Family Formation and Close Social Ties Within Religious Congregations

The study of family and religion has yet to elaborate on the social ties that connect these two important and changing institutions. Specifically, how does family formation (i.e., marriage and childrearing) impact social ties to religious communities? Using longitudinal data from the Portraits of American Life Study (2006–2012) and fixed effects regression models that control for time‐stable heterogeneity (N = 1,314), this study tests the effects of marriage and childrearing on changes in close congregational social ties. Fixed effects estimates suggest that marriage actually decreases close social ties to religious congregations, whereas rearing children within marital unions increases them. Thus, it is children, not marriage per se, that actually integrates married couples into religious communities. These contrasting effects tend to be the strongest among young adults, but they weaken with age as well as marital duration.     

Integrative and Masking Emotion Work: Marital Outcomes Among Dual-Earner Couples

This study redresses a gap in the literature concerning the outcomes of emotion work by exploring how both integrative and masking emotion work relate to marital quality and marital conflict. Using data from a random sample of dual-earner couples in a northeastern city in an upper Midwestern state (n = 99 couples), this study explores the emotion-work performance of each partner. The findings show that men’s integrative emotion work is only significantly associated with men’s marital quality, whereas men’s masking emotion work significantly predicts their partner’s marital quality, men’s marital quality, and men’s marital conflict. Women’s integrative emotion work is significantly associated with women’s marital quality and their partner’s marital conflict, whereas women’s masking emotion work predicts women’s marital quality and marital conflict. Altogether, the findings suggest that considering both masking and integrative emotion work helps gain a fuller understanding of how emotion work shapes marital outcomes.     

Is giving or receiving psychologically beneficial to older mothers in South Korea? Importance of marital status

In order to understand intergenerational financial transfers and subjective well-being for older mothers, this study argues that marital status is an important factor to be considered. Using the first wave of the Korean Longitudinal Study of Aging (KLoSA), this study finds that married older mothers report higher levels of life satisfaction when they provide economic support but widowed older mothers feel higher levels of life satisfaction when they receive economic support. Also, regular or irregular financial support appears to also matter in the associations between financial support and life satisfaction. These findings suggest that married and widowed older mothers have different viewpoints about the parent-children relationship.     

试论双回路维稳模型

社会领域也存在某种惯性趋势,即社会趋稳性。这一概念的提出旨在说明,一切不稳定的产生,必定是受到某种作用力的结果。而社会趋稳性与变动力量的结合,便会造成不同程度的反作用力。这种反弹行为在实践中很容易被界定为＂不稳定因素＂。由于维稳的主客体都是人,而＂人是需求动物＂,所以,维稳的具体政策若不能够融入人的思考、理解及感情,将很难实现人际有效的沟通,进而妨碍动态稳定的实现。以组织平衡理论、需求层次理论、安全阀理论及组织学习理论为基础的双回路维稳模型的提出,旨在强调人类需求、基本秩序以及自然法则在维稳中的关键作用。     

Developmental Patterns in Marital Satisfaction: Another Look at Covenant Marriage

This study investigated differences in the trajectory of marital satisfaction in the first 7 years between couples in covenant versus standard marriages. The authors analyzed data on 707 Louisiana marriages from the Marriage Matters Panel Survey of Newlywed Couples, 1998–2004, using multivariate longitudinal growth modeling. When the sample was restricted to couples who remained married over the duration of the study, a marginal benefit of covenant status was found for husbands. This effect was largely accounted for by covenant husbands' more extensive exposure to premarital counseling. The linear decline in marital satisfaction over time that obtained for both husbands and wives was not, however, any different for covenant marriages versus standard marriages. Couples characterized by more traditional attitudes toward gender roles were significantly less satisfied than others. High premarital risk factors, initial uncertainty about marrying the spouse, and the presence of preschool‐age children in the household were all corrosive of marital satisfaction at any given time.     

