There is a substantial body of literature establishing relationship satisfaction as a significant predictor of an individual’s psychological and physical wellbeing. This study expands that literature by studying an individual’s intention to strengthen and sustain the physical well-being of his/her residence as a function of his/her relationship satisfaction. Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Model provides the overarching framework for this study. Fundamental to the ecological theory is the interaction between an individual and its surrounding environments. Based on this, the study aims in exploring the interactions between an individual’s internal (relationship satisfaction) and external (residential well-being) environments. The study has two primary research questions: Can “relationship” be used as a predictor of individual’s intentions to maintain and improve the physical well-being of his/her residence? Does the type of family structures affect this association? The study intends to answer these questions by studying the relationship satisfaction of 1395 homeowners in Florida and their intentions to prepare their homes for hurricanes and improve their residential energy-efficiency. Here, hurricane preparedness and residential energy-efficiency are used as indicators for improving residential well-being. The motivation behind conducting this study is to understand the larger range of impact relationship satisfaction can have in an individual’s life.

The aim of this thesis is to investigate the lives of men and women living in London and Bury St. Edmunds in the late fourteenth - early fifteenth centuries. Sources studied include the administrative and legal records of the City of London and of the Abbot and Convent of St. Edmund's abbey; legislation and court records of royal government and the wills and testaments of Londoners and Bury St. Edmunds' inhabitants. Considerable research on a wide range of topics on London, but far less work on Bury St. Edmunds, has already been undertaken; however, this thesis is the first systematic comparative study of these two towns. The introduction discusses the historiography and purpose of the thesis; the methodology used, and the shortcomings of using medieval wills and the probate process. Chapter One discusses the testamentary jurisdiction in both towns; who was involved in the will making process, and the role that clerics played as both executors and scribes and how the church courts operated. Chapter Two focuses on testators' preparations for the afterlife, their choices concerning burial location, funeral arrangements and the provisions made for prayers for their souls. Chapter Three examines in detail their pious and charitable bequests and investigates what ‘good works' testators chose to support apart from ‘forgotten tithes'. The family and household relationships, including servants and apprentices, are examined in Chapter Four, exploring the differences in bequests made depending on the testators' marital status, together with evidence for close friendships and social networks. Chapter Five discusses the ownership and types of books referred to in wills and the inter-relationship between the donors and the recipients. Testators' literacy and the provision for education are also investigated.

Réalisé à l'aide de données harmonisées par le Integrated Public Use Microdata Series (IPUMS). / Ce mémoire de maîtrise propose une réévaluation de la question désormais centenaire de la « fission » ou « nucléarisation » du ménage joint hindou (MJH). En utilisant la perspective dite « atomiste » développée par Michel Verdon (1998), nous jetons les bases d’une nouvelle modélisation de la formation et de la composition des ménages au Maharashtra postcolonial. Le mémoire sera divisé en quatre sections. La première introduit les principaux éléments de la perspective « atomiste », qu’elle opposera, dans la seconde section, aux axiomes « collectivistes » et aux explications « culturalistes » généralement rencontrés dans l’analyse ethnographique des ménages en Inde occidentale. La troisième section fournit une application qualitative de la perspective atomiste, et ce, en dressant un bref portrait ethnographique du ménage au Maharashtra pour les trois décennies suivant l’indépendance de l’Inde. La quatrième section offre une application statistique de la perspective atomiste en utilisant des données socioéconomiques et sociodémographiques rassemblées dans cinq rondes des National Sample Surveys (NSS) indiens; combinant nos hypothèses atomistes avec les « taux d’autonomie résidentielle » développés par Ermisch et Overton (1985), nous quantifions les tendances et divers déterminants de la composition des ménages au Maharashtra durant les années 1983 à 2004. Nos résultats ne montrent aucun signe d’une nucléarisation du MJH durant les années couvertes par les NSS, et indiquent qu’il s’est même produit une intensification de la subordination résidentielle et domestique des jeunes couples basés au Maharashtra entre 1993 et 2004. / This M.Sc. thesis offers a reappraisal of the century-old issue of the ‘fission’ or ‘nuclearization’ of the hindu joint household (HJH). Using Michel Verdon’s ‘atomistic perspective’ (1998), we provide a new modelling of household formation and composition in postcolonial Maharashtra. The thesis is divided into four major sections. In the first section, we introduce the main lineaments of the ‘atomistic’ perspective and we oppose it, in the second section, to the ‘collectivistic’ set of axioms and the ‘culturalist’ explanations generally used in ethnographic analyses of household formation and composition in Western India. In the third section, we apply Verdon’s atomistic framework by presenting a brief qualitative portrait of the household in Maharashtra for the first three decades after India’s independence. The fourth section offers a statistical application of the atomistic perspective using socioeconomic and demographic data available in five separate samples of India’s National Sample Surveys; combining atomistic hypotheses with Ermisch and Overton’s (1985) ‘loneship ratios’, we quantify the effects of several determinants of residential autonomy and household composition in Maharahstra for the years 1983-2004. Our results show no sign of a nuclearization of the HJH in Maharashtra, and indicate that there was even a rise in the residential and domestic subordination of young Maharashtrian couples from 1993 to 2004.