Journal of Marriage and Family

Publisher:
Wiley
Publication date:
2022-02-22
ISBN:
1741-3737

Description:

The Journal of Marriage and Family (JMF), published by the National Council on Family Relations, has been the leading research journal in the family field for more than 75 years and is consistently the most highly cited journal in Family Science. JMF features original research and theory using the variety of methods reflective of the full range of social sciences, including quantitative, qualitative, and multi-method designs; research interpretation; integrative review; reports on methodological and statistical advances; and critical discussion concerning all aspects of marriage, other forms of close relationships, and families. The journal also publishes brief reports.

Latest documents

  • Color, Culture, or Cousin? Multiracial Americans and Framing Boundaries in Interracial Relationships

    Objective:This article analyzes how some multiracial people—the “products” of interracial relationships—conceptualize what counts as an interracial relationship and how they discuss the circumstances that influence these definitions. Background: Scholars have argued that the added complexity expanding multiracial populations contribute to dating and marriage‐market conditions requires additional study; this article expands on the limited research regarding how multiracial people perceive interraciality. Method: The article uses in‐depth interviews with self‐identified multiracial women (N = 30) who used online dating platforms to facilitate their dating lives in the following three cities in Texas: Austin, Houston, and San Antonio. Results: In framing their relationships through lenses centered around skin color, cultural difference, and “familiarity” in terms of seeing potential partners as similar to non‐White male family members, multiracial women illustrate varied and overlapping means of describing their intimate relationships, providing additional nuance to sociological understandings of shifts in preferences and norms around partner choice across racial/ethnic lines and opening up opportunities to continue the exploration of the impact of racial inequality on partner choice. Conclusion: Multiracial people internalize racial, gendered, and fetishistic framings about potential partners similarly to monoracial people, demonstrating how racial boundaries and degrees of intimacy are (re)constructed for this growing demographic in the United States.

  • Unemployment and Housework in Couples: Task‐Specific Differences and Dynamics Over Time

    Objective: The authors tested competing hypotheses about the effects of unemployment on couples' division of housework and total household production. Background: Gender‐neutral and gender‐based theories make opposing predictions on the reactions of couples. Few previous studies have tested these predictions using longitudinal data. This study extends research by examining how the effects of unemployment vary with gender, specific tasks, and over time. Method: Fixed effects models were applied to estimate the associations of unemployment with both partners' total, neutral, female‐typed, and male‐typed housework hours. The analyses were based on 12,183 couples from the Socio‐Economic Panel, 1991 to 2015. The Socio‐Economic Panel is a nationally representative household panel survey of the German adult population. Results: This study found stronger associations for unemployment of husbands than wives with own and spouses' total housework hours and an expansion of the total household production. The changes were immediate and remained constant over time. The patterns for specific tasks resembled the main results, but for wives, the associations were stronger with female‐typed tasks whereas for husbands they were stronger with male‐typed tasks. Conclusion: The authors conclude that the division of housework following unemployment is better explained by gender‐neutral theories of time availability or relative resources. Whereas the task‐specific findings are also consistent with a gender‐based perspective, the finding that men increased their routine chores immediately and substantially is at odds with strict interpretations of gender display or deviance neutralization.

  • Overwork, Specialization, and Wealth

    Objective: This study examines how overwork and traditional household specialization—defined as households with one dedicated female homemaker and one dedicated male breadwinner—are associated with wealth across socioeconomic strata. Background: Although overwork and household specialization are clearly associated with income, less is known about how these behaviors affect household wealth. Household wealth is only moderately correlated with household income and is influenced by many factors that do not affect income, suggesting that overwork and specialization have different associations with wealth than with income. Moreover, because wealth is so unevenly distributed, overwork and specialization likely have different associations with wealth across socioeconomic strata. Method: With data from the Survey of Consumer Finances, a nationally representative survey of households that includes an oversample of high‐wealth households, the authors estimate unconditional quantile regression models to investigate how overwork and household specialization are associated with household wealth across socioeconomic strata and over time. Results: Overwork has the greatest absolute benefits at the top of the wealth distribution but the greatest relative benefits in lower portions of the wealth distribution. Specialization yields distinct advantages for high‐wealth households that have grown over time, whereas specialization comes with trade‐offs for low‐wealth households that outweigh its benefits. Conclusion: The financial trade‐offs associated with overwork and specialization vary considerably across the wealth distribution. Contrary to findings in income‐based research, overwork premiums appear most crucial to the financial well‐being of underprivileged households, whereas specialization premiums are evident only for the economic elite.

