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Objective: The aim of this study was to compare the 30-day emergency department (ED) return rate between patients given a Take Home Medication pack (THM) versus a standard paper prescription (SPP) prior to discharge. Methods: This was an observational, prospective cohort study in an urban, university-affiliated, level I trauma center. Patients were identified through daily pharmacy reports. Consecutive adult patients discharged from the ED with either a THM or equivalent SPP were included. For each patient, baseline characteristics including age, gender, primary care provider (PCP), primary language, ethnicity, marital status, and insurance status were recorded from the electronic medical record (EMR). Review of the EMR was used to determine whether patients returned to the ED within 30 days and whether the return visit was for all-causes or for the same complaint targeted by the THM or SPP from the index visit. Similarly, visits to other providers in the health system within 30 days were recorded. Results: A total of 711 patients were included in the study, with 268 receiving a THM and 443 receiving a SPP. In comparison with the SPP group, the THM group was more likely to have an all-cause return (Relative Risk [RR] = 1.7, P < .01). Variables associated with increased odds of returning to the ED within 30 days included study group (adjusted Odds Ratio [aOR]: 1.7), male gender (aOR: 1.6), African American ethnicity (aOR: 3.0), public insurance (aOR: 3.3), and institutional financial assistance (aOR: 5.0). The difference between study groups for index visit complaint-specific returns was not significant. Conclusions: Patients receiving a THM demonstrated a higher all-cause return rate than patients receiving a SPP. A randomized study is needed evaluating the effect of THM on return ED visits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A list of publications on contemporary sociology, including "Minimizing Marriage: Marriage, Morality, and the Law," by Elizabeth Brake, "Testing Prayer: Science and Healing," by Candy Gunther Brown and "Protestant Identity and Peace in Northern Ireland," by Spencer Graham.

As a further tribute to feminist scholar Jessie Bernard, in this paper, we review the entire collection of the National Council on Family Relations' Jessie Bernard Outstanding papers awarded to feminist junior scholars spanning from 1990 to 2018. In so doing, we showcase Jessie Bernard's devotion to mentoring young scholars as we highlight evolving feminist family scholarship of student/new professionals. In this paper, we sought to:(a) honor Jessie Bernard's intellectual legacy, (b) celebrate contributions of young feminist family scholar's work, and (c) explore how the award collection maps on to wider feminist theoretical debates and empirical shifts within feminist family science over the past three decades. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Religious conversion and marriage across communal lines have long been contentious in India. The contemporary debate on 'Love Jihad' – the Hindu Nationalist conspiracy theory that accuses Muslim men of waging a religious war by seducing and converting unsuspecting Hindu brides – exemplifies the simultaneously geopolitical and biopolitical anxiety that religious conversion inspires. In this paper, I focus on the case of Hadiya, a young woman from Kerala, who, in 2016, found herself remanded first to her university's hostel – as dormitories are called in India – and then to her parents' home as various courts debated on the authenticity of her conversion to Islam, and her marriage to a Muslim partner. Through an examination of media discourse and court records in this case, the paper argues that in 'Love Jihad', the domestic and the carceral are rendered inextricably intertwined through an affective politics that presents desire outside the bounds of caste and religion as geopolitically misoriented. Drawing on Sara Ahmed's work on the phenomenology of orientation, I focus on the intimate geographies of the hostel, which I argue exemplifies a site of carceral convergence between nation and family, in the management of the affective disorder associated with religious conversion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Commercial surrogacy marketizes life's work. In the era of neo-liberalism, women's work, which is often intimately performed within a heterosexual marriage in exchange of support, now remains a principal avenue to earn money. This form of feminization of labor has led to the emergence of markets for women's reproductive capacities. The present study stems from my ethnographic journey into the lives of the women who work as surrogate mothers in India. The narratives presented in the paper emerge from my prolonged fieldwork in Anand, Gujarat. It engages with the experiences, understandings, and the voices of these women, who I term reproductive laborers, in order to examine the notion of putting one's reproductive capacities in this intimate market for money. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China has made remarkable progress in preventing and intervening in domestic violence against women. Scholars have reported on this development. Methodologically, this paper, which draws on 3362 references selected from the China National Knowledge Infrastructure, uses the bibliometric method to summarize the characteristics, evolution, and frontiers of key topics into research on abused women in China between 1993 and 2020. The paper has three key findings. (1) The volume of literature has grown continuously, but in three stages: initial, rapid growth, and peak fluctuation; (2) the topic has five research hotspots: fundamental issues in domestic violence against women; new legislation, notably the 2015 Anti-Domestic Violence Law ; social support for abused women; matrimonial disputes involving abused women; and conviction and sentencing of abused women who kill their husbands; and (3) the current research frontiers lie within the defects of the Anti-Domestic Violence Law and challenges in the implementation of the law. In addition, the paper examines characteristics and limitations of the study on abused women in China and suggests changes in practice, policy, and directions for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the past 20 years, divorce has increased in Indonesia. Indonesian statistics show that divorces initiated by women exceed those by men. One issue that is often