Monday, December 22, 2014

The M.Guy Tweet, Week of December 14, 2014

1. The Imitation of Marriage, The New York Times
To what extent can the greater stability of upper-class family life, and the habits that have made it possible, be successfully imitated further down the socioeconomic ladder?

2. Multiracial Marriage on the Rise, Brookings Institution
In 1960, before immigration levels to the United States started to rise, multiracial marriages constituted only 0.4 percent of all U.S. marriages. That figure increased to 8.4 percent in 2010 and for recent newlyweds, 15 percent.

3. Sex and Divorce: What’s the Connection?, Family Studies
Most important, multiple sex partners seem to increase the chances of divorce for working class and college-educated Americans alike. (Note here that the association between sex partners and divorce is robust even after controlling for race, ethnicity, age at first marriage, and family structure of origin).

4. Census Bureau Proposes Dropping Some Marriage and Divorce Questions, Pew Research Center
The numbers help guide the distribution of more than $416 billion in federal funds, and are widely used by government officials, businesses, researchers and advocacy groups.

5. The Author Speaks, Psychology Today
That means that negative emotions, like defensiveness and contempt, have more power to hurt a relationship than positive emotions have to help a relationship.

6. Are Gadget-Free Bedrooms the Secret to a Happy Relationship?, The New York Times
One way to find a balance, according to researchers I spoke with, is to organize device-free outings with your significant other. . . At home. . . researchers suggested setting up gadget-free zones, where laptops, iPads and other devices are banned.

7. Parenting Without Marriage [AUDIO], KERA
[Conversation with Isabel V. Sawhill, senior fellow in Economic Studies at the Brookings Institute, on her new book, Generation Unbound: Drifting into Sex and Parenthood without Marriage.]

For more, see here.