After years of changes to divorce laws, the optimal balance between keeping marriages intact, despite sustained spousal con‡ict, and allowing for divorce is still a subject of heated policy debate. To explore the tradeo¤s, I construct a model of household bargaining with information asymmetries which may generate Pareto ine¢ cient outcomes. Parameters of the model are estimated using data on al...

Knowledge of the characteristics of family structure may be helpful to the pediatrician for predicting child abuse. During the past several decades progressive shifts from the classic family unit of two biological parents and their children to a variety of parental living arrangements have occurred. Most notable are the increases in teenage pregnancies, unmarried motherhood, divorce rates appro...

BACKGROUND Patients with parkinsonism exhibit motor symptoms, cognitive impairment, and neuropsychiatric changes, and these symptoms increase caregiver burden. Family dynamics can be influenced by the presence of comorbidities, which is especially important in diseases causing caregiver burden. We investigated the effects of spousal parkinsonism on family functioning and communication. METHOD...

Stress spillover in marriage was examined within a stress-buffering conceptual framework in a multiwave, longitudinal sample of newlywed husbands and wives (N = 101 couples). Spousal support, chronic role strain, and marital satisfaction were assessed 4 times over 3 years and analyzed via actor-partner interdependence model and growth curve analytic techniques. Greater escalation in husbands' r...

According to attachment theory, individuals should experience changes in attachment orientations (styles) if they encounter experiences or events that strongly reinforce or directly contradict the major concerns of their existing orientations. Systematic changes should be most evident across stressful life transitions. Wives and husbands expecting their first child completed scales measuring th...

Marriage is a very special relationship that has a high potential to influence physical and mental health throughout the adult lifespan and into old age. In this viewpoint, we propose a model that outlines plausible biobehavioral pathways that may underlie previously established spousal interrelations in long-term health trajectories and discuss specific resources that may facilitate favorable ...

BACKGROUND Effective reduction of malaria morbidity and mortality in Nigerian children under the age of five depends to a large extent on family biosocial factors. Although, the awareness of insecticide treated bed nets (ITNs) is reportedly high and increasing in Nigeria there remain large gaps between awareness, possession and use by families with children under the age of five in Nigeria. A...