Search

Lifecourse theory scholars focus on how individuals traverse social roles, such as marriage, parenthood, and employment, in similar and different ways across their lives. This study examined one specific role trajectory: romantic relationships. This study examined men’s and women’s (N = 3617) relationship status and quality across approximately 30 years. Using second-order latent class analysis, results showed four predominant relationship role trajectories: (a) Multiple Transitions, (b) Stable Marriage with High Conflict, (c) Stable Marriage with High Satisfaction, and (d) Marriage to Divorce/cohabitation. These relationship role trajectories differed on two aspects of quality of life: life satisfaction and depressive symptoms. Individuals in the Multiple Transitions trajectory consistently reported poorest quality of life; however, those in the Multiple Transitions and Stable Marriage with High Conflict trajectories were the only that reported decreases in depressive symptoms over 30 years. Relationship satisfaction poorly differentiated the trajectories compared to relationship conflict and stability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using cohort data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, this paper tracks the experiences of serial cohabitors . Results indicate that only a minority of cohabiting women (about 15% – 20%) were involved in multiple cohabitations. Serial cohabitations were overrepresented among economically disadvantaged groups, especially those with low income and education. They also were less likely than single-instance cohabiting unions to end in marriage rather than dissolve. If serial cohabitors married, divorce rates were very high — more than twice as high as for women who cohabited only with their eventual husbands. The results suggest the need to balance the government’s current preoccupation with marriage promotion with greater support of “at risk” unions that marriage promotion initiatives have helped create. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cohabitation has become part of the pathway toward marriage. Prior work focuses on expectations to marry and has ignored cohabitation. Although most young adults are not replacing marriage with cohabitation, but instead cohabit and then marry, it is important to study adolescents’ joint expectations to cohabit as well as marry. Our analyses draw on recently collected data from the Toledo Adolescent Relationships Study (N = 1,293). We find that adolescents are less certain about their cohabitation than marriage expectations. Dating and sexual experience, traditional values, prosocial activities, and parents influence adolescents’ union formation expectations. The findings from this work suggest that adolescents are including cohabitation as part of their future life trajectories but rarely envision cohabitation as substituting for marriage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By employing a network approach and discussing certain features of different family network patterns among Tamil and Somali families, this paper argues that cultural scripts governing kinship, marriage and gender relations developed in the country of origin influence adaptation patterns in exile. Cultural scripts influence the process of interaction between migrants and the Norwegian majority society. While Tamil families appear to have densely-knit and joint networks of relatives and friends, Somali spouses have separate social networks with few cross-linkages. These differences are expressions of different systems of marriage and kinship relations, where Tamils have a system of life-long cross-cousin marriages while Somalis follow a system of exogamy and plural marriages. The paper maintains that, while Tamil cultural scripts tend towards centralisation, which is re-enacted in Norway in ways which confirm family unity, joint gender roles and social cohesion, the diversified and diffusive logic of Somali cultural scripts is likewise re-enacted. This tendency is supported by welfare policy that speeds up the dissolution of Somali families in exile. The analysis does not pretend to give a full understanding of adaptation processes for the two groups; it discusses a temporally limited period in the exiled communities and only some aspects of family adaptation; but its aim is to shed light on aspects that are understudied. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista Brasileira de Crescimento e Desenvolvimento Humano is the property of Centro de Estudos de Crescimento e Desenvolvimento do Ser Humano 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.)