Younger Spouses Research Articles

PERSONAL TRAITS AND THE FAMILY ENVIRONMENT EVALUATION BY SPOUSES WITH VARIOUS MARRIAGE EXPERIENCE

Many studies in the field of family psychology turn their attention to various aspects: satisfaction with marriage, appearance of children, crises in the development of family. The development of marital relations is a significant factor affecting the interaction between spouses and their personal qualities. The issues of changing the spouses' perceptions of the family environment in connection with the length of marriage and gender role poses remain relevant. In a sample of 101 pairs of spouses with experience less and more than ten years were studied: extroversion, neuroticism and family environment characteristics. T-test, analysis of variance, and correlation were used. As a result, it was found that spouses with different lengths of family life differ in all respects of the family environment. Young spouses strive for self-realization in various spheres of life and the establishment of rules and norms of family interaction. As the length of marriage increases, the family environment becomes essential for husbands, while for wives, it brings the possibility of manifesting themselves in other areas of life. Differences in personality traits coincide with general age-related tendencies; this is how women's emotionality decreases and men's emotionality increases as a result of the joint family environment.

Who will do more? The pattern of daily out-of-home activity participation in elderly co-residence households in urban China

Over the last several decades an on-going interest by academics in studies of intra- and inter-personal relationships has revealed complex and dynamic decision-making mechanisms within households. However, previous research has mainly focused on the relationship between partners/spouses in households of couples and/or nuclear families. The intra-household dynamics in household contexts other than couples/spouses and inter-personal relations in these other households remain largely unknown. This paper is therefore dedicated to investigating the intra- and inter-personal interactions of partners/spouses and inter-personal interactions between different generations in elderly co-residence households. Using data from the Nanjing Residents Travel Survey 2012, an asymmetric structure is observed among the interactions between young females and males: males' activity participation is more strongly affected by females' activity engagement than the reverse. The presence of an elderly mother or mother-in-law tends to reduce the interdependence of intra- and inter-personal interactions for both young couples. It is interesting to find that a young female's activities are more determined by her elderly mother in the extended family than her husband. The influence of a young spouse on an old mother's activity participation is also gender-specific. Implications of these findings for public policies are also discussed at the end of the paper.

Subculture of family-related assistance to the Mordovian young family in the countryside

In the crisis conditions of modern Russia, a young family (an object of the research) faces many problems and is unable to cope with them alone. Of particular importance for a young family is family-related assistance determined by the social parameters of territorial community and national characteristics of socio-cultural cohesion. The purpose of the research is to substantiate the role and potential of family-related assistance in overcoming the crisis of the Mordovian young family in the countryside. The novelty to the solution of the problem is based on objective and subjective aspects of the functioning of the Institute of assistance in various subsystems of family relations (for example, parents and young rural families). The most significant role in determining the methodological approaches of the study had the concepts of development of a young family. Among them there are crisis, modernization and system. The formation of the theoretical analysis of the research problem also considered the scientific positions of scholars who study the determination of the characteristics of family life by regional-settlement, cultural, and ethnic factors. For following methods were used for this work: general analysis, synthesis, comparison, generalization, interpretation, system method, and secondary analysis of empirical data. The research was based on the questionnaire, and sociological survey of young spouses and their parents. As a result, the demand for the traditional role of the Mordovian parent family in helping and supporting the young families is empirically proved. It showed the influence of family-related assistance on the success of a young family, as well as the value orientations of young people in the field of family and family relations. The study showed that family-related assistance in Mordovians is a traditional and popular social institution. The subculture of family-related care includes characteristics of timeliness and diversity, is based on kinship and/or property, is universal and dynamic.

Educational and age assortative mating in China: The importance of marriage order

Objective: Drawing on the preference-opportunity framework of union formation, we compare patterns of assortative mating on education and age between first marriages and remarriages in contemporary China. Background: Family change in China is characterized by a decline in first marriages, an increasing divorce rate, and a growing number of remarriages, like in many Western countries. Assortative mating plays a key role in the (re)production of socioeconomic inequality, but research on marital sorting in remarriages remains limited, especially in non-Western contexts. Method: Our analysis drew on pooled, nationally-representative data from six waves of the Chinese General Social Survey and China Family Panel Studies between 2010 and 2015 (N = 48,737 individuals). We used log-linear models to examine educational assortative mating patterns and multinomial logit regressions to analyze age assortative mating patterns. Results: Educational homogamy was more likely to occur in first marriages than in remarriages. Compared with marrying a similarly-aged spouse, both previously-married men and women were more likely than their never-married counterparts to marry a much older spouse and less likely to marry a much younger spouse. Conclusion: Our findings suggest that remarriage is incompletely institutionalized in China in that the rules underpinning the systematic pairing of spouses with similar traits in first marriages are less salient in configuring the assortative mating patterns in remarriages. The results highlight the importance of marriage order—as a resource for the never married and a disadvantage for the previously married—in shaping the preference-opportunity structure in the Chinese marriage market.

