Intergenerational solidarity between parents and adult children: a qualitative research among cohabiting and married children in Italy

The objective of this article is to compare the patterns of intergenerational solidarity between adult children who cohabit or are married and their own parents or their partner's parents through the analysis of 50 in-depth interviews. The research did not reveal any different behavioural patterns between cohabiting and married couples. Financial support provided by own parents or partner's parents and the presence of small children constituted positive factors which intensified the frequency of contacts and improved the quality of the relationship. In the event of illness of a parent, both the married and cohabiting couples provided assistance, especially when the illness was not disabling and there were no other kin relatives. When this was not possible, a private caregiver was hired or close family members provided assistance. Only those respondents who cohabited with a partner awaiting divorce were less willing to maintain contacts with their partner's parents. The presence of a family formed by previously married partners and the old age of the parents of the latter compromised the quality of the relationship and the willingness to provide assistance.     

Sexual behavior of cohabitors: A comparison of three independent samples

I tested the hypothesis that cohabitors, as a component of their lifestyle choice to live together without being married, would be more sexually experienced and sexually active than noncohabitors. Differences between cohabitors and noncohabitors were examined in three independent samples (Ns = 173, 136, and 148). Within each group, differences between cohabitors and noncohabitors were examined in regard to background variables, perceived parent sexual attitudes, sexual behavior, sexual history, sexual satisfaction, orgasmic responsiveness, conception history, social competence, and relationship attachment. In general, the hypothesis was confirmed that cohabitors have greater and earlier sexual experience than noncohabitors. Other findings indicated that cohabitors were more socially competent and had parents with more negative sexual attitudes than noncohabitors. No differences in relationship attachment (love and liking for their partner) were found.     

Parents' Partnership Decision Making After Divorce or Widowhood: The Role of (Step)Children

Using data from the Netherlands Kinship Panel Surveys, this study investigated divorced and widowed parents' (N = 350) decision making about living arrangements after repartnering: Twenty‐eight percent lived apart together (LAT) and others lived together (remarried or cohabiting). The focus was on determinants of LAT: Women, older respondents, residents of larger cities, and parents of 2 or more children are more apt to LAT. On the basis of additional qualitative interviews with LAT respondents (n = 25), the reasons for LAT were investigated. Data showed that many children are involved in pure boundary work in an effort to guarantee the continuation of their family. Other (step)children use the sabotage or refusal types of boundary work, not accepting the new partner or excluding a parent from contact, especially with grandchildren. Many of these efforts are successful. To preserve the ties with their children, parents often adapt their decision making about the living arrangements with a new partner accordingly.     

Family Structure and Parent–Child Contact: A Comparison of Native and Migrant Families

This article is an investigation of the frequency of contact between parents and adult children in Germany. It compares Turkish immigrants and native Germans and includes both biological and step‐relations. After the United States and Russia, Germany reports the third highest proportion of immigrants internationally, but the extent to which results regarding natives are applicable to immigrant families remains unknown. Data are from the first wave of the German Generations and Gender Surveys (2005) and the supplemental survey of Turkish citizens living in Germany (2006). A total of 7,035 parent–child relations are analyzed. The frequency of parent–adult child contact is significantly higher for biological parents living with the child's other biological parent than for parents without a partner, parents with a new partner, or stepparents. Contact is more frequent for all Turkish families, but the pattern of variation by family structure is similar for both Germans and Turks.     

Parental Work Demands and the Frequency of Child‐Related Routine and Interactive Activities

This study examined whether the frequency of child‐related activities was associated with parents' own work demands and those of their partners. In addition to parental paid working hours, we considered the parents' organizational culture and experienced job insecurity. Moreover, we differentiated between child‐related routine and interactive activities. Using self‐collected data on 639 Dutch couples with children, we found that paid working hours were consistently associated with a lower frequency of child‐related activities. Fathers generally responded more strongly to their own and their partner's work demands than mothers. For fathers, both their own and their partner's work demands were more strongly associated with routine than with interactive activities. Mothers did not differentiate between these activities, however.     

