Don ¹ t Miss Out: Youth Programs | Trends Paper | Rant | Adverse Childhood Experiences | Dada in Media - 10/6/07

[Smartmarriages]

- BASEBALL AND MARRIAGE
- DON'T MISS OUT: FREE YOUTH PROGRAM OFFER PLUS CASH FROM DIBBLE INSTITUTE
- TRENDS IN MARITAL STABILITY PAPER BY J WOLFERS
- AGAINST MARRIAGE COUNSELING
- ADVERSE CHILDHOOD EXPERIENCES STUDY
- FATHER PORTRAYALS ON TV AND IN MOVIES; FATHER'S DAY EVENT?

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- BASEBALL AND MARRIAGE

No Red Sox fan can resist weighing in on this one!  Massachusetts has
the lowest divorce rate in the US.  In fact, I can hear the roar (or
silence) from Fenway Park from my office.  Need I say more?!
Nancy McLaren
The Loving Well Project

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- DON'T MISS OUT: FREE YOUTH PROGRAM OFFER PLUS CASH FROM DIBBLE INSTITUTE

Get FREE youth relationship education curricula to help you launch youth
marriage education in your community - PLUS $75 cash award upon completion
of delivery to students!
 
Successful nominees will receive up to $450 in free curriculum materials
(LoveU2 or CONNECTIONS). Then all they have to do is teach the program to a
minimum of 30 teens by December 18, 2007 to earn a $75 cash award.  To
nominate yourself or someone in your community to be part of the "First
Comes Love" federally-funded Dibble Institute Youth Relationship Grant click
here: http://www.dibblefund.org/Documents/FCL_nomination-form.pdf  
?
The goal is to work with 100 teachers and youth workers to reach 3,000 high
school age youth with "best practices" healthy relationship and marriage
programs.  The program will operate through schools, youth agencies, and
faith communities. 

The nominees will be selected based on the following criteria:
Nominee is currently working with youth
Nominee has access to provide education to a minimum of 30 high school aged
youth
Nominee can complete the program with fidelity by December 18, 2007
Funding for this project is provided by the United States Department of
Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families: Grant
90FE0024/01

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- TRENDS IN MARITAL STABILITY PAPER BY J WOLFERS

Marginal Revolution Blog
Oct 7, 2007 

The Divorce Myth: What is Really Happening?

I began my week guest blogging by noting a widely under-appreciated point:
that divorce is falling.  Those posts led a bunch of folks, in the comments
and elsewhere, to ask about recent trends, to question the possible
confounding influence of changes in marriage rates, and for requests to
actually show, rather than summarize the data.

Good news: Despite blogging all week, Betsey Stevenson and I have managed to
put together a shortish paper describing the trends in marital stability
over recent decades, drawing on most available data sources. The paper is
largely pictures and tables, so should provide useful grist for discussion.
And of course, we are open to any useful suggestions.
Paper: 
http://bpp.wharton.upenn.edu/jwolfers/Papers/TrendsinMaritalStability.pdf
Posted by Justin Wolfers on October 7, 2007

In your analysis, you don't seem to discuss the changes in divorce law
beginning with no-fault divorce in CA in the '70s. Why don't you include an
analysis of changing incentives for married and about-to-be married people
in your study?
Posted by: CLS at Oct 8, 2007

The influence of divorce laws on the divorce rate is a topic taken up in a
different paper, here:
http://bpp.wharton.upenn.edu/jwolfers/Papers/Divorce(AER).pdf

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- AGAINST MARRIAGE COUNSELING

> The role of the female in every species is to pick the right mate. The wrong
> males are supposed to be barred from mating and procreating. Nature didn't
> intend human females or females from any other species to "fix" deficient
> mates; we're just supposed to reject them so they don't pass on their bad
> genes.

