The Substitution Hypothesis: The Impact of Premarital Liaisons and Human Capital on Marital Timing

Nonmarital romantic and sexual relationships occur concurrently with the human capital acquisition process and contribute to delaying or forgoing marriage. Event history analysis is used to model the marital hazard rate of 341 White women born between 1960 and 1963 in a Western metropolitan area. In addition to family background, adolescent characteristics, and employment and educational histories, the structure of the women's premarital liaisons is shown to play an important role in the timing of first marriage. The greater a woman's involvement in nonmarital romantic and sexual activity, the less likely she is to be married by age 27–30. Human capital characteristics and the dynamics of relationship histories operate independently to explain marital timing. This supports the theory that women substitute premarital liaisons for marriage early in the adult life course. However, there is no evidence that highly educated women, or those who are students, are more or less likely to do so than others.     

A note on the asymptotic distribution of the maximum likelihood estimator for the scalar skew-normal distribution

We consider likelihood based inference for the parameter of a skew-normal distribution. One of the problems shown by this model is the singularity of the Fisher information matrix when skewness is absent. We derive the rate of convergence to the asymptotic distribution of the maximum likelihood estimator and study an alternative parameterization which overcomes problems related to the singularity of the information matrix.     

Mothers and Fathers in the Workplace: How Gender and Parental Status Influence Judgments of Job-Related Competence

We investigated the influence of gender and parental status on employment decisions. The shifting standards model predicts that parenthood polarizes judgments of women and men such that mothers are held to stricter employment standards than fathers. Social role theory predicts that parenting role, rather than gender, guides judgments of mothers and fathers. One hundred ninety-six undergraduates at two universities evaluated a job applicant; the applicant was either male or female and was either single or married with two children. Results showed that parents were judged less agentic and less committed to employment than non-parents. Parental status also interacted with gender, indicating that fathers were held to more lenient standards than mothers and childless men. We discuss theoretical and practical implications.     

ECONOMIC ROULETTE

Complementing previous literature on welfare reform and the character of jobs in the low-wage labour market, we illustrate the lack of regularity and security that mark the jobs held by many low-income mothers. To do so, we present a typology of mothers’ work patterns and illustrate their experiences through case examples. Our qualitative analysis of longitudinal pathways-to-work in three cities involved an examination of the experiences of 99 diverse, low-income working mothers with a young child. The work patterns that emerged from this analysis include: continuous duration of a single job; multiple job spells; underemployment; and churning in and out of employment. Findings indicate that a complicated ‘coming together’ of well-paying stable jobs, consistent aid from public systems and stable family networks are necessary for mothers to take even the first steps into stable employment.     

Attachments to Family and Community and the Young Adult Transition of Rural Youth

Rural youth in economically troubled regions develop plans for their future in a context in which opportunities for educational and occupational success generally lie elsewhere, prompting the need to migrate. This study investigates the links between rural adolescents' residential preferences and their plans for the future, perceptions of local opportunity, and ties to family and community. We examine whether residential preferences shape the pathways to adulthood through decisions about where to live as well as educational and occupational attainments. Residential preferences are indeed related to adolescents' academic achievements and future educational plans, their relationships with parents, and perceptions of local job opportunities, but they are not associated with family socioeconomic background and social ties to the community. For the most part, residential preferences are linked to where young people live and pursue higher education in the years after high school, but generally not to their socioeconomic attainment.     

Patterns of abuse in male same-sex relationships

Previous studies of abuse in male same-sex relationships have been limited by convenience samples and/or by incomplete assessments of partner abuse. We examined patterns of same-sex partner abuse in a random sample of 284 gay and bisexual men. Respondents reported on perpetration and receipt of physical, psychological, and sexual abuse over multiple time frames, as well as injuries resulting from abuse. Almost all respondents reported psychological abuse, more than one-third reported physical abuse, and 10% reported having engaged in unwanted sexual activity because of partner force or threats of force. More than half of recipients of partner violence reported sustaining injury. We found strong associations between different forms of abuse, and between severity of abuse receipt and perpetration.     

Relationship Churning,Physical Violence,and Verbal Abuse in Young Adult Relationships

Young adults' romantic relationships are often unstable, commonly including breakup –reconcile patterns. From the developmental perspective of emerging adulthood exploration, such relationship “churning” is expected; however, minor conflicts are more common in churning relationships. Using data from the Toledo Adolescent Relationships Study (N = 792), the authors tested whether relationship churning is associated with more serious conflict, such as physical violence and verbal abuse. Couples who were stably broken up (breakup only—no reconciliation) were similar to those who were stably together in their conflict experiences. In contrast, churners (i.e., those involved in on/off relationships) were twice as likely as those who were stably together or stably broken up to report physical violence and half again as likely to report the presence of verbal abuse in their relationships; this association between churning and conflict held net of a host of demographic, personal, and relationship characteristics. These findings have implications for our better understanding of unhealthy relationship behaviors.     

Evidence-Based <Emphasis Type="Italic">Practices</Emphasis> Do Not Exist

The original process model of evidence-based practice (EBP) is described, and contrasted with the empirically supported treatments (EST) initiative which designated selected interventions as meeting some evidentiary benchmark (e.g., supported by two-well-designed randomized controlled trials). EBP does not utilize lists of ESTs, and designating a given psychotherapy as empirically supported is actually antithetical to the EBP decision-making process. Much of the resistance to EBP within social work may be attributable to confusion between EBP as it was originally conceived as a mutual decision-making process occurring between the clinician and the client, and the promulgation of lists of EST and the subsequent urging that social workers select their psychotherapies from such lists. The latter is not scientifically justifiable, nor does it taken into account other variables crucial to EBP, such as professional values, clinical expertise, client preferences and values, and available resources. EBP as it was originally conceived has much to add to the practice of clinical social work.