Sickle cell disease: then and now

ABSTRACTLatine couples often face high levels of financial stress, which can significantly strain romantic relationships. Yet few programs are designed to address both financial and relational distress for this population. Juntos en Pareja (JEP) is a socio‐culturally responsive program designed to address these challenges by providing relationship and financial education to Spanish‐speaking Latine couples. JEP is a cultural and linguistic adaptation of the evidence‐based program TOGETHER. This study evaluates JEP's effectiveness by comparing pre‐ and post‐workshop outcomes among Latine couples in JEP with a comparison group of non‐Latine couples in the TOGETHER program. We examined three domains: psychological well‐being, relationship quality, and financial stability. The analytic sample included 284 couples (568 individuals) in JEP and 266 couples (532 individuals) in TOGETHER, all residing in the United States. Using linear mixed models, we assessed changes from pre‐ to post‐test across key indicators. Similar to TOGETHER, JEP participants showed significant declines in psychological distress, negative conflict management, and psychological aggression toward the partner and by the partner, and significant increases in time spent with the partner. Additionally, JEP couples also reported reduced difficulty in paying bills. These results provide support for JEP as a beneficial program for Spanish‐speaking Latine couples, but they should be considered with caution as they represent the experience of program completers with high attendance and immediately upon program completion. Further studies should assess the sustainability of changes over time. Nonetheless, these initial findings underscore the need for accessible, socio‐culturally attuned interventions to promote resilience and stability in underserved immigrant communities.

The aim of primary school relationship education is to enhance the safety of children’s relationships and prevent discrimination. School textbooks not only teach about bullying and friendships but also construct norms for relationships and behavior. In this study, we apply ‘concept as method’ analysis to 30 Finnish textbooks for grades 4–6, combining critical peer relationship research and Michel Foucault’s concepts. We ask: what categorizations, normalization, and forms of self-governance do textbooks produce when addressing friendship, bullying, the friend, and the bully? Analysis shows that while textbooks aim to solve peer challenges, they presume every normal child has a friend, frame bullying and friendship as exclusive opposites, and present the roles of friend and bully as permanent traits. Paradoxically, textbooks also teach friendship and non-bullying as skills children can choose and learn. We argue that this complicates recognition of peer violence and propose critical, research-based development of relationship education materials.

Paternity fraud, defined as the deliberate or inadvertent misattribution of biological fatherhood, has emerged as a critical social, legal, and psychological issue within contemporary Nigerian society. This study examines the causes of paternity fraud, the preventive strategies available, the counselling approaches and interventions required for affected individuals, and the mechanisms for victims’ compensation and legal redress in Nigeria. Adopting a descriptive and analytical approach, the study draws on existing literature, legal frameworks, and socio-cultural perspectives to explore the multifaceted dimensions of paternity fraud. The findings reveal that socio-economic pressures, weak legal enforcement, patriarchal family structures, stigma surrounding infertility, and limited access to affordable DNA testing significantly contribute to the occurrence of paternity fraud in Nigeria. Preventive strategies identified include public awareness campaigns, premarital and postnatal counselling, routine access to paternity testing, and strengthened legal and institutional safeguards. The study further highlights the importance of professional counselling in addressing the psychological trauma, identity disruption, and family instability experienced by victims. In addition, the paper examines gaps in Nigeria’s legal system concerning compensation and proposes policy reforms aimed at ensuring justice, restitution, and emotional rehabilitation for affected individuals. The study concludes that a coordinated response involving legal reform, counselling services, and public education is essential for addressing paternity fraud and safeguarding family integrity in Nigeria.

