Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Our Family Functions: Functions Of Traditional Weddings For Modern Brides And Postmodern Families, Medora W. Barnes

Medora W. Barnes

In many ways the continued popularity of traditional weddings in the United States may seem surprising in light of the increased rates of divorce, cohabitation, and non-marital child-bearing in the latter half of the twentieth century, which have accompanied the rise of what has come to be called the "postmodern" family. This research draws upon in-depth interviews with twenty white, middle class women who recently had traditional weddings and explores the connections between the postmodern family context and the desirability of traditional weddings. Specifically, it examines how traditional functions of formal weddings are still relevant within contemporary society. Findings indicate …

Same-Sex Sexuality And The Duration Of First Marriages, Aaron Hoy, Andrew S. London

Sociology Department Publications

No abstract provided.

Exploring Men's Motivations And Restraints In Repeated Extramarital Sex, Casey Marie Stinley

MSU Graduate Theses

The influence of extramarital sex (EMS) on marriage has been a topic of discussion in the research community for over 30 years. This thesis explored the influences that drive the EMS participants’ decisions, whether to abstain, continue while in the marriage, or to leave the marriage, and, those influences that affect whether they later participate in EMS or not. This study also used individual semi-structured interviews of ex-husbands who have participated in EMS in the past, as well as husbands who are participating in EMS currently. The four men interviewed were from southwest Missouri. The interviews were reviewed to identify …

Love, Money, And Parental Goods: Does Parental Matchmaking Matter?, Fali Huang, Ginger Zhe Xu, Lixin Colin Xu

Research Collection School Of Economics

While parental matchmaking has been widespread throughout history and across countries, we know little about the relationship between parental matchmaking and marriage outcomes. Does parental involvement in matchmaking help ensure their needs are better taken care of by married children? This paper finds supportive evidence using a survey of Chinese couples. In particular, parental involvement in matchmaking is associated with having a more submissive wife, a greater number of children, a higher likelihood of having any male children, and a stronger belief of the husband in providing old age support to his parents. These benefits, however, are achieved at the …

The Metaphorical Use Of Marriage In Scripture: A Pentecostal Exploration, Stetson Glass

Masters of Theological Studies

The biblical writers utilize the metaphor of marriage to describe the relationship between God and humanity. Within this imagery, the people of God are often depicted as a bride. This thesis contributes to an understanding of the metaphor of marriage in Scripture by analyzing the socio-historical wedding practices of ancient Judaism. The use of the metaphor in both Old and New Testaments is examined, followed by an analysis of bridal language in early Pentecostal periodical literature. It concludes with a constructive Pentecostal ecclesiology structured on the characters and the stages found within the typical Jewish wedding.

Same-Sex Sexuality And The Risk Of Divorce: Results From Two National Studies, Andrew S. London, Aaron Hoy

Sociology Department Publications

No abstract provided.

Same-Sex Sexuality And The Duration Of First Different-Sex Marriages, Aaron Hoy, Andrew London

Sociology - All Scholarship

Recent research has focused on the once-married and associations between various aspects of same-sex sexuality (i.e., desire/attraction, behavior and identity) and divorce from a different-sex spouse. In this paper, we theorize that same-sex sexuality could be associated with either shorter or longer marital duration, and we use data from the 2011-2013 National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG) to examine the associations between three aspects of same-sex sexuality and marital duration among those who married and divorced once (N=617). Among the once-married/divorced, same-sex sexuality substantially reduces marital duration by approximately 18-24 months, on average, net of other variables. Supplemental analyses indicate …

Empowering Women And Addressing Marital Violence Through Self-Help Groups: Evidence From Rural Bihar—Policy Brief, K.G. Santhya, Shireen J. Jejeebhoy

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

In recognition of the need to reverse gender disparities, India has instituted numerous policies, laws, and programs intended to empower women and to protect women from violence. However, evidence on what works and what does not work to change notions of masculinity and femininity, reverse the widespread acceptability of marital violence at community level, and reduce women’s experience of intimate partner violence remains limited in the country. The Do Kadam Barabari Ki Ore (Two Steps Towards Equality) was implemented among married women who were members of self-help groups (SHGs) and their husbands. The Population Council together with partners implemented the …

Empowering Women And Addressing Violence Against Them Through Self-Help Groups (Shgs), Shireen J. Jejeebhoy, K.G. Santhya, Rajib Acharya, A.J. Francis Zavier, Neelanjana Pandey, Santosh Kumar Singh, Komal Saxena, Shilpi Rampal, Sharmistha Basu, Aparajita Gogoi, Madhu Joshi, Sandeep Ojha

