Council on Contemporary Families

CCF’s Weekly Media Roundup by Steve Mintz, January 30, 2019

CCF Briefing

  1. Can Suicide Be Prevented?
  2. The Great Divide in How Americans Commute to Work
  3. How to raise an extroverted child in a world that loves introverts
  4. The divorce fairness issue that Jeff and MacKenzie Bezos don’t have to worry about
  5. How Divorces Work for the Super-Wealthy
  6. The Personality Trait That Makes People Feel Comfortable Around You
  7. The Quiet Ways Automation Is Remaking Service Work
  8. The Abortion Wars Have Become a Fight Over Science
  9. Can a Nice Doctor Make Treatments More Effective?
  10. V.A. Wait Times Now Shorter Than for Private Doctors
  11. Supreme Court Revives Ban on Transgender Military Service
  12. Who Really Gets Hurt by Violent Fantasies?
  13. Analysis: Falling home sales not helping middle-class buyers
  14. How The Stigma Against Obesity Harms People’s Health
  15. Is Being a ‘Minority’ Really Just a Matter of Numbers?
  16. After Falling Under Obama, America’s Uninsured Rate Looks to Be Rising
  17. Who Becomes a Stay-at-Home-Mother?
  18. How ‘Vasectomy Zoning’ Makes Childless Cities
  19. Teen Suicide Rates Are Higher In States Where More People Own Guns
  20. “This is a very dangerous situation”: Experts sound alarm on measles
  21. Axios/SurveyMonkey Poll: 2019 World Economic Forum
  22. It’s easier now for gay men to adopt. But they still face lots of pushback, and weird questions.
  23. Most pregnancy apps assume you’re married and heterosexual — and all the other ways they’re failing parents
  24. Report: 1 in 4 HISD 10th-graders violently injured
  25. How to keep older Americans in the labor force
  26. The Rich Didn’t Always Need $238 Million Penthouses
  27. The Long Lines for Women’s Bathrooms Could Be Eliminated. Why Haven’t They Been?
  28. Police Are Failing To Catch Most Shooters In Many Big Cities. Often, They Shoot Again.
  29. Women won’t ask a man for more pay – but they will ask a woman
  30. Colleges have been under pressure to admit needier kids. It’s backfiring.
  31. Lessons from a Lifetime of Gender-Policing
  32. Is there REALLY a sex “recession”?
  33. Are Police Lineups Always Fair? See for Yourself
  34. What Happens When Men Are Too Afraid to Mentor Women?
  35. Mark Zuckerberg’s Delusion of Consumer Consent
  36. ‘Mary Poppins,’ and a Nanny’s Shameful Flirting With Blackface
  37. Which Allergens Are in Your Food? You Can’t Always Tell From the Labels
  38. Balancing the Risks and Benefits of Opioids for Children
  39. Abortion, Newly Legal in Ireland, Faces Old Roadblocks
  40. The Unsung Role of the Pharmacist in Patient Health
  41. The Fleecing of Millennials
  42. A Frat Boy and a Gentleman
  43. Speaking Black Dialect in Courtrooms Can Have Striking Consequences
  44. Washington State Weighs New Option After Death: Human Composting
  45. Why Are Young People Pretending to Love Work?
  46. Mexico Moves to Encourage Caravan Migrants to Stay and Work
  47. Charity Finds Success in Work With At-Risk Children, but It’s Costly
  48. Why Six Months Seems to Be the Sweet Spot for Paid Parental Leave
  49. Raising Children Without the Concept of Sin
  50. The Hard Part of Computer Science? Getting Into Class
  51. The Art of Humanizing Social Systems

  1. Can Suicide Be Prevented?

https://www.wsj.com/articles/can-suicide-be-prevented-11547908212

Dialectical Behavior Therapy, which helps patients communicate and handle their emotions, can be effective at reducing suicidal thoughts and attempts

  1. The Great Divide in How Americans Commute to Work

https://www.citylab.com/transportation/2019/01/commuting-to-work-data-car-public-transit-bike/580507/

We are cleaving into two nations—one where daily life revolves around the car, and the other where the car is receding in favor of walking, biking, and transit.

