Husband-wife Pairs Research Articles

Partners or Rivals? Exploring the Relationship between Men’s and Women’s Empowerment in Bangladesh

The aim of this study is to investigate the statistical relationship between husbands’ empowerment and wives’ empowerment. Using panel data from Bangladesh that include over 4,000 husband-wife pairs, we regress husband’s empowerment on wife’s empowerment and a set of covariates. We use a domain-based framework, similar to the Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index, to capture the multidimensional nature of empowerment. The findings reveal that the interplay between spouses’ empowerment varies across domains. Husbands and wives act as partners with regard to community influence and daily workload adequacy. Yet, they act as rivals with regard to input in productive decisions and ownership of assets. Additionally, we identify variables that are consistently associated with husbands’ and wives’ empowerment. For wives, their income and employment are positive correlates of empowerment. For husbands, their wives’ employment is a negative correlate, whereas household wealth is a positive correlate. Notably, the results also suggest that the gender asset gap rises with household wealth.

Selection And Women's Wages Over Time: Evidence From India

Between 1983 and 2011, the average real wage increased by 149% and 55% for Indian married women and men, respectively. At the same time, there was rapid economic growth (between 6% and 7% per year) as well as rising educational attainment in India. I use data from India's National Sample Survey to construct a unique sample of matched husband-wife pairs. I employ the Gronou-Heckman-Roy model and Heckman's two- step estimator to study how the change in observed wages and gender wage gap reflects the changing composition of the female workforce. The two-step estimates show that selection into wives' wage employment is consistently negative, however, is becoming less negative from -0.379 log points in 1983 to -0.181 log points in 2011. In addition, the two-step estimates of the gender wage gap show a moderate increase (in absolute value) from a -0.455 to a -0.503 log wage point differential over study period.

Why Did Indian Female Labor Force Participation Decline?: Evidence From a Model of Household Labor Supply

Between 1983 and 2011, Indian married women's labor force participation (LFP) declined from 35% to 24%, even while the economy grew, educational attainment rose, and fertility fell. To study this decline in LFP, I use India's National Sample Survey to construct a unique sample of matched husband-wife pairs. The economics of household labor supply suggests that the explanation may lie in husbands' incomes that exert a negative income effect on wives' LFP. Two-stage least squares estimates of a model of household labor supply reveal positive wives' own-wage elasticities, from 0.25 in 1983 to 0.67 in 2011, and negative cross-wage elasticities, rising from -0.54 in 1983 to -0.75 in 2011. Estimating the model for the period as a whole, trends in wives' wages imply an increase in women's LFP of 8.6 percentage points, and trends in husbands' wages imply a decrease of 20.8 percentage points, for an overall decline of 12.2 percentage points.

Is human mating for height associated with fertility? Results from a British National Cohort Study.

Very few studies have investigated whether spousal similarity for height is related to fertility. This study examined the relationship between mating for height and fertility after correction for spousal age, social class, education, and region. The data used were collected as part of the British National Child Development Study and 6,535 husband-wife pairs for whom data were available on measured height, spousal age, education, social class, region, and the number of children were studied. Fertility varied between the regions with the highest fertility in Scotland. Fertility tended to increase from more to less educated and from higher to lower social classes in both sexes. These relationships remained significant after correction for mean age. A negative association between husband's height in relation to fertility was noted as well as the negative and the quadratic term for wife's height. Both the linear as well as the quadratic effects of parental height difference were significantly related to fertility, but after removing the effects of mean age, age difference and mean height these effects disappeared. Analysis of region, mean age, social class, education, height, and differences in age, social class, education, and height together revealed that 32.4% of variation in fertility was explained but only mean age, mean social class and mean height and difference in social class remained significant. The results did not provide any evidence that differential fertility was associated with spousal height difference after taking into account age, social class, education and region.

Educational and social class assortative mating in fertile British couples

Background: Positive assortative mating for education and social position has been widely reported in a number of countries, but very few studies have tested whether or not educational or social class homogamy is related to differential fertility.Aim: This study examined the relationship between educational and social class assortative mating and fertility in a British national cohort.Subjects and methods: The analyses were based on 7452 husband–wife pairs from the British National Child Development Study (NCDS).Results: The mean fertility was 3.22 children per couple; the number of children significantly increased from higher to lower social classes and from the more educated to the less educated. The extent of assortative mating for social class and educational level was related to fertility; as educational assortative mating decreased so did the average number of children, whereas the opposite trend was observed for social class. When assortative mating for education and social class were considered together, educational assortative mating was the more significant predictor of the number of children and educationally homogamous couples had higher fertility independent of their social class assortative mating.Conclusions: The relationship between assortative mating and fertility for education and social class appeared to be acting in the opposite direction.

