Search Results (24)

Historically, singlehood is a growing demographic trend shaped by economic, social, and personal factors. This study examines the key influences associated with this phenomenon across diverse global contexts based on empirical evidence provided by WVS (World Values Survey), which covers over 100 countries and spans four decades. A multi-technique analytical approach is applied to identify the most robust predictors of singlehood. This approach involves feature selection, cross-validation, robustness checks, and statistical modeling (parsimonious models with near-excellent or excellent classification accuracy as AUCROC > 0.9). The results indicate that age and parental status are negatively associated with singlehood, while precarious employment status is positively linked. Co-residence with parents also appears closely related to singlehood. Other factors, including education level, social class, and settlement size, also correlate with singlehood patterns, as resulting from supplemental analyses. Moreover, gender and regional analyses reveal some variations in these associations, highlighting the interplay between personal, cultural, and economic contexts. These findings also align with social and economic theories of marriage, emphasizing the impact of life course factors, financial stability, and cultural norms. They contribute to a deeper understanding of demographic shifts. They also provide meaningful and well-founded insights as well as strategic guidance for policy in areas such as youth employment, social welfare, urban planning, and demographic adaptation. Full article

Marital relationship quality significantly influences health outcomes, but validated measurement tools for South Asian populations remain limited. To validate scales measuring trust, commitment, and satisfaction as key components of marital relationship quality among newly married women in Nepal, we conducted a two-wave psychometric validation study in rural Nawalparasi district. The study included 200 newly married women aged 18–25 years, with 192 participants (96% retention) completing 6-month follow-up. We assessed factor structure, internal consistency, test-retest reliability, and criterion validity of trust (eight items), commitment (five items), and satisfaction (seven items) scales using exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. Exploratory factor analysis identified single-factor solutions for trust and commitment scales and a two-factor model for satisfaction. Confirmatory factor analysis confirmed these structures, with satisfaction comprising marital conflict/dissatisfaction (four items) and general satisfaction (two items) subscales. All scales demonstrated good internal consistency (Cronbach’s α: 0.79–0.96) and significant criterion validity correlations with relationship happiness (r = 0.63–0.72, p < 0.001). Test-retest reliability showed moderate to low stability (r = 0.21–0.51), likely reflecting genuine relationship changes in early marriage. The validated scales provide reliable tools for assessing relationship quality in South Asian contexts, enabling research on marriage-health associations and evidence-based interventions. Full article

When the economy grows, people become wealthier and more autonomous from their intimate partners. This autonomy potentially has a negative impact on relationship stability: As per capita income increases, so does the divorce rate. Nevertheless, there is evidence that, after a certain income level, the divorce rate starts to decline, suggesting that the relationship between the two factors is not linear. The purpose of the current research is to examine the relationship between per capita income and divorce rate by analyzing historical data from the UK (obtained from the UK Office of National Statistics) and USA (obtained from the CDC and the Federal Reserve), as well as contemporary data encompassing a sample of 107 societies (obtained from the World Population Review and the World Bank). Our analysis finds a concave relationship between the two variables: an increase in per capita income corresponds to a rise in the divorce rate. However, beyond a certain threshold, the increase in per capita income is associated with a decrease in the divorce rate. Full article

Consanguinity is the marriage of two related persons. This type of marriage is one of the main pillars when it comes to recessive hereditary diseases, birth defects, infertility, miscarriages, abortion, and infant deaths. Intermarriage continues to be a common practice in various communities in North Africa, the Middle East, and West and South Asia, as well as among migrants from Europe and North America, even though in more and more countries it has become illegal. Even if security and stability are some of the motivations for consanguineous marriage, studies show that women often suffer physical and verbal abuse from their husbands. However, because of the blood bond, tolerance for these habits is much higher. In addition, it seems that the divorce rate is much lower because separation would affect the entire state of the family. The choice of partner is significantly influenced by variables such as limited access to education and financial resources. Illiterate people coming from poor rural areas are much more likely to choose consanguineous marriage to maintain wealth in the family. The lack of medical knowledge about the negative effects of consanguinity leads to an increased rate of abortions, infant deaths, and births of children with congenital birth defects. Today, because of the process of urbanization and increased levels of knowledge, the younger generation is becoming increasingly less receptive to this particular form of marriage. In addition, as education has become more accessible to women, they have become more independent and eager to fulfill their own goals and not the wishes of the family. In conclusion, contrary to the many apparent advantages of consanguineous marriage, partners should put genetic risks first, as medical problems bring with them increased costs in the medical system and also within the family, leading to even lower economic status and consequently perpetuation of this type of marriage. Full article

Pope Francis calls today’s culture a culture of temporariness. With regard to marriage, it is resulting in a decline in marriages and an increase in divorces. One notices an increasing tension between the sacrament of marriage in the Catholic tradition, which is understood as a lifelong relationship. The purpose of this article is to analyze the meaning and stabilizing role of marriage in the face of these changes. This article consists of four parts. It presents the theological and legal–canonical vision of the sacrament of marriage in the Catholic Church (1), the manifestations of the culture of temporariness in society and marriage (2), the stability offered by the sacrament of marriage (3), and the strengthening of the stabilizing role of the sacrament of marriage (4). The sources for this research are the teachings of the modern Catholic Church and scientific studies on the sacrament of marriage and the culture of temporality. The monographic method, the method of source analysis, and content analysis were used. The analysis carried out in this article shows that the sacrament of marriage is a kind of sign of opposition to the culture of temporariness. It reminds us of values such as fidelity, responsibility, and generosity. Full article

