Council on Contemporary Families

CCF’s Weekly Media Roundup by Steve Mintz, January 16, 2019

CCF Briefing

  1. Who Foots the Bill? Families Fight Over College Debt
  2. Risk of Police-Involved Death by Race/Ethnicity and Place, United States, 2012–2018
  3. Canada still has a lot to do for women and refugees
  4. Americans more likely to die of opioid overdose than car crash
  5. The Status of School Discipline in State Policy
  6. Why Families Break Up
  7. How to Make New York as Progressive on Criminal Justice as Texas
  8. How to Help Tweens and Teens Manage Social Conflict
  9. The Chart That Shows the Financial Peril Facing Many Federal Workers
  10. Most Personality Quizzes Are Junk Science. Take One That Isn’t.
  11. Is Everybody Really Doing It?
  12. Slow Gains for Women and Minorities on Boards of Big U.S. Firms, Study Says
  13. Opioids, Car Crashes and Falling: The Odds of Dying in the U.S.
  14. Court Blocks Trump Administration Restrictions on Birth Control
  15. Do You Find It Hard to Say ‘I Love You’?
  16. Using Sports Psychology for Childbirth
  17. The Gender Achievement Gap Starts Later for Asian-American Students
  18. Dealing With Anxiety, Mental Illness and Grief
  19. ‘I Never Take a Sick Day’: Americans Talk About Reporting to Work When Ill
  20. Actually, the Numbers Show That We Need More Immigration, Not Less
  21. Gillette Ad With a #MeToo Edge Attracts Support and Outrage
  22. A Device That Gives Parents of Stillborn Babies Time to Say Goodbye
  23. Taking the Pain Out of Children’s Shots
  24. The Gender Politics of Fasting
  25. Consider Firing Your Male Broker
  26. You’re Not Getting Much Taller, America. But You Are Getting Bigger.
  27.  ‘Cut The Wire,’ a Toy Bomb Game, Is Discontinued After Criticism
  28. Students in Rural America Ask, ‘What Is a University Without a History Major?’
  29. Why We Struggle to Say ‘I Love You’
  30. The Joy of Being a Woman in Her 70s
  31. Which U.S. Cities Have the Most Families With Kids?
  32. Can immigration save the U.S. from its birthrate crisis?
  33. The skills gap is fixed, because there was no skills gap
  34. Gillette ad takes on ‘toxic masculinity’ in #MeToo-era rebrand, provoking a backlash
  35. When Children Say They’re Trans
  36. The racial wealth gap is worse than it was 35 years ago

  1. Who Foots the Bill? Families Fight Over College Debt

https://www.wsj.com/articles/college-debt-tensions-strain-families-11547047048?mod=djem10point

As tuition increases outpace household incomes and parents face a battery of other financial pressures, conflict over college debt is intensifying among American families

  1. Risk of Police-Involved Death by Race/Ethnicity and Place, United States, 2012–2018

https://ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/10.2105/AJPH.2018.304559

Police kill, on average, 2.8 men per day. Police were responsible for about 8% of all homicides with adult male victims between 2012 and 2018. Black men’s mortality risk is between 1.9 and 2.4 deaths per 100 000 per year, Latino risk is between 0.8 and 1.2, and White risk is between 0.6 and 0.7.

  1. Canada still has a lot to do for women and refugees

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/01/14/canada-still-has-lot-do-women-refugees

The Liberals hope Rahaf Mohammed Alqunun’s story can buy them enough political goodwill to obscure the systemic issues that lurk under the surface.  53 percent of women killed were either Indigenous, women who lived in rural or remote regions, minors, immigrants or refugees.

  1. Americans more likely to die of opioid overdose than car crash

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2019/01/14/odds-dying-opioid-overdose-higher-than-car-crash-analysis-finds/2567996002/

  1. The Status of School Discipline in State Policy

https://www.ecs.org/wp-content/uploads/The-Status-of-School-Discipline-in-State-Policy.pdf

in 2015-16, about 2.7 million students in K-12 received one or more out-of-school suspensions, and over 120,000 students were expelled with or without educational services

  1. Why Families Break Up

https://the1a.org/shows/2019-01-09/fault-lines-why-families-break-up

What is the ‘last-straw’ moment that causes relatives to cut off contact with each other?

  1. How to Make New York as Progressive on Criminal Justice as Texas

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/15/opinion/new-york-texas-criminal-justice.html

It’s time for the state to end the system that leaves defendants in the dark about the evidence against them.

  1. How to Help Tweens and Teens Manage Social Conflict

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/16/well/family/how-to-help-tweens-and-teens-manage-social-conflict.html

Don’t add to the drama. Take it in stride and coach your kids as they work to resolve things on their own.

  1. The Chart That Shows the Financial Peril Facing Many Federal Workers

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/16/opinion/shutdown-federal-workers-trump.html

Just like many Americans, many government workers don’t have much emergency money set aside.

  1. Most Personality Quizzes Are Junk Science. Take One That Isn’t.

https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/personality-quiz/

  1. Is Everybody Really Doing It?

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/15/smarter-living/the-edit-sex-abstinence.html

It seems like everyone in college is having sex. I’m not.

  1. Slow Gains for Women and Minorities on Boards of Big U.S. Firms, Study Says

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/15/business/women-minorities-corporate-boards.html

The percentage of minorities and women serving as directors of America’s largest public companies has risen since 2016, but white men still dominate, the Alliance for Board Diversity found.

