The Social and Cultural Construction of Singlehood among Young, Single Mormons

Religious young adults interpret their single experiences based on an intricate system of influences that include personal beliefs, family, religious teachings, and friendships. This qualitative study of 24 never-married, young Mormon men and women examined the social and cultural construction of singlehood based on: (1) definitions of singlehood, (2) influences on the construction of singlehood, and (3) feelings about being single. A major theme of this research emerged in the way participants defined singlehood: by what they lacked and by seeking to end their temporary single state through marriage. Families and religious teachings interacted to form the strongest influences on participants construction of singlehood, while supportive friends helped respondents feel that they were not alone

Machine learning uncovers the most robust self-report predictors of relationship quality across 43 longitudinal couples studies

Given the powerful implications of relationship quality for health and well-being, a central mission of relationship science is explaining why some romantic relationships thrive more than others. This large-scale project used machine learning (i.e., Random Forests) to 1) quantify the extent to which relationship quality is predictable and 2) identify which constructs reliably predict relationship quality. Across 43 dyadic longitudinal datasets from 29 laboratories, the top relationship-specific predictors of relationship quality were perceived-partner commitment, appreciation, sexual satisfaction, perceived-partner satisfaction, and conflict. The top individual-difference predictors were life satisfaction, negative affect, depression, attachment avoidance, and attachment anxiety. Overall, relationship-specific variables predicted up to 45% of variance at baseline, and up to 18% of variance at the end of each study. Individual differences also performed well (21% and 12%, respectively). Actor-reported variables (i.e., own relationship-specific and individual-difference variables) predicted two to four times more variance than partner-reported variables (i.e., the partner’s ratings on those variables). Importantly, individual differences and partner reports had no predictive effects beyond actor-reported relationship-specific variables alone. These findings imply that the sum of all individual differences and partner experiences exert their influence on relationship quality via a person’s own relationship-specific experiences, and effects due to moderation by individual differences and moderation by partner-reports may be quite small. Finally, relationship-quality change (i.e., increases or decreases in relationship quality over the course of a study) was largely unpredictable from any combination of self-report variables. This collective effort should guide future models of relationships

Premarital predictors of marital outcomes

textThis study examines whether couples’ expression of affection and negativity as newlyweds and over the first two years of marriage can be predicted from couples’ courtship experiences. The usefulness of three developmental models – disillusionment, emergent distress, and enduring dynamics – that have been put forth to explain the link between courtship and marital outcomes is explored empirically. Previous research has shown that couples who become disillusioned early in marriage are highly affectionate as newlyweds but experience a dramatic loss of affection during the early years of marriage. In contrast, the literature on marital relationships shows that many couples experience increases in distress over the course of marriage. Finally, couples who experience stable marital patterns can be differentiated regarding their marital patterns both when they are newlyweds and later in marriage. Consistent with the disillusionment model, newlyweds’ initial levels of, and couples’ declines in, vii affectional expression over the first two years of marriage was predicted by (a) couples’ shorter courtship length, (b) men’s younger age at marriage, (c) men’s lower levels of premarital ambivalence, (d) both partners’ higher levels of premarital maintenance behavior, (e) the speed with which partners fell in love with each other, and (f) both partners’ deeper feelings of love for one another during courtship. No support was found for the emergent distress model. Contrary to the predictions of the emergent distress model, couples’ length of courtship, their acceleration of commitment, and men’s speed of falling in love with their partner predicted declines rather than increases in negativity over the first two years of marriage. Finally, support for the enduring dynamics model was provided by findings, which showed that premarital conflict predicted couples’ newlywed levels of affectional expression, but not changes in affectional expression over the first two years of marriage. Similarly, partners’ premarital maintenance behavior predicted couples’ newlywed levels of negativity, but not increases in negativity over time. The discussion of the results centers on the contributions of the study for current research that seeks to predict marital outcomes and the usefulness of the three developmental models for explaining the link between courtship patterns and affectional expression and negativity early in marriage.Human Ecolog

How Do Spouses’ Levels of Ambivalent Sexism Predict Allocations of Household Chores? Probing Why Women Still Perform Most of the Work in the U.S.

