The church has a great responsibility to minister and provide a place where children can experience the love of God. The spiritual journey of children is often nurtured in the Sunday school room, Bible class, or some other church setting. Under the best of circumstances, this journey is a formable task. One must consider the challenges that arise…

One-child households have doubled over the last two decades making it one of the fastest growing family units in America. The author aids families in understanding the common traits of many adult "onlies"--like shyness, perfection, and intolerance--so that they can better prepare for potential outcomes. He also celebrates the positive qualities of…

The subject of this study is gender and gender roles affecting mate preferences. The sample of the study consists of 300 undergraduates and master students. To identify students' gender roles the Sex Role Evaluation Inventory (Bem, 1974) is used. The Question List (Bacanli 2001; Buss et. al., 1990) is applied to the sample group to determine the…

This prospective study examined romantic partner selection and socialization among a sample of 78 young adolescents (6th-8th graders). Independent assessments of adolescent and romantic partner adjustment were collected before and after relationships initiated via peer nomination and self-report. Prior to their relationship, adolescents and…

Research suggests that adult marriages confer benefits. Does marriage following a teenage birth confer benefits similar to those observed for adults? Longitudinal data from a community sample of 235 young women who gave birth as unmarried adolescents were used to examine this question. Controlling for socioeconomic status and preexisting…

Examines, relying on uncertainty reduction theory, the effect of communication strategies on assessments of relational repair and intimacy. Finds that 100 heterosexual romantically involved couples nominated unfaithfulness, third-party competition, and geographic distance as most negatively affecting their relationships. Finds that perceptions of…

Notes that much has been written on adolescent sexual intimacy, whereas little has been said about the issue of mature, appropriate, interpersonal emotional intimacy. Addresses this issue of emotional intimacy and calls for emotional education in addition to sex education. (Author/NB)

Both, homelessness and loneliness are quite pervasive in North America. This study compared the causes of the loneliness experienced by the homeless to that of the general population. Two hundred and sixty six homeless and five hundred and ninety five men and women from the general population answered a 30 item yes/no questionnaire. The causes of…

Previous research has examined gender and grade differences in the emotional closeness of adolescents' same- and cross-sex friendships. However, findings from these studies have been inconsistent because they have failed to (1) differentiate between cross-sex friendships and romantic relationships and (2) compare same- and cross-sex friendships.…

Many students have beliefs about interpersonal relationships that are inconsistent with empirical research. For example, some students report that attractiveness is less important than personality when choosing romantic partners; however, evidence suggests the opposite (Sprecher & Regan, 2002). Our activity in which students wrote personal ads and…

After a brief discussion of the concept of love and contemporary attitudes towards it, the article examines previously unpublished findings about children's ways of thinking about love, using evidence drawn from a research project on the developing sexual values of 9 and 10 year-old children. Love features extensively in their discussions and…

The authors describe 2 studies on the development of the Dyadic Almost Perfect Scale (A. J. Shea & R. B. Slaney, 1999). In Study 1 (N = 389), confirmatory analyses validated the factor structure of the measure, and additional results supported the reliability and construct validity of the subscale scores. In Study 2 (N = 280), data again…

This study examined the psychometric properties of an adolescent version of the "triangular love scale" (TLS), which assesses three components of romantic relationships: intimacy, passion, and commitment. Using data from 435 Dutch adolescents aged 12-18 years, we found evidence for convergent validity, showing that dimensions of…

The links between changes in sibling conflict and intimacy and changes in perceived peer social competence and depression symptoms were examined from middle childhood through adolescence. Participants were mothers, fathers and first- and second-born siblings from 197 White, working/middle class, two-parent families. Peer competence peaked in …

Comments on the article by Robert Bornstein, "The complex relationship between dependency and domestic violence: Converging psychological factors and social forces." Although a more focused examination of the psychological factors involved in domestic violence is welcome, there are some factual errors in Bornstein's article that need attention and…