This paper investigates the effect of relative income on marriage. Accounting flexibly for absolute income, the ratio between a man's income and a local reference group median is a strong predictor of marital status, but only for low-income men. Relative income affects marriage even among those living with a partner. A 10 percent higher reference…

Framed by equity theory, fairness beliefs regarding child support modification to account for the financial impact of remarriage and subsequent childbirth were assessed. Based on a random sample of 407 Kentucky residents using a multiple segment factorial vignette approach, modification was supported by 57% of respondents following remarriage, but…

Policies governing divorce and parenting, such as child support orders and enforcement, child custody regulations, and marital dissolution requirements, can have a large impact on the welfare of parents and children. Recent research has produced evidence on the responses of divorce rates to unilateral divorce laws and child support enforcement. In…

A typology of crises is developed to be used with critical aspects of the social system to predict both crisis and postcrisis period role changes. The crisis framework is then applied to macro-changes in family structure in response to an archetypal crisis, World War II. Census data generally support the hypotheses. (Author)

The Automatic Interaction Detector (AID) method of data analysis is utilized with 512 low income families. Results show that associations of the predictor variables with marital intactness are neither linear nor additive. Nevertheless, two variables emerge in explaining marital intactness: mode of decision-making and strategy of conflict…

The purpose of this paper was to bring together the concept of educational accountability and a systems approach to delivering marital counseling services to a university community. In so doing a heavy emphasis was placed on outliving the basic assumptions underlying the current movement for educational accountability and presenting one, very…

Study objectives were to: derive a set of variables originating from background status attainments and proceeding through marital behavior via a literature search; develop models of marital happiness and family satisfaction by residence; delimit specific variables contributing to marital happiness and family satisfaction by residence within the…