Modern members of society tend to feel stressed in their workplace and at home, but exercising has been shown to effectively reduce stress and increase quality of life and satisfaction. This study aimed to investigate and compare stress relief, life satisfaction, and quality of life based on marriage status and gender among members of society who participate in exercise. We used a questionnaire survey with 311 participants, and the data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, validity and reliability, a multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA), and a post hoc analysis. The study results showed that the single groups demonstrated higher mean scores in stress relief than the married groups. Conversely, the married groups showed higher mean scores in life satisfaction and quality of life compared with the single groups, and there were no gender differences in any of the results. In conclusion, it seems that these results were affected by the single groups’ high autonomy and the married groups’ sense of stability in the family. Full article

The divorce rate in China has continued to rise since the 21st century. In order to reduce impulsive divorces, the divorce cooling-off period (DCOP) system was established in the Civil Code of China. The aim of this research is to examine the impact of the DCOP on registered divorces. Data from the Ministry of Civil Affairs, National Bureau of Statistics, civil affairs departments, and statistical bureaus of 31 provinces, the 2018 to 2023 editions of the China Statistical Yearbook, and the China Civil Affairs Statistical Yearbook were utilized in this work. The event study analysis reveals that the number of registered divorces decreased significantly in China after the DCOP provision’s enforcement. The ordinary least squares model indicates an average annual decrease of about 2.6 million registered divorces when the DCOP provision takes effect, and the DCOP plays a decisive role in this decrease, which suggests that the DCOP system has achieved its original intention. This research not only highlights the important role of the DCOP in reducing registered divorces but also provides insights on how to improve the DCOP system and promote the stability of marriage. Full article

Growing rates of childhood obesity globally create concern for individuals’ health outcomes and demands on health systems. While many policy approaches focus on macro-level interventions, we examine how the type of stability of a family structure might provide opportunities for policy interventions at the micro level. We examine the association between family structure trajectories and childhood overweight and obesity across three Anglophone countries using an expanded set of eight family structure categories that capture biological relationships and instability, along with potential explanatory variables that might vary across family trajectories and provide opportunities for intervention, including access to resources, family stressors, family structure selectivity factors, and obesogenic correlates. We use three datasets that are representative of children born around the year 2000 and aged 11 years old in Australia (n = 3329), the United Kingdom (n = 11,542), and the United States (n = 8837) and nested multivariate multinomial logistic regression models. Our analyses find stronger relationships between child overweight and obesity and family structure trajectories than between child obesity and obesogenic factors. Children in all three countries are sensitive to living with cohabiting parents, although in Australia, this is limited to children whose parents have been cohabiting since before their birth. In the UK and US, parents starting their cohabitation after the child’s birth are more likely to have children who experience obesity. Despite a few differences across cross-cultural contexts, most of the relationship between family structures and child overweight or obesity is connected to differences in families’ access to resources and by the types of parents who enter into these family structures. These findings suggest policy interventions at the family level that focus on potential parents’ education and career prospects and on income support rather than interventions like marriage incentives. Full article

The Republic of Venice was one of the longest-lived states in modern history, and its stability and survival have been studied through many different angles. One of the main research angles is to try and find pivotal moments in its history that explain its eventual demise. In this paper, through the rigorous statistical analysis of a dataset of marriages by nobles in the Republic, we attempt to define a methodology for the detection of these events through mono and multivariate changepoint analysis, validating the proposed methodology through cross-validation of different procedures, as well as matching the results to historical events. Our analysis shows that these changepoints occur with statistical significance and that they match political and historical events. These results can be built upon for a better understanding of the historical causes of the success and failure of the Republic of Venice and, by extension, other states. Full article

The aim of this study is to explore the multidimensional relationships among factors influencing decision-making processes regarding women’s willingness to marry and childbirth in South Korea with recognizing the context of family development in East Asian cultures. To this end, we employed three different analytical approaches, including classification tree modeling, Cox proportional hazard modeling, and permutation feature importance evaluation. Leveraging longitudinal data specific to Korean women, we highlighted the significance of socio-economic factors in family development dynamics. Our findings revealed that financial stability played a crucial role. Unmarried women’s willingness to marry was influenced by their perspectives on economic stability, while households’ consumption capacity and financial capability determined childbirth decisions and timing. We observed a trend of postponed marriage among women in their marriageable age range, particularly those with stable economic situations, reflecting a prevalent trend of skepticism of marriage in Korean society. Additional findings related to values, cultural factors, and personal happiness also suggested the challenges that discourage younger generations from entering into marriage and starting families in South Korea. By offering insights into these dynamics, our study provides practical implications for addressing the obstacles faced, contributing to a better understanding of family development dynamics. Full article