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

This report details results of a program implemented by the Population Council, together with the Centre for Catalyzing Change and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine: Do Kadam Barabari Ki Ore (Two Steps Towards Equality). The primary objective of the program was to test whether strengthening existing village-level self-help groups (SHGs); orienting members on violence against women and girls, and supporting them in prevention activities; and helping women who experience violence had changed their gender-role attitudes and reduced the experience of marital violence. On the whole, findings show that the program was acceptable and effective in many ways. …

Family Life And Divorce In Nevada, Katherine Hertlein Ph.D., Anita Horvath, Julia Seyferth-Smith

Social Health of Nevada Reports

This chapter surveys family life and divorce in Nevada. Its main goal is to provide readers with a broad understanding of marriage patterns and divorce trends in the Silver State. After presenting history and marriage dynamics in the United Sates, the authors review wedding-related expenses and present data illuminating the differences between Nevada and other states, as well as provide cross-county comparisons.

This report discusses legal grounds for divorce in Nevada, the no-fault procedures governing the divorce process, the custody issues facing the divorcing spouses, and the circumstances under which alimony may be due to parties involved in a divorce …

“We Are Two Of The Lucky Ones”: Experiences With Marriage And Wellbeing For Same-Sex Couples, Heather R. Kennedy, Rochelle L. Dalla, Steven Dreesman

Department of Child, Youth, and Family Studies: Faculty Publications

Happy marriages provide protective health benefits, and social support is a key factor in this association. However, previous research indicates one of the greatest differences between same-and different-sex couples is less social support for same-sex couples. Our goal was to examine the extent to which formal markers of couple status (e.g., marriage) impact wellbeing among same-sex married partners. Using a mixed-methods approach, data were collected from 218 primarily White gay and lesbian individuals in the Midwest. Quantitative analysis revealed individuals in a prior formal union with a different-sex partner reported the lowest levels of sexuality specific social support and acceptance. …

Exploring The Lives Of Women Who Lead, Susan Cloninger

Antioch University Full-Text Dissertations & Theses

Scholars have identified various reasons for the underrepresentation of women in the upper echelons of organizations.This study used grounded theory methodology enhanced by situational analysis to explore how American women at senior levels in large organizational contexts engage and negotiate the totality of their situation.Utilizing a predominately White, married, middle to upper class, heterosexual sample, this study sought to understand how women create and consign meaning around their experiences; how they experience the fluidity and boundaries of multiple identities; and how they experience the entanglement of macro, meso, and micro societal forces.It explores relationships among factors participants named as influential …

Marriage And Materialism: Actor And Partner Effects Between Materialism, Importance Of Marriage, And Marital Satisfaction, Ashley B. Lebaron, David B. Allsop, E. Jeffrey Hill, Brian J. Willoughby, Sonya L. Britt-Lutter

Journal of Financial Therapy

Drawing upon both the incompatibility of materialism and children model and marital paradigms theory, the purpose of the current study was to examine husband-wife actor and partner effects between materialism and marital satisfaction and to explore perception of the importance of marriage as a mediator of these relationships. Using a sample of 706 couples from the RELATE dataset, wives’ materialism negatively predicted both their own marital satisfaction as well as their husbands’ marital satisfaction. However, when controlling for financial problems in marriage, these effects became non-significant. Additionally, upon adding both wives’ and husbands’ importance of marriage (as well as combined …

Changing Attitudes Towards Marriage And Family In The United States, Sandra Pickard

The Journal of Undergraduate Research

In this study, I cross-tabulated findings with both age and gender to see if attitudes towards marriage, such as when marriage should occur, what roles children play in the marriage, and the significance of marriage in society, were changing from one generation to the next and if men and women were affected equally by this change using data from an online survey that I conducted (n=128). The research revealed that attitudes are shifting slowly regarding marriage and the place of children in marriage. The change is most pronounced in what we see as the function of marriage, the acceptance of …

Married Young Women And Girls' Family Planning And Maternal Heath Preferences And Use In Ethiopia, Aparna Jain, Elizabeth Tobey, Hussein Ismail, Annabel Erulkar

Reproductive Health

Married young women and girls are the primary users of youth-centered sexual and reproductive health services in Ethiopia and, given the health risks associated with early and closely-spaced pregnancies, represent an especially important population to reach with sexual and reproductive health services. This brief looks specifically at the needs and preferences for family planning and reproductive health services among married young women and girls, with recommendations for how to more effectively ensure that they have access to those services.