neglected is how socioeconomic differences also play a role in this matter. Drawing on our collaborative research on Muslim divorces in Indonesia, this paper focuses on the interplay between divorce strategies and socioeconomic differences among Muslim couples. Our in-depth interviews with 93 Muslim men and women and 19 judges from Islamic courts show that class differences shape distinctive dynamics of divorce among Muslim Indonesians. Couples from less educated, lower-income backgrounds accept marriage dissolution more easily, with women becoming much less tolerant of men's behaviors such as infliction of domestic violence, infidelity, and failure to provide financial support. Educated, middle-class urban couples divorce for similar reasons but tend to experience a lengthier process accompanied by complex layers of conflict. Many educated women's narratives emphasize their ability to support themselves through working, and a desire to be free of a bad marriage at any cost. Class and education thus contribute to significant differences in the experience and trajectories of divorce in Indonesia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Age gap between spouses has important implications for a range of outcomes—from fertility and longevity, to gender relationships, marital quality, and stability. This paper examines the age gap between spouses in 12 countries in South and Southeast Asia. The average age difference (husband's minus wife's age) is positive in all countries and ranges from 2.7 in Myanmar to 8.4 in Bangladesh. Age homogamous marriages accounted for 5% of all marriages in Bangladesh to close to half of all marriages in Thailand. The proportion of age hypogamous marriages was uniformly low in all the countries except for Myanmar where it reaches close to 10%. Men's marriage age has a stronger effect in determining the age gap. In general, the age gap for women with lower education was larger than for those with higher education. However, much of this effect was explained by the difference in marriage timing across educational groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

India has witnessed a dramatic expansion of higher education, and women have emerged as noteworthy winners in the process. This paper focuses on the role of female college education on four dimensions of marriage: age at marriage, autonomy in the choice of spouse, work and financial empowerment, and quality of marital relationship. The study uses a sample of 35,561 currently married women from the 2011-2012 wave of the nationally representative India Human Development Survey (IHDS). It demonstrates that higher education, particularly college education, enables women to lead lives substantively different from their less-educated peers. College-educated women marry at later ages, enjoy greater autonomy in choosing their husbands, and have a more egalitarian relationship with their spouses. Furthermore, the study finds that educational homogamy and hypogamy afford greater autonomy to women. Even without a concomitant increase in labor force participation, college education among women appears to have a transformative effect on marriage in India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper explores the everyday gendered lives of Velichappad men. The focus of the paper is on understanding imprint of rituals of possession beyond the space of enactment to the everyday social and material life of the persons who are possessed. Focusing on the experiences of men gives a deeper insight into the gendered dimensions of possession and its differentiated experiences. In addition, this paper examines the social and economic structures that limit and transform the Velichappads. Meanings of possession are understood by situated ethnography and the non-homogeneity of male experiences is reflected through the narratives. The narratives point toward the need for a conceptual framework that understands possession within the intricacies of gender, caste, and class. Furthermore, this study supports the contention that studies of masculinity be informed by the experiences of the marginalized. Interrogating the experiences of Velichappad men charts the histories of the region's sexual economies, and its social and material embedding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The continued emphasis on a decontextualized nuclear family in Asia has often obscured experiences of re-partnered individuals and stepfamilies, wherein transitions including couple dissolution and remarriage or cohabitation have had particular implications for family well-being and social mobility. The eight papers in this special issue expand scholarship beyond acknowledging the increasing prevalence of re-partnership and stepfamilies seeking to facilitate cross-cultural comparisons within the region, and between Asia and the West where notable advancements have been made in theorising diverse family processes. The pertinence of extended family ties and the cultural pressures of collectivism advance shared perspectives of re-partnership and stepfamily formation across East Asia, South Asia and Southeast Asia. At the same time, drawing from quantitative and qualitative methodologies, these papers direct attention to the heterogeneity in re-partnership pathways where broader social categories such as class, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, religion and historicity differentially intersect across national and socio-political contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The son-in-law of the Qing emperor was given the title of "efu." Taking Han-Jun bannerman Sun Cheng-yun, the son-in-law of Emperor Kangxi, as the starting point, this paper explores the status of his family in the early Qing dynasty based on archival materials and biographies. Marrying up into the royal family through a princess had a certain impact on Sun's family in terms of his inheritance of a niru, the tenure of family members, and the family's hereditary titles. The examination of this family also provides some insights into the political status of the Han-Jun banner sons-in-law of the early Qing emperors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we answer the question, "What features of family organization promote romantic love as a basis for marriage in non-industrial societies?" We also directly address Rosenblatt's findings and those of a follow up study by Lee and Stone that, counterintuitively, show non-neolocality rather than neolocality to be correlated with