ABSTRACT Objective In this Lesson From the Field brief report, we provide practical considerations for how artificial intelligence (AI) can support relationship education (RE) curriculum development. Background Currently, there are no best practices for family life education (FLE) professionals that can guide the use of AI to develop RE curriculum. This report responds to a growing need for practitioner‐driven insights into AI‐assisted e‐course creation and provides 10 practical considerations for curriculum developers. Methods Drawing on applied work at the Utah Marriage Commission, we document our use of AI tools to assist in developing RE e‐courses for adult learners. Our team has extensive professional experience creating, teaching, and evaluating FLE. We reflect on our process with AI to suggest practical considerations for developing RE curriculum with AI assistance. Results AI tools streamlined content creation and editing. However, limitations such as bias, lack of contextual nuance, and inconsistent quality underscore the need for human oversight and research‐informed guidance. Conclusion AI offers promise for RE curriculum development when its use is intentional, research‐informed, and pedagogically sound. Implications We propose 10 practical considerations and invite FLE professionals to engage in ongoing dialogue about responsible AI integration.

The steady increase in divorce cases in Indonesia suggests that many couples begin married life without adequate emotional, financial, or intellectual readiness. In response, the government encourages premarital education as a preventive initiative designed to equip future spouses with the skills needed to manage potential domestic difficulties. Viewed through the lens of maqāṣid al-sharī‘ah, this initiative supports the essential goals of Islamic law, namely the promotion of well-being at the personal, family, community, and national levels. This study argues that premarital education reflects the core principles of Islamic legal ethics and functions as a normative expression of the sharī‘ah. Using a normative-theoretical legal framework combined with a maqāṣid al-sharī‘ah analysis, the research engages Qur’anic and Hadith texts, classical and modern fiqh discussions, uṣūl al-fiqh, Indonesian regulatory provisions on premarital counseling, and scholarly works on Islamic Family Law. The results show that major triggers of marital breakdown emotional instability, financial pressure, recurring disputes, and limited understanding of marital responsibilities can be reduced through structured premarital education. These programs strengthen spiritual awareness, emotional resilience, communication skills, conflict-resolution abilities, and economic management. Consequently, premarital education becomes a strategic mechanism for nurturing harmonious households and reinforcing the framework of Islamic Family Law in Indonesia, positioning it as a sharī‘ah oriented tool vital for contemporary social welfare.

ABSTRACT This qualitative grounded theory study examined asexual graduate and undergraduate college students’ experiences in and with healthy intimate relationships. Using interview and survey data from 69 participants, the study presents a new emergent conceptualization of expansive intimacies, inclusive of more than 10 types of intimacy. The expansive intimacies model moves beyond rigid, gendered, allonormative conceptions of intimacy by instead challenging narrow or limited ideas of who gets to experience intimacy and what people classify as intimacy. Viewing intimacy as the ways asexual and aromantic spectrum people – as well as all people – build connections with others moves beyond conceptions of asexual and aromantic people as lacking, by instead celebrating their varied relationship experiences. This work also provides practical applications for rethinking relationship education.

Abstract Scholars have primarily relied on an aggregate score of many financial behaviors to predict financial well-being using cross-sectional data from one respondent in a family unit. Although there are benefits to using an aggregate score, it does not reveal which financial behaviors may be most salient. Using cross-sectional and longitudinal, dyadic data from 1,088 different-gender couples in early marriage, we examined both spouses’ reports of five financial behaviors (i.e., paying bills on time, staying within a budget, paying off credit cards each month, beginning/maintaining emergency savings, and saving for the future) as separate predictors of both spouses’ personal financial satisfaction and assessed gender differences in these associations. Cross-sectionally, responsible credit card behavior and saving money for the future were positively associated with husbands’ and wives’ own financial satisfaction; wives’ reports of budgeting and emergency savings behaviors were also positively associated with their financial satisfaction. Further, wives’ responsible credit card behavior was positively related to husbands’ financial satisfaction. Longitudinally, responsible credit card behavior predicted better financial satisfaction two years later for both spouses; wives’ budgeting and emergency savings behaviors also positively predicted their own financial satisfaction two years later. The only financial behavior related to better financial satisfaction (for wives) five years later was (wives’) emergency savings behavior. Overall, wives’ reports of financial behaviors were stronger predictors of financial satisfaction than husbands’ reports. Couple relationship education and other resources for couples in early marriage might do well to emphasize responsible credit card, emergency savings, and budgeting behaviors.

