Broken Boundaries or Broken Marriages? Racial Intermarriage and Divorce in the United States

Objective: Several recent studies have investigated the consequences of racial intermarriage for marital stability. None of these studies properly control for first-order racial differences in divorce risk, therefore failing to appropriately identify the effect of intermarriage. Our article builds on an earlier generation of studies to develop a model that appropriately identifies the consequences of crossing racial boundaries in matrimony. Methods: We analyze the 1995 and 2002 National Survey of Family Growth using a parametric event-history model called a sickle model. To appropriately identify the effect of interracial marriage we use the interaction of wife's race and husband's race. Results: We find elevated divorce rates for Latino/white intermarriages but not for black/white intermarriages. Seventy-two percent of endogamous Latino marriages remain intact at 15 years, but only 58 percent of Latino husband/white wife and 64 percent of white husband/Latina wife marriages are still intact. Conclusions: We have identified an important deficiency in previous studies and provide a straightforward resolution. Although higher rates of Latino/white intermarriage may indicate more porous group boundaries, the greater instability of these marriages suggests that these boundaries remain resilient.     

Depressive Symptoms among Former Spousal Caregivers: Comparing Stressors,Resources, and Circumstances of Caregiving Cessation among Older Husbands and Wives

Little research focuses on the mental health of caregivers (CGs) who stop providing care to their community-dwelling spouse. We examine depressive symptoms of former primary CG spouses who stopped caregiving over a two-year follow-up period when the care recipient (CR): (1) no longer has functional problems; (2) continues having functional problems; or (3) dies. Using data from the Health and Retirement Study (2000–2014), we located 2,370 couples who were both 50+ at baseline and where one partner provided help with ADL and/or IADL limitations but did not do so two years later. OLS regressions stratified by gender indicated that both male and female former spousal CGs whose CR died had significantly more depressive symptoms than those who ceased caregiving when their spouse did or did not still have functional problems. Former wife CGs who were older and whose husbands had more baseline ADLs had fewer follow-up depressive symptoms; wife CGs whose husbands had a nursing home stay had more depressive symptoms. Former husband CGs who had provided longer monthly hours of care had fewer follow-up symptoms. Findings underscore the importance of targeting mental and physical health services to both former caregiving husbands and wives, especially after spousal death.     

亲属称谓“公”“私”考

“公”“私”是两个出现较早的亲属称谓。祖父、父亲、夫之父、夫之兄均可称“公”,这与公有制下年长男子在父系氏族内部所处的领导地位有关,他们拥有安排和处理公共事务的权力。“私”是女子对姊妹之夫的称呼,源于建立在生产力水平低下的普那路亚婚制,反映了姊妹共夫、女子与姊妹之夫存在着合法的性关系的事实。透过二者,可以揭示古代的社会制度和婚姻制度的实质。     

The emotional terrain of parenting and marriage: Emotion work and marital satisfaction

This study examines how the division of labor surrounding emotion work relates to the marital satisfaction of husbands and wives. The analysis is performed on data from a random sample of couples with at least one child from a northern city in a western state (N = 96 couples). Results suggest that for both husbands and wives the emotion work received from and performed for their spouse is significantly and positively related to marital satisfaction. Results also suggest that the marital satisfaction of husbands is enhanced when they are involved in performing emotion work for children, but if their levels of emotion work for children begin to approach or exceed that of their wives then their marital satisfaction tends to decline. Implications of the study are discussed.     

HUSBAND ABUSE: FACT OR FICTION?

During the last thirty years, ideologies, theories and policies relating to domestic violence have changed radically. As a result of this, community concern and state policies shifted considerably towards protecting and supporting abused wives. Although this shift was justified by the extreme severity of the problem and the relative inadequacy of relevant policies of the past to address wife abuse effectively, it nevertheless led to a partial neglect of other types of domestic violence. Particularly wife-to-husband abuse has been totally ignored and neglected, and even taken to be the fault of the victim. This paper explores the status of husband abuse, by re-assessing relevant trends and developments in Australia and other countries, and presents a review of empirical evidence which shows that husband abuse is more common and more serious than it is generally believed to be, and that it is the task of the government to address spouse abuse by means of policies and practices which are free from a sexist bias.     

Attitude towards career progression in Spanish dual-earner couples: A dyadic approach

This study addresses the relevance of gender roles and perceived gender discrimination against women in attitude towards career progression in heterosexual dual-earner couples. One hundred and thirty-nine wives and their husbands completed the questionnaires independently. From a dyadic data analysis, using the actor-partner interdependence model (APIM), we examined the actor and partner effect. The following findings were made: (a) an actor and partner effect of gender roles in husbands, (b) an actor effect of perceived gender discrimination in wives, and (c) an interaction effect between partner gender roles by actor professional status in wives. Overall, results showed that gender roles and perceived gender discrimination are useful factors in understanding couples’ interdependence in their attitudes towards career progression. Results are discussed in terms of the influence of traditional gender roles in perpetuating inequality between men and women and the relevance of perceived gender discrimination against women in attitude towards career progression.     