Gender and reactions to a hypothetical relationship partner's masturbation and use of sexually explicit media

Heterosexual college students completed a questionnaire measuring affective reactions and cognitive attributions pertaining to behavior by a hypothetical relationship partner. Compared to men, women indicated more negative feelings about a partner's solitary sexual behavior. For men and women, a partner's use of sexually explicit material was rated more negatively than a partner's masturbation. Regarding the attributions, there was a difference on concerning the belief about partner satisfaction. Respondents were more likely to see a partner's use of sexually explicit materials rather than masturbation as a sign of dissatisfaction with the original partner or the sexual relationship. Results are discussed with regard to implications for future research.     

A Study of Commitment and Relationship Quality in Sweden and Norway

The Scandinavian countries are often cited as examples of countries where cohabitation is largely indistinguishable from marriage. Using survey data from Norway and Sweden (N = 2,923) we analyzed differences between cohabitors and married individuals in relationship seriousness, relationship satisfaction, and dissolution plans. Our analyses reveal that cohabitors overall are less serious and less satisfied with their relationships and are more likely to consider ending their current relationships than are married respondents. The views of cohabitors who report that they intend to marry their current partners within 2 years, however, differ much less from those of married respondents than cohabitors with no marriage plans. This finding suggests that even in Scandinavia cohabitors are a heterogeneous group.     

“Sex,Gender, and Love on a Global Scale. A Review of: Love and Globalization: Transformations of Intimacy in the Contemporary World. edited by Mark B. Padilla,Jennifer S. Hirsch,Miguel Muñoz-Laboy,Robert E. Sember, & Richard G. Parker.”

We investigated the sexual relationships of married Chinese men and women living in Beijing and Shanghai. Within the framework of the Interpersonal Exchange Model of Sexual Satisfaction (IEMSS), we also examined factors related to sexual satisfaction. Completed questionnaires were returned by 193 men and 231 women. In general, respondents reported moderate levels of sexual and relationship satisfaction. Overall, respondents were neither erotophobic nor erotophilic and reported a frequency of affectionate and sexual behavior between “2 or 3 times a month” and “once or twice a week” and at least one sexual concern and for problem. Contrary to predictions based on the cultural message that sexual pleasure is restricted to men, the women reported significantly greater sexual satisfaction than did the men, and men and women did not differ in their reports of sexual rewards or relationship satisfaction. Further, men described their sexual relationship as more costly than did women. However, women reported more sexual concerns than did men and were also more erotophobic. Men reported more sexual concerns for their partner than women did for their partner. Strong support was found for the IEMSS, such that the more that rewards exceeded costs, relative rewards exceeded relative costs, one's levels of rewards and costs were perceived to be equal to one's partner's, and the greater the relationship satisfaction, the greater the level of sexual satisfaction. Greater sexual satisfaction was also associated with a greater frequency of affectionate and sexual behavior, fewer sexual concerns and problems, and greater relationship satisfaction. These results are discussed in the context of the impact of official repression of many forms of sexual expression in China in the past and the need for enhancement of the sexual relationships of Chinese men and women.     

Who Does What When Partners Become Parents:

Forty-seven couples who were first-time parents were assessed in late pregnancy and again at 6 and 18 months postpartum. Fifteen couples not yet decided about having a baby were assessed at equivalent times. Actual involvement in household, decision-making, and childcare roles was determined by responses to a 36-item "Who Does What?" questionnaire. Psychological involvement in parent, partner, and worker roles was also determined, as was each partner's satisfaction with behavioral and psychological involvement in each domain. On the basis of global analyses, previous studies have suggested that new parents adopt more traditional roles. Item analyses indicated that men's and women's roles change in both traditional and nontraditional ways during the transition to parenthood, depending on the item and the time of assessment. Measures of individual and couple adaption were also obtained: self-esteem, parenting stress, and marital satisfaction. Men's involvement in family tasks was correlated with their own or their wives adaption in pregnancy but became linked with adaptation at 6 months postpartum. However, at 18 months after birth husbands' involvement in family tasks was correlated only with wives' adaptation. For both parents, satisfaction with family task arrangements becomes correlated with self-esteem, parenting stress and marital quality after childbirth; these measures of adaptation are more closely linked with role satisfaction than with actual sharing of family work.     

