Using latent growth curve modeling, this longitudinal study examined the patterns of the discrepancy between desired and actual frequency of sexual intercourse for 331 married couples over a period of 5 years. In addition, couple insecure attachment and control variables such as age, length of relationship, income, race, and education were used to predict each partner's sexual desire discrepancy (SDD) and its change over the 5 year time period. Participants were asked to report their actual frequency of sexual intercourse and their desired frequency in each wave of data collection. Discrepancy scores were created for each year by subtracting the reported actual frequency from the reported desired frequency separately for wives and for husbands. In terms of change over time, findings showed a significant change across time for wives with a trend toward less discrepancy over time. Husbands' discrepancy scores were higher than wives and remained stable over the five years. Insecure attachment predicted the average SDD for husbands. Wife income predicted the change in SDD over the five years for husbands but not for wives. Wife race predicted the average SDD for husbands. Implications for research and clinical use are highlighted.

[pt] A presente dissertação teve como objetivo identificar e analisar as variáveis relacionadas e preditoras da coparentalidade de mães e pais brasileiros no contexto da pandemia do COVID-19. Foram realizados um estudo teórico e dois estudos empíricos para cumprir esse objetivo. O artigo teórico buscou discutir a relação das variáveis relacionadas à coparentalidade por meio do Modelo Bioecológico do Desenvolvimento Humano no contexto pandêmico. Já o primeiro artigo empírico demonstrou o processo de adaptação e as provas iniciais de validade da Coparenting Questionnaire (CQ) para o contexto brasileiro, no qual participaram 590 mães e pais brasileiros, em sua maioria mulheres (n = 532; 90,02 por cento). A adaptação do instrumento para a língua portuguesa aconteceu em cinco etapas. Após análises fatoriais confirmatórias, o instrumento apresentou índices de ajuste satisfatórios para o modelo multifatorial proposto. Foi identificado que o instrumento também pode ser utilizado como escore geral de coparentalidade de forma cautelosa por meio de uma análise bifactor. O segundo artigo empírico teve como objetivo identificar, a partir de análises de correlação, diferenças de grupo e regressão múltipla, as variáveis biopsicossociais relacionadas com a coparentalidade no contexto pandêmico. Participaram deste estudo 300 mães e pais brasileiros casados ou em união estável, em sua maioria mulheres (n = 277; 92,33 por cento). Diversas variáveis apresentaram correlações com a coparentalidade e satisfação com o relacionamento amoroso foi a variável com maior peso de predição. Algumas variáveis contextuais da pandemia apresentaram diferenças significativas de média quanto a coparentalidade, sendo que a mais forte delas foi o aumento de problemas comportamentais dos filhos. Os dados gerais deste estudo sugerem que a coparentalidade é um construto complexo e multideterminado e sustentam dados da literatura sobre seus múltiplos preditores biopsicossociais. A presente pesquisa fornece um novo instrumento para uso em pesquisas sobre a coparentalidade, além de auxiliar a compreensão de como este construto se comportou em famílias brasileiras durante o período de vulnerabilidade da pandemia. Por fim, também contribui com futuros direcionamentos de estudos empíricos sobre a coparentalidade em outros contextos e com outras populações, além de fornecer informações sobre para elaboração de intervenções focadas em atenuar os efeitos negativos pandêmicos nas famílias. / [en] The present dissertation s objective was to identify and analyze coparent related and predictable variables of brazilian mothers and fathers in the COVID19 pandemic context. One theoric study and two empirical studies were conducted to fulfill this objective. The theoric article aimed to discuss the relation between the coparent related variables through the lens of Bioecological Human Development Model in pandemic context. The first empirical article showed the adaptation process and the initial validity proofs of the Coparenting Questionnaire (CQ) for brazilian context, in which 590 mothers and fathers participated, majoritarily women (n = 532; 90,02 percent). Instrument s adaptation for Portuguese language was made in five steps. After confirmatory factor analysis, the instrument adjusted indices were satisfactory for the proposed multifactor model. It was also identified by a bifactor analysis that a total score of the instrument can be used with wariness. The second empirical article s objective was to identify, from correlation, mean differences and multiple regression analysis, the biopsychosocial variables that were related with coparenting in a pandemic context. 300 mothers and fathers, married or enrolled in stable unions, participated in this study, majoritarily women (n = 277; 92,33 percent). Several variables presented correlation with coparenting and conjugal relationship satisfaction was the variable with the highest predictive load. Some pandemic contextual variables showed significant differences in means regarding coparenting, in which the strongest was the increase in children s behavioral problems. The general data from this study suggest that coparenting is a complex and multidetermined construct, supporting literature studies on its multiple biopsychosocial predictors. The present research provides a new coparenting instrument for research use, in addition to help understanding how this construct presented itself on Brazilian families during the pandemic vulnerability period. Finally, it also contributes to future directions for empirical studies on coparenting in other contexts and with other populations, in addition to providing information on interventions focused on mitigating the negative effects of the pandemic on families.

