The effects of parental marital discord and divorce on the religious and spiritual lives of young adults

A growing literature reveals that parental divorce and marital discord can have undesirable effects on the mental health and social well-being of children, some of which extend well into adulthood. Our study augments this body of work by focusing on the interplay of divorce and discord in shaping the religious and spiritual lives of young adults. Several discrete subgroups of young adults are identified in terms of parental marital status and degree of parents’ marital conflict, and multiple religious and spiritual outcomes are considered. Data are taken from the National Survey on the Moral and Spiritual Lives of Young Adults from Divorced and Intact Families, a nationwide US telephone survey of approximately 1500 young adults ages 18-35 conducted in 2001. Findings confirm that persons raised by parents in intact, happy, low-conflict marriages tend to score higher on most religious and spiritual outcomes. However, offspring from divorced families and those from intact high-conflict families differ on some outcomes, but not others. Indicators of traditional institutional religious practices and beliefs appear more vulnerable to the effects of parental divorce and discord than personal spiritual beliefs and practices. Overall, findings reveal a rich but complex set of relationships between family background and religious and spiritual lives among young adults.     

Later first marriage and marital success

The research reported here used measures of marital success based on both marital survival and marital quality to assess how well first marriages entered at relatively late ages fare in comparison with those entered younger. Analysis of data from five American data sets indicated that the later marriages fare very well in survival but rather poorly in quality. The greatest indicated likelihood of being in an intact marriage of the highest quality is among those who married at ages 22-25, net of the estimated effects of time since first marriage and several variables that might commonly affect age at marriage and marital outcomes. The negative relationship beyond the early to mid-twenties between age at marriage and marital success is likely to be at least partially spurious, and thus it would be premature to conclude that the optimal time for first marriage for most persons is ages 22-25. However, the findings do suggest that most persons have little or nothing to gain in the way of marital success by deliberately postponing marriage beyond the mid-twenties.     

Labor Market and Socioeconomic Effects on Marital Stability

This paper reports an investigation of the effects of socioeconomic and labor market factors on the dissolution of marriages since the mid 1960s. We examine the effects of possible sources of marital disruption, including poor labor market opportunities for young adults; the economic independence and improved labor market opportunities of women; and changes in the labor market roles and expectations of women within marriage. Using the National Longitudinal Surveys of Young Men, Young Women, and Youth, we estimate the effects on marital stability of husbands′ and wives′ levels, differences and changes in educational attainment, income, and annual weeks worked. Our results suggest that average levels of couples′ educational attainment and recent work experiences positively affect marital stability. The degree to which husbands and wives differ on educational attainment and income does not affect marital stability, but the more that wives work relative to their husbands, the greater the chances of disruption. Positive changes in wives′ socioeconomic and labor force characteristics over the course of their marriages increase the odds of marital disruption.     

Measurement of social health in a general population survey

This paper describes an attempt to define and measure the social health of individuals in terms of the degree to which they are functioning members of their community. Data were taken from questionnaires completed by 6928 adults in an area-probability sample of Alameda County, California households. Components of the social health index are employability, marital satisfaction, sociability, and community involvement. This index was associated with psychological well-being and other psychological measures, with the physical health spectrum, and with subjective evaluations of own health. Physically and psychologically healthy people are presumably better equipped than others to qualify for secure jobs, to maintain satisfactory marriages, and to become involved with others informally or in organized contexts. At the same time, socially healthy people may, as a consequence of their social health, be more likely to enjoy good physical health and psychological well-being than people who are dissatisfied with their marriages, socially isolated, and/or relatively unemployable.     

Boundary crossing in first marriage and remarriage

Owing to secular increases in divorce rates, remarriage has become a prevalent feature of American family life; yet, research about mate selection behavior in higher order marriages remains limited. Using log-linear methods to recent data from the 2008–2014 American Community Survey, we compare racial and ethnic sorting behavior in first and subsequent marriages. The two most frequently crossed boundaries – those involving White-Asian and White-Hispanic couples – are more permeable in remarriages than in first marriages. Boundaries that are crossed with less frequency – those between minority groups and the White-Black boundary-are less permeable in remarriages than in first marriages. Collectively, these findings suggest that racial and ethnic sorting processes in remarriage may reify existing social distances between pan-ethnic groups. Racial and ethnic variations in how the relative permeability of boundary changes between first and higher-order marriages underscore the importance of considering a broad array of interracial pairings when assessing the ways in which changes in family structure and marital sorting behavior promote integration.     

