Showing papers in "Journal of Marriage and Family in 1990"

The Sexual Contract

Abstract: In this remarkably original work of political philosophy, one of today's foremost feminist theorist challenges the way contemporary society functions by questioning the standard interpretation of an idea that is deeply embedded in American and British political thought: that our rights and freedoms derive from the social contract explicated by Locke, Hobbes, and Rousseau and interpreted in the United States by the Founding Fathers. The author shows how we are told only half the story of the original contract that establishes modern patriarchy. The sexual contract is ignored and thus men's patriarchal right over women is also glossed over. No attention is paid to the problems that arise when women are excluded from the original contract but incorporated into the new contractual order. One of the main targets of the book is those who try to turn contractarian theory to progressive use, and a major thesis of the book is that this is not possible. Thus those feminists who have looked to a more \"proper\" contract- one between genuinely equal partners, or one entered into without any coercion- are misleading themselves. In the author's words, \"In contract theory universal freedom is always a hypothesis, a story, a political fiction. Contract always generates political right in the forms of domination and subordination.\" Thus the book is also aimed at mainstream political theorists, and socialist and other critics of contract theory. The author offers a sweeping challenge to conventional understandings- of both left and right- of actual contracts in everyday life: the marriage contract, the employment contract, the prostitution contract, and the new surrogate mother contract. By bringing a feminist perspective to bear on the contradictions and paradoxes surrounding women and contract, and the relation between the sexes, she is able to shed new light on fundamental political problems of freedom and subordination.

The impact of the family on health: The Decade in Review

Abstract: The weighing device comprises a tension load cell including an upper liquid chamber and a lower air chamber which has a volume much greater than the volume of the liquid chamber. The weight of a suspended load and the load supporting structure on the load cell are applied on both chambers. A gauge reads the liquid pressure in the upper chamber and a valve unit connectible to a source of air under pressure is connected to the air chamber. The load cell is tared by initially adjusting the air pressure in the lower chamber to produce a zero reading on the gauge. When a load is applied on the device, the volume displacement of the air chamber is small relative to the volume displacement of the liquid in the upper chamber. The volume of the air chamber thus remains substantially constant so that the gauge indicates directly the net weight of the applied load.

Linking economic hardship to marital quality and instability.

Abstract: Utilizing a sample of 76 white middle-class couples from a rural midwestern county in the US this study examines 2 central propositions: 1)the negative impact of economic hardship on a spouses marital quality (happiness/satisfaction) or marital instability (thoughts or actions related to divorce) is in part a function of its influence on the effective quality of marital interactions and 2) this process is particularly applicable to the hostile irritable response of men to financial difficulties. A series of analyses supported these propositions. Economic pressures had an indirect association with married couples evaluation of the marriage by promoting hostility in marital interactions and curtailing the warm and supportive behaviors spouses express toward one another. The hypothesized process was most pronounced for husbands whose behavior was more strongly associated with economic problems than wives behavior. Findings from the study are consistent with previous research that identifies negative affect as a principal behavioral correlate of marital distress; however the results also suggest that more research needs to be done on the role of warmth and supportiveness in promoting marital quality. (authors)

Patterns of marital change across the transition to parenthood: pregnancy to three years postpartum.

Abstract: The purpose of this investigation is to advance the study of marital change across the transition to parenthood by moving beyond the study of central tendencies to examine variation in the matter and extent to which spouses experiences of their mates and their marital relationships changed from the last trimester of pregnancy through 3 years postpartum. Analyses of marital data collected at 4 points in time on 128 middle and working-class families rearing a firstborn child resulted in the identification of 4 distinct patterns of marital change which were labeled ACCELERATING DECLINE LINEAR DECLINE NO CHANGE and MODEST POSITIVE INCREASE. In a series of developmentally ordered discriminant function analyses efforts were made to distinguish decliners from increasers by using demographic personality and marital information collected prenatally; data on infant temperament and change in infant temperament obtained at 3 and 9 months postpartum respectively; and data on negative life events and income change collected at 3 years postpartum. Analyses revealed that patterns of marital change are determined by multiple factors and are largely identifiable prior to the infants birth. Postnatal information on infant temperament often improved the ability to discriminate marriages that declined and improved in quality across the transition to parenthood. (authors)

Determinants of divorce: a review of research in the eighties

Abstract: This review encompasses work published in the 1980s that concerns the causes of divorce [in the United States]. Substantive findings are reviewed under three broad headings: macrostructure demographics and the life course and family process. Trends in methods samples and theory are also reviewed. This decades research on divorce is characterized by bigger and better data sets more sophisticated research techniques and a growing body of conclusive empirical findings in the areas of demographic and life course factors. Relatively neglected areas include theory and family process. The review ends with recommendations for future research. (EXCERPT)

Family Structure as a Predictor of Initial Substance Use and Sexual Intercourse in Early Adolescence.

