Do Marriage Problems Affect Fathering More than Mothering? A Quantitative and Qualitative Review

The important question of whether marital problems disrupt fathering more than mothering is addressed in (a) a quantitative review of evidence on marital conflict and parenting in intact families, and (b) a qualitative review of research on mother and father involvement with their children following divorce. We conclude that (a) there is limited evidence that, relative to mothering, fathering is more likely to be affected by marital conflict, but suggest that (b) marital status (i.e., divorce) affects fathering notably more than it affects mothering. We further suggest that marital problems may disrupt father involvement which, in turn, weakens the quality of father–child relationships; there likely are multiple alternative pathways through which marriage problems affect parenting, including both spillover and compensation; researchers need to examine more carefully how marital problems disrupt coparenting; child age and gender may moderate linkages between the parental and marital subsystems; and coparenting, marital happiness, and the institution of marriage itself may be essential first avenues of intervention for those who wish to improve or maintain fathers' involvement with their children.     

Personal Encounter in Higher Education

The undergraduate course in the psychology of personal and social development at the University of California at Davis recently underwent some methodological changes. The changes were the addition of weekly encounter groups to traditional lecture during the fall and winter quarter and the substitution of the encounter groups for lectures during the spring quarter. Students found that the addition of the encounter groups to the lecture increased their involvement in the course and made it a much more meaningful and relevant experience when compared with other college courses already taken. Students in the class where the encounter groups took the place of the lecture not only found their experience more meaningful and relevant when compared with the traditional lecture class but also scored as well as the lecture class on an identical final exam.     

Friends in Need: Bystander Intervention for Intimate Partner Violence in Beijing and Seoul

How and why friends respond to control intimate partner violence has seldom been studied in survey data, in cross-cultural comparisons, or outside the United States. Moreover, the study of such responses has been siloed in two different research streams. The concept of bystander intervention has been mainly studied in psychology, whereas informal social control has been used in sociology. We use comparative data from two East Asian cultures (China and South Korea) to hypothesize and test for relationships among totalitarian-style partner control, Confucian gender role norms, secrecy regarding intimate partner violence (IPV), and two types of bystander intervention. The data consist of random probability samples of married/partnered women from Beijing (n?=?301) and Seoul (n?=?459). Multilevel models with the combined data indicate that protective intervention is negatively associated with Confucian gender role norms. Punitive intervention is associated with IPV secrecy and totalitarian-style partner control. There were important differences between Beijing and Seoul. Although not significant in the combined Seoul and Beijing data, totalitarian-style partner control and neighborhood informal social control were associated with more protective intervention in the Beijing model, but not in the Seoul model. Totalitarian-style partner control and IPV secrecy were associated with punitive intervention in Seoul, but not in Beijing. Interestingly, punitive intervention was positively associated with neighborhood socioeconomic status. Lower social cohesion in Beijing may explain differences in perceived bystander intervention between the two cities. Interventions for IPV must be thoroughly grounded in a deep understanding of sociocultural factors influencing bystander intervention.

     

Reducing contingent self-worth: A defensive response to self-threats

Previous research shows that people with high self-esteem cope with threats to the self by reducing the extent to which their self-worth is contingent on the threatened domain (Buckingham, Weber, & Sypher, 2012). The present studies tested the hypothesis that this is a defensive process. In support of this hypothesis, Study 1 (N = 160), showed that self-affirmation attenuates the tendency for people with high self-esteem to reduce their contingencies of self-worth following self-threat. Furthermore, Study 2 (N = 286), showed that this tendency was more prevalent among people with defensive self-esteem than among those with secure self-esteem. The present studies imply that reducing contingent self-worth after self-threat is a defensive process. We discuss implications for theories of contingent self-worth.     

Attitudes Toward Affirmative Action: Correlations With Demographic Variables and With Beliefs About Targets,Actions, and Economic Effects1

Two studies assessed beliefs and attitudes toward affirmative action in the workplace. Opposition to affirmative action was most strongly associated with respondent race (White) and political conservatism, the belief that it involves strong actions (preferential hiring and setting aside jobs), and the expectation that it will hurt company performance. Attitudes were also positively associated with perceived frequency of employment discrimination experienced by the target group and negatively associated with their resulting employment opportunities. Regression results revealed that economic consequences for the company overwhelmed beliefs about target group employment opportunities in predicting affirmative action attitudes. Respondents associated aftirmative action most strongly with Black and Hispanic targets, and White respondents whose affirmative action schemas featured these 2 targets had the most negative attitudes.