Trajectories of relationship supportiveness after childbirth: Does marriage matter?

Relationship quality for married couples typically declines after the birth of a (first) child, as parenthood brings new identities, stresses, and responsibilities for mothers and fathers. Yet, it is less clear whether nonmarital relationship quality follows a similar trajectory, particularly given the greater selectivity of nonmarital relationships that persist over time. This paper uses data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (N = 3,459) with latent growth curve models to examine relationship quality (measured by mothers' perceived supportiveness about fathers) for married and unmarried couples over nine years after a child's birth. Findings suggest that marriage at birth is protective for relationship supportiveness over time, net of various individual characteristics associated with marriage, compared to all unmarried couples at birth; however, marriage does not differentiate supportiveness compared to the subset of unmarried couples who remain stably together. Also, unmarried couples who get married after the birth have more supportive relationships compared to all unmarried couples who do not marry—though less so when compared to couples who remain stably together.     

Risky sexual behavior of foreign and native-born women in emerging adulthood: The long reach of mother-daughter relationships in adolescence

Parents’ influence on young adult sexual behavior receives little attention compared to influence on adolescent behavior. Yet effective parenting should have lasting effects. Even fewer studies examine parents’ influence on sexual behavior of both foreign and native-born young adults. Using the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health) Waves I (1994–95) and III (2001–02), we examine longitudinal associations among mother-daughter relationship quality and nativity during adolescence and young adults’ risky sexual behaviors of condom use at last intercourse, number of sexual partners, and STI diagnoses (N = 4460). Women, 18–26 years old, who had good mother-adolescent daughter relationships have fewer partners and STIs in the past year. Second generation women have worse mother-adolescent daughter relationships, compared to third generation. Relationship quality does not explain associations between nativity and risky behavior. Lasting associations between relationship quality and risk behaviors suggest that reproductive health interventions should enhance mother-adolescent relationships.     

Working and disability expectancies at older ages: The role of childhood circumstances and education

The ability to work at older ages depends on health and education. Both accumulate starting very early in life. We assess how childhood disadvantages combine with education to affect working and health trajectories. Applying multistate period life tables to data from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) for the period 2008–2014, we estimate how the residual life expectancy at age 50 is distributed in number of years of work and disability, by number of childhood disadvantages, gender, and race/ethnicity. Our findings indicate that number of childhood disadvantages is negatively associated with work and positively with disability, irrespective of gender and race/ethnicity. Childhood disadvantages intersect with low education resulting in shorter lives, and redistributing life years from work to disability. Among the highly educated, health and work differences between groups of childhood disadvantage are small. Combining multistate models and inverse probability weighting, we show that the return of high education is greater among the most disadvantaged.     

Disability and social participation: The case of formal and informal volunteering

People with disabilities in the United States experience lower levels of social integration than people without disabilities. However, less is known about the association between disability and volunteer participation—despite an extensive literature on other disparities in volunteerism. This study uses data from the 2009–2015 Volunteer Supplement of the Current Population Survey to evaluate how working-aged adults with sensory disabilities, cognitive disabilities, physical disabilities, or multiple disabilities access, participate in, and maintain volunteer roles.Net of sociodemographic characteristics, adults with disabilities are no less likely than those without disabilities to report informal volunteering, although the presence of physical and multiple disabilities negatively associates with formal volunteering. Adults with disabilities report no fewer annual hours or weeks than those without disabilities if they are formal volunteers, but the mechanism through which they initially become involved in volunteer organizations varies. People with different types of disability experience different patterns of volunteering, and the sociodemographic characteristics associated with having a disability exacerbate many of these differences. Results suggest that adults with disabilities can—and do—participate in voluntary work, but may face barriers to accessing formal volunteer roles.     

