Pairs
Campus Sex in Context: Organizational Cultures and Women's Engagement in Sexual Relationships on Two American College Campuses
Janelle Pham
Sociological Forum, forthcoming
Abstract:
An “inhabited” approach to the study of institutions examines how organizational actors produce locally distinctive meaning in response to similar institutional forces. Adopting inhabited institutionalism to the study of campus sexual life, this study draws on interviews with 54 undergraduate women at two four‐year universities in the United States — Ivy U and State U — to show campus cultures unique to a university inform women's decisions to engage in hookups and/or relationships. For women attending Ivy U, an elite institution where pressure to succeed is palpable, both hookups and long‐distance relationships alike are posited as advantageous for the time‐crunched, preprofessional student. At State U, a public school with a party reputation, women explain their engagement in hookups as part of the “fun” of college life, while women seeking or involved in committed relationships are obligated to negotiate the effects of the party culture in their partnerships. This study challenges the notion of a monolithic sexual culture across university settings by showing how campus cultures cultivated at the local level create unique organizational conditions within which undergraduate women forge and explain their engagement in hookups and relationships alike.
The Paradox of the Pill: Heterogeneous Effects of Oral Contraceptive Access
Andrew Beauchamp & Catherine Pakaluk
Economic Inquiry, forthcoming
Abstract:
The twentieth century saw dramatic increases in nonmarital births, concentrated heavily among poor and working‐class women. In this paper, we investigate whether the oral contraceptive pill played a causal role in the rise of nonmarital births. Exploiting exogenous variation in laws governing access to the pill, we find that changes in marital access to the pill increased the nonmarital birthrate by between 15% and 18%, accounting for about one‐third of the overall increase in nonmarital births. These effects are concentrated almost entirely among women whose fathers did not graduate high school and among minority women. We also document that the pill increased spacing between first and second births, and lowered the probability that a woman obtained a high‐school diploma, consistent with increases in nonmarital births. We find no evidence that postsecondary education levels were influenced by pill access, and no evidence that nonmarital births move with male employment patterns. Our findings add to a growing literature which documents the power of the pill to shape women's lives in broadly heterogenous ways, with minority and less‐well‐educated women bearing the brunt of the losses, a phenomenon we call the paradox of the pill.
“We're Supposed to Look Like Girls, But Act Like Boys”: Adolescent Girls’ Adherence to Masculinity Norms
Leoandra Onnie Rogers et al.
Journal of Research on Adolescence, forthcoming
Abstract:
In the ecological systems perspective, gender ideologies are part of the macrosystem that shapes human development. A growing literature indicates that youth accommodate and resist such ideologies, with adherence to masculinity norms being linked with negative adjustment. Most masculinity research focuses on boys’ adherence to masculinity, but girls are also pressured to uphold masculinity norms. Using mixed modeling, we examined girls’ adherence to masculinity and psychological (self‐esteem, depressive symptoms) and social (peer support and conflict) well‐being in the United States (N = 407; Mage = 12.28) and China (N = 356; Mage = 12.41). In both countries, adherence to masculinity was negatively associated with psychosocial well‐being. Chinese girls reported greater masculinity adherence, but associations with psychosocial well‐being were not moderated by nationality.
As the states turned: Implications of the changing legal context of same-sex marriage on well-being
Brian Ogolsky et al.
Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, forthcoming
Abstract:
Using a minority stress framework, we examined changes in personal well-being among individuals in same-sex relationships during the transition to federal marriage recognition. Longitudinal panel data from 279 individuals were collected once before and at three time points after the U.S. Supreme Court decision in the Obergefell vs. Hodges case that resulted in federal recognition of same-sex marriage. Prior to the ruling, levels of internalized homonegativity, isolation, and vicarious trauma were positively associated with psychological distress. Levels of felt stigma and vicarious trauma were negatively associated with life satisfaction. Following the ruling, trajectories of psychological distress decreased over time for individuals who experienced higher (vs. lower) initial levels of internalized homonegativity, isolation, and vicarious trauma. Trajectories of life satisfaction increased over time for individuals who experienced higher (vs. lower) initial levels of vicarious trauma. These changes occurred over and above the effects of state and local recognition and marital status.
