Master of Science / Department of Family Studies and Human Services / Jared R. Anderson / Amber V. Vennum / The present study sought to extend the research on cyclical, or on-again/off-again relationships, by examining whether a history of cyclicality moderated the association between neuroticism and relationship satisfaction. A second goal of this study was to examine the direct and indirect effects of neuroticism on relationship satisfaction through communication. The sample consisted of cohabiting cyclical (n = 1,055) and noncyclical (n = 2,527) couples from a larger dataset collected by the RELATE Institute. Results showed that cyclical partners reported higher levels of neuroticism, higher levels of conflict, lower levels of positive communication, and lower levels of relationship satisfaction than noncyclical couples. Direct actor paths from neuroticism to satisfaction were significant for cyclical and noncyclical females and males. Only the direct partner path from female neuroticism to male satisfaction was significant, and was only significant for cyclical couples. All indirect actor and partner paths were significant for cyclical and noncyclical females and males. Further, a history of cyclicality significantly moderated the direct paths from male communication to male and female relationship satisfaction, indicating this relationship is stronger for cyclical couples.

Previous research has indicated that married persons report experiencing greater happiness than cohabitating persons (e.g., Stack & Eshleman, 1998). Lee and Ono (2012) conducted a cross-national analysis to compare overall happiness between married and cohabiting couples in different cultural contexts and found the "happiness gap" increased as society became less gender-egalitarian and as the role of religion increased. The current study sought to consider how race and ethnicity might serve as a cultural context within the United States (US) by investigating the differences in relationship satisfaction between married and cohabiting couples by testing two hypotheses. First, it was expected that married couples would have higher relationship satisfaction than cohabitating couples. Secondly, it was expected that the effect of marital status on relationship satisfaction would vary with race/ethnicity. To address these hypotheses, data was taken from the Married and Cohabitating Couples dataset from the National Center for Family & Marriage Research (NCFMR). The data set includes information from 752 married and 323 cohabitating heterosexual couples, from18-64 years of age. Of these individuals, 80.5% were White/Non-Hispanic, 5.0% Black/Non-Hispanic, 4.9% Other/Non-Hispanic, 7.8% Hispanic, and 1.8% 2+Races/Non-Hispanic. A single survey item from the NCFMR study served as the dependent variable in the present study. Participants were asked: "To what extent do you agree with the following statement: Our relationship has changed for the worse”. This item was intended as a measure of relationship satisfaction by determining the relationship between the responses to this item and responses to demographic items about race/ethnicity and marital status. A two way, independent ANOVA analysis found a non-significant main effect of marital status on the respondents’ view of the relationship, F(1, 2070) = .564, p = .453, = 0, a non-significant main effect of race/ethnicity on the respondents view of the relationship, F(4, 2070) = .984, p = .415, = 0 , and a significant interaction between marital status and race/ethnicity, F( 4, 2070) = 2.582. p = .036, = .003. A simple effects analysis was conducted and among White, non-Hispanic respondents, the view of the relationship was more negative among the cohabitating group than among the married group (p < 0.01). However, the view of the relationship was similar for married and cohabitating couples among Black, non-Hispanic (p = .279), Other non-Hispanic (p = .836), Hispanic (p = .533), and 2+Races, non-Hispanic (p = .127). The findings suggest there is no difference between married and cohabitating couple's relationship satisfaction. However, there was a statistically significant difference in relationship satisfaction between married and cohabitating couples in the White, non-Hispanic group but not in the other racial and ethnic groups. The findings of this study should be interpreted with caution as there was a large difference in sample size among the racial and ethnicity groups, decreasing the reliability of the results. Understanding how marital status and race/ethnicity influence relationship satisfaction has important practical implications for relationship education programs such as ensuring that content presented is culturally relevant to diverse groups. Additional limitations and implications will be addressed in the presentation.

Minority government is defined by the relationship between the legislative and executive branches of government in parliamentary democracies; it means single-party cabinet or coalition cabinet, which are not supported by a parliamentary majority in Parliamentary and Semi-Presidential countries. For instance, in Taiwan, Chen Shui-bian won the Presidential Election in 2000, but he just garnered 39.3¢Mof the popular vote, so he was a minority president. After election, the president Chen Shui-bian appointed Chang Chun-hsiung as Premier (Executive Yuan); therefore, ¡§Chen Shui-bian government¡¨ indeed was a minority government. Because the ¡§regime turnover¡¨ happened in Taiwan is the first time, as a ruling party, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) didn¡¦t deal with very well in cabinet portfolios, policy concession or policy implementation. On the other hand, the political disturbance has been existed in the executive-legislative relations since 2000. Under this context, to understand why minority governments form and how they operate become an important issue. As we noted, there is not rich literature on minority governments, so this is why the study focus on initially exploring minority government. This essay includes two research subjects: The first point is to analyze theory of minority government. By following the documents of the scholars¡¦ comparison and research, I try to explain why a minority government form from the part of the institution and strategy; I also introduce the operation and performance of minority government briefly. The second point is to do the studies of cases of minority government and performance in Norway and Fourth Republic France: From the two empirical cases, I expect to find a suitable solution for the constitutional deadlock at present in Taiwan.

