Journal of Family Issues

Sorber, Michaela; Knecht, Christiane; Meng, Michael; Büscher, Andreas; Schnepp, Wilfried

doi: 10.1177/0192513x211030729pmid: N/A

Chronic illness can have a profound impact on couples’ relationships. In dealing with relational changes, new constructions and forms of relationships may arise. In the context of a larger grounded theory study on relational processes and practices in couples faced with chronic illness, this article focuses on concurrent relationships as an alternative form of relationship construction which embodies an additional relationship existing parallel to that of the couple confronted with chronic illness. Based on qualitative interviews with a subsample of five persons within the larger study, conditions for the development and characteristics of concurrent relationships are presented. From an individual and shared life questioned by chronic illness, concurrent relationships are formed in the attempt to be able to live on together in a new partner relationship and a continued care relationship. This can lead to new constructions of relationships, family life, and social relations in everyday life.

McCaig, Jessica L.; Stolz, Heidi E.; Reimnitz, Siera J.; Baumgardner, Megan; Renegar, Rebecca G.

doi: 10.1177/0192513x211031515pmid: N/A

Extant research highlights the importance of early paternal engagement for children and families. Thus, there is strong support for the exploration of predictors of low-income father engagement. Informed by Belsky’s process model of parenting, this study explores contextual determinants of father–infant engagement (i.e., verbal engagement, physical play, and caregiving) including the unique contributions of the child, the father, and the broader social context. We utilized survey data from a sample of 183 non-residential, cohabitating, and married low-income fathers of infants participating in a home-visiting intervention. Results demonstrated that infant age was associated with increased caregiving and verbal engagement, fathers’ total work hours were negatively correlated with verbal engagement, fathers’ depressive symptoms were linked to increased physical play, and the quality of the coparenting alliance was related to physical play and caregiving. Findings may inform programs designed to promote paternal engagement during infancy.

Wu, Huijing; Brown, Susan L.

doi: 10.1177/0192513x211031518pmid: 36176330

There is an ongoing debate over whether living apart together (LAT) relationships are simply long-term relationships or alternatives to cohabitation or marriage. This study examined cohabitation and marriage expectations among older adults who LAT in the United States to address the debate. The analyses also compared the marriage expectations of older adults who LAT and cohabitors. Using data from the 2011 Wisconsin Longitudinal Study (WLS), we examined the union expectations of 250 individuals who LAT and 234 cohabitors. After providing a demographic portrait of older adults who LAT, we used ordered logistic regression models to predict their cohabitation and marriage expectations. Additional models predicted marriage expectations for older adults who LAT versus cohabitors. Older adults who LAT were unlikely to expect to formalize their unions. Adults who LAT were less likely to expect marriage than cohabitors. LAT relationships appear to be long-term partnerships in the United States.

Winkelman Richardson, Evin; Mallette, Jacquelyn K.; Futris, Ted G.; Dai, Yiyi; DeMeester, Karen

doi: 10.1177/0192513x211031521pmid: N/A

Foster caregivers provide care to some of our most vulnerable children and often experience challenges that can interfere with family functioning, including the interparental relationship. Recent efforts have been made to provide couple relationship education (CRE) to foster caregivers to support their interparental relationship and enhance the quality of the foster home. Guided by family systems theory and adult learning theory, and using an actor–partner interdependence model, the present quasi-experimental descriptive study -examined foster caregivers’ parenting stress at baseline as a moderator of change in perceptions of coparenting support from pre-program (baseline) to post-program (4–6 weeks following CRE) to determine if higher levels of stress prior to CRE inhibits positive changes in coparenting support. While both men and women experience positive change in their perceptions of coparenting support, higher levels of parenting stress moderated positive change for men.

Koren, Chaya

doi: 10.1177/0192513x211031520pmid: N/A

Love is desired at any age and has many meanings. Formulating new partner relationships later in life includes love as a motivation. However, experiences of love as a concept within such relationships have yet to be examined. Such an investigation could contribute to further understanding the meaning of love within new relationships formulated later in life. Thirty-eight semi-structured, qualitative interviews with older adults (19 couples) who entered a new relationship at old age after widowhood or divorce following a long-term marriage were conducted and transcribed verbatim. Dyadic interview analysis methodology was used. Unique experiences of love were identified: (1) Kinds of love: (a) pleasant love—not heated, (b) parental love—deep and quiet, and (c) sibling love; (2) phases of love: (a) being in love, (b) partial love, and (c) falling out of love yet caring. The discussion addresses late-life repartnering love as exclusive and as shifting from passion to compassion.

