Search

The present study aims to thoroughly review GWL depletion monitoring studies completed between 2000 and 2023 based on data-driven models and GIS approaches from a global perspective. The review summarizes the details of the reviewed papers, including location, period, time scale, key objective, input parameter, applied model, performance metrics, research gaps, limitations, and depletion rate. The mean rate of GWL depletion varied worldwide from 2.9 ± 1.56 to 1100 ± 33.76 mm/yr using data-driven models and from 7.6 ± 2.98 to 2046 ± 45.27 mm/yr using GIS-based approaches. This study assesses the strength of relationships between various keywords and analyzed co-author networks using the Vos-viewer. It proposes a groundwater development strategy based on the evaluated papers to provide a long-term solution to the water scarcity problem. Overall, this review highlights the existing research gaps and suggests potential future research paths to boost the associated new knowledge and increase the accuracy of the GWL depletion monitoring approaches.

Introduction of antibiotics into clinical practice is considered as a turning point in medicine resulting in saving millions of lives and allowing for the development of new fields of medicine such as transplantology, neonatology, hematology and many others. From the very beginning, this success was accompanied by the emergence of antibiotic resistant strains with its continuous rise. Overuse and misuse of antibiotics in medicine, veterinary practice and animal and plant production are the main reasons the resistance has emerged. Presently, an increase in isolation of multidrug resistant (MDR), excessively resistant (XDR) and pandrug resistant (PDR) bacteria is being observed worldwide in the most common human etiologic bacterial agents . As examples of rapid evolution of resistance, S. aureus and Enterobacterales producing extended-spectrum beta-lactamases are presented. Some initiatives of WHO and EU aiming to tackle antibiotic resistance are also discussed.

Copyright of Advancements of Microbiology is the property of Sciendo and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Immoderate, rapid development of humanity demands immoderate exploitation of natural resources and regular environment deterioration. On the other hand, moderate consumption would mean a moderate exploitation of natural resources. Thus, instead of the consumption society should be created a safeguard one which would preserve the nature from exaggerated exploitation and pollution. In the last decades, instead of market economy the advocates of ecological or sustainable economy are appearing, and in order to preserve biosphere the industrial economy would be replaced by the ecological one. By the use of chemical protective or incentive agents, man deteriorated life of Divine creatures, birds, bees and other insects as the native plant pollinators. Man paradoxically polluted the air, poisoned the water, soil and plants by which he feeds himself. Almost all arable lands are poisoned by chemistry (artificial fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides). This process, instead of being slowed down is being accelerated. As the self-proclaimed master of the planet, man is, at the same time, the greatest destroyer. In order not to be the criminal of nature in the future but its fried, man should develop a new ecological consciousness - human ecology, ethical relationship toward nature, give up profit selfish interests, sightless exploitation, dirty and war technology and become the one and the same with nature since the destruction and robbery of nature are one of contemporary civilization inhumanities being made by man at his own harm. Besides being barbarian against nature, man is also barbarian against his fellow-countrymen (dissidents, other believers, poor and rich ones...). None as man is so powerful at other man harm inflict; he causes wars, revolutions, terrorism, and hate against other and own people as the ideal of world peace-making neither exists nor is desirable.

Neuro-ethics is probably fastest growing part of applied ethics. The main thesis is that certain natural processes in brain and nerves produce certain moral, and immoral, behaviors. All these processes can be explained causally, and (if this is so) neuro-ethics might be the final result of neuroscience. There are some metaphysical and ethical pitfalls to be considered, however, like the (incorrect) conflation of causal explanation and rational justification in definingvalues, not only non-moral values but moral values as well. Certainly, the knowledge of how neurological processes function could help to enhance the quality of human life, not only in coping with defects but also in improving the so-called „normal life“. This implies that neuroethics is instrumental, dealing with values which are instrumental as well. However, neuroethics, it seems, aspires to go further than that: to explain how goals come into existence and what their articulation should look like. All of this should be causally explained, or at least explainable; and the main focus of the paper is an analysis of this aspiration. The analysis refers to some important distinctions like the distinction between causes and reasons, explanation and justification, or the one between means and ends. At the end of the paper there is a section about applications, where some of the benefits and risks are summarily indicated, with a conclusion that neuroethics surely might help in advancing the overall quality of human life, individual and social.