What keeps long term cohabitating couples together? I began to ask this question as I noticed more and more heterosexual people living together in long term committed relationships outside of marriage. Social commentators have decried cohabitating couples as less committed than married couples, and some research has agreed with this view, yet I personally had not seen this to be the case. As a response to this contradiction, I engage with the overall research question by exploring cohabitation and marriage decisions among ten long term heterosexual cohabitating couples as well as how the construct of commitment operates in their daily lives through a series of individual in-depth interviews. Through their stories, I situate long term heterosexual cohabitation as an outcome of a complex web of motivations, reasons, and rationales that share much in common with all cohabitating couples. I find commitment to be highly valued by these couples and produced through daily processes that bring couples closer together and heighten the cost of ending the relationship, thereby elucidating the socio-cultural factors that make long term cohabitating couples feel like they’re “already married.” By asking couples about their household division of labor and their attitudes towards marriage, I also engage with research that points to long term cohabitating couples as sites of gender egalitarianism. While these couples were more egalitarian in their housework, this was not necessarily a product of a particular affinity for gender equality. Furthermore, the ways in which they spoke about housework as well as the ways they valued marriage and weddings demonstrate that traditional gender roles still play an influential role in intercouple interactions. In the final chapter, I offer a theoretical way forward for future research on heterosexual cohabitation and identify gaps in the research that this study helps to identify. / text

Ideological shifts in Western society have transformed the process of entry into first unions including: a significant decline in legal marriage, later age marriage, and an increase in nonmarital cohabitation. Some literature has found that these trends have been further impacted by race as the decline in marriage rates has been significantly greater for racial minorities than for non-minorities. This study explores the divergence of marriage patterns on the basis of the visible minority hypothesis, which suggests that visible minority status itself, as a proxy for race will be significant in the first union process. The data were drawn from the 2006 General Social Survey (N= 19,983 men and women). The effects of visible minority status, socioeconomic factors, region, and other cultural markers are explored using Cox’s proportional hazard modeling. The findings suggest that standard economic models are insufficient in explaining differentials in the entry into the first union for visible minorities. That is, visible minority status has an independent effect on the entry into the first union. / Graduate

The number of Canadian widows and widowers has doubled since 1971, and these numbers are projected to increase as the Baby Boom generation continues to age. Prior studies demonstrate that remarriage is losing ground to cohabitation following union dissolution, and that cohabitation is increasing among older adults. This study explores post-widowhood repartnering practices among older Canadians on the basis of existing theories on partnership. The data were drawn from the 2007 General Social Survey Cycle 21 (N= 23,404 Canadians aged 45 and older). The cumulative proportion of competing post-widowhood partnership choices are compared using life table analysis. The effects of gender, demographic characteristics, cultural influences, economic resources, and physical health are explored using Cox’s proportional hazard modeling. The findings suggest that dominant theories of partnership are insufficient in explaining post-widowhood repartnering behaviour. Namely, most commonly-measured economic resources do not factor significantly into the post-widowhood repartnering choices of older Canadians. / Graduate / 0626 / 0628 / 0938 / nouellet@uvic.ca

Marriage compared to unmarried cohabitation Abstract The purpose of my thesis is to compare a marriage and an unmarried cohabitation from the point of view of the family law of the Czech republic. Besides introduction and conclusion, this thesis consist of seven parts. The first part characterizes terms. The first chapter describes the term "family" - the first chapter analyzes the case law of the European Court of Human Rights and the case law of the European Court of Justice related to the right to family life and the right to privacy. The term "family" is further characterized by the professional literature and by the sociologist. The first chapter describes the historical evolution of the family and the current concept of the family. Chapter two describes the term "marriage" a the term "unmarried cohabitation", chapter three describes the evolution od family law. Part two focuses on the beginning of marriage and the beginning of unmarried cohabitation. The first chapter describes the historical evolution of the marriage and the unmarried cohabitation, chapter two compares the beginning of marriage and the beginning of unmarried cohabitation (in the narrow sense). Consequences of marriage and unmarried cohabitation are described in the third chapter and the chapter four deals with objectivity and...

