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Education interrupted: Impacts of family disruption on children’s educational attainment

Recent Bell Fellow Juli Simon Thomas, PhD, has authored a paper that confirms that disruptive events within a family, such as parental loss/gain of job/partner lowered the chances of their children completing high school, attending college and finishing college, and more significantly contributes new insight into the increased negative effects of multiple events within a 2-year period.

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Companies with family-friendly policies may help retain & boost performance of professional women caregivers who have other caregiving duties

Professional women caregivers in long-term care facilities with double-duty (unpaid child care) and triple-duty (both unpaid child and elder care) responsibilities had better retention and engagement in their jobs when they felt more supported by their husbands. The WFHN researchers have published their findings in The Gerontologist.

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Working single mothers may be at slightly higher risk of heart disease, stroke & smoking

Learn more about the findings of a study published in the American Journal of Public Health by Harvard Pop Center Director Lisa Berkman, PhD, Research Associate Iván Mejía-Guevara, PhD, Faculty Member Mauricio Avendano, PhD, former Pop Center Fellow Erika Sabbath, ScD and colleagues, in this Reuters article.

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Supporting employees’ work-family needs improves health care quality

Thank you again to Cassandra Okechukwu for giving a seminar this past Thursday. Dr. Okechukwu has a new paper out in Social Science and Medicine titled “Supporting employees’ work-family needs improves health care quality: longitudinal evidence from long-term care.”  The study found that although managers of long-term care facilities perceived providing their employees with work-family support (including allowing employees to work additional off-site jobs) and ensuring high care quality for…

Continue reading “Supporting employees’ work-family needs improves health care quality”

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Paper by Bell Fellow Juli Simon Thomas Earns Her Status as Finalist for 2015 Kanter Award

Harvard Bell Fellow Juli Simon Thomas, PhD, is co-author on a paper that is one of five finalists (out of 2,500 articles published in 2014) for the Rosabeth Moss Kanter Award for Excellence in Work-Family Research. The paper, “Job Displacement among Single Mothers: Effects on Children’s Outcomes in Young Adulthood,” was published in the American Journal of Sociology. Congratulations to Juli on being a finalist for this international award!

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Does work-family context impact female life expectancy in US?

Harvard RWJF alumna Jennifer Karas Montez, PhD, and former Bell Fellow Mauricio Avendano Pabon, PhD, are co-authors on a paper published in Social Forces that explores the fact that female life expectancy is shorter in the US than in most other high-income countries in light of the work-family context. Do institutional supports of work-family balance make a difference?