week 3

Question 1

Friendships in Adulthood

Answer 1

Affective or emotional basis

Shared or communal nature

Sociability and compatibility

Question 2

Socioemotional Selectivity

Answer 2

Social contact is motivated by a variety of goals.

Information seeking
Self-concept
Emotional regulation

Question 3

Friendship watt 2014

Answer 3

Watt and colleagues (2014)

• Those with a larger circle of friends
• More likely to be physically active

Divorced/Widowed

• More likely to smoke
• More likely to drink heavily

Single women

• More likely to be heavy drinkers
• Not explained by availability of emotional support!

Question 4

Triangle of Love

Answer 4

Passion = Infatuation

Romantic Love = Intimacy and Passion

Intimacy = liking

Companiate love = intimacy and committment

Commitment = empty love (comitment alone)

Consummate Love = Intimacy and Passion and Commitment

Question 5

How do we choose a partner?

Answer 5

Assortative mating:

Selecting a mate works best when there are shared values, goals, and interests.
-Homogamy the degree to which people are similar

Happiest couples -Similarity in warmth, dissimilarity in dominance

Question 6

How do we choose a mate?

Answer 6

Study of over 10k from 37 countries found 
MEN-> beauty
WOMEN->$
Longitudinally this is changing
MEN-> $

Question 7

Sexual Debut AUS

Answer 7

In a large 2013 Study:
Median age =17, 50% of between 16-18
Early debut for men has decreased (22-19%), but for women has increased (13-16%)
Men (39%) more likely than women (19%) to have first experience of intercourse with a casual partner

Question 8

Peer pressure vs. abstinence

Answer 8

25% - 30% of girls say they “went along” with it or that it was “voluntary but not wanted” – more so when her partner was much older.
Teens who believe that most of their friends are having sex will often feel intense pressure to conform.
Teens who postpone sexual intercourse
Waiting for marriage and fears of pregnancy/STDs
Positive parental involvement/communication and lack of drugs/alcohol use by the teens

Question 9

Emerging Adulthood

Answer 9

90% of emerging adults are sexually experienced, have sex regularly, and have had multiple partners
Overall men in Aus have mean of18 female and 3 male partners, females have 8 male partners and .3 female partners. Bisexual or homosexual men have mean of 96 women have mean of 6
Emotional involvement – 86% of women and 71% of men say that sex is difficult without it.
Serial monogamy – a common pattern

Question 10

Sex, health, and relationships

Answer 10

People who are satisfied with their sex lives:
Are more likely to rate their physical health as “excellent”
Are more likely to say that they are “happy”
People who have more orgasms per week
Are more likely to rate their physical health as “excellent”
Are more likely to say that they are “happy”
People who have a satisfying sex life
Report being more in love with their partner
Report being more satisfied with their partner
Report being more committed to their partner
People in committed relationships are more satisfied with their sex lives

Question 11

Sex in marriage

Answer 11

Married women are more likely than single women to have orgasms during intercourse.
Married couples use a greater variety of sexual techniques than in the past.
The majority of young people continue to masturbate after getting married.
72% of Aus men and 42% of Aus women
A majority of men and women report marital sex to be more satisfying; more so than singles.
88% of Aus men and 76% of Aus women
Those in regular relationships have sex about 1.4 times per week (want to have it 2-4 times per week)

Question 12

Reductions in sex and extramarital sex

Answer 12

Sexual activity decreases during middle adulthood:
Extramartial affairs are common:
36% of husbands and 25% of wives report at least one extramarital affair. Rates are just as high in cohabitating couples.
Men tend to be looking for sexual enjoyment whereas women are almost always looking for emotional connection as well as sex.
Men are most upset with their partner’s sexual infidelity; women with the emotional infidelity.
Opportunity for an affair and growing apart from one’s mate play important roles.

Question 13

Sex in older adulthood

Answer 13

Sex becomes less frequent.. but:
73% (57-64), 53% (65-74), 26% (75-85) sexually active within the last year
Health strongly associated with sexual activity
About half have at least one “bothersome” problem

Question 14

Relationships

Answer 14

Singlehood
Men tend to stay single longer, but fewer men than women remain
The decision to never marry is a gradual one.
Cohabitation
In committed, intimate, sexual relationships without marriage
Couples cohabitate for three main reasons:
Convenience, sharing expenses, sexual accessibility – part-time or limited cohabitation
Couples are engaging in a trial marriage with an intent on marrying – premarital cohabitation.
Long-term commitment that is a marriage in fact, but lacking official sanction – substitute marriage.

Question 15

Marriage

Answer 15

The median age at first marriage is increasing

Marriage rate is declining (9.2 in 1950 compared to 4.8 in 2015)

Question 16

Marriage

Answer 16

Marital success:
an umbrella term referring to any marital outcomes
Marital quality:
a subjective evaluation of the couple’s relationship
Marital adjustment:
the degree spouses accommodate each other
Marital satisfaction:
a global assessment of one’s marriage

Question 17

What makes marriages succeed?

Answer 17

Age of the two partners at time of marriage
Homogamy
Feelings of equality
Exchange theory - each partner contributing something to the relationship that the other would be hard pressed to provide

Question 18

What makes marriages happy?

Answer 18

Marital satisfaction is highest at the beginning of the marriage, falls until children leave home, and rises in later life.
Vulnerability-Stress-Adaptation Model: marital quality is a dynamic process resulting from the couple’s ability to handle stressful events
The Early Years
Early in a marriage, the couple must adjust to different perceptions and expectations
As couples settle in a routine, marital satisfaction tends to decline.
Marital satisfaction tends to decline with the birth of a child.

