Browsing by Subject "Divorce"
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Item A comparison of children's responses in joint, single and intact custody(Texas Tech University, 1983-12) Glover, Rebecca JuneNot availableItem A follow-up study of a skills training approach to postdivorce adjustment(Texas Tech University, 1979-08) Goethal, Kurt GordonNot availableItem Consequences of repartnering for post-divorce maternal well-being and risk behaviors(2014-08) Langlais, Michael Roger; Anderson, Edward RobertMothers' dating after divorce has been linked to health benefits for mothers (Amato, 2000). However, this association assumes that all repartnering relationships are beneficial for mothers (Symoens et al., 2014). According to the divorce-stress-adaptation perspective (Wang & Amato, 2000), mothers' dating after divorce may be a supportive factor for her adjustment if her relationship is high quality, which can assist mothers with post-divorce stress (Amato, 2000; Wang & Amato, 2000), or can contribute to post-divorce stress through low quality relationships (Hetherington, 2003; Montgomery et al., 1992). However, not all mothers date, and those that do, use different approaches to dating, such as dating only one partner versus multiple partners. Another deficit in the literature is the influence of selection processes during repartnering. As well as examining the impact of relationship quality on maternal well-being, the current study includes the influence of stable traits, such as age and length of marriage, in order to examine the threat of selection across different repartnering histories. The current study used four repartnering histories that mothers reported after divorce (no dating, dating monogamously, dating multiple partners serially, and dating multiple partners simultaneously) to examine consequences on maternal well-being (depressive symptoms, life satisfaction, drunkenness, and unprotected sex). Relationship quality is reported for each relationship. Using longitudinal monthly diary data collected over a two-year period beginning with filing for divorce and multi-level models, I examined changes in the intercept and slope of maternal well-being for each repartnering history, as well as the effect of breakup with a particular focus on the interaction of relationship quality. To test for the threat of selection, I used mothers' stable traits as level-2 predictors. Results for this study show that mothers who enter in a high quality relationship report slightly higher levels of maternal well-being. Mothers entering low quality relationships report slightly lower levels of maternal well-being compared to times when mothers are not dating. Maternal well-being was not consistently influenced by maternal breakup. Mothers also reported increases in unprotected sex throughout the study, which may be a better marker of trust than maternal well-being. Only support was found for selection effects. Implications for maternal well-being are discussed.Item Effects of parental divorce on children in relation to development and attachment style(2010-05) Cox, Sarah Elizabeth, 1982-; Rochlen, Aaron B.; Moore, Leslie A.Extensive research on the impact of divorce on children has been conducted. Much of this research emphasizes negative findings. Debate over the factors that exacerbate or alleviate these negative findings exists, and prompted investigation in this literature review. Two factors that may determine how children will react to parental divorce are the child's developmental acuity and attachment style at the time of the divorce event. This review explains developmental tasks from a psychosocial and cognitive perspective for developing children from birth to age 18. An understanding of these models can be used to examine how children may be vulnerable to the stresses in a divorcing family, as well as identifying how to help children of all ages become resilient. Research included in this review suggests that a secure attachment and consistent parenting are the best buffers from negative effects. This literature review is intended to be a guide to aid parents, counselors, and other professionals who seek the best outcome for children of divorce.Item The evolution of women's choices in the macroeconomy(2008-05) Rendall, Michelle Teresita, 1980-; Cooper, Russell W., 1955-; Guvenen, FatihVarious macroeconomic effects resulted from the changing economic and societal structure in the second half of the 20th century, which greatly impacted women's economic position in the United States. Using dynamic programming as the main modeling tool, and U.S. data for factual evidence, three papers are developed to test the validity of three related hypotheses focusing on female employment, education, marriage, and divorce trends. The first chapter estimates how much of the post-World War II evolution in employment and average wages by gender can be explained by a model where changing labor demand requirements are the driving force. I argue that a large fraction of the original female employment and wage gaps in mid-century, and the subsequent shrinking of both gaps, can be explained by labor reallocation from brawn-intensive to brain-intensive jobs favoring women's comparative advantage in brain over brawn. Thus, aggregate gender-specific employment and wage gap trends resulting from this labor reallocation are simulated in a general equilibrium model. The material in the second chapter is based on an ongoing joint project with Fatih Guvenen. We argue for a strong link between the rise in the proportion of educated women and the evolution of the divorce rate since mid-century. As women become increasingly educated their bargaining power within marriage rises and their economic situation in singlehood improves making marriage less attractive and divorce more attractive. Similarly, a change in the divorce regime (e.g., U.S. unilateral divorce