Marital Investments and Community Involvement: A Test of Coser’s Greedy Marriage Thesis

It is customary to test Coser’s greedy marriage thesis by comparing marital status groups. We propose a new approach that uses the marital dyad as the unit of analysis and examine whether investments in the marital relationship discourage community involvement through formal volunteering. Data from a U.S. national sample of 1,368 married couples revealed mixed support for the proposed relationship. Consistent with the greedy marriage thesis, wives’ soulmate view of marriage was negatively associated with their own and their husbands’ reports of volunteering. Although these associations were attenuated by religious service attendance, wives’ soulmate view had a more dampening effect than husbands’ soulmate view on their own and their husbands’ volunteering. However, the time couples spend alone together was positively associated with husbands’ reports of volunteering, which counters the greedy marriage thesis. These findings suggest that the greedy nature of marriage is, in part, determined by its participants—how they define and manage their marriage

Researcher Profile: An Interview with Dr. Jeff Dew

Jeff Dew earned a dual-title Ph.D. in Human Development and Family Studies and Demography from Pennsylvania State University. He then completed a two-year research post-doctoral position in Sociology at the University of Virginia. He has been an assistant professor in the department of Family, Consumer, and Human Development at Utah State University for three years. Dr. Dew sees himself as a family studies researcher who is interested in how financial issues are associated with relationship quality

Editorial: Money & Relationships

Jeff Dew Editorial Money & Relationship

Religion and Volunteering in Marital Relationships

Married people are generally more religious and do volunteer work more frequently than unmarried people. However, little is known about which religious characteristics or domains predict volunteering behaviors among married couples. Using data from a U.S. national sample of heterosexual married couples, we examine which aspects of couples’ religiosity predicted husbands’ and wives’ reports of volunteering. Results from actor-partner interdependence models indicated that performing religious observances in the home was associated with wives’ reports of volunteering. Attending religious services regularly with one’s spouse was associated with higher levels of volunteering for both wives and husbands. Other domains of religiosity, such as marital sanctification and co-religionist networks, were not associated with volunteering when other religious variables were in the model

Financial Declines, Financial Behaviors, and Relationship Satisfaction during the Recession

Using nationally-representative data collected during the summer of 2009 (N = 575), this study examines how reports of financial declines are associated with financial behaviors and how financial behaviors are associated with relationship satisfaction among cohabiting and married participants. Findings suggested that financial declines were only negatively associated with sound financial management behavior if participants also experienced feelings of economic pressure. Sound financial management behavior was found to be positively associated with marital satisfaction. Finally, sound financial management behavior also moderated the association between financial declines, economic pressure, and relationship satisfaction

The Budget and the Bedroom: Associations between Financial Management Behaviors, Perceptions of Economic Pressure, and Sexual Satisfaction

Although money and sex are both salient to romantic relationships, previous literature has rarely examined the association between the two. In the current study, we evaluate associations between financial management behaviors, perceptions of economic pressure, and sexual satisfaction. We used nationally representative opposite-sex newlywed dyadic data (N = 1,447 couples) and an actor-partner interdependent structural equation model to test these associations. Results indicate that as financial therapists aid opposite-sex newlywed clients in their financial management, they may also be lessening perceptions of economic pressure. For wives, this lessening of perceptions of economic pressure may benefit husbands’ and wives’ sexual satisfaction. Financial therapists may consider using these findings to encourage opposite-sex newlywed clients to practice healthy financial management behaviors and communicate about finances and sex. In short, our findings suggest that for opposite-sex newlywed couples, the budget may have something to do with the bedroom

Communicative competence as a basis for the creative interaction of the professional (vocational-technical) education institution's subjects: the special course for the audience members of the advanced training classes of professional education administra

Матеріали спецкурсу присвячено проблемі комунікативної компетентності керівників, новопризначених керівників та педагогічних працівників обласних навчально-(науково)-методичних центрів (кабінетів), закладів професійної (професійно-технічної) освіти для удосконалення власного досвіду та педагогічної майстерності. Зміст спецкурсу спрямовано на розвиток комунікативної взаємодії суб’єктів освітнього процесу, професійно-особистісного розвитку педагогічних кадрів. Спецкурс підготовлений для слухачів курсів підвищення кваліфікації керівних та педагогічних кадрів професійної (професійно-технічної) освіти у Центральному інституті післядипломної освіти ДВНЗ «Університет менеджменту освіти».The materials of special course are devoted to the problem of communicative competence of managers, newly appointed managers and pedagogical workers of regional educational (scientific) -methodic centers (offices), institutions of professional (vocational-technical) education for improving their own experience and pedagogical skills. The content of the special course aims to develop the communicative interaction between the subjects of the educational process, professional and personal development of teaching staff. The special course has been developed for management and pedagogical staff of vocational (vocational-technical) education refresher training at the Central Institute of Postgraduate Education "University of Education Management"

Correction to: Cluster identification, selection, and description in Cluster randomized crossover trials: the PREP-IT trials

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via the original article