Noteworthy

USA Today (Society for the Advancement of Education), April, 2004

Providing financial support to parents or other elderly relatives is a common practice today. Often. this financial sacrifice can be offset by claiming certain tax benefits, such as medical expenses. Beyond that deduction, a parent or elderly relative may qualify as a dependent, allowing several more tax doors to open, reveals the Financial Planning Association, Denver. Colo.

"Stereotype threat" occurs when certain persons whose group is targeted by negative categorizations try to excel at tasks that are related to the stereotype. In these situations, knowing that there is a prejudiced attitude against them can lead individuals to perform more poorly on a task than they otherwise would, according to professors of psychology Toni Schmader and Jeff Stone. University of Arizona, Tucson.

About 60% of surveyed Americans 75 years of age or older reported unmet needs for assistance with some activities of daily living (ADL) versus only four percent of the oldest residents in Sweden. states a study from Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pa, Although both countries provide support to approximately 40% of the over-75 population, that statistic masks the disparity in services that becomes evident when the researchers focused only on people who have long-term chronic needs for help with ADL. These include feeding, bathing, dressing, managing money, house-keeping, and shopping.

Witches and werewolves play a major role in the way folk medicine is practiced in the Caribbean island-nation of Dominica, says Marsha Quinlan, professor of anthropology. Ball State University, Muncie, Ind., and author of From the Bush--The Front Line of Health Care in a Caribbean Village.--"The villagers do believe that witches and werewolves cause some of their ailments. They may blame a sickness on something a witch has done or due to contact with a werewolf. Then they use a home remedy to cure that particular sickness."

They say there is no such thing as a free lunch, and, for executives, there often is no lunch at all. A survey of chief financial officers reveals that, on average, they work through the noon hour a minimum of three days a week. "Working through lunch is increasingly common for executives faced with greater responsibilities that must be managed with fewer resources," relates Paul McDonald, executive director of Robert Half Management Resources, Menlo Park. Calif. "But too many hours spent without a break can take its toll on job performance,"

Only 25% of eighth-graders are required to take physical education, reports the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Ga., which may be part of the reason that 15% of children (9.000.000 kids) are considered overweight--a rate that has tripled since 1970. Moreover, the percentage of overweight young people has doubled in the past 20 years.

Americans are spending more on their animals today than ever before, to the tune of an estimated $31,000,000,000 this year, proclaims statistics from the American Pet Products Manufacturing Association Currently, 62% of U.S. households own a pet, and will spend approximately $460 on each of their creatures this year.

Fewer children are living in married-couple households and fewer married couple have off-spring compared to past decades. maintains the latest report by the National Marriage Project at Rutgere. The State University of New Jersey, New Bruns-wicK. The Census Bureau projects that, by 2010, families with children will make up a mere 28% of all U.S. households the lowest Also. a majority of Americans disagree that the main purpose of marriage is rearing children.