Exclusive
Historical Trends in the Marital Intentions of One-Time and Serial Cohabitors
Jonathan Vespa
Journal of Marriage and Family, February 2014, Pages 207-217
Abstract:
This study explored whether cohabitors' marital intentions have changed over time and whether they are sensitive to a person's cohabitation history, that is, the number of cohabitations individuals have experienced. Using a sample of ever-cohabited women, 16-28 years old, from the 2002 and 2006-2010 National Survey of Family Growth (N = 6,023), the author found that the prevalence of serial cohabitation continues to increase among younger birth cohorts. Furthermore, the share of female cohabitors with plans to marry has been declining across time, net of demographic controls and cohabitation history. Serial cohabitation has strong negative associations with marital intentions, a pattern that was not present among the oldest birth cohort but has emerged among more recent cohorts. These findings extend prior work by showing that the downward trend in cohabitors' marital intentions is continuing among the youngest cohort of women and, importantly, is not explained by serial cohabitation.
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Joelle Abramowitz
Journal of Population Economics, April 2014, Pages 603-633
Abstract:
This paper exploits variation in the mandated insurance coverage of assisted reproductive technology (ART) across US states and over time to examine the connection between increased access to ART and female marriage timing. Since ART increases the probability of pregnancy for older women of reproductive age, greater access to ART will make marriage delay less costly for younger single women of reproductive age. Linear probability models are estimated to investigate the effects of ART state insurance mandates on changes in marital status of women in different age groups using the 1977-2010 Current Population Survey. Results show that greater access to ART is associated with marital delay for white (but not for black) women: white women in states with an ART insurance mandate are significantly less likely to marry between the 20-24, 25-29, and 30-34 age ranges, but significantly more likely to marry between the 30-34 and 35-39 age ranges.
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Personal Traits, Cohabitation, and Marriage
Michael French et al.
Social Science Research, forthcoming
Abstract:
This study examines how personal traits affect the likelihood of entering into a cohabitating or marital relationship using a competing risk survival model with cohabitation and marriage as competing outcomes. The data are from Waves 1, 3, and 4 of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, a rich dataset with a large sample of young adults (N=9,835). A personal traits index is constructed from interviewer-assessed scores on the respondents' physical attractiveness, personality, and grooming. Having a higher score on the personal traits index is associated with a greater hazard of entering into a marital relationship for men and women, but the score does not have a significant influence on entering into a cohabitating relationship. Numerous sensitivity tests support the core findings.
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Sowing wild oats: Valuable experience or a field full of weeds?
Dean Busby, Brian Willoughby & Jason Carroll
Personal Relationships, December 2013, Pages 706-718
Abstract:
In this study, the association was explored between the number of sexual partners individuals had in their lifetimes and marital outcomes. The research objective was to test whether the number of sexual partners was associated with sexual quality, communication, relationship satisfaction, and relationship stability, while controlling for relationship length, education, race, income, age, and religiosity, using the two competing theories of sexual compatibility and sexual restraint. The results, with a sample of 2,654 married individuals, indicated that the number of sexual partners was associated with lower levels of sexual quality, communication, and relationship stability, providing support for the sexual restraint theory. Gender was not significantly associated with the patterns in the model but age cohorts did have different patterns.
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Jennifer Randles
Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, forthcoming
Abstract:
Since the mid-1990s, the federal government has funded numerous relationship skills programs, including some specifically targeting low-income, unmarried parents, in an effort to strengthen couples' relationships and increase family stability. The previous research on the effectiveness of these interventions has revealed mixed results about whether such programs can improve the relationships of lower income couples who tend to experience lower relationship quality, lower marriage rates, and higher rates of relationship dissolution. This article draws on in-depth qualitative data collected during an 18-month ethnographic study of one federally funded relationship skills program for unmarried, low-income couples expecting a new baby. Overall, though parents found the financial management lessons included in the classes only minimally useful, if at all, they found other aspects of the program particularly useful for three main reasons: (1) classes allowed parents to focus exclusively on their couple relationships in ways they rarely did otherwise; (2) program incentives helped parents make financial ends meet that month; and (3) parents learned that the challenges they personally experienced were often endemic to the romantic and co-parenting relationships of unmarried parents who have few resources and experience more challenges that tend to undermine relationship quality, such as financial stress and relational ambiguity. Engaging with other couples around shared challenges normalized couples' relationship problems and lessened the resentment and animosity that typically characterized their partner interactions. These findings have important implications for healthy marriage and relationship policy. Program developers should avoid lessons that imply low-income, unmarried parents' spending habits and family-formation decisions are deficient. Interventions should instead encourage couples to discuss their shared challenges and minimize their tendency to individualize relational and financial strain.
