Religion,Infidelity, and Divorce: Reexamining the Effect of Religious Behavior on Divorce Among Long-Married Couples

Previous scholarship linking marital infidelity and divorce has tended to have 2 limitations: focusing on young marriages and overlooking the influence of religiosity. Using data from the panel study of Marital Instability over the Life Course (N = 763), we address both of these limitations. Using structural equation modeling and proportional hazards modeling, we examine the effect of religiosity on marital infidelity and subsequent divorce among couples married for at least 12 years. Our analyses reveal that religiosity reduces the likelihood of marital infidelity among these couples. However the effect of religiosity on the likelihood of a subsequent divorce is more complicated: Religiosity appears to indirectly reduce the likelihood of a subsequent divorce by increasing levels of marital happiness. Surprisingly, no influence is found of marital infidelity on marital stability or divorce. Implications for scholars concerned with marital stability are discussed.     

Family Ties and the Discontinuity of Divorce in Black and White Newlywed Couples

This paper explores the relationship of family ties to the marital happiness of husbands and wives from intact and disrupted families of origin and to the likelihood that they will divorce by the 4th year of their marriage. Respondents were 199 Black and 173 White couples interviewed as part of the “Early Years of Marriage” study. Analyses showed differences in family connectedness according to whether the family of origin was disrupted, and some variations by race were also evident. Regression analyses revealed that among all spouses, but especially among wives from divorced families, increased closeness to their husbands' families predicted increased happiness in their marriages. Hazard models showed that when husbands' or wives' parents were divorced or separated, couples' closeness to the husbands' family reduced their risk of divorce. Findings are discussed in the context of family systems theory and gender roles related to the forging of links with kin networks.     

Research on the Nature and Determinants of Marital Satisfaction: A Decade in Review

Scientific study of marital satisfaction attracted widespread attention in the 1990s from scholars representing diverse orientations and goals. This article highlights key conceptual and empirical advances that have emerged in the past decade, with particular emphasis on (a) interpersonal processes that operate within marriage, including cognition, affect, physiology, behavioral patterning, social support, and violence; (b) the milieus within which marriages operate, including microcontexts (e.g., the presence of children, life stressors and transitions) and macrocontexts (e.g., economic factors, perceived mate availability); and (c) the conceptualization and measurement of marital satisfaction, including 2‐dimensional, trajectory‐based, and social‐cognitive approaches. Notwithstanding the continued need for theoretical progress in understanding the nature and determinants of marital satisfaction, we conclude by calling for more large‐scale longitudinal research that links marital processes with sociocultural contexts, for more disconfirmatory than confirmatory research, and for research that directly guides preventive, clinical, and policy‐level interventions.     

How Qualitative Research Can Inform Clinical Interventions in Families Recovering From Sibling Sexual Abuse

The impact of sibling sexual abuse (SSA) has been culturally and therapeutically minimised and has received scant research attention. Furthermore, prior research has focused upon the separate experiences of the victim or the offender, or upon seeking family dysfunction explanations. In contrast, this qualitative study attempts to understand the experiences of all family members (victims, offenders, parents and other siblings) when SSA is disclosed. The pathway to recovery for each family member is identified. A systemic analysis of these (often conflicted) pathways of recovery provides some surprising findings and contributes to an understanding of the difficulties facing families in this situation, the constraints on family support and connectedness, validation for the victim and offender accountability.     

Changes in Wives' Income: Effects on Marital Happiness,Psychological Well‐Being,and the Risk of Divorce

We investigate the effects of increases in married women's actual income and in their proportion of total family income on marital happiness, psychological well‐being, and the likelihood of divorce. We use data from a sample of 1,047 married individuals (not couples) in medium‐duration marriages, drawn from a five‐wave panel survey begun in 1980 and continuing to 1997. Structural equation modeling is used to assess the impact of increases in married women's absolute and relative income from 1980 to 1988 on the marital happiness and well‐being of married men and women in 1988. Event history analysis is used to determine how these changes affect the risk of divorce between 1988 and 1997. We find that increases in married women's absolute and relative income significantly increase their marital happiness and well‐being. Increases in married women's absolute income generally have nonsignificant effects for married men. However, married men's well‐being is significantly lower when married women's proportional contributions to the total family income are increased. The likelihood of divorce is not significantly affected by increases in married women's income. Nevertheless, increases in married women's income may indirectly lower the risk of divorce by increasing women's marital happiness.     

