicts personal wellbeing. However, little research since the early 1980 s has explored this phenomenon, and virtually none of the research has been qualitative in nature. As part of the Whats and Hows of Family Financial Socialization project, this study employs a diverse, multi-site, multigenerational sample (N = 115) to qualitatively explore the following research question: how do children learn about financial giving from their parents? In other words, how is financial giving transmitted across generations? From interviews of emerging adults and their parents and grandparents, three core themes emerged: “Charitable Donations,” “Acts of Kindness,” and “Investments in Family.” Various topics, processes, methods, and meanings involved in this socialization are presented, along with implications and potential directions for future research.

The Relationship Between Subjective Well-Being and Work–Life Balance Among Labourers in Pakistan Abstract The aim of this paper is to explore the importance of work–life balance in human life and how job characteristics affect overall well-being. Our data have been collected from the labour market in five major industrial estates in Pakistan, such as M3-industrial estate, Sundar industrial estate, Sindh industrial trading estate, Gawadar industrial estate, and Hayatabad industrial estate, using a stratified sampling technique. The data have been collected via questionnaire, and included demographic data (sex, age, education, number of children, marital status, and regional background), job characteristics (working hours per week), health, education, and monthly nominal income (in absolute terms) of the sample labourers. A regression model has been developed to check the association of well-being with socio-economic status as well as job characteristics of the labourer. We observed that a fair work-family life balance plays a positive and significant role in overall well-being, apart from socio-economic characteristics like health, education and income of a labourer. Policy makers should hence put more emphasis on favorable working hours to ensure greater happiness and better quality of life.