Intimate Relationships Research Articles

An Equity-Based Research Agenda to Promote Social Inclusion and Belonging for People With IDD.

Having a sense of social inclusion and belonging, typically characterized by our personal relationships and community participation, is the central essence of life for most people, yet it remains elusive for many people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). This article summarizes the work of a diverse group of researchers and advocates to propose 6 big-picture, equity-based goals to drive future research in the field: (1) understanding the role of intersectionality, (2) understanding intimate relationships, (3) promoting formation of communities of care to support social inclusion, (4) understanding life course trajectories of social inclusion, (5) understanding social inclusion in virtual spaces, and (6) understanding how to promote social inclusion in the entire research process.

The impact of the parenting for respectability programme on violent parenting and intimate partner relationships in Uganda: A pre-post study.

There is a growing need for interventions that reduce both violence against children and intimate partner violence in low- and middle-income countries. However, few parenting interventions deliberately address this link. We tested the feasibility of a 16-session group-based parenting programme, Parenting for Respectability, in semi-rural Ugandan communities. This was a pre-post study with parents and their children (N = 484 parents; 212 children). Pre-post comparisons found large effects for parent-reported reduced harsh parenting (Cohen's f2 = 0.41 overall; f2 = 0.47 (among session attendees); with an overall reduction of 26% for harsh parenting. Session attendees reported higher reductions than non-attendees (p = 0.014), and male caregivers reported higher reductions than female caregivers (p<0.001). Children also reported reduced harsh parenting by attending fathers (f2 = 0.64 overall; f2 = 0.60) and attending mothers (f2 = 0.56 overall; f2 = 0.51); with reduction in harsh parenting ranging between 27% to 29% in the various categories. Overall, spousal violence reduced by 27% (f2 = 0.19 overall; f2 = 0.26 (among session attendees). Both parents and children reported reduced dysfunctional parent relationships; parents: f2 = 0.19 overall; f2 = 0.26 (among session attendees); and children: f2 = 0.35 overall; f2 = 0.32 (for attending parents); with reductions ranging between 22% to 28%. Parents who attended more than 50% of the program reported greater effects on reduced dysfunctional relationships than those who attended less than half of the program (B = -0.74, p = 0.013). All secondary outcomes were improved with f2 ranging between 0.08 and 0.39; and improvements ranging between 6% and 28%. Results suggest the importance of more rigorous testing to determine program effectiveness.

The Relationship Between Sex-roles and Romantic Relationship Satisfaction

This research delves into the intricate interplay between gender roles and relationship satisfaction within romantic partnerships, with a nuanced exploration of masculinity, femininity, and androgyny. Drawing upon a comprehensive review of literature, including seminal studies such as those by Spitzberg and Cupach (2019), Bem (1993), Thompson and Pleck (1986), and Bem (1974), the study aims to elucidate the association between traditional gender roles and relationship contentment, while considering the emergence of androgynous traits in contemporary relationships. Synthesizing findings from these seminal works, the research endeavors to highlight how adherence to traditional sex roles, defined by societal expectations of masculinity and femininity, may influence the level of satisfaction experienced within romantic relationships. Spitzberg and Cupach's (2019) study explores the influence of traditional gender roles on relationship satisfaction, suggesting that adherence to stereotypical masculine and feminine roles can contribute to conflict and dissatisfaction within partnerships. Building upon this, Bem (1993) proposes the concept of androgyny as an alternative to traditional gender roles, suggesting that individuals who possess a blend of both masculine and feminine traits may experience greater relationship satisfaction and flexibility. Thompson and Pleck (1986) further examine the concept of androgyny, emphasizing its potential to enhance intimacy and communication within romantic relationships by transcending rigid gender stereotypes. Moreover, Bem (1974) introduced the Bem Sex-Role Inventory (BSRI), a widely used measure for assessing individuals' gender roles, which has been instrumental in understanding the complexities of gender identity and its impact on relationship dynamics. By integrating insights from these diverse scholarly sources, the research aims to contribute to a deeper understanding of how gender roles intersect with relationship satisfaction, offering valuable implications for couples, therapists, and policymakers. Additionally, the study explores the implications of masculinity, femininity, and androgyny on various aspects of relationship satisfaction, including communication, intimacy, and conflict resolution. Through an analysis of empirical research, the study aims to elucidate the mechanisms through which adherence to traditional gender roles or the adoption of androgynous traits may shape relationship dynamics and contentment. Furthermore, the research considers contextual factors such as cultural norms, socioeconomic status, and relationship duration, which may moderate the association between gender roles and relationship satisfaction. Ultimately, this study seeks to shed light on the evolving nature of romantic relationships in contemporary society, emphasizing the importance of recognizing and accommodating a spectrum of gender expressions for fostering healthier and more fulfilling partnerships. By acknowledging the complexities of gender identity and its impact on relationship dynamics, the research aims to inform interventions and policies aimed at promoting relationship satisfaction and well-being across diverse populations.

