Drew on national sample of married persons interviewed three times over eight years. Found marital quality to be stable phenomenon. Marital happiness and interaction were both found to decline over time whereas divorce proneness, problems, and disagreements did not exhibit significant developmental change. Found no sex or duration differences in…

Examined changes in spouses' experiences of their mates and marital relationships from last trimester of pregnancy through 3 years postpartum. Found 4 distinct patterns of marital change (accelerating decline, linear decline, no change, modest positive increase). Findings from 128 families revealed that patterns of marital change were determined…

Used data on 4,667 women from the Iran Fertility Survey to examine trends and social correlates of consanguineous marriage. Found modest increase in proportion of marriages between cousins in Iran from 1940s to 1970s. Results suggest that modernization may be eroding social bases on consanguinity, whereas increased availability of cousins may lead…

Examined interrelation of marital and parent-child relationship subsystems among 100 families with 3-year-old child who were participating in Pennsylvania Infant and Family Development Project. Results revealed more systematic associations between marital change patterns and father-child interaction than between marital change patterns and…

Forty-year study of 169 college men and their wives examined marital satisfaction prospectively and retrospectively. Examined retrospectively, marital satisfaction followed weak curvilinear patterns with lowest point of marriage at approximately 20 years. Studied prospectively, U-curve disappeared and marital satisfaction remained relatively…

Data from 1988 sample of 1,058 state employees provided evidence that family structure, price, and quality were important determinants of parent's willingness to change from informal to formal child care arrangements. Measured 43 facets of program structure, curriculum, and child development goals. (Author/NB)

Examined 258 college students' attitudes toward marital name change. Women planning to marry at later age and expecting nontraditional work roles after birth of first child were less likely than other women to want to change their name to that of their spouse. Women identified more situations as appropriate for woman to keep her name than did men.…

Examines in 13 articles, three areas of change in family research methodology. Considers major determinants of change in the subject matter of family studies. Addresses the central measurement problem of family studies, i.e., relationships. Presents illustrative examples of the advancement of research technologies in family studies. (RC)

Examined changes in marital adjustment following birth of first child in longitudinal study of 97 couples. Couples completed questionnaires during pregnancy and at 1 and 6 months postpartum. Both husbands and wives peaked in reported marital adjustment at 1 month postpartum; both showed significant decline in marital adjustment at 6 months…

Investigated differences in use of and expenditures for children's health services across stages of family life cycle and how family characteristics affected medical care use and expenditures for children differently, depending on family life cycle stage. Found variation across family life cycle stages in terms of children's mean number of…

Presents procedure, mixed-radix positional number algorithm, for reducing set of numerous changes and stabilities in multiple roles at given time to a single empirical code. Demonstrates applicability and utility of procedure to wide array of complex family analyses through a simple pedagogical example. (Author/NB)

Draws from U.S. Census data to review family trends of past 30 years. Appraises evidence for family decline in three areas: demographic, institutional, and cultural. Argues that families have lost functions, power, and authority; that familism as cultural value has diminished; and that people have become less willing to invest time, money, and…

Examined changes over time in household extension and its determinants, using data for 9 years from 240 households in 6 villages in south India. Found that household extension was associated with variables representing life cycle stage, insurance and support needs, and production system requirements. (Author/NB)

Studies of family life course often use hazard models to explain transition from one family status to another. Explains theoretical and methodological importance of hazard rates that change as function of time family is in given macro- or microlevel state. Examines how duration dependence is included in hazard models. (Author/NB)

Describes the individual consequences of family transitions. Suggests transitions, especially transitions out of marriage, are experienced as challenging and perhaps unpleasant. Widowhood was less consequential than expected. Changes in parental status had only trivial effects. Family transitions were found to affect individual evaluations of…