Vaughn R. A. Call

Religious influence on marital stability.

Researchers frequently postulate a strong relationship between religiosity and marital stability. We incorporate a multidimensional specification of religiosity into event-history models of the religion-marital stability relationship. Results are based on panel data from the National Survey of Families and Households (N = 4,587 married couples). While no single dimension of religiosity adequately describes the effect of religious experience on marital stability, the frequency of religious attendance has the greatest positive impact on marital stability. When both spouses attend church regularly, the couple has the lowest risk of divorce. Spouse differences in church attendance increase the risk of dissolution. All significant religious affiliation influences disappear once demographic characteristics are controlled. The wifes religious beliefs concerning marital commitment and nonmarital sex are more important to the stability of the marriage than the husbands beliefs.

The Inventory of Father Involvement: A Pilot Study of a New Measure of Father Involvement

As the study of fathering has matured in recent years, fathering scholars have recognized the need for richer, broader measures of the construct of father involvement (Hawkins & Palkovitz, 1999). In an effort to create a measure sensitive to affective, cognitive, and direct and indirect behavioral components of involvement, 100 items were initially generated. Of these, 43 were selected for the “Inventory of Father Involvement” (IFI). Fathers (N = 723) reported on “how good a job” they were doing on the 43 indicators of father involvement. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses yielded nine relatively distinct first-order factors, indicating a single, global second-order factor of father involvement. The final model confirms a shorter, 26-item version of the IFI that reflects a multi-dimensional concept of father involvement.

Cohabitation, Marriage, and Remarriage A Comparison of Relationship Quality Over Time

Using longitudinal data from the 1987 to 1988 (Wave I) and 1992 to 1993 (Wave II) National Survey of Family and Households, the authors compared long-term cohabiting, married, and remarried couples in four areas of relationship quality at Wave II (happiness, communication, fairness, and disagreements). Comparisons were made after controlling for presence of a child, relationship duration, educational level, gender, ethnic status, and relationship quality at Wave I. We found that long-term cohabiting couples reported lower relationship happiness and fairness than other types of couples. Couples who cohabited prior to marriage were similar to couples who did not cohabit prior to marriage, whether the couples were in first marriages or remarriages. Differences were small among the types of couples in level of communication or disagreements.

Characteristics of Older Childless Persons and Parents Cross-National Comparisons

The prevalence and implications of childlessness in old age are compared across nine major surveys in seven countries: Australia, Finland, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Specifically, the researchers examine indicators of the well-being and resources of childless men and women, compare them to their within-country peers with children, and explore the similarities and differences among childless older adults in different countries. The results show strikingly similar patterns across countries (with the exception of Japan). Childless elders are more likely than parents to live alone or in an institution. Childless never-married women have consistently higher education levels than other groups of women. Among men, marriage rather than parenthood is consistently linked with higher socio-economic status. The results suggest important structural processes that differentially shape the resources and well-being of men and women, childless and parents, over the life course and in old age.

Modeling family dynamics with event history techniques.

This article describes the essentials of event history analysis illustrated with data on marital stability from two waves of the [U.S.] National Survey of Families and Households. First the advantages of event history analysis are described. Second issues regarding data collection methods are briefly reviewed. The final three sections explain statistical procedures including survival tables continuous time models and discrete time models. Results indicate that individual assessments of marital stability at Wave 1 especially from wives have a substantial influence on the likelihood of separation. Even after individual assessments are taken into account however demographic factors such as age at marriage marital duration prior experience in a disrupted marriage and birth of a child continue to have a significant relationship with marital stability. (EXCERPT)

Marital Status and the Duration of Joblessness among White Men.

The Career Development Study (CDS) surveyed 6729 male and female public high school juniors and seniors in Washington state during the 1965-66 academic year about their demographic backgrounds social psychological information high school experiences and plans for the future. 86% completed the classroom-administered questionnaire. The CDS was designed to explore the individual-level determinants of access to careers and the relationships between transitions made by adolescents as they move into adulthood. Contact was reestablished in 1980 with more than 98% of the original participants 91% of whom provided usable responses to second-round questions about all educational family military and work experiences since high school. The authors use data for 2851 white men in the CDS to study the effect of marital status upon their duration of joblessness. Only about 2% of the CDS sample is nonwhite. The data also indicate that married men were slightly less educated than single men. Multivariate analysis found that after leaving employment married men spend significantly less time unemployed than do single men. Marital status is therefore a significant predictor of the length of time spent without a job with married men in any given month being 50-100% more likely to take a job than single men. Chronic joblessness is apparently associated with a set of unmeasured characteristics either behavioral or social-psychological. The authors have assumed that married men return to employed status faster than single men because they feel responsible for providing for their families and because they have the emotional support of their wives. More research however is needed to determine whether those factors are truly behind the comparatively more rapid return of married men to the workforce after periods of joblessness. Additional research is also needed to determine the proximate mechanisms through which marital status is related to length of joblessness.