唐朝民间民族通婚在《太平广记》中的反映

唐代是一个富有开创性的时代 ,作为社会生活重要方面的婚姻亦不例外。由于正史中有关民间民族间自由通婚的记述乏善可称 ,而唐律的规定又过于法律化 ,与现实生活并不完全对等 ,现存汇辑野史传记小说诸家的最大一部类书《太平广记》中的丰富文献史料可补正史之不足。唐代民族之间的自然融合带来了大范围的通婚 ,从国家政策看 ,政府并不鼓励这种通婚 ,通过《太平广记》狐篇可知中土人士对胡汉通婚是持反对态度的     

《诗经》中的贵族婚姻形态

研究《诗经》中贵族的婚姻形态,是我们了解周代上层婚姻状况的重要手段,也有助于我们了解由此产生的文化特征及意义。蚕婚制在《诗经》时代只是一种残余式婚姻形态,已不被当时社会所接受。媵婚制是一种正在消亡的婚姻形态。聘婚制是《诗经》时代主流的婚姻方式,并且来得比以前更加严格和规范。     

Effects of family structure on the risk of first premarital birth in the presence of correlated unmeasured family effects

This paper assesses the effects of family structure on the risk of a first premarital birth for a sample of women from the 1979 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. The sample reflects the family structure and family formation experiences of a cohort of women who were at risk of out-of-wedlock childbearing during the 1980s and early 1990s. We focus on assessing the effects of family structure in the presence of correlated unmeasured family effects, which are identified through the use of sibling data. The availability of multiple sibling respondents per family permits identification of family-level unobserved heterogeneity in a multi-level context of individuals nested within families. Our models account for family-specific sources of unobserved heterogeneity in the processes generating family structure and nonmarital childbearing, and provide estimates of the association between these sources of unobserved heterogeneity along with the effects of family structure and other covariates. We find that accounting for the correlation between unobserved family-level effects in processes generating family structure and first premarital birth leads to attenuated estimates of the effects family structure on the risk of first premarital birth. This suggests that other family-level factors may play a mediating role in generating both family structure and nonmarital childbearing.     

Another health insurance gap: Gaining and losing coverage among natives and immigrants at older ages

As the immigrant population grows older and larger, limitations on access to health insurance may create a new subgroup of people who remain outside or on the margin of coverage. Using the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) data from the 2004 and 2008 panels, we address the health insurance gap between foreign-born and native-born adults among those aged 50–64 and the 65 and older, two sub-populations that have received relatively little attention in past research. We argue that current practices leave a significant minority of older foreign-born residents inconsistently covered or without any insurance. We find that health insurance coverage for older immigrants is both less likely and more episodic even when compositional differences in SES and assimilation are controlled.     

Age at migration,family instability,and timing of sexual onset

This study builds on and extends previous research on nativity variations in adolescent health and risk behavior by addressing three questions: (1) whether and how generational status and age at migration are associated with timing of sexual onset among U.S. adolescents; (2) whether and how family instability mediates associations between nativity and sexual debut; and (3) whether and how these associations vary by gender. We find that first- and second-generation immigrant youth initiate sexual activity later than native youth. Foreign-born youth who migrate after the start of adolescence exhibit the latest sexual onset; boys’ sexual behavior is particularly sensitive to age at migration. Parental union stability is protective for first- and second-generation youth, especially boys; however, instability in co-residence with parents accelerates sexual debut for foreign-born girls, and dilutes protections from parental marital stability. Use of a non-English language at home delays sexual onset for immigrant girls, but not boys.     

The role of family relationships in the psychological wellbeing of interracially dating adolescents

We use data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health) to examine the role of family relationships in explaining why interracially dating youth have poorer psychological wellbeing than youth with same-race partners. Results indicate that interracial daters experience more symptoms of depression and anxiety and poorer family relationships than do same-race daters. The additive effects of their lower levels of family support and poorer quality parent-child relationships, however, do little to explain interracial daters' more negative wellbeing outcomes. The negative effects of interracial dating hold similarly for boys and girls and among White and Black youth. Interracial dating less negatively effects the depressive symptomatology of Hispanics, though, and actually appears to “protect” Asian youth from depressive symptoms. Our findings highlight the psychological wellbeing risks faced by many interracially dating youth and the protective benefits of close and supportive family relationships for romantically-involved adolescents in general.     

