Family, Life Course, and Society Commons^™

Creating High-Quality Marriages: A Qualitative Study Of Religious Couples, Jerry Lyman Redd

Theses and Dissertations

This study is a qualitative analysis of in-depth interviews with thirty-two couples who have been married for eight years. Although the couples in this sample have similar religious, economic, and cultural backgrounds, the quality of each marriage is quite different. Ten couples have exceptionally high-quality marriages, eighteen have average-quality marriages, three are struggling, and one couple has been divorced. The purpose of this study was to better understand what the ten couples with high-quality marriages are doing to create successful relationships. I conclude that high-quality marriages are created by a couple's participation in a particular process with a specific paradigm …

An Exploratory Study Of The Termination Process In Marriage And Family Therapy, Jennifer H. Childers

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The purpose of this study was to explore and better understand termination in the field of marriage and family therapy, as well as to generate a working model of termination. Data were obtained from a total of 40 marriage and family therapists (MFTs) licensed in the state of Utah. Two research questions were posed about termination and how client type and treatment progress may influence the termination process: (1) Given that MFTs see individuals, couples, and families, are there differences and similarities across client types in regard to how therapy is terminated?; and (2) Does termination differ in regard to …

Sexual Violence Within Marriage: A Case Study Of Rural Uttar Pradesh, M.E. Khan, John Townsend, Ranjana Sinha, Seema Lakhanpal

Reproductive Health

Until recently the study of sexual behavior, despite being a very important area of human behavior, has remained an untouchable subject. The sensitivity of the subject and difficulties collecting required information discouraged social scientists from venturing into this area of human behavior. However, the advent of AIDS and its rapid spread in India has changed the scenario. Today the study of sexual behavior is an important subject and both national and international agencies, as part of the AIDS control program, are encouraging research on the subject. This paper addresses a totally neglected area, which is sexual coercion within marriage. The …

Crisis Of Infertility: Effects Of Length Of Treatment On Emotional And Marital Adjustment, Christie L. Markestad

Graduate Theses

Twenty infertile couples participated in the present study to investigate whether infertile couples receiving medical treatment experience changes in their emotional, marital and sexual adjustment as a result of the length of time they have been in treatment. The couples were divided into three groups based on how long they had been seeking medical attention for infertility. The instruments administered were: SCL-90-R (Symptom Checklist), Dyadic Adjustment Scale (DAS) and Index of Sexual Satisfaction (ISS). It was predicted couples who were in the initial stages of treatment would experience increased levels of emotional, marital and sexual distress, however those levels would …

Martial Adjustment Among Nontraditional Graduate Students, Virginia Siegfried

Graduate Theses

This study used a pretest-posttest design to examine the marital adjustment of 108 nontraditional graduate students as-compared with 42 adults in the general population. Participants' scores on the Dyadic Adjustment Scale showed no significant differences between the two groups, contrary to the study hypothesis. It was also hypothesized that the marital adjustment of graduate students would be better at the beginning of the semester term rather than at the end of the term, and that male graduate students would have a higher level of marital adjustment than female graduate students. Neither of these hypotheses were supported by the data. Overall, …

Masking Dependency: The Political Role Of Family Rhetoric, Martha Fineman

Faculty Articles

In this Article, I want to explore the schizophrenic nature of the interaction between social ideals and empirical observations concerning dependency. I am particularly interested in the family as a social and political construct that facilitates this interaction. Specifically, I argue that continued adherence to an unrealistic and unrepresentative set of assumptions about the family affects the way we perceive and attempt to solve persistent problems of poverty and social welfare. In the normative conclusions that are generated and reiterated in political and popular discussions about family, we assess the "justice" of particular policies addressing societal problems with reference to …

An Analysis Of The Relationship Between Nurturing Spousal Friendship And Marital Quality, Cherryl Anne Galley

Dissertations

Problem

Limited research has addressed the value of friendship between husbands and wives to the health and well-being of their marital relationships. The present study evaluated the relationship between spousal friendship and marital quality. It made a gender analysis as well.

