Non-marital Relationships Research Articles

Characteristics of men who engage in cross-generational sexual behaviour in Nigeria.

Cross-generational sexual relationships are a major route of transmitting HIV and STI between older and younger generations. However, previous research has focused mainly on the young women in these relationships. This study examined the characteristics of men engaging in non-marital sexual relationships with girls aged 15-19 in Nigeria. The data were drawn from the 2013 Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey, and the analysis was restricted to a sub-sample of 7557 men aged 30-49 who were sexually active in the 12 months prior to the survey. Data analysis was carried out using frequency distributions, chi-squared tests of association and binary logistic regression. It was found that 9.5% of men aged 30-49 reported engaging in cross-generational sexual relationships. Also, being older (OR = 0.35), married (OR = 0.37), having secondary or higher education (OR = 0.70; 0.59) and having sexual debut between ages 18 and 30 (OR = 0.73) were associated with a lower likelihood of having cross-generational sexual relationships. However, Muslim men (OR = 2.10), men from Igbo (OR = 1.90), Hausa/Fulani (OR = 8.47) and Northern and Southern minority tribes (OR = 4.73; 2.49), men living in rural areas (OR = 1.34), men who were over the age of 30 at sexual debut (OR = 2.67) and those with 2-4 and 5 or more lifetime sexual partners (OR = 1.43; 1.58) were significantly more likely to engage in cross-generational sexual relationships. Addressing the challenges of cross-generational sexual relationships can be an effective strategy to reduce the menace of HIV and STI transmission. Men who have low education, those aged 30-34 years, those who initiated sex at an older age, rural dwellers and those who have had several lifetime sexual partners need to be targeted while designing and implementing programmes and policies to reduce cross-generational sexual relationships in Nigeria. These interventions must also take into account the religious and cultural attitudes towards cross-generational sexual relationships, and further investigations should identify men's motives for engaging in the practice.

Linkages between violence-associated attitudes and psychological, physical, and sexual dating abuse perpetration and victimization among male and female adolescents.

Attitudes about violence and sex in dating relationships were related to psychological, physical, and sexual teen dating abuse perpetration and victimization. Data from Wave 4 of the national, randomly selected, Growing up with Media cohort (n = 876 adolescents aged 14-19 years), collected in 2011, were analyzed. Dating youth perceived more peer pressure to have sex and were more accepting of sex in brief or nonmarital relationships than pre-dating youth. Boys had higher levels of rape-supportive attitudes than girls. Among dating youth, the relative odds of involvement in teen dating abuse as a perpetrator or a victim were generally associated with greater acceptance of relationship violence, perceived peer pressure to have sex, and acceptance of sex in brief and/or nonmarital relationships. Rape-supportive attitudes were not significantly associated with any type of teen dating abuse involvement. Programs aimed at preventing dating abuse might benefit from targeting attitudes associated with sexual activity as well as relationship violence.

Cohort Trends in Union Dissolution During Young Adulthood.

To determine whether recent birth cohorts of women experienced more union dissolution during young adulthood (18-25) than previous birth cohorts. The union formation and dissolution patterns of young adult women in the U.S. have changed dramatically over the last twenty-five years. As a result, this life stage is demographically dense as women experience a bulk of relationship experiences, including coresidential unions and dissolution. The author uses data on women's marital and cohabiting dissolutions between the ages of 18-25 from the National Survey of Family Growth 1995, 2002, and continuous surveys 2006-2010 and 2011-2015 (N = 14,211). The sample is nationally representative. The author uses generalized ordinal logistic regression to examine the likelihood of dissolution during young adulthood across birth cohorts. Women born between 1985 and 1989 experience more union dissolutions during young adulthood than women born between 1960 and 1979. However, the shift in cohabitation behavior accounts for this instability. Women's relationship formation experiences in young adulthood are characterized by nonmarital relationships (cohabitation) and more union dissolution compared to older birth cohorts. Theoretical and empirical studies need to evolve to include this more complicated sense of young adulthood, union formation, and instability.

