The concept of work-family fit has recently emerged in the work and family literature, comparable to work-family balance in that it represents interactions between work and family, and yet distinct from balance in its sense of universal ownership and responsibility. Using Barnett's (1998) model of the work-social system interface as a framework, this study explores the relationship between and predictive factors of work-family fit and work-family balance. Data are from a survey of Brigham Young University's Marriott School of Management (MSM) graduate school alumni (n = 273). Findings indicate that fit and balance are indeed two separate constructs, with fit predicted by the alumni's weekly hours spent in paid employment, paid work status, spouses' age, and total family income. Work satisfaction, frequency of various family activities, and satisfaction with religious practices in marriage were found to predict both fit and balance. Analyses suggest that fit is based on the structural aspects of work-family interactions, while balance appears to be based on the psychological aspects of work and family.

Although there have been several significant studies during recent years concerning methods of child-rearing, little has been done to ascertain what influence an ideology may have on child-rearing patterns, or whether there are unique patterns of child-rearing within a specific subculture.Specifically, the purpose of this research is to answer the following questions: (1) What influence, if any, does the L.D.S. religious ideology have on child-rearing behavior, and (2) what are some of the patterns of child-rearing in the L.D.S. subculture.

This thesis is a study of the degree of relationship that marriage role expectations of adolescents of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has to sex, church activity, parent's education, employment of mother, and ordinal position.The major objectives were: (a) to determine if male adolescents would have a higher traditional score than female adolescents on the marriage role expectation inventory; and (b) to determine if marriage role expectations of adolescents are related to sex, church activity, parent's education, employment of mother, and ordinal position.

This study is a qualitative analysis of in-depth interviews with thirty-two couples who have been married for eight years. Although the couples in this sample have similar religious, economic, and cultural backgrounds, the quality of each marriage is quite different. Ten couples have exceptionally high-quality marriages, eighteen have average-quality marriages, three are struggling, and one couple has been divorced. The purpose of this study was to better understand what the ten couples with high-quality marriages are doing to create successful relationships. I conclude that high-quality marriages are created by a couple's participation in a particular process with a specific paradigm that facilitates a critical characteristic. I also postulate that high-quality marriages are undergirded by three guiding principles. A couple's environment, circumstance, and parental role models constitute the framework from which marital decisions spring, but for the respondents in this study, contextual issues by themselves neither explained nor were consistently associated with marital quality. The ten couples with the best marriages participate in a process of covenanting, communicating, and complying to heartfelt marital obligations. They tend to function most consistently from an other-centered paradigm, and have the characteristic of love as the trademark of their relationships. High-quality marriages are governed by three principles: they are mutually created, require constant nurturing, and are dynamic. This process, paradigm, and characteristic constitute three important dimensions of high-quality marital relationships. If both couples are making choices from within this imaginary three-dimensional sphere or realm, the result is a high-quality marriage. If one spouse makes choices from within this imaginary sphere while the other spouse chooses options from outside, the resultant quality tends to be average. When both spouses are consistent in making choices outside this sphere, it constitutes the foundation of a low-quality marriage.

This study focused upon differences between L.D.S. temple and L.D.S. non-temple marriages (which was used as a measure of religious commitment) with respect to divorce rate, and the relationship of occupational level and bride's age at marriage to divorce rate.A total of 419 couples were involved in the study. They were all married in 1955, had been born in Utah, and were residing in Utah at the time of marriage. Temple and non-temple marriages were equated for occupational level at the time of marriage. By 1968, the L.D.S. temple married couples tended to be higher in occupational level.Significant differences were found between couples with temple marriages and those with non-temple marriages: the divorce rate was lower and the negative relationship between occupational level and bride's age at marriage and divorce rate was far less pronounced for the temple marriages. The occupational level that was found to be most useful was the 1968 level.Couples of their parents were contacted by telephone to obtain data used in this thesis.

