Read his thoughts in his new essay for Aeon, “Modern culture blames parents for forces beyond their control“
Family Counseling, Therapy & Parenting Intervention
Men and Depression, Joshua Coleman Comments for the WSJ
CCF Board member, Joshua Coleman, was cited in an article for the Wall Street Journal exploring gender differences in the experience of depression:
In Men, Depression is Different, by Elizabeth Bernstein.
Interpersonal Violence and the Great Crime Drop
Interpersonal Violence and the Great Crime Drop
A briefing paper prepared for the Council on Contemporary Families Online Symposium on Intimate Partner Violence by Samuel Walker, School of Criminology and Criminal Justice, University of Nebraska at Omaha, samwalker@unomaha.edu, 402-554-3590 (o); 402-556-4674 (cell).
April 20, 2015
Drowned out by the shocking stories in the popular media about brutal domestic violence cases, rape, spouse murders, and child abuse is a startling and well-documented trend in American life – violence among intimates is down. And the decline is not small. Between 1993 and 2010, “Intimate partner violence” fell by 64 percent.
The decline in intimate partner violence, moreover, is common to all racial and ethnic groups. In the 1994-2010 period, violence declined 61 percent among non-Hispanic whites, 62 percent among African Americans, and 78 percent among Hispanics.
This startling and under-publicized development has major implications for how we think about family and intimate partnerships in America and how we should think about family-related social policies.
The data come from the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS), an annual national household survey that collects self-reported data on victimization from persons 12 years of age or older, conducted by the U.S. Justice Department and the Census Bureau. The 2010 survey of intimate partner violence involved 73,300 individuals in about 41,000 households. The methodology is similar to other national-level social surveys.
Created in 1972, the NCVS is a much better source of crime data than the better known FBI Uniform Crime Rates (UCR), which has been severely criticized by criminologists almost since it was created (and yet plods forward virtually unchanged). The fatal flaw in the UCR is that it counts only reported crimes. If you do not report your domestic assault, those crimes never enter the official record. It is as if they never happened. As a national household survey, the NCVS gives us a far more complete picture of crime in America by capturing both reported and unreported crime.
“Intimate partners” in the NCVS survey covers the full range of personal relationships: current or former spouses, and current or former male and/or female romantic relationships. (Presumably it covers same-sex relationships. The NCVS records self-reports, and so if the person interviewed refers to a spouse or intimate partner who happens to be of the same sex the survey duly reports it as an intimate partner relationship.)
Criminologists are not surprised by the decline in intimate partner violence. It is simply one part of what has been called the Great American Crime Decline. Around 1993-94 crime began a long and unprecedented decline in all crime categories. Murder, robbery and burglary have all declined to a significant decree. In recent years, New York City murder rates have fallen to levels not seen since the early 1960s. The same is true on the other side of the country in San Diego.
Several aspects of the decline in intimate partner violence merit comment. The data reveal stark contrasts in the rate of violence by marital status. Married couples have the lowest rate of all (2 per 1,000), while “separated” couples have by far the highest, at 59.6 per 1,000. But before anyone concludes that we should make divorce harder to get, we should consider two important aspects of the data. First, the violence rate among “divorced or widowed” (6.5 per 1,000) is lower than that for “never married” (8 per 1,000). It is safer to conclude that it is not divorce per se that is associated with partner violence but the process of separating, with all of its well-known conflicts and pressures, that is associated with violence.
The second point about the variations by marital status is particularly important. The NCVS data clearly indicate that intimate partner violence declined at almost the same rate for all groups regardless of marital status. Married, divorced or widowed, and separated victims all experienced declines of 60 percent or more. In short, something positive was happening between 1994 and 2010 that was experienced by all categories.
Criminologists have not reached consensus on the causes of either the Great Crime Drop or its intimate partner component. Apart from ideologues who want to push a single issue, they agree on only one thing: that there is no single cause. What is clear, however, is that intimate partner relationships are not affected by a different dynamic than other violent crimes. Alarmist claims about a new or growing “epidemic” of domestic violence are not supported by the best evidence available. Nor can anyone plausibly claim that the violence that does exist is a result of the decline in marriage rates or the rise of unwed motherhood, since both continued to increase during the period that these large declines occurred. This is good news with respect to trends in marriage and non-marital relationships in the U.S. Regardless of the trends in divorce or cohabitation, people in troubled relationships have been steadily less likely to resort to violence.
A number of questions merit deeper investigation. Some evidence suggests that the decline in sexual assault began before the early 1990s. It could well be that beginning in the 1970s the women’s movement, by raising public consciousness about sexual assault and helping to create a network of social services related to that crime, has had a significant impact on both behavior and how public and private agencies respond to it. At the same time, the women’s movement since the 1970s has had a major impact on police policy and practice related to domestic violence, on the prosecution of domestic violence cases, and on the availability of social services for victims. Further research might be able to specify the direct impact of these developments on the long-term decline in intimate partner violence.