The Recognition of Wifely Labour by Welfare States

This article is concerned with questions about the amount of support given by welfare states towards the maintenance of a wife engaged in housework and child care. It compares the value of the support supplied by the tax/benefit packages of 15 countries. The article defines support for wifely labour as the difference between the net disposable income of a single person and a couple with the same earnings. In analysing the data, three models are used: the “traditional” model where the wife is economically dependent on her husband; the “modern” model where the wife remains outside the labour market while she has young children; and the “dual breadwinner” model where the mother of young children is in full- or part-time employment. Much of the analysis is concerned with patterns of social policy in which support for wives is associated with support for children. While the evidence shows that welfare states do provide support to wives, both with and without young children and engaged in paid as well as unpaid work, the levels of support vary greatly between welfare states. The variations are not associated with the generally discussed categorizations of welfare state types.     

Migration and Employment Among the Civilian Spouses of Military Personnel*

Objectives. This article attempts to directly observe the effect of being a tied migrant on the economic status of the civilian husbands and wives of military personnel in order to confirm whether previously observed trailing‐wife effects are consistent with being a tied migrant. Methods. A sample of the civilian husbands of women in the military and the civilian wives of men in the military are drawn from the Public Use Microdata Sample of the 1990 U.S. Census. Ordinal logit models of labor‐market status and tobit models of hours worked are estimated, which include a migrant status variable. Results. Migration is associated with a 10 percent decline in employment among all civilian wives and a four‐hour decline in hours worked per week among civilian wives who remain employed. Migration is associated with a statistically insignificant but very similar 6 percent drop in employment among all civilian men and a five‐hour decline in hours worked per week among civilian men who remain employed. Conclusions. The results provide solid evidence that being a tied migrant, irrespective of gender, is disruptive to both labor‐market status and hours worked. Thus, the assumption that wives are harmed because of their disproportionate status as tied migrants is supported.     

Older women's experiences of psychological violence in their marital relationships

Violence within older couples is a reality, not a myth. In this study, qualitative interviews were conducted with 15 women ages 60 to 81 who had suffered marital psychological violence. Husbands' psychologically violent behaviors were grouped into 14 categories: control, denigration, deprivation, intimidation, threats, abdication of responsibility, manipulation, blame, harassment, negation of reality, indifference, making the wife feel guilty, sulking, and infantilization. Control behaviors were found to be the central category. Control dynamics increased at retirement, when children left home and when husbands experienced a decrease in health status. Implications for practice are also discussed.     

Assets and a wife's marital satisfaction in Korea

Assets have the potential to influence marital happiness and satisfaction. Using the two waves of the Korean Longitudinal Survey of Women & Families (KLoWF), this study examines the extent to which assets, debts (negative assets) and their changes are related to a wife's marital happiness and relation satisfaction with her husband, controlling for the socio-economic characteristics of the wife. This study found that financial assets, real assets and their changes have significant associations with a wife's marital happiness and relation satisfaction with her husband. Relatively, income was not strongly related to marital satisfaction. The findings of this study underscore the importance of assets for marital satisfaction.     

Risk factors for the prevalence of domestic violence against women in Cyprus

This paper, which is based on the first national survey on domestic violence against women in Cyprus, presents the risk factors associated with the prevalence of domestic violence. The sample size of the survey is 1107 Greek-speaking women living in the area controlled by the Republic of Cyprus. Overall, 28% of the women that took part in the survey report to have suffered domestic violence from their partner or husband at least once in their lives. Multiple logistic regression shows that age, marital status, place of living and family budget are significant risk factors for the prevalence of domestic violence against women in Cyprus.     

夫妻相对资源和情感关系对农民工婚姻暴力的影响——基于性别视角的分析

随着中国城市化进程的加快，农民工夫妻间经济权力结构和情感关系的变化将对婚姻暴力产生深远影响。本文引入性别视角，提出了解释农民工夫妻间婚姻暴力的综合分析框架，通过量化方法，分析夫妻相对资源和情感关系对农民工实施冷暴力和肢体暴力的影响及其性别差异。研究发现,农民工家庭中婚姻暴力现象较普遍，以冷暴力为主，女性施暴率显著高于男性；夫妻相对资源因素和情感关系因素对男性和女性实施婚姻暴力都有显著影响，相对资源因素对男性实施婚姻暴力的影响大于女性，夫妻情感关系对女性实施婚姻暴力的影响大于男性。     

The Alzheimer's Solution: How Today's Care Is Failing Millions and How We Can Do Better,by Kenneth S. Kosick and Ellen Clegg

Abstract

Marital literature has identified partner intimacy and autonomy as important determinants of marital satisfaction. However, little is known about how the balance of intimacy and autonomy affects the success of long term marriages among older couples. The author surveyed 88 men and 92 women in long term stable marriages to examine the effects of partner intimacy and autonomy on marital satisfaction. Multiple regression analyses revealed that intimacy was positively related, and hostile control was negatively related to marital satisfaction. Older respondents rated their partners higher in intimacy than middle aged respondents, and husbands were rated higher in providing autonomy than were wives. Intimacy and avoidance of hostile control were more important than autonomy to long term married couples. Social workers can draw upon a number of approaches to marital therapy that enhance couple intimacy.     

