Sexuality in Marriage,Dating, and Other Relationships: A Decade Review

In this article, we review the major research advances made during the 1990s in the study of sexuality in marriage and other close relationships. More specifically, we provide a critical review of the empirical findings from the last decade on such sexual phenomena as sexual behavior, sexual satisfaction, and sexual attitudes within the context of marriage, dating, and other committed relationships. After highlighting the major theoretical and methodological advances of the 1990s, we focus on the research literatures of: (1) frequency and correlates of sexual activity in marriage; (2) sexual satisfaction, including its association with general relationship satisfaction; (3) sexuality in gay and lesbian committed relationships; (4) trends in sexual behavior and attitudes in dating relationships; and (5) the role of sexuality in dating relationships. We also incorporate brief reviews of the past decade's research on sexual assault and coercion in marriage and dating and on extramarital sex. We end our decade review with recommendations for the study of sexuality into the next decade.     

Sympathetic Magic and Gambling: Adherence to the Law of Contagion Varies with Gambling Severity

This study assessed adherence to the law of contagion by 118 undergraduate students (39 males). Participants were students who played a slot machine game after viewing a prior player who seemed to be winning (“lucky” condition) or losing (“unlucky” condition). Adherence to the law of contagion was assessed by the selection of the coin holder used by a “lucky” prior player and the avoidance of the coin holder used by an “unlucky” prior player. Contagion varied directly with scores on the Problem Gambling Severity Index and scores on the Luck/Perseverance subscale of the Gamblers’ Belief Questionnaire (Steenbergh et al. in Psychol Addict Behav 16(2):143–149, 2002). Gamblers high in problem severity chose the “lucky” coin holder and avoided the “unlucky” coin holder significantly more than gamblers low in problem severity. Problem gamblers, therefore, exhibit evidence of magical thinking related to the transfer of a “lucky” essence. The same was the case for individuals with a strong level of belief that sheer continuation in gambling (luck perseverance) results in success and for individuals who believe that luck is a personal rather than a situational characteristic. All three variables (problem gambling severity, luck perseverance and personal luck) had direct effects on behavior reflecting irrational magical thinking. A belief that knowledge or skill has a role in successful gaming was unrelated to magical thinking. These findings suggest potential foci for cognitive interventions with problem gamblers and those with non-skill based evidence of irrational thinking.     

Prediction of body fat in older adults by time spent in sedentary behavior

The purpose of the study was to determine the relationship between sedentary behavior (SB), physical activity (PA), and body fat (total, abdominal) or body size (body-mass index [BMI], waist circumference [WC]) in community-dwelling adults 50 yr old and over. This study included 232 ambulatory adults (50-87 yr, 37.4% ± 9.6% body fat [BF]). Average daily time spent in SB (<100 counts/min) and light (100-759 counts/min), lifestyle-moderate (760-1,951 counts/min), walking-moderate (1,952-5,724 cts/min), and vigorous-intensity (≥ 5,725 counts/min) PA were determined by accelerometer and corrected for wear time. BF was measured with dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry. SB was positively related to measures of BF. Measures of SB, PA, and gender accounted for 55.6% of the variance in total BF, 32.4% of the variance in abdominal fat, and 28.0% of the variance in WC. SB, PA, and age accounted for 27.1% of the variance in BMI. Time spent in SB should be considered when designing obesity interventions for adults 50 yr old and over.     

HIV seroprevalence and risk behaviors among clients attending a clinic for the homeless in Miami/Dade County,Florida, 1990–1996

In the early 1990s, HIV seroprevalence was highest at the Miami homeless clinic among 16 homeless sites participating in a nationwide sentinel survey. To examine dynamic seroprevalence patterns in Miami's homeless clients in relation to demographics and risk behaviors over six years, we analyzed data from an unlinked (blinded) serosurvey of clients attending the principal primary care clinic serving Miami's homeless. Data were from 3,797 medical encounters with homeless persons who, on their initial clinic visit within an annual survey period, received routine serologic testing and a risk behavior survey. Overall HIV seroprevalence was 15.9% and infection rates for men (16.4%) and women (14.5%) did not differ. Seroprevalence for blacks (19.9%) was significantly higher than for Hispanics (9.1%) or whites (8.3%) (p < 0.0001). Seroprevalence was 12.6% (35 times the national rate) for clients reporting heterosexual contact as their only risk. Significant increases in seroprevalence, above this heterosexual-contact-only 'baseline', were found for clients disclosing high-risk behaviors: male-to-male sex, drug injection, receiving or giving money/drugs for sex, and sexual contact with a drug injector or HIV-infected partner (p < 0.0001). Seroprevalence declined over six years from 23.2 to 7.2% (p < 0.0001). Significant downward trends were observed for men and women, blacks and Hispanics, men who have sex with men, and clients reporting heterosexual contact. The proportion of clients reporting high-risk behaviors decreased sharply (p < 0.0001). Elevated HIV seroprevalence in Miami's homeless clients was strongly associated with high-risk behaviors. Expansion of HIV prevention and HIV/drug treatment services for homeless persons is strongly recommended.     

