Marriage and power: Age at first marriage and spousal age gap in lesser developed countries

This paper examines age at first marriage for women and spousal age gap as an indicator for female agency from 1950 to 2005. Using a dataset of 77 LDCs this paper seeks to explore which variables determine differences at a country level in marriage patterns. We look at the influence of urbanisation, education, percentage population of Muslim faith, and family type. We find that education is a key in determining at what age women marry, having as would be expected a positive effect on age at first marriage and depressing spousal age gap. Urbanisation is significant, with a positive effect on age and negative on spousal age gap, although the effect is not very large. The percentage Muslim variable depresses female age at first marriage and increases spousal age gap but only when family type is not controlled for. The initially strong negative effect of percentage population Muslim over the period under consideration on age of first marriage has decreased, which raises some interesting questions about the role of Islam in female empowerment.     

New Labour’s communitarianism,supporting families and the ‘rationality mistake’: Part II

In Part I of this study, we argued that New Labour is keen to use legislation to promote what it sees as desirable family forms and to discourage other, less-favoured family practices. The codification of this approach in the 1998 Green Paper Supporting Families - and, in particular, the 'New Deal for Lone Parents' - was compared with recent empirical research on how people make decisions about their moral economies. We concluded that the government's approach is subject to a 'rationality mistake' - people do not make decisions in the way the government assumes and hence legislation can be inefficient or even oppressive. Here, we examine this contention further, this time focusing on chapter 4 of the Green Paper, indicatively entitled 'Strengthening marriage'. Using recent empirical research on mothers' views on marriage and cohabitation, we find further evidence of the 'rationality mistake', where the government has misunderstood the ways in which people make decisions about partnering and hence misplaces the role of family law. We conclude that supportive and flexible legislative frameworks are needed that recognize the varying ways in which people take moral economic decisions.     

中国社会转型下的心理福利与社会支持

中国以经济体制改革为先导的社会转型,对社会生活的各方面都产生深刻影响。医疗服务私有化与价格上涨、社会快速流动与分化,可能严重影响民众心理福利。但鲜有研究考察社会转型的心理福利后果及社会支持的调节作用。本文利用2005年中国综合社会调查数据(CGSS2005),检验了医疗支出负担、社会地位及其比较、社会支持同城乡居民心理福利的关系,并在中国性别结构失衡问题日渐暴露的背景下,关注了婚姻作为重要的社会支持机制在其中的角色。结果表明,相对剥夺感对心理福利存在普遍影响,市场化转型更可能损害社会弱势群体的心理福利。在中国转型社会,社会支持对心理福利存在保护功能,且可以缓冲医疗支出负担加大和相对被剥夺地位对农村居民心理福利的负面影响;婚姻的功能角色呈现多元化,既加大了医疗支出负担的负面影响,也强化了其他社会支持的保护作用。研究发现对理解和改善社会转型的心理福利后果,提供了重要的指引和借鉴。     

浅析李贽的妇女观及其深远影响

李贽尊重女性,反对男尊女卑和夫权压迫,反对贞操观念,反对“要求妇女守节”的吃人礼教,主张寡妇改嫁,敢于批判封建礼教,不但肯定女子有追求爱情的自由和幸福的权利,还肯定女子有和男子一样的读书受教育的权利,这是男女平等思想的最早萌芽。他在妇女问题上的独树一帜的观点,在当时是惊世骇俗的,对于后世也产生了深远的影响。     

对构建我国婚约制度可行性的思考

目前,我国婚姻法对婚约没有作出规定,但民间订立婚约的现象则是普遍存在的。一旦因为婚约问题而引发诉讼,相关司法解释也不足以解决婚约问题。为指导人们订立符合社会主义婚姻制度理念的婚约,规范人民法院审判婚约纠纷案件,有必要从法律上对于婚约制度进行一个全面的、制度上的研究,尤其是用如何立法的视角来看待这个问题,更具有建设性意义。本文正是以此为目的,从比较法的角度提出在我国建立婚约制度的可行性,希图为我国婚约制度的构建提出一些想法。     

试析毛泽东的民族观

毛泽东的民族观是毛泽东思想的重要组成部分,独立自主是其核心,自力更生是其基础,民族平等是其追求。他的民族观影响着中国共产党人,同时也激发了中国人民的自强和自立的意识,并将在建设中国特色社会主义的伟大实践中发挥重要作用。     

城市青年择偶方式:未婚到已婚的变化及相关因素分析

研究表明,未婚青年择偶方式与已婚青年择偶方式存在明显差别。原来的同学是未婚青年择偶中最主要的结识方式,但这种同学关系最终能走进婚姻的不到其比例的一半。同时,尽管自己结识是青年择偶方式的主流,但由他人介绍结识的方式在已婚青年择偶中已占到40%,具有十分重要的地位。对已婚青年调查结果的分析还表明,青年的结婚年龄、文化程度、职业以及城乡背景等因素,都与青年择偶方式有一定关系。     

浅谈夫妻约定财产制的修改

新婚姻法对夫妻约定财产制的规定完善了夫妻财产制度,使其更趋规范、合理、公正,具有重要意义。本文就夫妻约定财产制的修改、意义与进一步完善等问题作一初浅探讨,期待能对婚姻法的研究有所裨益。     

Symbolic Hate: Intention to Intimidate,Political Ideology,and Group Association

In Virginia v. Black (123 S.Ct. 1536, 2003), the Supreme Court ruled that the First Amendment did not bar statutes that prohibit cross burnings in which defendants acted with intention to intimidate others. Using a variety of symbols including cross burnings, swastikas, confederate flags, and skin fists, the current research tested how mock jurors used alternative actor intentions to judge culpability in symbolic hate speech cases. Only partially validating the Court’s assumptions, participants rated guilt certainty highest when they believed the speakers conveyed direct threats, sometimes regardless of whether defendants intended to intimidate others. Further, results showed the level of perceived intimidation only partially mediated the relationship between type of fact pattern and guilt certainty ratings. While alternative intentions did produce different levels of intention to intimidate, path analysis showed that the participants’ ratings of the defendant’s intention to convey a direct threat influenced guilt certainty ratings in all cases. Perceived intimidation levels predicted culpability in only some of the cases and not for cross burning on private property.

Intimate Partner Violence Among Adolescent and Young Adult Mothers

The associations between intimate partner violence (IPV) and mental health among adolescent and young adult mothers were compared. The sample was drawn from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study and participants were 672 mothers between the ages of 14 and 21. IPV was significantly positively associated with both depression and anxiety among young adult mothers. However, these associations were not found among adolescent mothers. In addition, IPV and marital status were significantly related among young adult mothers, but not adolescent mothers. Results suggest that IPV may have different consequences during different parts of the life course, or that mental health symptoms may be reported only later in life.