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Marriage is an important adult relationship, and recent research indicates that sexual mindfulness, awareness and non-judgment, may be an important tool in helping maintain relational and sexual well-being. Using a nationally representative U.S. sample of newly married, mixed-sex couples (women’s age M = 29.70 years; men’s age M = 31.76 years; N = 1473 couples), we evaluated whether the two factors of sexual mindfulness, awareness and non-judgment, were linked with relational flourishing, sexual harmony, and orgasm consistency. We utilized an actor–partner interdependence model within a structural equation modeling framework to evaluate how husbands’ and wives’ awareness and non-judgment were associated with relational flourishing, sexual harmony, and orgasm consistency. Results indicated that both wives’ and husbands’ awareness was positively associated with relational flourishing, sexual harmony, and orgasm consistency. Partner effects were found for all outcomes. However, no partner effects were found between non-judgment and orgasm consistency. Therapists, educators, and couples may consider the use of sexual mindfulness skills when addressing marriage and sexual relationships.

This study examined the longitudinal relationships among materialism, parent–child relationship quality, and psychological control for fathers and mothers. Data came from 254 heterosexual couples participating in the Flourishing Families Project, a 10-year longitudinal study of inner family life. We found that the association of parents’ materialism at T1 and parent–child relationship at T2 differed by gender. In harmony with our hypothesis, fathers’ materialism at T1 significantly predicted a decrease in father–child relationship quality at T2. Contrary to our hypothesis, mothers’ materialism at T1 was not significantly associated with mother–child relationship quality at T2. Parental psychological control was negatively related to both father–child and motherchild relationship quality but did not serve as a moderator in the relationship between materialism and parent–child relationships. That materialism appears to be detrimental to father–child relationship quality but not detract from mother–child relationship quality is thought provoking. We propose several possible explanations for these disparate findings, including a possible link between materialism and empowerment for women (but not men), and that materialism for women (but not men) may be associated with goods purchased for the benefit of the family rather than the individual. We provide suggestions for future research based on these findings.

This study analyzes scholarly articles in four broad-audience social work journals, examining racial/ethnic/cultural-focused studies published in the discipline. Growth in quality and quantity of r...

This study examined the relationship between implicit family process rules and adolescent prosocial and antisocial communication behaviors. Data came from two-parent families in Wave 5 of the Flourishing Families Project which consisted of 322 families (fathers, mothers, and children ages 13–17). Both observational and questionnaire data were used in data collection. Prosocial and antisocial behaviors were assessed using observational codes from the Iowa Family Interaction Rating Scales. Each of the family members’ perceptions was used to assess constraining family rules and facilitative family rules. Findings showed a direct positive relationship between facilitative family process rules and prosocial communication and a negative relationship with antisocial communication for both girls and boys. Constraining family process rules were also positively related to antisocial communication behaviors in adolescents. Shame was a significant mediator of the relationship between facilitative family rules and prosocial behavior as well as between constraining family rules and antisocial behavior.

Feminism is rarely used as a theoretical framework for couple finance research. The purposes of the present paper are (a) to discuss couple finance research in the context of feminism to encourage more frequent and explicit use of feminism in couple finance research, (b) to present a gender and couple finances model, and (c) to test this model with longitudinal dyadic data. Using actor-partner interdependence models (APIM) and data from 327 U.S. mixed-gender couples, relational power was explored as a potential mediator between four couple financial processes (earners of money, access to money, management of money, and conflict about money) and two relationship outcomes (relationship quality and relationship stability). Results suggest that couple financial processes are associated with relationship outcomes and with joint management as well as low conflict being key longitudinally. Additionally, although power may not play a mediating role, it appears to be connected to couple financial processes and relationship outcomes concurrently. Gender differences as well as both actor and partner effects are explored. This research has implications for researchers, clinicians, and educators. For example, clinicians may want to encourage their clients to use joint bank accounts, manage their money jointly, and minimize financial conflict. Gender, and therefore power, are inseparably tied to couple finances. When both spouses are involved in financial processes, partners tend to be more empowered, and relationship quality and stability tend to be higher.

