We hypothesize that the social support available from low‐income networks serves primarily a coping function, rather than a leverage function. Social support and its relationship to material well‐being is assessed in a sample of 632 former and current welfare recipients. Respondents report higher levels of perceived emotional, instrumental, and informational support than perceived financial support, and received financial aid is particularly uncommon. Multivariate findings demonstrate that perceived support is unrelated to employment quality, but it reduces the likelihood of living in poverty and is associated with three different measures of coping. These findings generally support the contention that informal aid is important for the everyday survival of low‐income families, but is less able to assist with economic mobility.

Reciprocity has been traditionally treated in sociological and anthropological theory as a force of integration that keeps network members tied together through a complex web of obligations and interdependencies. This article suggests that in the context of poverty it can be a burden and source of relational stress that leads to the demise of social relationships. It is argued that poverty can make it difficult for individuals to maintain relations with others and participate in social support networks because they do not have many resources to share and reciprocate. Recently published ethnographic studies on the social networks of low-income families in the United States form the basis for a micro-level model linking poverty to social fragmentation. By focusing on the suppressive effect of reciprocity, this model identifies two major emergent mechanisms – exclusion and withdrawal – operating in two realms – material and normative – that are conducive to social fragmentation. This article thus promotes our understanding of the ways in which relational dynamics affect low-income families’ social well-being and contributes methodologically by laying the groundwork for future empirical research.

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The literature is divided on the issue of what matters for adolescents' well‐being, with one approach focusing on quality and the other on routine family time. Using the experience sampling method, a unique form of time diary, and survey data drawn from the 500 Family Study (N = 237 adolescents with 8,122 observations), this study examined the association between family time and adolescents' emotional well‐being as a function of the type of activities family members engaged in during their time together. Hierarchical linear model analyses revealed that eating meals together was beneficial to adolescents' emotional well‐being, especially when fathers were present. Family leisure was also beneficial to teens' well‐being. By contrast, productive family time (e.g., homework) was associated with lower emotional well‐being, as was maintenance family time (e.g., household chores), but only when adolescents engaged in it with both parents.

This study suggests that multitasking constitutes an important source of gender inequality, which can help explain previous findings that mothers feel more burdened and stressed than do fathers even when they have relatively similar workloads. Using data from the 500 Family Study, including surveys and the Experience Sampling Method, the study examines activities parents simultaneously engage in and how they feel when multitasking. We find that mothers spend 10 more hours a week multitasking compared to fathers and that these additional hours are mainly related to time spent on housework and childcare. For mothers, multitasking activities at home and in public are associated with an increase in negative emotions, stress, psychological distress, and work-family conflict. By contrast, fathers’ multitasking at home involves less housework and childcare and is not a negative experience. We also find several similarities by gender. Mothers’ and fathers’ multitasking in the company of a spouse or children are positive experiences, whereas multitasking at work, although associated with an increased sense of productivity, is perceived as a negative experience.

Abstract:Why do people maintain ties with individuals whom they find difficult? Standard network theories imply that such alters are avoided or dropped. Drawing on an intensive survey of over 1,100 diverse respondents who described over 12,000 relationships, we examined which among those ties respondents nominated as a person whom they "sometimes find demanding or difficult". Those so listed composed about 15 percent of all alters in the network. Ego and alter traits held constant, close kin, especially women relatives and aging parents, were especially likely to be named as difficult alters. Nonkin described as friends were less, and those described as coworkers more, likely to be listed only as difficult alters. These results suggest that normative and institutional constraints may force people to retain difficult and demanding alters in their networks. We also found that providing support to the alter, but not receiving support from the alter, was a major source of difficulty in the relationship. Furthermore, the felt burden of providing support was not attenuated by receiving assistance, suggesting that alters involved in reciprocated exchanges were not less often labeled difficult than were those in unreciprocated ones. This study underlines the importance of constraints in personal networks.

One of the aspects unaccounted for in previous assessments of employed parents 'distribution of time is the mental dimension of tasks and demands. This aspect, referred to as mental labor, is conceptualized as the planning, organization, and management of everyday activities. Using the experience sampling method, a unique form of time diary, and survey data from the 500 Family Study (N = 402 mothers with 16,451 signals and 291 fathers with 11,322 signals), this study examined the prevalence, context, and emotional correlates of mental labor among parents in dual-earner families. Results show that fathers reported thinking more frequently about job-related matters than mothers but these concerns did not spill over into unpaid work. By contrast, mothers' job-related thoughts tended to spill over into unpaid work and free-time activities. When engaging in mental labor, mothers and fathers were equally likely to think about family matters, but these thoughts were only detrimental to emotional well-being in mothers. Among both mothers and fathers, paid work was relatively insulated from thoughts about family matters. Overall, findings highlight mothers' double burden and suggest that mental labor may contribute to mothers' emotional stress and gender inequality among dual-earner families.

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