laws in the 1970s), making marriages less stable, incentivizes women to seek education as insurance against the higher divorce risk. A framework that models the interdependence between education, marriage and divorce is developed, simulated, and contrasted against United States data evidence. The third chapter considers the implications of marital uncertainty on aggregate household savings behavior. To this end, an infinite horizon model withperpetual youth that features uncertainty over marriage quality is developed. Similarly to Cubeddu and Ríos-Rull (1997), I test how much of the savings rate decline from the 1960s to the 1980s can be explained by the changing United States demographic composition, specifically the rise in divorce rates and the fall in marriage rates.Item Facilitating postdivorce adjustment through communication skill training(Texas Tech University, 1979-08) Thiessen, Jake DThe purpose of the present study was to examine the effects of communication skills training on adjustment to divorce and separation. Divorcees were assigned to either the experimental group (N=13) or the control group (N=15). Divorcees in the experimental group received 15 hours of training in interpersonal communication skills along with didactic information regarding various aspects of the postdivorce and adjustment process. Divorcees in the control group received no treatment. Results indicated that the experimental group, relative to the control group, significantly increased in overall divorce adjustment and in empathy skill. Although the experimental group, relative to the control group, showed some increase in self esteem, the results were not conclusive. No significant differences were found between the experimental group and the control group in either perceived social support or self-disclosure skill. Discussion centered on the advantages of structured skills training as a strategy for intervention in the postdivorce adjustment process.Item The implications of resident mothers’ repartnering for children’s closeness and involvement with nonresident fathers(2011-12) Hurley, Kathleen Anne; Anderson, Edward Robert; Dix, Theodore H.; Hazen-Swann, Nancy L.With around 50 percent of all dissolving marriages consisting of families with children, and around half of residential parents reporting some experience with dating new partners within 60 days of filing for divorce, there is a need to understand the influences on children’s relationships and the possible consequences or benefits that may be imposed on children due to not only divorce, but additional parental transitions such as repartnering. In this study, I used data from the Texas Families Project, a longitudinal, multi-informant, multi-method study, to examine the implications of mothers’ repartnering for children’s closeness and involvement with nonresident fathers. Resident mother’s dating status alone does not seem to impact children’s closeness and involvement with their nonresident fathers as much as the new relationship that children are forming with their mothers’ partners impacts these relationships. Mothers’ and children’s reports differ, providing competing results as to whether or not children’s relationships with their mothers’ partners is associated with changes in children’s relationships with their fathers. Children report a positive relationship between involvement with their mothers’ romantic partners and involvement with their nonresident fathers, suggesting that both children’s biological fathers and their alternative caretaker play a valuable role in their lives. Mothers’ reports show that there is a negative relationship between the amount of time spent with their mothers’ romantic partner and positive involvement with children’s nonresident father, suggesting that children could be substituting time with their fathers for time with their mothers’ romantic partner. Although contact may decrease due to the child and mothers’ romantic partner relationship, child’s closeness to their father is not affected, supporting research that states that children may continue to feel close to their fathers even when contact is low.Item Learning from the past, altering the future: The effects of past relationships on couples who remarry(Texas Tech University, 2005-12) Brimhall, Andrew S.; Wampler, Karen S.; Kimball, Thomas G.; Ivey, David C.; Crawford, Duane W.Over 20 years ago Furstenberg (1979) called for more research on the relationship between former spouses. Despite that call, not many empirical studies have examined this relationship, particularly among those who are remarried (Buunk & Mutsaers, 1999). The small body of literature that has studied remarriage is primarily based on large national databases that take a distant, external, stance to the data. Little, if any, research exists that takes a process-oriented approach to understanding the difficulties faced by individuals who remarry. Yet, 4 out of 10 people entering marriage today are entering a marriage where one or both spouses have been previously married (Ihinger-Tallman & Pasley, 1997). Currently, the applied literature lacks the necessary information to establish a theory regarding remarriage and how previous marriages affect current relationships. Many of the explanations that exist are speculative and lack theoretical grounding. This study used grounded theory methodology in an attempt to understand a complex social phenomenon that is affecting many lives. The sample consisted of 8 couples who indicated that they left a relationship that was dissatisfying and were currently in a satisfying relationship. Each participant was in their second marriage, remarried as a result of divorce, married less than 5 years, and not severely distressed. Participants were interviewed individually and then together with their spouse and were asked to describe how their first marriages were currently affecting their second