Globalization has increased the occurrence of "international marriages" due to expanded marriage markets resulting from increased travel and communication avenues. Although Eastern Europe is one of the top three regions of origin for marriage migrants, little is known about who chooses this type of marriage arrangement. This study…

The purpose of this study was to explore the perceptions and provide insight into meanings and factors that contribute to healthy committed marriages among African American heterosexual married couples. This study explored the experiences of couples who had been married for 25 years and longer. This qualitative study was conducted using a…

There is a widespread agreement among gender and family violence investigators that gender and socioeconomic inequalities play key roles in domestic violence against women (DVAW). By integrating the concepts of gender traditionalism and decision-making power into a variety of resource-based theories, this study develops a gender perspective to…

Throughout history, marriage and parenthood have been linked milestones on the journey to adulthood. But for the young adults of the Millennial Generation, these social institutions are becoming delinked and differently valued. Today's 18- to 29-year-olds value parenthood far more than marriage, according to a new Pew Research Center analysis of…

With event history analysis, we examine the impact of gender, marital status and spouse type, and parenting at key transition points in the early careers of more than 2,000 social science Ph.D. graduates. This analysis (a) uses data from recent Ph.D. graduates; (b) disentangles the effects of marriage and parenting; and (c) observes the effects of…

A long-standing debate questions whether homemakers or working wives are happier. Drawing on cross-national data for 28 countries, this research uses multi-level models to provide fresh evidence on this controversy. All things considered, homemakers are slightly happier than wives who work fulltime, but they have no advantage over part-time…

We explore women's marital naming choices using the 2004 American Community Survey (ACS). Six percent of native-born married women have nonconventional surnames. "Nonconventional" surnames include hyphenated surnames, two surnames, and women who kept their own surname at marriage. Characteristics associated with nonconventional surname use include…

This study examines M. P. Johnson's assertion that violence in marital unions is more likely to be intimate terrorism (IT) and violence in cohabiting unions is more likely to be situational couple violence (SCV). Having overcome limitations of the data on which Johnson based his assertion, the results show that cohabiting and married victims of…

This paper investigates the effect of gender differences and household bargaining on charitable giving. I replicate the study of Andreoni, Brown, and Rischall (2003) using a different data set--the recently available Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) supplement on charitable giving--and test the sensitivity of their results to inclusion of…

This study examines marital construction of family power among male-out-migrant couples in a Chinese village in Guangxi Province. In-depth interviews show that male-out-migrant couples prefer joint decision making. When couples are in disputes, power tends to go to the ones who shoulder greater household-based responsibilities; in this case, they…

The authors investigate the direction of the relationship between marital happiness and wives' full-time employment using the 1987 to 1988 and 1992 to 1994 waves of the National Survey of Families and Households. First, the authors predict change in wives' employment between the two waves using marital happiness and other Time 1 characteristics.…

Tested the influence of birth-order complementarity on marital adjustment among 327 married women using the Spanier Dyadic Adjustment Scale (1976). Birth-order complementarity was found to be unassociated with marital adjustment. (Author/BL)

Identified and described the nature of those personality characteristics that enable couples to develop and sustain a vital relationship. Findings indicate that vital marital partners possess personality needs that promote: (1) sexual expressiveness; (2) "otherness" rather than selfness; (3) determination; and (4) high ego strength. (Author)

A descriptive study of factors in the lifestyle of 50 couples married an average of 55.5 years and an average age of 79 years provided data for this report. Independence, commitment, companionship, and qualities of caring were significant elements in these long-lasting marriages. (Author)

This study takes a multifaceted approach to examining reasons for the well-noted mental health advantage of the married. The authors examine whether socioeconomic resources and psychosocial resources explain this advantage for three aspects of mental health by comparing the consistently married to different types of unmarried individuals, as well…