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Divorce and the Birth Control Pill in the US, 1950–85
Miriam Marcén
Feminist Economics, forthcoming
Abstract:
This paper explores the relationship between the advent of the birth control pill and divorce rates. Women using the pill can decide when and whether to have children and whether to maintain their attachment to the labor force. This ability may increase women's autonomy, making divorce more feasible. The pill's effects are identified through a quasi-experiment exploiting differences in the language of the Comstock anti-obscenity statutes approved in the late 1800s and early 1900s in the United States. Empirical evidence from state-level data on US divorce rates 1950 to 1985 shows that sales bans of oral contraceptives have a negative impact on divorce. These findings are robust to alternative specifications and controls for observed (such as women's labor force participation) and unobserved state-specific factors, and time-varying factors at the state level. Results suggest that the impact of women's control of hormonal contraception on their autonomy is important in divorce decisions.
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Wilhelm Hofmann, Eli Finkel & Gráinne Fitzsimons
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
In the new millennium, scholars have built a robust intersection between close-relationships research and self-regulation research. However, virtually no work has investigated how the most basic and broad indicator of relationship quality, relationship satisfaction, affects self-regulation and vice versa. In the present research, we show that higher relationship satisfaction promotes a motivational mind-set that is conducive for effective self-regulation, and thus for goal progress and performance. In Study 1 — a large-scale, intensive experience sampling project of 115 couples (total N = 230) — we closely tracked fluctuations in state relationship satisfaction (SRS) and 4 parameters of effective self-regulation according to our conceptual model. Dyadic process analyses showed that individuals experiencing higher SRS than they typically do exhibited higher levels of (a) perceived control, (b) goal focus, (c) perceived partner support, and (d) positive affect during goal pursuit than they typically exhibit. Together, these 4 self-regulation-relevant variables translated into higher rates of daily progress on specific, idiographic goals. In Study 2 (N = 195), we employed a novel experimental manipulation of SRS, replicating the link between SRS and parameters of effective self-regulation. Taken together, these findings suggest that momentary increases in relationship satisfaction may benefit everyday goal pursuit through a combination of cognitive and affective mechanisms, thus further integrating relationship research with social–cognitive research on goal pursuit.
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Does Marriage Moderate Genetic Effects on Delinquency and Violence?
Yi Li, Hexuan Liu & Guang Guo
Journal of Marriage and Family, forthcoming
Abstract:
Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (N = 1,254), the authors investigated whether marriage can foster desistance from delinquency and violence by moderating genetic effects. In contrast to existing gene–environment research that typically focuses on one or a few genetic polymorphisms, they extended a recently developed mixed linear model to consider the collective influence of 580 single nucleotide polymorphisms in 64 genes related to aggression and risky behavior. The mixed linear model estimates the proportion of variance in the phenotype that is explained by the single nucleotide polymorphisms. The authors found that the proportion of variance in delinquency/violence explained was smaller among married individuals than unmarried individuals. Because selection, confounding, and heterogeneity may bias the estimate of the Gene × Marriage interaction, they conducted a series of analyses to address these issues. The findings suggest that the Gene × Marriage interaction results were not seriously affected by these issues.
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Her Support, His Support: Money, Masculinity, and Marital Infidelity
Christin Munsch
American Sociological Review, June 2015, Pages 469-495
Abstract:
Recent years have seen great interest in the relationship between relative earnings and marital outcomes. Using data from the 1997 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, I examine the effect of relative earnings on infidelity, a marital outcome that has received little attention. Theories of social exchange predict that the greater one’s relative income, the more likely one will be to engage in infidelity. Yet, emerging literature raises questions about the utility of gender-neutral exchange approaches, particularly when men are economically dependent and women are breadwinners. I find that, for men, breadwinning increases infidelity. For women, breadwinning decreases infidelity. I argue that by remaining faithful, breadwinning women neutralize their gender deviance and keep potentially strained relationships intact. I also find that, for both men and women, economic dependency is associated with a higher likelihood of engaging in infidelity; but, the influence of dependency on men’s infidelity is greater than the influence of dependency on women’s infidelity. For economically dependent persons, infidelity may be an attempt to restore relationship equity; however, for men, dependence may be particularly threatening. Infidelity may allow economically dependent men to engage in compensatory behavior while simultaneously distancing themselves from breadwinning spouses.