  • Marital Strain and Psychological Distress in Same‐Sex and Different‐Sex Couples

    Objective: This study examines the association of marital strain—as reported by each spouse—with psychological distress and considers whether the associations vary for men and women in gay, lesbian, and heterosexual marriages. Background: Prior studies show that marital strain is associated with psychological distress. However, most studies rely on only one spouse's perspective and do not consider how appraisals of strain from both spouses may contribute to distress. Moreover, possible gender differences in these associations have been considered only for heterosexual couples. Method: The analyses are based on 10 days of dyadic diary data from 756 midlife U.S. men and women in 378 gay, lesbian, and heterosexual marriages. Multilevel modeling is used to examine the association of self‐ and spouse‐reported marital strain with psychological distress; actor‐partner interdependence models explore possible gender differences in these associations. Results: Both self‐reports and spousal reports of marital strain are associated with psychological distress, with notable gender differences. The associations of self‐ and spouse‐reported marital strain with distress are stronger for women in different‐sex marriages when compared with men in same‐sex and different‐sex marriages. The association is also stronger for women in different‐sex marriages when compared with women in same‐sex marriages, but for self‐reported strain only. Conclusion: Marital appraisals by both spouses are important for psychological well‐being and may be especially important for the well‐being of women in different‐sex marriages.

  • Change in Motherhood Status and Fertility Problem Identification: Implications for Changes in Life Satisfaction

    Objective To determine whether the association between changes in life satisfaction and becoming a mother (or not) depends on fertility problem identification status. Background Evidence and symbolic interactionist theory suggest that, for women who initially perceive a fertility barrier, gaining the valued identity “mother” should be associated with increases and continuing to face a blocked goal (i.e., not becoming a mother) should be associated with decreases in life satisfaction. Method This study used the nationally representative two‐wave National Survey of Fertility Barriers to conduct a change‐score analysis with chained multiple imputation. The focal dependent variable was change in life satisfaction. Focal independent variables were Wave 1 life satisfaction, fertility problem identification status, and birth between waves, controlling for stability and change in relationship status, talking to a doctor about how to get pregnant, religiosity, social support, importance of parenthood, importance of leisure, importance of work success, and economic hardship. Results Among women who perceived a fertility problem at both waves, becoming a mother was associated with increased life satisfaction and not becoming a mother was associated with decreased life satisfaction. Women who gained or lost a fertility problem perception between waves but did not have a live birth experienced a gain in life satisfaction between waves, suggesting the relevance of the duration of fertility problem perception for change in life satisfaction.

  • Childbearing Worldviews and Contraceptive Behavior Among Young Women

    Objective The objective of this study was to classify young women into groups based on their childbearing worldviews—patterns of attitudes about domains related to childbearing—and to test whether these groups predict contraceptive behavior. Background Contraceptive behavior—defined here as contraceptive use or abstinence—among young women in the United States illustrates the often puzzling relationship between attitudes and behavior. This study argues that considering sets of attitudes relevant to childbearing in relation to each other can explain apparent contradictions between attitudes and contraceptive behavior. Method Using data from the Relationship Dynamics and Social Life study of young women (N = 832), this study analyzes the relationships among attitudes about childbearing by using latent class analysis to partition survey respondents into meaningful groups, and then multinomial logistic regression analysis to examine the relationship between group membership and contraceptive behavior. Latent class analysis identifies classes that share similar relationships between responses across a series of variables to measure childbearing worldviews. Results Latent class analysis identifies six classes of young women that share childbearing worldviews, four of which were predicted by the existing literature. Membership in those classes is then shown to predict contraceptive behavior, an important behavioral outcome. Conclusion The concept of worldviews and the method for identifying them will allow family researchers to identify meaningful groups in a population as well as to generate theories about childbearing and contraceptive behavior.

  • Is There a Fatherhood Wage Premium? A Reassessment in Societies With Strong Male‐Breadwinner Legacies

    Objective This study examines whether fatherhood sparks the wage attainment of men or rather entry into fatherhood is simply more typical for high‐earning men and at times of wage growth during the career cycle. Background Fatherhood premiums may contribute to gender economic inequalities, particularly in countries with strong male‐breadwinner legacies such as Germany and the United Kingdom. Yet, as male‐breadwinner norms have waned and policies have started fostering men's role as carers, wage premiums could be a thing of the past. Also, the mechanisms usually invoked to account for fatherhood premiums—effort allocation, couple specialization, and employer discrimination—seem of little relevance even in these countries. Entry into parenthood spurred by wage attainment is therefore scrutinized as an alternative source of the apparent premiums on average and across cohorts. Method The author uses long‐running panel data for both countries and three regression‐based approaches (pooled ordinary least squares, fixed effects estimation, and fixed effects individual‐slope estimation). Results Overall, fatherhood wage bonuses could not be detected on average as well as across birth cohorts. At best, estimates were compatible with modest premiums among older cohorts of men. Positive selection on both prior wage levels and wage growth was found to be largely responsible for the apparent wage boost. The contribution of selection on prior wage levels though has been fading across cohorts, meaning that men select into fatherhood less and less on the basis of time‐invariant characteristics positively related to both wages and the chance of becoming a father. Conclusion The link between fatherhood and wages appears to be more of a selection story than a causal one, even in contexts with strong male‐breadwinner legacies.