Socioemotional selectivity and psychological health in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis patients and caregivers: a longitudinal, dyadic analysis

Objective: Socioemotional selectivity theory predicts that as the end of life approaches, goals and resources that provide immediate, hedonic reward become more important than those that provide delayed rewards. This study tested whether these goal domains differentially affected psychological health in the context of marital dyads in which one partner had been diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a life-limiting disease.Design: ALS patients (N = 102) being treated in three multidisciplinary clinics and their spouses (N = 100) reported their loneliness, financial worry and psychological health every 3 months for up to 18 months.Main Outcome Measure: Psychological health composite.Results: In multilevel dyadic models, patients and spouses had similar levels of financial worry and loneliness. Both patients and spouses had worse psychological health with higher loneliness, but only spouses had worse psychological health with higher financial worry. Significant interactions with age and disease severity indicated that older spouses were more affected by loneliness than were younger spouses, and patients with less severe disease were more affected by financial worry than patients with more severe disease.Conclusion: The results provide good support for socioemotional selectivity theory’s implications for psychological health in a strong test of the theory.

Review of Helping couples and families navigate illness and disability: An integrated approach.

Reviews the book, Helping Couples and Families Navigate Illness and Disability: An Integrated Approach by John S. Rolland (see record 2018-14404-000). Many health care providers have traveled with their patients and families on the journey of disease, disability, and death. This journey is often filled with unanticipated twists and turns: changes in physical functioning, intense emotional experiences, and demands on intimate relationships. In Helping Couples and Families Navigate Illness and Disability: An Integrated Approach, John Rolland has provided clinicians with a map of the territory, guiding them through the challenges of intersecting systems of family relationships, cultural values, and health care practices. This book is a culmination of John Rolland's expertise and writing over his 40-year career. The book expands on his work in theory development while adding an expansive repertoire of practical questions, suggestions, and interventions. His personal experience coping with the illness and death of his young spouse and his parents' health infuses a tender and personal tone to this academic work. In the context of his own journey, he wondered: "What would have been useful information or support for me and my family members at different phases of the illness that could have made a difference in our ability to cope and adapt?" (pp. viii). This question is at the heart of the book. His clinical expertise, theoretical acumen, and personal experiences comprise this comprehensive and readable book. The book is organized into four sections: (a) a conceptual overview of the Family Systems Illness Model (FSI); (b) the application of the model for families, couples and multigenerations, and family/cultural health beliefs; (c) health-related phases and transitions with specific populations (e.g., terminally ill, chronic conditions, aging individuals, and couples); and (d) the clinician's personal-professional dynamic emotional experience. This book will be an important resource for the growing workforce of behavioral health providers. It provides physicians with a family-oriented transition of care model and is applicable for nurses, nurse practitioners, and mental health professionals who coach families through many phases of care-inpatient, rehabilitation, or hospice. It does not include critical analysis of the research on family-oriented care. There are references to studies, but it is not a systematic review or meta-analysis of best practices for family-oriented health care. For family systems novices, this book will be conceptually dense. It is not entry-level reading but will be accessible if incorporated into a seminar by seasoned faculty. Clinicians will find that the FSI model is a necessary GPS for guiding families through their health care and journey of illness. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Effect of Communication, Information and Education (CIE) on Knowledge and Decision Making of Married Women with Unmet Need in the Family Planning Program at Marusu District Maros City in 2016

The aim of the study was to analyse the influence of Communications, Information, and Education (CIE) on knowledge and decision making of unmet need in family planning in the District of Marusu, Maros. This study was an experimental research design with nonrandomized pre-test and post-test design. Samples were 45 years old or younger spouses with unmet need and 30 people of parity 1 or 2 in each treatment group, selected with purposive method. Data were collected through pre-test and post-test with a questionnaire followed with analysis using paired T-Test sample and One Way ANOVA. The results indicated that there were differences in knowledge before and after the intervention by the lecture method (p =0.000), media leaflet (p =0.009) and the combination of lecture and media leaflet (p = 0.000). The results also showed that there were differences in decision-making before and after the intervention by the lecture method (p = 0.000), media leaflet (p= 0.001) and the combination of lecture and media leaflet (p = 0.000). CIE lecture and leaflets affected the knowledge and decision-making of unmet need in family planning.