love as a basis for marriage. Ember and Levinson and even Lee and Stone have thought this finding to be puzzling. We have recoded Rosenblatt's original measures on a four-point (0–3) scale: no love, low love, medium love and high love and coded additional cases using ethnographic data taken from eHRAF World Cultures (Human Relations Area Files. https://ehrafworldcultures.yale.edu/). Using these data sets we obtained 109 cultures and tested how post marital residence and marriage types affected the importance of romantic love as a basis for marriage using multiple ordinal regression. Nuclear family organization by itself (including polygynous families) is not significantly correlated with our dependent variable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on biographical narratives of two gay men in mixed-orientation marriage who have later gone on to establish re-partnership with another gay man, this paper seeks to critique the inherent heteronormativity in the discussion around re-partnership. It examines the consequential kinship dynamics among concerned social actors such as gay men, straight women, and their biological children, and their ongoing negotiations with the social institutions of marriage and family. Further, the discussion around re-partnership between two gay men in a Western context does not necessarily consider the alternative negotiations that characterize South Asian queer experiences. Borrowing from De Villiers' concept of queer opacity (2012) and Jingshu Zhu's (2017) ambivalence, the paper demonstrates that the kinning process of gay men in mixed-orientation marriage forging partnership with other gay men exists in a continuum. The boundary between what needs to be undone and what needs to be redone is porous, ambiguous, and interpenetrative. In that case, this paper suggests a non-Western framework to understand re-partnership in non-normative conjugality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Women who sell sex (WSS) are vulnerable to violence. We present a scoping review of the last decade of research on the prevalence and incidence of, factors associated with, and services regarding violence against WSS in Eastern and Southern African (ESA). A systematic search of various databases resulted in 20 papers being reviewed. Inclusion criteria, applied by the first two authors, were as follows: empirical papers, key research problem is violence against WSS, and conducted in ESA countries. The lifetime prevalence of violence revealed in the studies ranged from 21% to 82%. A pattern of generalized violence against WSS from paying clients, male partners, strangers, family members, friends/acquaintances, and the authorities emerged. Factors associated with violence included the context within which the sex work occurs, alcohol use, type of sex exchange interactions, and personal factors (low education, low income, marriage, youth, high client volume, time in sex work, forced sexual debut, and internalized sex work stigma). WSS seldom access services after violence. Evaluations of two programs, a woman-focused HIV intervention, and the Diagonal Interventions to Fast-Forward Reproductive Health project, showed improvements in gender-based violence services. Findings suggest that targeted programmes should be paired with improving general health services and focus on promoting collective agency among WSS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on Kyrgyz women in cross-border marriages under Türkiye's increasingly tight legal requirements for marriage migration. Although the main intention of the policy change was to prevent marriages contracted to gain residency permits in Türkiye, strict regulations can have an adverse effect on migrant women's position. Based on in-depth interviews with 24 key informants including Kyrgyz women, public employees, lawyers and staff of the Kyrgyz Consulate, this paper argues that legal and social difficulties weaken women's position in cross-border marriages and render them vulnerable to male violence. Under the strict control, migrant women embrace traditional gendered roles such as becoming religious and a "good housewife," having children as well as limiting their social relationships. Moreover, women do not seek official support against any male violence especially during the time of obligatory marriage period of three years to be able to apply for a citizenship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effect of marriage pairings on fertility intentions is specific and has attracted increasing scholarly attention in recent years. Using data from the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS), this study explored the impact of couples' educational pairings, age pairings, and income pairings on women's desired number of children and their preference for sons. The results showed that marital-educational pairing had a greater effect on women's fertility intentions than age and income pairing. The effect of marital pairing on women's fertility intentions is also influenced by women's age and urban–rural differences. The study helps to understand the changes in women's fertility intentions and the factors influencing them after the fertility policy transition in China and inspires scholars to pay more attention to the interaction process between couples in the study of fertility intentions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents information on the "Muslim Family Laws Ordinance." The most fundamental provision of the Ordinance is the attempt to introduce local arbitration as a means of dealing with and resolving family disputes. To this end it prescribes the institution of "Arbitration Councils" to deal with three subjects namely divorce, polygamy, and maintenance for wives. The powers of the "Arbitration Council" vary according to the different matters it may be formed to consider. It may attempt reconciliation in the case of a divorce, but cannot invalidate or refuse to recognize the divorce if reconciliation efforts fail. In Islamic law marriage is a civil contract, not a religious sacrament. A valid contract of marriage is concluded by offer and acceptance at the same meeting in the presence of witnesses. Although, some facilities for voluntary registration of marriages did exist, there was, prior to the Ordinance of 1961, no compulsory requirement that marriages be registered. This recommendation was adopted in the Ordinance, which makes registration of Muslim marriages compulsory under pain of criminal sanctions.