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What a difference a term makes: The effect of educational attainment on marital outcomes in the UK
Dan Anderberg & Yu Zhu
Journal of Population Economics, April 2014, Pages 387-419
Abstract:
In the past, students in England and Wales born within the first 5 months of the academic year could leave school one term earlier than those born later in the year. Focusing on women, those who were required to stay on an extra term more frequently hold some academic qualification. Using having been required to stay on as an exogenous factor affecting academic attainment, we find that holding a low-level academic qualification has no effect on the probability of being currently married for women aged 25 or above, but increases the probability of the husband holding some academic qualification and being economically active.
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Angela Neal & Edward Lemay
Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, forthcoming
Abstract:
A model of extradyadic temptation and mate guarding was tested in the present dyadic daily report study. Results indicated that participants (perceivers) perceived their partner's (targets) daily extradyadic temptation and that these perceptions predicted perceivers' daily mate-guarding behaviors. Perceivers' chronic jealousy moderated these relationships. These results suggest that perceivers, especially chronically jealous perceivers, are sensitive to their partners' temptation for extradyadic relations and respond to this temptation with relationship-protective behaviors. Furthermore, perceivers' mate-guarding behaviors predicted increases in targets' subsequent daily commitment, suggesting that perceivers' mate guarding works to deter targets from future infidelity by increasing targets' commitment to the relationship. These findings suggest an interpersonal process in which people detect and then regulate their partners' extradyadic temptation.
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Computer-Based Prevention of Intimate Partner Violence in Marriage
Scott Braithwaite & Frank Fincham
Behaviour Research and Therapy, March 2014, Pages 12-21
Objective: Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a common, costly societal problem. Interventions designed to reduce IPV recidivism have had limited success but primary prevention efforts are likely to be more effective in reducing the occurrence of IPV. The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of a computer-based preventive intervention (ePREP) on IPV in a sample of married, community couples.
Method: We employed a randomized clinical trial design comparing ePREP to an active placebo control group. Using a community sample of 52 married couples (21% Black, 3% Asian, 65% White, 7% Latino, 4% Mixed/biracial) who had been married, on average, 4.3 years, we examined the impact ePREP on IPV as measured by self and partner reports of the Revised Conflict Tactics Scale. We assessed couples at baseline, six-weeks post-baseline, and one-year post-baseline. We used the Actor Partner Interdependence Model with treatment effects to analyze the obtained dyadic data.
Results: We found that ePREP reduced physical and psychological aggression among married couples (on average across informants, a 90% reduction in expected counts of physical aggression, and a .18 standard deviation reduction in psychological aggression) and that these gains were maintained at a 1-year follow-up assessment.
Conclusions: Interventions that can be delivered widely and at a low-cost will increase the likelihood of reaching those who will benefit most from receiving them. Implications for implementing flexible interventions and changing our approach to treatment delivery are discussed.
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Emily Impett et al.
Social Psychological and Personality Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
Do people benefit when they think their partner has made a sacrifice for the relationship? In a multimethod study of 80 couples, we examined whether people can detect when their partner suppresses their emotions and if perceived partner suppression is costly for the recipient of sacrifice. When people listened to their partner recall an important sacrifice in the lab and when people thought their partner sacrificed in daily life, they thought that their partner was less authentic the more they perceived them to have suppressed their emotions. In turn, perceived partner inauthenticity during sacrifice was associated with poorer personal well-being and relationship quality. These effects persisted over time with perceived partner suppression predicting poorer relationship quality 3 months later. The results were independent from the influence of an actor's projection of their own suppression and their partner's actual suppression. Implications for research on emotion regulation and close relationships are discussed.
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Sara Algoe & Baldwin Way
Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, forthcoming
Abstract:
Oxytocin is thought to play a central role in promoting close social bonds via influence on social interactions. The current investigation targeted interactions involving expressed gratitude between members of romantic relationships because recent evidence suggests gratitude and its expression provide behavioral and psychological "glue" to bind individuals closer together (Algoe, 2012). Specifically, we took a genetic approach to test the hypothesis that social interactions involving expressed gratitude would be associated with variation in a gene, CD38, which has been shown to affect oxytocin secretion. A polymorphism (rs6449182) that affects CD38 expression was significantly associated with global relationship satisfaction, perceived partner responsiveness and positive emotions (particularly love) after lab-based interactions, observed behavioral expression of gratitude toward a romantic partner in the lab, and frequency of expressed gratitude in daily life. A separate polymorphism in CD38 (rs3796863) previously associated with plasma oxytocin levels and social engagement was also associated with perceived responsiveness in the benefactor after an expression of gratitude. The combined influence of the two polymorphisms was associated with a broad range of gratitude-related behaviors and feelings. The consistent pattern of findings suggests that the oxytocin system is associated with solidifying the glue that binds adults into meaningful and important relationships.