Maternal gatekeeping has been associated with reductions in father involvement and can have a negative impact on the family. Few researchers, however, have focused on how characteristics of the father contribute to gatekeeping. Consequently, this brief report is focused on associations between father depression, father adherence to masculine norms, and father reports of maternal gatekeeping. We further test whether a father's adherence to traditional masculine norms interacts with the relationship between depression and father reports of maternal gatekeeping. This study adds to the current literature on both maternal gatekeeping and father mental health. Participants in this study include 2,214 fathers from the Survey of Contemporary Fatherhood including 73% White, 10% African American, 11% Hispanic/Latinx, and 6% from other races. It was found that fathers who reported higher levels of depression also reported higher levels of maternal gatekeeping; masculinity moderated this association. The link between depression and gatekeeping was amplified when men adhered to masculine norms. Those fathers who were highest in depression and highest in masculinity were also highest in their reports of maternal gatekeeping. Although gatekeeping has historically been considered a problematic behavior, our findings suggest that when a mother's gatekeeping is correlated with potential fathering risk factors (such as depression and masculine norm adherence), gatekeeping may be a tool a mother uses to protect her children. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

While, overall, fathers have become more involved as parents, there may be significant variability in how involved fathers are in the lives of their children. This study examines how paternal depression and masculine norm adherence affect father involvement. Using new data from the Survey of Contemporary Fatherhood ( N = 2,181) and ordinary least squares regression models, we focus on the effect of depression on four measures of fathering behavior, with masculine norm adherence as a moderator. Results indicated that depression and masculinity had independent effects on father involvement. Furthermore, masculinity moderated the effect of depression for warmth, engagement, and use of harsh parenting—but not positive control. These results have important implications for how we think about the impact of depression on parenting and the role of socialized response in understanding fathering outcomes.

Background Self-reported orgasm, perception of partner's orgasm, and misperception of partner's orgasm have each been correlated with individual sexual and relationship satisfaction, but these associations have rarely included dyadic data, have not fully accounted for potentially confounding variables such as sexual communication, and have never been simultaneously studied with a nationally representative sample. Aim To provide a more complete picture of how the orgasmic experience within the heterosexual couple influences individual and partner sexual and relationship satisfaction. Methods Using a nationally representative dyadic sample of 1,683 newlywed heterosexual couples, a structural equation model was estimated to test associations between husband and wife self-reported orgasm frequency, husband and wife report of the other partner's orgasm frequency, and husband and wife misperception of their partner's orgasm frequency, as correlates of relationship and sexual satisfaction. Outcomes Both husband and wife completed the Couples Satisfaction Index to assess their own relationship satisfaction, and completed a sexual satisfaction instrument designed for the CREATE study. Results 87% of husbands and 49% of wives reported consistently experiencing orgasm. 43% of husbands misperceived how often their wives experienced orgasm. The final structural equation model, including sexual communication, explained moderate amounts of variance in wives' and husbands' relationship satisfaction, and a high level of variance for wives' and husbands' sexual satisfaction. Wives' relationship satisfaction was positively associated with wives' and husbands' sexual communication. Wives' sexual satisfaction was positively associated with self-reported orgasm frequency, and both wives' and husbands' sexual communication. Husbands' relationship satisfaction was positively associated with husbands' and wives' sexual communication. Husbands' sexual satisfaction was positively associated with husbands' perception of wives' orgasm frequency, and both husbands' and wives' sexual communication. Clinical Translation When counseling couples, clinicians should give particular attention to the wife's orgasm experiences, to potentially help both husbands and wives have higher sexual satisfaction. Strengths & Limitations Strengths of this study include the use of a nationally representative sample and dyadic data. Limitations include cross-sectional data, and the assessment of sexual experiences only in newlywed couples. Conclusion Wives' orgasm (wives' self-report of frequency and husbands' perception of frequency) has a unique positive association with sexual satisfaction, even after taking into account other aspects of the orgasm experience and sexual communication.

Family transitions, such as stepfamily formation, can be a source of stress for adults and children. Yet, the stepfamily literature lacks a focus on factors that influence child stress levels while transitioning to stepfamily life. Using a social support perspective, the purpose of this study was to assess the independent and additive influence of closeness with three common parental figures on retrospective reports of stress experienced by children during stepfamily formation. A sample of 1139 emerging adults from a retrospective, US-based national quota sample, the Stepfamily Experiences Project, was analysed. Results indicated that parental relationships have independent, not combined, effects on stress. More specifically, we found that greater closeness with resident stepparents and resident biological parents was associated with less stress in children, whereas greater closeness with non-resident biological parents was associated with slightly greater levels of stress. These findings reflect (i) the primacy of residential relationships in children's stress reduction; (ii) the benefit of parental relationships to children as sources of social support during stressful family transitions; and (iii) the potential for children to experience stressful loyalty binds during stepfamily formation. Implications for social work practice, limitations and future directions for research are discussed.