This study focused on the impact that multiple sclerosis (MS) has on the sexual relationship of couples who experienced the diagnosis of MS after the establishment of a sexual relationship. While it is known that this disease can disrupt sexual functioning of individuals, little is known about how MS affects the sexual relationship of couples. Couples coping with the diagnosis of a serious chronic disease like MS in one spouse are likely at particular risk for disruption of the sexual bond. Rolland's Family Systems-Illness Model (FSIM) can provide a framework for understanding the effect of a chronic illness on a couple system. Sixteen couples were interviewed using an interview protocol based on the FSIM. The couples also completed two questionnaires: the Sexual History Form (SHF) and the Disease Acceptance Scale (DAS). The results of this study indicate that these couples had a low rate of sexual activity. Degree of physical disability in the spouse with MS or the type of MS was not predictive of sexual relating. Disease acceptance did not appear to be related to the level of sexual activity in these couples or their desire for sexual activity. Sexual dysfunction had a modest negative relationship with sexual satisfaction for well spouses only. Well spouses were less satisfied with the couples' relationship than were ill spouses. Overall most of the couples in this study were coping well with the ill spouse's MS. Despite any disruption of their sexual relationship most of the couples who participated in this study viewed other stressors, such as difficulties with children, as being more influential than MS in their relationships. Differences in communication and sexual interactions between couples with a high level of conflict and those with a low level of conflict did emerge. These differences and how clinicians can treat couples who are coping with a chronic disease like MS are discussed.

Ce mémoire s’articule en deux parties. En ce qui concerne la première, il s’agit de fournir une nouvelle transcription ponctuée du manuscrit BnF NAF 1943, unique témoin, datant de la fin du XIVe siècle, du Roman d’Eledus et Serene. Ce manuscrit n’a été édité qu’une seule fois, en 1923, dans une thèse de John Revell Reinhard comportant plusieurs lacunes et présentant un apparat critique restreint. La seconde partie consiste en une étude générique du Roman d’Eledus et Serene. Bien que ce texte figure traditionnellement dans les listes de romans idylliques médiévaux, aucune étude ne s’est encore employée à statuer sur la légitimité de ce classement. Le genre même du roman idyllique est peu connu, même au sein de la communauté médiéviste, et est encore mal défini. Une première définition, que les critiques s’accordent à qualifier de « dépassée », a été établie en 1913 par Myrrha Lot-Borodine dans son ouvrage Le roman idyllique au Moyen Âge. Depuis lors, bien que plusieurs altérations ponctuelles aient été apportées à cette définition d’origine, aucun travail critique ne s’est encore penché sur l’élaboration d’une nouvelle définition du genre. Ce mémoire s’emploie donc à compiler les caractéristiques génériques qui ont été associées au roman idyllique médiéval par la critique, en diachronie, pour en établir une nouvelle définition, aussi complète et opératoire que possible. Finalement, une analyse du Roman d’Eledus et Serene à la lumière de cette définition et en fonction d’autres témoins du corpus idyllique vise à légitimer son appartenance au genre.

