Socioeconomic Differences in Multipartner Fertility Among Norwegian Men

This article analyzes male fertility, with a particular focus on multipartner fertility, for cohorts born 1955 to 1984 in Norway. We find that socioeconomically disadvantaged men have the lowest chance of becoming fathers and the lowest likelihood of fathering multiple children in stable unions. Multipartner fertility, on the other hand, is positively associated with both disadvantage and advantage: higher-order birth risks with a new partner are more prevalent among men with low as well as high socioeconomic status. An intervening factor among disadvantaged men may be a higher union dissolution risk, and an elevated risk among advantaged men may be associated with their higher preferences for children and other features that make these men more attractive to women as partners and fathers of future children.     

Examining the Antecedents of U.S. Nonmarital Fatherhood

Despite the dramatic rise in U.S. nonmarital childbearing in recent decades, limited attention has been paid to factors affecting nonmarital fatherhood (beyond studies of young fathers). In this article, we use data from the 2002 National Survey of Family Growth and the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 cohort to examine the antecedents of nonmarital fatherhood, as compared to marital fatherhood. Overall, we find the strongest support across both data sets for education and race/ethnicity as key predictors of having a nonmarital first birth, consistent with prior literature about women’s nonmarital childbearing and about men’s early/teenage fatherhood. Education is inversely related to the risk of nonmarital fatherhood, and minority (especially black) men are much more likely to have a child outside of marriage than white men. We find little evidence that employment predicts nonmarital fertility, although it does strongly (and positively) predict marital fertility. High predicted earnings are also associated with a greater likelihood of marital childbearing but with a lower likelihood of nonmarital childbearing. Given the socioeconomic disadvantage associated with nonmarital fatherhood, this research suggests that nonmarital fatherhood may be an important aspect of growing U.S. inequality and stratification both within and across generations.     

Personal Mastery and Psychological Well-Being Among Young Grandmothers

This study examined the association between relationship quality, personal mastery, and psychological well-being among 83 young Black and White American grandmothers in families with teenage mothers. Interviews were conducted during the early stages of adaptation to grandparenthood due to the birth of a baby to a teenage daughter. Findings indicated that the effects of the mother–daughter relationship are mediated through mastery. When grandmothers feel a sense of mastery, the conflict with the teenage mother is not as detrimental to their psychological health. Findings are discussed in the context of developing supportive services for grandmothers in families with teenage mothers.     

Feminine Purity and Masculine Revenge-Seeking In Taken (2008)

The 2008 film Taken depicts the murderous rampage of an ex-CIA agent seeking to recover his teenage daughter from foreign sex traffickers. I argue that Taken articulates a demand for a white male protector to serve as both guardian and avenger of white women's “purity” against the purportedly violent and sexual impulses of third world men. A neocolonial narrative retold through film, Taken infers that the protection of white feminine purity legitimates both male conquest abroad and overbearing protection of young women at home. I contend that popular films such as Taken are a part of the broader cultural system of representing social reality that elicit popular adherence to common-sense myths of white masculinity, feminine purity, and Orientalism.     

Hazardous journey in intimacy: HIV transmission risk behaviors of young men who are victims of past sexual abuses and who have sexual relations with men

The aim of this research was to explore the behavioral patterns and dynamics that may increase vulnerability towards HIV transmission among young men who have been sexually molested as children and who have sexual relations with men. In recent years, researchers have found that a larger number of gay or bisexual men have been sexually abused as children than other men. In this study, we wanted to explore the possible links between sexual victimization of young men and risky sexual behaviors related to HIV transmission among these men.     

Agricultural Opportunity and Marriage: The United States at the Turn of the Century

This article focuses on the marriage behavior of rural white males in the United States at the turn of the century. The principal goal of the analysis is to assess the role of agricultural opportunity in determining nuptial timing and prevalence. The major issue addressed is whether restricted opportunity in farming retarded entry into marriage. Overall, the findings suggest that rural young men were less likely to enter marriage when local opportunity in agriculture was poor. One mechanism through which the local opportunity structure influenced nuptiality was occupational choice. Young men who entered nonagricultural pursuits or who were employed as farm laborers were far less likely to have married than young men who became farmers.     

