Changing family formation in Nepal: marriage, cohabitation and first sexual intercourse

CONTEXT: In Nepal, marriage occurs at a relatively young age and arranged weddings are widespread. However, recent changes in the family formation process and the timing of first sexual intercourse suggest that a transformation may be under way. METHODS: Data on marriage, cohabitation and first sexual intercourse from the 2001 Nepalese Demographic and Health Survey were used to describe the family formation process. The sequence of these events and the intervals between them were explored for currently married men and women. Hazard models were used to identify factors associated with behavioral changes over time. RESULTS: The average age at marriage among women married before age 20 increased from 13.7 years for those born in 1952-1956 to 15.6 years for those born in 1977-1981, while remaining relatively stable for men married before age 25 (17.3 years for the 1942-1946 birth cohort to 17.7 for the 1972-1976 birth cohort). After individual and couple characteristics were controlled for, younger age at interview was associated with greater odds of simultaneous marriage and cohabitation for both genders (odds ratios, 1.3-1.7). Younger age at interview was also associated with premarital sex among men--those aged 39 or younger had significantly higher risks than older men of having had premarital sex, with odds ratios rising from 1.6 among those aged 35-39 to 1.8 among those aged 15-24. CONCLUSIONS: It is important not only to promote education as a means of delaying marriage and childbearing, but also to implement programs and services that prevent reproductive health problems for young married couples.     

The state of motherhood among professional women

Faculty women at Northwestern University were studied. The focus was on their rate of childlessness and attitude toward having children. The 151 subjects were classified into two age groups: women of childbearing age — under 40 — and women much less likely to have children — 40 and over. Although women ever married in the professional sample had a higher rate of childlessness than women ever married in the general population in all age groups, there seemed to be a trend toward permanent childlessness among younger professional women: Their rate of childlessness (67%) is much higher than that of the older professionals (22%) or the younger women in the general population. Based on additional qualitative and quantitative data, a possible explanation for the younger professional women's behavior seems to be that they are not confident that they can successfully combine motherhood and career. Possible implications of this phenomenon are discussed.     

The costs of having a first child for women aged 33–38, Canada 1991

This research is placed within the framework of the second demographic transition. The focus of the paper is on Canadian women aged 33–38 who began childbearing relatively late in the reproductive years. These women are compared to both single and ever-married or cohabiting women in the same age group who have no children on a series of cultural and economic variables (N= 9682). Approximately 10% of the sample consists of visible minorities. The results indicate that women with young children aged 2–5 present in the home (and no other children present) are disadvantaged in terms of economic outcome, especially labor force participation, full-time work, and income. The findings suggest that having a first child even at an older reproductive age results in women bearing a major opportunity cost for that fertility. Implications are discussed in the context of alternative childrearing behaviors.     

Stability and change in generative concern: Evidence from a longitudinal survey

Longitudinal data taken at a ten-year interval from a large, nationally representative sample were used to examine stability and change in generative concern, as measured by a reduced form of the Loyola Generativity Scale (LGS). Rank-order stability over a ten year period was high (r > .6) among those respondents 30 or older at the time of first measurement. Mean scores on the LGS increased for men aged 24–29 and decreased for men and women aged 60–69, but the size of these changes was small. First marriage and childbearing were not associated with an increase in LGS scores. The evidence suggests both life-long stability and a small mid-life peak in generative concern.     