Bridge deck ancillary components such as surfacing, waterproofing, expansion joints, safety barriers, and drainage are important elements of highway bridges. These elements have an influence on either traffic safety and comfortability or the behaviour of the superstructures and substructures of a bridge. When they fail to function properly, the performance of bridges can be seriously affected. In this article deterioration and damages of deck components in highway bridges are analysed. The extent, causes and consequences of deterioration problems were investigated. A database analysis of field inspection results was performed. An investigation revealed that roadway members inevitably deteriorate over time at different rates. Illustrative examples of deteriorated roadway members are presented. The experience shows that lifetime of certain components is only about 5 to 7 years, sometimes less.

The article provides an overview on the dimensions and dynamics of irregular migration. It highlights the uses of irregular migrant statistics, while considering its inherent accuracy, its ability to determine types of illegal aliens, collection of data, and its purpose. It explores the conceptual and practical challenges involved in counting illegal aliens. It presents estimates on the scope of illegal migration, and data from regularization programs.

Bridge deck ancillary components such as surfacing, waterproofing, expansion joints, safety barriers, and drainage are important elements of highway bridges. These elements have an influence on either traffic safety and comfortability or the behaviour of the superstructures and substructures of a bridge. When they fail to function properly, the performance of bridges can be seriously affected. In this article deterioration and damages of deck components in highway bridges are analysed. The extent, causes and consequences of deterioration problems were investigated. A database analysis of field inspection results was performed. An investigation revealed that roadway members inevitably deteriorate over time at different rates. Illustrative examples of deteriorated roadway members are presented. The experience shows that lifetime of certain components is only about 5 to 7 years, sometimes less. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Determining whether seed production is pollen limited has been an area of intensive empirical study over the last two decades. Yet current evidence does not allow satisfactory assessment of the causes or consequences of pollen limitation. Here, we critically evaluate existing theory and issues concerning pollen limitation. Our main conclusion is that a change in approach is needed to determine whether pollen limitation reflects random fluctuations around a pollen-resource equilibrium, an adaptation to stochastic pollination environments, or a chronic syndrome caused by an environmental perturbation. We formalize and extend D. Haig and M. Westoby's conceptual model, and illustrate its use in guiding research on the evolutionary consequences of pollen limitation, i.e., whether plants evolve or have evolved to ameliorate pollen limitation. This synthesis also reveals that we are only beginning to understand when and how pollen limitation at the plant level translates into effects on plant population dynamics. We highlight the need for both theoretical and empirical approaches to gain a deeper understanding of the importance of life-history characters, Allee effects, and environmental perturbations in population declines mediated by pollen limitation. Lastly, our synthesis identifies a critical need for research on potential effects of pollen limitation at the community and ecosystem levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines differences and similarities in the adjustment process for women who lost a spouse through death or divorce. Beyond similarities and differences in the experiences of the widowhood and divorced, all loss has the potential to be a painful and stressful human experience, with deeply felt loss intrinsically linked to the disruption of a sense of personal identity. The article uses measures of identity relevance and identity disruption. It expects widowhood would be more disruptive of identity and more distressing than divorce. It predicts higher psychological distress in both groups for women who had higher subjective evaluations of their (ex)husbands, for women who had higher identity relevance or salience of coupled identity, and for women who has experienced higher levels of identity disruption. The sample consisted of 173 widowed and 156 divorced women matched on age, race, and median income of census tract of residence. Identity disruption. The concept of identity disruption was operationalized by a measure that consisted of items concerning confusion over identity, an interruption in and a change in identity. Data supports the hypotheses concerning the importance of identity relevance and identity disruption in adjustment to widowhood and divorce.

