Microfinance Participation and Marital Violence in Bangladesh: A Qualitative Inquiry.

This study explores the experiences of marital violence within the context of microfinance participation among a sample of women living in poverty in Bangladesh. Status inconsistency theory suggests that the higher incomes and female independence that may occur with microfinance participation may threaten or destabilize marital norms in Bangladesh, and have implications in terms of increased violence. We use qualitative data from in-depth interviews with 30 women residing in a slum in Dhaka, Bangladesh, to assess the circumstances in which there may be an association between microfinance participation and marital violence and elucidate the context in which this interaction occurs.

Microfinance Participation and Domestic Violence in Bangladesh: Results From a Nationally Representative Survey.

This article examines domestic violence among women who participate in microfinance in Bangladesh. Secondary analysis of survey data from nationally representative Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey was used to investigate the association between microfinance participation and domestic violence of 4,163 ever-married women between the ages of 18 and 49 years. Outcome measure is experience of domestic violence as measured by a modified Conflict Tactics Scale (CTS) and predictor variables include microfinance, binary indicator of relatively better economic status, autonomy, decision-making power, and demographic variables. The likelihood of experiencing domestic violence was not found to vary with microfinance participation. However, the interaction effect of microfinance and better economic status was found to be significantly associated with domestic violence (9% increased probability). Experience of domestic violence was negatively associated with older age, higher education of the husband, and autonomy. In Bangladesh, microfinance participation may be associated with a higher probability of experiencing domestic violence for women with relatively better economic status, but not for the poorest of the poor.

Psychiatric housing: locational patterns and choices.

This study investigated locational patterns and choices in recently sited psychiatric housing. It examined the socioeconomic attributes of the neighborhoods of a sample of supervised houses and apartments for persons with severe mental illness in seven states, and the factors associated with the choice of those locations. Using data drawn from the U.S. Census and interviews with mental health administrators and residential staff, the study identified siting patterns that linked housing affordability to development in mixed use, walkable neighborhoods that provided residents with access to community resources in a variety of small towns and metropolitan areas. Although residences were located in neighborhoods with a range of socioeconomic attributes including low and high poverty rates, mean municipal poverty levels were significantly higher than those of the states in which they were located.

Psychiatric residences: notification, NIMBY, and neighborhood relations.

OBJECTIVE: Federal legislation has given mental health agencies the authority to forego notifying neighbors when establishing shared, supervised houses and apartments for individuals with severe mental illness, but many continue to notify neighbors in the belief that outreach enhances community integration. This study examined the associations between notification strategies and initial neighborhood opposition and longer-term neighborhood relations. METHODS: Telephone interviews were conducted with 169 mental health administrators in seven states who described the notification strategy and short- and long-term neighborhood responses to their most recently established shared, supervised residence. Additional data on neighborhood relations were collected in interviews with 138 staff who worked on site at the residences described by the mental health administrators. RESULTS: Just under half of the agencies used a strategy that involved notification of neighbors, and those organizations were significantly more likely to experience initial opposition (59% of notifiers experienced opposition compared with 35% of non-notifiers). Those who notified neighbors were more likely to initiate activities such as an open house with neighbors after the site was established. There were no significant associations between current neighborhood attitudes and initial notification strategies or initial opposition. Agencies that initiated postsiting social activities with neighbors were significantly more likely to report "very accepting" attitudes. CONCLUSIONS: Administrators who use notification may experience higher levels of initial opposition, but longer-term neighborhood relations may not vary significantly regardless of whether neighbors were notified or whether initial opposition was present. Some agency-sponsored postsiting activities may facilitate substantive connections with neighbors.

Dynamics of income packaging: a 10-year longitudinal study.

This article examines the methods and dynamics of packaging multiple sources of wage and nonwage income as a means of making ends meet over a 10-year period among a sample of displaced steelworkers who lost jobs as a result of plant closings in the 1980s and then experienced extensive downward mobility. The study tracked changes in the respondents' income and employment over a decade, the dynamics of their use of social services, their pooling of a variety of income sources, and the use of social assistance to supplement low wages. The study found that among this sample income packaging was a universal economic strategy and that use of social services did not affect later employment and earnings.