What Do I Call Us? The Investment Model of Commitment Processes and Changes in Relationship Categorization

The investment model of commitment has been used to understand relationship maintenance and dissolution across a variety of populations and relationship types. The current study used data from the Project on Partner Dynamics (POPD), a cohort study of young adults involved in nonmarital sexual relationships in the Los Angeles area, to test whether and how the investment model of commitment processes predicts individuals' self-reported categorizations of their relationships over time. We examined (1) how relationship categorizations are associated with variables outlined by the investment model and (2) whether model variables predict changes in relationship categorization over time. We found that changes in relationship self-categorization were associated with simultaneous changes in investment model variables, and that the model largely predicts the likelihood of future changes in relational self-categorization. These results are the first to examine how the investment model prospectively predicts the progression or regression of relationships beyond relationship dissolution.

New data on intimate partner violence and intimate relationships: Implications for gun laws and federal data collection

Age at first marriage has risen substantially and birth rates are at a record low; people are spending more time in relationships that, by comparison, have fewer emotional, financial, and legal commitments. Little research has examined intimate partner violence (IPV) prevalence in current and former adult (vs. adolescent) dating relationships. Such information is relevant to federal firearms policies that are based on the nature of an intimate relationship. We examined assaultive behaviors by the type and status of the relationship – current spouse, former spouse, current boyfriend or girlfriend, and former boyfriend or girlfriend – in 31,206 IPV incidents responded to by Philadelphia police in 2013. Over 80% of the IPV incidents involved individuals in non-marital relationships. Incidents involving current boyfriends or girlfriends had the highest percentage of violent behaviors (e.g., punch, strangle). They also were more likely than current spouses to use bodily weapons (hands, fists, or feet) or non-gun weapons (knives, bats, etc.) (AOR = 1.19 and 1.43, respectively), to injure their victims (AOR = 1.37), and to be arrested (AOR = 1.46). Former unmarried partners had the highest odds of stalking their intimate (AOR = 3.37) and violating a restraining order (AOR = 2.61). Gun use was similar across relationship type. A growing portion of the population is not protected by federal policies designed to keep guns out of the hands of abusers. Current boyfriends and girlfriends are a risk to their intimates. Federal data collection practices and firearm policies merit updating to more fully take into account dating, same-sex marriage, and other partnerships.

Trajectories of relationship supportiveness after childbirth: Does marriage matter?

Relationship quality for married couples typically declines after the birth of a (first) child, as parenthood brings new identities, stresses, and responsibilities for mothers and fathers. Yet, it is less clear whether nonmarital relationship quality follows a similar trajectory, particularly given the greater selectivity of nonmarital relationships that persist over time. This paper uses data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (N = 3,459) with latent growth curve models to examine relationship quality (measured by mothers' perceived supportiveness about fathers) for married and unmarried couples over nine years after a child's birth. Findings suggest that marriage at birth is protective for relationship supportiveness over time, net of various individual characteristics associated with marriage, compared to all unmarried couples at birth; however, marriage does not differentiate supportiveness compared to the subset of unmarried couples who remain stably together. Also, unmarried couples who get married after the birth have more supportive relationships compared to all unmarried couples who do not marry—though less so when compared to couples who remain stably together.