This is from a post on the "thoughts opinions rants" blog a rant by a
marriage counselor writing a rant against marriage counseling.  Read it and
please take time to send in your comment to the blog.  I have no idea who
this particular Elizabeth might be, but I sure would like to make contact
&/or find out if she knows about Smart Marriages. Below are her closing
paragraphs. - diane

> I raised the issue of the effectiveness of marriage counseling in an internet
> discussion forum for psychotherapists. I bluntly asked my colleagues if they
> had examples of successful marriage counseling they had done. Not a one--not a
> one! could relate a story of a marriage they had saved. One of my colleagues
> bluntly asked me why I was so invested in saving my patients' marriages?
> Others told me I had to accept the fact that many people have marriages most
> of us wouldn't tolerate, but that's their choice.
> 
> I believe instead of marriage counseling, we should have marriage education.
> Every high school should teach a relationship class. Perhaps if some people
> learn early on what marriage requires, the more dysfunctional characters will
> grasp the notion that they aren't cut out for it. That would save a lot of
> people time and money and prevent dysfunctional childhoods in the long run.

http://thoughtsopinionsrants.blogspot.com/2007/10/against-marriage-counselin
g.html

Or, if that doesn't work for you, here's a tiny url:
http://tinyurl.com/2yhuvg

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- ADVERSE CHILDHOOD EXPERIENCES STUDY

The ACE Study was initiated at Kaiser Permanente from 1995 to 1997, and its
participants are over 17,000 members who were undergoing a standardized
physical examination. . . . Each study participant completed a confidential
survey that contained questions about childhood maltreatment and family
dysfunction [including divorce], as well as items detailing their current
health status and behaviors. This information was combined with the results
of their physical examination to form the baseline data for the study.

The Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Study is one of the largest
investigations ever conducted on the links between childhood maltreatment
and later-life health and well-being. . .  Over 17,000 members chose to
participate. To date, over 30 scientific articles have been published and
over 100 conference and workshop presentations have been made.

The ACE Study findings suggest that these experiences are major risk factors
for the leading causes of illness and death as well as poor quality of life
in the United States. Progress in preventing and recovering from the
nation's worst health and social problems is likely to benefit from the
understanding that many of these problems arise as a consequence of adverse
childhood experiences.

http://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/ace/prevalence.htm

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- FATHER PORTRAYALS ON TV AND IN MOVIES; FATHER'S DAY EVENT?

Examples of how fathers/husbands are portrayed and an endorsement of new
show "Saturday Night Lights" (I've not seen it).  Might give you ideas for a
good community marriage event around Father's Day.  Start planning now.....
-d  


TV fathers not always portrayed in a nurturing light
Daily Journal 
10/05/2007
By John Stewart

Homer Simpson is the old man of television dads, having ruled his prime time
roost since 1989. So obviously he is a popular character.

But some people can't stand even a comedy that sacrifices respect for dad.

Marla Barnard, of Bourbonnais, former assistant principal at Kankakee High
School, said she wouldn't watch "The Simpsons" for that very reason. . .

Anything goes
. . . And that's a problem, according to a new book by Washington Post
columnist Diana West. In her work, titled "The Death of the Grown-Up," she
writes that American fathers don't have sons anymore. They have "mini-me's."
Dads and sons dress alike, play alike, eat alike -- even Cartoon Network
viewing habits.

According to West, youth culture has not only spread to include parents, but
what used to be restricted to adults is now largely available to children.
"The common compass of the past -- the urge to grow up and into long pants;
to be old enough to dance at the ball (amazingly enough, to the music adults
danced to); to assume one's rights and responsibilities -- completely
disappeared," she writes about the last 50 years.

As if to confirm this anything-goes attitude, HBO has introduced a father
leading a polygamous lifestyle on the series "Big Love."

But all hope is not lost.

The best scenes in "Friday Night Lights," according to the Los Angeles
Times, involve father and coach Eric Taylor (played by Kyle Chandler) and
the support he gives to and receives from his wife, Tami, a guidance
counselor played by Connie Britton.

"It's the most unfussy portrayal of a marriage on television," the writer
asserted.

For the full article:
http://www.daily-journal.com/archives/dj/display.php?id=404967

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