Marital Type and the Marital Relationship

No abstract available for this article.     

Ghosts in the nursery revisited

In the last decades new research findings have illuminated many of the factors that affect the mental health development of the pre-verbal child. Attachment theory has emerged as a central concept which has great applicability to the clinical field of infant-mental health. The new knowledge base has been utilized by clinical research programs to develop new models of clinical intervention programs with infants-at-risk and their families. This article describes some of the theoretical and research findings which can be translated to, and enhance, traditional child welfare practice. The theoretical considerations are illustrated by case examples.     

Meeting Your Ghosts

This paper reports the perceptions of a group of social work students who undertook an introductory Family Therapy course which had a focus on families of origin. Perceptions of family of origin changed for 38 family therapy students who responded to pre and post course questionnaires. Their responses support the author's experience of the need to understand the source of emotional reactions arising within the therapist during sessions.     

Exorcising myths and taboos in Romanian society

George Voicu, Mitul lui Nae Ionescu (The Myth of Nae Ionescu) (Bucharest: Ars Docendi, 2000). 202pp. ISBN 973–8118–26–3

George Voicu, Zeii cei rãi: Cukura conspiratiei in România postcomunistã (Evil Gods: The Cult of Conspiracy in Post‐communist Romania) (Bucharest: Polirom, 2000). 245pp. Index. ISBN 973–683–593–6

George Voicu, Teme antisémite în discursul public (Anti‐Semitic Themes in Public Discourse) (Bucharest: Ars Docendi, 2000), 233pp. ISBN 973–8118–29–8     

Marital Satisfaction and Marital Stability*

This exploration of the relationship between marital satisfaction and marital stability utilizes the social-psychological schema of Thibaut and Kelley (1959). Marital satisfaction is viewed as a function of the comparison between one's marital expectations and one's marital outcome. Marital stability is viewed as a function of the comparison between one's best available marital alternative and one's marital outcome. Hence, marital satisfaction and marital stability can differ. Implications of this view for both researcher and clinician are discussed.     

Marital Separation

In an effort to evaluate a procedure designed to learn more about clinical and demographic aspects of marital separation, a telephone survey of 2,001 households in Boulder, Colorado, was conducted. The procedure reached a representative sample of the population and provided valuable information regarding the current prevalence of marital separation, as well as its incidence, duration, and modes of resolution. The likelihood of any married couple experiencing a separation was found to be nearly 5 percent in one year. The risk of separation appears to be far higher among the young than the old. Most terminated separations, after lasting about one year, end in divorce. Implications for marriage and divorce counseling, for community intervention programs, and for additional research are indicated.     

Marital conflict

During 1968, a centre for the treatment of autistic children was established in Perth, Western Australia, under the administration of the Mental Health Services. It was named in honour of Dr. Mildred Creak, whose authoritative contribution to the study of autism and her invaluable assistance in establishing this centre is thereby recognized.     

Marital group therapy

This article offers a model for community mental health centers of how to respond to additional service requests for marital counseling.     

Infertility-Related Stress within the Marital Relationship

Objectives: The aim of this study was to determine the relationship between infertility-related stress and four aspects of the marital relationship, specifically, the quality of communication, sexual satisfaction, intimacy, and overall dyadic adjustment. Methods: Male and female patients (N = 116) receiving infertility treatment at two infertility clinics in the Western Cape province of South Africa completed self-report questionnaires. Results: Significant correlations were found between infertility-related stress and all four measured aspects of the marital relationship. Conclusions: Interventions should aim at improving the coping, communication, and conflict-resolution skills of each partner in order to assist them in productive problem solving and conflict management.     