This paper draws on the authors’ experience of working with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) school pupils on a research project about domestic abuse and healthy relationships. The focus is on work with pupils in four SEND schools. Disabled women in the UK are more than twice as likely to experience domestic abuse compared to women who are not disabled. The abuse they face usually lasts for a longer period and with greater severity. Research shows that school staff are often reluctant to talk with disabled young people about relationship education and relationship abuse. This means pupils’ views and opinions often go unheard and undervalued. Pupils with SEND needs can be particularly vulnerable to abusive relationships, so a focus on friendships and healthy relationships and how this impacts on emotional wellbeing is important in teaching relationship and sex education (RSE). Teaching RSE became compulsory in UK schools in 2020. The paper considers how creative methodologies can be used in the classroom to listen to and respect the voices of pupils and to ensure that their participation is integral to research. It explores how creative research methods can be adapted to diverse participants, including those with SEND requirements, in particular, pupils with visually and sensory impairments, to enable the creation of a co-designed resource on relationship education. There is increasing recognition of the need for a whole school approach to prevent gender-based violence, and the need to equip school staff to feel more confident teaching relationship education to SEND pupils. However, there is little research on how effective current resources are for pupils with disabilities. This paper demonstrates the importance of co-designed resources tailored specifically for use by pupils with disabilities to learn about domestic abuse and healthy relationships.

Academic AbstractPopular lay theories shape how millions of people understand and communicate about romantic relationships, yet they are rarely examined scientifically. Rather than dismissing these frameworks as misconceptions, this review argues that engaging with lay theories can advance a science of relationships that is both empirically rigorous and publicly resonant. Using the love languages as a case study, this review introduces a bidirectional framework in which lay theories inform scientific inquiry and scientific insights are translated back to the public. Engaging with lay theories can refine theory, clarify core relational processes, and reveal contextual and cultural blind spots in lay theories. In turn, examining why lay theories resonate highlights unmet public needs, opportunities for improved scientific communication, and implications for clinical practice, relationship education, and public policy. The result is a science of relationships that is rigorous and resonant with the lived experiences of those it aims to serve.Public AbstractPopular ideas about relationships-such as the love languages-shape how millions of people understand love, communicate needs, and decide whether their romantic relationships are working. Yet these ideas are rarely examined by scientists, even though they influence real-life relationship decisions. This article argues that popular relationship theories should not simply be dismissed as wrong, but carefully studied as windows into what people need, value, and struggle with in their relationships. Using the love languages as an example, this review shows how engaging with popular ideas can help scientists improve theories of love, communicate research more clearly, and design guidance that better fits people's lives and relationships. This review also highlights potential risks of oversimplified frameworks, especially when they ignore cultural context. By building a science of relationships that is both rigorous and relatable, researchers can offer guidance that is more inclusive, useful, and responsive to the public.

Child marriage in Jambi Province remains a significant issue despite the increase in the minimum age for marriage through Law Number 16 of 2019. This phenomenon indicates a gap between formal regulations and implementation at the grassroots level, requiring deeper policy intervention. This policy article aims to formulate a strategy for transforming the role of the Office of Religious Affairs (KUA) so that it is no longer trapped in the administrative function of marriage registration, but instead becomes a front-line institution in systematic preventive action against child marriage. This paper uses a qualitative methodology with a qualitative approach using descriptive-analytical methods. Data collection was conducted through a literature review of current regulations, population statistics reports in Jambi, and a document review regarding the effectiveness of premarital counseling. The analysis was conducted using a gap analysis framework to map the differences between the legal mandate after the law revision and the current institutional capacity of the KUA in conducting early detection. The analysis shows that the main obstacles to transforming the role of the KUA include limited authority in mitigating marriage dispensations, the lack of competence of religious leaders in psychosocial counseling, and strong sociocultural pressures in the field. This article recommends revitalizing the function of the Office of Religious Affairs (KUA) through the development of an Early Detection System (SDD) for child marriage, increasing the capacity of registrars as certified counselors, and strengthening cross-sectoral collaboration.