Associations Between Marital Meaning and Reasons to Delay Marriage for Young Adults in Romantic Relationships

Using symbolic interactionism we developed an open-ended question to examine marital meaning for young adults (N = 111). Themes to emerge were love and commitment. Participants were placed into clusters: contractual (low love, high commitment), optimistic-realistic (high love, high commitment), romanticizing (high love, low commitment), and casual (low love, low commitment). We examined marital meaning and associations with reasons to delay marriage, conceptualized as relational doubts and financial concerns. Optimistic-realistic and casual individuals reported fewer relational doubts than contractual individuals. Longer relationship length was associated with fewer financial concerns for optimistic-realistic individuals when compared with all others. We conclude that although love and commitment are central to marital meaning, for some, specific pairings of these themes have implications in understanding reasons young adults delay marrying.     

Interventions to Strengthen Noncustodial Father Involvement in the Lives of Their Children

Abstract

This paper describes quantitative evaluation of a program designed to increase noncustodial fathers' visitation frequency and financial assistance to their children. The initial program objectives were to enhance parental skills and work opportunities for fathers. Discussion group data revealed that additional obstacles to father involvement included conflicts between parents and substance misuse and abuse. Communication skills, anger management, alternative methods of coping with stress and increased activities for families were added to the program components in response to these needs. Future plans for strengthening community connections to expand educational, training and employment opportunities as well as increased outreach to families were based on additional assessment of interventions needed for successful co-parenthood.     

Research on Marital Satisfaction and Stability in the 2010s: Challenging Conventional Wisdom

Although getting married is no longer a requirement for social acceptance, most people do marry in their lifetimes, and couples across the socioeconomic spectrum wish their marriages to be satisfying and long lasting. This review evaluates the past decade of research on the determinants of satisfaction and stability in marriage, concluding that the scholarship of the past 10 years has undermined three assumptions that were formerly accepted as conventional wisdom. First, research exploiting methods such as latent class growth analyses reveal that, for most couples, marital satisfaction does not decline over time but in fact remains relatively stable for long periods. Second, contrary to predictions of behavioral models of marriage, negative communication between spouses can be difficult to change, does not necessarily lead to more satisfying relationships when it is changed, and does not always predict distress in the first place. Third, dyadic processes that are reliably adaptive for middle-class and more affluent couples may operate differently in lower income couples, suggesting that influential models of marriage may not generalize to couples living in diverse environments. Thus, the accumulated research of the past 10 years indicates that the tasks of understanding and promoting marital satisfaction and stability are more complex than we appreciated at the start of the decade, raising important questions that beg to be answered in the years ahead.     

Factors Preventing Gridlock in Chilean Couples’ Relationships Based on the Discourse of Couples Therapists and Highly Adjusted Couples

The term gridlock describes the occurrence of rigid patterns in couples’ conflict. This study aimed to describe strategies of conflict resolution and gridlock prevention from the perspectives of couples and couple therapists. Participants were couple therapists and highly adjusted couples scored by the dyadic adjustment scale (DAS), distributed according to traditional and non‐traditional position in life and duration of relationships. Conflict gridlock scenarios were used to create video stimulus that were presented to participants. A qualitative methodology was used to analyse couples’ and therapists’ commentaries on the scenarios. Results showed differences in preventing conflict gridlock among sub‐groups of couples. Long‐term traditional couples focused on loyalty to a common project and value sacrificing to a higher good; long‐term non‐traditional couples prioritised caring and validating the bond in the relationship. Short‐term traditional couples focused on mutual love and the relief of hurt while short‐term non‐traditional couples supported the value of equity.     

