Steven L. Nock

A Comparison of Marriages and Cohabiting Relationships

This research analyzes data from the National Survey of Families and Households to compare marriages and cohabiting relationships. It reveals several broad differences in the nature of the two types of relationships. Specifically, cohabitors were found to express lower levels of commitment to their relationships, to report lower levels of happiness with their relationships, and to have poorer relationships with parents than comparable married individuals. The poorer quality of cohabiting relationships is argued to stem largely from the lack of institutionalization of the practice.

The Marriages of Equally Dependent Spouses

Marriages of equally dependent spouses (MEDS) are those in which each partner generates between 40% and 59% of the total family earnings. The author argues that such marriages will become increasingly common. Currently, about a fifth (22%) of all marriages are MEDS. This article shows that when marriages become MEDS, wives become less committed to the union although husbands do not. When marriages become MEDS, the odds of divorce also increase. Such divorces are more often at the wifes initiative than are divorces among other couples. These findings are interpreted to suggest that wives are more sensitive to the quality of their marriages than husbands are. This is because men benefit from the status of being married (i.e., being a husband) regardless of the emotional quality of their relationship. The benefits that wives derive from marriage, however, appear to depend on the quality of their unions.

The consequences of premarital fatherhood

This study which focuses on how marriage and cohabitation explain the socioeconomic effects of premarital fatherhood opens by reviewing the literature on premarital fatherhood. Particular emphasis is placed on the three approaches used to explain why men do not marry the mothers of their children (portraying young men as sexual predators; focusing on the structural aspects of marriage and employment markets that mitigate against marriage; and noting that women have alternatives to marriage). The study hypothesis that premarital fatherhood increases the likelihood of cohabitation is based on the notion that marriage automatically entails significant obligations. The idea that marriage is a form of social capital that confers access to other people for support also helps explain the lower socioeconomic status of unmarried fathers. Data from the first 15 years of the US National Longitudinal Survey of Youth were used to determine prevalence of premarital fertility among men. Reported findings covered 1) how the likelihoods of marriage and nonmarital cohabitation are conditioned by premarital fatherhood and 2) socioeconomic outcomes in terms of total earnings year-round employment educational attainment and poverty status. It was found that premarital fatherhood is associated with a range of negative socioeconomic consequences as including less schooling lower earnings less employment and greater likelihood of living in poverty. Some of these consequences are the result of self selection effects but many appear to be caused by unmarried fatherhood.

The Family Life Cycle: Empirical or Conceptual Tool?.

A number of issues related to individual and family life are studied as they vary across stages of the family life cycle. Strong relationships are found between stages in the family life cycle and a number of such issues. Further analysis which seeks to determine the manifest dimensions of the family life cycle indicates that the major empirically important dimensions qf the family life cycle are the presence qf children and length of marriage. Finally, it is shown that relationships which exist between many family life variables and stages in the family life cycle disappear when the effect of length of marriage is removed from the relationships. It is suggested that the applicability qf family life cycle analysis could be considerably extended by recognition of the crucial empirical importance of the length of marriage and the simple presence or absence of children.

Time Together Among Dual-Earner Couples

This study examines the amount of time dual-earner couples spend together by analyzing time diaries (N= 177) from the 1981 Study of Time Use. We find that time together is substantially reduced by the number of hours couples work (combined) and how they schedule these hours. Sociocultural and life-cycle factors appear to have very limited net effects on time spent together. There is a theoretically predictable relationship between marital quality and time couples spend together: the more time together in certain activities, the more satisfactory the marriage. As the number of dual-earner families increases, more spouses may be less able to sustain each other emotionally.

Predictors of graft survival in pediatric living-related kidney transplant recipients.

BACKGROUND A successful kidney transplant from a living-related donor (LRD) remains the most effective renal replacement therapy for children with end-stage renal failure. The use of LRD kidneys results in decreased time on dialysis, increased graft survival, and better function compared with kidneys transplanted from cadaver donors. We retrospectively analyzed data from the United Network of Organ Sharing (UNOS) Scientific Renal Transplant Registry to determine risk factors for graft loss in children who received an LRD kidney. METHODS Data was obtained from the UNOS Scientific Renal Transplant Registry on 2418 children ranging in age from 0 to 18 years who underwent an LRD kidney transplantation between January 1988 and December 1994. Multivariate analysis of graft survival was performed using Kaplan-Meier and Cox regression models. RESULTS The effects of age, pretransplantation dialysis, early rejection, and race were found to significantly affect graft survival. Gender, peak panel-reactive antibody, and ABO blood type were not found to be significant risk factors. Infants <2 years of age initially had the worst graft survival; however, over time their results stabilized, and at 7 years estimated graft survival was good (71%). Adolescents ranging in age from 13-18 years had the best initial graft survival, but as time went on graft survival worsened (55%). Patients who underwent pretransplantation dialysis had a relative risk for graft loss of 1.77 (P<0.001), whereas those who had an early rejection had a relative risk for graft loss of 1.41 (P<0.002). African-Americans had a significantly higher relative risk for graft loss than either Caucasians (1.57, P<0.0005) or Hispanics (2.01, P<0.0003). CONCLUSIONS Predictors of graft survival for children who receive LRD kidney transplants include age at transplantation, pretransplantation dialysis, early rejection, and race. Over time, adolescents and African-Americans seem to have the lowest graft survival.

