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Predictors of two types of cohabitation dissolution, dissolution with a continued romantic relationship and without (i.e., breakup), were examined using data from mothers cohabiting at the time of a nonmarital birth in the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (N = 1,624). Life tables indicated 64% of unions dissolved within 5 years; of these, 76% broke up. Black mothers had the highest rates of dissolution. Maximum likelihood discrete‐time event history results revealed that younger mothers were more likely to experience cohabitation dissolution into a breakup. Fewer relationship‐specific investments and more family chaos were also associated with greater risk of cohabitation dissolution into a breakup. Mothers' multipartnered fertility and fewer relationship‐specific investments were associated with greater risk of cohabitation dissolution with a continued romantic relationship. Postdissolution, mothers who maintained a romantic relationship were more likely to reenter a union with their former partner whereas mothers whose union broke up most often remained so.

Marriage has been identified as a mechanism that may explain decreased delinquency among young adults, but whereas marriage is increasingly delayed, crime continues to decrease across the transition to adulthood. Most adolescents and young adults expect to marry one day, and these expectations may suppress delinquency. Conversely, increased delinquency may also predict decreased marital expectations. Longitudinal data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 cohort (N = 7,057), a sample of youth who were aged 12 to 17 years in 1997, were used to examine the reciprocal association between an expressed expectation to marry soon and participation in delinquent behavior. Results from an autoregressive cross‐lagged structural equation model suggested that greater expectations to marry were significantly associated with less delinquent activity 1 year later. Greater delinquent activity was not significantly associated with subsequent marital expectations. Youth with the greatest expectations to marry may temper their behavior even before vows are taken.

Family life has been radically transformed over the past three decades. Half of all households are unmarried, while only a quarter of all married households have kids. A third of the nation's births are to unwed mothers, and a third of America's married men earn less than their wives. With half of all women cohabitating before they turn thirty and gay and lesbian couples settling down with increasing visibility, there couldn't be a better time for a book that tracks new conceptions of marriage and family as they are being formed. --from publisher description

The coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic has disrupted lives and resulted in high levels of stress. Although the evidence at the societal level is clear, there have been no population-based studies of pandemic-based stress focusing on individuals who identify as sexual minorities. Drawing on representative data collected during the pandemic, National Couples' Health and Time Study, the authors find that partnered (cohabiting or married) individuals who identified as sexual minorities experienced higher levels of stress than individuals who identified as heterosexual. However, variation exists observed among sexual minority adults. Although economic resources, discrimination, social and community support, and health conditions are tied to reported stress levels, they do not explain differentials according to sexual identity. These results provide evidence that sexual minority adults faced greater stress during the pandemic and the importance of recognizing that sexual minorities are not a monolithic group with varying stress responses to the pandemic.

Using typologies outlined by Gottman and Fitzpatrick as well as institutional and companionate models of marriage, the authors conducted a latent class analysis of marital conflict trajectories using 20 years of data from the Marital Instability Over the Life Course study. Respondents were in one of three groups: high, medium (around the mean), or low conflict. Several factors predicted conflict trajectory group membership; respondents who believed in lifelong marriage and shared decisions equally with their spouse were more likely to report low and less likely to report high conflict. The conflict trajectories were intersected with marital happiness trajectories to examine predictors of high and low quality marriages. A stronger belief in lifelong marriage, shared decision making, and husbands sharing a greater proportion of housework were associated with an increased likelihood of membership in a high happiness, low conflict marriage, and a decreased likelihood of a low marital happiness group.

AbstractObjectiveThis article outlines for family scholars and researchers designing surveys or searching for data on sexual and gender‐diverse (SGD) families the latest methodological advancements in United States population‐based surveys for studying SGD partnerships by reviewing five recently collected, publicly available, population‐representative data sets.BackgroundLGBTQIA+ adults and SGD partnerships are an expanding demographic group in the United States. Yet, measurement limitations have restricted studies of these partnerships that use population‐based studies. To address this issue, researchers designing population‐representative data collections have adopted new strategies to measure SGD partnerships accurately. However, most population representative surveys continue to lack data on growing segments of the LGBTQIA+ population by relying solely on the sex of partners or limited sexual and gender identity measures.ConclusionWe recommend expanding population‐based surveys to incorporate inclusive measures of sexual and gender identity, directly asking about the gender composition of a couple and measurement of cohabiting and other nonmarital relationships. These approaches are especially important for understanding relationships among younger populations who do not follow heteronormative relationship trajectories and hold diverse gender and sexual identities.ImplicationsAlthough the research opportunities on SGD individuals and partnerships are expanding; researchers must remain mindful of the limitations of current data sets and advocate for updates to the United States population data infrastructure.