Validation of Fear of Partner Scale

Therapists have a responsibility to ascertain if psychological aggression, physical aggression, sexual aggression exist, and if there is fear of the partner. A fear of partner measure was evaluated in 100 couples who sought relationship feedback. Fear of partner's psychological, physical, and sexual aggression was related to actual reports of such behavior. For both men and women, fear of speaking in front of partner and fear of being in therapy with partner were related to reports of psychological aggression perpetrated by the partner, dominance, and isolation by the partner, and one's own marital dissatisfaction. Among respondents who were aggressed against, more men than women reported fear of participating in therapy with their partner. The measure herein can be used to determine the extent of fear of aggression by partners and to assist in the decision‐making about the appropriateness of marital therapy and divorce mediation.     

Costs and Rewards of Children: The Effects of Becoming a Parent on Adults' Lives

How do new parents differ from their childless counterparts in social and psychological resources, daily strains, and psychological well‐being? Using a nationally representative panel of 1,933 adults who were childless at the first interview, we compare 6 indicators of adults' lives for those who became parents and those remaining childless several years later, controlling for earlier states. Becoming a parent is both detrimental and rewarding. With the exception of social integration, which is greater for all groups of new parents compared with their childless counterparts, the effects of parental status on adults' lives vary markedly by gender and marital status. Unmarried parents report lower self‐efficacy and higher depression than their childless counterparts. Married mothers' lives are marked by more housework and more marital conflict but less depression than their childless counterparts. Parental status has little influence on the lives of married men.     

The Marginalization of Nonresident Fathers: Their Postdivorce Roles

ABSTRACT

A sample of 260 Australian men were surveyed about their experience as nonresident fathers and their contact with their children. Most reported having little input into decisions concerning children's postseparation living arrangements, the amount of child support they paid, and the spending of their child support payments. Many claimed to have very limited say in any parenting decisions, and little or no involvement in children's schools. Fathers' limited parental role was found to be negatively correlated with their ongoing contact and involvement with children, and positively with their reported level of interparental hostility. Many respondents viewed their marginalization as parents as an impediment to their capacity to develop meaningful relationships with their children.     

The Process of Entering into Cohabiting Unions

Over one half of young adults have lived or will live with a partner before marriage. Many studies indicate that the majority of cohabitors plan to marry their partners, yet research examining relationship progression is rare. This article deciphers the processes underlying entrance into informal unions. Data are from 25 open‐ended interviews with cohabitors who had lived together for at least 3 months. For many, the relationship progressed rapidly; over one half moved in with partners within 6 months of initiating romantic relationships. Primary reasons for cohabiting included finances, convenience, and housing needs; cohabiting as a trial marriage was not mentioned as the principal reason for moving in together. Plans for marriage remain abstract even when respondents determine that they and their partners are compatible.     

Work–home conflict and facilitation across four different family structures in Norway

The purpose of this study was to examine how work–home conflict and facilitation vary among people living in different family structures in Norway, here conceptualized as: two-parent families; single parents; childless couples; and singles. The study used data from a Norwegian study on occupational health (N=2414). We hypothesized that respondents living in two-parent families experience more work–home conflict and facilitation than others due to more complex role expectations. Similarly, we hypothesized that the effect of workload and autonomy on work–home conflict and facilitation would be stronger among this group. The results indicate that conflict between work and home life are more profound among those living in two-parent families and among single parents than among childless couples and singles. Work-to-home facilitation did not vary by family structure, whereas the childless couples reported more home-to-work facilitation. Furthermore, with a few exceptions the effects of workload and autonomy on work–home conflict and facilitation did not differ by family structure.     

