Autism kan innebära att individen har problem med socialt samspel och social kommunikation samt begränsande och repetetiva beteenden, intressen och aktiviteter enligt diagnosmanualen DSM 5. Individer med autism främställs ofta mer negativt i studier om autism och dejting samt kärleksrelationer och är få till antalet. Denna kvalitativa studie baserad på semikonstruerade intervjuer har i avsikt att undersöka hur människor med autism upplever dejting? Vilka hinder och möjligheter identifierar de själva när det kommer till dejtingsammanhang? Vad är deras syn på kärleksrelationer? Informanterna identifierar hinder och möjligheter relaterade till autism i större utsträckning när det kommer till kärleksrelationer de är eller har varit i. Tidiga insatser tros påverka förutsättningarna senare i livet i social interaktion i tex dejtingsammanhang. Informanter identifierade hinder i dejtingsammanhang i form utav prestationsångest, brist på bra balans i samtal, linda in saker i "socialt fluff". Bra möjligheter i dejtingsammanhang är online dejting via appar eller andra internetsidor som kan underlätta den sociala interaktionen, special events upplevs som en bra mötesplats att träffa potentiell kärlekspartner. Personer med autism behöver ha frizoner där det får interagera med andra individer utifrån sina förutsättningar och inte ständigt behöva anpassa sig till neurotypiska normer vid social interaktion.

Architecture is known to gather people and encourage shared spaces in our buildings and homes, while the Corona virus, aka COVID-19 has refrained us from our usual face to face communication and meetups. For some, work and social life has been reduced and limited to a screen, virtual meetings for studies, work, social events and so forth. Architecture has its impact on us more than ever before. It can and should provide us safety, infection control and prevention from getting sick. The materials we choose to design our home with is also crucial in a pandemic situation as we should be looking for disinfectant material properties. Copper have been shown to perform better than other common materials like steel, plastic, and wood. Air circulation and ventilation in inner spaces will also have stricter requirements where the air should be changed every hour and checking the air quality – that could be improved with the ratio of greenery and open spaces. Designing a home that can stimulate the productivity, flexibility, comfort, happiness, and health in its dwellers is the ultimate goal for this study. The target audience for the thesis are architects, interior designers and laymen who are interested in this field or those that are seeking a design which promotes healthy, safe and adequate living spaces and homes. The methods used in this study where both quantitative and qualitative methods through an international online survey as well as conducting local interviews with residential buildings’ dwellers in Berlin. On one hand, poor design can lead to both higher expenses in the long term as well as leading to bad physical and mental health, which is felt through the responses from both the survey and interviews. The biophilic design on the other hand, can have a huge positive impact on the dwellers both physically and mentally and should be tested and used more as a solid base for designing interior spaces.

4 Abstract The Relation Between Facial Similarity of Long-Term Couples and Overall and Sexual Satisfaction in the Relationship Results suggest that people tend to choose a partner based on the theory of positive assortative mating (Penton-Voak et al., 1999b). According to this theory, individuals prefer partners with physical and mental characteristics similar to theirs. Preference for facial similarities among partners was confirmed in some studies (Hinsz, 1989; Bereczkei et al., 2004). Other studies suggest that facial resemblance evokes a feeling of familiarity and confidence, but excludes mutual attraction (De Bruine, 2004). The aim of this study was to determine whether facial similarity of long-term partners is related to the overall and sexual satisfaction in the relationship. During the final session of cohabiting relationship research (Klapilová et al., 2006 - 2009) both members of 50 long-term couples completed questionnaires assessing their overall satisfaction (Dyadic Adjustment Scale), sexual satisfaction (Hurlbert Index of Sexual Compatibility), and facial photographs of partners were taken. Then 80 participants judged the similarity of standardized facial photographs of long-term partners. Then, using a regression analysis and LMM analysis the relation between rated couples similarity and...

Over the past decade, policymakers have promoted marriage as a pathway to improve child outcomes in single-parent households. However, previous research on single mothers who later married in the United States has failed to examine how the structural advantages and disadvantages of race influence post-birth marriages and the advantage they may confer. I investigate how white advantage—the human- and social-capital benefits that come from being a white individual—acts as a resource distributed differently across three couple configurations. I predict that having access to white advantage via a white parent will improve child academic achievement. Using the US Early Childhood Longitudinal Study 1998 (ECLS-K 1998) and the US Early Childhood Longitudinal Study 2011 (ECLS-K 2011), I compare children from white monoracial marriages, white-Hispanic interracial marriages, and Hispanic monoracial marriages. My results suggest that white advantage in the home increases access to critical resources that improve child academic achievement. Additionally, I find further evidence of Hispanic disadvantage as children from Hispanic monoracial marriages score lower on math and reading tests than children from white monoracial marriages, even after accounting for resource and demographic factors.