Abstract: Research on the relationship between family structure and the use of controlled substances by children has produced inconsistent results. Furthermore some authors have suggested that the confounding influence of socioeconomic characteristics may be largely responsible for the positive associations that have been observed. A 2-year prospective study of 2102 US young adolescents in 10 southeastern cities was used to assess the relationship between family structure (intact single- parent or stepparent) and whether cigarettes alcohol marijuana and sexual intercourse had ever been tried. Logistic regression results show significantly higher levels of ever-usage for children of nonintact families. These differences are not diminished when age sex race and mothers education are controlled. The results imply that children of disrupted families are at a higher risk of initiating the use of controlled substances and engaging in sexual intercourse and that a firmer understanding of the mechanisms that underlie this association is needed. (Authors modified).

The likelihood of parent-adult child coresidence: effects of family structure and parental characteristics.

Abstract: This study estimates the influence of child parent and family structural characteristics on the likelihood of parents having a coresident adult child. Data from a representative national sample of [U.S.] parents (N = 4893) show that parental dependency is not the major factor explaining coresidence at any point in the life course. The large majority of parents at all ages maintain their own households and most parents and adult children who coreside live in the parents household....Only parents with unmarried adult children have any appreciable risk of having an adult child at home....Parents marital dissolution and remarriage are negatively related to the likelihood of coresidence; parents with extended households are more likely to have a coresident adult child. (EXCERPT)

Toward a Multidimensional Assessment of Work Spillover into Family Life.

Abstract: The purpose of the present study is threefold. First, it presents evidence for the construct validity and internal reliability of a new multidimensional measure of work spillover. Second, it provides some insight into three processes by which work can affect an individual's personal and family life (i.e., time, energy, and psychological interference). Finally, the present study examines four primary nonwork role contexts (i.e., the parent-child relationship, the marital relationship, leisure activities, and the home management role) and assesses how likely each is to be affected by work spillover. The sample was composed of 130 male executives and their spouses. Strong support was found for the construct validity and internal consistency of the global measure of work spillover. For the present sample of executives, the data do not support the hypothesis that work stress spills over into some role contexts more than others. In contrast, the data provide support for at least three distinct processes by which work can spill over and affect family and personal life.

Love Matches and Arranged Marriages: A Chinese Replication.

Abstract: Data from a probability sample of 586 ever-married women in Chengdu Sichuan in the Peoples Republic of China are used to examine the transition from arranged to free-choice marriages in that society. Retrospective data on mate-choice experiences reveal that the role of parents has declined sharply while young people more and more dominate the process of spouse selection....Multiple regression analyses indicate that wives in...love matches are more satisfied with their marital relationships than their counterparts in arranged marriages regardless of the length of the marriage and that this difference cannot be attributed to the influence of other background factors that differentiate these two types of women. (EXCERPT)

Stress between Work and Family

Abstract: The contributors of this book have presented data from a variety of research projects that show the many and dynamic ways in which the worlds or work and family are intricately connected. This interconnectedness becomes even more apparent when stressful experiences in the workplace or the family upset the homeostasis that may otherwise have been achieved between these domains. As such, the investigation of chronic stress in the workplace and disruptions such as job loss becomes a potential window investigators can use to explore normative family processes, just as chronic stress and change in the family informs our understanding of the meaning of work roles.

Sons daughters and intergenerational social support.

Abstract: This study examines the effects of the number and gender composition of children on the receipt of social support by older persons [in the United States]. Effects vary with type of support: having daughters is most salient for telephone contact while frequency of visiting is affected by both gender and number of children. Living with children is influenced by the number but not gender of children. Finally the key to receiving help is having at least one daughter but there is no advantage of additional children of either gender....Findings are discussed in relation to models previously applied to support from different types of primary groups. (EXCERPT)

Changes in marriage associated with the transition to parenthood: Individual differences as a function of sex-role attitudes and changes in the division of household labor.