Method

The Dyadic Adjustment Scale, the Caring Relationship Inventory, and a demographic questionnaire were mailed to 500 couples (1000 married individuals). One or both spouses were members of a Lutheran or a Seventh-day Adventist church in the Columbus, Ohio, area. The sample consisted of 176 married individuals who volunteered to participate anonymously in the research project. A total of …

Women, Family, And Utopia: The Oneida Community Experience And Its Implications For The Present, Lawrence Foster

The Courier

EFFORTS TO DERIVE contemporary lessons from the past are always fraught with difficulty. Seldom has this been more true than in the case of John Humphrey Noyes and the community he founded in mid-nineteenth-century New York State. The Oneida Community and its system of "complex marriage", which both Noyes and his critics somewhat misleadingly described as "free love", have been the focus of extraordinarily wide and divergent interpretations over the past century and a half. These have ranged from extreme treatments arguing that Noyes and Oneida were part of the vanguard of sexual liberation and women's rights to comparisons of …

Love's Constancy, Mike W. Martin

Philosophy Faculty Articles and Research

This article focuses on commitments between married couples.

Meanings Of Marriage: The Structure Of Marital Expectations In Nineteenth Century America, Georgetown University Law Center

Philip A. Hart Memorial Lecture

On April 10, 1991, Professor of Law, Hendrik A. Hartog of the University of Wisconsin Law School, delivered the Georgetown Law Center’s eleventh Annual Philip A. Hart Memorial Lecture: "Meanings of Marriage: The Structure of Marital Expectations in Nineteenth Century America."

Hendrik Hartog is the Class of 1921 Bicentennial Professor of the History of American Law and Liberty at Princeton University. He holds a PhD. in the History of American Civilization from Brandeis University (1982), a J.D. from the New York University School of Law (1973), and an A.B. from Carleton College (1970). Before coming to Princeton, he taught at …

Rule By The Danda: Domestic Violence Among Indo-Fijians, Shireen Lateef

Pacific Studies

No abstract provided.

Factors Relating To Infrequent Domestic Violence Among The Nagovisi, Jill Nash

Pacific Studies

No abstract provided.

Person, Assertion, And Marriage: On The Nature Of Household Violence In Bun, Nancy Mcdowell

Pacific Studies

No abstract provided.

Couple Cohesion: Differences Between Clinical And Non-Clinical Mormon Couples, Colleen Margaret Peterson

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examined the differences between 30 clinical and 30 non-clinical Mormon married couples on the perceived and ideal cohesion scores on the FACES III family typology instrument. Two three-way analyses of variance were done to examine these differences. the results provided evidence that there were significant differences between cohesion scores in clinical and non-clinical couples Both the clinical and non-clinical ideal scores fell close to the enmeshed end of the cohesion dimension of the Circumplex Model. The mean perceived cohesion scores, however, showed a difference between the clinical and non-clinical couples. The clinical couple mean scores fell in the …

Ministering To The Family In Today's Society, John Sittema

Pro Rege

No abstract provided.

The Effect Of Women's Labor Force Participation On Marital Instability, Isik Akin Aytac

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis examines the effect of women's labor force participation on marital instability. It is hypothesized that women's income-earning affects marriage in two ways: 1) the "independence effect" facilitates divorce by enabling women to be self-supporting; 2) the "parallel marriage effect" improves marital satisfaction and the quality of the marital relationship because women with higher incomes generally have more power in marriage. The "independence effect" is measured by whether or not women's income is sufficient, defined as income above the poverty line for the appropriate family size as established by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. "Parallel marriage" is measured …

"Rubbish Boy And The Two Queens, Or, Humbling The Haughty In-Laws." Family Relationships In A Folktale From The Gilbert Islands, Katharine Luomala

Pacific Studies

No abstract provided.