Using family systems theory and an actor–partner interdependence model, we examine the influence of the division of family work (including fathers’ participation in child rearing) on father–child relationship quality, satisfaction with the family work division, and marital quality. The strongest effect on both spouses’ marital quality is wives’ perception of father–child relationship quality. Following this, wives’ perceptions of father participation in child rearing are positively associated with both spouses’ reports of marital quality. Furthermore, both husbands and wives report higher marital quality when they are more satisfied with the division of labor. When wives report their husbands have greater responsibility for family tasks, both spouses report higher satisfaction with the division of labor. Post hoc analyses revealed that wives are more satisfied with the division of labor when they work with their spouse rather than alone. All findings support a systemic relational orientation to family work, the division of roles, and relationship quality.

The current study sought to address gender differences in prosocial behavior by creating and validating a multidimensional measure of prosocial behavior that more fully captures the ways that men help others. The new measure is directed toward family, friend, and strangers, and has five factors: defending, emotional support, inclusion, physical helping, and sharing. In Study 1, CFA analyses performed on a sample of 463 emerging adults online (mean age 23.42) revealed good model fit and divergent validity for each of the five factors. Study 2 replicated the analyses on a sample of 453 urban adolescents in the Northwest (mean age 18.37). Results established that all factors had good model fit, construct validity, and convergent validity. The discussion focuses on implications of this measure for future prosocial research including an increased diversity in how people (particularly men) help others and developmental differences toward different targets of prosocial behavior.

The purpose was to investigate the influence of couple emotional intimacy on job perceptions (job concerns and job rewards) and work–family conflict (both work-to-family conflict and family-to-work conflict). Data on 567 couples came from a subset of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development’s Study of Early Child Care taken when the target children were fifth graders. The researchers used an actor–partner interdependence model (APIM) to examine mothers’ and fathers’ couple emotional intimacy and its influence on self- and partner perceptions of job concerns and job rewards as well as work-to-family conflict and family-to-work conflict. Both mothers’ and fathers’ couple emotional intimacy predicted fewer job concerns, more job rewards, less work-to-family conflict, and less family-to-work conflict for her- and himself. No partner effects were found in the model.

Using meta-analysis, we reviewed the effectiveness of resident fathering education programs. Our review identified 16 studies with over 200 reported effect sizes. Results revealed a significant overall effect size of d = .26, with specific significant outcomes ranging from d = .14 to d = .61. Studies with father-only reports produced significantly larger effects than multiple-reporter studies; studies with no-treatment control groups produced larger effects than studies with minimal-treatment comparison groups. A lack of long-term follow-up evaluation limited our ability to examine the strength of these effects over time. Although there is some reason for optimism, more fathering education program research is needed. Indeed, the dearth of work in this area may be the most important finding of this meta-analysis.

This article uses data from the NLSY97 to provide a descriptive portrait of family environmental indices—family/home risk, physical environment risk, enriching environments for youth, and family religious practices. The report includes a brief overview of the literature on risk, resilience, and protective factors as they relate to family processes, detailed information about the indices related to family/home risk, physical environment risk, enriching environments for youth, and family religious practices, as well as variations in each of these indices by adolescent gender, race, family income, and family structure. The comparisons were performed using analysis of variance to control for group differences. Results show that White adolescents reported fewer environmental risks and more protective factors than African American adolescents. Parents of African American adolescents reported higher religiosity than parents of Hispanic or White adolescents. Other findings with respect to gender, race, and income...

Drawing on Bronfenbrenner’s ecological theory and prior empirical research, the current study examines the way that blogging and social networking may impact feelings of connection and social support, which in turn could impact maternal well-being (e.g., marital functioning, parenting stress, and depression). One hundred and fifty-seven new mothers reported on their media use and various well-being variables. On average, mothers were 27 years old (SD = 5.15) and infants were 7.90 months old (SD = 5.21). All mothers had access to the Internet in their home. New mothers spent approximately 3 hours on the computer each day, with most of this time spent on the Internet. Findings suggested that frequency of blogging predicted feelings of connection to extended family and friends which then predicted perceptions of social support. This in turn predicted maternal well-being, as measured by marital satisfaction, couple conflict, parenting stress, and depression. In sum, blogging may improve new mothers’ well-being, as they feel more connected to the world outside their home through the Internet.