Feminist historians have long recognised the symbiotic relationship between personal autonomy and a woman's capacity to earn her own living. This paper draws on legal and press documentation to examine how one woman navigated the difficult path of wage-earning during the 1890s. It argues that Catherine Kirchner saw herself as an autonomous economic entity and conducted herself with equal autonomy within her marriage and an extra-marital love affair. The paper concludes that despite the rhetoric of increasing emancipation and opportunity for women in 1890s New South Wales, the path to economic autonomy remained a difficult one to traverse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the link between non-standard employment (NSE) and the risk of partnership dissolution, applying event history analysis to data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) and the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey for the period 2001–2016. It moves beyond previous studies by (a) considering a broader range of employment types, including fixed-term and casual contracts, temporary agency work and part-time work, and (b) by comparing the effect of NSE in nonmarital cohabitations and marriages. The results show that the effect differs by employment type, gender and partnership type. For example, among women, part-time work is associated with a decreased dissolution risk compared to full-time work in marriages but not in cohabitations. Temporary employment is linked to increased dissolution risks compared to permanent employment in both partnership types, with the association partly being stronger for casual and/or agency work than for fixed-term contracts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study explores the other, less visible facet of marriage and politics, namely the way in which the latter shaped and contributed to the former. Through a close reading of an extensive correspondence kept by Romanian deputy in the Budapest Parliament and his spouse during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, the paper offers a glimpse into the domesticity and affection present in the relationship that might have been regarded as a mere pragmatic choice, owing to the fact that it considerably advanced the Romanian politician's career. On the other hand, it looks at how the kinship network established through marriage strengthened and grew even after the politician lost the main link to his in-laws, their daughter. It offers several conclusions that serve to emphasize the need for more in-depth qualitative studies of how kinship and politics intertwined, to the benefit of both fields. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines how discrepant governmental rationalities and processes produce friction and shifting experiences of subjectiflcation as transmigrants cross borders. Using the experiences of mainland Chinese marriage migrants in Singapore as an example, the paper explores the notion of 'transgovernmental friction' and how it reinforces state boundaries, reshapes body politics, and animates waiting as an active practice that transforms migrant subjectivities. Locating the workings of governmentality, mobility, and space in the domain of transnational marriage and family, the paper brings to light the friction and crevices of governmental processes across borders and the embodied politics of im/mobility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Women scientists are an important part of the community of science and technology (S&T) professionals and are an indispensable force in China's S&T undertakings. Using data relating to women scientists from the 'Project on the Collection of Historic Data of Chinese Scientists' Academic Life', this paper reviews the academic growth processes of women scientists in China. It analyses the complex factors that have affected them (such as family background, education, marriage, choice of major, research environment and social culture) and sums up their experiences of success. Finally, specific measures for boosting the status and role of female S&T professionals are proposed based on the realities and problems that they face in their career development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The concept of stigma has been widely used to understand patterns of discrimination and negative ideas surrounding people with mental health problems, yet we know little of the specific nuances of how this might operate beyond the 'Global North'. Aim: This paper aims to explore the notion of stigma in an Indian context by considering the lived experience of patients, carers and community members. Methods: A sample of 204 participants, representing mental health patients, informal carers and community members was recruited from urban and rural areas in Kerala, India. Participants took part in interviews where they were encouraged to talk about their experiences of mental ill health, attitudes towards these problems, barriers encountered and sources of support. Results: Experiences akin to the experience of stigma in Europe and the United States were elicited but there were important local dimensions specific to the Indian context. The difficulties faced by people with diagnoses of mental disorders in finding marriage partners was seen as an important problem, leading to marriage proposals being refused in some cases, and secrecy on the part of those with mental health problems. Rather than the 'self-stigma' identified in the US, participants were more likely to see this as a collective problem in that it could reflect badly on the family group as a whole rather than just the sufferer. Conclusions: In the Indian context, the idioms of stigma emphasised impairments in marriage eligibility and the implications for the family group rather than just the self. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a racialized pan-ethnic group, Asian Americans exhibit ethnically heterogeneous structural and cultural characteristics, but such heterogeneity and its implications for Asian Americans' pan-ethnic groupness were seldom explored empirically. Using the American Community Survey and the 2016 National Asian American Survey datasets, this paper examines intra-Asian symbolic and socioeconomic boundaries and boundary processes captured in Asian interethnic marriage. I find prominent intra-Asian boundaries distinguishing exceptionally disadvantaged refugee-origin Southeast Asians, yet intra-Asian marriages still occur across these boundaries. This mismatch between intra-Asian boundaries and marriage patterns reflects loose and often unstable interpretations of ethnic similarities and differences. Together, my findings reveal Asian Americans' contextually salient interpretations of ethnic heterogeneity behind intra-Asian boundary processes, which further reinforce the socially constructed notion of Asian Americans as a racialized group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What happened to marriage patterns within the British Empire's colonies where more opportunity existed for breaks with past norms? This paper, drawn from research into a group of laborers known as Brogdens' Navvies who emigrated to New Zealand in 1872 and 1873, argues that working people conformed with social expectations around marriage until legal and economic constraints forced them into alternative forms of relationships. Additionally, communities were sometimes more flexible and accepting of arrangements than legal strictures and prescriptions might suggest. From 1898 onward, law changes that legalized marriage breakdown and allowed remarriage seem to have reduced the need for alternatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to contribute to the indigenisation discourse by illustrating how dominant discourses and cultural practices explain and perpetuate social problems. We argue that focussing on the fundamental issue of a cultural conceptualisation of social problems will contribute positively to the development of the indigenous social work practice framework. As social work education forms an important foundation for how future social work practices will be performed, we interviewed 15 social work practicum students in Ghana about the cultural underpinnings of social problems. Themes developed from the interview data suggest that culture plays a key role in conceptualising social problems in Ghana. Although not often, culture tends to underpin and perpetuate social problems, such as streetism, child marriage and child neglect. Social work practice within the indigenous framework should aim at addressing the negative impacts of the cultural undertones of social problems. Social work practitioners should increase advocacy and knowledge sharing on the cultural explanations of social problems and collaborate with community leaders to change cultural values and norms that have negative ripple effects on children, young people and women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The identity of stepmother is, in many ways, a troubled one – constructed as "other" and often associated with notions of "wickedness" in literature and everyday talk. This paper reports findings from a study on the difficulties faced by stepmothers and how they use talk about their (male) partners, often constructing men as hapless, helpless or hopeless, to repair their "troubled" identities. The data were collected from a web forum for stepmothers based in the UK and 13 semi-structured face-to-face interviews with stepmothers. The analysis took a synthetic narrative-discursive methodological approach, underpinned by feminist theory with particular attention to the discourses that were drawn on by participants and the constraints that these imposed. This paper presents these findings in relation to three constructions of their partners through which repair work was attempted: men as in need of rescue ; men as flawed fathers ; and men as damaged. The paper concludes with some suggestions for supporting stepmothers by challenging dominant narratives around families in talk, in the media and in government and institutional policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the last several years, marriage and family patterns among the Kucong Lahu of Jinping County, Yunnan, have changed significantly due to rapid economic and social changes all over China. Based on ethnographic research in Lu Village, this article explores the current "escape" migration behavior of married Lahu women. They used migration as a strategy to escape patriarchal husbands, families, and local society. This paper describes a paradox between the autonomy of women's individual actions and the inability to escape the system even when on "escapes." This sort of "escape" strategy cannot ultimately change the gender inequality and social status. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the ancient Greek polytheistic religion, Hera was considered the wife of Zeus and she was worshipped as the goddess of marriage. This paper analyses pre-Olympian references to Hera as an unmarried Great Goddess related to nature and fertility, and it explores from a critical perspective the origins and contents of her cult as Hera Teleia, the "perfect wife." Mythological tales about her fights with Zeus, their conflictive relationship and his continuous love affairs with goddesses and women show us that the divine Greek model for human marriage was far from being a state of marital bliss. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction to the journal is presented in which the authors discuss the various articles published within the issue on such topics as feminist legal theory, marriage rights, and right of asylum.