Birth-Order Complementarity And Marital Adjustment, Cornelia Vos

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

It was predicted that the level of complementarity of birth-order position is positively associated with marital adjustment. This hypothesis was developed from Adlerian (1959) theory about the effects of birth-order position on personality formation and from the Toman (1961) duplication theorem. The Spanier Dyadic Adjustment Scale (1976) was given to 327 married women. An analysis of variance revealed no significant differences between the various combinations of birth order (no data were available for the only-with-only combination due to insufficient number of subjects in this group). Correspondingly, level of complementarity of birth order was also found to be unassociated with marital …

The Nature And Frequency Of Marital Problems Which Lead To Divorce In Tehran, Iran : As Perceived By Four Professional Groups, Parvin Habashi

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

The Problem. During the past several decades Iranian society has undergone substantial change. Industrialization, urbanization, and universal education have been dynamic forces in changing Iranian society. Such factors may have influenced the structure and function of the family in Iran. In addition, and perhaps related to these factors, other developments occurred. The bond of kinship began to weaken and the neighborhood changed due to a trend toward the nuclear family. The solidarity of tradition was loosened. This was especially true in Tehranian society. One important development from these changes was a more active role by women in the society. Women …

Housewives' Self-Esteem And Their Husbands' Success: The Myth Of Vicarious Involvement, Ilene Nagel Bernstein, Anne Statham Macke, George W. Bohrnstedt

Articles by Maurer Faculty

This study tests the common assertion that women, especially upper middle-class housewives, vicariously experience their husbands’ success. Our findings for 121 mostly upper middle-class housewives disprove this assertion. Husbands’ success does positively affect a housewife’s self-esteem, but only indirectly, through its effect on perceived marital success. Only husband’s income has a direct positive effect on self-esteem, while other successes of the husband actually lower her self-esteem. These findings, made more dramatic by a comparison with professional married women for whom none of the above effects appear, demonstrate the ambiguous impact traditional marriage has on women. Since marriage is traditionally a …

Age, Emotional Maturity And The Decision To Marry, Patricia Ann Duclos, David F. Thomas, Joanne Zusman

Dissertations and Theses

The decision to marry and choice of mate are two issues contemplated by most individuals during their lifetime. It is our belief that the manner in which an individual makes these decisions is a reflection of that individual’s level of emotional maturity.

In our society, the right to enter into a marriage agreement is largely determined by chronological age. Our research problem began with the hypothesis that there is no direct relationship between chronological age and emotional maturity at the time of marriage.

For our study, marriages were divided into two general categories: 1) teenage marriages in which at least …

Ua68/10/1 Sociological Symposium No. 4 – The Sociology Of Early Adulthood, Wku Sociology

WKU Administration Documents

Table of Contents:

• Balswick, Jack O. & Charles W. Peek. The Inexpressive Male & Family Relationships During Early Adulthood
• Birkelbach, Ronald D. & Louis A. Zurcher, Jr. Some Socio-Political Characteristics of Anti-Pornography Campaigners
• Doby, John T. Social Change, Conflict & Planning: A Theoretical Interpretation
• Elder, Glen H. Jr. Marriage Mobility, Adult Roles & Personality
• Fendrich, James M. & Michael A. Pearson. Alienation & Its Correlates Among Black Veterans
• Jackson, Audrey R. The Changing Parent: An Evaluation of Miller & Swanson’s Socialization Thesis

Religious And Secular Correlates Of The Lds Family Home Evening Program, Gordon E. Mauss

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to describe and explore three phenomenon of the L.D.S. Family Home Evening Program: (1) the nature of religious commitment in an L.D.S. sample, (2) the degree of participation, (3) the relation of certain religious and secular variables.
The data for the study were made available to the researcher by A. L. Mauss, as part of a larger study designed to measure the impact of Urbanism upon Mormonism. The instrument, modeled after the Glock and Stark studies, was adapted to a random sample of 958 members of the L.D.S. Church in Utah.
The nature of …

Verbal Accessibility And Authoritarian Family Ideology: A Study Of 50 Graduate Social Work Students And Their Spouses, Linda Louise Metz

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis is the fourth in a series of empirical investigations concerned with symbolic interaction in marriage. Its basic assumption is that personal predispositions of marital partners as well as the social context of their marriage influences marital intimacy particularly the partner's readiness to communicate verbally with each other about important attitudes and feelings.