  1. How to raise an extroverted child in a world that loves introverts

https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/how-to-raise-an-extroverted-child-in-a-world-that-loves-introverts/2019/01/09/136a1944-13c7-11e9-803c-4ef28312c8b9_story.html

  1. The divorce fairness issue that Jeff and MacKenzie Bezos don’t have to worry about

https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/11/opinions/divorce-unfair-bezos-opinion-cohen/index.html

For regular people, beyond the potential for emotional distress, divorce is expensive.  It involves not only legal fees but the costs of moving, establishing at least one new household, and possibly assuming the role of single parent.

  1. How Divorces Work for the Super-Wealthy

https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2019/01/jeff-mackenzie-bezos-divorce-money-amazon/579976/

Jeff Bezos is splitting up with his wife—which means they have an estimated $137 billion in assets to divvy up.

  1. The Personality Trait That Makes People Feel Comfortable Around You

https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2019/01/affective-presence-how-you-make-other-people-feel/579643/

People with positive “affective presence” are easy to be around and oil the gears of social interactions

  1. The Quiet Ways Automation Is Remaking Service Work

https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2019/01/automation-hotel-strike-ai-jobs/579433/

Workers may not be replaced by robots anytime soon, but they’ll likely face shorter hours, lower pay, and stolen time.

  1. The Abortion Wars Have Become a Fight Over Science

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/22/opinion/abortion-roe-science.html

Forty-six years after Roe, the two camps increasingly disagree on basic facts about abortion — and who has the authority to determine them.

  1. Can a Nice Doctor Make Treatments More Effective?

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/22/well/live/can-a-nice-doctor-make-treatments-more-effective.html

Connecting with patients doesn’t just make them think someone cares. It can make a difference for health outcomes.

  1. V.A. Wait Times Now Shorter Than for Private Doctors

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/22/well/live/veterans-affairs-doctor-wait-times.html

By 2017, mean wait time at V.A. hospitals had gone down 17.7 days, while rising to 29.8 for private practitioners.

  1. Supreme Court Revives Ban on Transgender Military Service

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/22/us/politics/transgender-ban-military-supreme-court.html

By a 5 to 4 vote, justices temporarily stayed trial court decisions blocking the policy while litigation in the lower courts moves forward.

  1. Who Really Gets Hurt by Violent Fantasies?

https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2019/01/violent-fantasies-rumination/580858

Something to consider while you daydream about killing your boss

  1. Analysis: Falling home sales not helping middle-class buyers

https://apnews.com/31f6ccac05474a4ca68158fab5c211d4

A rising number of middle-class Americans are finding that home ownership is unaffordable.

  1. How The Stigma Against Obesity Harms People’s Health

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/how-the-stigma-against-obesity-harms-peoples-health/

It can discourage people from taking part in healthy behaviors like exercise, which improves health regardless of whether it leads to weight loss, and it can erode mental health.

  1. Is Being a ‘Minority’ Really Just a Matter of Numbers?

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/23/magazine/is-being-a-minority-really-just-a-matter-of-numbers.html

It feels like simple math: One group of people outnumbers another. But as those numbers change, this logic — and what it implies about power — falls apart.

  1. After Falling Under Obama, America’s Uninsured Rate Looks to Be Rising

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/23/upshot/rate-of-americans-without-health-insurance-rising.html

Medicaid enrollment is falling. Obamacare enrollment is falling. And a new survey shows that more Americans are living without insurance.

  1. Who Becomes a Stay-at-Home-Mother?

https://ricochet.com/590957/who-becomes-a-stay-at-home-mother/

it’s mostly the rich and the poor, and it’s related to the cost of childcare:

  1. How ‘Vasectomy Zoning’ Makes Childless Cities

https://www.citylab.com/perspective/2019/01/family-planning-day-care-costs-zoning-cities-children/580279

Municipalities shouldn’t block or raise the cost of things young parents need, like day-care centers and two-bedroom houses or apartments.