Long-Term Psychological Health Among Individuals Pursuing Emerging Adulthood-Type Pathways in the 1950s and 1960s

We analyzed data from the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study (N?=?6390) to investigate how common an emerging adulthood-type lifestyle (e.g., delayed marriage and childbearing, pursuit of higher education) was in the late 1950s and early 1960s, and what the long-term psychological-health correlates were of such a lifestyle. Cluster analyses of marital, childbearing, educational, and occupational variables from 1957 (high school graduation) to 1964 generated six clusters that we labeled: fast-starters (early marriage and childbearing, little education beyond high school, virtually all employed), very-educated/partnered (mean educational attainment well into graduate school and among the earliest to get married), moderately educated/family-oriented (mean years of education somewhat shy of a bachelor’s degree, early marriage and childbearing), educated singles (late marriage and childbearing, if at all, averaging a bachelor’s degree; most prototypical of emerging adulthood), work/military-first (little education past high school, late marriage and childbearing), and military/professional-aspiration (envisioning career requiring college education and pursuing one). The clusters were then compared on health and well-being measures from 1992 to 1993 and 2003 to 2005, controlling for family-of-origin socioeconomic status. In general, individuals whose life pursuits combined higher education, professional career aspirations, and marriage exhibited the best long-term psychological health. Results are discussed in terms of historical conditions when these individuals transitioned to adulthood.     

Age patterns of childbearing: a canonical analysis

A cross-sectional study of maternal age-specific birthrates was conducted in an attempt to gain insight into age patterns of childbearing. The age specific fertility rates were considered as the dependent variable set. These 6 variables consisted of 1970 live births to women in the age groups 15-19, 20-24, 25-29, 30-34, 35-39, and 40-44. The age-specific fertility rates were calculated for each of the 338 New York City health areas that are the sampling units. The canonical analysis used is a multivariate method of exploring these patterns which provides a means for dealing with some of the difficult analytical problems encountered. The relationships of fertility patterns with sets of variables reflecting housing, income and occupation, education and labor force participation, marital patterns, and ethnicity are explored for New York City neighborhoods. 3 dimensions of childbearing emerged with high consistency across the variable sets - roughly describable as early, middle and late fertility. The 1st pattern - high early fertility and particularly teen-age childbearing - is identified with the poorest areas of the city. The income, occupation, education and unemployment figures in these areas are consistent with a minimal preceived penalty for early childbearing. The 2nd dimension - birthrates of women ages 25-34 - identifies another distinctive group of areas. Many low income women at this age continue to bear children at moderate rates; middle income women bear the children they postponed having in the earlier years. The late childbearing group seems best understood as attributable to religious and ethnically related differences among areas. The 1st dimension is the most important for the perspective of the impact on population growth.     

Financial strain, economic values, and somatic symptoms in later life.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether the impact of financial strain on psychological distress depends on the value that older adults place on economic success. Feelings of personal control were specified as an intervening variable in this process. The data came from a nationwide survey of 819 people in Canada who were 55 years of age and older. The findings reveal that financial problems are associated with diminished feelings of control and that these effects are stronger when elderly people value economic achievement highly. In addition, financial strain and diminished feelings of control are related to increased distress regardless of how highly economic success is valued.     

Sexual behaviors and attitudes of high school students in the kingdom of Swaziland

The author examined the sex behaviors and attitudes of 111 high school students with a steady partner in the Kingdom of Swaziland. Data were collected through participant observation during 1987-88, discussions with key informants during 1987-88 and 1990-91, and in-depth structured interviews with the adolescents from rural and urban government high schools. 78 of the students were coitally active, with 57.5% of boys and 68.4% of girls reporting first coitus at 16 years of age or younger. 15.0% of males and no females reported beginning coitus after 18 years of age. 45.0% of the boys and 68.4% of the girls reported never using contraception; 50% of males said they used condoms. Swaziland is largely polygynous. There were, however, modest gender differences on attitudes about multiple partners and demonstrating affection. The young women mainly expected financial support from a sex partner. Since many adolescent men cannot provide such support, many of the adolescent women pursue sexual relations with older, more financially capable men. The author notes that the parents of young Swazi women do not condone such relationships, especially if the man does not seem interested in marriage. No school policy exists on teaching family life education and both unplanned pregnancy and septic abortions are real problems. School policy demands the expulsion of pregnant girls for the duration of their pregnancy. Once delivered, the young mothers may attend a another school. Finally, although parental guidance is less influential than in the past, traditional values attached to gender roles remain intact among the adolescents interviewed for this study.     