From Experiments to Network Building: Trends in the Use of Research for Reconstructing Working Life

Many efforts to use the social sciences for the purpose of change and reconstruction have their roots in the idea of the field experiment. In various forms, the field experiment played a dominant role in the period 1930-1970. In more recent years, new patterns have emerged, such as complementary research roles in network building. In this contribution, focus is on the links between the early experiments and today's approaches, to see the latter in terms of responses to the challenges posed by the processes that were triggered off by the field experiments.     

Like a Parent and a Friend,but Not the Father: A Qualitative Study of Stepfathers’ Experiences in the Stepfamily

Research about the experience and position of stepfathers in stepfamilies is scarce. Using data from semi‐structured interviews with eight stepfathers, we aim to explore how stepfathers experience family life and their relationships with their (step)children and extended family members (biological father and grandparents), as well as how they describe their position within the stepfamily. Interpretative phenomenological analysis revealed three main themes: most participants saw themselves ‘like a parent and a friend.’ While none of them considered themselves as ‘the father’ – this position being assigned to the biological father – they described acting like a parent or a father figure in their relationships with the children. Secondly, despite some difficulties in the initial stages of formation of their new families, most participants described a positive evolution over time and were satisfied with their current family situation. Thirdly, the stepfather's positioning towards non‐cohabiting family members such as the biological father and grandparents added complexity but was managed well. Research findings are discussed in light of the current family therapy literature on working with stepfamilies.     

The Devil is in the Detail: Clinicians,Academics and Researchers Resolving the Problems of Clinical Research

The difficulties associated with conducting valid family therapy research within a clinical practice discourage many potential researchers. This article will describe collaboration between a group of academics, researchers and clinicians who decided to explore the process and efficacy of systemic family therapy conducted within a working private practice. The specific questions we are addressing are, whether the requests clients bring to their first session of therapy can be reliably classified by practitioners, whether these requests change over time, and whether the nature of the request is associated with therapist and client ratings of therapeutic outcome. Additional questions about the form and nature of the therapeutic alliance as experienced by both client and practitioner are also being explored. This paper will map the passage of the work from inception to its current state where over 140 clients are active participants. In doing so attention will be paid to the obstacles encountered: practical, financial and ethical, and the solutions devised to address these.     

Estimating the Standard Deviation From the Range: a Replication of Analysis of Demographic Data Reported in Marriage & Family Review, 2016-2017

Abstract

A major concern in the social sciences is lack of replication of previous studies. An important methodological concern in the social sciences is the ability to determine effect sizes in addition to statistical significance levels. Effect sizes cannot be easily calculated in the absence of sufficient data; usually standard deviations are needed. If standard deviations are not available, how can they be estimated? Various proposals have been offered to solve this question. One solution is to divide the range (maximum–minimum) by four; a variety of more complicated solutions, based on sample size or the skew of the variable’s distribution, have been suggested (Schumm, Higgins, et al., 2017). Here, 30 cases involving the demographic variable of age, from 23 articles published in Marriage & Family Review between 2016 and 2017, are assessed to replicate the previous report of Schumm, Higgins et al. (2017). Our results indicated that both linear and power functions significantly predicted the size of standard deviations, with larger samples featuring smaller standard deviations. Aside from sample size, the best solution appears to be to divide the range by 4.5–5.0; although for very small samples (N?<?50), it is probably better to divide by 3.5–4.0 whereas for larger samples, especially those that involve higher levels of skew, it may be better to divide by 5.0 or higher. The Wan et al. (2014) estimation procedure appears to be approximately a power function of sample size. For samples up to several thousand in size, the range of divisors appears to run between 3.0 and 8.0, extremes that could be used to determine the largest or smallest possible standard deviations, respectively. Values far below 3.0 or above 8.0 may reflect typographical errors in data reports or possibly be evidence of artificially generated data, if not scientific fraud. When a variable is split into subsamples, its standard deviations should usually increase for the subsamples compared with the total sample. Similar assessments remain in progress for non-demographic variables in social sciences.     