Chao, Shih-Yi

doi: 10.1177/0192513x211031757pmid: N/A

Heterosexual unions and parenthood are key contributors to gender inequality in housework. Over the last two decades, the social meaning of partnership and parenthood has changed. This study investigated whether this change in the narrative of partnership and parenthood status influenced changes in the housework gender gap. Using the American Time Use Survey 2003–2005 and 2013–2015, the findings show that housework gender gap was larger for people in a couple relationship than for singles. For nonparents, the gender gap in housework was no difference between those married and those cohabiting. Gender inequality in housework persisted among married parents but decreased among cohabiting parents, mainly because of the increase in cohabiting fathers’ housework time. These findings suggest a heterosexual union, particularly marriage, reproduces conventional gender roles. Men’s gendered behaviors were not uniform but diverse across partnership and parenthood status.

Lee-Maturana, Saulyn; Matthewson, Mandy; Dwan, Corinna

doi: 10.1177/0192513x211032664pmid: N/A

The Top 10 Key Findings is the result of a 4-year research study on the targeted parents’ experiences of parental alienation. Semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted on 54 targeted parents alienated from their children. The data were analysed thematically following a qualitative descriptive design. This article contributes to a greater understanding of the targeted parents’ experiences and needs. The Top 10 Key Findings are based on the own perspective of targeted parents and are created with the aim to assist in the development of future appropriate support services and intervention programmes for them.

Stafford, Laura; Kuiper, Kimberly

doi: 10.1177/0192513x211032684pmid: N/A

Clark and Mills (2012) proposed that communal norms characterize “healthy marriages,” whereas exchange norms indicate “troubled” ones. Using the actor–partner interdependence model, we consider this proposal. Heterosexual married partners’ exchange and communal strength are examined with several relational features including trust, commitment, relational satisfaction, and control mutuality, as well as partner-specific tendencies toward forgiveness. The findings indicate that one’s communal strength is associated with positive relational features for both oneself and one’s spouse, as well as a greater propensity to forgive and lesser tendencies toward negative forgiveness (retaliation). Exchange strength was generally associated with negative forgiveness. However, the relationship between exchange strength and relational features is more complicated. Lesser communal strength was generally associated with lower levels of the relational characteristics. Yet, exchange and communal strength interacted, indicating exchange may play a protective function by buffering against the ill effects of a lack of communal strength for some relational characteristics.

Kincaid, Reilly

doi: 10.1177/0192513x211033932pmid: N/A

Whereas childcare responsibilities are temporary, relationships with children are lifelong. This study examines how parents’ satisfaction with their partners’ relationships with offspring (i.e., “partner–child relationship satisfaction”) influences marital satisfaction, how this compares to the influence of satisfaction with the division of childcare, and how these processes work differently by gender. The author theorizes that partner–child relationship satisfaction shapes marital satisfaction through “impression spillover,” whereby one’s feelings about a relationship between other individuals transfer into feelings about one’s own relationship with one of those individuals. Hypotheses are tested with fixed effects regression using matched-partner data from four waves of the HILDA Survey (N=3804 person-years). Findings suggest that partner–child relationship satisfaction is associated with marital satisfaction, especially among women. Women’s marital satisfaction is influenced more by partner–child relationship satisfaction than by division of childcare satisfaction; conversely, for men, there is little distinction between the two associations. Findings offer support for impression spillover.

Fagan, Jay

doi: 10.1177/0192513x211033926pmid: N/A

The current investigation examined the longitudinal associations among low-income, urban fathers’ risk factors, engagement with children, and coparenting support during early childhood and paternal engagement with children at age 9 years. Using Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing data (N = 2104), the results showed that additive individual and family risk when children were infants and preschool-age negatively predicted father engagement at age 9. Father engagement with toddlers and preschoolers positively predicted later paternal involvement with children, but coparenting support during early childhood did not predict father engagement at age 9. There was one significant moderation effect: fathers who were highly engaged with toddlers reported lower levels of engagement during middle childhood when they experienced a higher level of risk factors at age 5. Implications for researchers, practitioners, and policy makers are discussed.