Given the recent increase in the prevalence of cohabiting unions in Botswana, this paper speculates on the role this type of union plays in contemporary Botswana family system. The analysis is based on the combination of qualitative and quantitative data from the 2001 Cohabitation Survey and the 1996 Botswana Family Health Survey respectively. The overall results reveal that cohabitation differ...

In 1972 Jessie Bernard argued that women fared much worse in marriage than men. She suggested that in every marriage there are two marriages “his” and “hers” and his is much better than hers on almost every indicator—demographically, socially, and psychologically. Almost three decades later the issues raised by Bernard are still being debated. Waite and Gallagher (2000) have argued that all mar...

OBJECTIVES This study focuses on East Asian countries and investigates the difference in the marriage premium on the health-marriage protection effect (MPE) between younger and older generations and the intra-couple education concordance effect (ECE) on the health of married individuals. This study used inter-country comparative data from China, Japan, and Korea. METHODS This study focused on...

Most social scientists acknowledge that, on balance, single parents, stepparents, or cohabiting couples are no substitute for childrearing by two married parents. Yet, new data from the federal government show that a record number of babies—nearly 1.5 million—were born to unmarried women in the United States in 2004. Empirical evidence of this sort has leveraged political support for the Bush a...

We document a negative association between nonmarital childbearing and the subsequent likelihood of first marriage in the United States, controlling for a variety of potentially confounding influences. Nonmarital childbearing does not appear to be driven by low expectations of future marriage. Rather, it tends to be an unexpected and unwanted event, whose effects on a woman's subsequent likelih...

The increase in births within cohabitation in the United States and across Europe suggests that cohabitation and marriage have become more similar with respect to childbearing. However, little is known about additional childbearing after first birth. Using harmonized union and fertility histories from surveys in 15 countries, this study examines second conception risks leading to a live birth f...

OBJECTIVE Intimate partner violence against women is a growing global public health problem that is related to various psychosocial, cultural, mental, and economic factors. In this study, psychosocial factors affecting various types of intimate partner violence against women were investigated based upon affected individuals' statements. METHODS Demographic data, exposure to various types of p...

This paper investigates the degree to which single Ph.D.-trained workers, both domestic and foreign-born, face trade-offs between marriage and labor market opportunities. Facing dual thin labor and marriage markets, highly trained foreign-born singles may be forced to choose between metropolitan areas that offer better employment opportunities or better marriage markets. Using U.S. Census data,...