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Couples' Time Together: Complementarities in Production Versus Complementarities in Consumption
Hani Mansour & Terra McKinnish
University of Colorado Working Paper, January 2014
Abstract:
Economists have previously suggested that gains from marriage can be generated by complementarities in production (gains from specialization and exchange) or by complementarities in consumption (gains from joint consumption of household public goods and joint time consumption). This paper uses the American Time Use Survey (ATUS) from 2003-2011 to test whether couples that engage in less specialization (are more similar in hours of market work) spend more time together. We find that among married couples without young children, those with a greater difference in weekly hours of work between husband and wife spend less time together on non-working weekend days. Importantly, we find that this relationship is quite symmetric between couples in which the husband works greater hours and couples in which the wife works greater hours. We do not find evidence of a relationship between specialization and couple time together among couples with young children.
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Sanctity of marriage and marital quality
Laura Stafford, Prabu David & Sterling McPherson
Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, February 2014, Pages 54-70
Abstract:
Mahoney and colleagues' theorizing about the potential role of sanctity as a central feature of religion/spirituality is invoked to examine the relationships among sanctity of marriage, (un)forgiveness, sacrifice, and both positive and negative marital satisfaction. The study examined the perspectives of both members of 342 marital dyads using an Actor-Partner Interdependence Model and a multilevel path modeling. The results indicate that sanctity is related positively to marital satisfaction and negatively to martial dissatisfaction. Sanctity emerged as a strong predictor of marital quality even after accounting for forgiveness, unforgiveness, and sacrifice. Though sanctity is directly linked to positive marital satisfaction, the mediation effects via (un)forgiveness were not significant; however, a mediation effect via sacrifice was significant, which was related to negative marital quality.
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Double Time: Is Health Affected by a Spouse's Time at Work?
Sibyl Kleiner & Eliza Pavalko
Social Forces, forthcoming
Abstract:
The amount of time families spend at work increased substantially over the course of the 20th century, but the health implications of these shifts remain poorly understood. Using the NLSY79, we examine potential consequences of men's and women's work time on the health of their spouse. We also investigate three mechanisms through which spousal hours might affect health: resources from the job, stress, and time for physical activity and exercise. Husbands' long (50+) hours predict better health for wives, due in part to greater resources. Wives' moderately long (41-49) hours of work predict worse health for husbands, due in part to husbands' reduced exercise time. Our gendered findings highlight persistent inequities in work and family life that constrain the family health-promoting benefits of women's labor.
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Heather Adams, Victor Luevano & Peter Jonason
Personality and Individual Differences, forthcoming
Abstract:
Little research into the relationship correlates of narcissism, psychopathy, and Machiavellianism (i.e., the Dark Triad) has examined experience within various types of relationships nor has research examined risk-tolerance in extra-pair relationships. In a MTurk sample (N = 210), psychopathy and narcissism were positively correlated with low-commitment relationship experience, both overall and as extra-pair relationships. Machiavellianism was negatively correlated with overall experience in booty-call relationships, friends-with-benefits relationships, and serious-romantic relationships. Those who would not engage in extra-pair low-commitment relationships, even without chance of detection, were lower in psychopathy and narcissism than those indicating some acceptable chance of detection. Additionally, the amount of detection risk accepted was positively associated with narcissism for one-night-stands and friends-with-benefits relationships, and negatively associated with Machiavellianism for booty-call relationships. These findings further our understanding of the mating strategies of those high in the Dark Triad.
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Permissiveness Toward Divorce: The Influence of Divorce Experiences in Three Social Contexts
Inge Sieben & Ellen Verbakel
European Sociological Review, December 2013, Pages 1175-1188
Abstract:
In this study, we assess whether divorce experiences in three social contexts shape individual's permissiveness toward divorce. Using European Values Study data from 44 countries, we find that - net of personal divorce experience - parental divorce before the age of 18 (socialization context); parental divorce after the age of 18, divorce of child, and divorce of relatives (context in adult life); and country's divorce rate (national context) are related to more permissiveness toward divorce. Value climates in these three contexts clearly mediate the relationships between experiences and attitudes, but parental divorce before the age of 18, divorce of child, and divorce of relatives still are independently and positively related to permissiveness toward divorce. These findings suggest that divorce experiences affect pro-divorce attitudes on top of prevailing value climates in social contexts that are relatively close to the individual. Finally, robustness tests show that personal divorce is not only an important determinant of pro-divorce attitudes, the role played by divorce experiences in the three contexts also depends on being divorced or not. Moreover, singles are more strongly affected by their surrounding contexts than people with a stable relationship.