Prospects for HIV control in South Africa: a model-based analysis

BackgroundThe goal of virtual elimination of horizontal and mother-to-child HIV transmission in South Africa (SA) has been proposed, but there have been few systematic investigations of which interventions are likely to be most critical to reducing HIV incidence.ObjectiveThis study aims to evaluate SA's potential to achieve virtual elimination targets and to identify which interventions will be most critical to achieving HIV incidence reductions.DesignA mathematical model was developed to simulate the population-level impact of different HIV interventions in SA. Probability distributions were specified to represent uncertainty around 32 epidemiological parameters that could be influenced by interventions, and correlation coefficients (r) were calculated to assess the sensitivity of the adult HIV incidence rates and mother-to-child transmission rates (2015–2035) to each epidemiological parameter.ResultsHIV incidence in SA adults (ages 15–49) is expected to decline from 1.4% in 2011–2012 to 0.29% by 2035 (95% CI: 0.10–0.62%). The parameters most strongly correlated with future adult HIV incidence are the rate of viral suppression after initiating antiretroviral treatment (ART) (r=−0.56), the level of condom use in non-marital relationships (r=−0.40), the phase-in of intensified risk-reduction counselling for HIV-positive adults (r=0.29), the uptake of medical male circumcision (r=−0.24) and the phase-in of universal ART eligibility (r=0.22). The paediatric HIV parameters most strongly associated with mother-to-child transmission rates are the relative risk of transmission through breastfeeding when the mother is receiving ART (r=0.70) and the rate of ART initiation during pregnancy (r=−0.16).ConclusionsThe virtual elimination target of a 0.1% incidence rate in adults will be difficult to achieve. Interventions that address the infectiousness of patients after ART initiation will be particularly critical to achieving long-term HIV incidence declines in South Africa.

Child Maintenance, Father Child Relationships and Family Wellbeing

<p>This study assesses the correlation between the provision of child maintenance and father child relationship which ultimately affects child wellbeing. Using a mixed method approach, court records were examined over a five year period and interviews with thirty fathers were conducted. The data reveal that the majority of fathers were in non-marital relationships, pointing to the vulnerability of children born within such unions especially when family finances are scarce. Perceptions on the father child relationship were sought from fathers on their relationship with their children. The study found that fathers understood their financial responsibilities to their children and yearned for improved relationships with their offspring but their economic situation, relationships with the mother of the child, geographic proximity, family of origin and the court system hindered these relationships. Options to consider when fathers cannot meet their financial commitment have been proposed.</p>

Negotiating Love and Marriage in Contemporary Senegal: A Good Man Is Hard to Find

Abstract:In Senegal, love, respect, and compatibility have historically figured into marital calculations, yet prospective husbands must also provide material support. After decades of stagnant economic growth, good providers are hard to find. In this article we examine two strategies that women employ in an attempt to achieve economic security: nonmarital sex and transnational marriage. Though recent anthropological literature proposes a global transition toward companionate marriage, evidence from Dakar suggests that Senegalese women are prioritizing short-term material gain over longer-term projects of social reproduction. Transnational marriage and nonmarital sexual relationships illuminate women’s new strategies to stabilize their social positions in increasingly precarious times.

A Union Unlike Any Other: Obergefell and the Doctrine of Marital Superiority

Obergefell v. Hodges is a historic decision that accomplishes the important task of requiring marriage equality across the nation. To many, the opinion’s romantic language gives particular poignancy to the historic moment when the long-recognized fundamental right to marry was finally extended to same-sex couples.However, what people see as the romance of the opinion masks a profoundly conservative decision, one that abandons meaningful equality analysis, and instead engages in a full-throated embrace of the conservative institution of marriage as an essential and necessary cornerstone of American society. In so doing, the decision advances a new and troubling doctrine of marital superiority that explicitly undercuts the dignity and worth of non-marital relationships. Much to the dismay of those who may have wished to allow states to experiment with other, more progressive relationship-recognition forms, Obergefell’s marital superiority rhetoric may guarantee that marriage will, for the foreseeable future, remain the only recognized relationship in town.

An Investigation of Loneliness and Perceived Social Support Among Single and Partnered Young Adults.

This study investigated the possible differences between single individuals and individuals in nonmarital romantic relationships in the domains of emotional (romantic and family) and social loneliness, and of perceived social support from family, friends and significant others. Based on a Polish university-student sample of 315 participants (167 women and 148 men) aged 19 to 25 years (M = 21.90, SD = 2.15), single relationship status was related to greater romantic and family loneliness, and to less perceived social support from significant others and family. Women reported a lower level of social loneliness and a higher level of perceived social support in comparison to men. Relationship status interacted with gender in predicting perceived social support from significant others and friends. Finally, the duration of remaining single and significant others’ support were found to be predictive of single young adults’ romantic loneliness. In addition, perceived social support from family and significant others were found to moderate the relationship between the duration of remaining single and romantic loneliness. In particular, high family support and medium-high support from significant others mitigated the negative impact of being single for a long time on romantic loneliness.

