Religious Life-Styles and Mental Health: A Follow-Up Study

This study is part of a longitudinal research project designed to discover more about the relations between religious involvement and mental health. It represents a 3-year follow-up on a group of religious young adults. Data were collected through semistructured interviews and by means of a psychological test battery. The results are discussed.     

Linking financial distress to marital quality: The intermediary roles of demand/withdraw and spousal gratitude expressions

This study investigates demand/withdraw communication and spousal expressions of gratitude as intervening variables in the association between financial distress and marital quality. With a sample of 468 married individuals, dual‐mediation models revealed demand/withdraw transmitted the effect of financial distress onto 3 different marital outcomes; in most instances, this indirect effect occurred through total couple demand/withdraw and not one spouse‐specific pattern. In moderated mediation models, spousal gratitude exerted main effects on all marital outcomes and, for a subset of outcomes, protective effects for couples with high levels of demand/withdraw. Results elucidate how demand/withdraw patterns link financial distress to marital outcomes and highlight spousal gratitude expressions as a promising, yet understudied, process within couples that promotes and protects marital quality.     

Impact of Group Settings and Gender on Meals Purchased by College Students

This study examines the impact of social context and perception of weight on calories purchased by college students in a natural setting. Not only did women in mixed‐gender groups purchase fewer calories than did women in same‐gender groups, but significant interaction effects exist among the gender composition of groups, perception of being overweight, and gender of respondents. Men modified calories purchased across mixed‐gender and same‐gender groups, purchasing more when in mixed‐gender groups. The study helps address theoretical and methodological gaps in prior research and frames the findings in terms of variation of gender salience across social relational contexts.