Same-sex marriage in Canada: The impact of legal marriage on the first cohort of gay and lesbian Canadians to wed

A ruling of the Court of Appeal for Ontario on June 10, 2003, declared the federal definition of marriage unconstitutional and thus opened the door for gay and lesbian couples to legally marry in Ontario. Other provinces followed suit until the federal Civil Marriage Act on July 20, 2005, made same-sex marriage legal nationwide. Research on the relationships of gay and lesbian couples that had previously been limited to cohabiting, unmarried couples could now examine the impact of legalized marriage on same-sex couples. The present study addressed this topic in a quantitative assessment of relationship satisfaction and attachment in 26 married lesbian or gay couples and also in a qualitative thematic analysis of interviews with 15 of these couples to determine the impact of legalized marriage on their relationships and to explore their views about the support they received from society and their communities. All couples interviewed indicated that being able to marry had affected them in various ways relationally, political and socially. The quantitative analysis showed that the 26 couples had significantly higher levels of relationship satisfaction and significantly less attachment-related anxiety and avoidance compared to normative data for married heterosexual couples. Despite some challenges and struggles, the participants indicated that marriage had an overwhelmingly positive effect on their lives.</p

Erratum to Andruff, Carraro, Thompson, Gaudreau, and Louvet (2009): Latent Class Growth Modelling: A tutorial

An error was found in Andruff, Carraro, Thompson, Gaudreau, and Louvet (2009). Here we identify the error and present a correction

Looking back: The experience of first sexual intercourse and current sexual adjustment in young heterosexual adults

A young person's first consensual sexual intercourse experience is often a remarkable and memorable experience. However, little systematic information exists regarding contextual factors of first intercourse, the affective salience of the experience, possible effects on sexual attitudes and beliefs, and subsequent sexual development and adjustment. This retrospective study aimed to examine these in a sample of 475 young adults. Overall, young men and women experienced intercourse for the first time around age 17, were in a committed relationship, and reported positive affective responses. Affective reactions to the first sexual intercourse experience, sexual self-efficacy, sexual aversion, and age at first intercourse affected individuals' current sexual adjustment; however, only sexual self-efficacy mediated between first intercourse and current sexual adjustment in young men and women. Older age at first intercourse was associated with less sexual self-efficacy and lower current sexual adjustment for women. This study provides initial data to suggest that the first sexual intercourse experience significantly impacts current sexual adjustment by affecting beliefs about sexual self-efficacy

Latent Class Growth Modelling: a tutorial

The present work is an introduction to Latent Class Growth Modelling (LCGM). LCGM is a semi‐parametric statistical technique used to analyze longitudinal data. It is used when the data follows a pattern of change in which both the strength and the direction of the relationship between the independent and dependent variables differ across cases. The analysis identifies distinct subgroups of individuals following a distinct pattern of change over age or time on a variable of interest. The aim of the present tutorial is to introduce readers to LCGM and provide a concrete example of how the analysis can be performed using a real‐world data set and the SAS software package with accompanying PROC TRAJ application. The advantages and limitations of this technique are also discussed