  1. Opioids, Car Crashes and Falling: The Odds of Dying in the U.S.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/14/us/opioids-car-crash-guns.html

A new report found that, for the first time, Americans are more likely to die of an opioid overdose than in a vehicle crash. But the likeliest causes of death are still heart disease and cancer.

  1. Court Blocks Trump Administration Restrictions on Birth Control

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/14/us/politics/court-trump-birth-control.html

A judge issued a nationwide order preventing rules from taking effect that would allow employers to deny insurance coverage of contraceptives on religious or moral grounds.

  1. Do You Find It Hard to Say ‘I Love You’?

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/15/learning/do-you-find-it-hard-to-say-i-love-you.html

Why is it hard for some people to say “I love you”?

  1. Using Sports Psychology for Childbirth

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/15/well/family/using-sports-psychology-for-childbirth.html

I wanted to face childbirth with an athlete’s strength, confidence and determination. So I turned to sports psychology for advice.

  1. The Gender Achievement Gap Starts Later for Asian-American Students

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/15/upshot/the-gender-achievement-gap-starts-later-for-asian-american-students.html

A study gives educators insight into how to help American boys in general, pointing to the influence of social pressures.

  1. Dealing With Anxiety, Mental Illness and Grief

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/15/books/review/erica-feldmann-hausmagick.html

In her latest Help Desk column, Judith Newman consults three books that offer guidance to readers navigating through tense times.

  1. ‘I Never Take a Sick Day’: Americans Talk About Reporting to Work When Ill

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/15/reader-center/sick-day-employment-policy-united-states-em.html

Afraid to ask for a day off, or lacking adequate paid leave, some workers go years without taking a sick day.

  1. Actually, the Numbers Show That We Need More Immigration, Not Less

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/15/opinion/trump-immigration-myth.html

By any reasonable metric, “mass” immigration is a myth. The reality is that America desperately needs to pick up the pace of immigration for its economic health.

  1. Gillette Ad With a #MeToo Edge Attracts Support and Outrage

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/15/business/gillette-ad-men.html

Rewriting its slogan as “Is this the best a man can get?”, the razor brand presented examples of toxic masculinity, earning itself both celebrity praise and calls for a boycott.

  1. A Device That Gives Parents of Stillborn Babies Time to Say Goodbye

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/14/well/family/a-device-that-gives-parents-of-stillborn-babies-time-to-say-goodbye.html

The CuddleCot helps preserve the body of a deceased newborn for days, allowing parents to hold them and take pictures.

  1. Taking the Pain Out of Children’s Shots

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/14/well/family/taking-the-pain-out-of-childrens-shots.html

Pediatric pain specialists believe that reducing the pain associated with needles can lead to better health care.

  1. The Gender Politics of Fasting

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/14/opinion/fasting-gender-politics.html

Both Cesar Chavez and Simone Weil starved their bodies for spiritual and political reasons. Why is only one of them remembered as anorexic?

  1. Consider Firing Your Male Broker

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/14/opinion/business-economics/new-year-resolution-investor-gende-gap.html

Years of research show female investors outperform men. But only about 1 in 5 brokers are women.

  1. You’re Not Getting Much Taller, America. But You Are Getting Bigger.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/14/health/height-weight-americans-cdc.html

New government data charts some interesting changes in average bodies over recent decades.

  1.  ‘Cut The Wire,’ a Toy Bomb Game, Is Discontinued After Criticism

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/14/business/bomb-defusing-toy-pulled-target-walmart.html

Players had to defuse a toy bomb before time runs out. The manufacturer thought children would see themselves as heroes but critics did not see it that way.

  1. Students in Rural America Ask, ‘What Is a University Without a History Major?’

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/12/us/rural-colleges-money-students-leaving.html

Students and dollars have plummeted at places like the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point. Leaders are scrambling for fixes. But is the very essence of college at stake?

  1. Why We Struggle to Say ‘I Love You’

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/12/opinion/sunday/sandra-oh-golden-globes-speech.html

For many Asian-Americans, the phrase belongs to the wonderful world of white people we see in the movies and on television.

  1. The Joy of Being a Woman in Her 70s

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/12/opinion/sunday/women-older-happiness.html

Many of us have learned that happiness is a skill and a choice.

  1. Which U.S. Cities Have the Most Families With Kids?

https://www.citylab.com/life/2019/01/top-cities-for-families-with-children-data-childfree/580372

Spoiler alert: It’s simply not the case that families with kids have disappeared from urban America.

  1. Can immigration save the U.S. from its birthrate crisis?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/can-immigration-save-the-us-from-its-birthrate-crisis/2019/01/15/2c546262-1907-11e9-8813-cb9dec761e73_story.html

  1. The skills gap is fixed, because there was no skills gap

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2019/01/14/skills-gap-is-fixed-because-there-was-no-skills-gap/

  1. Gillette ad takes on ‘toxic masculinity’ in #MeToo-era rebrand, provoking a backlash

 https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/01/15/gillette-takes-toxic-masculinity-new-ad-rebranding-metoo-era-inviting-backlash/

  1. When Children Say They’re Trans

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/07/when-a-child-says-shes-trans/561749

Hormones? Surgery? The choices are fraught—and there are no easy answers.

  1. The racial wealth gap is worse than it was 35 years ago

https://www.fastcompany.com/90292185/the-racial-wealth-gap-is-worse-than-it-was-35-years-ago

As white families continue to build wealth, black families are losing money.  oday, the median black family owns around $3,600 in wealth. The 400 richest families in America own more wealth than all black families in the U.S., and a quarter of Latino families.

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