Abstract: first 2 1/2 years of marriage In addition, the degree of congruity between spouses' sex-role attitudes and the division of labor was used to explain differences between couples' reports of love and marital conflict The sample included 98 couples, 29 who became parents during the first year of marriage and 23 during the second year All groups of husbands and wives experienced declines in their feelings of love, marital satisfaction, and the frequency of dyadic activities and po itive interactions Parents' activities became more instrumental and child-oriented, and the division of tasks became more traditional, but otherwise parents were not different from nonparents Parents (but not nonparents) with more traditional sex-role attitudes and less traditional

Early Onset of Adolescent Sexual Behavior and Drug Involvement.

Abstract: Event history evaluation was used to look into the dynamic relationship between sexual activity prior to age 16 and drug use. Data come from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY) a survey of over 12000 women and men aged 14-21 when interviewed in 1979. This sample is taken from the 2 youngest birth cohorts of the NLDY those born in 1963 and 1964 aged 14-15 in 1979. This extends and complements the analysis done by Haurin and Mott (1987 1986b). The effect of cigarette use and illicit drugs other than marijuana and alcohol use is analyzed and a drug use classification is used that takes the cumulative nature of drug involvement into account. Additional predictors--age at menarche academic ability participation in "delinquent" activities and characteristics of the school context--are also used. The basic hypothesis is that when other factors are controlled involvement in street drug use is a unique risk factor for early sexual activity. Independent variables include sociodemographic factors; family structure; individual personality characteristics and attributes; commitment to conventional beliefs institutions and activities; drug use; school context at ages 14-15; and duration variables. In the 1984 survey at age 19 or 20 85.4% of the males and 75.5% of the females reported to having had sexual intercourse. Males start more than 1 and 1.2 years before females at median ages of 15.9 versus 17.1. Ethnic differences are greater among males--the median age at 1st sex is 14.1 for Black males 15.9 for Hispanic males and 16.2 for White males. Among females the median ages at 1st sex are 16.5 for Blacks 18.0 for Hispanics and 17.2 for Whites. Highly related to the timing of 1st sex are: low parental education low Armed Forces Qualification Test score; nonintact family structure and delinquent participation. Urban males seem to be younger at 1st sex than rural ones; there are only slight differences among females. Self-esteem and locus of control seem to be inversely related to early sexual experimentation. Drug involvement is strongly related to early sexual experimentation. Teenagers who start having sex at the youngest ages are more likely than others to have ever used marijuana and other street drugs to report heavier lifelong involvement with drugs and to be current drug users at the time of the survey in 1984. The differences are less striking for cigarettes and alcohol. 2 event history models were estimated to predict the probability of stating sex by age 16 separately for females and males. (authors modified)

Changing patterns of remarriage.

Abstract: After briefly reviewing recent trends in US remarriage rates this paper focuses on the variation in these rates as measured in the 1980 and 1985 June Current Population Surveys. For data quality reasons it focuses on rates observed in the 5 years before each of the surveys. It begins by discussing the demographic composition of separation cohorts as a factor affecting remarriage rates and ultimately the structure of remarriages. It next examines proportional hazard estimates of differentials in remarriage rates. Finally using life-table procedures it draws out some of the important implications of differing remarriage rates by estimating expected proportions who will ever remarry. The rate of remarriage has declined among divorced women of all ages though the declines were greatest among women under age 25 at the time of divorce--56% between 1965 and 1980. The slight recovery since 1980 may well reflect the changing age structure of divorced women under age 25 produced by the radical drop in 1st marriage rates of women under age 25. Increasing cohabitation over the last 2 decades may also have played some role in declining remarriage rates. Only 15% of recent marital disruptions occurred to women over the age of 40. Substantially lower remarriage rates are observed for women whose 1st marriage lasted longer but these effects are completely eliminated when other variables in particular age at separation are controlled. Age factors are what matters for remarriage and not experience or habits. The findings indicate that remarriage is approximately a quarter lower among women with children than among childless women. Remarriage is less common among blacks than among whites.