Masters of Art / Cohabitation families have become a widely accepted and increasing form of family structure nowadays. However this family structure’s characteristics have caused it to be described as a risk factor to child development as it is associated it with negative child outcomes especially during the adolescence period. The adolescence stage itself has been described by literature as a unique human development stage coupled with a variety of physical, cognitive, social and emotional changes, making it a vulnerable stage characterised by experimenting with risk behaviours. Therefore the aim of this study was to explore and describe the challenges of cohabiting families with regard to discipline of the adolescents. An explorative and descriptive research design grounded in a qualitative research approach was used. Two set of data, namely (a) cohabiting biological parents, and (b) adolescent children living in cohabiting families, were collected for a better understanding of the situation. The population for the study encompassed all cohabiting parents and their adolescent children living in the city of Cape Town, and research participants were purposively selected from the caseload of Cape Town Child Welfare. Data was collected by means of individual interviews with the aid of an interview guide. Interviews were transcribed verbatim and field notes were taken. Data analysis was conducted according to Tesch (in Creswell 2009), and ethical considerations, such as confidentiality, voluntary participation, informed consent from parents and informed assent from adolescents, as well as no harm to participants, were adhered to. Most participants identified with cohabiting step-parent families. The reported challenges affecting discipline of adolescent children stemmed from poor parent-child relationships, ambiguous step-family roles, negative family communication patterns, and the applied disciplinary methods in cohabiting families. With consultation from some of the suggestions put forward by all the participants, the researcher concluded the study with recommendations for social workers working with cohabiting families.

Magister Legum - LLM / South Africa has come a long way from the rigid family structures which existed in the past. This is demonstrated by the recognition afforded to couples in same-sex relationships as well as those in customary marriages. Proposals have also been set forth regarding law reform to protect the rights and interests of those involved in domestic partnerships. The Domestic Partnership Bill was promulgated in 2008 but to date has not been passed into law. The ensuing consequence is that cohabitation relationships are therefore self-regulated. This relationship has no legal status as a union in South Africa. The court have, however, recognised that a universal partnership could be established if certain criteria are met. Furthermore, heterosexual couples are now also recognised as a "dependant" in actions against the Road Accident Fund for loss of support as a result of death of the breadwinner. Unlike South Africa, cohabitation in Sweden is regulated by a dedicated law called the Cohabitees Act 2003. The Act provides comprehensive protection than that afforded to cohabitants in South Africa. It offers a clear definition of cohabitation and criteria in order to qualify as a cohabitee. The Act, further, regulates the proprietary consequences of entering into such a relationship and the effects of termination. Cohabitation has status as a legal union in Sweden. My research will deal with non-formalised cohabitation and a comparison shall be made between the current systems in South Africa and Sweden. My work will suggest that the statutory model of regulation in Sweden may provide a solution for South Africa. In South Africa, cohabiting couples are not afforded the same rights as married couples. In contrast, married couples are afforded rights automatically as a result of the institution. Unmarried partners have no automatic duty of support, to acquire an interest each other's separate property and a cohabitee may not inherit intestate from the estate in the event of death of one of the partners. In Sweden, intimate relationships are treated similarly to married relationships, with the law applying the principle of "neutrality" with regard to its family laws. Several cases have emerged recently in South Africa which will provide a clearer understanding of the current state of the law. The reason for undertaking this study is to illustrate the changing mores of society and the necessity of the law to keep up with these values. As South Africa has not yet passed its domestic partnership law it may be useful to compare it to Sweden in order provide South Africa with a possibly better approach. Sweden has passed laws on cohabitation and these have been in place for years. Thus we might still learn from them prior to our law being passed. Legislative and judicial activity have soared recently and it may be beneficial to look at another jurisdiction more carefully. These observations will be undertaken more comprehensively in the body of the thesis.

It is clear that unmarried cohabitation is increasing in Chile. It is less clear what unmarried cohabitation is and why is it rising. In Latin America cohabitation is common among low income groups, and has been described as a surrogate marriage for the disadvantaged. Cohabitation in the region entails conventional gender roles and having children. It has been explained by colonial dominance, poverty, kinship, and machismo. The evidence amassed here indicates that although in practice cohabitation is similar to marriage, they are not the same. In fact, cohabitation has decreased social visibility. Cohabitation does not entail any social ceremony or rite. As it is not institutionalised it remains concealed from both social recognition and social scrutiny. Thus it tolerates partners who are dissimilar, or can be sustained despite a higher level of difficulties in a relationship. The findings validate previous research as cohabitation is sparked by pregnancy, parental tolerance - mainly through not enforcing marriage -, a close mother-son bond –which inhibits marriage-, and the material costs of marriage. The research follows a life course perspective. It is based on twenty four qualitative life histories of urban deprived young people, women and men, involved in a consensual union and with children. In Chile from the 1990s onwards cohabitation started to show a sharp increase. Prevalent views explain rising cohabitation as an outcome of processes of individualization, democratization of relationships, and female emancipation. This research suggests that rising cohabitation, among young people from low income groups in Chile, is linked to enhanced autonomy (i.e. declining patriarchy), and to social benefits targeted to single mothers. Young people are gaining autonomy as union formation is increasingly an outcome of romantic love and not of being forced into marriage. Furthermore cohabitation rose right at the end of Pinochet’s dictatorship, at a time of enhanced freedom and autonomy. By contrast, rising cohabitation does not seem to be related to female emancipation. Interviewees themselves reproduce conventional gender roles, and social policies targeted to the single mother are based on conventional views on womanhood.