Journal of Family Issues

HILL, MARTHA S.

doi: 10.1177/019251388009004001pmid: N/A

Given the prominence of marital dissolution in American life in recent decades, it is important to understand what contributes to or deters it. This article focuses on spouses' shared leisure activities as a possible deterrent. An “attachment hypothesis”— that spouses' shared leisure time is a form of pleasurable interaction that strengthens the attachment between them and helps prevent marital break-up at the time and into the future—is tested in the context of controls for a variety of hypotheses. The empirical tests are supportive of the attachment hypothesis and suggest that, because couples with children have less shared leisure time, children can contribute to marital break-up as well as help prevent it.

WILLIAMS, DORIE GILES

doi: 10.1177/019251388009004002pmid: N/A

Using national survey data, this article examines gender differences in the relationships of marital status and of marital quality to psychosocial well-being in order to test hypotheses that the former is more important for the well-being of men and the latter is more crucial for the well-being of women. Findings suggest that it is the quality of marital interaction rather than marriage per se that is more important for individual well-being, and that the effects of marital quality are stronger among women than among men. Further examinations of the data find little support for the idea that the effects of marital quality on women's well-being are due to their greater reliance on marriage for self-validation or to a lack of alternate sources of role gratification in comparison with men. The possibility that women's higher expectations for intimacy and emotional support within marriage are implicated in findings of gender differences in the effects of marital quality on well-being are discussed.

MacKINNON, CAROL E.

doi: 10.1177/019251388009004003pmid: N/A

Two regression analyses were performed that tested the relationships between the amount of negative sibling interaction and the amount of positive sibling interaction and measures of relationship quality and family form. When measures of husband-wife, mother-child, and father-child relationship quality were controlled, marital status was not significantly related to either measure of sibling interactions. However, when the marital status of the parents (family form) was controlled, both the quality of husband-wife relationship and the quality of mother-child relationship were positively related to positive sibling interaction and negatively related to negative sibling interaction. Regardless of family form, the quality of other relationships in the family were important predictors of sibling interactions.

FIRESTONE, JUANITA; SHELTON, BETH ANNE

doi: 10.1177/019251388009004004pmid: N/A

In this article we examine the leisure time expenditures of married women in the paid labor force. Our analysis delineates two categories of leisure activities (active and passive) that are differentially affected by women's work. Using the 1981 Time Use Study (Juster, Hill, Stafford, and Parsons, 1983), we estimate a path model of the amount of leisure time available to married women showing the effects of time spent in paid labor, age, number of children, and time spent on household labor on available leisure time. We estimate that women's responsibilities for paid work and unpaid household labor come at the expense of their leisure time. Paid work time has an estimated negative effect on both active and passive leisure time, while household labor time has an estimated direct negative effect on total leisure time. We speculate that because paid work and household tasks are requisite for most women today they must schedule leisure time around both activities.

BRYANT, ELLEN S.; VANDER MEY, BRENDA J.; BURGESS, NORMA J.

doi: 10.1177/019251388009004005pmid: 12281762

The authors use assumptions from theories of gender and economic stratification to examine the linkage between patriarchal family structures and the employment experience of women and men by comparing job-related characteristics of spouses working for the same employer. Personnel data were used to develop a wife-husband occupational typology that became the basis for several middle range theoretical questions probing for evidence of (1) marital status differences in employment, (2) husband dominance in educational achievement and job selection, (3) family status consistency, and (4) gender discrimination. Findings suggest that all four phenomena are present, but variations in couple patterns show that economic factors take precedence over stereotyped gender roles in the family. Thus occupational differentiation between spouses appears to be decreasing.

ZILLMANN, DOLF; BRYANT, JENNINGS

doi: 10.1177/019251388009004006pmid: N/A

Male and female students and nonstudents were exposed to videotapes featuring common, nonviolent pornography or innocuous content. Exposure was in hourly sessions in six consecutive weeks. In the seventh week, subjects participated in an ostensibly unrelated study on societal institutions and personal gratifications. Marriage, cohabitational relationships, and related issues were judged on an especially created Value-of-Marriage questionnaire. The findings showed a consistent impact of pornography consumption. Exposure prompted, among other things, greater acceptance of pre- and extramarital sex and greater tolerance of nonexclusive sexual access to intimate partners. It enhanced the belief that male and female promiscuity are natural and that the repression of sexual inclinations poses a health risk. Exposure lowered the evaluation of marriage, making this institution appear less significant and less viable in the future. Exposure also reduced the desire to have children and promoted the acceptance of male dominance and female servitude. With few exceptions, these effects were uniform for male and female respondents as well as for students and nonstudents.

VOYDANOFF, PATRICIA; DONNELLY, BRENDA W.; FINE, MARK A.

doi: 10.1177/019251388009004007pmid: N/A

This study examines relationships between economic distress and family satisfaction and the effects of social integration on these relationships. The sample includes 1,561 married respondents between the ages of 18 and 65 who were interviewed as part of the 1983 and 1986 General Social Surveys. Results indicate that the income components of economic distress are related to family satisfaction while the employment components are not. Economic distress is negatively related to social integration; social integration is positively related to family satisfaction. One aspect of social integration, satisfaction with friends, partially mediates the relationship between economic strain and family satisfaction. Patterns of relationships are similar across sex and occupational subgroups.

LaROSSA, RALPH

doi: 10.1177/019251388009004008pmid: N/A