Premarital Cohabitation and Marital Dissolution: An Examination of Recent Marriages

An ongoing question remains for family researchers: Why does a positive association between cohabitation and marital dissolution exist when one of the primary reasons to cohabit is to test relationship compatibility? Drawing on recently collected data from the 2006–2008 National Survey of Family Growth, the authors examined whether premarital cohabitation experiences were associated with marital instability among a recent contemporary (married since 1996) marriage cohort of men (N = 1,483) and women (N = 2,003). They found that a dichotomous indicator of premarital cohabitation was in fact not associated with marital instability among women and men. Furthermore, among cohabitors, marital commitment prior to cohabitation (engagement or definite plans for marriage) was tied to lower hazards of marital instability among women, but not men. This research contributes to our understanding of cohabitation, marital instability, and broader family change.     

All Shook Up: Sexuality of Mid- to Later Life Married Couples

The authors integrate theoretical work on the performance of gender with a life course perspective to frame an analysis of in-depth interviews with 17 long-term married couples. The findings indicated that couples' sexual experiences are characterized by change over time, yet that change is shaped by the intersection of gender and age. Midlife couples (ages 50 - 69) were distressed by changes in their sex lives likely because they impede couples from performing gendered sexuality. The source of this distress stems from age-related physical changes; however, it manifests in different ways for husbands and wives. In contrast, later life couples (ages 70 - 86) were more likely to emphasize the importance of emotional intimacy over sex as they age. Marital sex is a source of conflict for many midlife couples because of husbands' and wives' incongruent experiences, but later life husbands and wives tend to have more congruent experiences of marital sex.     

当前中国群体性事件的政治学思考——基于亨廷顿政治稳定理论的视角

亨廷顿政治稳定理论认为,现代性孕育着稳定,而现代化却滋生着动乱.为了实现现代化进程中的政治稳定,要建设强大政府,保持政治参与水平与政治制度化的平衡发展.该理论对于理解当前中国群体性事件,解决当前中国发展与稳定问题具有借鉴意义:必须强化执政党的执政力能力建设,树立政治权威,建设有能力推动经济持续较快发展、促进社会公平正义、制衡政治参与需求、化解社会危机的强大政府.同时,要积极推进政治体制改革,使群众政治参与和政治制度化在更高水平上保持相对均衡、和谐.     

夫妻权利与婚姻满意度关系研究——基于2006全国综合调查的数据分析

根据2006年全国综合调查（CGSS2006）的数据,本文探讨了夫妻权利运行的三个要素：权力基础（教育差、年收入差）;权利过程（互诉烦恼、对钱不同意见频率）;权利结果（家务差、家庭事务决定权）对婚姻满意度的具体影响。多元回归分析表明：权利过程是影响婚姻满意度最重要的环节,其中配偶向被访者诉说烦恼和对钱不同意见频率都有显著影响：教育差虽也有一定的负向显著度,但其影响程度较小;夫妻年收入差、家务差和家庭事务决定权并无显著性。     

政治与经济:中国改革的可能走向

经济发展与社会稳定为何呈现出"负相关"的关系?学术界的主流形成了三类具有代表性的分析框架:"宪政转型"、"体制落后"和"分配不公"。这三类框架具有各自的特点和局限性。在马克思的理论框架中,关于经济发展与社会稳定的关系背后,隐藏着一个更为深刻的相关性:经济基础与上层建筑之间的关系。这与主流观点有着本质的区别。对于中国当下的现实,马克思的分析框架有着极为深刻的解释力。这种解释的要义在于:(1)经济发展与经济基础的变化是同一过程的两个方面;(2)经济基础的变化必然要求上层建筑与之相适应;(3)经济基础与上层建筑的内在张力必然催生相应的政治诉求;(4)经济发展与社会稳定之间的"负相关",正是这种"政治诉求"没有得到有效满足的表现。因此,在经济基础日趋多元化的背景下,既要强化共产党的执政地位,又要确保市场化的改革方向。这个难题如何解决,不仅对中国未来的改革构成了巨大挑战,也将决定中国未来几十年甚至上百年的前途命运。