Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: This paper assesses the effects of family structure on the risk of first premarital birth
in the presence of correlated unmeasured family effects. The availability of multiple sibling
respondents per family permits identification of family-level unobserved heterogeneity in a multi-level context of individuals nested within families. Our models account for family-specific sources of unobserved heterogeneity in family structure and nonmarital childbearing, and
provide estimates of the association between these sources of unobserved heterogeneity along with the effects of family structure and other covariates. We find that accounting for the correlation between unobserved family-level effects in processes generating family structure and first premarital birth leads to attenuated estimates of family structure effects on the risk of first premarital birth. This suggests that other family-level factors may play a mediating role in generating both family structure and nonmarital childbearing.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: Use June CPS data since 1980 to examine educational assortative mating patterns for women with premarital births and women without premarital birth. The results show that women with premarital birth are more likely to marry men who are less educated than themselves and less likely to marry men who are better educated than themselves compared to women with no premarital birth.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: The authors use the relational turbulence model to derive hypotheses linking characteristics of relationships and reactions to hurtful messages from a romantic relationship partner. It was hypothesized that relational uncertainty and perceptions of goal interference and facilitation from a partner predict perceptions of relational turbulence, which in turn predicts the intensity of hurt feelings, negative emotions, the perceived intentionality of hurt, and perceptions of worthlessness and uncertainty evoked by the situation. Participants in a web-based survey (N = 381) completed measures of relationship qualities and recorded responses to five hypothetical scenarios that described their romantic partner delivering a potentially hurtful message. As anticipated, relationship uncertainty and interference from a partner predicted increased relational turbulence, whereas facilitation from a partner was associated with less turbulence; relational turbulence significantly predicted all four reactions to hurtful messages. The discussion highlights implications for the relational turbulence model and research on the experience of hurt.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: Today’s mobile global community increasingly is forcing courts to confront the challenge of deciding what recognition to give to financial arrangements made at the time of a marriage in a different political/legal/ cultural/religious environment. Very often the outcome hinges on which power structures to defer to and on the extent to which the outcome should reflect the actors’ personal autonomy. The paper will seek to glean some insights into the underlying issues by looking at two themes from Roman Law: The treatment of “dos” (dowry); and issues relating to family law arising from the legal relationship between Rome and its immediate neighbors and further removed colonies.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: We use data from the 1995 National Survey of Family Growth to investigate racial and ethnic differences in risk factors for marital disruption, with a particular emphasis on premarital cohabitation. Our analysis expands upon the array of risk factors considered in prior investigations of racial and ethnic differences in disruption and is among the first to systematically examine marital disruption among recent cohorts of Mexican American women. We find that the nature and strength of the estimated effects of several risk factors for disruption differ across groups. In particular, premarital cohabitation is positively associated with subsequent marital disruption among Non-Hispanic White women, but not among Non-Hispanic Black or Mexican American women. Little of observed gaps between groups in levels of disruption, however, appear to be attributable to differences in premarital cohabitation. In addition to improving our understanding of marital disruption, this research contributes to a growing literature emphasizing heterogeneity across groups in the meaning and function of cohabitation.