Abstract: Using data from six waves of the Study of Marital Instability over the Life Course (N = 1,998), we conducted a latent class analysis to test for distinct marital happiness trajectories. We found three distinct marital happiness trajectories: low, middle, and high happiness. Initial levels of life happiness were strongly associated with membership in the marital happiness trajectories and with various demographic and attitude‐related control variables. Using fixed effects regression with time‐varying covariates, we also found that marital happiness trajectory membership was associated with subsequent changes in both life happiness and depressive symptoms. All respondents experienced a decrease in life happiness between Wave 1 and the end of their observed time in their marriage, but respondents in the high marital happiness trajectory experienced the smallest decline. Respondents in both the high and middle marital happiness trajectories also experienced a decline in depressive symptoms across time. Intervention and policy implications are discussed.

Using longitudinal time diary and survey data from a community sample of dual‐earner couples across the transition to parenthood, the authors examined change in divisions of paid and unpaid work and assessed the accuracy of survey data for time use measurement. Mothers, according to the time diaries, shouldered the majority of child care and did not decrease their paid work hours. Furthermore, the gender gap was not present prebirth but emerged postbirth with women doing more than 2 hours of additional work per day compared to an additional 40 minutes for men. Moreover, the birth of a child magnified parents' overestimations of work in the survey data, and had the authors relied only on survey data, gender work inequalities would not have been apparent. The findings have important implications for (a) the state of the gender revolution among couples well positioned to obtain balanced workloads and (b) the utility of survey data to measure parents' division of labor.

Time parenting was compared for new mothers and fathers in a sample of 182 dual‐earner families. Parenting domains included positive engagement, responsibility, routine child care, and accessibility. Time diaries captured parents' time use over a 24‐hour workday and nonworkday when infants were age 3 and 9 months. Parents were highly involved with their infants. Mothers were more involved than fathers in positive engagement and routine child care on days and at each assessment, and allocated more available time on workdays to these domains than fathers, with one exception. Fathers and mothers allocated similar shares of available workday time to positive engagement at 9 months. Greater equity in responsibility and accessibility was found; mothers spent more, and a greater share of, parenting time in responsibility than fathers on the 9‐month workday only, and were more accessible on the 3‐month workday only. Implications for parents in today's diverse families are discussed.

Trajectories of parental involvement time (engagement and child care) across 3, 6, and 9 months postpartum and associations with parents' own and their partners' psychological adjustment (dysphoria, anxiety, and empathic personal distress) were examined using a sample of dual‐earner couples experiencing first‐time parenthood (N = 182 couples). Using time diary measures that captured intensive parenting moments, hierarchical linear modeling analyses revealed that patterns of associations between psychological adjustment and parental involvement time depended on the parenting domain, aspect of psychological adjustment, and parent gender. Psychological adjustment difficulties tended to bias the 2‐parent system toward a gendered pattern of "mother step in" and "father step out," as father involvement tended to decrease and mother involvement either remained unchanged or increased in response to their own and their partners' psychological adjustment difficulties. In contrast, few significant effects were found in models using parental involvement to predict psychological adjustment.

New parents' Facebook use was examined from a social capital perspective. Surveys regarding Facebook use and parenting satisfaction, parenting self‐efficacy, and parenting stress were completed by 154 mothers and 150 fathers as part of a larger study of dual‐earner, Midwestern U.S. couples making the transition to parenthood. Results indicated that mothers used Facebook more than fathers, and that mothers perceived an increase in use over the transition. When more of mothers' Facebook friends were family members or relatives, and when fathers reported connecting with more of their Facebook friends outside of Facebook, they reported better parental adjustment. For mothers, however, more frequent visits to Facebook accounts and more frequent content management were each associated with higher levels of parenting stress.