This study’s main objective was to examine whether, in a U.S. sample, ambivalent sexism would show stronger associations with heterosexual husbands and wives’ housework division (hours and proportion) than have previous gender-ideology measures. Unlike earlier conceptions of sexism emphasizing hostile and negative stereotypical views toward women, ambivalent sexism combines the two dimensions of hostile sexism and benevolent sexism (seemingly positive views and behaviors toward women that nevertheless convey underlying paternalistic and patronizing motivations). We hypothesized that male and female respondents high in both hostile and benevolent sexism would report the typical pattern of wives’ housework exceeding their husbands’, whereas those lower in hostile or benevolent sexism would report less housework being performed by wives. Married individuals (N = 249) were recruited via advertisements on Amazon.com’s Mechanical Turk (MTurk) platform and announcements at a university to complete an online survey. Several variables were measured, including own and spouse’s housework hours, hostile and benevolent sexism, and demographic control variables previously associated with housework allocation. An interaction emerged for women, in which those high in benevolent, but low in hostile, sexism reported performing the highest proportion of housework, whereas those low in both forms of sexism performed the lowest proportion. These results provided full or partial support for different aspects of our hypotheses. Men reported greater housework (hours and proportion) the more hours their wife worked outside the house. Discussion examines implications for ambivalent sexism theory, housework sharing, and conceptions of sexism

His or Her Parents? Perceived Parental Approval of Romantic Relationships Among College Students and Their Partners

Using social capital theory, this study of 194 dating couples examined the connection between parents’ approval of the dating relationship (reported by each couple member forhis/her own parents and the partner’s parents) and participants’ relationship distress. The Actor-Partner-Interdependence Model within Structural Equation Modeling served as the data-analytic tool. Results showed that, in support of the theory, relationship approval from strong ties (one’s own parents) and from weak ties (one’s partner’s parents) manifested themselves differently in romantic relationships. Specifically, both men’s and women’sperception of relationship approval from their own parents (strong ties) and from their partner’s parents (weak ties) negatively predicted couple members’ own relationshipdistress. Moreover, path coefficients between men’s and women’s strong ties and their own relationship distress were roughly twice as large as those between men’s and women’sweak ties and their relationship distress. Findings were less clear for the association between perceptions of relationship approval from one’s own and one’s partner’s parents and the dating partners’ relationship distress. The findings are discussed in light of prior research and theory on social capital

#HappyAnniversary: Gender and Age Differences in Spouses’ and Partners’ Twitter Greetings

Research and theory suggest that men, on average, are inhibited from expressing vulnerable emotions such as love, whereas women do so more readily. Based on theories of gender socialization and social media uses and gratifications, we conducted a content analysis of gender differences in the domain of wedding and other relationship anniversary greetings delivered on Twitter (N = 414 tweets). We tested for gender as well as age differences in three areas: symbolic (emoji), photographic, and verbal content. As hypothesized, women were more likely to use emojis than were men. Most tweeters who included photographs in their greetings used photos of themselves and their partners today, although some subgroups of men and women preferred photos from their weddings. Age-related differences were clear: young-adult tweeters preferred symbolic emojis to deliver their anniversary greetings, whereas older/middle-aged adults opted for verbal/textual communication, particularly in the areas of tribute and inspirational statements and humor. Results are discussed in terms of gender-role socialization, social and cultural norms, and modes of communication (e.g., written letters and notes, smartphone texts) during different historical eras

Do episodic self- and partner-uncertainty mediate the association between attachment orientations and emotional responses to relationship-threatening events in dating couples?

<p>This study examined relational-uncertainty perceptions (a form of cognitive appraisal) to investigate how partners in 272 heterosexual couples responded emotionally to a relationship-challenging event. Participants rated themselves on attachment anxiety and avoidance. Then, after listing a challenging event, they rated how uncertain it made them about their own and their partner's continued involvement in the relationship. Participants also rated how angry and fearful the event made them. An Actor-Partner Interdependence Model yielded three sets of results. First, actor effects from insecure attachment orientations to episodic relational uncertainty emerged. Second, proposed mediation between attachment orientations and emotional reactions by uncertainty was partially supported (perceived partner-uncertainty partially mediated the positive association of anxious attachment and fear, and self-uncertainty partially mediated the positive relation between avoidant attachment and anger). Finally, a partner effect was found between one couple member's avoidant attachment and the other's perceived partner uncertainty. Men and women exhibited similar findings.</p