Husband-Wife Correlations in Neurocognitive Test Performance

Spousal correlations are known to have a number of physical and mental characteristics, among which general mental ability is one of the strongest. IQ tests have ordinarily been used in studies of assortative mating, but in neurocognitive tests, less frequently. In this study, we examined spousal correlations in 76 husband-wife pairs using a computerized neuropsychological test battery. Significant spousal correlations occurred in the two most highly g-loaded tests, shifting attention and symbol digit coding, but not in the other tests or in any of the reaction time measures. The correlation between husbands and wives on the neurocognitive index, a summary score based on the individual tests and analogous to the IQ score, was even higher (r = .717). The pattern of spousal correlation described in IQ tests is thus replicated in a battery of neuropsychological tests. In a previous paper we reported positive correlations between first-degree relatives who were administered the CNT battery, and which occurred primarily in tests of complex information processing, SDC and SAT (Hervey, Greenfield, & Gualtieri, 2012). In this paper, we note that the same two tests contribute more strongly than any other tests to the high spousal correlation for neurocognition. There is a certain symmetry, then, between the cognitive skills that play into spouse selection and the cognitive skills that are inherited. A better word than symmetry might be inevitability. The findings of these studies suggest that computerized neurocognitive testing is an appropriate tool for studies of the genetics of cognition, that measures of processing speed are particularly salient and that the CNT is a suitable instrument. The advantages of computerized neurocognitive tests like the CNT include speed and efficiency, standard administration, suitability for repeated measures and elimination of scoring and transcription errors. Tests that are Internet-based like the CNT are amenable to centralized data collection and have flexibility in administration in different settings, even permitting the collection of data from remote sources. In genetic studies of cognition, where large numbers of subjects are necessary, this technology may also be inevitable.

Family Nomenclature and Same-Name Divinities in Roman Religion and Mythology

A cultural response to language can be detected in the mythology concerning three pairs of male and female deities in Roman religion: Liber/Libera, Faunus/Fauna, and Janus/Jana. Their same-name status usually invokes the familial relationships of the agnatic nomenclatural system, that is, brother/sister and father/daughter. The interpretation of Liber/Libera and Faunus/Fauna as husband-wife pairs in some authors could be understood in terms of the same-name status of agnatic cousins; but such marriages are rarely attested. The unusual or even scandalous treatments of these same-name divine spouses in Latin literature are best understood in light of contemporary issues in Roman culture.

Analyzing family data: A GEE approach for substance use researchers

Introduction Analyzing data that arises from correlated observations such as husband–wife pairs, siblings, or repeated assessments of the same individuals over time requires more specialized analytic tools. Additionally, outcomes that are not normally distributed such as count data, (e.g., number of symptoms or number of problems endorsed) also require specialized analytic tools. Generalized estimating equations (GEE) are a very flexible tool for dealing with correlated data (such as data derived from related individuals such as families). The objective of this report was to compare traditional ordinary least squares regression (OLS) to a GEE approach for analyzing family data. Methods Using data from an ongoing five-wave longitudinal study of newlywed couples, we examined a subset of 173 families with children between the ages of 4 and 11 at two data collection points. The relation between parental risk factors (e.g., heavy drinking, aggression, marital quality) and child internalizing symptoms was examined within the context of two regression-based models: traditional OLS regression and a GEE approach. Results Overall, the GEE approach allowed a more complete use of the available data, provided more robust findings, and produced more reliable parameter estimates. Conclusion GEE models are a flexible regression-based approach for dealing with related data that arises from correlated data such as family data. Further, given the availability of the models in common statistical programs, family researchers should consider these models for their work.