Human and peoples' rights: social representations among Cameroonian students

Social representations of human and peoples' rights were studied among Cameroonian university students (N = 666) with a questionnaire based on the UN Declaration of Human Rights and the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights and Duties. The respondents were asked how important and how well realized they regarded the 39 human and peoples' rights to be. A 13-factor model provided the best fit with Cameroonian students' perceptions of human and peoples' rights. Taken as a whole, our results are in line with previous quantitative studies on human rights, confirming structural similarity but also country-specific variation in the aggregation of specific rights. Moreover, our data showed that Cameroonian students value human and peoples' rights highly (M = 6.18), whereas their fulfillment is not regarded as highly (M = 5.09). Same law for all, equality and freedom, and right to work and living were highly appreciated but lowly realized rights. Higher than average in importance and realization were right to education and self-fulfillment, right to marriage and property, peoples' social and political basic rights and right to life and safety. Low in importance and realization were peoples' right to their country's natural resources and independence, right to meetings, and right to express opinion. Women appreciated the rights more than men and thought of their rights as better realized compared to men. We suggest that when women say that their rights are better fulfilled than men do, it is in comparison with the older generation, who are still very dependent on men. Nowadays, thanks to education and urbanization, young women have wider choices or opportunities for marriage and jobs. Men may feel frustrated in the context of political liberalization because the freedoms are more theoretical than fulfilled; the economic crises and cultural changes have hindered their economic domination and their prerogatives.     

Marriage patterns among Havik Brahmins: A 20-year study of change

Data on 94 women gathered during four field trips to a village located in the Malnad area of Karnataka form the basis of this examination of changes in Havik Brahmin marriage patterns over a 20-year period. Four case studies of marriages and two case studies of single women illustrate social change, particularly the influence of increased education, marriage age, and marriage choice. These case studies illustrate that, with an increase in marriage age and an increase in educational level, women have increased independence as daughters, brides, wives, and mothers. Concurrent with this is a decreased emphasis on ritual. Women have become assertive as they have perceived options. The socialization of women into learned helplessness and absolute dependence on men is in the past. Where women were perceived and perceived themselves as forever childlike, they now have grown to maturity. Men have to acknowledge women's educational achievements, especially when sisters achieve more than their brothers. With the recognition of feminine achievement has come increased independence for women. Mothers who have been bitter about their own limitations have encouraged daughters to achieve. With a change from an ascribed status of men as superior to achieved status based on merit has come increased opportunities for women.     

Religious Schools,Home Schools,and the Timing of First Marriage and First Birth

The timing of individuals’ family formation is important for a number of socioeconomic and health outcomes. We examine the influence of religious schools and home schools on the timing of first marriage and first birth using data from the Cardus Education Study Graduate Survey (N = 1,496). Our results from life tables and event-history regression models show that, on average, graduates of evangelical Protestant schools—but not Catholic school or homeschool graduates—have earlier marriages and births than public school graduates. Catholic school students have later first births on average than public school graduates. Models interacting schooling type with age and age-squared suggest that evangelical schoolers’ higher odds of marriage stem from higher odds of marrying at ages 21–30, and their higher odds of first birth stem from higher odds of births from ages 25–34. Catholic school and nonreligious private school students also have higher odds of marrying in the mid-20s and early-30s than do public school students. Evangelical, non-religious private, and Catholic school students all have lower odds of teenage births than public school students but higher odds of birth later in the life course. Homeschoolers do not differ on either outcome at any age. Our findings suggest that schools socialize their students with distinctive attitudes toward family formation that influence their behavior even many years after graduation, though these schools do not appear to be particularly harmful to life chances in terms of fostering marriage or childbearing at very young ages.     

The economic consequences of marital dissolution for women in the middle years

This article uses longitudinal data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics to explore how changes in marital status affect the economic status of married women in their middle years. Results demonstrate that when a marriage ends, the economic status of women declines considerably. Components of income change are discussed, with emphasis on the extent to which women can compensate for the loss of a spouse's income through increases in paid labor, by changes in living arrangements, and by the use of public and private transfers.     

