Paired Up
Does marriage protect mental health? Evidence from the COVID-19 pandemic
Clara Jace & Christos Makridis
Social Science Quarterly, forthcoming
Abstract:
Using weekly variation from April 23 to June 23 2020, we exploit the surge in unemployment over the coronavirus pandemic to identify the effects on mental health outcomes and the role of marital status as a protective factor for households. We find that married respondents are 1-2 percentage points less likely, relative to their unmarried counterparts, to experience mental health problems following declines in work-related income since the start of the pandemic. Our results suggest that the combination of intrafamily substitution and the psychological benefits of marriage helps insure against unanticipated fluctuations in job and income loss.
Relationship intervention indirectly buffers financial strain's effect on biological aging among Black adults
Man-Kit Lei et al.
Journal of Family Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
Black adults in the rural South experience elevated financial strain and other contextual stressors, increasing their risk for poor health. Supportive relationships, particularly positive romantic relationships, have been shown to offset these risks. The present study aims to provide experimental evidence of the buffering effect of supportive relationships by testing whether participation in a relationship enhancement program (ProSAAF) that improves couple functioning (Barton, Beach, Wells, et al., 2018) subsequently buffers the effect of cumulative financial strain on biological aging (weathering). Postintervention financial strain was assessed four times. Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) was extracted from peripheral whole blood collected 6 years after baseline (n = 348 individuals), and patterns of methylation were used to index accelerated pace of aging. Couple functioning was treated as a latent construct comprising four self-report indicators: effective communication, relationship confidence, relationship satisfaction, and perceived partner support. Results indicated that cumulative financial strain was associated with accelerated pace of aging with a medium to large effect size. This effect was moderated by change in couple functioning such that individuals with greater improvement in couple functioning showed less epigenetic aging in response to cumulative financial strain. Additionally, there was a significant indirect buffering effect of ProSAAF on the association between cumulative financial strain and accelerated pace of aging. This is the first study to demonstrate that a couple-focused preventive intervention can reduce the impact of financial strain on rate of aging by enhancing couple functioning.
Gender, union formation, and assortative mating among older women
Daniel Lichter, Zhenchao Qian & Haoming Song
Social Science Research, forthcoming
Abstract:
This paper presents a search-theoretic model of union formation among women, aged 55 and older. Specifically, it provides new estimates of gender differentials in cohabitation and marriage at older ages, and documents recent patterns of assortative mating using data from the 2008-2017 American Community Survey. Our analyses reveal that cohabitation represents a much smaller share of all older unmarried women, all partnered women, and all women in comparison to patterns observed among their male counterparts. The results also reveal highly uneven patterns of union formation by age, race and marital history, which reflect demographically uneven constraints and preferences. Our analyses also document, for the first time, patterns of assortative mating at older ages. Shortages of similarly-aged men, especially among older African American women, seemingly heighten the likelihood of demographically mismatched unions. Older women are less likely to form unions with same-race or economically attractive partners, defined as men having a college-degree. This study shows that older single women, in general, are at a comparative disadvantage in the marriage market, both in forming co-residential unions and in finding partners who match their own social, demographic, and economic profiles. This paper highlights considerable heterogeneity in the experiences of America's older women. It calls for new theoretical approaches that acknowledge the unequal resources and bargaining power among older women in the marriage market.
Big data, actually: Examining systematic messaging in 188 romantic comedies using unsupervised machine learning
Melissa Moore & Yotam Ophir
Psychology of Popular Media, forthcoming
Abstract:
Popular films within the romantic comedy genre set social expectations for romantic relationships, sexual activity, and gender roles, especially for young audiences. Nevertheless, academic research on the genre is scarce and mostly limited to manual content analyses conducted on relatively small samples of films. To systematically examine trends in thematic content and social messages in romantic comedy scripts over time, we harness a novel computational method, the ANalysis of Topic Model Network to analyze 188 scripts of top-grossing romantic comedies in the United States between 1980 and 2019. We estimate the dynamic prevalence of themes in the dialogue and demonstrate the increasing focus on romantic relationships at the expense of other life aspects in recent decades. We demonstrate how this trend systematically resulted in an increase in the prominence of misleading and detrimental messages about romantic relationships. The theoretical, social, and practical implications of our findings are discussed.
The sexual selection of endometriosis
Bernard Crespi & Natalie Dinsdale
Evolutionary Behavioral Sciences, forthcoming
Abstract:
We propose and evaluate a new theory for helping to explain the evolution of endometriosis risk in humans. By this theory, endometriosis risk evolved in the context of sexual selection by males for high, relatively female-biased expression of sexually dimorphic and female-limited phenotypes associated with low testosterone and high female reproductive fitness. The theory is supported by extensive data, showing that: (a) endometriosis involves higher expression of major female-biasing genes, and lower expression of major male-biasing genes, that orchestrate prenatal sexual differentiation; (b) endometriosis and its correlates are associated with low prenatal and postnatal testosterone, both of which have female-biasing effects on traits; (c) low prenatal and postnatal testosterone, and endometriosis, are associated with relatively female-biased phenotypic expression for a large suite of sexually dimorphic and sex-limited traits; (d) relatively female-biased expression of these traits is commonly associated with higher fertility and fecundity; (e) some traits, including female facial features, vocal pitch, and breast size, fit with all of the predictions of the model, though they have yet to be studied in relation to endometriosis; and (f) traits linked with low prenatal and postnatal testosterone or high estradiol, and traits associated with endometriosis in humans, are preferred by males across multiple species of non-human mammals. Risk and symptoms of endometriosis thus appear to involve and represent, in part, maladaptive extremes of sexually selected female-limited and sexually dimorphic traits.
Can't Wait Any Longer? The Effects of Shorter Waiting Periods on Divorce and Remarriage
Ho-Po Crystal Wong
American Law and Economics Review, forthcoming
Abstract:
Since the 1990s, many U.S. states have enacted or lengthened the waiting periods required for parties to divorce with the goal of strengthening marriage or at least discouraging divorce. I use the length of time by which some states have shortened their waiting periods to analyze how such waiting periods affect remarriage rates. I find that when the waiting period is shortened to 1.5 years or less, remarriage rates decrease for relatively young people but increase for older people. To the extent that remarriage is pivotal for older women impoverished by divorce to recover economically and emotionally, my results suggest that - though longer waiting periods might preserve some marriages - a prolonged period might reduce the welfare of older divorced women by hampering their remarriage prospects.
Non-Independent Mate Choice in Humans: An Investigation of Online Mate Choice Copying and Sex Differences
Cagla Tekin & Ryan Anderson
Evolutionary Psychological Science, December 2021, Pages 338-345
Abstract:
Mate copying (MC) refers to the increased probability of preferring an individual as a mate, as a result of them having been chosen by same-sex peers previously. How changes in the world, such as the increased use of social networking sites, affect MC has not received much attention. Participants were shown photographs of opposite-sex target individuals, and told that the profiles had a high, moderate, or low number of opposite-sex Facebook friends. A two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) indicated that opposite-sex profiles were considered the most desirable when no information was given about the gender distribution of their Facebook friends. Both men and women found opposite-sex profiles to be least desirable when they had a high number of opposite-sex friends. The findings contribute to the literature by providing further information about the mate selection processes for both sexes, and how social networking sites have changed the way interpersonal relationships are formed.