The Weekly Roundup is an opportunity to recap a week in news and share recently discovered journal articles that might be of interest.
ARTICLES AND ESSAYS
Fathers are parents, too! Widening the lens on parenting for children’s development
Child Development Perspectives, 2018
Abstract: Why do fathers matter? Recent conceptual and theoretical advances regarding father–child relationships have demonstrated that fathers affect children's outcomes both directly and indirectly. To attain a complete developmental account of the ecologically rich contexts of child development, in this article, we recommend best practices regarding the conceptualization and assessment of father–child relationships that reflect contemporary family life. We also discuss conceptual and measurement issues pertaining to father–child relationships in different family configurations, including those with resident and nonresident fathers. We conclude with recommendations that can help developmental researchers advance our understanding of fathering, parenting, and children's development.
Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 2023
Abstract: Romantic and peer relationships both contribute to overall well-being; however, each demand time and emotional investment that may give rise to competition. Little is known about how men, in particular, balance these relationships. We explored the extent to which men’s investments in peer relationships are associated with romantic relationship quality. We further examined differences between fathers and non-fathers. Data were from five annual waves of the Men and Parenting Pathways cohort study (N = 608). Participants were men in committed relationships (n = 526) aged 28-32 years at baseline (M = 29.91, SD = 1.3). In cross-sectional, linear regressions, estimated using Generalised Estimating Equations (GEE; to account for repeated waves), we investigated peer network investments, (1) time (hours) spent with peers, (2) close network size, and (3) extended network size, and their associations with romantic relationship quality, self-reported using the Dyadic Adjustment Scale. Inverted U-shaped associations were found for time spent with peers and close network size, whereby increases in investment were associated with improved relationship quality up to a “tipping point”, following which declines in quality are observed. For extended social networks, the association was linear, such that larger networks were linked to higher romantic relationship quality; however, this association was only evident in fathers. Investing too little or too much in peer relationships may adversely impact the quality of men’s relationships with romantic partners. Supporting men, and particularly fathers, to maintain appropriate investment in peer networks may have benefits for their romantic relationships.
Family structure and early life mortality in the United States
Journal of Marriage and Family, 2020
Abstract: This study investigates the association between family structure and early life mortality (1–24 years of age) in the United States. Few studies have examined this association. We employed the restricted-use 1999–2015 National Health Interview Survey-Linked Mortality Files to reveal all-cause and cause-specific mortality disparities by family structure, as captured at the time of entry into the study, including married-parent, single-parent, and extended family structures. Family structure disparities in early life mortality were sizable. Compared to children living in married-parent families, children living with single fathers experienced 47% higher risk of death, and children living with one or more parents and one or more grandparents experienced 54% higher risk of death during the 17-year follow-up period, net of all covariates. Such risks were also high for specific causes of death, particularly external causes. The elevated all-cause and cause-specific mortality risks for children and youth living in single-parent and other nonmarital family structures was attenuated but persisted with controls for socioeconomic status, as well as for poor health and disability among children and other family members. Family structure disparities in U.S. early life mortality are wide and most likely amenable to policy changes. Our results provide an evidence base for mortality disparities related to family structure and suggest further examination of family structure in reducing early life mortality.
RUBBISH BIN
On manels and manferences in urology
Nature Reviews Urology, 2021
Fat acceptance as social justice
Canadian Medical Association Journal, 2021
Renovate my uterus: aging queerly through performance art and karaoke
Journal of Aging Studies, 2022
Abstract: Intimate Karaoke, Live at Uterine Concert Hall (IK-UCH) is a performance-based sound installation that examines vulnerability and shared intimacy through the site of my body by inviting audiences to sing their favourite karaoke song into my uterus while other audience members listen via stethoscope through my flesh. This article uses this project as a case study to examine the queering of the uterus as a site of production (not reproduction) and recoups the perceived uselessness of my middle-aging queer female body. This work connects to Linn Sandberg and Barbara Marshall's critique of the “problematic ways that aging and imagined futures are intertwined with heteronormativity in contemporary Western cultures” and how “some aging bodies and subjectivities are understood as desirable and taken-for-granted while others are constructed as unwanted and problematic” in their article, “Queering Aging Futures” (2). To make the body, vagina, cervix, and uterus structural materials for a venue is to renovate their functions outside of the logics of cisheteropatriarchy and reproductive futurity and further trouble mainstream perceptions of aging. I challenge heterocentric human reproduction as a marker of successful aging and as evidence of ‘living a good life’ by presenting queer feminist performance-based practices that centre my nonreproductive body as site for art production, presentation, and consumption.
Problematising ‘toxic’ and ‘healthy’ masculinity for addressing gender inequalities
Australian Feminist Studies, 2019
Abstract: This article discusses the emergence of ‘toxic’ and ‘healthy masculinity’ in public discourse in addressing gender inequalities. ‘Toxic’ has emerged through greater awareness of men’s violence against women, and men’s high rates of health distress and lack of help-seeking. ‘Healthy’ is thus a response to ‘toxic masculinity’, attempting to encourage men to engage in expressions of masculinity that are not harmful to others, or themselves as a way to address gender inequalities. This article argues that in using a term such as ‘toxic masculinity’, we continue to position men as victims of a broader vague entity rather than highlighting their agency in the reproduction of masculinity. Equally, in using a term such as ‘healthy masculinity’, we continue to set masculinity up as the only expression of gender that men can legitimately engage in, thus reinforcing the notion that femininity (and by extension, androgyny) remains a less valued, and less legitimate, expression of gender. In doing so, ‘toxic’ and ‘healthy masculinity’ continue to reproduce, rather than address gender inequalities, and do not support the breaking down of gender binaries.
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Thanks for this Jim. Interesting. I noticed that in the Family Structure and Early Life Mortality study they specifically give a number for single fathers but omit any mention of single mothers. They do point out a higher number for "single parent families". LOL. Do ya think they might be hidin sumpin? lol If the average for single fathers was 47% and the average for "single parent" plus grandparents etc was was 54%. It seems likely that the average for single mothers was considerably higher than that of single fathers? I may try and find that study and see how the did things.