Nonmarital Relationships and Changing Perceptions of Marriage Among African American Young Adults.

Cohabitation has become increasingly widespread over the past decade. Such trends have given rise to debates about the relation between cohabitation and marriage, in terms of what cohabitation means for individual relationship trajectories and for the institution of marriage more generally. Using recent data from a sample of almost 800 African Americans and fixed effects modeling procedures, in the present study the authors shed some light on these debates by exploring the extent to which cohabitation, relative to both singlehood and dating, was associated with within-individual changes in African Americans' marital beliefs during the transition to adulthood. The findings suggest that cohabitation is associated with changes in marital beliefs, generally in ways that repositioned partners toward marriage, not away from it. This was especially the case for women. These findings suggest that, for young African American women, cohabitation holds a distinct place relative to dating and, in principle if not practice, relative to marriage.

Proposed amendments to the legal proposition on establishment of non-marital paternity from 1855

Proposed amendments to the article 130 of Serbian Civil Code (henceforth: SCC) of 1844 regarding establishment of non-marital paternity were scrutinized in this paper. Originally, establishment of non-marital paternity was granted, but with significant restriction that presumed parent could have been declared the father of an illegitimate child only if he had recognized paternity. That is the reason why in 1855 the Supreme Court suggested amendment to the provision concerning determination of paternity. According to proposed modification, evidence that presumed father was on intimate terms with child's mother in the time of conception should have been sufficient for establishment of paternity. As non-marital relationships were condemned in patriarchal Serbian 19th century society, illegitimate children were considered a product of sin and family disgrace. Hence, the Ministry of Justice, the State Council and Prince Aleksandar Karađorđević were not interested in bettering their position by widening possibilities of determination of fatherhood. Subsequently, in 1868 the amendment was passed by which non-marital paternity could not have been established by a court order, subject to certain exceptions (if one raped or abducted a woman, and the time of conception coincided with the time of abduction or rape). Since 1868 paternity could have been determined solely subject to the consent, i.e. recognition of the illegitimate father.

Stories and Storytellers in a Changing World: Manling Luo’s Literati Storytelling in Late Medieval China

