Abstract Although relationships between participating in physical activity and positive mental health and wellbeing are well established, little is known about the relative contributions of the ...different domains of physical activity (PA) —household, occupational, active travel, leisure and sport, family activities)— to total PA and in turn to mental health and wellbeing. This is particularly important for deprived communities where PA is low and mental health and wellbeing poor. Using multivariate multilevel regression of cross-sectional survey data collected in 2011, we examined self-reported PA levels and the domains and diversity of sources of PA among 2654 residents of 32 deprived neighbourhoods in Glasgow, UK., and their associations with with measures of mental health, positive mental wellbeing, physical and general health. Household chores and active travel were the most commonly cited Pas. People achieving PA from family activities, and those doing more diverse PAs, had better mental wellbeing. Active travel was associated with the better mental wellbeing and mental health among the highly and moderately physically active, respectively. Highly active people who engaged in leisure-based PA had better mental health. Long-standing illness was associated with worse health scores, although mental wellbeing was ameliorated amongst those who did domestic or occupational PA. It is important to encourage greater diversity of PA in disadvantaged areas, including leisure and family activities and active travel for those out of work with low PA. Nevertheless, interventions aimed at managing long-term health conditions and providing employment may be of even greater importance.
We study several fairness notions in allocating indivisible
chores
(i.e., items with disutilities) to agents who have additive and submodular cost functions. The fairness criteria we are concerned ...with are envy-free up to any item, envy-free up to one item, maximin share (MMS), and pairwise maximin share (PMMS), which are proposed as relaxations of envy-freeness in the setting of additive cost functions. For allocations under each fairness criterion, we establish their approximation guarantee for other fairness criteria. Under the additive setting, our results show strong connections between these fairness criteria and, at the same time, reveal intrinsic differences between goods allocation and chores allocation. However, such strong relationships cannot be inherited by the submodular setting, under which PMMS and MMS are no longer relaxations of envy-freeness and, even worse, few non-trivial guarantees exist. We also investigate efficiency loss under these fairness constraints and establish their prices of fairness.
Dividing connected chores fairly Heydrich, Sandy; van Stee, Rob
Theoretical computer science,
08/2015, Volume:
593
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
In this paper we consider the fair division of chores (tasks that need to be performed by agents, with negative utility for them), and study the loss in social welfare due to fairness. Previous work ...has been done on this so-called price of fairness, concerning fair division of cakes and chores with non-connected pieces and of cakes with connected pieces. In this paper, we consider situations where each player has to receive one connected piece of the chores. We provide tight or nearly tight bounds on the price of fairness with respect to the three main fairness criteria proportionality, envy-freeness and equitability and for utilitarian and egalitarian welfare. We also give the first proof of the existence of equitable divisions for chores with connected pieces.
Chore division on a graph Bouveret, Sylvain; Cechlárová, Katarína; Lesca, Julien
Autonomous agents and multi-agent systems,
09/2019, Volume:
33, Issue:
5
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
The paper considers fair allocation of indivisible nondisposable items that generate disutility (chores). We assume that these items are placed in the vertices of a graph and each agent’s share has ...to form a connected subgraph of this graph. Although a similar model has been investigated before for goods, we show that the goods and chores settings are inherently different. In particular, it is impossible to derive the solution of the chores instance from the solution of its naturally associated fair division instance. We consider three common fair division solution concepts, namely proportionality, envy-freeness and equitability, and two individual disutility aggregation functions: additive and maximum based. We show that deciding the existence of a fair allocation is hard even if the underlying graph is a path or a star. We also present some efficiently solvable special cases for these graph topologies.
We test two theories explaining domestic exploitation and violent abuse against women in couples. Exchange theory predicts both to increase when men outpower women; status inconsistency, when women ...do. As violence and exploitation can affect a couple’s resources, making the model recursive, we focus on native status. Using data from a women’s victimization survey (N = 8,000), we apply biprobit models to compare violent abuse and domestic exploitation in homogeneous and mixed couples in which one is a migrant. The results validate status inconsistency theory: native women with male migrant partners are less exploited but have the highest risks of being abused.