  1. Teen Suicide Rates Are Higher In States Where More People Own Guns

https://www.citylab.com/life/2019/01/teen-suicide-guns-in-america-mass-shootings-data/581335/

A new study finds a striking correlation at the state level between rates of household gun ownership and youth suicide.

  1. “This is a very dangerous situation”: Experts sound alarm on measles

https://www.axios.com/anti-vaccination-movement-measles-outbreaks-c5186795-abd9-481b-b24c-ac05e4545fad.html

After having practically eradicated measles from the U.S. almost two decades ago, a growing anti-vaccination movement has led to a resurgence of cases, currently focused in the Pacific Northwest and New York.

  1. Axios/SurveyMonkey Poll: 2019 World Economic Forum

https://www.surveymonkey.com/curiosity/axios-davos-2019/

Most people in the U.S. are still proponents of capitalism, but a majority also believe that the economic system we have is inherently unfair.

  1. It’s easier now for gay men to adopt. But they still face lots of pushback, and weird questions.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2019/01/25/its-easier-now-gay-men-adopt-they-still-face-lots-pushback-weird-questions/

  1. Most pregnancy apps assume you’re married and heterosexual — and all the other ways they’re failing parents

https://www.thelily.com/most-pregnancy-apps-assume-youre-married-and-heterosexual-and-all-the-other-ways-theyre-failing-parents/

  1. Report: 1 in 4 HISD 10th-graders violently injured

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/1-in-4-HISD-10th-graders-violently-injured-13560142.php

A study by University of Texas researchers found more than 1 in 4 10th-graders in the Houston school district have been shot, stabbed or assaulted violently enough to require medical attention

  1. How to keep older Americans in the labor force

https://www.brookings.edu/research/proposals-to-keep-older-people-in-the-labor-force/

The share of Americans planning to work past the age of 65 has tripled over the last three decades, but few policies are in place to help them. Alicia Munnell and Abigail Walters offer proposals to overcome the challenges faced by older employees and their employers, including by addressing age discrimination and establishing a new retirement age.

  1. The Rich Didn’t Always Need $238 Million Penthouses

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/26/nyregion/ken-griffin-238-million-penthouse.html

Wealthy Americans, like Ken Griffin, who bought a 24,000-square-foot apartment on Central Park, weren’t always obsessed with larger-than-fantasy real estate.

  1. The Long Lines for Women’s Bathrooms Could Be Eliminated. Why Haven’t They Been?

https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2019/01/women-men-bathroom-lines-wait/580993/

It’s been more than 30 years since states started trying to achieve “potty parity,” but many queues are still unequal.

  1. Police Are Failing To Catch Most Shooters In Many Big Cities. Often, They Shoot Again.

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/sarahryley/police-unsolved-shootings

  1. Women won’t ask a man for more pay – but they will ask a woman

https://aeon.co/ideas/women-wont-ask-a-man-for-more-pay-but-they-will-ask-a-woman

  1. Colleges have been under pressure to admit needier kids. It’s backfiring.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/how-just-a-few-dollars-can-keep-many-kids-from-going-to-college/2019/01/24/9264c5c2-201b-11e9-9145-3f74070bbdb9_story.html

  1. Lessons from a Lifetime of Gender-Policing

https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/trumps-transgender-military-ban-and-lessons-from-a-lifetime-of-gender-policing

Gender classification is omnipresent in the culture. When it becomes official policy, as President Trump wants it to be, there are grave consequences.

  1. Is there REALLY a sex “recession”?

https://daily.jstor.org/dont-fear-sex-recession/

  1. Are Police Lineups Always Fair? See for Yourself

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/29/nyregion/police-lineups-fair-unfair.html

Hints can steer witnesses toward the suspect the police already have in mind.

  1. What Happens When Men Are Too Afraid to Mentor Women?

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/29/us/metoo-men-women-mentors.html

A ripple effect of #MeToo that women did not ask for: fewer champions.

