Junior enlisted Marines are getting married at a faster rate than their civilian counterparts and nearly twice that of senior personnel (Gomulka, 2010; Cohen, Passel, Wang, & Livingston, 2011). With the high rate of marriage, these same junior Marines have a disproportionately high divorce rate. While the high rate of divorce is a significant…

We examined the utility of naive ratings of communication patterns and relationship quality in a large sample of distressed couples. Untrained raters assessed 10-min videotaped interactions from 134 distressed couples who participated in both problem-solving and social support discussions at each of 3 time points (pre-therapy, post-therapy, and…

Common sense suggests that romantic partners tend to be interdependent in their well-being and self-esteem. The authors tested the degree to which codevelopment in romantic partners (i.e., development in similar directions) is due to mutual influence between partners or due to the effects of shared environment, using longitudinal data from 5…

Distinguishing between interethnic and interracial coupling offers new understandings about family diversity, as well as the assimilation of immigrants and their children. An analysis of the Children of Immigrants Longitudinal Study, a survey (N = 1,480) of the children of Asian and Latin American immigrants who live in Southern California, finds…

Parents play an important role in the promotion of adolescent sexual health, but little is known about parents' attitudes and beliefs in immigrant families. We examine Hmong American parents' attitudes about adolescent sexual health using survey data from 202 parents of adolescents with attention to parental gender differences. Breaking from…

The current study used an online survey to explore the anticipated impact of legalized marriage on partners in same-sex couples living in California. These data were gathered prior to the California Supreme Court decision in May 2008 legalizing same-sex marriage, which held sway for 5 months before California Proposition 8 eliminating same-sex…

This report presents findings from the "CalYOUTH Wave 3 Youth Survey." CalYOUTH (the California Youth Transitions to Adulthood Study) is an evaluation of the impact of the California Fostering Connections Act on outcomes during foster youth's transition to adulthood. CalYOUTH includes collection and analysis of information from three…

The latest episode in the long-running struggle for control of the Constitution, and the political power that goes with it, is playing out in the federal courts in California. The contending philosophies are originalism, which holds that the Constitution should be read as it was originally understood by the framers and ratifiers, and the congeries…

This phenomenological study explored the impact of marital expectations and socio-economic status on post-secondary educational and professional goals of Northern California Asian Indian immigrant women both before and after marriage. For the purposes of this study, 15 Southeast Asian Indian immigrant women from the Sacramento metropolitan region…

Marital quality is an important factor for understanding the relationship between marriage and health. Low-quality relationships may not have the same health benefits as high-quality relationships. To understand the association between marital quality and health, we examined associations between two indicators of marital quality (marital support…

Based on 424 qualitative interviews with a racially, ethnically, and socio-economically diverse population of young people ranging in age from 21 to 38, the authors ponder the paradox of the evolving role for contemporary marriage within the developmental perspective of the transition to adulthood. The authors identify two groups: marriage…

This literature-based article will acquaint family counselors with the relevant family law statutes to better guide their counseling with stepfamilies and to help stepparents better understand the current laws regarding their status. The article will specifically address stepparent status, postdivorce custody, visitation, financial support plus…

This study reports results from in-depth interviews with 57 highly religious middle-aged married couples representing the major Abrahamic faiths (Christianity, Judaism, Islam) and residing in New England and Northern California. The study uses grounded theory methods to create themes that describe the ways that religiosity influences marital…

This study compared 55 men and 78 women who had same-sex marriages in Massachusetts, 101 men and 120 women who had domestic partnerships in California, and 35 men and 86 women who had civil unions in Vermont, all in 2004. Couples were surveyed on demographic and relationship information, conflict, contact with family of origin, social support,…

The data show that over one-third of the Spanish surnamed persons marrying in California in the period 1962-1974 married non-Spanish surnamed persons, with approximately two out of five Spanish surnamed persons who were not born in Mexico marrying outside the Spanish surnamed group during 1966-1974. (Author/AM)