It is apparent that many adults do not want the job of parenthood, yet they are socially pressured to have children. (MM)

Examines types of interpersonal rituals in marriages and adult friendships. Assesses ritual enactment among friendship types. Develops a typology of seven marriage ritual types and a typology of six friendship ritual types. (RS)

The 1992-1995 war in Bosnia-Herzegovina caused mush devastation in that region of the world. This article describes the themes and issues that emerged from information gained from interviews with Bosnian professionals through a project entitled "Trauma and Reconciliation in Bosnia-Herzegovina." Recommendations and implications for family…

Transtheoretical metaphors of purpose, process, and product can be helpful for counselors to organize and focus therapy and for clients to conceptualize current marital patterns and create alternative relational habits. The case study of Kevin and Stacey is used to illustrate these constructs. (Contains 11 references.) (Author)

Presents an interview with Everett L. Worthington, Jr., a clinical psychologist active broadly within the marriage and family counseling fields, as well as the Christian counseling movement. He sees himself as a bridge among the secular academic community, the general population, and broader religious populations. Describes his interests and…

Investigates whether marital therapy can be conducted on the Internet using email. It was hypothesized that in the absence of "conversation of gestures," the email in itself may serve as a therapeutic tool for increasing differentiation of thoughts from emotions among highly reactive couples. With the help of eleven couples, results…

Assessed marital relationship quality of newlyweds: first-married husbands (N=308), first-married wives (N=290), remarried husbands (N=150), and remarried wives (N=168). Examined liking of partner, trustworthiness of partner, intrinsic reasons for relationship, shared decision making, and global appraisal of relationship. Found no evidence that…

Discusses lack of direction in study of how couples think about their relationships as resulting from lack of delineation of important cognitive variables in marital functioning, conceptual and methodological difficulties in attempts to operationalize cognitive variables, and dearth of models of marital functioning that incorporate cognitions in…

Describes computer-based interpretive system for Marital Satisfaction Inventory (MSI) and application in initial phases of clinical assessment and treatment planning. Provides case study. Compares clinical findings at intake with MSI profiles for one couple obtained at termination and follow-up. Considers strengths and limitations of self-report…

Studied conjugal role segregation in 150 married women from intact families in working-class community. Found that, although involvement in dense kinship networks was associated with conjugal role segregation, respondents' attitudes toward marital roles and phase of family cycle when young children were present were more powerful predictors of…

Identified six types of very long-term marriages: stable/positive, stable/neutral, stable/negative, curvilinear, continuous decline, and continuous increase. Case records of 17 marriages lasting between 50 and 69 years revealed that nearly 75 percent of the marriages showed either curvilinear or stable/positive patterns. Found no continuous…

Presents a didactic-experiental workshop that may be used with groups of family therapists and their spouses to help them explore marital issues that sometimes emerge as a result of the work of the family therapist. Concludes family therapists should not neglect their own marriages. (Author/ABL)

Examines the role of premarital cohabitation as a determinant of cohabitation after marital disruption. The author proposed that people who cohabitated prior to first marriage were more likely to cohabitate after marital disruption than those who did not. It was found that the hazard rate of postmarital cohabitation was over 50% higher for…

Examined reciprocal relationship between marital interaction and marital happiness with three-wave panel study of national sample of married persons. Overall findings support hypothesis that there exists positive reciprocal relationship between marital interaction and marital happiness, particularly demonstrating important role of marital…

Evaluated marriage preparation program to determine overall consumer satisfaction with the program, satisfaction with specific content areas, and extent to which consumer characteristics affected satisfaction ratings. Results of survey of 196 couples revealed high overall satisfaction levels, variability in satisfaction by content area, and…