This study explored factors that may contribute to inter-ethnic friendships, both in terms of quantity and satisfaction with those friendships. Participants were 200 working adults who were studying part-time in a long-distance program in a university in Malaysia. In general, demographic factors (gender, ethnicity, education, and income) had no significant relationships with number of inter-ethnic friends and satisfaction people had with inter-ethnic friendships. Ethnic identity and stress at work also did not have significant relationships with number of inter-ethnic friends. However, they were significantly related to satisfaction with inter-ethnic friendships. People with higher ethnic identification were more satisfied with inter-ethnic friendships whereas people with more stress at work reported lower satisfaction with inter-ethnic friendships.

This study examines the moderational role played by the feeling of mattering to the partner in the relationship between gender ideology and perceived fairness using a sample of 141 Canadian mothers with at least one child between the ages of two to five years old. Results support the moderator model and suggest that the emotional rewards mothers receive from their romantic partner influence the way they use gender ideology to evaluate the fairness of the division of family labor in their household. The results show that egalitarian gender ideology is associated with a greater sense of unfairness only when women feel that their partner demonstrates a low level of appreciation toward them. The findings are discussed in terms of the distributive justice theory.

Researchers have proposed that people possess different love schemas and that these schemas may shape romantic preferences and reactions to impending commitments. In Study 1, we tested two hypotheses: Hypothesis 1: Men and women will prefer potential dates who possess an “ideal ” love schema (i.e., the secure). Hypothesis 2: If the ideal is unavailable, men and women will prefer potential dates whose love schemas are similar to their own. In order to test these hypotheses, men and women from the University of Hawaii, who varied in love schemas, were asked to indicate their preferences for potential romantic partners who varied in physical attractiveness, body type, and love schemas. It was found that people did indeed prefer the ideal (the secure) and (secondarily) those who were similar to them in attachment style—be it clingy, skittish, casual, or disinterested. Study 2 was designed to test Hypothesis 3: Participants ’ love schemas will shape their cognitions, feelings, and behaviors when they find themselves on the brink of making a serious romantic commitment. In order to test this hypothesis, men and women from the University of Hawaii were surveyed. Again, as predicted, it was found that the more strongly men and women endorsed the secure schema, the more calm and confident (and the less fearful and trapped) they felt when confronting pending commitments. The more strongly they endorsed the clingy, skittish, fickle, casual, and uninterested schemas, the less confident and calm and the more fearful and trapped they felt when confronting an impending commitment.

newlywed and long-term marriages. Submitted to Interpersona.

Most theorists assume that the passage of time will have a very different impact on passionate versus companionate love. Passionate love is said to decline fairly quickly, while companionate love is thought to remain fairly stable (or actually increase) over time. This hypothesis was tested in two studies. In Study 1, we interviewed 53 newlywed couples soon after their marriages and again one year later, when presumably (for some) the “honeymoon was over. ” In Study 2, we interviewed a random sample of 240 older women, ranging in age from 50-82, who had been married varying lengths of time. (The median length of marriage was 33 years.) We asked about their passionate and companionate love for their partners and their partner’s love for them. In Study 1, it was found that although newlywed men and women loved with equal passion, women tended to love their partners more companionately than they were loved in return. (This is in accord with previous research with dating couples.) The results for people married many years were more complex. Finally, we turned to the question with which we are most concerned: What impact does time have on love? In both Study 1 and Study 2, time did have a corrosive effect on love— but to our surprise it appeared to have an equally detrimental effect on both passionate and companionate love.

This study explored the ways in which adherence to traditional marital expectations in ones marriage was related to styles of interpersonal listening and marital satisfaction among Indo-Pakistanis living in a Western country. Participants (n = 114) were recruited from a large metropolitan city in Canada, were married, and their ages ranged from 19 to 67 years. They completed measures of marital satisfaction, listening styles, and traditional orientation to marriage. Results indicated that greater adherence to traditional marital beliefs were correlated with lower levels of interpersonal listening and marital satisfaction. However, closer examination of the traditional orientation subscales revealed that expectation of traditional husband and wife roles did not result in lower empathic listening in one’s marriage or lower marital satisfaction, but the lower degree to which one believed in upholding equality in undertaking such traditional roles did. Furthermore, empathic listening mediated the relationship between belief in equality in one’s relationship and marital satisfaction. The implications of these results for enhancing relationship satisfaction for Indo-Pakistanis are discussed. Key Words: Traditionalism, listening styles; South Asian; marital communication; cross-cultural relationships Marriage is by far the most important personal relationship for South Asians. The stability and continuity of a marriage is important not just to the members of the marital dyad, but to their family and community as a whole. Traditionally, South Asians expected their marriages to be arranged by their elder extended kin who continued to play a significant role in the couple’s lives. Husbands and wives expected each other to follow gender-based division of labour where the husband is responsible for financially supporting the family and the wife is responsible for 1

Psychological birth order was examined as predictor of future time orientation in romantic relationships among Turkish people using a Turkish version (Kalkan, 2005) of the

Given the importance of maintaining mutuality in interdependent relationships, the goal of the present research was to determine if interpersonal trust serves as a gauge of partners’ commitment within young adults ’ close friendships. It was hypothesized that individuals trust their friends to the degree that their friends are committed to their relationship, and that individuals ’ perceptions of their friends ’ commitment mediates this association. A correlational design was employed and measures were obtained from both members of 60 same-sex friendship dyads. A multilevel modeling approach was used to perform a mediational analysis of model variables; the hypotheses were confirmed. Furthermore, it was revealed that friends demonstrate a moderate degree of mutual commitment in their relationships. Potential avenues for future research regarding the development and consequences of trust in close friendships are discussed.

There is a general trend of postponing entry into parenthood in Europe, Scandinavia being no exception. Previous research has suggested a range of reasons for this pattern to emerge, but comparatively little attention has been given the possible impact of the social network on the decision to try for a child. This paper explicates ways in which young Swedish adults in focus group discussions reason about the impact of friends and family in their reproductive decisionmaking. The analysis is based on a discourse analytical approach and inspired by social influence theory. The result of the focus group data indicates that the desire to maintain belonging and rootedness to friends as well as to kin is influential in procreative decision-making. Friends and family are recurrently referred to in the participants ’ reasoning about when parenthood is preferably entered. Key words: postponed parenthood; timing parenthood; social influence; social network; focus group data, Sweden The work of which the present study is part began in 2002, at a time when Swedish politicians and researchers for some years had shown increasing concerns about what were

Abstract not found