Month: May 2019

Washington D.C., May 29, 2019 / 11:01 pm (CNA).- Are childless, spouseless women actually happier than their married counterparts?

A widely-circulated finding from a study by a London professor suggests that while marriage increases the happiness of men, married women are actually more miserable than single women.

“We do have some good longitudinal data following the same people over time, but I am going to do a massive disservice to that science and just say: if you’re a man, you should probably get married; if you’re a woman, don’t bother,” Paul Dolan, a professor of behavioral science at the London School of Economics, said at a presentation of his data analysis this weekend, reported on by The Guardian. The study is the basis of a new book by Dolan called Happily Ever After.

But other researchers have suggested that Dolan seems to be basing at least some of his conclusions on a misreading of data from the American Time Use Survey, which he analyzed for his study.

Particularly, Dolan seems to have misread a question that asks about whether a spouse is present or absent, W Brad Wilcox, a professor and family researcher with the Institute of Family Studies said on Twitter.

Dolan concludes that the question from the ATUS survey refers to whether a woman’s spouse was in the room as she responded to the survey, Wilcox said, but the question seems to refer instead to whether a spouse was present or absent in the respondent’s life.

“But Dolan appears to have misread ATUS survey questions regarding whether or not spouse was in the household to refer to whether or not the spouse was present for the interview–and thereby drew incorrect conclusions about marrieds’ happiness, especially wives’ happiness,” Wilcox said on Twitter.

Gray Kimbrough, a researcher and adjunct professor with the American University’s School of Public Affairs who tweeted that he “doesn’t have a dog in the fight” in whether single women are happier or not, also said on Twitter that Dolan appears to have misanalyzed the question about a spouse’s presence or absence.

“This claim, repeated breathlessly by many media outlets, appears to be based on a flawed analysis that actually compared slight differences in reported activity-level happiness for married people whose spouses live in the same household from those whose spouses live elsewhere,” Kimbrough said.

The ATUS question on presence or absence of a spouse “isn’t measuring a spouse’s presence for the interview, or even for any activities–just presence *in the household*,” Kimbrough added.

In other words, the decrease in happiness Dolan found appears to occur when spouses are absent in a married woman’s life for various reasons, instead of married women admitting their misery only when their spouse leaves the room during a survey, both Wilcox and Kimbrough concluded.

Furthermore, Wilcox said, Dolan’s findings do not align with other studies on marriage and happiness for women.

In data from the General Social Survey between 2010-2018, analyzed by Wilcox and researcher Nicholas Wolfinger, married women between the ages of 18 and 50 reported significantly higher rates of happiness than their divorced, separated, or single and never married counterparts.

According to GSS data, married women without children reported being “very happy” at a rate of 45%, while married women with children reported being “very happy” at a rate of 41%. Women separated or divorced without children reported “very happy” rates of 27%, while separated or divorced women with children reported “very happy” rates of 21%.

For single, never-married women, their reported rates of being “very happy” were at 24% for those without children, and 19% for those with children.

The pattern held when adults were questioned about rates of unhappiness, Wilcox and Wolfinger found.

Wolfinger noted that he was unable to reach Dolan for comment on an article he wrote about his data analysis, but Wolfinger said that “the story becomes clearer after looking at the ATUS questionnaire. First, it’s important to note that general happiness is being measured, not happiness within one’s marriage. The two are related to be sure, but far from perfectly. The GSS has separate measures of marital happiness and overall happiness, and the correlation coefficient between the two is .39.”

Secondly, he said, one ATUS question does ask about people present in the room during the survey, but respondents do not specify whether it was a spouse, child, parent, or cable repair guy, Wolfinger noted.

“Instead, respondents are asked this question: ‘Were you interacting with anyone during this time, including over the phone? (Yes/No).”

“But let’s put all these concerns aside and take Dolan’s finding at face value. How can his finding be explained? Here’s what he has to say about it on page 69 of his book: ‘It appears that people are more likely to say they feel happy if their spouse can hear what they are saying. Or it could simply be that their spouses put them in a better mood, which influences how they recall their experiences yesterday. (My money is on the former.)’”

“I’d like to think he’s wrong here,” Wolfinger concluded, “and his data do little to convince me one way or another.”

[…]

Des Moines, Iowa, May 29, 2019 / 04:10 pm (CNA).- Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) has said that she disputes Church teaching on the priesthood, sexuality, and abortion.

The Democratic presidential candidate made the comments while discussing her own beliefs in an interview for Iowa Public Radio the NPR Politics Podcast posted on Wednesday.

Gillibrand was raised in the Church and said she still “identifies” as a Catholic, even though she attends religious services at non-Catholic churches. The senator said she disagrees with Catholic teaching on “many things,” listing abortion, LGBT issues, and the all-male priesthood as points of dissent.

“I think [the Church] is wrong on those three issues,” said Gilibrand. “And I don’t think they’re supported by the Gospel or the Bible in any way. I just–I don’t see it, and I go to two Bible studies a week. I take my faith really seriously.”

Gillibrand is an outspoken supporter of abortion rights and has a zero percent rating from the National Right to Life Committee on life issues.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church, in line with unchanging Church teaching, declares abortion to be a grave moral evil and the taking of an innocent human life.

The catechism cites biblical references in illustration of its teachings on abortion, and on the institution of the priesthood and human sexuality, while stressing that all persons, regardless of sexuality, are made in the image and likeness of God and are to be treated with respect.

Gillibrand said she is usually reluctant to discuss her faith on the campaign trail as she does not want to alienate voters, and because she wants to keep a separation of church and state.

“So it’s not an issue that I talk about really outside of a worship service or a faith-based community because it can be offensive to some people, can be troubling to some people,” she explained.

Gillibrand went on to criticize Republicans for what she considers a lack of Christian charity.

 “When they don’t feed the poor and don’t vote for food stamps, when they don’t care about families struggling and living in poverty, when they continue to invest in for-profit prisons, they aren’t doing what the Gospel tells them to do: feed the poor, help the sick,” she said.

A 2018 study found that among Republicans, and in Republican-voting counties overall, charitable giving was higher on average than among Democrats and in Democrat-voting counties, which instead registered a higher overall higher tax burden.

Despite her campaigning efforts, Gillibrand remains a relative outside-contender for Democratic nomination. She has garnered an average of less than one percent of the polls, and is not one of the top 10 candidates at the national level.

[…]

Oakland, Calif., May 29, 2019 / 04:00 pm (CNA).- Bishop Michael Barber, S.J., of the Diocese of Oakland, California, has said he would sooner accept arrest and prison than comply with a state law that would force priests to violate the seal of confessi… […]

Cleveland, Ohio, May 29, 2019 / 02:58 pm (CNA).- A private Catholic school in Ohio has dropped its federal lawsuit after the city of South Euclid clarified that the school was not affected by a new ordinance on sexual orientation, gender identity and g… […]