Finding the Love Guru in You: Examining the Effectiveness of a Sexual Communication Training Program for Married Couples

One specific area of communication that has the potential to elicit a wide range of outcomes, such as enhancing a couple's feelings of intimacy, offending one or both partners causing conflict, improving the communication climate within the relationship, or embarrassing the partners involved, is the discussion of sex. The current project theorized how to initiate and maintain sexual coaching conversations, taught participants the components of skillful and unskillful messages in an online training program, and then evaluated the overall effectiveness of said program. Forty couples participated in an online sexual coaching training program and completed several pretest and posttest measures. Results reveal that participation in the training program led to an increase in sexual and relationship satisfaction, a decrease in sexual communication apprehension, and an increase in sexual coaching knowledge and skill. These results, along with the value of interventive research and the implications of this training program, are discussed.     

Relationship Power Among Same-Sex Male Couples in New York and San Francisco: Laying the Groundwork for Sexual Risk Reduction Interventions Focused on Interpersonal Power

Research is clear that power differentials between women and men shape women’s human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) risks; however, little research has attempted to examine power differentials within same-sex male (SSM) couples and whether these influence sexual risk outcomes. To produce the first quantitative scale that measures power in SSM relationships, the current work was a Phase 1 qualitative study that sought to understand domains of relationship power and how power operated in the relationship among 48 Black, White, and interracial (Black–White) SSM couples recruited from San Francisco and New York. Interview domains were focused on definitions of power and perceptions of how power operated in the relationship. Findings revealed that couples described power in three key ways: as power exerted over a partner through decision-making dominance and relationship control; as power to accomplish goals through personal agency; and as couple-level power. In addition, men described ways that decision-making dominance and relationship control could be enacted in the relationship—through structural resources, emotional and sexual influence, and gender norm expectations. We discuss the implications of these findings for sexual risks and HIV care and treatment with SSM couples that are focused on closing gaps in power.     

地方政府开展基层妇女职后教育工作对策研究

基层妇女的职后教育是妇女提升综合竞争能力,提升社会地位的重要途径。各级政府特别是地方政府对本辖区基层妇女开展职后教育工作重要而必要。结合职后教育的育人功能,以中山妇联与电子科技大学联合开设的网络教育妇女学员为样本,就基层妇女开展职后教育的影响因素进行了分析,并着重针对地方政府在基层妇女的职后教育工作的对策进行了深入分析。     

After the MDGs: From Social Development to Technoenterprise in Tanzania

Abstract

This article explores how a development paradigm changes in Tanzania as the social sector concerns of the Millennium Development Goal era are practically and politically superseded by a commitment to private sector-driven structural transformation. Changes in the content and orientation of development do not occur as a result of evaluating what kinds of interventions are effective. They are the outcome of concerted efforts of paradigm reconstruction in which the role of development knowledge is pivotal. The process of policy shift entails a reorganisation of the architectures established to support the previous aid regime, including altering the roles of development knowledge producers and civil society organisations. New political relations between business interests and development actors support the increased influence of philanthropic foundations in determining the development agenda, which is sustained by new configurations of development knowledge. These shifts have important political implications for the kinds of policies considered developmental and the extent to which development orthodoxies can be contested.     

From evidence to action: Applying gender mainstreaming to pay gaps in the Welsh public sector

Progress on reducing gender disparities remains painfully slow, despite efforts to identify the determinants of gender pay gaps and specify size and shape. Recent studies highlight the need for a more nuanced account of the way that public policy shapes organizational responses and insights into the types of organizational practices that diminish pay disparities. In response, this research reports on an action research intervention in three large Welsh public organizations, subject to a unique statutory equality duty. Data demonstrate how an evidence‐based gender mainstreaming approach facilitated the development of a ‘no blame’ strategy, which legitimized organizational proactivity through collaborative and empowering change management processes. The research contributes to the study of gender pay gaps by demonstrating that gender mainstreaming, with facilitative local conditions and supportive public policy, shapes action on gender segregation, with particular success in women's low‐paid employment. Conclusions highlight theoretical and policy implications arising from the research.