Doxastic Partiality and the Puzzle of Enticing Right Action

It is common to think that our intimates are required to help us. But it can be problematic to appeal to certain kinds of facts (e.g., previous favors or prudentially relevant facts) in order to entice them to help us—even when those facts provide them with sufficient or decisive reason to help us. This is puzzling because, in these cases, our intimates have sufficient or decisive reason to act in the way we are trying to entice them to act. Moreover, it generally seems more problematic to appeal to certain kinds of facts (e.g., previous favors or prudentially relevant facts) in order to entice our intimates to do things that help us than it is to appeal to these facts in order to entice nonintimates to perform the same actions. This too is puzzling because one is usually permitted to ask more from one's intimates than non-intimates. I argue that these enticements are intuitively problematic because they indicate that one violates a demand of good intimate relationships. In particular, they indicate that one violates a demand for a certain kind of doxastic partiality; that is, one should trust one's intimates to follow what one's intimates know are demands of good intimate relationships. More specifically, one fails to trust one's intimates to be sufficiently motivated to protect or promote one's needs, desires, interests, projects, and well-being for one's own sake. Making such requests of nonintimates is not usually intuitively problematic because one is not required to trust non-intimates to be motivated in this way.

What is the impact of sexual orientation in the vision and legitimation in intimate partners’ violence?

World Health Organization defines violence between intimate partners (VPI) as any conduct between two people within a relationship of intimacy that generates psychological, physical or sexual damage.

The dark tetrad in relationships: sexual coaxing, sexual coercion and rape myth acceptance

ABSTRACT Research has linked the Dark Tetrad to the perpetration of sexual violence. However, while sexual violence is predominantly perpetrated by those known to the victim, little research has looked at the impact of the Dark Tetrad in the context of intimate relationships. The present study aimed to explore the relationship between the Dark Tetrad, attitudes toward sexual coaxing and sexual coercion, and Rape Myth acceptance, while measuring the effects of relationship. Pearson's r correlations, independent sample t-tests, regressions and mediation analyses were conducted on a sample of N = 461 participants from the general population. Results show a gender difference, with women reporting more lenient attitudes toward coercive or coaxing behaviours, and men presenting more dark traits and endorsing more Rape Myths. Furthermore, relationships were established between sadism, psychopathy, and coercive attitudes. This study expands our understanding of the correlates of sexual violence, enabling the design of prevention programmes.