Early Childbearing,School Attainment,and Cognitive Skills: Evidence From Madagascar

Female secondary school attendance has recently increased in sub-Saharan Africa, and so has the risk of becoming pregnant while attending school. We analyze the impact of teenage pregnancy on young women’s human capital using longitudinal data in Madagascar that capture the transition from adolescence to adulthood for a cohort aged 21–24 in 2012, first interviewed in 2004. We find that early childbearing increases the likelihood of dropping out of school and decreases the chances of completing secondary school. This pregnancy-related school dropout also has a detrimental impact on standardized test scores in math and French. We instrument early pregnancy with the young woman’s community-level access and her exposure to condoms since age 15 after controlling for pre-fertility socioeconomic conditions. Our results are robust to different specifications that address potential endogeneity of program placement and instrument validity.     

HIV Risk Among Men Who Have Sex with Men Only (MSMO) and Men Who Have Sex with Men and Women (MSMW) in Baltimore

Men who have sex with men and women (MSMW) are at high risk for HIV. However, the majority of research on populations of men who have sex with men (MSM) combines MSMW and men who have sex with men only (MSMO) samples, which limits our understanding of HIV risk behaviors and factors associated with HIV risk among MSMW populations. We used the BESURE-MSM2, a venue-based cross-sectional study of HIV risk behaviors among MSM in Baltimore, MD, to examine HIV risk among MSMW. MSMW were less likely to report unprotected receptive anal intercourse than MSMO (6.8% vs. 19.6%, p = .0024). Among MSMW, 43.0% reported unprotected sex with a woman in the past year, but only 19.4% reported unprotected sex with both men and women, representing only 5.0% of the total MSM sample. In multivariate analyses, we found that among MSMW having unprotected sex with women in the past year, disclosing same sex behavior and having a main female partner were associated with unprotected anal intercourse with male partners. HIV prevention programs for MSMW are needed that address the complex partnerships of MSMW and the social contextual factors within which relationships and behaviors are embedded.     

The relationship between cohabitation and divorce: Selectivity or causal influence?

Recent evidence linking premarital cohabitation to high rates of divorce poses a complex theoretical and empirical puzzle. We develop hypotheses predicting that premarital cohabitation is selective of those who are prone to divorce as well as hypotheses predicting that the experience of premarital cohabitation produces attitudes and values which increase the probability of divorce. Using multiwave panel data from a recent cohort of young men and women in the United States, we specify and test models of these predictions. The results are consistent with hypotheses suggesting that cohabitation is selective of men and women who are less committed to marriage and more approving of divorce. The results also are consistent with the conclusion that cohabiting experiences significantly increase young people's acceptance of divorce.     

Social Networks and Unobserved Heterogeneity in Risk for AIDS

As a sexually transmitted disease, AIDS spreads along social networks; consequently,it is reasonable to propose to utilize these networks in teaching people to avoid practices that put them at increased risk of contracting AIDS. Most obviously, homosexual men are both at relatively high risk of contracting AIDS, and in many urban areas have well crystallized community structures and high social connectivity. We present evidence suggesting that using such social networks can have the unanticipated consequence of reaching a set of men who are at relatively low risk. Evidently, there is great unobserved heterogeneity among the population in terms of risk, and while this heterogeneity is not captured by conventional measures of risk behavior, it is closely linked to network processes.     

