Strange attractor
Couple Longevity in the Era of Same-Sex Marriage in the United States
Michael Rosenfeld
Journal of Marriage and Family, October 2014, Pages 905–918
Abstract:
The author used a new longitudinal data set, the How Couples Meet and Stay Together surveys (N = 3,009), to generate the first nationally representative comparison of same-sex couple stability and heterosexual couple stability in the United States. He measured the association between marriage (by several definitions of marriage) and couple longevity for same-sex couples in the United States. Reports of same-sex relationship instability in the past were due in part to the low rate of marriages among same-sex couples. After controlling for marriage and marriage-like commitments, the break-up rate for same-sex couples was comparable to (and not statistically distinguishable from) the break-up rate for heterosexual couples. The results revealed that same-sex couples who had a marriage-like commitment had stable unions regardless of government recognition. A variety of predictors of relationship dissolution for heterosexual and for same-sex couples are explored.
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Marital status, gender, and sexual orientation: Implications for employment hiring decisions
Joel Nadler & Katie Kufahl
Psychology of Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity, September 2014, Pages 270-278
Abstract:
Marital status and sexual orientation discrimination has been largely underresearched and has not been researched using working professionals, or with the incorporation of sexual orientation, marital status, and gender interactions. Additionally, with the growing acceptance of same-sex relationships, marriages, and partnerships, the interaction of marital status (i.e., applicants with or without a spouse) and sexual orientation bias in the workplace needs to be examined. Our study used an experimental design that manipulated gender, marital status, and sexual orientation in interview simulations and examined participants’ (N = 365 working adults) hiring decisions. A significant 3-way interaction was found such that single lesbian women received significantly higher ratings when compared with married lesbian women, and married heterosexual women received significantly higher ratings compared with single heterosexual women. The study revealed that sexual orientation interacted with marital status in women’s ratings, but not for men. This research updates current knowledge about discrimination in employment settings and provides updated information on a topic for which the existing research has been largely outdated and underresearched.
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Andrew Whitehead
Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, September 2014, Pages 479–496
Abstract:
Prior research demonstrates that religion and gender traditionalism are associated with less favorable attitudes toward same-sex unions because of its deviation from customary religious doctrine and traditional patterns of gender behavior. This study examines the link between religion, gender traditionalism, and attitudes toward same-sex unions by utilizing a novel measure of gender traditionalism that is distinctly religious as well. Recent work on images of God reveals that individuals’ views of the divine provide a glimpse of their underlying view of reality. The results suggest that individuals who view God as a “he” are much less favorable toward same-sex unions than those who do not view God as masculine, even while controlling for gender traditionalist beliefs and other images of God. Individuals who view God as masculine are signaling a belief in an underlying gendered reality that influences their perceptions of the proper ordering of that reality, which extends to marriage patterns. These findings encourage future research to identify innovative measures of religion that incorporate aspects of other social institutions to account for their interconnected nature.
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Guy Madison et al.
Frontiers in Psychology, September 2014
Abstract:
The feminist movement purports to improve conditions for women, and yet only a minority of women in modern societies self-identify as feminists. This is known as the feminist paradox. It has been suggested that feminists exhibit both physiological and psychological characteristics associated with heightened masculinization, which may predispose women for heightened competitiveness, sex-atypical behaviors, and belief in the interchangeability of sex roles. If feminist activists, i.e., those that manufacture the public image of feminism, are indeed masculinized relative to women in general, this might explain why the views and preferences of these two groups are at variance with each other. We measured the 2D:4D digit ratios (collected from both hands) and a personality trait known as dominance (measured with the Directiveness scale) in a sample of women attending a feminist conference. The sample exhibited significantly more masculine 2D:4D and higher dominance ratings than comparison samples representative of women in general, and these variables were furthermore positively correlated for both hands. The feminist paradox might thus to some extent be explained by biological differences between women in general and the activist women who formulate the feminist agenda.
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The Impact of Legal Inequalty on Relational Power in Planned Lesbian Families
Jonniann Butterfield & Irene Padavic
Gender & Society, October 2014, Pages 752-774
Abstract:
Lesbian families have the potential to create families unmarked by the inequalities of power often found in cross-sex relationships. Yet, based on interviews with 27 women with children in such relationships, we find that living in a state that legally restricts the rights of nonbirth parents to child contact if the couple relationship dissolves severely undermines this possibility. Nonbirth parents engaged in three fear-induced strategies that were at odds with these couples’ desire for equitable partnership: acquiescing to the birth mother’s wishes; making themselves financially, emotionally, and legally indispensable; and using communities to police partners’ behavior and ensure accountability. As a result, the potential for such families to model egalitarian family forms that would help destabilize established gender patterns is diminished. We conclude by pointing to the importance of galvanizing to remove the remaining laws prohibiting second-parent adoption and by discussing strategies for social change.
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Cara MacInnis & Gordon Hodson
Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, forthcoming
Abstract:
With our social lives increasingly experienced online, it is critical to understand online relationship development. The current study examined the outcomes of disclosing stigmatized group membership (i.e., being gay or lesbian) earlier (vs. later) in a developing online relationship. Heterosexuals (n = 214) engaged in an experimentally controlled closeness-inducing online interaction with an ostensible partner, learning that he/she was gay/lesbian either before (i.e., earlier) or after (i.e., later) the interaction. Earlier (vs. later) discovery led to a subjectively more positive contact experience, which predicted heightened bond with the partner, itself predicting more positive attitudes toward the partner. Outcomes were uninfluenced by pretest biases and authoritarianism, suggesting the general benefits of disclosing gay/lesbian identity earlier (vs. later) in online relationships.