Role structure in young married couples

The article discusses the structure of roles in young married couples and the problem of role distribution between spouses. Currently, the majority of young spouses have disparity in their ideas about the role structure of the family, as a result of which there are disturbances in the relations between them and difficulties in the process of their adaptation to family life. One of the reasons for such difficulties may be indefinite or concrete boundaries for a young family, living conditions of spouses and the absence or presence of some experience of living together with a spouse. The article presents the empirical research results on the role structure of young couples (the results are part of a larger study). The sample consisted of young spouses in the amount of 400 people, 200 young couples, who do not yet have children. The age of the spouses was 20–30 years old (the average age of the spouses is 26,4). Couples had lives together up to five years. Research methods used included a questionnaire, testing, and the method of statistical data processing by t-Student criterion. As a method of research, a socio-demographic questionnaire and the questionnaire «Distribution of roles in the family» (Yu. Ye. Aleshina, L. Ya. Gozman, Ye. M. Dubovskaya) were employed. It was hypothesized that the ideas of men about the role structure in young married couples differ from the ideas of women, regardless of their living conditions (jointly or separately with their parents). Statistically significant differences were found in the implementation of the following family roles by spouses: raising children, in stabilizing the emotional climate in the family, and in organizing and maintaining the daily life. The data on the distribution of family roles in young families living together and separately with their parents are presented. It was concluded that the living conditions of a young couple have an insignificant effect on the family’s role structure, which is characterized by the presence of some features of egalitarianism.

«Дама за туалетом» Джулио Романо в свете социальной истории искусства

The so called Lady at her Toilette by Giulio Romano from the Moscow Pushkin State Museumof Fine Arts has been conventionally regarded as an imitation of famous Fornarina by Raphael. Social aspectof its origins have not been explored and its function has been defined only generally as a portrait or a depiction of “courtesan” or “mistress”, the issues of its possible patron and original context have not been assessed. Close examination of Lady at her Toilette’s distinct visual details dismisses the seeming similarities with frivolous female images known as belle and reveals strong affinities with painterly wedding epithalamia, which clearly indicates its own function as a wedding painting presenting Venus bestowing blessing upon a new bride. Having established the work’s function in general, the author has attempted to define a possible patron of this wedding epithalamia. Giulio Romano’s artistic career shows his involvement in the wedding of the Duke of Mantua Federico II Gonzaga and Margherita Paleologa, which took place in 1531. As a court painter Giulio was responsible for major decorative works in the city and created, among other, the bride’s portrait (Royal Collection, Hampton Court, London). This portrait turns out to be the closest analogy to the Moscow “Lady” in terms of composition, style, painterly manner and even the facial features of the women. This, along with other similarities, unequivocally indicates that they were created as a set — as a wedding set that includes the portrait of the young spouse and an allegorical depiction of Venus.

The study of personal maturity and socio-psychological adaptation of the spouses in young couples

Background. The change of the traditional model of family relations that has occurred in recent decades in modern society, the change in marriage and family attitudes and values, gender roles and stereotypes lead to difficulties in the process of socio-psychological adaptation of young people who get married. Simultaneously, the effectiveness of adaptation depends on various aspects, e.g. personal maturity of spouses that determines not only the effectiveness of adaptation to family life, but also the stability of family relations. This identifies the need to study the relationship of personal maturity of young spouses and their socio-psychological adaptation to family life.

Mattering and self-compassion as mediators of the relationship between attachment style and marital satisfaction among young spouses in Kerala: A mixed method study

This explanatory sequential mixed method study examined how self-compassion and mattering mediated the relationship between attachment style and marital satisfaction in a sample of 397 married spouses between the ages of 20 to 40 in Kerala. The instruments used to measure four variables of this cross sectional quantitative study were ECR-R, Self-Compassion short form, Mattering 4-Items and ENRICH Marital Satisfaction scale. Results indicated that mattering mediated the relationship between attachment styles and marital sati sfaction among young spouses in Kerala. But self-compassion does not mediate the relationship between attachment style and marital satisfaction among young spouses in Kerala. The results suggest that mattering can enhance the marital satisfaction of anxious and avoidant attached spouses. In the multiple case study, conducted in-depth interviews often spouses who were selected based on the high scores on marital satisfaction. The results explained how mattering was an important experience in improving marital satisfaction with their anxious and avoidant attachment style. Themes generated from this study were; longing for presence, caring, partner support, communication, being responsible and respect. Moreover, this study suggests that mattering might provide a useful lens through which spouses are able to enhance their marital satisfaction.