Commitment and dependency in marriage

The persistence of marriage, like its dissolution, is the result of many factors. Research on the variables that contribute to persistence in marriage focuses on commitment, a term that is frequently used to describe individuals and relationships, yet one that is rarely defined and even less often researched. This article takes a small step toward filling that gap. The research reported here is an attempt to study commitment in marriage, especially as it is structured by various forms of dependency. Commitment is presumed to be influenced by dependency (among other things). The married woman without gainful employment or marketable skills is believed to be more constrained in her options than an employed wife. Indeed, much of the increase in divorce since the late 1960s may be the consequence of womens entry into the paid labor force (see Cherlin, 1992, and Greenstein, 1990, for reviews of these arguments). Employed women have alternatives to abusive or loveless marriages that unemployed women do not. Yet not all unloved or abused wives divorce their husbands. Research has shown that repeatedly battered wives, for example, will often remain with their husbands because of dependencies that constrain them--economic dependency in particular (Steinmetz, 1987). This research does not attempt to explain why abused wives remain with their abusive husbands. Nor does it attempt to explain divorce. Rather, the comments made about these topics are offered to illustrate conventional uses of the concept of commitment and to make the point that commitment and persistence are separable phenomena. Even were it possible to develop a full theory of why some marriages do not last, we would still lack a theory of commitment because the behavior of persistence is different from the concept of commitment, despite their obvious relationship. COMMITMENT Commitment is typically invoked to explain why people engage in a consistent line of activity--a point made by Becker over 30 years ago (Becker, 1960). With respect to marriage, for example, we might explain the persistence of unions by reference to the commitment of spouses to their marriage or to one another. As noted above, however, the behavior (staying married) is not the same thing as commitment. Becker suggested that two elements characterize commitment as a source of consistency. First, an individual does something that creates an interest in his or her following a consistent line of action. That is, some interest that was initially unrelated to a particular line of action is now linked to it because of something the person has done. Second, the individual becomes aware that his or her continued action has implications for the originally extraneous interest(s). When a person marries, for example, this action creates, for him or her, a stake in the continuation of the union. If it fails, then there will be consequences that would not have occurred without the marriage. Thus, the marriage created an interest that had not previously existed. For the married person, this may be the love, security, or tangible property elements that are part of intimate relationships. Many such interests are created by the marriage and are threatened by its termination. Domestic relations law recognizes the stake that partners have in their marriage in the legal principle of consortium. Spouses rely on one another for such things as domestic labor, sexual intimacy, and fidelity. Over time, many spouses will invest massive amounts of time and energy in their relationships, while foregoing alternative relationships, in an effort to keep these spousal benefits flowing. Indeed, for many, if not most, spouses, protecting the marital relationship is as important as protecting any other major personal interest, be it health, sanity, or integrity....Historically, the law has recognized and protected this unique interest through its concept of consortium. Such elements as domestic duties, interaction, affectional intimacy, love, and sexual intercourse are among the factors typically recognized under the law, and when their infringement is deemed an offense according to statute or court decision, monetary damages can be exacted. …

Ascription versus Achievement in the Attribution of Family Social Status.

The social standing of families in our society is the result of collective evaluations of certain characteristics of family members. The most important characteristics are known to be the occupational and educational attainments of both husband and wife. Beyond such achieved characteristics, there are many ascribed characteristics which have been presumed to have importance in the determination of a familys social standing. This paper presents the results of research on the relative importance of a number of achieved and ascribed characteristics in the evaluation of family units. Social origins as indicated by parental social status and individual achievements as indicated by educational and occupational attainments are studied for their relative importance to the process of status attribution. We shwo that achievement is more important than ascription. However, the latter is quite important in the status evaluation of families in our society. Further, it is apparent that families are evaluated on the basis of well-under-stood and agreed-upon principles.

The Family Work Day.

To understand the difficulties working couples face in balancing their work and family lives, we argue that it is essential to consider the family work day, the pattern of work-time commitment for a family as a unit that results from the combination of two individual workday schedules. Based on national survey data, we present estimates of three dimensions of the family work day for a large subpopulation of working couples. These dimensions are: (a) the total amount of time committed to work on a daily basis, (b) the amount of time at least one spouse is at work, and (c) the amount of time only one spouse is at work. We further indicate how the presence of children is associated with certain arrangements of the family work day.

The Symbolic Meaning of Childbearing

Women born during the baby boom are predicted to have historically high rates of childlessness and low fertility. Many popular explanations for such predictions point to the costs involved in having and rearing children—both direct and opportunity costs. The evidence for such costs, however, is quite weak. In this article, the costs in earnings, labor-force time, and time with ones spouse are considered and argued to be inadequate to explain contemporary womens low fertility. Instead, it is argued that fundamental values held by women about male-female relationships and the role of women in society are quite important in affecting womens fertility. Limited empirical tests of this argument provide consistent support. This article concludes by noting how, for growing numbers of women, the role of mother is being redefined in ways quite similar to the traditional role of father—financial support of children.