Marriage is the traditionally approved means of organizing one's sex life. However, many persons maintain an agreeable sex life in other ways. This paper will examine marriage and its contemporary alternatives on the basis of data derived from a youthful, drug-using population. (Author)

Special series of nine articles by Kenneth Heller; Peggy Thoits; Scott Monroe et al.; Toni Antonucci and Barbara Israel; Darrin Lehman et al.; Robin Mermelstein et al.; James Coyne and Anita DeLongis; Morton Lieberman; and Kenneth Heller et al. (Author/ABB)

Examined the value of assessing affect and attitudes in addition to daily behavior in the prediction of marital satisfaction. Multiple regression analyses and semipartial correlations indicated that the affective and attitudinal variables accounted for more unique variance in marital satisfaction than did the behavioral variables. (Author/ABB)

Examined the role of physical attractiveness in marriage. Showed that the decreases in physical appearance normally associated with aging affected husbands' responses to their wives more than wives' to their husbands. Husband's sexual interest, happiness in the sexual relationship, and, to a lesser extent, unfaithfulness were affected. (Author/ABB)

Outlines a treatment approach integrating behavioral and marital interventions for working with agoraphobics and their partners. Where interactions arouse anxiety, agoraphobes and significant others become embroiled in a circular transaction which causes mutual resentment and entrenched symptomatology. Suggests a method to help develop a…

Examined United States national survey data from 1972 through 1986 General Social Surveys conducted by the National Opinion Research Center. Found rather steady decline from 1972 through 1986 in positive relationship between being married and reported happiness. Change occurred primarily through increase in reported happiness of never-married…

Notes that the well-educated young have in the past been trendsetters for much of society, and looks to that group for information about present and future family issues. Considers the issues of changing sex roles, self-realization, combining families and careers, cohabitation, marriage and divorce, child rearing, and caring for aging parents. (NB)

Examined the relationship of various leisure activity patterns to individuals' overall satisfaction with time spent with their spouse and to global marital record in 251 married individuals. Found time spent either in individual activities or with others excluding spouse was significantly correlated with marital distress. (Author/ABL)

Describes ancient informal marriage ceremonies and informal forms of divorce. Shows how the definition and manner of divorce have changed throughout history and how the control of divorce has moved from personal decision to community policy, to state/church issue, back to local community, and finally back to personal decision. (NB)

Data from National Longitudinal Surveys of Young Men and Young Women provide some support for hypotheses that independent living among young adults delays marriage, effects of nonfamily living are smaller for persons in group quarters than for others, living away has larger effects if done early in adulthood, and effects are stronger for women…

Tested Bott's (1957) hypothesis that the connectedness of social networks to which spouses belong influences the segregation of marital-role activities. Results from 100 Puerto Rican migrant spouse pairs and 100 pairs of their adult married children failed to confirm Bott's hypothesis. Network characteristics appeared to be influenced by sex;…

Studied married couples' allocation of tasks within the household and found that role specialization existed in accordance with traditional sex role norms. Found that wives' self-esteem was not significant, but that the number of hours they were employed, their sex role orientation, and the attitudes of their significant others were significantly…

Data from study of dominance in alcoholics' marriage (N=8 couples) revealed little support for contention that alcoholics are submissive or less influential than their spouses. Alcohol may reduce discrepancy between alcoholics' perceptions of their influencing ability and their actual performance, supporting models of alcoholism and marriage which…

Examines the use of the small group modality for providing helping services in religious settings and the use of religious-spiritual content in small helping groups. Includes a review and critique of various types of services, including group therapy, marital treatment, marriage enrichment, growth groups, and assertion training. (Author/ABB)

Reviews conceptual and methodological advances in understanding attributional processes in intimate relationships. Studies are organized according to their focus on general versus specific components of attribution making, and their use of distressed versus nondistressed samples. Results offer strong evidence of the importance of attributional…