Fumonisin exposure and the sphinganine/sphingosine ratio in urine, serum and buccal cells in adults from Burkina Faso, West Africa

Fumonisins are mycotoxins that frequently contaminate maize, a dietary staple in Burkina Faso. Fumonisins have been linked with both the incidence of oesophageal cancer, and to neural tube defects. However, epidemiological studies of these associations are hampered by lack of validated exposure biomarkers. One candidate biomarker is the sphinganine/sphingosine (Sa/So) ratio in biological samples. Twenty husband-wife pairs aged 20-40 were recruited from Dingasso-1, western Burkina Faso. Plate ready food was sampled over three consecutive days (day one to three) for fumonisin B1 and B2, to provide a measure of total fumonisin intake. The Sa/So ratio was determined in (1) first morning urines taken on days two to four, (2) buccal cells and (3) serum on days one and four only. Fumonisin intake was moderate (mean 0.81 µg/kg bw/day (range 0.01-2.40 µg/kg bw/day) compared to exposures reported in China and South Africa. For each person the mean fumonisin intake over three days was compared to the mean Sa, So and Sa/So ratio in urine, buccal cells and serum. A modest positive trend between mean fumonisin intake and mean serum Sa/So was observed (P=0.067). When individuals were dichotomised based on the median fumonisin intake (<0.75 µg/kg bw/day), the serum Sa/So ratio was moderately higher (P=0.044) in the high intake group (geometric mean 0.64; 95% CI: 0.54, 0.75) compared to the low intake group (0.49; 95% CI: 0.41, 0.59). Neither urinary nor buccal cell Sa/So ratio was associated with mean fumonisin intake. Neither mean individual Sa nor So level for urine, buccal cells or urine was associated with mean individual fumonisin intake. The study population was exposed to moderate levels of fumonisin with limited evidence of altered Sa/So ratio. Further work on serum Sa/So ratio is merited in comparison with other biomarker approaches such as urinary fumonisin B1 or sphingolipid 1-phosphate metabolites.

High heritability of bone size at the hip and spine in Chinese.

Bone size, an independent determinant of bone strength, is an important risk factor for osteoporotic fracture. In the present study, we investigated the magnitude of the genetic determination of bone size at the spine and hip and their genetic covariation (if any) in a population of Chinese residing in Shanghai City of P.R. China. The subjects were 50 healthy full-sib pairs of females, 188 mother-daughter pairs, and 128 husband-wife pairs selected from 401 nuclear families. Bone size (centimeters squared) was measured at the spine and hip by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DEXA). The narrow-sense heritabilities h2 (SE) of bone size at the spine and hip were 0.63 (0.14) and 0.45 (0.14) respectively when estimated by full-sib pairs, and 0.60 (0.07) and 0.69 (0.07) respectively when estimated by mother-daughter pairs. Marginally significant genetic correlation was observed between the spine and hip bone size. The significantly and moderately high h2 values for bone size demonstrated in this study warrant a subsequent genetic study to search for the genes or genomic regions underlying the phenotype in Chinese.

Psychosocial adjustment of patients on home hemodialysis and their dialysis partners.

When hemodialysis (HD) became practical as an intervention for patients with end-stage renal disease, most were on home HD. The numbers of patients requiring dialysis are increasing as the resources for them are decreasing. Simultaneously, there is a move toward home health care. This study investigated the psychosocial reactions of patients on home HD and their dialysis partners, how decisions were made to choose home HD, and the patients' perception of HD stressors. The participants were 14 patients on home HD and their dialysis partners; 7 were husband-wife pairs, 2 mother-daughter pairs, 1 sister pair, and 1 friend pair. Instruments included the Clinical Anxiety Scale, the Generalized Contentment Scale, the Psychosocial Adjustment to Illness Scale Self-Report, the Spielberger State-Trait Anxiety Scale, and the Hemodialysis Stressor Scale. Interview data and the psychosocial adjustment levels of patients and partners support the effectiveness of HHD. Further research with a larger sample is needed.

Commentary on “A methodology for identifying married couples in medicare data”

Authors of an article appearing recently in Demography propose a retrospective method to identify husband-wife pairs in administrative records. Although their premise is correct, they over-state the power of their methodology. The error stems from a misunderstanding of how persons entitled to both primary and secondary social security benefits are classified in program data. A retrospective look four years after the reference data shows that the number of pairs is increased by less than 10%, not by more than 50%, as the authors claim.