The article presents a study, which examines the relationship between the qualities of marital interaction, both as perceived by spouses and as reported by outside observers, and marital instability and divorce in a sample of 436 long-time married couples. The analysis showed that spousal hostility, net of warmth, predicted with 80% accuracy, which couples would divorce, or not divorce within a year and with 88% accuracy, which couples, would be in the two most extreme marital groups (most stable and least stable). It was found that observer reports of behavioral interactions are related to marital instability both directly and indirectly through partners' perceptions of one another's behaviors. In the analyses of extreme groups, the wife's observed hostility was the best predictor, followed by the two perception measures, and then the husband's observed hostility. The findings also indicated that the marital interaction variables significantly predicted which couples would divorce or separate and which couples would remain married.

The article studies the intergenerational transmission of divorce. It is opined that, parental divorce is associated with an increased risk of offspring divorce, especially when wives or both spouses have experienced the dissolution of their parents marriage. Offspring age at marriage, cohabitation, socioeconomic attainment, and prodivorce attitudes mediate modest proportions of the estimated effect of parental divorce. In contrast, a measure of interpersonal behavior problems mediates the largest share of the association. The findings suggest that parental divorce has a direct impact on these interpersonal behaviors. The findings of this study suggest that parental divorce elevates the risk of offspring divorce by increasing the likelihood that offspring exhibit behaviors that interfere with the maintenance of mutually rewarding intimate relationships. Furthermore, life course and socioeconomic variables mediate little of the association between parental divorce and interpersonal behavior problems.

The article presents information on a study that explores the implications of childhood family disruption for parent-child relations. The main objective of this research is to examine how the complex life course trajectories of children after family disruption influence adult intergenerational relationships, with a primary focus on transitions into single-parent and stepparent family types. Also, it examines the impact of physical custody after parents separate, remarriage of the custodial parent, the timing of family structure transitions, and the number of family transitions. Throughout this study parent-child relations are analyzed from the perspective of the young adult child (ages 19-34). Data for this study pertain to the 1988 National Survey of Families and Households. The analyses furnish strong evidence that childhood family structures have long-term implications for parent-child relationships. Childhood family structure was significantly related to nearly all aspects of parent-adult child relations examined in this research.

This article examines the effects of adult children's divorce on several dimensions of their relationships parents. In this study twelve hundred persons aged 40 and over were interviewed. Respondents were asked detailed questions about relationships with all parents and children (including stepchildren), along with other kinds of information about family relations. The purpose of this analysis was to examine effects of adult children's marital status on several dimensions of their relationships with parents, using a probability sample of parents. It was hypothesized that divorced children may require more help and may be able to give less. It was found that an adult child's divorce is a fairly common experience for parents. Approximately half of parents above age 650 who have at least one ever-married child have experienced a child's divorce. The effects of divorce differ between sons and daughters, in general, divorced daughters with child custody have more contact than married daughters and receive more help from parents. Finally, the authors discuss implications for future intergenerational relations and suggestions for further research.

The article presents information on a study which addresses the influence of parental divorce on contact and affective relations between white young adults and their parents. This analysis of parent-child relations is part of a larger study of the effects of recent parental divorce on a sample of 485 white young adults, ages 18 to 23. Clear differences in coresidence exist between the divorced and intact groups, especially where fathers are concerned. While youth from intact families are twice as likely as those from divorced families to be living with their mothers (54% vs. 27%), their chances of residing with their fathers are over 4 times greater (53% vs. 12%). It is believed that paternal commitment may be a side effect of marital commitment, and men's interest in their children may be heavily dependent on their interest in their wives and marriages. It was found that young adults from divorced families had less contact with their fathers, and daughters of divorce reported less intimacy in relation to their fathers than did their intact-family peers.