“Out of Sight” But Not “Out of Mind”: Parent Contact and Worry Among Senior Ranking Male Officers in the Military Who Live Long Distances From Parents

This study explores variables that influence worry and parent contact among senior military officers who face frequent moves, restricted housing, and overseas assignments, and who have been geographically separated from their parents most of their adult lives. Data on predictors of officer worry and parent contacts were collected from 277 senior ranking male officers (40 to 49 years old). A structural equation model of worry and parent contact among male officers showed that previous parental illness, parent’s age, and the tendency among officers to have an angry temperament increased their worry. Conversely, number of siblings and satisfaction with a “parent care plan” decreased worry about parents. Number of siblings also decreased contact with parents. Quality of interpersonal relationships and branch of service (Army and Marine Corps) increased contacts with parents. This research underscores the importance of examining the invisible “anguish” of adult sons who are precluded from visiting their parents by distance or employment situations, lends quantitative support to previous qualitative findings, and indicates that satisfaction with a realistic parent care plan reduces worries about elderly parents.

Cognitive control adjustments in healthy older and younger adults: Conflict adaptation, the error-related negativity (ERN), and evidence of generalized decline with age.

Older adults display alterations in neural reflections of conflict-related processing. We examined response times (RTs), error rates, and event-related potential (ERP; N2 and P3 components) indices of conflict adaptation (i.e., congruency sequence effects) a cognitive control process wherein previous-trial congruency influences current-trial performance, along with post-error slowing, correct-related negativity (CRN), error-related negativity (ERN) and error positivity (Pe) amplitudes in 65 healthy older adults and 94 healthy younger adults. Older adults showed generalized slowing, had decreased post-error slowing, and committed more errors than younger adults. Both older and younger adults showed conflict adaptation effects; magnitude of conflict adaptation did not differ by age. N2 amplitudes were similar between groups; younger, but not older, adults showed conflict adaptation effects for P3 component amplitudes. CRN and Pe, but not ERN, amplitudes differed between groups. Data support generalized declines in cognitive control processes in older adults without specific deficits in conflict adaptation.

Rural health care bypass behavior: how community and spatial characteristics affect primary health care selection.

PURPOSE (1) To assess the prevalence of rural primary care physician (PCP) bypass, a behavior in which residents travel farther than necessary to obtain health care, (2) To examine the role of community and non-health-care-related characteristics on bypass behavior, and (3) To analyze spatial bypass patterns to determine which rural communities are most affected by bypass. METHODS Data came from the Montana Health Matters survey, which gathered self-reported information from Montana residents on their health care utilization, satisfaction with health care services, and community and demographic characteristics. Logistic regression and spatial analysis were used to examine the probability and spatial patterns of bypass. RESULTS Overall, 39% of respondents bypass local health care. Similar to previous studies, dissatisfaction with local health care was found to increase the likelihood of bypass. Dissatisfaction with local shopping also increases the likelihood of bypass, while the number of friends in a community, and commonality with community reduce the likelihood of bypass. Other significant factors associated with bypass include age, income, health, and living in a highly rural community or one with high commuting flows. CONCLUSIONS Our results suggest that outshopping theory, in which patients bundle services and shopping for added convenience, extends to primary health care selection. This implies that rural health care selection is multifaceted, and that in addition to perceived satisfaction with local health care, the quality of local shopping and levels of community attachment also influence bypass behavior.

Prevalence of and Factors Associated With Subclinical Posttraumatic Stress Symptoms and PTSD in Urban and Rural Areas of Montana: A Cross-Sectional Study

PURPOSE Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is an important clinical problem, but little is known about PTSD in rural, nonclinical populations. To better understand PTSD in rural areas, we examined the prevalence and risk and protective factors in urban, rural, and highly rural communities in Montana for both subclinical posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) and PTSD. METHODS We compared the prevalence of PTSS and PTSD in urban, rural, and highly rural communities in bivariate and multivariable regression analyses using self-reported cross-sectional survey data from the Montana Health Matters study (N = 3,512), a state-representative household-based survey done in 2010-2011. We also explore potential risk and protective factors for PTSS and PTSD and whether risk and protective factors for each differ by rurality. FINDINGS There were no differences in the level of PTSS by rurality in bivariate or multivariate models, and the bivariate relationship between rurality and PTSD became nonsignificant in a multivariate model. Only locus of control was predictive for PTSS; however, gender, age, marital status, income, employment status, community fit, locus of control, and religiosity were associated with PTSD. Some risk and protective factors operate differently by rurality. CONCLUSIONS Although our findings are subject to weaknesses common to cross-sectional data and are based on questionnaire reports, it appears that there are different risk and protective factors for PTSS and PTSD, suggesting that PTSD may be qualitatively different from PTSS. Furthermore, differences in risk and protective factors across urban and rural communities suggest more attention is needed to understand PTSD in rural communities.