Book Review: The Seven Principles For Making Marriage Work, Neal Van Zutphen

Journal of Financial Therapy

The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work is a relationship self-help book for individuals who have chosen to be in a relationship and also those who aspire to be in a relationship. This book has proven helpful to those in relationship counseling and coaching professions as well. The book covers why marriages work and why they fail. The seven principles provide the roadmap to ways of being together and methods for resolving conflicts and solving problems, including money.

Outliving Love: Marital Estrangement In An African Insurance Market, Casey Golomski

Anthropology

Marital estrangement and formal divorce are vital conjunctures for married women’s kinship relations and life course, where a horizon of future possibilities are revalued and negotiated at the interstices of custom, law, and social and ritual obligations. In this article, after delineating the forms of customary and civil marriage and the possibilities for divorce or estrangement from each, I describe how some married women in Swaziland and South Africa mediate this complex social field for their children and families through pensions and continuing to pay for their partners’ insurance coverage. This was not solely out of avarice to reap future …

The Deception Of Depression: How A Melancholy Mood Can Sink A Marriage, Jason B. Whiting

Faculty Publications

Logan was a doctoral student studying ancient Italian poetry. His life was filled with shelves of old books and a teaching job where he was supposed to inspire lethargic freshmen. His doctoral adviser was difficult and inconsistent, and Logan was a people- pleaser who worried that his adviser and students were always upset with him. He came to see me at the request of his wife, Yuko, who was starting to panic at his change in personality. “He used to be cheerful, fun-loving, and interested in his work,” she said. “Now he is a zombie. He goes through the motions …

Dossier De Recherche No. 18 - Mariage Ou Union Libre: Aucun Impact Sur La Réussite, Solène Lardoux, David Pelletier

Population Change and Lifecourse Strategic Knowledge Cluster Research/Policy Brief

Dans la société québécoise, l’union libre est devenue une alternative au mariage comme cadre de formation des familles. Cependant, très peu de recherches ont comparé le développement des enfants de parents en union libre et de parents mariés. De même, les effets de la séparation d’une union libre et d’un mariage ont rarement été distingués les uns des autres. Avec un échantillon représentatif de 1347 enfants provenant de l’Étude longitudinale du développement des enfants du Québec (ÉLDEQ), cette étude regarde les liens entre l’état matrimonial des parents à la naissance de l’enfant, la survenue d’une rupture conjugale et le rendement …

Mentors Prepare Couples For Marriage Success, Michelle (Cummings) Solomon

Staff Publications

No abstract provided.

“Whatever God Has Yoked Together, Let No Man Put Apart:” The Effect Of Religion On Black Marriages, Cassandra Chaney Phd, Lucy Shirisia, Linda Skogrand

Faculty Publications

This qualitative study examined how religion strengthened the marriages of three (n = 6) African American couples. An ancillary purpose of this study is to examine the extent that spirituality influences the marriages of these couples. Through the use of a family-strengths framework, this study examined how a religious orientation (Hill, 1968) stabilized Black marriages. Qualitative analysis revealed the following four themes: (1) Religion is The Foundation of the Marriage; (2) Couples Consistently Practiced their Religion; (3) Couples Turned to Religion during Difficult Times; and (4) Religion Transcended Race. The findings indicate these couples practiced their religion …

South African Marriage In Policy And Practice: A Dynamic Story, Michael W. Yarbrough

Publications and Research

Law forms one of the major structural contexts within which family lives play out, yet the precise dynamics connecting these two foundational institutions are still poorly understood. This article attempts to help bridge this gap by applying sociolegal concepts to empirical findings about state law's role in family, and especially in marriage, drawn from across several decades and disciplines of South Africanist scholarly research. I sketch the broad outlines of a nuanced theoretical approach for analysing the law-family relationship, which insists that the relationship entails a contingent and dynamic interplay between relatively powerful regulating institutions and relatively powerless regulated populations. …

Understanding Married Women's Vulnerability To Hiv Infection In Egypt: An Exploratory Study, Doaa Oraby, Nahla G. Abdel-Tawab

