The authors investigated the association between adaptive and maladaptive perfectionism and relationship quality in 197 engaged couples. When both partners were maladaptive perfectionists, they were more likely to be grouped into less functional couple types. Couples in which both partners were adaptive perfectionists tended to cluster in more…

Interracial dating on American campuses has had a relatively stormy past. Until the past three decades or so, it was outlawed in some states. Southern institutions, in particular, such as the infamous Bob Jones University have made this issue divisive even among their own constituencies. Age and generation seem to be cogent factors with younger…

A longitudinal study investigated variations in the coping patterns of 52 married men who experienced infertility problems in their first marriage. Styles of coping considered were initial substitutes, subsequent parenting resolutions, and final marital outcomes and the impact of these variations on the men's subsequent success in achieving…

To ascertain whether marital quality influences parental teaching strategies in different instructional contexts, mother-child and father-child interactions were observed during a book-reading and a direct instruction task. While few differences in teaching styles were detected between nondistressed husbands and wives, teaching styles of mothers…

This study examined the attitudes and values of 47 able-bodied, 36 blind, and 44 wheelchair-using individuals toward various aspects of marriage including love, sexual life, parenthood, and infidelity. No significant differences were found in attitudes and views among groups. All valued marriage and family life highly and had similar expectations.…

Determined the impact of traditional values, the immigration experience, and life in America on parental expectations for adult children among families of Chinese and Irish descent. Interviews and participation in community activities revealed the persistence of traditional attitudes. Their operationalization, however, has been substantially…

Predicted that parents' gender, level of psychological differentiation, perceptions of the marital relationship, and occupational identities would account for differences in parental experiences. Sex differences were found. Greater marital harmony and more advanced occupational identity statuses predicted more confident parenting; better marital…

Most of the observational study of marriage has focused on relatively young and highly educated couples from professional backgrounds; working-class couples, older couples, and couples from distressed marriages seem reluctant to volunteer for research on close relationships. The development of techniques for recruiting these couples represents an…

Current research focusing on long-term marriages have assessed marriages at one time period only. To sort out age and stage differences from cohort effects, a longitudinal case study analysis was undertaken with the 17 surviving couples of the Berkeley Older Generation Study, a group that has been interviewed in young adulthood (1929-30), in…

Most of the observational study of marriage has focused on relatively young and highly educated couples from professional backgrounds. Very little is known about the generality of this observational research to couples whose marital philosophies have been influenced by a different array of socioeconomic conditions and secular trends. Satisfied and…

Compared 32 childfree with 20 child-anticipated couples. No differences were found between the groups on marital adjustment, marital type, or sex role identification, although a trend was found suggesting that childfree women tended to view themselves as less sex-typed than child-anticipated women. (Author/NRB)

Increasingly, young American women are engaged in multiple roles, combining job and family responsibilities. To investigate the links between role groups (employment, marriage, parenthood), and pressures, satisfactions, and physical health among young women, a subsample of 162 white women, aged 18 to 34, drawn from the 1978 Health in Detroit…

Previous research on physical attractiveness stereotypes about marriage have used stimulus individuals in isolation. To examine these attractiveness stereotypes using couples as targets, 72 college students (36 females, 36 males) rated eight photographs of four male-female couple types. Members of each couple were either matched (attractive…

Examines associations among contemporaneous measures of marital quality, parenting attitudes and behavior, and toddler development in two-parent families. Seventy-five families with one 20-month-old child served as subjects. Results generally indicated that good marital quality was associated with optimal toddler functioning and sensitive…

Results of this study of 96 sibling dyads demonstrated necessity of going beyond the examination of between-group differences in the study of divorce effects to look at the processes by which developmental outcomes for children are enhanced or undermined. Findings draw attention to the heightened vulnerability of dyads containing older boys in…