Fifty married graduate students attending Portland State University School of Social Work and their spouses comprised the sample. The subjects responded to three instruments: (1) a personality scale (Authoritarian Family Ideology – AFI) developed by Jane Loevinger, (2) a measure of verbal accessibility (VA), and (3) …

Marriage Role Perceptions Of Husbands And Wives Separated By The Vietnam War, Ella Arlene Bentson

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The purpose was to determine how husbands and wives who had been separated because of the war in Vietnam perceived each other during separation. Martial roles were used as the vehicle to convey perception.

A random sample of Jl couples was selected from among the married officers and enlisted men of Marine All Weather Attack Squadron 225 which was based at DaNang, South Vietnam. A questionnaire designed to determine perception of spouse was sent to men in Vietnam and to their wives who resided in various parts of the United States.

The major findings are summarized as follows:

1. Correlation of …

Verbal Accessibility Between Marital Partners As Studied In A Court Of Domestic Relations, Patricia Walker

Dissertations and Theses

This study investigated the concept of verbal accessibility in marriage. It is an example of the interactional approach to the study of marriage, which is concerned with the on-going socialization process in marriage. Verbal communication is one component of the socialization process and also of problem solving in marriage.

Interpersonal communication is influenced by many variables--personality, culture and social situation. Polansky (1965) conceptualized verbal accessibility as the degree of readiness to communicate verbally and to participate in communication about determinant attitudes. Determinant attitudes are those which have the most far reaching influence on other attitudes and on behavior.

One of …

Development Of The Marital Dissatisfaction Of Mormon College Couples Over The Early Stages Of The Family Life Cycle, Roy H. Marlowe

Theses and Dissertations

This study investigated the relationship between stages of the family life cycle during the early years of marriage and marital dissatisfaction. From this basic goal the following three hypotheses were derived and tested:
I. Marital dissatisfaction for both husband and wife is less in the first stage than in the third stage of the family life cycle.
II. For both husband and wife the ideal spouse concept is the same in stage one as in stage three of the family life cycle.
III. For both husband and wife socially undesirable perceived spouse concepts are greater while socially desirable perceived spouse …

A Scale Of Verbal Accessibility In Marriage, Barbara F. Kresse

Dissertations and Theses

The purpose of this project was to develop a tool to clarify one concept of verbal interaction in marriage. This concept, Verbal Accessibility, was developed by Norman Polansky and defined as the degree of readiness of the individual to communicate verbally and to participate in communication about his determinant attitudes. Verbal Accessibility is dependent on two variables: l) the enduring characteristics of the individual, and 2) the release of inhibiting factors in a given situation.

In order to facilitate the use of this concept in treatment, a scale was needed to measure Verbal Accessibility of both the person and of …

A Definition Of The Role Of Homemaker By Two Generations Of Women, Genevieve Wise

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This research is an attempt to investigate to what degree society, as represented by a selected group of married women, is accepting the role of the working wife and mother, and to what degree the traditional definition still prevails in the minds of two generations of women.

Early Female Maturation As A Factor Related To Early Marriage, Arnold Gene Taylor

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

While the number of youthful marriages in the United States is increasing, evidence continues to indicate that a significant proportion of these marriages is unstable. The marital failure rate and the extensive problems associated with early marriage have caused widespread concern and have stimulated research and theory formulation in this area.