A romance in (and with) the Amazon: constructing nature and Indigenous masculinities in Napo, Ecuador

ABSTRACT The Ecuadorian Amazon attracts thousands of Western tourists yearly with promises of access to pristine rainforests and traditional Indigenous cultures. Visiting the Amazon is also billed as an opportunity to achieve spiritual transcendence by shedding the burdens of modern life and (re)connecting with a timeless essence that Westerners are presumed to have lost. In contrast, this essence and the Edenic landscapes connected to it are often imagined as integral to Indigenous cultures. While scholars have convincingly argued that these ecoprimitivist ideas reflect Western anxieties regarding the alienating forces of modernity, insufficient attention has been paid to the diverse ways in which Western visitors convert these ideas into embodied practice. Specifically, I analyze how ecoprimitivist ideas about Amazonia shaped the experiences of Western women who established intimate relationships with Indigenous Kichwa men in Napo, Ecuador.

How Early Experiences Affect Personality and Performance in Intimate Relationships

There are five parts of the paper. Introduction gives a rough idea of what will be covered and what it all relates to and summarizes it. The second part is the relationship between early experiences and character formation, stating in segments that if a child is not well protected and treated in childhood, he or she may face many problems in future life in terms of psychological or social functioning, as well as describing how this can be a trigger for many illnesses. The third section talks about the link between personality traits and intimate relationships, such as the fact that more responsible partners can maintain longer marital relationships and feel happier. The fourth section describes the relationship between personality and violence, focusing on IPV and domestic violence. As mentioned in the second section, some people with personality disorders are violent to some degree and are used to solving problems with violence. The last conclusion is the thoughts that have been provoked by so many articles and research.

Jumpa Penggemar Artis dari Lensa Interaksi Parasosial Virtual

Meeting fans is something that is difficult to realize during the Covid-19 pandemic. However, the entertainment industry reproduces the relationship between fans and celebrities through social media-mediated fan encounters in order to balance the impact of business and intimate relationships with fans. Using a qualitative content analysis approach, the author explores celebrity and fan interactions at South Korean celebrity Lee Sung Kyung's fanmeeting via TikTok using Horton and parasocial theory. Previous research has not explained the interactions between celebrities and fans when fanmeetings take place in virtual spaces with a qualitative approach. The form of virtual fanmeetings actually repeats previous offline fanmeetings. Both sell artist personas as commodities. However, the absence of physical interaction makes these virtual fanmeetings very difficult to distinguish from broadcasts on conventional television. The author believes that fanmeetings are offline products that cannot be replaced with virtual content because they do not involve voluntary interactions such as hugs, handshakes, or other physical interactions that play a role in physical and emotional intimacy. This research strengthens Horton &amp; Wohl's (11956) that the interaction between the audience and the celebrity is actually one-sided, not dialectical, controlled by the celebrity, and there is no mutual development of the relationship. Furthermore, celebrity parasocial interaction in this study is shown as "selective self-presentation of the sender of the message" in mediated communication.

Interracial Unions and Racial Assortative Mating in an Age of Growing Diversity, Shifting Intimate Relationships, and Emerging Technologies

While racial assortative mating and interracial unions have been a central interest in the study of race relations and family demography since the early twentieth century, there have been marked changes in the social contexts in which these processes have taken place in recent decades. This review article examines three important shifts: (a) the rise of population diversity and its impact on traditional views of racial integration, (b) the changing institution of marriage in American life, and (c) the increasing centrality of technology. We discuss how these societal shifts have challenged traditional understandings of preferences, opportunities, and intermediaries in the mate selection process, as well as new opportunities for interracial intimacy that these changes have introduced. We conclude with a discussion on conceptual issues and promising future research directions.

“All great warriors have long hair”: Tourism and shifting Indigenous masculinities in Napo, Ecuador

