News by Subject Social & Behavior

Less parental warmth and more harshness in the home environment can affect how aggressive children become and whether they lack empathy and a moral compass-a set of characteristics known as callous-unemotional (CU) traits.

Couples marrying in civil ceremonies should be allowed to have religious vows, rituals, readings, and music as part of their ceremony for the first time, a major new study has concluded.

Honeymoon long over? Hang in there. A new University of California, Berkeley, study shows those prickly disagreements that can mark the early and middle years of marriage mellow with age as conflicts give way to humor and acceptance.

Casual sex among emerging adults can be a source of intimacy, and often is, according to a new study conducted by an interdisciplinary team of researchers including Binghamton University faculty and researchers at Indiana University's Kinsey Institute.

Changes in relationships have links to physical activity. The total number of non-exercise steps was reduced during a four-year follow-up study for men who divorced. For women who found a new spouse between the measurement points, the total steps decreased significantly when compared to women married throughout the period.

According to Colorado State University social psychologist Jennifer Harman, about 22 million American parents have been the victims of behaviors that lead to something called parental alienation. Having researched the phenomenon for several years, Harman is urging psychological, legal and child custodial disciplines to recognize parental alienation as a form of both child abuse and intimate partner violence. Harman has authored a review article in Psychological Bulletin defining the behaviors associated with parental alienation and advocating for more research into its prevalence and outcomes.

'Not in front of the kids' is an age-old plea for parents to avoid showing conflict and strong negative emotions around their children. But new research from a Washington State University scientist disagrees, showing that it's better to express negative emotions in a healthy way than to tamp them down.

A new national study shows that people whose mothers had more partners -- married or cohabiting -- often follow the same path. Results suggest that mothers may pass on personality traits and relationship skills that make their children more or less likely to form stable relationships.

Societal acceptance of domestic violence against women is widespread in developing countries, with 36 per cent of people believing it is justified in certain situations.