The degree of social difficulties experienced by cancer patients and their spouses

BackgroundAlthough recent studies have increasingly reported physical and psychological problems associated with cancer and its treatment, social problems of cancer patients and their families have not been sufficiently elucidated. The present study aimed to identify cancer-associated social problems from the perspectives of both patients and their spouses and to compare and analyze differences in their problems.MethodsThis was a cross-sectional internet-based study. Subjects were 259 patients who developed cancer within the previous five years and 259 patients’ spouses; the data were derived from two surveys in 2010 (patients) and 2016 (spouses) whose participants were not part of the same dyad but matched by propensity scores, estimated for age, sex, and the presence or absence of recurrence. We investigated the social difficulties of cancer patients and patients’ spouses. Regarding social difficulties experienced by cancer patients and spouses, the 60 patient survey items were categorized into 14 labels by the Jiro Kawakita (KJ) method, which is a qualitative synthesis method developed by Kawakita to classify categorical data.ResultsAlthough patients had higher scores on most subcategories, young spouses aged 39 or younger and female spouses had difficulty scores as high as the corresponding patients on many subcategories.ConclusionHealth care providers should show sufficient concern for both patients and their spouses, particularly young and female spouses.

Accompanying Young Spouses in the Initial Years of Marriage

The release of the apostolic exhortation Amoris Laetitia revealed the need in the universal Church to accompany spouses in the initial years of marriage. The First Instruction of the Polish Episcopate for the Clergy on Preparation of the Faithful for the Sacrament of Marriage and on Pastoral Care of the Family introduced in Poland in the late sixties highlighted the fact that leaving young spouses alone in the initial stage of their life in marriage is disadvantageous. Therefore, Christian community should gain profound knowledge of the difficulties faced by young spouses in order to provide them with proper aid. St. John Paul II also highlighted the need to accompany young spouses in his apostolic exhortation Familiaris Consortio (cf. FC, 65). Pope Francis, concerned about the irresponsible attitude of fiances towards contracting sacramental marriage, teaches in his apostolic exhortation Amoris Laetitia that “the initial years of marriage are a vital and sensitive period during which couples become more aware of the challenges and meaning of married life” (AL, 223). The Pope higlights the greatest opportunity of help in accompanying young spouses after the celebration of the sacrament of marriage. He encourages pastoral workers to assist young couples in order to help them complete the unfinished process of becoming mature in order to face the responsibility to contract sacramental marriage. The author of the article attempts to explain what accompanying is, what issues should be discussed during meetings with the spouses in the initial years of marriage and what subjects should actively participate in assissting young spouses.

Od panieństwa do małżeństwa: zmiana statusu a transformacja tożsamości

Narzeczeństwo i małżeństwo można traktować nie tylko jako instytucje społeczne, ale jako punkty zwrotne, które poprzez zmianę statusu jednostki rozpoczynają i określają kolejne etapy w biografii, wywierając wpływ na indywidualne doświadczenia jednostek. Celem opracowania jest analiza zakresu redefinicji „ja”: zmian poczucia tożsamości oraz zmian tożsamości społecznej w związku z przechodzeniem od statusu osoby stanu wolnego do bycia małżonkiem. Podstawą jest część autorskiego badania o charakterze jakościowym zrealizowanym w roku 2014 techniką pogłębionego wywiadu indywidualnego. Badaniami objęto 25 zamężnych kobiet i 25 żonatych mężczyzn, których staż małżeński w chwili badania wynosił od 3 do 24 miesięcy. Uzyskane wyniki wskazują, że zakres zmian różni się w zależności od płci, obecności kohabitacji przedzaręczynowej w biografii, niemniej najczęściej transformacje wiążą się z poczuciem własnej wartości, dojrzałości oraz zakresu odpowiedzialności. Niezależnie od rodzaju doświadczanych emocji dla większości respondentów jedynie rozpoczęcie kohabitacji lub ceremonia małżeństwa reorganizuje koncepcję „ja”.

The Rights and Duties of Spouses in Viewpoint of Koran and Jurisprudence

Have a family and tendency to Marriage is one of the most important religious and legal Principles of Islam – that there has been in previous religions. Marriage and having a safe and healthy marital relation is a natural affair. The rights of spouses are special for the man or the woman or both of them. If spouses review verses of Holy Koran and other traditions accurately before marrying, they will know the rights of the other one and their own duties, so the structure of this holy foundation will not weaken. Therefore, the most important factor that separates young spouses in their marital life is lack of recognition and enough knowledge about the rights of each other. A man and woman have no right against each other before marry but after marriage, they have to regard the rights of each other in their family and home. So making a marital relation that begins with demand and accept, some rights will be necessary for both spouses. In this paper, we point at the most important rights and duties of husband including financial

The Effect of Medicare Eligibility on Spousal Insurance Coverage.