People in recovery with histories of sex and drug-linked behavior (SDB) have an increased risk of substance use recurrence. However, sexual health concerns remain largely unaddressed by recovery support services researchers and practitioners. The purpose of this analysis was to describe the sex and relationship concerns of people in recovery for an opioid use disorder living in level II and level III recovery homes. Recovery homes are sober living homes that the National Association for Recovery Residences classifies into four levels based on staffing and service provision. We interviewed 93 residents and thematically analyzed 92 of the resulting transcripts; one was excluded because the participant did not talk about SDB. Most participants avoided sexual experiences or romantic relationships while living in recovery homes. Memories of SDB can trigger unwanted substance use recurrence, and histories of sexual trauma or reliance on drugs during sex impede connection with potential sex or romantic partners. Participants wanted to heal and prepare for healthy sexual or romantic relationships. Recovery residents could benefit from sexual health education that provides the skills for healthy sexual or romantic relationships.

Purpose − This study aims to analyze how the management of the Office of Religious Affairs (KUA) addresses early marriage at the sub-district level. The study positions the KUA as a strategic actor that not only performs administrative functions but also plays an educational and preventive role based on religious values. Method − The research employs a descriptive qualitative approach using interviews, observations, and documentation, which are analyzed through stages of data reduction, data display, and conclusion drawing. Findings − The findings show that KUA management is implemented through the functions of planning, organizing, implementation, as well as monitoring and evaluation. Planning is carried out by identifying causal factors contextually; organizing is integrative without a specific structure but strengthened through cross-institutional collaboration; implementation is realized through premarital counseling in schools and religious forums involving both youth and parents; and monitoring is conducted through the observation of marriage and marriage dispensation data, as well as internal reflection. Overall, KUA management demonstrates an adaptive and collaborative approach in efforts to prevent early marriage, although it still faces limitations in terms of resources and evaluation systems.

ABSTRACT The increasing digitization of interpersonal relationships has given rise to new forms of abuse within romantic contexts, i.e. technology-facilitated dating violence (TFDV). Despite increasing global research on TFDV, limited scholarship exists in the Indian context, particularly among male university students, whose victimization is often overlooked due to gendered assumptions about violence. This study estimates the past-year prevalence of TFDV and examines its association with two salient psychological outcomes, self-esteem and anxiety, among Indian male university students. This study utilized a cross-sectional survey to recruit 397 Indian male university students (M age = 21.39 years) and employed validated instruments to assess TFDV victimization, anxiety, and self-esteem. Results showed that 65.5% of the participants reported experiencing at least one form of past-year TFDV. Pearson’s correlational analyses showed that experiencing TFDV was significantly and positively associated with anxiety and negatively associated with self-esteem. Independent sample t-tests highlighted that victims of TFDV reported significantly higher levels of anxiety and lower levels of self-esteem compared to non-victims. Multiple linear regression analyses revealed that TFDV predicted anxiety and self-esteem after controlling for age, daily average internet use, and number of dating partners. Findings highlight the urgent need for gender-inclusive prevention strategies, digital relationship education, and providing mental health support services. This study extends the global literature on cyberpsychology and relational abuse by focusing exclusively on male victims in the Indian context, thereby underscoring the importance of considering cultural and gender dynamics in the study of TFDV.