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If you have ever used your phone while on a date to send a text message, or snapped a picture with a friend to upload to Facebook, or cut a sentence down to 140 characters to broadcast on Twitter, you may agree with some leading Social Scientists that technology is changing the way we relate with one another. Our interactions through technology seem to be getting increasingly short with less sophisticated language. More and more, our thoughts are broadcast to everyone instead of intended for someone special. Yet, there is something profoundly human and central to our development that is neglected in these interchanges. Close human relationships---with families, significant others, friends---need complex, intimate, ongoing conversations in order to create and maintain empathic connectivity. In these types of conversations, individuals become part of one another, defined by each other. Together, they change, they grow, they find meaning in life. This is, in essence, what I call Empathic Communication. Until now, this concern has been largely neglected in the field of Human-Computer Interaction, a community of researchers and technology designers who are arguably best positioned to address it. To suggest one path forward, in this dissertation I raise the question of whether computer technologies can become brokers of Empathic Communication between people who care about each other, with a specific focus on intimate partners. How can we conceptualize Empathic Communication, how can we build tools that support it, and how do we know if we have succeeded? I address these questions by creating a simplified model of the therapeutic process of intimate reconnection, or the 4Rs framework---Repattern, Reflect, Restory, Reconnect. Using the 4Rs framework as an ideation tool, I designed and field-tested a technology concept for a dyadic journaling application, Diary Built for Two, that might help romantic partners reconnect through deep communication. Using the 4Rs framework as an evaluation tool, I found that Diary Built for Two enabled more intimate, more thoughtful, more Empathic Communication that changed the way partners saw themselves, one another, and their relationship. Unexpectedly, I found that research interviews I conducted with intimate partners had the same type of therapeutic effect. Simply asking partners questions about their relationship caused them to reflect on and change their understandings of their relationship and each other. To guide other researchers and designers of Empathic Communication Technologies (ECTs), I present a set of specific outcomes of my study. First, I present Symmetric and Asymmetric interface profiles, which identify new human-technology configurations that may better support deep communication---for example, having one shared device between two people, as opposed to one separate device for each. I also share some of the ways in which research interviews may positively and negatively affect study participants towards reconsidering current informed consent practices. Both of these findings showcase the utility of selectively conceptualizing our technology designs as well as our research methods as therapeutic interventions; when we apply the therapy metaphor, new design and research opportunities become apparent. / Ph. D.

In the wake of declining fertility rates observed across numerous Western countries following the Great Recession, fertility research has increasingly focused on subjective dimensions of economic uncertainty in attempting to explain contemporary fertility dynamics. While the existing literature has primarily examined subjective economic uncertainty in terms of perceived employment stability, recent arguments have been made that resilience toward employment loss might have more salient effects on fertility intentions. Following these arguments, this thesis aims to provide further insight into the current fertility decline in Sweden by examining the relationship between perceived resilience and fertility intentions among Swedish childless couples. Utilizing cross-sectional data from the Swedish Generations and Gender Survey 2021, logistic regression is employed to examine the association between resilience and fertility intentions and how it varies across sociodemographic/socioeconomic groups and individual perceptions of employment stability and risk attitudes. Logistic regression models indicate that being unsure regarding one’s resilience is associated with lower fertility intentions for men, with no similar association found for women. This effect of uncertainty regarding one’s resilience is further suggested to be isolated to foreign-born individuals. Although clear associations between low resilience and fertility intentions are not evident overall, they may be observed among the economically vulnerable. Theoretically, these findings are suggested to reflect a difference in perceived risks and uncertainty, where it is more an inability to foresee future risks than an expected future risk that could inhibit the formation of fertility plans for individuals. Although the results suggest that resilience may play a role in the Swedish fertility decline, the limited sample and cross-sectional nature of the data preclude definitive conclusions regarding the extent of this role.

Avec la montée de l’individualisme et du féminisme, la manière dont chaque individu contemporain vit le couple a subi d’importantes transformations. Les personnes âgées ayant vécu leur mariage dans un contexte où la norme conjugale était de mettre de côté une partie de leur individualité pour se consacrer à la conjugalité et à la parentalité, il importe de se questionner sur la manière dont l’individualisme se manifeste désormais à l’intérieur de leurs relations amoureuses. Pour connaître la situation, nous avons mené une enquête par entrevue auprès de personnes âgées ayant formé un nouveau couple dans le cadre institutionnel qu’est la maison de retraite. Il ressort de l’analyse que les personnes rencontrées vivent des relations amoureuses dans lesquelles le rapport à leur partenaire est très différent de celui qui prévalait dans le cadre de leur mariage plusieurs années auparavant. Ces personnes accordent plus d’importance à leur intimité personnelle ou du moins, elles recherchent un équilibre entre leur intimité personnelle et la conjugalité. / With the growth of individualism and feminism, the way contemporary individuals experience their own couple have changed significantly. Having regard to the elderly who have experienced their marriage at a time when the conjugal standard was to set aside part of their individuality to concentrate on their conjugal relationship and parenthood, it is important to question how individualism can be seen today within the relationships they experience. To learn more about the situation, we conducted an interview survey with elderly who have entered into a new relationship in the institutional framework of retirement homes. The analysis suggests that the relationship the elderly interviewed experience with their partner is very different from the one which prevailed during their former marriage several years ago. These individuals give more importance to their personal privacy, or at least they seek a balance between their personal privacy and conjugal relationships.

Québec Université Laval, Bibliothèque 2013