Growing Older in Portugal: Gender Issues in Physical Health and Well-being

This article presents three studies which demonstrate that (1) Older women enjoy the status of grandparenthood, and they show resources, continued personal growth, and positive functioning; (2) Spouses provide emotional support, and widowhood has an impact on the experience of emotional loneliness; and (3) As they age, men remain cognitively more preserved, and women affectively more preserved. Over a 3-year period, older people showed smooth changes in physical health, cognitive functioning, and mental health. Results are discussed in terms of healthy living, resilience, positive affect, and also conditions that promote undesirable pathways in older age. Implications for feminist therapy with older people are discussed.     

Adult temperament and childbearing over the life course

Emerging evidence suggests that temperament may predict childbearing. We examined the association between four temperament traits (novelty seeking, harm avoidance, reward dependence and persistence of the Temperament and Character Inventory) and childbearing over the life course in the population‐based Cardiovascular Risk in Young Finns study (n = 1535; 985 women, 550 men). Temperament was assessed when the participants were aged 20–35 and fertility history from adolescence to adulthood was reported by the participants at age 30–45. Discrete‐time survival analysis modelling indicated that high childbearing probability was predicted by low novelty seeking (standardized OR = 0.92; 95% confidence interval 0.88–0.97), low harm avoidance (OR = 0.90; 0.85–0.95), high reward dependence (OR = 1.09; 1.03–1.15) and low persistence (OR = 0.91; 0.87–0.96) with no sex differences or quadratic effects. These associations grew stronger with increase in numbers of children. The findings were substantially the same in a completely prospective analysis. Adjusting for education did not influence the associations. Despite its negative association with overall childbearing, high novelty seeking increased the probability of having children in participants who were not living with a partner (OR = 1.29; 1.12–1.49). These data provide novel evidence for the role of temperament in influencing childbearing, and suggest possible weak natural selection of temperament traits in contemporary humans. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Age and Gender Differences in Mate Selection Criteria for Various Involvement Levels

The present study investigated mate preferences for five different levels of relationship involvement—marriage, serious relationship, falling in love, casual sex, and sexual fantasies–among individuals of 20, 30, 40, 50, and 60 years of age. Consistent with an evolutionary perspective, men preferred mates who were higher in physical attractiveness than themselves, whereas women preferred mates who were higher in income, education, self–confidence, intelligence, dominance, and social position than themselves. The lower the level of relationship involvement, the lower were the preferred levels of education, physical attractiveness, and, particularly for males, preferred intelligence in comparison to oneself. For sexual fantasies, men and women preferred mates who were higher in physical attractiveness than those they preferred for real partners. There were few age differences in mate preferences, although older individuals set higher standards for a potential mate’s education.     

Women, Weight, and Age: Social Comparison to Magazine Images Across the Lifespan

The finding that rates of body dissatisfaction in women remain relatively stable across the adult lifespan may be due to older women having fewer but heavier age-relevant comparisons in the media. To examine this, magazine images that depict women’s full bodies were coded for age, body size, and clothedness. Analyses suggest that overall, older women are not well represented in this medium. In addition, magazines aimed at younger women depict younger and thinner models than do those magazines with a larger percentage of older readers. Moreover, across magazines, younger models are thinner and less clothed than older models. Thus, larger body ideals portrayed in the media, in combination with increased weight with age, may contribute to similarities in body satisfaction over the lifespan. An earlier version of this paper was presented at the annual meeting of the Association for Psychological Science, New York, NY, May 2006.     