April 20, 2015
The Trouble with Averages: The Impact of Major Life Events and Acute Stress May Not Be What You Think
Download Full Report as a Word Document
All those advice books that tell you what to expect when you get married or divorced, lose a spouse, or experience a trauma may be leading you seriously astray. That is the clear implication of a new report to the Council on Contemporary Families. Report authors Anthony Mancini (Pace University) and George Bonanno (Columbia University) have been studying many of the topics on which experts often dole out generic advice–from marriage and divorce to death of a loved one and military PTSD. They keep finding the same thing: “Our research confirms—in study after study—that people respond in surprisingly diverse ways to a wide variety of life events and acute stressors.” The research, discussed in Mancini and Bonanno’s report, “The Trouble with Averages: The Impact of Major Life Events and Acute Stress May Not Be What You Think,” suggests that there is no one “normal” response to getting married or divorced, losing a spouse to death, or experiencing military deployment.
Marriage ≠ happiness, divorce ≠ unhappiness, and bereavement doesn’t end life as you knew it
There are an infinite number of clichés about marriage, divorce, and the death of a spouse. These clichés put a lot of pressure on people to conform to those hyped expectations, and cause anxiety if they don’t. But Mancini and Bonanno’s report demonstrates that those clichés—often derived from statistically “average” responses to major life transitions—hide the diversity of ways people react to both good and tragic turns in life. Consider the following findings:
- Does marriage really make you happy? 80% of people who marry are happy, but they were equally happy long before they got married. In other words, marriage doesn’t make you happy, it makes you married.
- Just under 10 percent of people who married were changed for the better. This group showed decreasing well-being in the years before the marriage, followed by gradually increasing well-being afterwards.
- Some changed for the worse. Another 6 percent demonstrated a sharp decrease in well-being after the marriage.
How traumatic is the loss of a spouse as a result of death or divorce?
- 72% of divorcing people had relatively high levels of life satisfaction before they divorced and maintained those levels afterward, while nearly one in 10 divorcing people showed substantial increases in well-being. Less than one in five had the “expected” decline in life satisfaction following divorce.
- Sixty percent of those who lost a spouse to death reported stable levels of life satisfaction both before and after the loss of a loved one, despite their sorrow, and five percent reported an increase in life satisfaction.
Mancini and Bonanno’s research also counters stereotypes about traumatized veterans. For example,
- More than 80 percent of returning soldiers displayed normal levels of functioning before and after deployment
- Only about 7 percent showed substantially elevated symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder.
- A small group of veterans showed elevated distress both before and after their initial deployment, indicating their distress predated their war experiences.
Mancini observes, “These results should reassure people who hesitate to hire returning veterans, but they offer no support for cutting back treatment programs for veterans. In fact, our findings suggest that more attention should be paid to evaluating soldiers’ well-being and providing treatment when needed before as well as after deployment.”
Who cares? (Those concerned with first do no harm.)
Mancini makes the relevance unambiguous: “Our research has real life consequences. Reliance on average responses has led to the cultural assumption that most people experience considerable distress following loss and traumatic events and that everyone can benefit from professional intervention. After 9/11, for example, counselors and therapists descended on New York City to provide early interventions, particularly to emergency service workers, assuming that they were at high risk of developing posttraumatic stress disorder.” In the report Mancini and Bonanno discuss the harm sometimes done by interventions—such as grief therapy or critical incident tress debriefing—that are based on these assumptions. Mancini continues, “In fact, most people—even those who experience high levels of exposure to acute stress—recover without professional help.”
Virginia Rutter
Board Member
Council on Contemporary Families
About CCF
The Council on Contemporary Families is a non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to providing the press and public with the latest research and best-practice findings about American families. Our members include demographers, economists, family therapists, historians, political scientists, psychologists, social workers, sociologists, as well as other family social scientists and practitioners.
Founded in 1996 and now based in the School of Education and Human Development at the University of Miami, the Council’s mission is to enhance the national understanding of how and why contemporary families are changing, what needs and challenges they face, and how these needs can best be met. To fulfill that mission, the Council holds annual conferences, open to the public, and issues periodic briefing papers and fact sheets.
Keeping Your Partner (and Yourself) Healthy During the Holidays
December 19, 2009
By Deborah Carr, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Sociology
Rutgers University
Kristen W. Springer, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Sociology
Rutgers University
Download Full Report as a Word Document
The holiday season is one of the most festive times of the year. But the joys of Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa and New Year’s Eve have a dark side: the physical toll that comes from unhealthy eating and drinking, stressful travel, irregular sleep, and neglect of regular exercise. It’s not just the body that suffers. Emotional health also may be threatened by the stress of shopping (especially during these financially difficult times), by long-simmering family tensions, and by the pressure to create the “perfect” occasion. If you’re looking for regular exercise opportunities, try searching for local tennis training for example tennis coach near me boston.
