Data from a study identifying consumer difficulties with the homebuying process were analyzed. The instrument listing 66 potential difficulties was mailed to a random sample of 250 homebuyers to indicate those encountered during search, purchase, and first year of occupancy. They were also asked to identify the two problems considered most important and their perceived causes. The response rate was 80.4 percent. Of the 201 households who responded, 153 were eligible buyers. The mean total number of difficulties reported by the sample was 7.16. Problems most frequently reported were higher utility costs, foregone activities, mechani cal system problems, necessary repairs or adjustments, delayed closings, and overlapping payments. Frequency distribution comparisons between sample subgroups showed sim ilarities on the most frequent difficulties, but variation in both content and rank order for the most important problems. Mean comparison tests revealed significant differences in total number of difficulties on the variables purchaser experience, income level, and age of struc ture. The 30 items reported most frequently by respondents were factor analyzed to identify underlying constructs. Upon extraction and rotation, 27 variables loaded upon four factors which were named: surprise difficulties, new‐construction problems, financiallpersonal con sequences, and chain transaction constraints. Implications for further research and consumer education are drawn from the findings.
Two time-budget studies, from Finland and the U.S.A., were examined across nations and across sexes with regard to household production time in two-parent, twochild households. Tim-use difference in various household activity categories (basic housework, child-and member-care, maintenance, and shopping and management) were mdysed according to respondents' employment statw. Three-way analysis of variance revealed that all three variables, nationality, sex and employment status made a significant difference in the time-use mean scores. Part-time employed Finnish men allocated more time to household production than other Finnish men. The equality ratios confirmed that women in both countries carry the heaviest burden in the household work, especially in traditionally female basic housework t a s k In Finnish households the equality ratios were consistently smaller than in the U.S. households indicating a more egalitarian division of household work. Implications for future crossnational time-use research including gender issues are &cussed.
To provide a basis for homebuyer education, this study sought to identify difficulties related to the homebuying process. A questionnaire mailed to a random sample of 250 Colorado homebuyers requested them to indicate problems encountered during search, purchase, and first year of occupancy. They were also asked to identify their two most important homebuying problems and the perceived causes for these difficulties. An 80.4 percent response was realized, of which 153 were eligible respondents. The difficulties most commonly reported by the respondents were utility costs, foregone activities, mechanical system problems, necessary repairs or adjustments, delayed closings, and overlapping payments. Numbers and types of reported problems varied across sample groups categorized by buyer, search, and purchase characteristics. Implications for consumer education and further research are drawn from the study findings.
Laundry practices and satisfaction of consumers in soft and hard water areas were compared before and after the state of Virginia initiated a ban on the sale and use of phosphate‐built laundry detergents. Respondents to mail questionnaires (184 before: 174 after) generally had high satisfaction with laundry results before and after the ban despite the fact that they did not always follow currently recommended laundry practices. Post‐ban, few practices had changed, but more respondents in both water areas tended always or frequently to add extra detergent for heavily soiled items. Thus. during the first 2 or 3 months of the ban little effect on laundry practices and satisfaction was apparent. Education about recommended laundry practices appears beneficial because of the implications for family economic well‐being.
A matrix was developed to provide a framework to organize information and compare the relative cost in monetary and human resources of owning and using traditional and innovative residential major cooking appliances. Laboratory data collected by the first author and by other university researchers with the same five types of cook tops and a microwave oven were analyzed with ANOVA, Student‐Newman‐Keuls, and Tukey's HDS procedures. Data were then used to complete the matrix comprising monetary and human resource dimensions thought to contribute to the total cost of ownership and use. Each dimension was assigned a weight to represent its level of importance to consumers. Based on the data, appliances were ranked high, medium, or low on each dimension of the matrix, and a total score was developed for each appliance. The microwave oven received the highest score, followed in order by cooktops with conventional gas burners, conventional electric coils, solid elements, and induction elements. Additional work is needed to refine data collection techniques, to expand the data set to include all types of major appliances currently available for surface cooking, and to validate the content and weights of the matrix.
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