marriages. Trust, and how it was affected over the course of the relationship, was the central category that emerged. From this central category three categories were developed: lack of trust in the previous relationship, attempts to increase trust in the development of the current relationship, and presence of trust in the current relationship. The experiences of three participants were highlighted to show the relationships between categories and how the trust in relationships varied among these categories. Through the use of participant feedback, internal and external auditors, and existing literature the findings were validated. From these results provisional hypotheses were developed and implications for clinicians working with couples who remarry were discussed.Item Learning from the past, altering the future: The effects of past relationships on couples who remarry(2005-08) Brimhall, Andrew S.; Wampler, Karen S.; Kimball, Thomas G.; Ivey, David C.; Crawford, Duane W.Over 20 years ago Furstenberg (1979) called for more research on the relationship between former spouses. Despite that call, not many empirical studies have examined this relationship, particularly among those who are remarried (Buunk & Mutsaers, 1999). The small body of literature that has studied remarriage is primarily based on large national databases that take a distant, external, stance to the data. Little, if any, research exists that takes a process-oriented approach to understanding the difficulties faced by individuals who remarry. Yet, 4 out of 10 people entering marriage today are entering a marriage where one or both spouses have been previously married (Ihinger-Tallman & Pasley, 1997). Currently, the applied literature lacks the necessary information to establish a theory regarding remarriage and how previous marriages affect current relationships. Many of the explanations that exist are speculative and lack theoretical grounding. This study used grounded theory methodology in an attempt to understand a complex social phenomenon that is affecting many lives. The sample consisted of 8 couples who indicated that they left a relationship that was dissatisfying and were currently in a satisfying relationship. Each participant was in their second marriage, remarried as a result of divorce, married less than 5 years, and not severely distressed. Participants were interviewed individually and then together with their spouse and were asked to describe how their first marriages were currently affecting their second marriages. Trust, and how it was affected over the course of the relationship, was the central category that emerged. From this central category three categories were developed: lack of trust in the previous relationship, attempts to increase trust in the development of the current relationship, and presence of trust in the current relationship. The experiences of three participants were highlighted to show the relationships between categories and how the trust in relationships varied among these categories. Through the use of participant feedback, internal and external auditors, and existing literature the findings were validated. From these results provisional hypotheses were developed and implications for clinicians working with couples who remarry were discussed.Item Loss of the Dream: Stories of Mid-Life Divorce(2011-02-22) Leighman, Marilyn RustThe divorce experiences of seven mid-life women were investigated using Bohannan's (1970) and Hagemeyer's (1986) divorce theories as a framework to guide the research. In-depth interviews and visual interpretation were used: (a) to determine the greatest challenges and losses experienced by mid-life women after divorce; (b) to identify factors which contribute to resilience and determine coping mechanisms used by mid-life women following divorce; and (c) to assess long-term effects of divorce on midlife women several years after the event. The results of this study included the following findings: The women in the study had been divorced from 7 to 18 years and all agreed that losing the dream of the "happily ever after marriage" and the loss of the family unit were the most difficult losses they experienced. Other losses included the loss of identity as a married person, loss of home and assets, loss of income, and loss of relationship with children. Factors affecting resilience and coping mechanisms included working at a job or profession, support of family and friends, faith and spirituality and social activities and dating. These were unanimous choices among the participants. Long-term effects were both positive and negative. Negative effects included continued feelings of loss concerning the family unit, lingering anger, and lack of forgiveness toward the former spouse. Positive aspects included increased resilience, autonomy, personal achievement, and spiritual growth.Item The meaning and use of the word vidua in Latin literature of the 2nd and 1st century B.C.(2013-08) Koutseridi, Olga; Riggsby, Andrew M.The primary role of this report is to provide an in-depth analysis of all the instances of the word vidua, its meanings and uses in Latin literature from the last two centuries B.C. This close examination of the word vidua in the literary sources of this period has resulted in a number of important modifications to its definition. The word vidua, which is commonly translated by ancient scholars as widow, is not sustained by the contextual evidence of the majority of the passages that do no state explicitly the reason for the women's deprived status. Instead the word is most commonly used to mean a much broader social group of Roman women, all no longer married women, a category which includes various groups of women such as widows, divorcees, abandoned women and women whose husbands have been away for long periods of time. Furthermore the English word unmarried should not be used to translate