Keeping healthy during the holiday season isn’t something we need to do alone, however. Decades of research by social scientists show that good relationships keep us healthy. Our spouses and partners can help us to eat and sleep well, motivate us to exercise, and provide emotional support during stressful times. Here are ten tips to keep yourself (and your families) healthy this holiday season.
- Exercise Together. It’s hard enough to exercise regularly during the year, never mind during the hectic holiday season. Families can pre-schedule a 30 minute exercise time for each day of the holiday break. Taking an early morning jog or a leisurely walk after dinner is more fun when you do it together. If you really want to go the extra mile, and feel the need to escape this festive season, why not book yourselves on a yoga teacher training course? You can click here to find out more.
- Say When, When It Comes to Food. The average person gains a pound over the holidays, which may not sound like much but can really add up over the years. You and your family members can choose your favorite holiday treats and then agree to limit the amount of tempting foods you keep in the house. Skip fat-laden appetizers and serve veggies with salsa, humus, or Thai dipping sauce. Indulge sweet tooths with apple slices, mandarin orange wedges, and dates. Partners can also help each other resist the extra serving. Remember to nudge, not nag. Singles can enlist the help of friends.
- Drink in Moderation. Couples can make a pact about drinking, as well as food. Decide in advance how many drinks you’ll have, tell your partner, and then vow to stick to this. Give each other license to say “you’ve had enough.” Again, remember to nudge, not nag. (If you or your partner cannot resist the temptation to drink, however, do consider seeking professional help). Hosts should be sure to have a selection of sparkling waters and interesting juices. Try cucumber blended with cilantro, pineapple, and apple-pear juice.
- Keep a Regular Bed Time. Irregular sleep is one of the biggest taxes on good health over the holidays. If you struggle to sleep during the holidays, it might be worth looking into a new mattress to see if that makes you fall asleep better. To see the best Bed in a box mattress brand, you could look at online reviews to see what other people think. It’s important to stick to a sleeping schedule throughout the holidays! Partners can decide before the party the best time to leave – including appointing one of you to keep track of time and make sure you leave the party at a set hour. It’s easier to say “sorry, we have to leave,” or “I know she’d love to stay, but she has a meeting in the morning” if you’ve made a plan ahead of time and one person is appointed to keep track.
- Split the Driving. Holidays often involve long drives to family and friends. Icy roads, traffic, and sheer exhaustion all increase the chances of a car accident. Partners can divide up the driving, to ensure that the passenger can rest and recover while the driver focuses on the road. When your partner is driving make sure you are the only one using the cell phone.
- Find Couple Time. Even the best relationship can suffer when you are surrounded by energetic children, nagging in-laws, and annoying distant cousins. Take an hour away from the family festivities to take a nap, go for a walk, have a quiet conversation, or make love.
- Sneak Away for Alone Time. Everyone needs time alone to breathe. If the family closeness gets to be too much, just take a break. Your partner can “cover” for you by telling family members that you needed a few minutes to be on your own, away from the celebration. Partners can discuss, before the family gathering, how they can support the other taking a quick get-a-way.
- Share The Burden. Women often shoulder the burden of the holidays, doing everything from shopping, wrapping gifts, cooking, sending holiday cards, and organizing travel. This stress can be overwhelming. Make a list of tasks, and then divide it up among family members, including children. If everyone chooses some tasks, this takes the load off of Mom and makes the holiday a true family affair. And if the wrapping isn’t as perfect as Mom’s, who really cares?
- Have Realistic Expectations. Movies about heartwarming holiday celebrations, and TV ads showing couples swapping the perfect gift are fiction. Think realistically about what your family really is, what you can afford, and what holidays have been like in the past. Keeping expectations in line with reality helps to keep everyone happy.
- Put Your Health First. Martyrs seldom live long lives. Take care of your own health first: Take time to sleep, wash your hands, go for a walk. Check in on your oral health and the condition of your teeth by visiting a Dentist in Kennewick or a practice nearer to home. If one household member gets sick, the others are sure to follow. Keeping yourself healthy keeps your entire family healthy.
About CCF
The Council on Contemporary Families is a non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to providing the press and public with the latest research and best-practice findings about American families. Our members include demographers, economists, family therapists, historians, political scientists, psychologists, social workers, sociologists, as well as other family social scientists and practitioners.
Founded in 1996 and now based in the School of Education and Human Development at the University of Miami, the Council’s mission is to enhance the national understanding of how and why contemporary families are changing, what needs and challenges they face, and how these needs can best be met. To fulfill that mission, the Council holds annual conferences, open to the public, and issues periodic briefing papers and fact sheets.