The article presents information on a study which assesses the impact of parental marital quality and divorce while the child is residing with parents on adult child-parent relations. Also, it focuses on the young adults's perspective and determines which relationships are most at risk. This study tests whether parents' reports of marital quality in 1980 predict children's reports of parent-child relationship quality in 1992. In this study 419 parents and their adult children were interviewed. This research found that when marital quality is high, children who are close to one parent tend to be close to the other as well. But when marital quality is low, children tend to be close to one parent only. It appeared that parental divorce and marital quality are correlated with the quality of child-parent relations, both during childhood and after offspring reach adulthood. Furthermore, it appears that these factors affect children's relations with fathers more strongly than mothers. It was concluded that divorce and low parental marital quality have independent long-term negative consequences for child-parent relations. Also, this study implicates parental support during adolescence as the mechanism by which marital quality/divorce influences adult child-parent relations.

This paper examines the associations between socioeconomic status differences and changes within marriage of marital partners and marital instability. Based on a discrete hazard model, the results indicate the risk of marital instability is highest among couples who have heterogamous education and who do not follow the most traditional working arrangement where only the husband is employed full-time in the labor market. Those couples who do equalize their original education and conventionalize employment status enjoy higher marital stability. However, marriages in which couples change to educational heterogamy and unconventional employment statuses are less likely to survive. Difference in age between spouses is associated with marital adjustment, and may affect the longevity of the marriage. Traditionally, women are expected to marry men who are at least 2 or 3 years older; it is more or less the social norm that husbands should be older than their wives. If couples violate this "age norm," they are more likely to break up.

This study addresses the relationship of biological and social fathers to young children's well-being. We outline three general positions in this debate: biological fathers are important to their young children's well-being and are hard to replace; fathers are important, but social fathers can effectively replace biological fathers; fathers are peripheral to young children's lives and do not significantly affect children's well-being. To address this question, we compared children who had differing experiences with coresident adult men, using a sample of 870 children aged 4 to 6 years from the "Children of the NLS/Y" file. Children in five longitudinal patterns of experiences with coresident adult men in maritally disrupted families were identified (No Male, Grandfather, Stepfather, Reunited Father, and Chaotic) and compared to children in intact families. Thirty-one percent of the disrupted children were in the No Male pattern, but more than two-thirds were in one of the other disrupted patterns. Hierarchical regression models found no differences in verbal-intellectual functioning between children in intact families and children in any of the disrupted patterns. For the measure of psychosocial dysfunctioning, only children in the Grandfather pattern were significantly different from children in the Intact pattern. Further analyses revealed that it was white children in this three-generation living arrangement who experienced problems. This study lends some support to the position that fathers, both biological and social, are peripheral to young children's intellectual and psychosocial functioning. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article examines the relationship between premarital sexual activity and the long-term riser of divorce among U.S. women married between 1965 and 1985. Simple cross-tabulations from the 1988 National Survey of Family Growth indicate that women who were sexually active prior to marriage faced a considerably higher risk of marital disruption than women were virgin brides. A bivariate probit model is employed to examine three possible explanations for this positive relationship: (a) a direct causal effect, (b) an indirect effect through intervening "high risk" behaviors (such as having a premarital birth or marrying at a young age), and (c) a selectivity effect representing prior differences between virgins and nonvirgins (such as family background or attitudes and values). After a variety of observable characteristics are controlled, nonvirgins still face a much higher risk of divorce than virgins. However, when the analysis controls for unobserved characteristics affecting both the likelihood of having premarital sex and the likelihood of divorce, the differential is no longer statistically significant. These results suggest that the positive relationship between premarital sex and the risk of divorce can be attributed to prior unobserved differences (e.g., the willingness to break traditional norms) rather than to a direct causal effect. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Considerable research attention during the 1980s has centered on the consequences of divorce. This selective review focuses primarily on adults, and on areas of controversy and new emphases in studies of divorce. A critique of methodology and suggested directions for future research are included. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This review encompasses work published in the 1980s that concerns the causes of divorce. 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 decade's 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. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article presents an examination on the socioeconomic determinants of divorce in Puerto Rico. It provides the consequence of high divorce rates in Puerto Rico despite the structure of society. Divorce in Puerto Rico has been a puzzling phenomenon for sociologists, demographers, and family researchers. In spite of being mainly Catholic and Hispanic, with well-defined patriarchal sex roles, Puerto Rico has one of the highest divorce rates in the world, surpassed only by the United States and Bermuda. Some studies suggest that some women start sharing the. breadwinner role with their husbands, wives' expectations about the division of labor tend to change i.e., they expect more egalitarian marriages but stay the same for husbands.