the Latin word vidua since, as I demonstrate throughout my paper, there is a clear distinction in the Roman minds between women who are no longer married, vidua, and women who are not yet married, virgines an important distinction that gets lost with the more inclusive and broader social category meant by the word unmarried.Item Personal history or personality? differences in relationship quality between remarriages and first marriages(2010-12) Schoenfeld, Elizabeth Austin; Huston, Ted L.; Loving, Timothy J.; Anderson, Edward R.The current study is the first to explore how reported reasons for divorce are associated with the emotional climate of subsequent marriages, and if the emotional climate of these relationships is significantly different from that of happy or unhappy first marriages. It also examines whether variations in the emotional climate of marriage are reducible to underlying personality characteristics. These issues were investigated using data from the Texas Baseline Survey on Marriage. Results indicate that there are two types of marriage that end in divorce: those preceded by a highly distressed marriage, and those preceded by a less distressed marriage. Regardless of emotional tenor of the marriage prior to divorce, the emotional climate of remarriages appears to be largely similar to that of happy first marriages and substantially better than that of unhappy first marriages. Although individuals with different relationship histories possess distinct personality profiles, the differences in emotional climate persist after the effects of personality have been taken into account. Overall, these results suggest that accounting for differences among those who have divorced, as well as distinguishing between happy and unhappy first marriages, is important for understanding the affective nature of marriage.Item Predicting divorce at marital therapy intake: a discriminant analysis model(Texas Tech University, 1985-05) Newfield, Neal AllenNot availableItem Predicting divorce at marital therapy intake: a discriminant analysis model(Texas Tech University, 1985-05) Newfield, Neal AllenNot availableItem The social and relational meaning of child support(2014-05) Cozzolino, Elizabeth Anne; Williams, Christine L., 1959-In this Thesis, I investigate the social meaning of child support payments for members of separated families. Drawing on 21 interviews with members of separated families, I explore how payments from one parent to another shape family relationships. I focus on three main topics: how child support payments are different from other forms of money in the ways that they are discussed, earmarked and spent; what child support payments reveal about cultural expectations of motherhood and fatherhood; and how respondents regard the fairness and efficacy of state child support policy. I argue that child support payments reinforce class and gender inequality. Child support reifies mothers’ disproportionate responsibility for children and uneven child support enforcement further subjects the poor to the coercive power of the state.Item The Effect of Welfare Reform on Childbirth, Marriage, and Divorce(2010-10-12) Pakdeethai, PimrakThis dissertation contains two essays on the effect of welfare reform on child- birth, marriage, and divorce. In the first essay, I exploit the cross state variation in welfare reform implementation to identify its effect on birth rates. The results from multinomial logit models suggest that the welfare reform significantly increased the probability of marital births. The out-of-wedlock birth rates decreased but this effect is not significant. The strong work incentives decrease birth rates in both marital and non-marital statuses suggesting that bearing a child is not appealing for women who are more progressive in careers. However, the most aggressive welfare policy significantly increases marital birth as expected. Birth rates among teenage girls are not affected by the welfare reform. I further investigate the effect of the family cap policy. Using a semi-natural experiment, I compare the birth rate of women who already have had a second or higher order birth (treatment group) to women who have had one child (comparison group), in states with and without family caps. The difference in difference estimates reveal a strictly negative effect of family caps on the higher order birth rates as expected. In the second essay, I use reduced-form estimation and cross-state variation in timing of reform adoption to extract both mechanical and behavioral effects of welfare reform on marriage and divorce likelihood. I construct a flow measure of marriage and divorce by matching individuals in the Current Population Survey from March 1988B to 2002 and observing changes in marital status. I introduce a converse matching procedure to detect women who are not in the survey for two consecutive years. I find that the welfare reform has a significantly negative effect on marriage rates and an insignificant effect on divorce rates. The Difference-in-Difference estimates suggest that marriage among disadvantaged women is negatively affected by the welfare reform. I also provide a theoretical model to decompose the effect of welfare reform on marriage due to each of the components of the reform, i.e., time limits, work sanctions, earnings disregards, and maximum cash benefits. My results provide a novel explanation for the effects of work incentives and welfare restrictions on marriage.Item The family process of divorce(Texas Tech University, 1985-05) Plummer, LeoneThe purpose of the study was to examine family stress variables which had previously received little attention in the divorce adjustment literature: pile-up of stressors, role flexibility, family rules permitting emotional expression, and illness anxiety. A second purpose of this study was to examine these variables from a family stress theoretical