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The Earned Income Tax Credit and Union Formation: The Impact of Expected Spouse Earnings
Katherine Michelmore
University of Michigan Working Paper, May 2015
Abstract:
The earned income tax credit (EITC) has become the largest cash transfer program in the United States, distributing nearly $60 billion dollars in credits in 2010. Several studies have evaluated the impact of the EITC on various aspects of behavioral responses. Using the Survey of Income and Program Participation from 2001, 2004, and 2008, I investigate how the change in expected household EITC benefits associated with marrying affect cohabitation and marriage behavior among low-income women. I first simulate a marriage market to predict potential spouse earnings for a sample of low-income women in order to estimate the potential losses or gains in EITC benefits upon marriage. Using multinomial logistic regressions, I then analyze how not only the value of the EITC, but also the anticipated loss in EITC benefits upon marriage affects the likelihood of marrying or cohabiting. Results suggest that the average EITC-eligible woman can expect to lose approximately $1,000 in EITC benefits in the year following marriage, or about half of her pre-marriage benefit. Further, I find that a $1,000 loss in expected EITC benefits upon marriage is associated with a 1.1 percentage point decline in the likelihood of marrying and a 0.7 percentage point increase in the likelihood of cohabiting.
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George Ploubidis et al.
American Journal of Public Health, August 2015, Pages 1596-1603
Objectives: We examined the association between trajectories of partnership status over the life course and objectively measured health indicators in midlife.
Methods: We used data from 4 waves (1981, 1991, 2000, and 2002–2004) of the British National Child Development Study (NCDS), a prospective cohort study that includes all people born in Britain during 1 week in March 1958 (n = 18 558).
Results: After controlling for selection attributable to early-life and early-adulthood characteristics, we found that life-course trajectories of partnership status were associated with hemostatic and inflammatory markers, the prevalence of metabolic syndrome and respiratory function in midlife. Never marrying or cohabiting was negatively associated with health in midlife for both genders, but the effect was more pronounced in men. Women who had married in their late 20s or early 30s and remained married had the best health in midlife. Men and women in cohabiting unions had midlife health outcomes similar to those in formal marriages.
Conclusions: Partnership status over the life course has a cumulative effect on a wide range of objectively measured health indicators in midlife.
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Nonmarital Relationships and Changing Perceptions of Marriage Among African American Young Adults
Ashley Barr, Ronald Simons & Leslie Gordon Simons
Journal of Marriage and Family, forthcoming
Abstract:
Cohabitation has become increasingly widespread over the past decade. Such trends have given rise to debates about the relation between cohabitation and marriage in terms of what cohabitation means for individual relationship trajectories and for the institution of marriage more generally. Using recent data from a sample of almost 800 African Americans and fixed effects modeling procedures, in the present study the authors shed some light on these debates by exploring the extent to which cohabitation, relative to both singlehood and dating, was associated with within-individual changes in African Americans' marital beliefs during the transition to adulthood. The findings suggest that cohabitation is associated with changes in marital beliefs, generally in ways that repositioned partners toward marriage, not away from it. This was especially the case for women. These findings suggest that, for young African American women, cohabitation holds a distinct place relative to dating and, in principle if not practice, relative to marriage.
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Mons Bendixen, Leif Edward Ottesen Kennair & David Buss
Personality and Individual Differences, November 2015, Pages 212–216
Abstract:
Despite some controversy about sex differences in jealousy, data largely support that sex differences studied with the forced choice (FC) paradigm are robust: Men, relative to women, report greater jealousy in response to sexual infidelity than in response to emotional infidelity. Corresponding sex differences for continuous measures of jealousy typically have been less robust in the literature. A large sample of Norwegian students (N = 1074) randomly responded to either FC or continuous measure questionnaires covering four infidelity scenarios. Large, comparable, theoretically-predicted sex differences were evident for both FC and continuous measures. Relationship status, infidelity experiences, and question order manipulation (activation) did not consistently influence the sex differences for either measure, nor did individual differences in sociosexual orientation or relationship commitment. These large sex differences are especially noteworthy as they emerge from a highly egalitarian nation with high paternal investment expectancy, and because they contradict social role theories that predict a diminution of psychological sex differences as gender economic equality increases.