The article examines the relation between divorce history and psychological distress for husbands and wives of newlywed couples. Given increases in divorce and remarriage rates, "married" persons now have diverse marital histories and thus provide a basis for examining differences in psychological functioning among those who are married. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses were run to assess the amount of variance in psychological distress accounted for by divorce history alone; to assess the incremental amount of variance in psychological distress accounted for by divorce history beyond that accounted for by demographic variables and, given the standardized beta weights associated with the final regression equation. Typically, controls are provided for demographic variables when the groups to be compared differ on such variables as a result of sampling bias. Thus, controlling for age or age-related background variables might wash out any divorce history effect. However, one might also argue that if marital history effects are robust, they should explain variance in psychological distress above and beyond what is accounted for by background variables.

The article examines the extended effects of divorce on men's relations with their adult offspring. Postdivorce relations between noncustodial fathers and their offspring have been an issue of great interest to clinicians, developmentalists and demographers. Largely neglected in studies of postdivorce parent-child relations is the father's perspective. Researchers have overlooked the possibility that fathers also may be deprived by the loss of ongoing, daily contact with their children and that such reduced interaction may affect their well-being and development. If parents divorce after a long term marriage and the children already are adults, father-child contact is not restricted by custody and should thereby reflect the relationship choices of the father and child. In sum, it is not clear how divorce affects contacts between fathers and their adult offspring. When children of divorce become adults in control of their own relationships, their contacts with the absent father may increase from levels maintained when they were young.

The article examines the simultaneous effects of multiple indicators of wife's employment on marital disruption. Perhaps the two most striking changes in the demography of the postwar American family have been the dramatic increases in the labor-force participation rates of married women and in the divorce rate. Each of these rates has doubled since the late 1940s and conventional wisdom holds that the two factors are somehow causally related: that the increased labor-force participation of married women is responsible for the increased divorce rate. Married women have always worked, of course, but prior to industrialization the overwhelming majority of women worked in the home producing goods and services for the family. With the transition from a primarily rural, agrarian society into an urbanized, industrialized one, married women became increasingly likely to find paid outside the home. The divorce rate reached an unprecedented peak after the end of World War II, when over six hundred thousand couples divorced in 1946. The divorce rate declined steadily after this peak, bottoming at about 2.1 divorces per 1, 000 population in 1958.

The article examines the negative impact of economic hardship on a spouse's marital happiness and satisfaction. Economic hard times can have severe adverse consequences for families. Among these are, an increased risk of marital dissolution, family disorganization, physical abuse, and child neglect. The historical record tells this melancholy story across the Great Depression decade and the economic crises of the 1980s. The recent agricultural crises of midwestern America include cases of farm fore-clusure, major wage declines, reduced work hours, joblessness, and the loss of human resources through out-migration. Mounting economic pressures generally bring budgetary matters to the fore, enhancing preoccupation with financial issues that, in many families, generate frustration, anger, and depression. Some investigators report a positive relationship between socioeconomic factors and marital quality (perceptions of happiness or satisfaction with the marriage), while others observe no significant association between the two. When supportive evidence is reported, the correlations are generally modest in size.

The article presents an examination on the impact of suicide stories in mass media on suicide in the real world. It also presents some limitation of previous work on the effect of suicide stories on suicides in the real world. The plot of monthly suicide rates. indicated trending upward, a condition that can cause auto-regressive function to fail to remove significant auto-correlation. An additional analysis was performed in which a control or time was introduced. The victims with marital problems are dissimilar in a number of ways. Some were spouse murderers, some were known media stars, some were separated, and others were just divorced. Possibly the link between stories involving marital problems and suicide may be stronger for some special sub-groups than others.