Dans la première partie, on étudie la probabilité de retour des groupes métabéliens de type fini. On donne une caractérisation des tels groupes avec grande probabilité de retour en des termes purement algébriques, à l’aide de la dimension de Krull. Cela nécessite, pour les groupes métabéliens, une variation d’un théorème de Kaloujnine et Krasner qui respecte cette dimension. Au passage, on obtient des bornes inférieures et supérieures sur la probabilité de retour des groupes métabéliens en fonction de la dimension de Krull. La seconde partie concerne les profils isopérimétriques des groupes localement compacts compactement engendrés, qu’on utilise pour caractériser l’existence d’une suite de paires de Følner. On démontre que le profil isopérimétrique augmente lorsqu’on passe au quotient, avec des constantes indépendantes de l’échelle, améliorant une théorème de Tessera. Combinant les deux, on obtient que l’existence de suites de paires de Følner passe au quotient. On montre qu’elle passe au sous-groupe fermé, généralisant un résultat correspondant d’Erschler pour les groupes de type fini. Cela permet d’obtenir une preuve plus auto-contenue du théorème principal de la première partie.La troisième partie est un travail en commun avec Kropholler dans lequel on étudie la structure des groupes résolubles de rang sans torsion infini n’ayant pas de section isomorphe à ZwrZ. On en déduit qu’en présence d’une dimension de Krull, ce type de section est la seule obstruction à la finitude du rang sans torsion. / In the fist part, we study the return probability of finitely generated metabelian groups. We give a characterization of such groups with large return probability in purely algebraic terms, namely the Krull dimension of the group. To do so, we establish, for metabelian groups, a variation of a famous embedding theorem of Kaloujinine and Krasner that respects this dimension. Along the way, we obtain lower and upper bounds on the return probability of metabelian groups according to their dimension.The second part of this thesis deals with isoperimetric profiles of locally compact compactly generated groups, that we use to characterize the existence of sequences of Følner couples. We generalize at a compact scale previous results of Tessera, in particular that they increase when going to a quotient group, so as to state in more generality a result from the first part, namely that the existence of Følner couples goes to a quotient group. We also prove that it goes to a closed subgroup. This allows to obtains a more self-contained proof of the main result of the first part of this thesis.The third part is a joint work with Kropholler in which we study the structure of soluble groups of infinite torsion-free rank with no ZwrZ. As a corollary, we obtain that a finitely generated soluble group with Krull dimension has finite torsion-free rank if and only if it has no ZwrZ.

This study presents findings on the financial management practices and degrees of conflict of couples in great marriages. Qualitative data from a national sample of couples in great marriages were collected using a 31-page questionnaire. Of the 81 couples who responded, 40 fit the criteria for this study in that they discussed their level of agreement about financial issues in marriage. Their responses were coded to discover which financial topics are pervasive and whether or not couples agreed over these topics. Responses about conflict were also analyzed to determine the degree of agreement between spouses in different categories. Findings from this research suggest that even couples in great marriages disagree over different financial topics to varying degrees of agreement. Implications of the research are also discussed.

Over the years, many interventions have been used to ameliorate couple distress and increase relationship satisfaction. These interventions have been getting shorter in duration. The purpose of this pilot study was to test the feasibility and impact of a brief intervention using a solution-focused approach (SFBT) for couples. The brief intervention included two two-hour consultations. Data were collected from 30 couples and were analyzed using a repeated measures design. The analyses yielded mixed results. There were statistically significant improvements in the areas of individual well-being and relationship knowledge. There were no significant differences in terms of marital satisfaction, communication skills, and readiness to change, although positive trends were observed in this pilot phase. Implications for future research and development are discussed.