Reproductive Health

This study examines the behavioral, sociocultural, economic, programmatic, and legal factors that aggravate Egyptian women’s vulnerabilities to HIV/AIDS. The study concludes that in low-prevalence settings like Egypt, targeted interventions are the most strategic and cost-effective: for example, HIV awareness-raising with a special focus on the preventive role of consistent, correct condom use, and creating a cadre of peers that could provide psychosocial support and HIV counseling to migrant workers. Furthermore, premarital and antenatal care programs should include HIV awareness-raising and provider-initiated counseling and testing after screening of women to identify those at risk for HIV infection. Concurrently, efforts should be …

College-Educated, African American Women's Marital Choices, Katherine M. Oliver

Theses and Dissertations--Family Sciences

This study explores the desire to marry, marriageable mate criteria, and marital choices/options as they pertain to college-educated, African American women within today’s society. A purposive, nationally based sample (N = 95) of never married, college-educated, African American women (i.e., 18 to 40 years of age) was gathered via an online survey accessed by an emailed link. A mixed methods approach was utilized within the survey design, followed by data analyses (i.e., frequencies, two-way analyses) interpreted through a theoretical framework of social exchange. Areas discussed include life goals of marriage, cohabitation, and career; romantic barriers; the perceived availability of …

When Not To "Tie The Knot”: A Study Of Exogamous Marriage In Ezra-Nehemiah Against The Backdrop Of Biblical Legal Tradition, Gerald A. Klingbeil

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Relational Aggression/Victimization And Depression In Married Couples, Christine Marie Cramer

Theses and Dissertations

The current study investigates the correlates of partner-directed relational aggression in married couples. In particular, this study looks at the connection between romantic relational aggression and the personal outcome of depression. Both the experience of victimization and perpetration of romantic relational aggression are considered. Victimization may be linked to depression through the concept of the “looking glass self” and reflected appraisals. Aggression, in contrast, may be linked to depression through dissatisfaction with one’s own aggressive tendencies in the relationship and a lack of “relational self-esteem”. Couples who completed the RELATE assessment were asked to report on their partner’s engagement in …

Early Adult Transitions In Canada: Expectations, Stability And Change, Laura Wright

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The transition to adulthood is a much longer and less structured process for more recent generations than for those who came of age before the 1960s. Median age at first marriage has been increasing, cohabitation has become more prevalent, the role of cohabitation in the partnering process has changed, and young adults tend to live with their parents longer. This dissertation presents three studies of how new cohorts of Canadian youth are leaving home and starting their conjugal lives. I apply event history techniques using the 2011 General Social Survey, the most recent available data on the union and home-leaving …

Ebony And Ivory? Interracial Dating Intentions And Behaviors Of Disadvantaged African American Women In Kentucky, David J. Luke, Carrie B. Oser

Sociology Faculty Publications

Using data from 595 predominantly disadvantaged African American women in Kentucky, this study examines perceptions about racial/ethnic partner availability, cultural mistrust, and racism as correlates of interracial dating intentions and behaviors with both white and Hispanic men. Participants reported levels of dating intentions and behaviors were significantly higher with whites than Hispanics. The multivariate models indicate less cultural mistrust and believing it is easier to find a man of that racial/ethnic category were associated with higher interracial dating intentions. Women were more likely to have dated a white man if they believed it was easier to find a white man …

Too Materialistic To Get Married And Have Children?, Norman P. Li, Amy J. Y. Lim, Ming-Hong Tsai, Jiaqing O

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

We developed new materials to induce a luxury mindset and activate materialistic values, and examined materialism’s relationship to attitudes toward marriage and having children in Singapore. Path analyses indicated that materialistic values led to more negative attitudes toward marriage, which led to more negative attitudes toward children, which in turn led to a decreased number of children desired. Results across two studies highlight, at the individual level, the tradeoff between materialistic values and attitudes toward marriage and procreation and suggest that a consideration of psychological variables such as materialistic values may allow for a better understanding of larger-scale socioeconomic issues …

Cohort And Gender Differences And The Marriage Wage Premium: Findings From The Nlsy79 And The Nlsy97, Misun Lim

Masters Theses

Past research has established a marital wage premium among men, and more recently, among women of the baby boom generation. It is unknown whether: 1) the marriage premium holds among more recent cohorts of men and women, 2) it differs by intensity of work hours among husbands and wives, and 3) cohabiters receive wage bonuses. Using fixed-effects models and data from the 1979-1989 waves of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY79) and the 1997-2010 waves of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY97), this paper compares cohort differences in the gendered marriage premium. While both women and men receive …