  1. Mark Zuckerberg’s Delusion of Consumer Consent

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/29/opinion/zuckerberg-facebook-ads.html

He said Facebook users want tailored ads. According to our research, that’s not true.

  1. ‘Mary Poppins,’ and a Nanny’s Shameful Flirting With Blackface

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/28/movies/mary-poppins-returns-blackface.html

The racial caricatures of the original P.L. Travers novels find disturbing echoes in the new movie and its beloved 1964 forerunner.

  1. Which Allergens Are in Your Food? You Can’t Always Tell From the Labels

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/28/health/food-allergies-children-labeling.html

Despite federal legislation passed 15 years ago, food labels don’t always alert consumers to allergens that may be present in packaged goods.

  1. Balancing the Risks and Benefits of Opioids for Children

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/28/well/family/prescription-opioids-children.html

Experts say opioids are sometimes warranted for kids, in cases like severe burns or major trauma. But doctors should prescribe carefully, and parents should never keep leftovers in the house.

  1. Abortion, Newly Legal in Ireland, Faces Old Roadblocks

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/28/world/europe/ireland-abortion.html

Women say the entire process is still hush-hush, given an emboldened anti-abortion movement and a continuing stigma that has left doctors slow to sign up for the service.

  1. The Unsung Role of the Pharmacist in Patient Health

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/28/upshot/pharmacists-drugs-health-unsung-role.html

Are people relying too much on the traditional doctor/patient interaction?

  1. The Fleecing of Millennials

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/27/opinion/buttigieg-2020-millennials.html

Their incomes are flat. Their wealth is down. And Washington is aggravating future threats.

  1. A Frat Boy and a Gentleman

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/26/opinion/sunday/fraternity-sexual-assault-college.html

One researcher found that fraternities were embracing “a more inclusive form of masculinity,” based on equality for gay men, respect for women, racial parity and emotional intimacy.

  1. Speaking Black Dialect in Courtrooms Can Have Striking Consequences

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/25/us/black-dialect-courtrooms.html

A soon-to-be published study found court reporters in Philadelphia regularly made errors when transcribing sentences spoken in a dialect linguists term African-American English.

  1. Washington State Weighs New Option After Death: Human Composting

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/26/us/death-human-compost.html

Lawmakers are considering whether Washington should be the first state to permit human remains to be reduced to soil through composting, or “recomposition.”

  1. Why Are Young People Pretending to Love Work?

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/26/business/against-hustle-culture-rise-and-grind-tgim.html

I saw the greatest minds of my generation log 18-hour days — and then boast about #hustle on Instagram. When did performative workaholism become a lifestyle?

  1. Mexico Moves to Encourage Caravan Migrants to Stay and Work

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/25/world/americas/migrant-caravan-honduras-mexico.html

Mexico’s new president has streamlined the process to give humanitarian visas to migrants from Central America, drawing more toward the border with the United States.

  1. Charity Finds Success in Work With At-Risk Children, but It’s Costly

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/25/your-money/friends-of-the-children-charity.html

Friends of the Children hires mentors to work with troubled children, starting in kindergarten. It began in Portland, Ore., and is now in 15 cities.

  1. Why Six Months Seems to Be the Sweet Spot for Paid Parental Leave

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/25/upshot/paid-parental-leave-sweet-spot-six-months-gates.html

The Gates Foundation is cutting its paid leave in half, settling on a number that researchers say avoids the pitfalls of longer leaves.

  1. Raising Children Without the Concept of Sin

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/25/well/family/raising-children-without-the-concept-of-sin.html

My religious fundamentalist childhood was built around the fear of sin. My daughters don’t even know the word.

  1. The Hard Part of Computer Science? Getting Into Class

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/24/technology/computer-science-courses-college.html

Student demand for computer science courses is outstripping the supply of professors, creating a student divide of computing haves and have-nots.

  1. The Art of Humanizing Social Systems

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/24/opinion/humanizing-social-systems.html

A number of government agencies in Missouri and Massachusetts are exploring ways to address social problems holistically, through a framework that focuses on clients’ long-term needs.

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