For most adults, household chores are undesirable tasks yet need to be completed regularly. Previous research has identified absolute hours spent on household chores and one's perceived fairness of ...the housework distribution as predictors of romantic relationship quality and well-being outcomes. Drawing from the Equity Theory, we hypothesized that perceived fairness acts as an underlying psychological mechanism linking household chores hours to long-term effects of relationship quality, well-being, physical health, and sleep quality in a sample of 2,644 married and cohabiting adults from the Midlife Development in the U.S. study. Additionally, following the Reserve Capacity Model, socioeconomic status (SES) was tested as a moderator because of its association with exposure to stressors and psychological resources which contribute to perceived fairness. Moderated mediation results showed significant indirect effects of household chore hours through perceived fairness on prospective measures of well-being, marital quality, physical health, and sleep dysfunction among individuals of lower SES but not higher SES when controlling for age, sex, and paid work hours. These results highlight the importance of perceived fairness and the influence of SES in the links among household chores and long-term relationship processes, health, and well-being.
The standard approach for collecting sociodemographic data about children in developing countries is to elicit information from adults. While using proxy respondents is appropriate for very young ...children or for questions likely beyond children's knowledge, it is less clear that it is better for older children and topics within their experience. Several arguments can be made that children could provide better or equally valid information on their activities than proxy respondents. We explore this question in the context of children's work on environmental chores in rural Tanzania, using data that include parallel questions to children ages 10-17 and to proxy respondents about those children. Given the paucity of research on this issue, we offer exploratory evidence suggesting that efforts to collect data directly from children are fruitful and should be vigorously pursued, in keeping with Article 12 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child
Competitive equilibrium (CE) is a fundamental concept in market economics. Its efficiency and fairness properties make it particularly appealing as a rule for fair allocation of resources among ...agents with possibly different entitlements. However, when the resources are indivisible, a CE might not exist even when there is one resource and two agents with equal incomes. Recently, Babaioff and Nisan and Talgam-Cohen (2017–2019) have suggested to consider the entire space of possible incomes, and check whether there exists a
CE for almost all income-vectors
—all income-space except a subset of measure zero. They proved various existence and non-existence results, but left open the cases of four goods and three or four agents with monotonically-increasing preferences. This paper proves non-existence in both these cases, thus completing the characterization of CE existence for almost all incomes in the domain of monotonically increasing preferences. Additionally, the paper provides a complete characterization of CE existence in the domain of monotonically decreasing preferences, corresponding to allocation of chores. On the positive side, the paper proves that CE exists for almost all incomes when there are four goods and three agents with additive preferences. The proof uses a new tool for describing a CE, as a subgame-perfect equilibrium of a specific sequential game. The same tool also enables substantially simpler proofs to the cases already proved by Babaioff et al. Additionally, this paper proves several strong fairness properties that are satisfied by any CE allocation, illustrating its usefulness for fair allocation among agents with different entitlements.
Introduction/objectives
Reproductive labour refers to activities and tasks directed at caregiving and domestic roles, such as cleaning, cooking, and childcare. Productive labour refers to activities ...that involve economic remuneration. The aim of the present study was to analyse physical activity, sedentary behaviour, physical fitness, and cognitive performance in women with fibromyalgia who engaged, or did not engage, in productive work.
Method
This cross-sectional study comprised 276 women with fibromyalgia from Andalusia (southern of Spain). Levels of physical activity (light, moderate, and vigorous) and sedentary behaviour were measured by an accelerometer. Physical fitness and cognitive performance were measured with a battery of performance-based tests.
Results
More hours/week of homemaker-related tasks were associated with higher time spend in light physical activity and lower sedentary behaviour (
P
< 0.001 and
P
< 0.05, respectively). Furthermore, in comparison with those who only engaged in reproductive labour, women with fibromyalgia who engaged in productive work showed lower levels of sedentary behaviour and higher levels of light and moderate physical activity, physical fitness (except muscular strength), and cognitive performance (all,
P
< 0.05).
Conclusions
Altogether, our findings suggest that productive work is consistently related to better physical and cognitive functioning in women with fibromyalgia. If future research corroborates causality of our findings, then, to maintain women with fibromyalgia engaging in productive work may be strived for not only because of societal or economic reasons but also for better health. However, we should keep in mind that people with fibromyalgia have a chronic condition, and therefore, adaptations at the workplace are imperative.
Key Points
•
Women with fibromyalgia, who spend more time in reproductive labour, have higher levels of light physical activity and lower sedentary behaviour; however, it is associated with poorer general health (as lower physical fitness or cognitive performance).
•
Household tasks are often seen as a responsibility associated with the gender roles that women with fibromyalgia perform, despite the feelings of incapacity they cause. Policies focused on reducing reproductive labour demands for fibromyalgia patients (i.e. social help on housework or childcare) might facilitate the inclusion of daily active behaviours.
•
People with fibromyalgia who engage in productive work seem to have better health outcomes than those who have not; however, we cannot forget that adaptations and flexibility at the workplace are imperative.
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