STORIES AND STORYTELLERS IN A CHANGING WORLD: MANLING LUO’S LITERATI STORYTELLING IN LATE MEDIEVAL CHINA SARAH M. ALLEN Wellesley College, USA MANLING LUO, Literati Storytelling in Late Medieval China. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2015. xvi + 242 pp. The heterogeneity of the anecdotes and stories that remain to us from late medieval China is both a blessing and a curse for the modern reader. The diversity of information and viewpoints encompassed within this body of material makes it a rich resource for understanding how people of the time (especially elite men) envisioned recent events, other members of their community, and social, literary, religious, and broader cultural practices. But this very diversity also makes the corpus unwieldy, comprised as it is of thousands of individual accounts written for different purposes and from different perspectives. Although some items are artfully wrought, these narratives were not recorded primarily as belletristic literature; nor can we assume them to be reliable accounts of historical events, though they contain valuable historical information. Rather, through these accounts a multiplicity of voices speaks to us from over a millennium ago, some more purposefully than others, by turns amusing, shocking, or moving us—and at times almost certainly perplexing us as we strive to makes sense of the cast of characters arrayed before us, the relationships among them, and the significance of their actions. To distill from this cacophony what individual voices are trying to say to us, or what in aggregate it tells us about their era, is no easy task. Manling Luo’s recent book Literati Storytelling in Late Medieval China is important because it seeks to do precisely this. Luo uses an array of narrative works by elite male writers (and one non-elite work) dating from the mid-eighth to the midtenth centuries to examine how scholar-officials of the era envisioned their place in a world in which routes to professional success and the composition of the elite were changing in the decades after the An Lushan rebellion. She situates her exploration of individual works within a broader framework in which the stories themselves were both a response to and an agent of ongoing social transformations. This framework has three parts. First, Luo identifies these changes in elite male life as the very raison-d’être for the stories, writing, “The central argument of this book is that stories flourished after the rebellion because of the radical changes experienced by contemporary scholar-officials going through the watershed reconfiguration of the Chinese elite” (5). Second, Luo argues that such accounts not only reflect literati Tang Studies, 33. 111–128, 2015© T’ang Studies Society 2015 DOI 10.1179/0737503415Z.00000000017 responses to these social conditions, but also served as a means through which scholar-officials as a group fashioned a new collective identity for themselves as a distinct social group; a crucial aspect of this new identity was a “myth of empowerment ” (see especially 15–18 and 171–73) in which literati saw themselves as key players in society and politics. Finally, Luo suggests that this myth of empowerment in turn paved the way for literati acceptance of increasing imperial autocracy on one hand and the centrality of the (increasingly competitive) civil service exams as the route to privilege, income, and career success on the other in centuries to come (18). The evidence on which these larger claims rest is the stories themselves.1 Luo explores the presentation of literati identity in the late medieval period through the lens of four themes (or “thematizations,” as she calls them; 12–13), each of which is the focus of one of the book’s four chapters: literati in their relationships with the sovereign (seen through stories about the Emperor Xuanzong 玄宗 [r. 712–756]); in their interactions with one another; in non-marital sexual relationships with women; and in their experience of the supernatural, in which their literati status allows them to become “privileged citizens of the universe” (14). Though different perspectives are implied in different individual items, Luo proposes that, in aggregate, narratives from the first two of these categories “affirm the collective ascendancy of scholar-officials in the sociopolitical spheres” (172), whereas the latter two...

El reconocimiento jurídico de diversos tipos familiares en el nuevo Código Civil y Comercial argentino = Legal recognition of diverse family types in the new Argentinean Civil and Commercial Code

The reform and unification of the Argentinean Civil and Commercial Code enacted in October 2014 joined the Argentine legal system systematized and autonomous regulation of «uniones convivenciales» –couple in fact– and its legal effects. The right to family life is not limited to the marital form, acquiring legal significance the non-marital families, specifically in the context of relationships between cohabitants. The new Civil Code has wisely taken the challenge of providing a comprehensive regulation, and thus develops a legal structure in which an appropriate balance between the autonomy of those who choose not to marry and the necessary protection is given to different types of family formation, and at the same time, differentiating the legal effects of both, marital and non-marital, family forms. All this, ensuring a minimum level of recognized rights, anchored in basic human rights of those who make a family group. Throughout this paper I will attempt to answer the two questions that are around this issue: Which are the reasons to legislate non-marital family relationships? And how to regulate the relations between cohabitants, without equate the legal effect of this type of union to the marriage?

Is online better than offline for meeting partners? Depends: are you looking to marry or to date?

Previous studies that compared differences in the outcomes of relationships that begin online compared to traditional offline venues have primarily looked at marital relationships. The present study extends this investigation by including non-marital relationships in the comparison. It further investigates if the breakup rate of relationships (both marital and non-marital) varies as a result of meeting online versus offline, and if other factors outside of the meeting venue predict relationship dissolution. Data are used from Waves I, II, and III of a nationally representative survey of 4,002 respondents. Results suggest that couples who met their partners online were more likely to be involved in dating and romantic relationships than marital relationships compared to couples who met offline. Furthermore, the breakup rates for both marital and non-marital romantic relationships was found to be higher for couples who met online than couples who met through offline venues. In addition to meeting venue, relationship quality and duration of relationship were found to be significant factors that predicted if couples would stay together or break up. Evidence drawn from theory and previous research are used to explain these observed trends.