Perceived romantic relationship quality is critical for the sustainability of romantic relationships, particularly during the premarital period. Therefore, understanding the psychological mechanisms that contribute to relationship quality is essential. This study aimed to examine the mediating role of psychological resilience in the relationship between mindfulness, interpersonal emotion regulation, and perceived romantic relationship quality. The study included in 675 participants (396 female, 58.7%; 279 male, 41.3%) from across Türkiye, with an age range of 19 to 41+. Data were collected using the Personal Information Form (PIF), Perceived Romantic Relationship Quality Scale (PRRQS), Interpersonal Emotion Regulation Scale (IERS), Relationship Mindfulness Measure (RMM), and the Brief Resilience Scale (BRS). Following confirmatory factor analysis to validate the factor structures for each scale, the proposed relationships were tested using two structural equation models. Additionally, Pearson Correlation Analysis was utilized to examine the associations among the variables. The findings indicated that mindfulness, interpersonal emotion regulation, and psychological resilience were significant positive predictors of perceived relationship quality. Furthermore, psychological resilience was found to mediate the relationship between mindfulness and perceived relationship quality. Similarly, resilience demonstrated a significant mediating effect on the relationship between interpersonal emotion regulation and perceived relationship quality. These findings highlight the pivotal role of resilience in translating the benefits of mindfulness and effective emotion regulation into higher relationship quality. The results have significant practical implications for clinical contexts, such as premarital counseling and psychotherapeutic interventions aimed at enhancing relational well-being. All findings are discussed within the context of the relevant literature, and recommendations for future research are provided.

Preconception care is a recognized component of maternal health, and it is known that web-based trainings improve health indicators of women of reproductive age who need preconception counseling and care. This study was conducted to determine effects of preconception care and counseling provided via the web-based software called Web Midwife Support, designed by the researchers to be used in the preconception period, on women’s awareness of risk, and healthy lifestyle behaviors. This open-label randomized controlled trial (RCT) with a pretest-posttest design consisted of 84 women (18–49 years old) recruited from a premarital counseling unit. Participants were randomly assigned to either the experimental group (n = 42), receiving web-based training and 24/7 midwife support, or the control group (n = 42), receiving usual care. The primary outcome was the inter-group difference in risk awareness and healthy lifestyle scores at 10 weeks, while the secondary outcomes included the intra-group pre-post changes. Data were analyzed using independent and dependent samples t-tests or their non-parametric equivalents. Following the 10-week intervention, for the primary outcome, there were statistically significant differences between the experimental and control groups in terms of the scores they obtained at the post-test (Experimental: 182.29 ± 3.17; Control: 148.10 ± 20.71; p < 0.001). For the secondary outcome, significant pre-post improvements were observed in the experimental group (165.36 ± 16.25) compared to the control group (124.78 ± 22.78) across all subscales of risk awareness (e.g., fertility planning, chronic diseases) and healthy lifestyle behaviors (e.g., health responsibility, physical activity) (p < 0.001), while the difference in the control group was statistically insignificant (p > 0.05). Web-based preconception care and counseling called Web Midwife Support was determined to be an effective innovative approach in improving women’s preconception period risk awareness and healthy lifestyle behaviors. As these promising results provide important information on the efficacy of the digital application, they should lead to further large-scale studies to confirm these impacts across broader populations. Registration date: 2023-08-13 Trial registration: USA Clinical Trial Register (PRS ID: NCT06002451) URL: https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/record/NCT06002451.