HEW devising teen pregnancy plan

In response to the national problem of teenage pregnancy, the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare has been developing a package of programs costing some $245 million to help teenagers avoid pregnancy and to help those who do become pregnant. In an August 4 decision memorandum to Health, Education, and Welfare Secretary Joseph Califano, an interagency task force underlined the 3 problems the initiatives must deal with: 1) adolescents are at high risk of pregnancy; 2) about 300,000 U.S. teenagers receive abortions annually; and 3) pregnancy and parenthood during adolescence pose serious health, economic, and social risks for both the young woman and her child. The decision memorandum recommended that state policies permitting adolescents to receive contraceptives without their parents consent be encouraged. Additionally, the memorandum outlined 9 spending options for the Secretary's consideration. However, in late November the decision memo gained notoriety when the press reported on its support for abortions for teenagers, and the controversial abortion issue obscured 3 other important issues involving Health, Education, and Welfare's teen pregnancy initiative: 1) the mix of funding and where it will come from, 2) the assignment of responsibility for implementation of the package, and 3) the amount of support for family planning services and sex education for teenagers.     

Factors Associated With Emotional Satisfaction During First Anal Intercourse in a Sample of YMSM

ABSTRACT

We sought to determine, in a sample of 2,813 HIV seronegative young men who had sex with other men age 18–24, whether physical satisfaction would explain emotional satisfaction during first anal intercourse and whether emotional satisfaction would impact having sex with a partner a second time. Emotional satisfaction was explained mostly by physical satisfaction during the event, but partner type also had direct impact on emotional satisfaction. Our findings suggest that first anal intercourse experiences in young men are both emotionally and physically satisfying and may impact subsequent sexual behavior and partner decision-making.     

On Holiday: A Risk Behavior Profile for Men Who Have Vacationed at Gay Resorts

Sexual risk behavior is higher when people vacation as compared to when they are at home. The current study uses survey data to compare sexual risk behavior of gay men who vacation at gay resorts to those who do not. Independent predictors of vacationing at gay resorts included income level, relationship status, ever having attended a circuit party, and HIV serostatus. For men who visit resorts to meet sex partners, independent predictors included relationship status, ever having attended a circuit party, HIV serostatus, number of male sex partners in the past six months, and number of anal insertive male partners using a condom. These results show a need for the development of structural interventions in the gay resort and hotel setting.     

Wealth Accumulation Inequality: Does Investment Risk Tolerance and Equity Ownership Drive Wealth Accumulation?

This study examined the savings aspect of wealth accumulation by estimating differences in financial risk tolerance and equity ownership among individual investors. Data were obtained from a proprietary dataset that collected over 15,000 risk-tolerance attitude responses between late 2007 and early 2013. Two research methodologies were utilized: cluster analysis and ANCOVA. The cluster analysis identified four investor profiles: (a) young lower-income women, (b) young unmarried men, (c) young college-educated men, and (d) older men with high income and education. Results from the ANCOVA test indicated that each cluster had significantly different levels of equity ownership, controlling for financial risk tolerance. Results provide a framework and methodology for future research on issues related to wealth inequality, investment behavior, and risk attitudes. The ability to group individuals similarly can be an important tool for researchers, policy makers, social activists, financial advisers, financial counselors, and educators when analyzing the household and macroeconomic wealth profile of United States residents.     

Personality traits and developmental experiences as antecedents of childbearing motivation

Childbearing motivation may be conceptualized as based upon psychological traits and shaped by experiences during childhood, adolescence, and early adult life. This paper explores what those traits and developmental experiences are. Two measures of childbearing motivation, one positive and the other negative, are described. Using a sample of 362 married men and 354 married women, the paper systematically examines the factors associated with these measures. In addition to a set of basic personality traits, these factors include parental characteristics, teenage experiences, and a number of variables from young adult behavior domains such as marriage, education, work, religion, and parental relationships. Stepwise multiple regression analyses lead to two final constrained, simultaneous-equation regression models. These models indicate the importance of both personality traits and diverse life-cycle experiences in the development of childbearing motivation, the differential gender distribution of predictors, and the different experiential antecedents of positive and negative motivation.     

