Catholic East and Pentecostal West (1800–Present)

The first part of this chapter examines Catholic missions among the Maasai, with particular attention given to the perennial issues raised by Vincent Donovan in his book Christianity Rediscovered. After a cursory examination of the role of missionary education as a vehicle of conversion, the discussion returns to the Maasai and, in particular, to the attraction of the Christian message to women. The second part of the chapter revisits West Africa with a brief glimpse of the Aladura movement in Yorubaland (Nigeria) before taking up Nigeria’s Pentecostal explosion in the mid-1970s. Expressed in multitudinous forms and organizations, the emergence of Spirit-centered movements took place within a local context of socioeconomic and political upheaval and a larger global context of exposure to modernizing influences, particularly those emanating from North American Pentecostalism. In addition to attracting young adults, women find that Pentecostalism is a boon to stable marriages and family life.

Fair Procedures for Fair Stable Marriage Outcomes

Given a two-sided market where each agent ranks those on the other side by preference, the stable marriage problem calls for finding a perfect matching such that no pair of agents prefer each other to their matches. Recent studies show that the number of stable solutions can be large in practice. Yet the classical solution to the problem, the Gale-Shapley (GS) algorithm, assigns an optimal match to each agent on one side, and a pessimal one to each on the other side; such a solution may fare well in terms of equity only in highly asymmetric markets. Finding a stable matching that minimizes the sex equality cost, an equity measure expressing the discrepancy of mean happiness among the two sides, is strongly NP-hard. Extant heuristics either (a) oblige some agents to involuntarily abandon their matches, or (b) bias the outcome in favor of some agents, or (c) need high-polynomial or unbounded time.We provide the first procedurally fair algorithms that output equitable stable marriages and are guaranteed to terminate in at most cubic time; the key to this breakthrough is the monitoring of a monotonic state function and the use of a selective criterion for accepting proposals. Our experiments with diverse simulated markets show that: (a) extant heuristics fail to yield high equity; (b) the best solution found by the GS algorithm can be very far from optimal equity; and (c) our procedures stand out in both efficiency and equity, even when compared to a non-procedurally fair approximation scheme.

Relationship and sexual satisfaction: A developmental perspective on bidirectionality

Researchers have investigated the directionality between relationship and sexual satisfaction; however, there remains no definitive conclusion. Previous longitudinal studies have not conceptualized relationship and sexual satisfaction as systematic developmental processes and have focused on predicting scores at later time points. Instead, researchers should be concerned with understanding how relationship and sexual satisfaction change together over time. The objective of this study was to use longitudinal data from midlife American marriages to test the directionality of the association between relationship satisfaction and sexual satisfaction. Multivariate latent growth curve modeling of 1,456 midlife Americans married for 20 years from the Midlife in the United States study was used to compare directionality models. Findings support that long-term, stable marriages of midlife Americans at the sample level were characterized by a linear increase in relationship satisfaction over 20 years and a linear decline in sexual satisfaction during the same time frame. A co-change model, wherein relationship and sexual satisfaction changed together over time, fit the data best. Trajectory correlations showed that changes in relationship and sexual satisfaction were strongly interconnected. High initial levels of sexual satisfaction protected against declines in relationship satisfaction over 20 years. Results support that relationship and sexual satisfaction change together over time and highlight that the longitudinal association between these outcomes is dynamic rather than static.

The Influence of Regulated Marital Conflict Resolution Styles on Marital Stability in Kiambu County, Kenya

The purpose of the study was to establish the relationship between regulated conflict resolution styles and marital stability in Kiambu County, Kenya. Specifically, the study sought to: establish the types of marital conflicts among married individuals in Kiambu County; determine the various marital conflict resolution styles used by married individuals in the County, and; establish the relationship between marital conflict resolution styles and marital stability. Descriptive-correlation research design was used. Data was collected from 96 married individuals aged 18 years and above by aid of a structured questionnaire. Data analysis was carried out using SPSS. The statistical techniques applied included independent samples T-test, Chisquare and Mann-Whitney U test. The results showed that most types of conflicts were solvable. Descriptive statistics indicated that regulated marital conflict resolution styles were used by majority of the respondents, with validating styles being the most applied (M=2.87, SD=0.745). This was followed by volatile styles (M=2.79, SD=0.827) and avoidant styles (M=2.79, SD=0.739). The difference between individuals in stable marriages and those in unstable marriages was not statistically significant in terms of their use of regulated marital conflict resolution styles. It was concluded that regulated conflict resolution styles were a necessary but not sufficient conditions for marital stability. It was recommended that premarital counselors should highlight to the would be couples that some conflicts are perpetual and therefore require coping with, rather than resolving.

Kinderen krijgen vóór en na een echtscheiding in Vlaanderen

Heeft echtscheiding een impact op het aantal kinderen dat mensen krijgen? Als Vlamingen na de ontbinding van hun eerste huwelijk geen kinderen meer zouden krijgen, dan leveren gestrande huwelijken significant minder kinderen op dan huwelijken die standhouden, zo blijkt uit de gegevens van het onderzoek ‘Scheiding in Vlaanderen’. Op het moment van de echtscheiding heeft 20% nog geen kinderen. Na de echtscheiding krijgt 20% nog kinderen. Of er (nog) kinderen komen na de echtscheiding hangt samen met de leeftijd bij de scheiding, het relatieleven na de scheiding, het aantal eigen kinderen en kinderen van de nieuwe partner en het opleidingsniveau. Voor de gehuwden uit de jaren 1970 en 1980 geldt dat hun uiteindelijke kindertal niet wordt verhoogd of verlaagd door de ervaring van een echtscheiding. Abstract : Which impact does divorce have on family formation in Flanders? If no children were born after a divorce then dissolved marriages would end up with less children than stable marriages, results from the study “Divorce in Flanders” (DiF) show. At the time of separation 20% marriages are childless. After a divorce 20% divorcees get (more) children. Whether children are born after a divorce depend on the age at separation, the partnership history after separation, the own number of children and the children of the new partner, as well as on the level of educational attainment. For marriages from the 1970’s and 1980’s a divorce experience did not affect the average final number of children.