This study investigates the effect of childbearing on parental involvement in stepfamilies and intact families, based on the reports of 1,905 stepparents and biological parents from the National Survey of Families and Households. Regression analysis indicates that involvement with children declines over time, especially among respondents with only stepchildren in the household. Respondents who have […]

Theory and empirical evidence generally credit children with creating stability in their parents’ marriages, but whether children have a similar effect on cohabiting unions has not been previously investigated in the United States. This article uses the National Survey of Family Growth ( N = 2,716) to evaluate the effects of children on the stability […]

Family functioning is influenced by socioeconomic status, culture, family structure, and developmental stage, and is assessed primarily using instruments developed for middle-income European American two-parent families. These instruments may not validly assess low-income African American single-parent families. This qualitative study was conducted to provide rich descriptions of families and family functioning in order to inform […]

Approximately 2 hours, this 2-DVD set features a seminar workshop presented by Mark Gungor that explores the differences between men and women and strategies for improving marital relationships. He explains that problems that couples have may be a result of how men and women think about life in a different way, and that many of […]

We investigate the effects of nonfamily experiences on marital relationships in a setting characterized by high levels of arranged marriage until recently. Drawing on theoretical frameworks for the study of families and social change, we argue that the expansion of opportunities for nonfamily experiences will increase the likelihood of marital relationships based on an emotional […]

This DVD contains a 35-minute seminar workshop presented by Mark Gungor that explores the power of forgiveness in a marriage. Topics addressed include: the different methods men and women use to keep score in a marriage, how to hit the reset button to keep the score even, how husbands can succeed with their wives while […]

This article investigates the mass media as a social change that shapes individual behavior primarily via ideational mechanisms. We construct a theoretical framework drawing on social demography and social psychology to explain how mass media may affect behavior via attitudinal change. Empirical analyses of 1,091 couples in the Chitwan Valley Family Study, using detailed measures […]

We investigated the impact of relative marital power on 72 newlywed couples’ endocrinological responses to marital conflict. Marital power was determined by comparing spouses’ reports of dependent love for one another. Less powerful spouses displayed elevated adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) responses to a conflict discussion. Shared power appeared to have a beneficial effect on wives’ but […]

Marriage among women in Latin America occurs early in life and is nearly universal in spite of the social and economic changes and instability in the region. We use demographic measures to illustrate the precociousness, persistence, and universality of marriage during the past 50 years. We argue that marriage is central to social life because […]

This study examined male-to-female partner violence using the concepts of Bowen’s theory of differentiation and Feminist theory. Participants in this study included 133 men from various men’s groups. The findings support the hypothesis that lower levels of self-control, less marital egalitarianism and higher levels of partner fusion are associated with an increased use of violent […]