This study examined the relationship between pre-parenthood cognitions and family-of-origin divorce and aggression. College students from divorced (N = 46) and intact (N = 66) families were asked to report their positive and negative pre-parenthood beliefs. Young adults from divorced families were found to anticipate more concerns about parenthood than those from intact families. Second, consistent with hypothesis, number of parenting concerns differed by reported level of physical victimization from father. Level of witnessing father-to-mother violence was also significantly associated with pre-parenthood concerns, as individuals who witnessed severe levels of father-to-mother violence reported more concerns about parenthood than did those witnessing mild violence, emotional abuse, or no physical or emotional abuse. Victimization from mother and witnessing mother-to-father violence were unrelated to pre-parenthood concerns. None of the family-of-origin experiences was found to relate to positive reasons for children. These findings suggest that divorce and physical abuse by father in the family-of-origin may result in altered negative pre-parenthood cognitions. The findings were discussed in relation to theories about the intergenerational transmission of negative family events, as well in relation to gender sensitive models of family violence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article identifies predivorce individual and family characteristics that explain a portion of the effect of parental separation on the long-term well-being of children. Using longitudinal data from the National Survey of Children (NSC), the authors discuss how much of the relationship between a separation and measures of adult well-being (including educational and economic attainment patterns of family formation, delinquency, and psychological well-being) is due to selectivity of parents into more fragile marriages and to family conflict that often precedes the physical departure of a parent from the household. The results of the study indicate that divorce is associated with some outcomes, although much of its putative effect diminishes when predivorce factors are accounted for. The authors suggest that researchers give more careful consideration to the processes leading up to a separation as part of the divorce experience of children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The low psychological well-being of the divorced and separated could be due to the hardships of the divorce process, more general problems of unmarried living, or differential selection for divorce. Using combined questionnaire and register data on 39,000 Norwegian men and women, it is shown that psychological well-being is a strong predictor of subsequent marital dissolution over a 2- to 4-year period. The strength of tie relationship is particularly strong in the short run, but remains significant throughout the period of observation. The strong short-term relationship is most probably due to hardships associated with the divorce process. The somewhat weaker long-term relationship could be due to selection effects, but the possibility that low well-being many years before the separation may be due to persistent marital problems cannot be ruled out. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article studies the consequences of divorce for attitudes toward divorce and gender roles. Parental divorce is also likely to have implications for children's views on gender roles. Most children of divorce live in mother-headed families. Single mothers are particularly likely to be employed in the paid labor force, and maternal employment has been found to be associated with egalitarian views about the roles of women and men especially among daughters. On the other hand, children growing up without a father in the house- hold may turn to other sources, such as the media, for information about the roles of men. This may lead children of divorce to adopt relatively stereotyped views about gender-particularly in relation to the male role. If this is the case, then adults from divorced families of origin may be relatively conventional in their attitudes about the roles of men and women. Parental divorce was associated with liberal attitudes toward women in politics but was not associated with attitudes toward the employment of married women or rejection of traditional gender behaviors in children.

The article examines the impact of family background and early marital factors on marital disruption. The following were the major outcomes of the study. Reconciliations are quite common, but virtually all of them occur within 1 year since separation. The rates of disruption are highest among women with young age at marriage, those with lower education, those who cohabited before marriage and those whose spouse had been previously married. There is no independent effect of premarital fertility beyond its effects through variables such as age at marriage and education. The effect of parental family disruption was entirely mediated by age at marriage, education, and cohabitational experience. Intermarriages between Catholics and non-Catholics have much higher disruption rates than do religiously homogamous marriages. This may reflect the consequences of value differences between spouses, particularly in the family domain. The higher disruption rate of marriages in which the wife is more educated than the husband suggests the strong persistence of patriarchal values with respect to traditional statuses and roles assigned to men and women. Finally, with regard to the impact of the activity status of both spouses during the first year of marriage, researchers found a very strong association between unemployment experience early in marriage and dissolution risks.