Parental and Occupational Stress as Predictors of Depressive Symptoms among Dual-Income Couples: A Multilevel Modeling Approach

This study evaluates the influence of parental and occupational stress on depressive symptoms. Multi-level modeling is used with a matched pairs, couples research design to address statistical dependency relations among husband-wife pairs and to estimate the contributions of individual- and couple-level variables on depressive symptoms. The findings of 200 dual-earner, married couples with children (x = 2.8 children) indicate that higher levels of parental and occupational stress are equally predictive of depressive symptoms for husbands and their wives. Lower marital satisfaction, less family cohesion, and lengthier marriages are also equally predictive of depressive symptoms for husbands and their wives. Key Words: depression, dual-earners, occupational stress, parental stress. Dual-earner couples have become common in contemporary society's landscape of traditional and nontraditional families. Historical shifts in the workplace over the past few decades have included substantial increases in women working outside the home either part-time or full-time. The consequences of these historical shifts have been of considerable interest to a variety of investigators, including those interested in the impact of dual-earner couples on family functioning and mental health (e.g., Aneshensel & Pearlin, 1987; Barnett, Marshall, Raudenbush, & Brennan, 1993; Pleck, 1985; Wethington & Kessler, 1989). Some of the initial research on dual-earner couples focused not on family functioning and mental health, per se, but rather on the compounding of multiple-role stresses (e.g., occupational, as well as parental and marital) and their potentially adverse impact on women's mental health (e.g., Barnett, Marshall, & Singer, 1992; Frankenhaeuser, Lundberg, & Chesney, 1991; Repetti, Matthews, & Waldron, 1989). Much of this research centered on women's health, rather than on men's health, because there typically was not a commensurate shift in men's roles toward the addition of burdensome homemaking tasks. The upshot of this research was that workplace participation by women often increased their selfesteem and feelings of perceived worth, rather than increasing mental health problems (e.g., Barnett & Marshall, 1991; Repetti et al., 1989; Wilsnack & Cheloha, 1987). Parenthetically, this generalization of previous findings does not suggest that the occurrence of multiple stressors across these social roles (i.e., occupational, parental, marital) is not associated with poorer mental health, only that there is nothing inherently stressful in women's participation in the workplace that is inevitably associated with poorer mental health. Further, higher levels of multiple stressors are detrimental to the mental well-being of men, as well as women. For instance, the combined impact of occupational and parental role stress and marital discord is associated with lower levels of mental health for both men and women. More recent research in this area has focused on the importance of different social roles (e.g., occupational, parental) for men and women and the association of successful functioning in these roles to mental health indicators such as depression (e.g., Barnett et al., 1993; Bielby & Bielby, 1989; Deaux, 1984; Simon, 1992). The initial assumptions of many researchers investigating this topic were that occupational role functioning would be more salient than parental or family role functioning to mental health for men, whereas parental or family role functioning would be more salient than occupational role functioning to mental health for women. These assumptions have been seriously challenged by the empirical findings and critiques in the literature (e.g., Barnett, 1993; Rodin & Ickovics, 1990; Wethington & Kessler, 1989). Briefly, expectations and socialization for social roles, rather than inherent gender differences, account for the seemingly disparate findings in the literature. …

Assortative mating and ethnicity in the low wage population: an examination of spouses' earnings

Social scientists have long maintained an interest in the socioeconomic underpinnings of marital formation. Considerable research has focused on patterns of spouse selection which tend to pair individuals of like characteristics. One area which invites more research involves assortative mating of labour market characteristics such as hours worked and hourly wages. This study examines correlations among husband-wife pairs in the low-income population. Based on a special data extract from the Seattle-Denver income maintenance experiments, regression models of wages and hours worked are estimated separately for husbands and wives. Residuals from these models are used to estimate husband-wife correlations in unmeasured labour market traits. Results indicate evidence to support the hypothesis that spouse-selection patterns are not consistent across race groups and point to the need for further research.

Analysis of nucleotide sequences of hepatitis C virus isolates from husband–wife pairs

To identify the route of hepatitis C virus (HCV) transmission, we investigated the sexual transmission of HCV by examining HCV markers among spouses of patients with chronic liver disease (CLD) due to HCV. Of 83 spouses, 14 (16.9%) had elevated serum aspartate aminotransferase or alanine aminotransferase, 20 (24.1%) had detectable anti-HCV antibodies, and 17 (20.5%) had measurable HCV-RNA in serum. However, the seropositivity rate of anti-HCV antibodies (24.1%) of patients' spouses was not significantly higher than that (15.4-27.5%) of an unselected population in the same district. Ten patient-spouse pairs underwent nucleotide sequence analysis of the HCV core and envelope genes. Overall the sequence homology of 10 couples (91.1%) was not significantly higher than that of 10 randomly chosen unrelated pairs (88.2%). As reported earlier, in an age and sex matched case-control study of HCV transmission, a history of surgery is a prominent HCV risk factor. These results suggest that sexual transmission of HCV is rare.