The impact of physical proximity and attachment working models on cardiovascular reactivity: Comparing mental activation and romantic partner presence
Kyle Bourassa, John Ruiz & David Sbarra
Psychophysiology, forthcoming
Abstract:
Close relationships, especially high‐quality romantic relationships, are consistently associated with positive physical health outcomes. Attenuated cardiovascular reactivity is one physiological mechanism implicated in explaining these effects. Drawing on attachment and social baseline theories, this experimental study evaluated two potential affiliative cues as mechanisms through which romantic relationships may attenuate cardiovascular reactivity to a laboratory‐based stressor. Prior to a cold pressor task, 102 participants were randomly assigned to either have their partner physically present, call upon a mental representation of their partner, or think about their day during the stressor. Consistent with our preregistered hypotheses, participants in both the partner present and mental activation conditions had significantly lower blood pressure (BP) reactivity during the cold pressor task compared to control participants for both systolic (d = −0.54) and diastolic BP (d = −0.53), but no significant differences emerged for heart rate or heart rate variability. Although participants in the partner present and mental activation conditions had similar BP reactivity to the cold pressor task, those in the partner present condition reported significantly less pain as a result of the task. The difference in BP reactivity by condition was moderated—BP reactivity was greater for people with lower self‐reported relationship satisfaction. The results suggest that accessing the mental representation of a romantic partner and a partner's presence each buffer against exaggerated acute stress responses to a similar degree.
The role of audiovisual integration in the perception of attractiveness
Alexis Mook & Aaron Mitchel
Evolutionary Behavioral Sciences, January 2019, Pages 1-15
Abstract:
Although vocal and facial cues to attractiveness are well established, few studies have examined how these signals interact, even though they often co-occur in real-world scenarios. We investigate the integration of vocal and facial signals of attractiveness, adapting a Garner interference paradigm. Prior research has demonstrated that average faces and voices are seen as more attractive; thus, we manipulated attractiveness by varying the degree of averageness of either the face or the voice. In Experiment 1, participants rated the attractiveness of the face and voice stimuli in isolation and paired together in 2 separate audiovisual conditions in which individual voices or faces were rated (attended domain) while the accompanying face or voice in the unattended domain varied in averageness. Facial averageness in the unattended domain altered attractiveness ratings of individual voices, though vocal averageness did not influence facial attractiveness. Because vocal pitch also influences attractiveness, Experiment 2 manipulated vocal pitch and facial averageness. Despite a significant pitch effect for voices in isolation, vocal pitch did not influence facial attractiveness in audiovisual conditions. This provides preliminary evidence that vocal and facial cues are integrated asymmetrically: Faces appear integral to the perception of vocal attractiveness, whereas voices are a separable domain when judging facial attractiveness.
Parental Origins, Mixed Unions, and the Labor Supply of Second-Generation Women in the United States
Patricia McManus & Lauren Apgar
Demography, forthcoming
Abstract:
This study examines the joint impact of parental origins and partner choice on the employment behavior of second-generation women in the United States. We find that endogamy (choosing a first- or second-generation partner from the same national-origin group) is associated with lower labor supply among second-generation women, net of the effects of parental origin culture as proxied using the epidemiological approach to cultural transmission. Parental origin effects are mediated by education, but endogamy curtails economic activity regardless of educational attainment. The findings are robust for married women. Findings for women in cohabiting unions are more heterogeneous, however: cohabitation appears to mute some of the relationship between parental origin culture and women’s economic behavior. In particular, the negative relationship between endogamy and women’s labor supply does not hold for women in cohabiting unions.
Facial masculinity does not appear to be a condition-dependent male ornament and does not reflect MHC heterozygosity in humans
Arslan Zaidi et al.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, forthcoming
Abstract:
Recent studies have called into question the idea that facial masculinity is a condition-dependent male ornament that indicates immunocompetence in humans. We add to this growing body of research by calculating an objective measure of facial masculinity/femininity using 3D images in a large sample (n = 1,233) of people of European ancestry. We show that facial masculinity is positively correlated with adult height in both males and females. However, facial masculinity scales with growth similarly in males and females, suggesting that facial masculinity is not exclusively a male ornament, as male ornaments are typically more sensitive to growth in males compared with females. Additionally, we measured immunocompetence via heterozygosity at the major histocompatibility complex (MHC), a widely-used genetic marker of immunity. We show that, while height is positively correlated with MHC heterozygosity, facial masculinity is not. Thus, facial masculinity does not reflect immunocompetence measured by MHC heterozygosity in humans. Overall, we find no support for the idea that facial masculinity is a condition-dependent male ornament that has evolved to indicate immunocompetence.