A majority of married couples in the USA take advantage of the fact that employers often provide health insurance coverage to spouses. When older spouses become eligible for Medicare, however, many of them can no longer provide their younger spouses with coverage. In this paper, we study how spousal eligibility for Medicare affects the health insurance and health care access of younger spouses. We find that spousal eligibility for Medicare results in younger spouses no longer having employers pay for their insurance and being less likely to have employer-sponsored coverage. Instead, younger spouses switch to privately purchased coverage, which tends to be worse than what they had before their spouses became eligible for Medicare. We also find suggestive evidence that younger spouses are less likely to use health care services after their older spouses become eligible for Medicare.

Spouses and depressive symptoms in older adulthood.

Depressive symptoms may co-occur within couples and follow similar trajectories, but relatively little is known about this process in old age. This study thus examined the association between some spousal characteristics (spouse's depressive symptoms, age difference between spouses) and the trajectory of depressive symptoms in older adults. Participants ≥65 years old were drawn from the Health and Retirement Study (N = 12,010; Mean age = 70.60 and 69.16 for target husbands and wives, respectively). Depressive symptoms were measured with a short form of the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression (CES-D) scale. Hierarchical Linear Modeling was used to model up to 9 assessments of depressive symptoms of target spouses (Mean number of CESD assessments per target spouse = 3, range 1–9). Depressive symptoms between spouses were correlated; convergence over time was modest. For both husbands and wives, having a younger spouse was associated with more depressive symptoms at age 65. These results suggest that there is concordance between spouses' depressive symptoms and that the age difference between spouses contribute to depressive symptoms as couples enter old age. The association between spouses' depressive symptoms is nearly as strong as the effect of each decade increase in age.

The Effect of Medicare Eligibility on Spousal Insurance Coverage

A majority of married couples in the United States take advantage of the fact that employers often provide health insurance coverage to spouses. When the older spouses become eligible for Medicare, however, many of them can no longer provide their younger spouses with coverage. In this paper, we study how spousal eligibility for Medicare affects the health insurance and health care access of the younger spouse. We find spousal eligibility for Medicare results in the younger spouse having worse insurance coverage and reduced access to health care services.

Financial Compensation for Mental Pain Caused by a Death of a Close Person

Abstract: In normal life circumstances, due to a harmful event which results in a death of a person, it is an undisputed fact that the closest relatives of a deceised person experience mental distress.The closest relatives are indirectly damaged, and the right for compensation for mental distress that they have suffered from due to the death of a close person is the right on behalf of the indirect loss they have experienced. As the mental distress belongs to the scope of an immaterial damage, an intangible loss and there is no possibility to go back to the previous state of things, the only way to compensate for this type of loss is monetary compensation. The amount of money that is adjudicated in these cases represent satisfaction for the loss that has been experienced and are a mean which serves the purpose of relieving the pain for the loss of a close person. It is widely known that the pain a parent experiences, especially the one a mother experiences when she loses a child, and the trauma children experence when they lose a parent are of high intensity. Children will suffer form the experience longer than older persons due to their youth. The pain parents experience is more permanent than the pain a spouse experiences, especially if it is a young spouse from a short marriage since there is a possibility to establish a new marriage or cohabitation. All these circumstances are of the vital importance when determining the amount of money

Hope and social support utilisation among different age groups of women with breast cancer and their spouses

Objective: Social support and hope are considered positive, important contributors to psychological well-being for women with breast cancer and their spouses. Few studies examine the role of age in relation to these variables. The current study compares the relationship between social support, hope and depression among different age groups of women with advanced breast cancer and their healthy spouses.Design: Cross-sectional sample of 150 women with advanced breast cancer and their spouses.Main outcome measures: Social support, hope, depression and socio-demographic data. Analysis included comparison of these variables between groups of older and younger patients and their spouses. Structural equation modelling (SEM) was used to examine hope as a mediator of the relationship between social support and depression within each group (older and younger patients and spouses).Results: Older patients and spouses reported lower levels of depression than younger ones. SEM showed that social support related directly to depression among younger women and older spouses, while hope was directly related to depression among older women and younger spouses and acted as a mediator between social support and depression.Conclusions: Theoretical, empirical and clinical implications regarding the understanding of the role of age in coping with cancer are discussed.