This paper provides a feminist critique of theories of liberty in two of Thomas Middleton's city tragedies. Expanding on the neo-Roman theories of liberty presented by Quentin Skinner in Liberty Before Liberalism, I connect Middleton's city tragedies to feminist critiques from Mary Nyquist and Ellen Mieksins Wood. Close readings of Women Beware Women and The Revenger's Tragedy reveal connections between Middleton's radical critiques of tyranny in later theories of liberty of the English Civil War. Because Middleton's critiques are explored through both the state and marriage relations, I argue that Middleton exposes the same contradictions of liberty in the institution of the family, providing insight into notions of slavery, servitude, and coercion under the public rule of the sovereign and in the privacy of the home. Reading such contradictions back through Middleton, can, I argue, allow for a better understanding of feminist critiques of such theories of liberty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the integration processes of international marriage migrants in Japan and South Korea and identifies the steps and conditions required for integration. It contributes to the wider discussion of obstacles that migrants face during the integration process. Despite Japan and South Korea's reluctance toward the influx of large numbers of international migrants, their stance is more positive toward (female) marriage migrants. The qualitative data used for the analysis were collected by authors during the period between 2007 and 2022 on women from former Soviet Union countries, married to South Korean (54) or Japanese (50) men. The analysis of women's experiences identifies four major steps leading to receiving society integration: Pre-migration, arrival, early years and long-term settlement. The findings show that early language acquisition and receiving family support resulted in relatively smooth integration. However, human capital appears to be both a driver and an obstacle to integration. Furthermore, mismatched gender role expectations, limited social networks and employment opportunities increased difficulties in the integration process. Additionally, stronger ties with the receiving family and weaker ties with the home countries influenced women's decision to settle in the country. The largest differences between Japan and South Korea were the higher employment opportunities for marriage migrants in South Korea, especially for those with professional skills and Korean language knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

My wife Nancy is a voluminous reader of books (you remember the things printed on paper). After 30 years of marriage, it dawned on me that we have never really shared books. Therefore, we decided to try and enrich our marriage by exchanging books. I asked her to pick out five books that she enjoyed and share them with me so that we could talk about them and have them "in common." Incidentally, when I asked my wife to pre-read this article, she said, "you make me sound like a total downer" based on the books she had given me to read. In all honesty, my wife Nancy is the most positive person I know, and my kids are a direct reflection of her positive energy. While she refuted my initial portrayal of the books she shared as they somehow portrayed her in a non-joyful light, I realized that each of those books challenged me to think about finding joy in non-standard communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to explore the popular perception of men in family roles. In a broader perspective, it explores the effects of social changes under state-socialism on men's identities and the perception of gender difference. I focus on popular understandings of masculinity, taking advantage of massive ego-documents (contest memoirs). I argue that in the 1960s and the 1970s, people in Poland negotiated gender roles in marriage, questioned traditional masculinity, and shaped new understandings of men's roles based on ideas of companionship and partnership. These new understandings directed men towards assuming selected female tasks and rejecting some features of traditional masculinity. Major changes were occurring within the role and identity of the father, whereas household duties were still considered "unmanly." State socialism encouraged these changes through ideology and policies (industrialization, low wages, and reform of family law). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mali has implemented the Filets Sociaux (Jigisémèjiri) program that aims to reduce poverty through cash transfers (CTs) to predominantly male heads of household with accompanying measures. This paper reports on a qualitative study of the effects of the program on intimate partner relationships. In-depth interviews were conducted with men and women in monogamous and polygamous households. Findings revealed that the positive aspects of intimate partner relationships were communication and shared values. However, discussions around decision-making revealed male authority with limited influence by women. Physical violence was reported to be caused by tensions and disputes. Whereas sexual violence was contested, some women described sexual force as violence but men and women asserted that compliance in sexual matters by women was expected. Men also asserted control through preventing women from working outside the home. The CTs were managed by the husband, with some involvement of wives in decision-making about the use of CTs. CTs were reported to reduce household poverty and improve wellbeing, especially for men. There were reports of the effects of the program on IPV, especially in the reduction of physical violence, its effects on sexual violence and controlling behaviour were reported to be limited. Since women are not the primary recipients of the CT, there is limited effect on women's agency to challenge male authority and control around sexual and financial matters. CTs may be more effective if targeted to women, alongside skill and knowledge strengthening to utilize cash transfers to assert their rights to equality and prevent violence [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and aim: Spouse carers of a person with dementia report feeling lonely and trapped in their role, lacking support and having no time to take care of their own health. In Sweden, the support available for family carers is not specialised to meet the needs of spouse carers of people with dementia. The aim of the study described in this paper was to explore spouse carers' experiences of caring for a partner with dementia, their everyday life as a couple and their support needs. Methods: Nine spouse carers of a partner with dementia living at home were recruited through a memory clinic and a dementia organisation. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with the participants, focusing on their experiences of providing care, their support needs in relation to their caring situation, their personal well-being and their marital relationship. The interviews were transcribed and underwent qualitative content analysis. Results: The analysis resulted in one overall theme Being 'alone' striving for belonging and adaption in a new reality, synthesized from four sub-themes: (1) Being in an unknown country ; (2) Longing for a place for me and us ; (3) Being a carer first and a person second ; and (4) Being alone in a relationship. Conclusions: The training of care professionals regarding the unique needs of spouse carers of people with dementia needs improvement, with education, in particular, focusing on their need to be considered as a person separate from being a carer and on the significance of the couple's relationship for their mutual well-being. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Stepfamilies, an emerging family form in Asia, are gaining growing academic and social attention in Asia. This paper presents an overview of stepfamilies in Asia, based primarily on research findings in Japan, which suggest underlying two competing stepfamily models as key factors in understanding stepfamily dynamics: the "scrap and build" household model versus the expanded and interconnected network model. The findings in Japan are, then, juxtaposed with existing research findings on stepfamilies in East Asia and Singapore in terms of (a) cultural views on stepfamilies; (b) values of grandparenting, mothering, and fathering; and (c) family law and policies. Some commonalities are found in remaining influence of the "scrap and build" household model and in recent policy changes toward the expanded and interconnected network model, along with some variations, across these societies. Evidently, more studies across Asian societies are needed to obtain a clearer picture of stepfamilies in Asia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Feminist scholars, activists, and artists have long addressed the topic of virginity and have dismantled it as a powerful, globally circulating, and gendered myth. It affects how many woman-identifying people experience how their bodies become (a)sexual. Centrally, the myth of virginity has been shown to be mobilized in support of colonial, ethnonationalist identity projects. In Kyrgyzstan, disciplining women through policing their sexual behavior co-constituted nation-building projects after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Drawing on data collected since 2017 (qualitative interviews in Bishkek and Osh and qualitative research on Instagram), I examine intimate geographies of the virginity myth in Kyrgyzstan. Building on geographic scholarship on intimacy and body parts, I discuss the ways in which virginal blood works both to submit to and to reclaim one's intimate body spaces and sexual practices. I argue that people affected by the virginity myth create the foundations for intimate justice in Kyrgyzstan. On the one hand, people are reclaiming authority over their intimate bodies through subverting sexist systems of sexual control and through expanding discursive horizons of virginity performances. On the other hand, activists on Instagram are supporting digital public spaces that allow to author virginal blood narratives and provide resources on intimate body knowledge. Analyzing the scalar doings of virginal blood, the paper contributes a case study on intimate justice and the geographies of the body in Kyrgyzstan. My analysis encourages further examination of the capacities of the body to better understand how certain body parts turn into key sites of (geo)political struggles and can transform them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The shift to companionate marriage in South Asia and elsewhere is widely read as a move from 'tradition' to 'modernity' resulting in an expansion of individual agency, especially for women. This paper critically examines the narratives of urban middle-class women in Sri Lanka spanning three generations to illustrate that rather than indicating a radical shift in the way they negotiated between individual desires and social norms, the emphasis on 'choice' signals a shift in the narrative devices used in the presentation of the 'self'. The paper illustrates how young women's narratives about marriage appear to suggest 'modernity' as inevitable-that its processes are reconstituting the person who, less constrained by 'tradition' and collective expectations, is now experiencing greater freedom in the domain of marriage. However, it also shows how urban middle-class families in Sri Lanka have collectively invested in the narrative of choice through which 'a choosing person' is consciously created as a mark of the family's modernity and progress. Rather than signalling freedom, these narratives about choice reveal how women are often burdened with the risks and responsibility of agency. The paper illustrates that the 'choosing person' is produced through narratives that emphasise agency as a responsibility that must be exercised with caution because women are expected by and obligated to their families to make the 'right' choices. Hence, a closer look at the individualised 'choosing person' reveals a less unitary, relational self with permeable boundaries embedded within and accountable to family and kinship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Love is often a key factor in migration decisions. Partner relationships and union formation have also been identified as forming an intrinsic part of intra-European migration. Nevertheless, empirical research into intra-European love migration remains rather scarce. In this paper, we focus on the often neglected but substantial intra-European moves. We analyse the relationship between bi-national couple formation, identification as a European and European transnational solidarity. The analyses are based on the EUMARR survey, investigating bi-national marriages in a unified Europe, comparing European bi-national and uni-national couples. In this paper, we focus on the Netherlands (n = 898) and compare Dutch–Dutch with Dutch–EU couples. Our findings indicate that bi-national couples are more likely to identify as European compared to uni-national couples, but this is not reflected in more solidarity to European countries in times of crisis. Implications of these findings are discussed in light of the European integration process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Migration from Mexico to the United States results in numerical imbalances between men and women in the communities left behind, but little is known about how these imbalanced sex ratios in Mexican communities affect family formation behavior. Using two waves of data from the Mexican Family Life Survey (MxFLS) and 2000 Mexican census data, we examine how the sex composition of the municipality population is associated with the likelihood that Mexican women and men marry. Consistent with demographic-opportunity theory, but not sociocultural theory, results from logistic regression analyses show that men's probability of marrying is positively associated with the numerical availability of eligible women in the municipality population. Consistent with the argument that many Mexican migrant men, but not migrant women, remain eligible partners for those who remain in Mexico, the sex composition of the municipal population is significantly associated with men's but not women's likelihood of marrying. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The marital status of young medical workers deserves attention due to their working situation, occupational, and personal characteristics. This study investigated the marital decisions and the influencing factors of marital decisions (i.e., marital beliefs, marital policy, work stress, social support, and demographic variables) among 500 young medical workers in China. The results found that the majority of young medical workers decide to marry and have children, and most of them choose to marry or have children before the age of 30, have only one child, and have no preference for the sex of their child. Young medical workers placed the highest importance on marital relationships among the four dimensions of marital beliefs (i.e., marital salience, marital context, traditional norms, and marital relationships). The results further showed that marital salience, marital context, gender, age, educational level, job type, census register, and satisfaction with marital policy had influences on marital decisions. In the future, attention should be paid to different groups' marital beliefs and decisions, help young medical workers improve intimate relationships, enhance awareness of the importance of marriage and childbearing, and strengthen marital welfare policies and services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Globally, marriage breakup or divorce has become a significant issue, and Bangladesh is no exception. The divorce rate among urban women has dramatically increased in Bangladesh, particularly in Dhaka City. This study aims to uncover the factors contributing to the rising divorce rate among women in Dhaka. Utilizing desk-based research and expert interviews, it critically examines the causes of marriage breakdown. The study argues that industrialization, women's empowerment, and feminist movements have fostered a rise in individualism among women in Dhaka, making them more educated and empowered compared to those in other Bangladeshi cities. This individualism serves as a deterrent against physical and mental abuse, extramarital affairs, authoritarian attitudes, and other forms of discrimination traditionally faced by women. Women's sense of individualism also fosters intolerance toward unhappy marriages, allowing them to pursue independent lives due to their financial solvency. Additionally, the study identifies other factors negatively impacting divorce-seeking behavior, including drug addiction, marital dissatisfaction over infertility or impotence, extramarital affairs due to partner absence, and the influence of social media. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study uses data from a retrospective survey of the life history of participants from five cohorts born between 1930 and 1979, to analyze the role of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs). We found that ACEs have significant effects on the transition of young Chinese people into adulthood. Young people who have experienced more ACEs were more likely to transition to adulthood earlier, and accelerate their acceptance of adult social roles, and young adults with a high incidence of ACEs also have an increasing probability of falling into the disadvantaged or least successful trajectory to adulthood. More ACEs are associated with a decreased probability of being classified into the delayed and advantaged trajectories into adulthood characterized by high education and stable work, and an increased probability of being classified into the early and disadvantaged trajectories into adulthood characterized by unemployment, early marriage, and more children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Following late-life spousal bereavement, sensory and quasi-sensory experiences of the deceased (SED) are commonly reported. This longitudinal study examined SED among 310 older widowed adults 6–10 (T1) and 18–20 (T2) months post loss. Reports of SED in the first 6–10 months after loss were associated with higher symptom levels of prolonged grief, post-traumatic stress, and loneliness at T1. Experiencers of SED were more likely to experience symptoms of prolonged grief and post-traumatic stress above cut-off scores at T1. Importantly, only a minority of the experiencers of SED displayed these elevated levels of bereavement-related distress. In addition, employing multi-level-modeling, a similar trajectory of decreasing bereavement-related distress over time was found for both experiencers and non-experiencers of SED. We argue that SED may be one of several potential reactions to bereavement, which should not be seen as an indicator of grief complications per se. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Civil partnerships first became available to mixed-sex couples in England and Wales in December 2019. To date, there has been no research exploring the perspectives of mixed-sex couples who choose to become civil partners. We interviewed 21 people, as individuals or in couples, who were considering, planning, or had already entered into a civil partnership. Our thematic analysis resulted in two themes. In Free from the patriarchal baggage of marriage: Civil partnership as a clean slate of equality, we discuss how participants portrayed marriage as imbued with problematic traditions. In contrast, civil partnerships were portrayed as a contemporary form of relationship recognition that was in fitting for them and their relationships. In the second theme, Doing thing differently? Rejecting or reimagining weddings we discuss how participants critiqued traditions to navigate whether and how to reject them entirely, or attempt to creatively reimagine them. We consider the implications of our results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Relatively little attention has been paid within mainstream sociology to the examination of marital power, although there is considerable disenchantment with measures of it based on replies to questions about who makes a range of decisions. Marxists anal feminists have stressed the importance of economic dependence as an element in understanding power relationship within marriage, although there has been little empirical work to support/undermine their views. This paper draws on material from 60 in-depth interviews with predominantly white married women aged 20-42 years old whose oldest child was at most 15 years and who were randomly selected from general practice medical registers in North London. The paper looks at three aspects of their marital power position: first, their experience of powerfulness/powerlessness; second, their level and pattern of emotional dependence on their husband (in the context of Waller's and Hill's (1951) 'principle of least interest'); and, third, their absolute and relative levels of structural power resources (such as education, occupation, etc.). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]