Obtaining multistate life table distributions for highly refined subpopulations from cross-sectional data: A bayesian extension of sullivan’s method

Multistate life table methods are often used to estimate the proportion of remaining life that individuals can expect to spend in various states, such as healthy and unhealthy states. Sullivan’s method is commonly used when panels containing data on transitions are unavailable and true multistate tables cannot be generated. Sullivan’s method requires only cross-sectional mortality data and cross-sectional data indicating prevalence in states of interest. Such data often come from sample surveys, which are widely available. Although the data requirements for Sullivan’s method are minimal, the method is limited in its ability to produce estimates for subpopulations because of limited disaggregation of data in cross-sectional mortality files and small cell sizes in aggregated survey data. In this article, we develop, test, and demonstrate a method that adapts Sullivan’s approach to allow the inclusion of covariates in producing interval estimates of state expectancies for any desired subpopulation that can be specified in the cross-sectional prevalence data. The method involves a three-step process: (1) using Gibbs sampling to sample parameters from a bivariate regression model; (2) using ecological inference for producing transition probability matrices from the Gibbs samples; (3) using standard multistate calculations to convert the transition probability matrices into multistate life tables.     

Flat rate taxes and relative poverty measurement

We provide a systematic analysis of the impact of revenue-neutral changes to the parameters of a flat rate tax system on the level of relative poverty (where the poverty line is some fraction of either the mean or the median post-tax income level). We also perform a similar analysis for a negative income tax system. We find that the choice of poverty line type has important consequences in respect of how changes to the tax parameters affect the level of relative poverty. Our results are illustrated with a numerical simulation, in which we allow the pre-tax income distribution to be either given exogenously or determined endogenously.     

An exploratory investigation of marital functioning and order of spousal onset in couples concordant for psychopathology

Individuals with a psychiatric disorder are significantly more likely to have a spouse with a clinical diagnosis--marital concordance. We used a community sample of 304 couples concordant for either major depressive disorder (MDD) or substance use disorders (SUDs) to examine the relationship between marital functioning and gendered patterns of mental health diagnosis onset. For SUD concordance, couples in which wives onset before husbands--despite typical later onset for men--reported lower levels of marital satisfaction compared with couples in which the husband onset first. For MDD concordance, couples in which husbands onset with depression before wives--despite typical later onset for men--reported lower levels of marital satisfaction. These results suggest that for couples concordant for mental diagnoses, it is most problematic for marital functioning for one partner to have an atypically early onset. Implications for treatment targets in marital therapy are discussed.     

Multiple exemplar instruction and the emergence of generative production of suffixes as autoclitic frames

We report 2 experiments that tested the effects of multiple exemplar instruction (MEI) across training sets on the emergence of productive autoclitic frames (suffixes) for 6 preschoolers with and without language-based disabilities. We implemented multiple exemplar tact instruction with subsets of stimuli whose "names" contained the suffix "-er" denoting the comparative form of adjectives. Subsets of stimuli included regular, irregular, and contrived tacts containing the target relational autoclitic frame in order to determine if our MEI procedure would induce the abstraction of the frame across all stimulus sets. In the second experiment, additional tasks were introduced to the participants to control for a possible sequence effect. A nonconcurrent multiple probe design was used to evaluate the functional relation between MEI and emergence of untaught tact responses containing the comparative adjective "-er." The results of both experiments showed relations between MEI and novel, untaught tact responses containing the target autoclitic frame; the second experiment showing a functional relation. The results are discussed in terms of environmental sources for productive verbal behavior.     

White Flight Revisited: A Multiethnic Perspective on Neighborhood Out-Migration

Using geo-linked data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics and the decennial census, we compare probabilities of neighborhood out-migration for Anglos, blacks, Mexicans, Puerto Ricans, and Cubans by varying ethno-racial neighborhood compositions. Analyses for Latinos are disaggregated by nativity status. The results indicate that Anglos have a higher likelihood of moving when they have many minority neighbors and there is little difference whether minority neighbors are black or Latino. Among minorities there is some evidence of “minority flight” from whiter neighborhoods. Cubans, especially foreign-born Cubans, demonstrate the strongest propensity to flee neighborhoods with large black populations, whereas the probability of moving out decreases for Mexicans and Puerto Ricans when their neighbors are more likely to be black. Ethno-racial neighborhood composition has little effect on blacks’ decision to leave their neighborhood.