As young Indigenous Kichwa men begin working as local tour guides in the small city of Tena in the Ecuadorian Amazon, they go through complex processes of transition and adjustment navigating entanglements of tourists’ expectations, familial obligations, and desires for socioeconomic mobility. For many, there is the additional challenge of emphasizing their Indigenous identities, given the pervasive anti-Indigenous racism to which they are subjected within Ecuadorian society. I argue that work in tourism has provided young Kichwa men with opportunities for self-transformation, at once attractive and fraught with contradictions. On one hand, they have come to perceive their Indigeneity as an asset rather than a liability and are increasingly able to contest long-standing racism at the local level. On the other hand, their urban lifestyles, pursuit of intimate relationships with foreign tourists and sometimes dismissive attitudes towards rural Kichwa people have distanced them socially from the broader Kichwa population. By exploring these complex affective processes, their impacts on local dynamics, and the multiple and often conflicting understandings of Indigeneity that are constantly being produced and negotiated in these spaces, I seek to broaden the scope of scholarly debates on the impact of cultural tourism in Indigenous communities. I also engage with recent scholarship on Indigenous masculinities to discuss the possibilities and limitations of masculinity as a tool of decolonization for Indigenous peoples.

Crowding in or Out？National Public Pension, Inter-Generational Contract, and Family Support to Empty-Nest Older Parents in Rural China

ABSTRACT Evidence to date has been inconclusive on the effects of public pension on family support to older adults, and the underlying mechanism behind such effects remains unclear. This study examines the effects of the New Rural Social Pension Scheme on family support to empty-nest older parents in rural China, where family care is traditionally favored for older adults. Using data from the China Longitudinal Aging Social Survey, the findings reveal that pension receipt promotes bidirectional financial transfers and intimate relationships between generations, thus increasing (or crowding in) children’s financial and care support to their empty-nest parents. On the other hand, receiving pensions may discourage parental care support to children and partially decrease (or crowd out) children’s financial and care support. This crowding-out effect, however, is limited and thus insufficient for counteracting the crowding-in effects from other pathways. Overall, these findings indicate that national welfare, such as pensions, can encourage family support through inter-generational contracts and intimacy, strengthening familial bonds and facilitating mutual assistance within families. For policy implications, government should prioritize improving benefit levels of public pensions to harness the caregiving potential of families and providing essential services that assist families in addressing care burdens.

How do people with intellectual disabilities understand friendship? A systematic meta-synthesis.

Previous systematic reviews of the relationships of people with intellectual disabilities have included consideration of intimate relationships. In this paper, we report a systematic review of papers describing friendship only. A systematic qualitative meta-synthesis of the research exploring experiences of friendship as reported by people with intellectual disabilities. Seven papers met the inclusion criteria for analysis. Three superordinate themes were identified. (1) Reciprocity, 'Someone who helps me, and I help them'. (2) The building blocks of friendships, 'I can tell her some secrets'. (3) Managing friendship difficulties, 'In real life it's much harder'. People with intellectual disabilities value friendship and actively engage in reciprocal exchanges. We explore the strengths and limitations of current research, clinical implications, and directions for future research.

Signs and symptoms: Adverse events associated with a sterilization device

Sterilization is now the most common contraceptive method used by women of in the U.S., and sterilization devices have played an important role in its increased popularity. This mixed methods study examines a random sample of 2500 U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) adverse event reports made between 2006 and 2017 about Essure, a sterilization device. Quantitative coding was used to examine patient problems; pain and bleeding were reported most frequently. Qualitative coding analyzed impacts of symptoms on patients' everyday lives and patients' healthcare experiences, including intimate relationships, mothering, and paid employment. Findings suggest that some patients struggled when their reported “subjective” symptoms didn't result in “objective” clinical signs of problems, and when physicians dismissed or deflected their concerns in diagnostic encounters. This paper raises important issues regarding the symptoms patients associated with Essure, the diagnosis of device-driven disease and injury, and the FDA's regulation of medical devices.