perspective. The findings of this study were based upon recently divorced and separated individuals selected from court records in Potter, Randall, and Lubbock counties of the Texas Panhandle. The sample consisted of 90 respondents, 27 males and 63 females. Subjects completed the following questionnaires: the Family Inventory of Life Events and Changes, to determine the number of pile-up of stressors; the Family Adaptation to Medical Stressors, to determine the degree of role flexibility, the number of family rules prohibiting emotional expression, and the amount of illness anxiety; and the Fisher Divorce Adjustment Scale, to determine the level of divorce adjustment. Hierarchical multiple regression was used to test the hypotheses. The findings supported the hypotheses that the number of pile-up of stressors and the amount of illness anxiety contributed significantly to the explanation of divorce adjustment for the male respondents. An unexpected finding in this study was that, for men, family rules prohibiting emotional expression were directly related to divorce adjustment. However, none of the variables in the study were significantly related to divorce adjustment for the female respondents.Item The relationship of sex roles and social competence to divorce adjustment(Texas Tech University, 1981-05) Read, June WillsonDivorce may be seen as a family crisis requiring change in many areas of life for all family members involved. Resolution of this crisis may require the acquisition of new skills, new behaviors, and new information. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship of sex role identity, sex role attitudes, and social competence to divorce adjustment. This is the first study to look at the impact of masculinity and femininity on adjustment to marital dissolution, and it was hypothesized that androgynous persons would adjust more successfully than sex-typed persons. In addition, it was hypothesized that there would be a positive relationship between adjustment and more liberal sex role attitudes, and between adjustment and social competence. Based on the results of preliminary analyses, a scale assessing social support was substituted for the measure of social competence. A secondary purpose of this study was to obtain information on a newly developed scale of single identity. The findings indicated that social support was one of the strongest predictors of successful adjustment to marital dissolution. Sex role identity was found to be more indicative of adjustment for females than for males. Androgynous females were significantly better adjusted than were sex-typed females, but there were no significant differences in divorce adjustment between androgynous and sex-typed males. Considering masculinity and femininity scores rather than sex-role categories, masculinity scores were more predictive of successful adjustment for both genders than were femininity scores. More liberal sex role attitudes were significantly related to adjustment in simple correlational analyses, but were not an important predictor of adjustment in regression analyses. The Read Single Identity Scale was found to have an adequate internal consistency with this sample. The conceptual components of single identity were supported by factor analysis which revealed four major factors: (a) Personal and Vocational Coping, (b) Single Parenting, (c) Detachment from Former Spouse, and (d) Social Coping. Single identity correlated strongly with successful adjustment to divorce and with social support. Masculinity scores were strongly correlated with single identity for both genders, but femininity was correlated with single identity for females only.Item Three essays concerning religion and domestic behavior(2009-08) Gregoire, Scott Larkin; Hamermesh, Daniel S.; Stinchcombe, MaxwellIn the first essay, I demonstrate that during the 1970s, the marital behavior of US Catholics changed dramatically relative to that of the total population. The Catholic marriage rate, that is, the number of Catholic marriages per 1000 Catholics, decreased nearly 20 percent relative to the civil marriage rate. Before and after this time period, the two rates moved in unison. Empirically, I find that the Catholic reforms and encyclicals of the 1960s, that is, Vatican II and Humanae Vitae, led to a decrease in the Catholic marriage rate relative to the civil marriage rate and that the reform of civil divorce law had no effect on this relative rate. In the second essay, I expand the analysis of the previous essay and test whether a negative response among US Catholics to the reforms of Vatican II and to Humanae Vitae is able to explain the increase in the civil marriage rate, the decrease in the Catholic marriage rate, and the increase in the interfaith marriage rate seen in the data. To do this, I construct an original model that treats marriage as a set of two contracts, one civil and one religious, with the benefit and cost of the religious contract depending upon a social complementarity. The theory and the data match if the primary effect of 1960s Catholic reform was to decrease the benefit of a Catholic marriage. In the third essay, I examine the link between religiosity and the incidence of domestic abuse and model sanctification as the pathway connecting the two. Sanctification is "a psychological process through which aspects of life are perceived by people as having spiritual character or significance"[25]. In the model, the abuser must his choose level of abuse, and both abuser and abused must allocate a scarce amount of time between the production of a marital good and a personal consumption good. Sanctification is modeled as an increase in the return to time invested in the marital good. Theoretically, abuse increases in both spouses' level of sanctification and the wife's productivity and decreases in the husband's productivity. This partially agrees with the data.