Researchers have long puzzled over suicidal behavior. In this paper, we posit that when people are unable to attract mates given unfavorable sex ratios, suicide rates increase. Sex ratio, the proportion of males in a population, is linked to a variety of behaviors, including marriage stability, violence, depression, and infidelity. We test whether suicide rates are associated with county-level sex ratios utilizing data from 1999 to 2018, controlling for a variety of factors known to be associated with suicide risk. We find that sex ratio is associated with suicide rates, where a greater proportion of males in a county (age 35–74) is associated with an increased rate of suicide for these males. Mediation analyses show that these effects are mediated by male marriage rates. Counter to predictions, male-biased sex ratios also tend to be associated with increased female suicide rates for women aged 35 to 74, and this effect is mediated by the unmarried sex ratio (i.e., when there are more unmarried men compared to unmarried women in a county, there is increased female suicide). Overall, these results suggest that male-biased sex ratios are associated with suicide rates for both men and women, but the mediators vary. Full article

For many young adults today dating is not taken as a path to marriage, but as a relationship to be considered on its own terms with a beginning, middle, and end. Yet, research has not kept pace as most studies that look at relationships over time focus on marriages. In the present study, we look at individual differences and normative patterns of dating relationship quality over time. We tested a path model of associations between relationship duration, attachment insecurity, and four relationship quality domains (sexual frequency, commitment, satisfaction, and companionship) among a large sample of dating young adults (N = 1345). Based on a conceptual model of romantic relationship development, results supported expectations that dating trajectories are curvilinear, with unique patterns of accent, peak, and decent for each relationship domain. Dating duration also moderated the relationship between dating quality and attachment insecurity with anxious attachment becoming a more salient predictor of lower satisfaction and lower commitment in long-term versus short-term relationships. A quadratic interaction with sexual frequency indicated that insecurity predicted less sexual activity in new relationships, more activity among relationships between two and four years, but then less again in longer-term relationships. Findings suggest patterns of stability and change in dating relationships during emerging adulthood that complement those observed from the marriage literature. Full article

Recently, annual agricultural data have been highly volatile as a result of climate change and national economic trends. Therefore, such data might not be enough to develop good agricultural policies for stabilizing agricultural output. A good agricultural output prediction model to assist agricultural policymaking has thus become essential. However, the highly volatile data would affect the prediction model’s performance. For this reason, this study proposes a marriage in honey bees optimization/support vector regression (MBO/SVR) model to minimize the effects of highly volatile data (outliers) and enhance prediction accuracy. We verified the performance of the MBO/SVR model by using the annual total agricultural output collected from the official Agricultural Statistics Yearbook of the Council of Agriculture, Taiwan. Taiwan’s annual total agricultural output integrates agricultural, livestock and poultry, fishery, and forest products. The results indicated that the MBO/SVR model had a lower mean absolute percentage error (MAPE), root mean square percentage error (RMSPE), and relative root mean squared error (r-RMSE) than those of the models it was compared to. Furthermore, the MBO/SVR model predicted long-term agricultural output more accurately and achieved higher directional symmetry (DS) than the other models. Accordingly, the MBO/SVR model is a robust, high-prediction-accuracy model for predicting long-term agricultural output to assist agricultural policymaking. Full article

The similarity of the Big Five personality traits of ex-spouses and new partners was examined post-divorce. The notion that divorcees replicate their partner choice (fixed-type hypothesis) was tested against the hypotheses that they learn to select a new partner with more marriage-stabilizing personality traits than their former spouse (learning hypothesis), or are constrained by marriage market forces to repartner with someone who has less stabilizing personality traits (marriage market hypothesis). Data was derived from a Flemish study that sampled divorcees from the national register. The sample consisted of 700 triads of divorcees, their ex-spouses, and their new partners. The analysis results rejected the fixed-type hypothesis and instead supported both the learning hypothesis and the marriage market hypothesis, with higher order repartnering supporting the latter. Women also seemed to validate both hypotheses, as their partner comparison showed decreases in both stabilizing traits (conscientiousness and agreeableness) and destabilizing traits (neuroticism and extraversion). Overall, the results seem to suggest that divorcees do not repartner with someone of the same personality as their ex-spouse, and they are in some cases constrained by marriage market forces to repartner with less stabilizing personalities, while in other cases they are able to improve their partner selection. Full article

An individual’s value system plays an important role in their intimate relationship or marriage. Most marital satisfaction research to date has been carried out in high-income liberal Western societies. We conducted an original quantitative empirical survey of virtues and values to examine their effect on relationship quality and stability in a sample of 511 respondents from Slovenia, a post-socialist society in transition. The results showed that respondents rated health, love, and safety at the top of their hierarchy of values. The key finding was that the presence of love was associated with an individual’s subjective perception of relationship quality but had no effect on the self-evaluation of relationship stability. In addition to love, both family safety and comfort were significant correlates of relationship quality while self-respect was negatively correlated with relationship quality. Only excitement was found to have a statistically significant effect on relationship stability. Full article