This study proposes and confirms two new predictors of work and family outcomes, thus far unexplored in existing work-family literature: fathers' religious involvement at home and fathers' family involvement at home. It is the first study to date to document that these produce a crossover effect to positively influence work-related outcomes including work-family conflict, work-family fit and job satisfaction. Data come from employed married fathers and their spouses participating in the 2001 BYU Marriott School of Management Alumni Work and Family Survey (n = 210), all members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS). Findings are that fathers who were more religiously involved at home and their spouses reported greater marital satisfaction than fathers and their spouses who were less involved. Fathers who were highly involved with their families at home reported less work-family conflict, greater work-family fit, and greater marital satisfaction and spouse's marital satisfaction, than fathers who were less involved. Interactions showed that when fathers exhibit the combination of high religious and high family involvement, the religious involvement acts as a catalyst to generate greater levels of marital satisfaction and spouse's marital satisfaction. Finally, the study revealed a significantly positive relationship exists between marital satisfaction and job satisfaction. Results suggest that the father who engages in both high religious involvement and high family involvement at home may receive the benefits, or from a religious perspective, the "blessings," of enhanced marital satisfaction, and therefore, job satisfaction as a result of his fulfillment of sacred obligation to God. And, implications of the study suggest employing organizations may garner immense savings in terms of turnover costs due to the increase in job satisfaction among its employed fathers. Thus, data such as these suggest that flexible work arrangements, which may facilitate greater investment by the father in religious and family involvement at home, may create a dynamic system enabling enhanced family processes and, therefore, the strengthening of families, society and the economy.

This paper explores an emerging construct: relationship hope. I define relationship hope as when individuals feel that regardless of the current quality of the relationship, there is significant hope for the relationship in the future if they keep working on it. The Relationship Hope Scale (RHS) is a new five-item scale that measures this construct. I evaluated the psychometric properties of RHS with Classical Test Theory (CTT) and Item Response Theory (IRT). I used a nationally representative sample of married individuals, ages 25-50 years old, in the United States. I found that RHS performs well in both CTT and IRT analyses, that we can assume measurement invariance between genders and first and second (or more) marriages, and that the mean levels of relationship hope do not differ by demographic variables like education, race, and income level. I also found that the RHS discriminates well between individuals that have thought about divorce a few times, several times, a lot of times, or not at all. These findings on relationship hope have valuable implications for relationship education, therapy, and future research because relationship hope measures a concept of change and potentiality.

The purpose of this study was to comprehensively assess potential stressors during the divorce transition. Three dimensions of divorce-related stressors were examined: occurence, perceived disruptiveness, and area of life change. Survey data from a representative sample of 80 divorced parents were collected 6 to 12 months post decree. The divorce transition was characterized by both positive and negative experiences in which men and women generally reported similiar levels of stress associated with their divorce-related experiences. The findings also supported the importance of classifying experiences by the area of life change, and of examining the disruptiveness associated with the experiences in addition to the simple occurences of various life changes.

Hope is a variable that is defined in research as a positive outlook on one's future and a plan to achieve that future. Hope has been found to be positively correlated with self-esteem, optimism, and life satisfaction, and negatively correlated with suicide ideation and suicidality. However, there is a lack of research on predictors of hope in adolescents. Adolescents compose the age group that could arguably use the goal-oriented and positive outlook that hope provides the most. This study identified predictors of hope (i.e., depression, maternal and paternal support) in adolescents so as to know how society can give adolescents the advantage of hope in their lives. Depression was found to be a negative predictor of hope, and maternal support was found to be a positive predictor of hope. Data was collected from the Flourishing Families Project, a longitudinal study of adolescents.

Extradyadic romantic behavior in committed relationships, referred to here as "cheating," is a common occurrence. For the purposes of this study, we define cheating as romantic or sexual behaviors that occur outside of a committed romantic relationship and that violate the expectations of the relationship. This definition can be broken down into two parts: the behavior that occurred and the judgment of whether that behavior constitutes cheating. Using a large sample (N = 1,020), we tested a measure that conceptualized cheating as composing explicit behaviors, categorical judgment of behaviors, and dimensional judgment of behaviors. Fit statistics were mixed and we included suggested modifications. Biological sex was a significant modifier for each factor, with men endorsing significantly more explicit behaviors and women rating more behaviors as cheating and more serious. We found no significant differences in explicit behaviors or categorical judgments based on age, but older generations rated behaviors as more serious. Having experienced cheating in a relationship (as transgressor and/or victim) resulted in rating more behaviors as cheating than those who had no experience with cheating. With modifications, our measure is promising in assisting with the understanding of cheating and expectations in relationships.