The article explores the apparent anomaly that marital happiness and divorce are both lower in longer marriages, using a national panel of married individuals. The results of the study reveal that marital happiness has a stronger impact on divorce in longer duration marriages. Barriers and alternatives were not found to have a stronger impact in longer marriages than in shorter marriages. Instead, it was found out that when barriers are high and alternatives low, marital happiness has more impact on divorce. Because barriers are higher in long marriages, this accounts for the finding that marital happiness has more effect on longer marriages. Perhaps a more intuitively appealing way to state the same thing is to note that, because barriers are few and alternatives high, people in short marriages get divorced even when their marriages are not very happy. As the presence of growing barriers and reduced alternatives rises which is the threshold of marital unhappiness necessary to prompt divorce, those who aren't any happier remain in longer marriages and less likely to divorce.

Investigators have used pathogenic and stress models to understand children's adjustment to their parents' divorce. The use of these models has guided researchers to the study of unfavorable outcomes and the factors that protect children from unfavorable outcomes. Although most postdivorce outcomes for children are likely unfavorable, if not neutral, engaging in the process of adjusting to parental divorce will foster some favorable outcomes in some children (e.g., the development of certain skills and/or of a positive self-view). The Challenge Model introduced in this article proposes that children's outcomes during and after parental divorce, whether favorable, neutral, or unfavorable, are shaped by the nature of the challenges they face and by moderating factors, such as the children's personal characteristics and the level of coping resources (including social support) they have available. Research and clinical implications of following the Challenge Model of children's adjustment to parental divorce are also explored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article compares racial perceptions of happiness outside of marriage among Afro-Americans and White families. One concept that is often discussed in understanding these family behavioral and structural differences is that of alternatives. The argument frequently expressed is that the alternatives available to Afro-Americans and Whites differ substantially, resulting in differences in family structure. Interestingly, differences in socio-economic characteristics make relatively little difference in understanding the perceived attractiveness of such alternatives. However, therapists should be aware that there is an important racial difference in such perceptions. Even when Afro-American married spouses express the same amount of marital satisfaction as White married spouses, the alternatives to marriage look somewhat better. This factor may be one of the keys to understanding why Afro-American couples have a higher divorce rate than their White counterparts.

Family-oriented professionals have expressed concern about the decreasing amount of contact that occurs between divorced fathers and their children. This study focuses on 84 fathers with infrequent or no contact with their children. The fathers' views, in particular, provide helpful insights into their circumstances. Four very different sets of circumstances characterize these fathers. The first group is still embroiled in conflicts with their former spouses, apparently stemming from the divorce proceedings. The second group includes fathers who have identified personal problems or barriers. The third group are long-distance parents, and the fourth group have teenage children with busy lives. Suggestions are provided for professionals in helping fathers to maintain and increase their parental roles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present research examines the contribution of divorced mothers' beliefs of control over child rearing to their children's development during the post-divorce period. Fifty-eight divorced, single mothers described their 4-year-old children's positive and negative behavior and specific circumstances surrounding child-rearing events. Maternal locus of causality and perceived controllability were assessed. Maternal belief variables were compared with other familial variables (sex of child, time since separation, father-mother harmony, and father-child contact) in predicting children's post-divorce development. Regression analysis indicates that the full model, which included maternal beliefs, accounted for a significant portion of the variance in predicting children's self-esteem and fewer physical and psychological symptoms beyond nonbelief familial variables (restricted model). Implications for practitioners are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tests a model of family structure and process using a sample of 133 children where both divorced parents remained in their children's lives about three years after the separation. Role diffusion; Lack of a coparental alliance; Parental boundary problems; Parent-child rejection; Reduced social competence; Behavioral difficulties; Somatic symptoms; Role reversal; Emotional constriction; Method; Results; Discussion; Implications for practice and public policy.

