Relationships and Health 439
- What determines household divi-
sion of labor? - What is the gender tension line, and
how has it changed over the past
20 years? - To the extent that parenthood has a
negative effect on marriage, what are
the explanations? - What are some of the variables that
moderate the relation of parenthood
to health? - Are men and women equally likely to
be victims of IPV? Why or why not? - What are the differences between
intimate terrorism and situational
couple violence? - What do you think would be the
best way to measure the prevalence
of sexual coercion? How would you
define it? - Why are structural indexes of
support more strongly related to
men’s health than women’s
health? - What is the marital selection
hypothesis? - Why does marriage have a stron-
ger effect on men’s than women’s
health? - What are some of the methodologi-
cal issues to consider when exam-
ining the effect of widowhood on
women’s and men’s health? - Given what you know about how
women and men behave in marriage
and what women and men get out
of marriage, what predictions would
you make about how women and
men should adjust to separation and
divorce?
Discussion Questions
of parenting has become an important issue
for homosexuals, especially lesbian mothers.
However, research shows heterosexual and
homosexual parents are similar, and there
are few differences among the children they
raise.
Serious threats to relationships include
IPV and rape. Surprisingly, women are more
likely than men to perpetrate IPV—although
most IPV is mutual. There are different
kinds of IPV. Women are more likely than
men to be victims of intimate terrorism,
but women and men are equally likely to
be victims to the more common situational
couple violence. Intimate terrorism is the
kind of violence that is characterized by
domination and control on the part of males
over females. Intimate terrorism escalates
and poses serious threats to women’s health.
Situational couple violence is the kind of
violence that erupts from stress and does not
escalate.
Rape andsexual coercion are difficult
to define. Although women are more likely
than men to be victims of rape, reports of
sexual coercion are more similar between
women and men. Yet, like IPV, women
report more severe consequences of sexual
coercion compared to men. Perpetrators
of rape are more likely to hold rape myths.
Both rape and sexual coercion are influenced
by situational factors, such as the tendency
to interpret neutral behaviors in sexual
terms.
M11_HELG0185_04_SE_C11.indd 439 6/21/11 12:43 PM