Is marriage/cohabitation beneficial for young people? Some evidence on psychological distress among Norwegian college students

Although a large number of studies have examined the association between marital status or cohabitation on the one hand and psychological distress on the other, few have looked specifically at young people. Theoretically, the effects of marriage may be expected to vary with age, and differential selection into or out of marriage/cohabitation may also have different implications at different age levels. This paper uses cross‐sectional data on about 2300 Norwegian college students aged from 19 to 30; for nearly 1000 of these two‐wave panel data are also used. Psychological distress is measured by the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ), and linear regression analysis is used. Cross‐sectional analyses show that among female students marriage/cohabitation is associated with less distress. For male students the association changes with age; in the youngest group, married/cohabiting men are more distressed than those living alone, this is reversed beyond about 23 years of age. The longitudinal analyses show that termination of marriage/cohabitation is associated with increased distress. Going from single living to marriage/cohabitation does not seem to have any effect, however. These results are interpreted as providing some tentative support for social selection effects, and for the stressfulness of terminating a marriage or relationship of cohabitation. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Age-based differences in treatment outcome among alcohol-dependent women

The literature suggests that women are at higher risk for negative consequences from alcohol use than men and that these risks are compounded by age. The current study investigated how alcohol-dependent women from different age groups might differ in terms of baseline functioning and treatment response. The sample consisted of 181 participants drawn from two randomized clinical trials of cognitive-behavioral treatments for alcohol-dependent women. Demographic and psychopathology data were obtained at baseline using the SCID (Structured Clinical Interview for DSM disorders) I for Axis I disorders and the SCID II or Personality Disorders Questionnaire for Axis II disorders. Social networks data were collected using the Important People and Activities Interview. Drinking data were collected at baseline and follow-up using the Timeline Follow Back Interview. ANOVAs revealed that older women had better psychosocial functioning in terms of being better educated and reporting fewer Axis I disorders. Also, older women had more supportive social networks in terms of more people, a smaller percentage of heavy drinkers, and a nondrinking spouse. Older women reported a less severe lifetime substance use history with a later age of first drink, later onset of alcohol use disorders, fewer lifetime abuse/dependence items, and less drug use. However, they reported drinking more frequently and more heavily over the 90 days prior to treatment. Finally, older women were more compliant with treatment and responded better by reducing drinking frequency and percentage of heavy drinking days. Suggestions to enhance treatment efficacy for younger women are made as well as suggestions for future research. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved).     

Sexual Discretion: Black Masculinity and the Politics of Passing

Abstract

The aim of the present study is to examine the relationship between religious orientation and attitudes towards two contentious issues about human sexuality in the Church of England, by studying the broad range of people found attending an Anglican cathedral carol service. A sample of 381 individuals who attended a carol service at Worcester cathedral in December 2009 thoroughly completed the New Indices of Religious Orientation (NIRO). The scales were found to be reliable for the sample. The same participants responded to two statements relating to their attitudes towards gay marriage and the appointment of homosexual men as bishops. Both men and older people are found to report higher levels of negative attitudes towards both issues. Strong positive correlations are found between intrinsic religious orientation and negative attitudes towards gay marriage and gay bishops; these remain after controlling for age and sex. After further controlling for intrinsic and extrinsic orientation, it is found that quest orientation is positively associated with favourable views towards both issues. Areas for further research are identified.     

Aging “Hot”: Images and Narratives of Sexual Desirability on Television

As women age, their sexual desirability is likely to diverge from what is presented as most coveted in American society: youthful, slim but curvy, firm, and fit. Media rarely feature actresses over the age of 50 as leading characters and when they do, they are usually relegated to caretaker or partner roles and they usually conform to gender traditional stereotypes. However, more recently, there have been a few television programs that focus specifically on older women’s sexualities and feature plotlines that center on their desire and desirability. The premise of the program Hot in Cleveland is that desirability is in the eye of the beholder. Using a comedic format, the show highlights the tensions between media and celebrity fueled standards for desirability and “real life” desirability. In this paper, based on a close analysis of five seasons of Hot in Cleveland, we explore these competing messages about midlife and older women’s appearance and sexualities and the way comic framing both challenges and reinforces dominant narratives of aging.