Sex differences in valuations of the environment?

Sexual selection theory affords a rationale for predicting that men, especially young men, may be more willing than women to risk harms and to discount the future in the pursuit of short-term gains. These propositions apply to many domains of risky behavior, and it is likely that they apply to decisions involving potential harms to the environment and health hazards as well. Two preliminary studies of university subjects' responses to hypothetical dilemmas that support the predicted sex difference are described. Important understudied questions are, to what extent reckless risk acceptance may be mitigated by material wellbeing, by marriage, and by parenthood.     

Survey sheds new light on marriage and sexuality in the Philippines

The Young Adults Fertility and Sexuality Study (YAFS-II) was conducted in 1994 by interviewing 10,879 men and women aged 15-24 years in households on dating, marriage, and onset of sexual activity in the Philippines. In addition, screening data were collected on all households visited and on the 959 sampled local communities. Direct questions on premarital sex revealed that at least 52% of married women had sex before marriage. Among married respondents, 57% of men and 51% of women reported having had sex with their spouse before they were married. Only 3% of the women had additional premarital partners vs. 37% of the men. Questions on premarital sex and social patterns showed that about 20% of the single women and 28% of the single men had been in a serious relationship by the time they were 17. By age 20, 44% of the single women and 63% of the single men had been in a serious relationship, while the respective figures by age 24 were 60% and 68%. Altogether 24% of the women and 10% of the men described themselves as married. 34% of all women who either eloped or lived with their spouses had been married in church by the time of the survey, 23% had had civil ceremonies, and 41% designated their marital status as cohabitation. With regard to the risk of HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases, 25% of the 24-year old men who never had a girlfriend reported sexual experience and 22% of those still single at age 24 reported that they had visited a commercial sex worker. Marital status was not the best basis for providing family planning services, and the provision of reproductive health services to young people living in consensual union would reduce accidental pregnancy.     

Double jeopardy: Interaction effects of marital and poverty status on the risk of mortality

The purpose of this paper is to examine the hypothesis that marital and poverty status interact in their effects on mortality risks beyond their main effects. This study examines the epidemiological bases for applying an additive rather than a multiplicative specification when testing for interaction between two discrete risk factors. We specifically predict that risks associated with being nonmarried and with being poor .interact to produce mortality risks that are greater than each risk acting independently. The analysis is based on men and women who were ages 25–74 during the 1971–1975 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey I (NHANES I) and who were traced successfully in the NHANES I Epidemiologic Follow-Up Study in 1982–1984. Overall, being both poor and nonmarried places nonelderly (ages 25–64) men, but not women, at risk of mortality greater than that expected from the main effects. This study shows that for all-cause mortality, marital and poverty status interact for men but less so for women; these findings exist when interaction is assessed with either a multiplicative or an additive standard. This difference is most pronounced for poor, widowed men and (to a lesser degree) poor, divorced men. For violent/accidental deaths among men, the interaction effects are large on the basis of an additive model. Weak main and interaction effects were detected for the elderly (age 65 +).     

The Social Environmental Context of Resilience Among Substance-Using African American/Black Men Who Have Sex With Men

ABSTRACT

Resilience theory has been suggested as a framework for research on HIV prevention among men who have sex with men. Among this population, literature indicates that African American/Black men who have sex with men experience additional health disparities including elevated HIV incidence rates, victimization, and poor physical health. Conceptualizing resilience as a part of one’s social environment, this qualitative study investigates resilience processes and HIV transmission risk among a sample of 21 substance-using African American/Black men who have sex with men. Data from in-depth interviews describe the social environmental context in which resilience is exhibited and document the influence of homophobia, expressions of agency, and access to social, economic, and cultural capital on resilience processes. Central to this are expressions of hidden resilience, in which African American/Black men who have sex with men mitigate risk and experience their lives as subjectively successful, whether or not outsiders see it as such.