Question 19

Marriage across the lifespan

Answer 19

Marriage at Midlife
Most marriages improve when the children leave home.
For some middle-aged couples, however, satisfaction remains low.
Married Singles – emotionally divorced and living as house-mates
Older Couples
Reduced potential for marital conflict and greater potential for pleasure.
Caring for a Spouse/Partner
The division of labor must be readjusted.
Marital satisfaction is much lower than for healthy couples.
Providing full-time care for a partner is both stressful and rewarding.

Question 20

divorce rate

Answer 20

number per 1000

1970 1/1000

2013 2.1/1000

Question 21

Why marriages end

Answer 21

Marriages that end in divorce last an average of 12 years

Typically time between divorce and second marriage = 3.5 years

Question 22

Why do marriages end?

Answer 22

6 key factors:

1. Low income
2. Having a baby very early in marriage
3. Marrying before 18
4. Having divorced parents
5. No religious affiliation
6. Low education

Question 23

Early divorce (with 7 years)

Answer 23

criticism
contempt 
defensiveniess 
stonewalling
predict divorce within 5.6 years after wedding (avg)

Question 24

Late divorce

Answer 24

16.2 years after wedding

emotional withdrawal, absence of positive affect, shared humour affection empatyh (lack of

5:1 ration of positivity to negativity

unstable = 0.8 to 1

Question 25

Effects of Divorce on the Couple

Answer 25

Divorce may impair well-being even several years later.
Divorce Hangover: inability to “let go”
Divorce in middle- or late life
If the woman initiates the divorce, they report self-focused growth and optimism.
If they did not, they tend to ruminate and feel vulnerable.
Middle-aged divorced women often face financial problems

Question 26

Remarriage

Answer 26

Despite adjustment problems, the vast majority of divorced people remarry.
Usually men and women wait about 3.5 years.
Few differences between first marriages and remarriages.
Second marriages have 25% higher risk of dissolution than first marriages
Second marriage rates are lower for older divorced women.
Remarriage in later life appears to be very happy, especially if the partners were widowed.
In this case, the biggest problem is usually resistance by adult children.

Question 27

Widowhood

Answer 27

Experiencing the death of one’s spouse is a traumatic event, but one which is highly likely.
Reactions to widowhood depend on the quality of the marriage.
Widowed people are vulnerable to being abandoned by their couples-based friendship network.
Older people fare better than younger people
Younger people more likely to consider remarriage
Richer people more likely to remarry

Gender differences
Widowhood is more common among women because they tend to marry older men and women live longer.
Widowed men are typically older than widowed women.
Men are more likely to die soon after their spouse.
Either by suicide or natural causes

Question 28

The Family

Answer 28

Nuclear family: consists only of parent(s) and child(ren)
Extended family: grandparents and other relatives lives with parents and children
Deciding to become a parent is complicated.
An increasing number of couples are child-free
Couples have fewer children and have their first child later than in the past.
Being older at the birth of the first child is advantageous

Question 29

total fertility rate

Answer 29

The total fertility rate (TFR), sometimes also called the fertility rate, absolute/potential natality, period total fertility rate (PTFR), or total period fertility rate (TPFR) of a population is the average number of children that would be born to a woman over her lifetime if:

She were to experience the exact current age-specific fertility rates (ASFRs) through her lifetime, and
She were to survive from birth through the end of her reproductive life.[1]

It is obtained by summing the single-year age-specific rates at a given time.

1961 3.55

2012 (1.93)

Question 30

mum ages

Answer 30

2013 vs 2003
- Mums are older 30.1 years vs 29.5
- Mums aged 35+ and 22 % vs 19%
First-time mums older: 28.6 vs 27.8 
Mums aged under 24 are down: 17 % vs 19%

Question 31

Who are the families?

Answer 31

Of the 6.7 million families in Australia in 2012-13:
85% were couple families 
14% were one parent families 
2% were other families
58% had resident children

Composition differs across ethnic groups and SES

Question 32

Familism

Answer 32

Familism, a cultural value that emphasizes warm, close, supportive family relationships and that family be prioritized over self
Independence
Interdependence

Question 33

Caring for one’s parents

Answer 33

Filial obligation: to care for one’s parents when necessary
Two main sources of stress:
Trouble coping with parents’ declining health
When the caregiving role infringes on the adult child’s other responsibilities
The parents also lose independence and autonomy

Question 34

When it goes wrong

Answer 34

Elder abuse is difficult to define and has several categories:
Physical abuse
Sexual abuse
Emotional or Psychological abuse
Financial or material exploitation
Abandonment
Neglect
Self-neglect
1 in 4 vulnerable older adults are at risk for abuse, neglect or exploitation

Question 35

Grandparenting

Answer 35

Average age of grandparenthood = mid-fifties
Role Meaning
Role Behaviour
Role Satisfaction
Dimensions of grandparenting
Formal
Fun-Seeking
Distant

Question 36

graNderparenting

Answer 36

How do Grandparents Interact with Grandchildren?
Grandparents pass on skills, religious, social, and vocational values.
Grandchildren give to grandparents by keeping them in touch with youth
Being a Grandparent is meaningful.
Increasing number of children living with grandparents (6% where grandparents head of the house)
Maternal depression negatively impacts child
Buffered by emotional closeness with grandparent

Question 37

Grandparent Carers

Answer 37

Around 23,000 grandparents legally cared for grandchildren in 2006
8,050 families where grandparents were raising grandchildren under 15 years (3,271 lone-grandparent and 4,779 couple-grandparent households);
35,926 families that included grandparents and grandchildren but in which no parent-child relationship was identified (which could be families where grandparents have responsibilities for grandchildren); and
a further 27,594 families where a lone parent was living with a grandparent of their child.
These families tend to be financially disadvantaged