The practice of family religious ritual in the home and its effect on family life has not been very well understood because of the small amount of research completed. In order to help increase the understanding of this concept, this study investigated the practice of family religious ritual in the home and measured the effect of family religious ritual on a couple's marital life by testing four hypotheses: 1) The indices of family religious ritual are positively correlated with marital adjustment. 2) Overall family religious ritual is positively correlated with marital adjustment. 3) Husband-wife family religious ritual is positively correlated with husband-wife marital adjustment. 4) Perceptions of parent's family religious ritual is positively correlated with perceptions of parent 's marital happiness scale. The data carne from a larger pool of data collected on a more involved study of family religious ritual made by Schvaneveldt in 1968. It specifically dealt with part of the data collected on eighty-nine husband - and -wife couples selected from the married student's housing lists of Utah State University in Logan, Utah. Trained interviewers completed a questionnaire with each spouse within the confines of their own home. Descriptive statistics were used in analyzing background characteristics and to obtain a profile of the practice of family religious ritual, marital adjustment, their parent's practice of family religious ritual, and parent's marital happiness. The Pearson product moment correlation coefficient was used to assess the degree of the relationship between their family religious ritual and marital adjustment and their parent's family religious ritual and happiness. From the results of this study the following conclusions were made on the practice of family religious ritual and its effect on the family: 1) Most people who practice family religious rituals report a frequency of observing them "sometimes". 2) Of all family religious rituals, individual prayer and grace are the most commonly practiced in frequency and amounts . 3) Spouses who practice family religious ritual in their homes report basically the same amount and frequency, except for individual prayer and individual bible reading where the wives report a greater observance to each . 4) The practice of family religious ritual in the home and marital adjustment is se en to have low positive correlations. While the research design does not permit the assessment of causality directly, the positive correlations suggest a causal effeCt of the practice of family religious ritual on marital adjustment. 5) The practice of church related religious ritual outside the home is seen to have a low positive correlation. The correlation here is also seen to suggest a causal effect of this ritual on marital adjustment. 6) Husbands show higher positive correlations between the practice of religious rituals and marital adjustment than the wives. This suggests that the practice of religious rituals has a more positive affect on their marital adjustment than the wives .

Pornography use has been reported to have harmful effects on relationships and individuals. However, research on effective treatment for problematic pornography use (PPU) is limited. This manuscript reviews the previous treatment literature for PPU and highlights the gaps that need further study. Then, I discuss how I performed a qualitative study of 11 couples who had successfully been treated for PPU in order to analyze the key mechanisms of change that were employed in their recovery process and address the missing gaps in this field of research. The five major emerging themes from this study are Catalysts for Recovery, Foundation of Support for Recovery, The Work of Recovery, Healing Perspective of Recovery and Meaning Making, and Hindrances and Recovery Cautions (see figure in Appendix E). These themes are outlined with associated subthemes and representative quotes. Key implications for clinicians and future research are discussed.

Depression is the most common psychological sequela associated with stroke, affecting approximately 33% of stroke survivors (Hackett, Yapa, Parag, & Anderson, 2005) with corresponding impacts on spouses, partners, or other informal caregivers (Han & Haley, 1999; Low, Payne, & Roderick, 1999). Although stroke is more common in older persons, persons of all ages are at risk for stroke and especially post-stroke depression (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2007; Barker-Collo, 2007; Hughes, Giobbie-Hurder, Weaver, Kubal, & Henderson, 1999). One of the factors which could explain increased risk of depression is "biographical disruption" (Bury, 1982), which happens when couples experience chronic illnesses that are developmentally off schedule or unexpected (Faircloth, Boylstei, Rittman, Young, & Gubrium, 2004; Pound, Gompertz, & Ebrahim, 1998; Roding, Lindstrom, Malms, & Ohman, 2003). The goal of this dissertation study was to examine modifiable factors associated with depression in stroke survivor-spouse dyads, including the potential moderating effects of biographical disruption. This goal was accomplished by pursuing three specific aims: (1) investigating the extent to which dyad-level factors are associated with current depression in stroke survivor-spouse dyads, above and beyond the influence of individual-level factors; (2) investigating the extent to which biographical disruption associated with stroke moderates the strength of association between individual and dyad-level factors and depression; and (3) exploring additional individual- and dyad-level features of disruption from stroke not included in the structured portion of the interview, and to explore how the experience of stroke may be different for couples in different developmental stages of life. Thirty-two recent stroke survivor-spouse dyads were interviewed using a combination of standardized measures and semi-structured interviews. Results showed that several dyad-level factors such as relationship quality, illness appraisal, and coping patterns were significant predictors of depression for survivors and spouses. The presence of biographical disruption did not statistically moderate these relationships, although the qualitative aspect of the study uncovered many aspects of disruption not addressed in the structured interview and the illness experience was clearly unique for couples in different developmental stages. These results have relevance for the development of effective interventions for post-stroke depression in couples, and are encouraging with respect to operationalizing and measuring the notion of biographical disruption from chronic illness across the lifespan.