Intrafamilial transmission of hepatitis C virus

The intrafamilial transmission pattern of hepatitis C virus (HCV) was examined in 118 family members of 61 index patients with type C chronic liver disease using anti-HCV antibodies and HCV RNA assay. The study subjects consisted of eight parents, 49 spouses, 50 children, eight siblings and three other relatives. The positivity rates of anti-C100, anti-JCC, second-generation anti-HCV and HCV RNA were 6.8, 12.7, 12.7 and 11.0%, respectively. Positivity in one or more anti-HCV antibody assay was detected in 3/24 (12.5%) father-child pairs, 3/17 (17.6%) mother-child pairs, 2/8 (25%) sibling pairs, 6/38 (15.8%) husband-wife pairs and 2/13 (15.4%) wife-husband pairs. In spouses, positivity for anti-HCV antibody or HCV RNA was observed after 40 years of age. None of 11 spouses married < 15 years was positive for any anti-HCV assay or HCV RNA. In spouses whose age was > 50 years and duration of marriage was > 25 years, anti-HCV or HCV RNA was frequently detected (32.0%). However, when seven pairs involving four spouses, one mother-daughter pair and two sibling pairs were subtyped, the same HCV subtypes were found in only four pairs (type II in three pairs and type III in one pair). Further, the agreement rate between anti-HCV and HCV RNA was > 90%. These results suggest that intrafamilial transmission of HCV, revealed by the subtyping method, is considered lower than the percentage of positivity for anti-HCV antibodies or HCV RNA in family members of patients with type C chronic liver disease.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Concomitants of Population Density in India

Abstract Measures of reported crowding and comfortable interpersonal distance were obtained in India for 480 husband-wife pairs equally drawn from four levels of density and three income groups. It was expected that reported crowding would vary according to level of density, but that gender and income would not be influential and that density, income, and gender would affect preferred comfortable distance. These predictions were supported.

The Influence of Spouses over each Other's Contraceptive Attitudes in Ghana

To what extent do spouses influence each other's reproductive goals? This question was investigated in Ghana with particular reference to family planning attitudes. Two mechanisms were identified as plausible explanations for why an individual's characteristics may affect a partner's beliefs and behavior. Quantitative evidence from the Ghana Demographic and Health Survey and qualitative information from focus-group research in Ghana were used in the analysis. Results from both data sources show that spousal influence, rather than being mutual or reciprocal, is an exclusive right exercised only by the husband. The study attributed the limited impact of family planning programs in Ghana and most of sub-Saharan Africa to the continued neglect of men as equal targets of such programs.

Morbid risks for major disorders and frequencies of personality disorders among spouses of psychiatric inpatients and controls

Three hundred fifty-three psychiatric inpatients and their 192 living spouses and 98 control subjects and their 54 living spouses were examined and interviewed for affective, schizoaffective, schizophrenic (Research Diagnostic Criteria [RDC]), and personality disorders (DSM-III-R) using the Lifetime Version of the Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia (SADS-L) and the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-III-Personality Disorders (SCID). The morbid risks of spouses for unipolar depression were between .15 and .25, and those for other major disorders were below .03. The morbid risks of spouses of bipolar patients for unipolar depression exceeded those of other spouses by 50% without reaching statistical significance. Personality disorders were found in 44.6% of patients, in 8.4% of patients' spouses, and in 9.8% of healthy controls. There was only one couple in which the husband and wife had each had a major disorder before marriage. Only four husband-wife pairs suffered the same personality disorder. Spouses of patients do not have significantly more psychiatric disorders than healthy controls; therefore, assortative mating can only be of minor relevance in family studies.

Downward Comparison in Infertile Couples

The tendency of infertile individuals to compare themselves favorably to others with regard to coping efficacy was examined among 61 women and 52 men, including 52 husband-wife pairs. Comparison targets were same-sex infertile others and the spouse. Eighty-three percent of men, but only 45% of women, believed that they were coping better than same-sex others (i.e.,downward comparison). Both men (51%) and women (47%) tended to see no difference between their own and their spouses' coping efficacy. However, comparing themselves to their spouses, men in general compared downward, whereas women compared upward. For both same-sex and spouse comparisons, husbands were significantly more likely to engage in downward comparison than their partners. Analyses testing the correlates of downward comparison revealed that (a) infertile participants who were more likely to engage in downward comparison felt less threatened by infertility, (b) no association emerged between comparison indices and self-esteem, and (c) dow...