宋代三槐王氏家族的仕宦、婚姻与文化成就

三槐王氏家族是宋代颇具代表性的世家大族,本文着重从仕宦、婚姻、文化成就等方面分析了其社会状况。作者认为,在专制主义进一步加强的情况下,宋代世家大族只有以“忠信仁厚”的家风为基础,家族成员能较好地利用各种有利的社会条件,努力进取,才能使地位得以维持。     

“Like Parent, Like Child?”: The intergenerational transmission of nonmarital childbearing

Data from the 2002 National Survey of Family Growth (N = 11,180) are used to examine the intergenerational transmission of nonmarital childbearing for US men and women. Findings suggest that being born to unmarried parents increases the risk of offspring having a nonmarital first birth, net of various confounding characteristics. This intergenerational link appears to particularly operate via parents’ breaking up before offspring are age 14 and offspring’s young age at first sex. While the link across two generations in nonmarital childbearing is not accounted for by parents’ socioeconomic status (measured as fathers’ education), several mediating factors vary by socioeconomic background. Gender and race/ethnicity also moderate the intergenerational transmission of nonmarital childbearing. This research sheds light on the prevalence of, and process by which, nonmarital childbearing is repeated across generations, which has important implications for long-term social stratification and inequality.     

Sexual intercourse,romantic relationship inauthenticity,and adolescent mental health

Numerous studies indicate sexual intercourse, especially when it occurs early in adolescence, increases youths' risk of mental health problems. However, no research has examined whether the association between sexual intercourse and mental health varies by romantic relationship inauthenticity, or the level of incongruence between thoughts/feelings and actions within romantic relationships. Using data from a subset of romantically-involved Add Health respondents, we measured sexual involvement in romantic relationships and applied sequence analysis to reports of ideal and actual romantic relationship to measure inauthenticity within adolescent romances. Regressions of depression symptoms indicate that the magnitude of the positive associations between sexual intercourse and girls' mental health is most pronounced in relationships characterized by high levels of relationship inauthenticity and that there is no association between sexual intercourse and girls' depression at low levels of relationship inauthenticity. Having sexual intercourse is positively associated with depression symptoms among boys, but relationship inauthenticity does not alter this association. We discuss the implications of these findings for research on adolescent sexuality and programs aimed at enhancing youth sexuality development.     

春秋“流亡婚姻”考述

据统计,春秋"流亡婚姻"共10起,涉及11国28人次,其成因分为流亡者流亡和与流亡者通婚两个方面。前者是君权和公子及卿大夫集团的矛盾,后者是要利用流亡者为本国利益服务,其结局分为"返国为君"、"定居为仕"、"赋闲定居"和"最终被杀"四个类型。通婚对流亡者的政治前途有重要影响是其显著特征,"流亡婚姻"从一个侧面反映了春秋时期民族融合、婚制以及妇女地位等状况。     

Offspring education and parental mortality: Evidence from South Asia

Decades of research show that education not only confers individual health benefits, but it also spills over to advantage subsequent generations. More recently, research has confirmed that the intergenerational health benefits of education can also flow upward: aging adults with more highly educated children experience better health and higher survival. Research has documented this finding in high-income settings, and also in select low- and middle-income contexts, raising questions about how having an adult child who attended relatively low levels of education can benefit aging parents' well-being. In this study, we use multilevel, long-term panel data on a cohort of older adults from the Chitwan Valley Family Study in rural Nepal to establish whether the association between offspring education and parents' survival is observable in this extremely poor, agrarian context. Extending past studies, we then leverage additional data on older adults to examine the association between offspring education and two theorized mechanisms: older adults' better health behaviors and their greater support in later life.