Sexual minority men face considerable challenges in accessing relevant learning about sex and romantic relationships, and emerging research links their having more inclusive learning experiences with better mental and sexual health outcomes. Little is known about how helpful and affirming sexual minority men perceive different sources of information to be. Sexual minority men (N = 283) in romantic relationships indicated whether each of ten sources (e.g., schools, peers, pornography) had been a source of learning about sex and relationships across seven topics (e.g., sexual orientation) and how helpful and affirming each source had been. One-way ANCOVAs, which excluded three sources (i.e., dating apps, parents, and religious institutions) because of lower endorsement rates, assessed for differences in perceived helpfulness and affirming across learning sources, and for differences in helpfulness across topics within each source. Participants rated their sexual and romantic partners and their personal research on the Internet as more helpful and affirming than all other sources; peers were also seen as more helpful than other sources, except for partners and personal research. Peers and pornography were also perceived as highly affirming, while schools were ranked as less affirming than every other source. Differences in helpfulness across topics were found for schools, social media, and pornography as well. Sexual minority men find learning from personal research on the Internet and from sexual and romantic partners to be especially affirming, as well as helpful, experiences. Participants’ perception that informal sources are most helpful reinforces the need to better understand sexual minority men’s media literacy and the accuracy of sexual and relational health information available online.

Relationship and sexuality education research has largely centred on adult perspectives, particularly in exploring home-based sexuality education. This study shifts the lens to youth voices by examining how adolescents from LGBTQ+ families in South Africa experience and actively participate in home-based sexuality conversations. Using arts-based collage-creating methods with the adolescent participants, youth interpretations of sexuality learning in LGBTQ+ family homes were explored. The findings reveal that youth are not passive recipients but active co-creators of family sexuality knowledge, developing critical literacies about heteronormativity through ongoing and responsive home-based conversations. Youth identified home as a distinct pedagogical space characterised by safety, personalisation, ongoing responsive dialogue, inclusivity of diverse sexual and gender identities, and responsiveness to their developmental needs. However, youth also navigate tensions between LGBTQ+-affirming home environments and heteronormative public spaces, developing sophisticated strategies for managing these boundaries. This study contributes empirical evidence for valuing informal sexuality education spaces and positions youth from LGBTQ+ families as knowledge producers whose experiences can inform more inclusive, dialogue-based approaches. The findings have implications for supporting family-based sexuality education and challenging adult-centric assumptions about youth capacities in sexuality learning.

ABSTRACT Couples raising children with disabilities face unique and ongoing stressors that challenge their capacity to parent effectively and threaten the health of their couple and coparenting relationship. This may be especially true among couples receiving child welfare services. Guided by the vulnerability–stress–adaptation model, the current study explores whether and how participation in a couple relationship education (CRE) program, ELEVATE , may promote the ability of couples raising children with disabilities to develop healthy couple relationship skills, support each other as coparents and reduce parenting stress. Using a sample drawn from participants in a federally funded CRE program who were receiving child welfare services, we examined trajectories of change on measures of parenting stress, couple relationship skills and coparenting support collected across three time points from different‐sex couples raising children with disabilities ( n = 127 couples) versus without disabilities ( n = 493 couples). On average, couples raising children with disabilities reported greater levels of parenting stress at baseline (particularly mothers) and experienced greater reductions in parenting stress than couples raising children without disabilities. Also, while our findings showed no significant changes in coparenting support, participants in both groups reported significant growth in couple relationship skills following program participation.

This research was to assess if there is a relationship between sexual attitudes and fidelity perceptions among 200 participants aged 18-25 years who consume pornography. Participants were recruited using convenience and snowball sampling methods. The Sexual Attitudes Scale (SAS), which measures attitudes towards sex; Relationship Assessment Scale (RAS), which serves as a proxy for fidelity perception; and the Problematic Pornography Use Scale (PPUS) were all used to collect data. Descriptive statistics generally indicated that the sample had mean SAS of 64.73 (SD=15.660) and RAS of 48.26 (SD=11.671). The findings were assessed using Pearson correlation analysis and provided evidence of a significant positive association between permissive sexual attitudes and fidelity perception (r = .279, p &lt; 0.01). This indicates that individuals who hold more liberal sexual attitudes will be less concerned about committing infidelity through pornography. Additionally, the results of study lend to sexual script theories by providing evidence that previously held beliefs influenced one’s perception of fidelity in the context of committing infidelity through the consumption of pornography. Possible implications for communication in a relationship and sexual education are discussed.