Marital Status,Marital History,Body Weight,and Obesity

Marital status and marital history are associated with health. Marital history can be represented by the marital trajectory components of timing, transitions, sequence, and duration. We examined whether marital trajectory components add insights beyond marital status in predicting body weight in a retrospective analysis of 3,011 adults. Marital status findings revealed that married men were heavier than separated/divorced men, and never married women were heavier and more often obese than married women. Marital history findings showed that after adjusting for marital status, trajectory measures of age at first marriage, second marriage or second divorce, experiencing widowhood, and duration of separation/divorce were not clearly associated with body weight or obesity. Body weight and obesity appear to be associated with current marital status but not marital history.     

Who Are the Marital Experts?

We asked whether professional training or personal experience with marriage predicted accuracy in judging (a) marital satisfaction and (b) marital stability. Nine groups of participants viewed 3‐minute videotaped conversations of 10 married couples and rated each on level of marital satisfaction and whether they were likely to divorce in the future. Group differences were found in accuracy of marital satisfaction judgments. Those for whom marriage held high personal meaning (satisfied and dissatisfied long‐term marriages, newlyweds, recent divorcé[e]s), as rated by a panel of judges, were more accurate than those with professional training (pastoral counselors, clinical psychology graduate students, marital therapists, marital researchers). Neither professional training nor personal experience was associated with the ability to predict divorce.     

Marital Separation/Divorce

A review of the literature was conducted to determine the current knowledge base regarding the impact of marital separation or divorce on the individual. The review focused on the literature in psychiatry, psychology, and social work, but also included related disciplines, such as family law. The findings indicate a focusing of research questions since the early 1970's, particularly in defining the process of divorce and differential impact of the various stages across gender. However, some gaps still exist within the literature, pointing toward additional research questions, such as in the area of treatment, and the impact of initiator status.     

Marital Therapy and Feminism

The authors examine first the meaning ascribed to gender behaviour and the impact this has on couples' struggle to evolve a marital structure that can equitably meet their needs. The roles played by counsellors who inadvertently reinforce sex-role stereotyping in their counselling is also described and case-discussion in literature where sexism prevails will be presented. Alternative ways of helping couples discover their own fit without appealing to gender behaviour as a structural social tool will be developed. Attention is drawn to the necessity for counsellors to first question their own values about gender behaviour, without succumbing to social definitions.     

Marital Intimacy and the Deadly Love-Anger Cycle

The view is advanced that the fundamental cause of marital failure in our time is the inability to resolve the anger which is inevitably generated in an intimate relationship. The nature of anger, its impact on a love relationship, and its constructive management in marriage are examined. The concept of training couples in "marital fighting" is rejected in favor of a three-step procedure which the author has tested out in his own marriage, and taught to other couples, with very satisfactory results.     

Linking Financial Strain to Marital Instability: Examining the Roles of Emotional Distress and Marital Interaction

Using a sample consisting of 4,997 married couples from the National Survey of Families and Households, individual emotional distress, the occurrence of couple disagreements, couple fighting, and couple quality time together mediated the relationship between financial strain and personal assessments of marital instability. The overall results suggest that financial strain influences both positive and negative forms of couple interaction which are stronger mediators than personal emotional distress of the relationship between financial strain and marital instability. The results further suggest that there were no gender differences among these linkages.     

Barriers to Marital Infidelity

This study used a qualitative approach as a means of exploring barriers to marital infidelity. There has been a substantial amount of research on marital infidelity in recent years, but there is no significant empirical research that looks at protective factors that act as a barrier to keep the marital relationship safe from marital infidelity. This study focused on establishing themes that represent opportunities to have a marital affair, as well as identifying protective factors that act as a barrier to marital infidelity. Semi-structured interviews were audiotaped, transcribed, and analyzed using thematic analysis, a process for encoding qualitative information (Boyatzis) served to identify themes and categories from the recorded participant experiences. Three themes emerged that represent an opportunity to have a marital affair and three themes emerged as barriers to marital infidelity. Opportunities to have a marital affair were represented by direct attempts, flirtatious behavior, and establishing emotional intimacy. Finally, the barriers to marital infidelity were love, religious values and commitment, and communication. Clinical implications are discussed, as well as the limitations of the current study.