An Exploratory Investigation of Heterosexual Licensed Domestic Partners

In‐depth telephone interviews were conducted in four cities in an exploratory study of 23 licensed cohabitors to determine why they have chosen to legitimize their intimate unions through domestic partnership ordinances, rather than through legal marriage. The cohabitors in this sample are pursuing these licensed partnerships to obtain an economic benefit (e.g., health insurance coverage for a partner); as a substitute for legal remarriage; to legitimize their unions in a way other than through legal marriage; or as an ideological alternative to legal marriage. Regardless of motivations to pursue domestic partnership certificates, these respondents are divided over whether they should have the same rights and responsibilities as the married.     

The Association Between Partner Enhancement and Self‐Enhancement and Relationship Quality Outcomes

The purpose of this research was to understand in greater detail, using 2 samples (Study 1 N = 4,881 heterosexual couples; Study 2 N = 335 heterosexual couples who completed the Relationship Evaluation Questionnaire), how partner or self‐enhancement patterns differentially influence relationship outcomes. A multivariate analysis of covariance was conducted comparing 4 outcome measures for different couple types in which individuals rated the partner higher, the same, or lower than they rated themselves on affability. Couples in which both individuals perceived themselves as more affable than the partner experienced poorer results on the relationship outcome measures, whereas couples in which both individuals perceived the partner's personality as more affable than their own experienced more positive relationship outcomes. Additional analyses with structural equation models demonstrated the consistent influence of enhancement measures on relationship outcomes for cross‐sectional and longitudinal samples.     

Intergenerational Contact and the Life Course Status of Young Adult Children

This study examined how the life course status of young adults—whether they have a romantic partner and whether they have children—is related to how often they have contact with their parents. Hypotheses were tested using recent data from the Netherlands Kinship Panel Study. The main sample included 1,911 young adults between the ages of 18 and 34. Results suggest that young adults’ entrance into cohabitation and marriage is associated with less face‐to‐face contact with parents. Young adults with children of their own tend to see their parents more frequently than young adults without offspring. Findings are congruent with the family life course perspective, contending that family relationships are related to the life course status of individual family members.     

Is the Partner Who Decides to Divorce More Attractive? A Comparison Between Initiators and Noninitiators

Five hundred eighty divorced individuals from Germany, Italy, and Switzerland provided retrospective reports on the perceived similarities and differences between themselves and their former partner and on their own and their partner's attractiveness. Initiators and noninitiators were compared with regard to these different variables. Results demonstrated that most divorcees perceived themselves to be quite similar to their former partner. Initiating women were more likely than noninitiating women to perceive themselves as different from their former partner in personality, norms, and needs and to evaluate their former partner to be less attractive. Initiating men were more likely than noninitiating men to perceive differences with regard to the personality between themselves and their partners.     

Parenthood and Life Satisfaction: Why Don't Children Make People Happy?

Previous research on the association between parenthood and life satisfaction has shown that parents of minor children are not more satisfied with their lives than childless people. This study addressed the question of why children do not enhance their parents' life satisfaction. A major objective of this study was to determine whether and to what extent the costs of raising children act as suppressors of life satisfaction. The empirical analysis applied fixed‐effects models and used data from the German Socio‐Economic Panel (1994–2010, N = 16,021). The 3 primary findings of this study were that (a) parenthood by itself has substantial and enduring positive effects on life satisfaction; (b) these positive effects are offset by financial and time costs of parenthood; and (c) the impact of these costs varies considerably with family factors, such as the age and number of children, marital status, and the parents' employment arrangements.     

Life satisfaction in midlife childless and empty-nest men and women

The primary purpose of this study was to contrast the life satisfaction of midlife empty-nest and childless individuals. Seventy-two men and women reported on their satisfaction with 11 areas of life as well as with regard to children. Empty-nest individuals were more satisfied than childless persons with regard to their decisions regarding children; however, the childless individuals were not unhappy with their decisions. Empty-nest individuals were also more positive than childless individuals about contact with children. There were no differences between the two groups with regard to areas of life satisfaction not related to children; nor were there significant gender differences in life satisfaction. The results were discussed in relation to both theory and data concerning midlife satisfaction and adjustment.SMS AssociatesThe research was completed by James E. Bell in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the masters of counseling degree at Arizona State University.