  • Contact with Parents and Parents‐in‐Law, Gender, and Marital Satisfaction in Korea

    Objective Guided by modernization theory and an intergenerational solidarity perspective, this study evaluated the differences in patterns of contact with non‐coresident parents and parents‐in‐law in Korea at two time points 10 years apart and explored how these contact patterns were associated with gender and marital satisfaction. Background Family relationships traditionally governed by Confucian patrilineal norms have been evolving into more egalitarian and bilateral patterns in contemporary Korea. Method Data from the 2006 and 2016 Korean General Social Survey were examined. Analytic samples consisted of married respondents with at least one parent and one parent‐in‐law alive and no parent or parent‐in‐law coresiding with the respondents (2006, N = 493; 2016, N = 195). Chi‐square tests and ordinary least squares regression models evaluated associations. Results The findings overall revealed increased movement toward more egalitarian and bilateral intergenerational kin relationships over time, particularly among women. Equal face‐to‐face and phone contact with both sets of parents in 2006 and 2016 as well as more contact with in‐laws in 2006 were linked to better marital satisfaction. More phone contact with in‐laws, compared with equal contact, was associated with lower marital satisfaction among men in 2006, but not in 2016. Conclusion The most happily married men and women in Korea might be those who find a way to adapt to changing kinship norms by simultaneously equally meeting their parents' and parents‐in‐law's needs for solidarity.

  • Development of Immigrant Couple Relations in Germany

    Objective: This study investigates whether relationship satisfaction, conflict frequency, and self‐disclosure follow distinct developmental trajectories for immigrant couples when compared with native‐born couples and explores the factors that explain developmental diversity for immigrant couples. Background: Despite nearly a quarter of a billion people worldwide living in a country other than their birth country, no longitudinal research has examined immigrant couple intimate relations. Stress‐focused theoretical perspectives provide motivation for the current study. Method: Five annual waves of survey data from the German Family Panel (pairfam) study were analyzed. Propensity score matching was used to select a sample of immigrant (n = 614) and native‐born (n = 2,097) couples matched on a number of potentially confounding demographic (e.g., marital status) and values‐based (e.g., traditional gender‐role attitudes) variables. Results: Latent growth curve analyses revealed few differences between immigrant and native‐born couple trajectories and, where differences arose, the trajectories converged by Wave 5. Within immigrant couples, having both partners as immigrants emerged as a protective factor, whereas citizenship status in the receiving country and length of time since immigrating were not consistently associated with the relationship outcomes. Associations among couple supportiveness, traditional gender roles, and Big Five personality variables with the immigrant couple trajectories were consistent with findings in the relationship science literature. Conclusion: Although being an immigrant entails navigating additional challenges in daily life as a result of one's minority status, these results bear testament to the remarkable resilience of immigrant couples.

  • The Rise of Maternal Grandmother Child Care in Urban Chinese Families

    Objective: This study explores the transformation of patrilineality in grandparents' child care in China, which was traditionally oriented almost exclusively toward caring for sons' children. Background: Since China's 1949 revolution, grandparent child care has undergone rapid transformation, shifting from strongly patrilateral to bilateral or even matrilateral, as maternal grandmothers have become far more involved in child care than in previous generations. Method: This study investigates the choices of maternal versus paternal grandmother child care in 77 urban families that are drawn from a larger random sample of a mixed‐method longitudinal study in Nanjing, China. Content analysis is used to analyze semistructured interviews with the parents from these families. Results: The interviews reveal that parents are turning away from the traditional Chinese tendency to favor paternal grandparent child care, instead basing child‐care decisions on availability, caregiving qualifications, and the nature of grandmothers' relationship with adult children and their spouses, all of which encourage a greater child‐care role for maternal grandmothers than in previous generations. Further examination of these considerations suggests that the following three sociocultural changes associated with China's modernization processes may have led to the new norms in grandparent child care: reinterpreted intergenerational relationships, women's empowerment in natal families, and a child‐centered care ideology. Conclusion: These findings suggest that the rise of maternal grandmother child care reflects a weakening of patrilineality in intergenerational resource exchange in favor for a utilitarian strategy of maximizing resources available to urban Chinese families as they adapt to China's rapid socioeconomic transformations.

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