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The Suffocation Model: Why Marriage in America Is Becoming an All-or-Nothing Institution
Eli Finkel et al.
Current Directions in Psychological Science, June 2015, Pages 238-244
Abstract:
Throughout American history, the fundamental purpose of marriage has shifted from (a) helping spouses meet their basic economic and political needs to (b) helping them meet their intimacy and passion needs to (c) helping them meet their autonomy and personal-growth needs. According to the suffocation model of marriage in America, these changes have had two major consequences for marital quality, one negative and one positive. The negative consequence is that, as Americans have increasingly looked to their marriage to help them meet idiosyncratic, self-expressive needs, the proportion of marriages that fall short of their expectations has grown, which has increased rates of marital dissatisfaction. The positive consequence is that those marriages that succeed in meeting these needs are particularly fulfilling, more so than the best marriages in earlier eras. In tandem, these two consequences have pushed marriage toward an all-or-nothing state.
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Divorce: What Does Learning Have to Do with it?
Ioana Elena Marinescu
University of Chicago Working Paper, May 2015
Abstract:
Learning about marriage quality has been proposed as a key mechanism for explaining how the probability of divorce evolves with marriage duration, and why people often cohabit before getting married. I develop four theoretical models of divorce, three of which include learning. I use data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation to test reduced form implications of these models. The data is inconsistent with models including a substantial amount of learning. On the other hand, the data is consistent with a model without any learning, but where marriage quality changes over time.
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Is emotion suppression beneficial or harmful? It depends on self-regulatory strength
Fay Geisler & Michela Schröder-Abé
Motivation and Emotion, August 2015, Pages 553-562
Abstract:
The emotion regulation strategy of expressive suppression intervenes late in the process of emotion generation and encompasses two self-control tasks: the inhibition of the experience of emotion and the inhibition of the expression of emotion. Thus, expressive suppression requires effortful self-control, and therefore the consequences of expressive suppression may differ depending on self-regulatory strength. We examined the influence of trait self-regulatory strength on the outcomes of spontaneous expressive suppression in 102 participants who discussed a topic of conflict with their partners. Self-regulatory strength was assessed via high-frequency heart rate variability measured at rest (HF-HRV). As expected, expressive suppression was positively associated with negative affect in participants with low (but not high) HF-HRV. Furthermore, expressive suppression was positively associated with the partner’s relationship satisfaction and constructive social behavior in participants with high (but not low) HF-HRV. To conclude, the present research demonstrates how considering expressive suppression as an act of self-control can yield a more differentiated perspective on the outcomes of expressive suppression.
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Danielle Kuhl, David Warner & Tara Warner
Criminology, forthcoming
Abstract:
Youth violent victimization (YVV) is a risk factor for precocious exits from adolescence via early coresidential union formation. It remains unclear, however, whether these early unions 1) are associated with intimate partner violence (IPV) victimization, 2) interrupt victim continuity or victim–offender overlap through protective and prosocial bonds, or 3) are inconsequential. By using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (N = 11,928; 18–34 years of age), we examine competing hypotheses for the effect of early union timing among victims of youth violence (n = 2,479) — differentiating across victimization only, perpetration only, and mutually combative relationships and considering variation by gender. The results from multinomial logistic regression models indicate that YVV increases the risk of IPV victimization in first unions, regardless of union timing; the null effect of timing indicates that delaying union formation would not reduce youth victims’ increased risk of continued victimization. Gender-stratified analyses reveal that earlier unions can protect women against IPV perpetration, but this is partly the result of an increased risk of IPV victimization. The findings suggest that YVV has significant transformative consequences, leading to subsequent victimization by coresidential partners, and this association might be exacerbated among female victims who form early unions. We conclude by discussing directions for future research.