We integrate theoretical traditions on the social construction of gender, heterosexuality, and marriage with research and theory on emotion work to guide a qualitative investigation of how married people understand and experience sex in marriage. Results, based on 62 in-depth interviews, indicate that married men and women tend to believe that sex…

Previous research has identified 2 broad components of distress in intimate relationships: overt conflict, or "disharmony", and emotional distance, or "disaffection". Using confirmatory factor analysis, the authors derived 2 broadband scales of disharmony and disaffection from the Marital Satisfaction Inventory-Revised (D. K. Snyder, 1997),…

Little is known about social cognition regarding conflict in romantic relationships during late adolescence. The current study examined beliefs, social goals, and behavioral strategies for conflict in romantic relationships and their associations with relationship quality among a sample of 494 college students. Two dimensions of conflict beliefs,…

Using data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, we examined patterns of nonresident father involvement 1 and 3 years after a nonmarital birth (N = 893). Cluster analyses were used to determine patterns of involvement across different father behaviors. About half of fathers displayed low involvement when children were 1 and 3 years…

Examines the influence of social identity and the intimacy of relationships on uncertainty reduction in interethnic relationships. Results reveal that social identity has a significant positive effect on uncertainty reduction processes. (JAD)

Proposes a multidimensional definition of romantic intimacy that was developed following a review and analysis of published definitions of intimacy. Discusses differences between the constructs of love and intimacy and considers how present definition may have value to family practitioners. (Author/NB)

What is the relation of love and pedagogy? Two recent phenomena have called into question whether love has any place within pedagogy at all: teacher-student sexual scandal and the standardization movement. As love walks the thin line between inspiration and sex, and as standardization has assumed love to be synonymous with bias, it has become more…

The lead author questioned five fraternity members, one former member, and one non-member to assess their reasons for joining--or attempting to join--a fraternity chapter at a large public university in the Southeastern United States. Specifically, the study investigated (a) how their membership affected their sexual identity development and…

This article consists of more than fifty interviews with Spanish and Yucatec-Mayan men from Yucatan, Mexico, to the United States. Based on interview responses, I contend that Yucatec-Mayan immigrants support Jeffrey Cohen's (2004) "household model" and use a ch'i'ibal-centered, or family-centered, decision-making process to frame…

Sexual assault survivors often receive both positive and negative reactions to the disclosure of their assault. Although positive reactions are typically more common from informal support providers and negative reactions are typically more common from formal support providers, not all formal and informal support providers react the same way. To…

We aimed to explore in detail the sexual lives and behaviour of men with mild learning disabilities living both in community and in secure hospital settings. We wanted to generate hypotheses about them and identify potential unmet needs. We used a narrative interview that focused on areas such as relationships, sex education, contraception and the…

Despite the importance of understanding children's interpretations of popular culture in the United States, young children's voices have not been sufficiently explored in studies. Moreover, the perspectives of American immigrant children hardly have a presence in studies of popular culture. Thus, this paper explores how young immigrant children…

To better understand the social factors that influence the diverse pathways to family formation young adults experience today, this research investigates the association between opposite-gender relationships during late adolescence and union formation in early adulthood. Using data from the first and third waves of the Add Health (n=4,911), we…

The fact that there is a specific age marking the emergence of adulthood in the United States has been well documented. The starting point for the studies included in this special issue is the assumption that the same can be said for European countries. Thus, a comparison of characteristics of emerging adulthood between different European…

A screening instrument for detecting intimate partner violence (IPV) was developed using indirect questions. The authors identified 5 of 18 items studied that clearly distinguished victims of IPV from a random group of health conference attendees with a sensitivity of 85% and a specificity of 87%. This 5-item instrument (SAFE-T) was then tested on…