Camouflaging Autism in Pursuit of Friendship and Intimate Relationships: A Systematic Review

Camouflaging Autism in Pursuit of Friendship and Intimate Relationships: A Systematic Review

Caring for Valid Sexual Consent

Caring for Valid Sexual Consent

Attitudes towards people with disabilities in Greenland and the need for empowered changes

ABSTRACT In order to understanding public attitudes towards people with disabilities in Greenland and analyse how to facilitate further empowerment, a national survey was produced in 2020. The results from the survey showed a clear difference in attitudes towards people with either physical or mental disabilities. The survey ‘Holdninger til Handicap’ (attitudes towards disabilities), which was carried out by Tilioq (the spokesperson institution for people with disabilities) and Ilisimatusarfik Centre for Arctic Welfare, included almost 1,000 responses. Respondents had a more positive view of people with physical disabilities than those with mental disabilities. Furthermore, the survey highlights a prejudice among respondents in relation to dating or having intimate relationships with a person with a disability or mental disability. Despite the respondents’ divided view of having an intimate relationship with people with disabilities, there was more openness to accepting people with a physical disability in a position of power (e.g. politicians or managers). However, the respondents were not willing to accept people with mental disabilities in positions of power. The study in Greenland is the first to explore barriers and attitudes towards people with disabilities in non-intimate and intimate social relationships and power relationships. The study provided knowledge to support decision-makers and NGOs in informing society in general about physical and mental disabilities and the rights of disabled people in Greenland in relation to empowerment and further inclusion.

Viruses shuttle between fungi and plants

The intimate relationships between plants and fungi provide an opportunity for the shuttling of viruses. Dai et al. recently discovered that a virus undergoes cross-kingdom transmission, and naturally spreads to both plant and fungal populations. This finding expands our understanding of viral host range, evolution, transmission, and disease management.

An Exploration of Common Dyadic Coping Strategies: A Perspective from Pakistani Couples Living with Chronic Conditions.

This qualitative study was conducted to explore the common dyadic coping (DC) efforts of married couples, with a chronically ill partner. The sample for the study consisted of twelve couples chosen from Gujrat, Pakistan. The semi-structured interviews were conducted with the help of aninterview guide and analyzed using thematic analysis (Braun and Clarke, 2006). The following four major themes were emerged: "common problem-focused DC," "common emotion-focused DC," "common religious DC," and "combined pattern of intimate relationships." The findings indicated that partners are not preferring relational coping resources for problem- and emotion-focused DC. However, the majority of couples participate in religious DC process in a complementary way to cope with stressful situation in the result of chronic illness. The study also indicated various indigenous factors, for example, socioeconomic status, family culture, lack of physical resource, and religious standpoints contributing in the lack of connectivity and sexual intimacy. To conclude, the results revealed that future research is required to investigate the patient and partner's relationship in greater depth, focusing on above-mentioned contextual factors.

Association of social health with all-cause mortality and cause-specific mortality: A population-based cohort study

BackgroundPrevious studies only focused on the individual social factors, without considering the overall social health patterns. The present study aimed to develop an integrated social health score (SHS) and investigate its associations with all-cause, cardiovascular disease (CVD), cancer mortality. MethodsA total of 330,716 participants (mean age 56.3 years; 52.4 % female) from UK Biobank was included between 2006 and 2010, and thereafter followed up to 2021. SHS was calculated by using information on social connections, social engagement and social support. Cox proportional hazards models was used to estimate the hazard ratios and 95 % confidence intervals (CIs) of the association between SHS and all-cause and cause-specific mortality and the 4-way decomposition was used to quantify the mediating effect of lifestyle factors. ResultsDuring a median follow-up period of 12.4 years, 37,897 death cases were recorded, including 4347 CVD and 10,380 cancer cases. The SHS was inversely associated with the risks of all-cause, CVD and cancer mortality in a dose-dependent manner (P for trend <0.001). The association between SHS with all-cause mortality was mediated by lifestyle factors including diet score, smoking status and alcohol consumption. ConclusionIntegrated SHS was inversely associated with risks of all-cause, CVD and cancer mortality, and the associations were partially mediated by lifestyle factors. Our study highlights the importance of maintaining high levels of social health by jointly enhancing social involvement, expanding social networks, and cultivating enduring intimate relationships across the life course.