Domestic violence against women: A field study in Turkey

Factors affecting domestic violence against women in four Turkish cities (Adıyaman, Sivas, Denizli and Kırklareli) having different socioeconomic structures, are analyzed in this study. These factors consist of social, cultural, economic and psychological factors. In contrast to what we expected based on earlier literature, family income level has a positive relationship with violence. Logistic regression analysis also revealed that being a university graduate and having a personal income decreases the prevalence of violence as expected. However, working women and women with children are more prone to domestic violence. Again, there is a strong association between the neighborhood where the family lives and the incidence of violence. The extent of male dominance, as measured by the question “How are decisions taken in the family” is also associated with domestic violence: woman is less likely to be abused in households where decisions are taken collectively. Likewise, families where women have to get permission from the husband to carry out certain activities, have an increased incidence of suffering from husband's violence. Psychological factors, like being abused or having witnessed violence as a child, are also significantly correlated with domestic violence.     

Older Couples

This study examines the degree to which older, noninstitutionalized husbands and wives are involved in providing various types of assistance, the likelihood of providing assistance to one's spouse and to others, and the characteristics associated with giving more forms of help. The findings suggest that older wives are more likely than older husbands to provide most of these forms of assistance. Furthermore, husbands are more likely to help their spouses, while wives are more likely to report helping people outside the conjugal pair. Multiple regression analysis suggests that the ability of the potential recipient spouse to perform daily living tasks is a key factor in determining number of forms of help provided by the potential helping spouse.     

农村留守妻子现象的社会性别分析

受传统性别观念和性别分工模式的影响,“留守妻子”正逐渐成为现今流出地农村的普遍现象。她们在生产劳作与家庭负担的双重挤压下、在情感眷恋与经济依附的双重困惑下生活着。这种现象在整体上影响着“留守妻子”与其外出务工丈夫平等地位的建构,需要进行积极的应对。     

Violence in the American Family

The paper reviews current knowledge on violence between family members in the United States, including how and why family violence became a topic of interest after years of being masked by a public and professional perceptual blackout. It presents data from a nationally representative sample of 2,143 American families that measured the extent of child abuse, wife abuse, husband abuse, and violence between siblings. The paper then reports differences in child abuse rates according to factors such as the age and sex of the child, family income, occupation, stress, unemployment, social isolation, and previous exposure or experience with violence. It is suggested that the roots of family violence lie in the organization of the family and in the implicit cultural norms tolerating or approving violence as a means for social control.     

Differential Models of Social Work Groups with Family Violence

This paper examines the research literature on multiple forms of family violence and proposes three social work group models to apply to this widespread phenomenon. The models proposed are group work with wife abusers, groups of reciprocated violent marital dyads and multiple violent family unit groups. The theoretical approach of each model is discussed as well as group composition, goals, tasks, structure, relational-interactional systems, worker role and means of service delivery. Important problems in group development of each model are identified and suggestions for worker intervention are outlined.     

Aggressive behaviour in at‐risk children: contribution of subjective well‐being and family cohesion

We examined the contributors to aggressive behaviour in 111 at‐risk Israeli children aged 9–13 years who attended day centres over several years to prevent removal from their homes. This non‐normative transition to a day centre represents a difficult period of change for these children, which often manifests in aggressive behaviours, at least in the short term. To elucidate predictors of aggressive behaviour, we investigated a familial variable (family cohesion) and a personal variable (subjective well‐being [SWB]) that were previously shown to correlate with various aspects of children's aggression. Children's self‐reports underscored the importance of SWB for their aggressive behaviour. SWB's cognitive component – life satisfaction – correlated significantly with all four measures of aggressive behaviour (physical violence, verbal violence, anger and hostility). SWB's emotional component – negative affect – correlated significantly with all but verbal violence. Interestingly, SWB was found to mediate the hostility dimension of aggression (as well as family cohesion). Other significant findings revealed that family cohesion correlated positively with SWB (life satisfaction and positive affect) and correlated negatively with aggression (physical violence, verbal violence, anger and hostility). Various explanations were discussed alongside implications for day care staff's individual and family interventions.     

Age Differences in the Correlates of Perceived Dominance*

Previous evidence indicates that the correlates of dominance vary over studies. We hypothesized that one source of this variability is that dominance shifts with age from being associated with aggression to being more associated with prosocial behavior and sociometric status. To test this, we examined 10 vs. 13 year-old boys' perceptions of dominance, using a measure that assessed the perceived outcomes of dyadic agonism. In a sample consisting predominantly of lower- and middle-SES boys from public schools attending a racially integrated summer program for youths with behavior problems, we examined the relation between perceived dominance, sociometric status, and measures of social behavior, including physical and verbal aggression. Perceived dominance was associated with hitting and bullying among 10 year-olds, whereas among 13 year-olds it was more closely associated with sociometric status. The measure of perceived dominance we present produced rigidity scores comparable to those found using behavioral measures of dominance.