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Divorce in Norwegian Same-Sex Marriages and Registered Partnerships: The Role of Children
Kenneth Aarskaug Wiik, Ane Seierstad & Turid Noack
Journal of Marriage and Family, October 2014, Pages 919–929
Abstract:
Using Norwegian register data on the total population of same-sex couples who formalized their unions from 1993 through 2010 (N = 3,422, 52% male), this study addressed the level and correlates of divorce among these couples as compared with all opposite-sex marriages in the same period (N = 407,495). In particular, the authors investigated the role of same-sex parenting, which has received little study so far. Multivariate results confirmed that same-sex couples had a higher divorce risk compared with opposite-sex couples and that female couples were more divorce prone than male couples. Furthermore, having children was negatively related to divorce among female couples, whereas male couples with common children were more divorce prone than their childless counterparts. No evidence was found that the gender gap in divorce or the difference between same-sex and opposite-sex couples narrowed over the study period.
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Relationships between digit ratio (2D:4D) and female competitive rowing performance
Melissa Hull et al.
American Journal of Human Biology, forthcoming
Objective: To examine the relationship between 2D:4D and measured on-water rowing performance in young females competing at the Australian Rowing Championships.
Methods: Using an observational, cross-sectional design, female rowers (n = 69, aged 12–30 years) who competed in single sculls events at the Australian Rowing Championships in 2007 and 2008 had numerous physical and digital anthropometric measurements taken, including 2D:4D measurements. Relationships between 2D:4Ds and race times were examined using Pearson's correlations, partial correlations and multiple regression. Partial Least Squares regression analysis determined the strength of the 2D:4D as a predictor of race time relative to 78 body dimensions plus age.
Results: Overall, weak to strong positive correlations between 2D:4D and race time were found; that is, females with smaller 2D:4Ds had faster race times than females with larger 2D:4Ds. Relationships were weak to moderate for all females (r = 0.29–0.32), moderate-to-strong for senior rowers (aged ≥20 years; r = 0.42–0.55), and weak for junior rowers (aged <20 years; r = 0.13–0.18), with all relationships persisting following adjustment for age. Partial Least Squares regression analysis showed that 2D:4Ds had high predictive importance relative to other body dimensions.
Conclusions: Females with smaller 2D:4Ds rowed substantially faster than females with larger 2D:4Ds, with the 2D:4D possibly linked to underlying characteristics that have been optimized over time resulting in better rowing performance.
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Sexual orientation disparities in mental health: The moderating role of educational attainment
David Barnes et al.
Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, September 2014, Pages 1447-1454
Purpose: Mental health disparities between sexual minorities and heterosexuals remain inadequately understood, especially across levels of educational attainment. The purpose of the present study was to test whether education modifies the association between sexual orientation and mental disorder.
Methods: We compared the odds of past 12-month and lifetime psychiatric disorder prevalence (any Axis-I, any mood, any anxiety, any substance use, and comorbidity) between lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) and heterosexual individuals by educational attainment (those with and without a bachelor’s degree), adjusting for covariates, and tested for interaction between sexual orientation and educational attainment. Data are drawn from the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions, a nationally representative survey of non-institutionalized US adults (N = 34,653; 577 LGB).
Results: Sexual orientation disparities in mental health are smaller among those with a college education. Specifically, the disparity in those with versus those without a bachelor’s degree was attenuated by 100 % for any current mood disorder, 82 % for any current Axis-I disorder, 76 % for any current anxiety disorder, and 67 % for both any current substance use disorder and any current comorbidity. Further, the interaction between sexual orientation and education was statistically significant for any current Axis-I disorder, any current mood disorder, and any current anxiety disorder. Our findings for lifetime outcomes were similar.
Conclusions: The attenuated mental health disparity at higher education levels underscores the particular risk for disorder among LGBs with less education. Future studies should consider selection versus causal factors to explain the attenuated disparity we found at higher education levels.
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Erica Weisgram, Megan Fulcher & Lisa Dinella
Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, September–October 2014, Pages 401–409
Abstract:
Children engage in gender-typed toy play to a greater extent than in non-gender-typed toy play leading to different developmental trajectories for boys and girls. The present studies examine the characteristics of toys and how they differentially affect boys' and girls' interests, stereotypes, and judgments of the toys. In Study 1, children (N = 73, Mage = 4.01) were presented with masculine and feminine toys that were decorated with masculine and feminine colors. Results indicated that boys were more interested in masculine toys than in feminine toys. Girls were significantly less interested in masculine toys with masculine colors than in all other combinations. Children's perceptions of others' interests also followed a similar pattern. In Study 2, children (N = 42, Mage = 3.84) were presented with novel items labeled as “for boys” and “for girls” and decorated in masculine and feminine colors. Among girls, both explicit labels and color of novel toys impacted interests. Children's predictions of others' interests also reflected this pattern.
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Rory Fitzgerald, Lizzy Winstone & Yvette Prestage
International Journal of Public Opinion Research, Autumn 2014, Pages 323-341
Abstract:
Attitudes toward gay men and lesbians are generally more tolerant in Western than in Eastern Europe. This study uses data from the first five rounds of the European Social Survey to examine acculturation among migrants moving from Eastern Europe to Western Europe, in terms of attitudes toward gay men and lesbians. After controlling for background factors associated with attitudes toward homosexuality, we find evidence of acculturation, whereby attitudes become more tolerant — and more typical of those prevalent in Western Europe — with longer residency in this region. This study builds on existing research into cross-national differences in attitudes toward homosexuality and extends the existing North American literature on acculturation to a European context.