Evidence of public and private interest in programs designed to strengthen the institution of marriage and reduce the number of children growing up without both their parents is growing. Robin Dion addresses the question of whether such programs can be effective, especially among disadvantaged populations. She begins by describing a variety of…

Over the past seventy years Congress has enacted dozens of tax and transfer programs, giving little if any attention to the marriage subsidies and penalties that they inadvertently impose. Although the programs affect both rich and poor Americans, the penalties fall most heavily on low- or moderate-income households with children. In this article,…

Since the time of Kinsey, sexuality education courses in colleges across the country have drawn large numbers of co-eds to their rosters. As educators move beyond discussions about the facts of anatomy, physiology, and biology, they increasingly look to technological advances to further the art of teaching. Taking a conversational approach to…

A family systems framework was used to examine associations between stressors/hassles, problem-focused coping, and marital adjustment in 67 families of young children with disabilities. Most of the couples were experiencing average to above average marital adjustment. When daily stressors/hassles were higher, husbands and wives viewed their…

Russian researchers have identified three forms of monogamous family in Russia: (1) The patriarchal or traditional family; (2) The child-centered or modern family; and (3) The spousal or postmodern family. This article presents the findings of a study examining the structural characteristics of the Russian sample of families. This Russian-American…

This paper describes the use of a simple survey followed by discussion in an online sociology course to create a setting in which undergraduate students may learn about inequality from the study of everyday life. The method described in this paper relies on the common experience of a gendered household division of labor and on the use of…

This study examined the effects of past and concurrent family conflict on adolescents' attitudes toward marriage and behavior in dating relationships. Participants were 75 adolescents who were part of a 7-year project that began when they were in fifth grade. Over 95 percent of their families were of European-American origin, with diversity in…

Many proposals for welfare reform center on the issue of marriage-based families versus single-parent families and oversimplify the relationship between single-parenting and poverty. Research done in upstate rural New York among low-income families showed that personal and economic characteristics of married and single mothers were similar as to…

This curriculum guide contains articles from numerous experts in the field of mental health counseling. This issue includes: (1) "Therapeutic Approaches to Anxiety Disorders" (Robert L. DuPont); (2) "The Role of Nutrition in Detoxification from Drugs and Alcohol" (Jeffrey S. Bland); (3) "'Repair' vs. 'Growth' Approaches to…

The possibility was explored that children's attachments to their mothers may provide an internal working model for their cognitions of marriage and divorce. Subjects were 112 children in kindergarten, second, and fourth grade who were living with nondivorced or divorced parents. The mean length of time since parents' separation and divorce was 56…

One possible unit on interpersonal communication and aging consists of five components: interpersonal attraction, talk with friends and neighbors, marital communication, family communication, and personal communication with service providers. The component on interpersonal attraction explains the complex relationship of age to attraction, while…

To ensure a positive prognosis, the recovering female alcoholic requires family therapy as an adjunct to her regular treatment program. Research indicates that the characteristics affecting a person's ability to secure and use treatment include (1) predisposing factors; (2) attitudes toward alcohol and health care; (3) personal enabling factors;…

As a result of 18 months of deliberation on family policy issues pertaining to young children, the American Jewish Committee's Task Force on Family Policy put together this booklet. After an introductory foreword by E. Robert Goodkind, a paper by Steven Bayme, called "Current Debates and Challenges," outlines the range of issues…

This paper presents a model or framework of marital adjustment, for both the researcher and the practitioner, which provides description, explanation, and modification, i.e., ways in which the model can be changed that are theoretically connected with the description and the explanation. A typology of relationship processes is proposed which…

Using data from the 1980 census and earlier censuses this booklet briefly profiles women in the American population and the changes in their educational levels, workforce participation, income levels, marital status, and roles as mothers. Graphs are used throughout to highlight these changes. Census figures indicate that women are now the majority…