Perceived Social Support and Mental Health Among Single vs. Partnered Polish Young Adults.

The aim of this study was to examine whether young adults in nonmarital romantic relationships experience better mental health and lower levels of mental health problems compared to single young adults. In addition, the current study also tested the hypothesis that perceived social support mediates the association between relationship status (single vs. partnered) and mental health, and mental health problems. Five hundred fifty three participants (335 females and 218 males) aged 20–30 completed the Polish versions of General Health Questionnaire-28, Mental Health Continuum–Short Form, Social and Emotional Loneliness Scale for Adults–Short Form, and Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support. Results indicated that single individuals reported lower emotional well-being than partnered individuals. No differences emerged between single and partnered individuals in regard to social and psychological well-being, as well in total well-being. Results also revealed no differences between single and partnered individuals in regard to somatic symptoms, anxiety and insomnia, social dysfunction, severe depression, and total mental health problems. Mediational analyses indicated the perceived social support mediates the association between partner status and mental health problems.

Romantic Relationships and Criminal Desistance: Pathways and Processes.

In dominant theories of criminal desistance, marital relationship formation is understood to be a key "turning point" away from deviant behavior. Empirical studies supporting this claim have largely focused on the positive role of marriage in men's desistance from crime, and relatively few studies have examined the role that non-marital relationships may play in desistance. Drawing on 138 longitudinal in-depth interviews with 22 men and women reentering society from prison, this paper extends the scope of desistance research by additionally considering the significance of more fleeting and fluid relationships, and the diverse processes through which romantic relationships of all sorts are linked with criminal behaviors. We present an empirically-based typology detailing six processes, grouped within three conceptual categories, through which romantic relationships had their effects. These pathways include material circumstances, social bonds and interactions, and emotional supports and stressors. We also consider gender differences in these processes. While more tenuous bonds to marginally conventional partners would seem to exert little effect, as one of the few relationships and social roles available to many former prisoners, we found that they wielded important influence, if not always in a positive direction.

Relationship status and health: Does the use of different relationship indicators matter?

Studies that analyse the association between relationship status and health usually disregard non-marital relationships. The present study examines if the use of different relationship indicators leads to different associations between relationship status and physical and mental health. The database used for this analysis is the Survey of Health and Ageing in Europe, a large population-based survey of Europeans aged 50 and over and their cohabitants. This study combines cross-sectional and retrospective data of 13 European countries. The sample size is 9298 men and 11,631 women for grip strength and 9609 men and 12,333 women for depression. Generalised estimating equations are used. For men, the goodness-of-fit measure quasi-likelihood under the independence model criterion indicates that marital status is a better predictor than cohabitation status or partnership status for predicting grip strength. However, for grip strength of women, there are only small differences in the model fit between the different relationship indicators. For both men and women, the partnership status (marriage, cohabitation or dating relationship) shows the best model fit for explaining depression. The results suggest that future health research could benefit from the use of relationship indicators other than marital status, particularly regarding mental health.

Divorce, conflict, and mental health: how the quality of intimate relationships is linked to post‐divorce well‐being

AbstractPartner relationships, including new relationships after divorce, are found to be beneficial for mental health. However, the impact of their quality remains unclear; this uncertainty applies to past and ongoing relationships between ex‐spouses as well. We study the relationship between conflict—in the prior marriage, with the ex‐partner, with a new partner—and both positive and negative mental health. Multilevel linear models are carried out on a subsample of 892 divorcees from the dataset “Divorce in Flanders.” Living together with a new partner, either in marriage or cohabitation, seems beneficial for mental health, even in cases of (high) conflict. Nevertheless, conflict places a burden on well‐being, especially for women in nonmarital relationships. Ongoing conflict with the ex‐spouse is also damaging for mental health. In contrast, prior marital conflict does not relate to lower, but to slightly higher, levels of life satisfaction after divorce.