Examines the relationships among dimensions of the former spouse relationship and children's social competence (CSC) post-separation and the impact of a community-based, educational prevention program for divorcing parents on the quality of the former spouse relationship. 193 separated and divorcing parents; Conflict theory; Coparental competition as related to CSC; Literature review; Focus of the study; Methods; Results; Discussion; Implications for practice.

This paper presents the results of a study which interviewed 134 individuals who had been divorced after the introduction of 'no-fault' divorce legislation in Canada. It examines the post-divorce circumstances of 50 custodial females and their families compared to the remaining 84 custodial and non-custodial individuals in the study. All of the persons in the study obtained their divorce through the Court of Queen's Bench in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada after January 1986 and before April 1989. Those included in the study had dependent children under eighteen years of age and owned a marital home at the time of legal separation. This paper specifically discusses post-divorce housing and neighbourhood satisfactions; income, assets and debts; financial and quality of life satisfactions; and the issue of custody, support and self-sufficiency. Of particular importance is the impact of the disposition of the marital home in determining the future standard of living of the single custodial females and their families. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study uses the National Child Development Survey (a cohort study of all the children born in one week of March 1958), to explore the effects of parental divorce on children. The longitudinal nature of the data has made it possible to examine children's behaviour and educational performance both before and after divorce. The results suggest that some of the problems which have been attributed to parental divorce/separation in previous cross-sectional studies may in fact be present prior to the parental separation. For each of the outcome measures, children whose parents divorced when they were between seven and sixteen years old were found to obtain worse scores than those children whose parents remained married. This was the case at age sixteen, after the parental separation/divorce, but also at age seven when the parents were still married and living together. Additional analysis comparing children living only with a custodial mother, with children whose mothers had remarried, found that having a stepfather had a deleterious effect on behaviour scores, but no effect on academic performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study, conducted within the framework of concepts of structural family therapy, examined the relationship of four family-based, clinical dimensions to the adjustment of 45 adolescents during the first 18 months of parental separation. There were two samples of mother-custody families: an Aided group that applied for treatment, and an Unaided group of paid volunteers. The inclusion of this variable addressed a major methodological deficit of previous studies. There was a significant association between perceived postseparation family structure and adolescent adjustment, demonstrating that individual adolescent adjustment is contingent on structural features of the contemporary postseparation family. Further, Aided families were perceived as more chaotic, disengaged, and enmeshed than Unaided families, while Aided adolescents were characterized by more behavior problems than Unaided adolescents. This suggests that divorce, as an unscheduled transition, might be within the realm of adaptation for many families and adolescents and is not necessarily ‘disastrous.’ [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Identifies the effects of parental divorce among young adults by contrasting two large samples of university students who differ in terms of the marital histories of their parents. Negative effect of parental divorce on psychological well-being; Different patterns of reaction to parental divorce displayed by men and women.

Assesses the impact of Kids First, Inc. seminar designed to help parents understand their children's needs during the divorce process using a three-year follow-up study. Children Cope with Divorce program; Legal perspectives; Process of systems intervention with divorcing parents; Need for more support as adults and as new single parents.

Analyzes Weitzman's suggestion that men and women lose economic well-being in the first year after the divorce. Social level problems of adjustment; Importance of the economic arena for readjustment in divorce; Economic vulnerability of women as compared to men in post-divorce; Economic inequalities between blacks and whites.

Focuses on the effect of a marriage breakup, wherein aa mate leaves in order to be with a lover, on children. Love triangle; Polarization of the family; Jealousy; Suggestions for family therapists, divorce mediators and child guidance workers.

Examines a version of Paul Amato's resources and stressors model for adult children of divorce. Focus on the self-esteem and interpersonal dependency of the subjects; Positive correlation of the rate of contact with non-custodial parents with self-esteem; Interpersonal dependence of females in the sample population compared to males.

Examines factors contributing to a favorable adjustment and sense of well being among a non-clinical population of divorcing parents. Survey of demographic and divorce data and self perceptions about stress coping abilities; Suggestion that higher levels of coping resources are connected with greater optimism about the future.