Of Sex and Romance: Late Adolescent Relationships and Young Adult Union Formation

To better understand the social factors that influence the diverse pathways to family formation young adults experience today, this research investigates the association between opposite‐gender relationships during late adolescence and union formation in early adulthood. Using data from the first and third waves of the Add Health (n= 4,911), we show that, for both men and women, there is continuity between adolescent and adult relationship experiences. Those involved in adolescent romantic relationships at the end of high school are more likely to marry and to cohabit in early adulthood. Moreover, involvement in a nonromantic sexual relationship is positively associated with cohabitation, but not marriage. We conclude that the precursors to union formation patterns in adulthood are observable in adolescence.     

Political correctness and multiculturalism: Who supports PC?

What is the nature and content of political correctness and multiculturalism? Are both these movements solely products of left-wing politics masquerading as an effort to create more racial, sexual, ethnic, and religious diversity throughout social institutions in the name of fairness and equity or are these movements addressing legitimate concerns about tolerance and equality? What of right-wing allegations that information used by proponents of these two movements is biased? What are the social and political implications of these movements and the relationship between economics and multiculturalism? Finally, why is there such controversy surrounding these movements, and who is in fact the opposition? These are some of the questions addressed in this essay.     

Foster Parents and Long-Term Placements: Key Findings from a Northern Ireland Study

SUMMARY: This article draws on the findings of a recent Northern Ireland Study on planned long-term foster care placements which it sets in both an all Ireland and a UK context. The article focuses on the aspirations and experiences of what the study found to be a very traditional group of foster parents. The article also identifies and discusses the implications of this type of foster carer for the development of the service.     

Nonverbal cues to deception among intimates,friends, and strangers

Buller and Burgoon (in press) propose that deceivers attempt to encode strategically nonverbal cues which indicate nonimmediacy and project a positive image. At the same time, deceivers leak arousal and negative affect via their nonverbal display. This experiment tested these predictions, while examining the influence of relational history on deception cues and the stability of deception cues within deceptive conversations. The nonverbal behavior of 130 strangers, friends, and intimates was measured. Results indicated that deceivers signalled nonimmediacy, arousal, and negative affect, but they did not appear to project a positive image. Deception cues were mediated by relational history and showed considerable temporal variation. Strangers leaked more arousal and negative affect than friends and intimates. Further, deceivers, particularly deceiving friends and intimates, seemed to monitor and control their nonverbal behavior during deception by suppressing arousal and negative affect cues and moderating nonimmediate behavior.     

Estimation of contraceptive continuation functions

Abstract-Evidence from Puerto Rico supports the hypothesis that the continuation rate has a decay form rather than a reciprocal form. As indicated in the literature, there was evidence that the continuation rate tends to vary not only with time but also with the age of the patient at acceptance. It was found that the fit of the continuation function could be improved substantially by making the effective decay rate an exponential function of age. Theoretical reasoning was presented to justify these empirical results.