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The majority of emerging adults in the United States spend time in cohabiting unions. Prior research has suggested that higher levels of sexual non-exclusivity may exist among those in cohabiting relationships compared to marital unions. Although these basic patterns have been explored in prior work, research examining the potential reasons why levels of sexual non-exclusivity differ by union status has been limited. Drawing on a relational perspective and using the fifth wave of data from the Toledo Adolescent Relationships Study (TARS), the present study found that higher levels of sexual non-exclusivity in cohabiting relationships were explained by intimate relationship characteristics and sexual histories rather than sociodemographic factors, partner heterogamy, or partner- and couple-level drug use. These findings highlighted that understanding the higher rates of sexually non-exclusive experiences in cohabiting relationships, compared to marital relationships, requires attention to specific dynamics of the intimate partnership and prior relational experiences of both partners. The study concluded that cohabitation has a unique place in emerging adults’ relationship landscape and may set the groundwork for future relationship functioning.

Relationships have changed dramatically in the last 50 years. Fewer couples are marrying, more are cohabiting. Reasons for this shift include more attractive labor market opportunities for women and changing social norms, but the shift may have consequences of its own. A number of models predict that those cohabiting will specialize less than those marrying. Panel data on time use – particularly housework time – as well as on the degree of specialization in more narrowly defined household tasks from the 2001–2019 waves of the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia survey are used to test this prediction.

The time use data for men provides only limited supporting evidence for specialization. The results for women are much stronger. Women who marry without first cohabiting increase their reported housework time more than those who enter cohabitations (by 3.7 hours versus 1.2 hours). The latter generally make up a third of the difference if they do marry. Expanding the analysis to other uses of time yields some further evidence of specialization.

Survey responses on the degree of specialization are more informative. The raw data show substantial intrahousehold specialization and further analysis reveals that on average married couples specialize more than cohabiting couples. Adding couple-specific fixed effects reveals that specialization increases when cohabiting couples marry. Interestingly, there does not appear to be a substantial tradeoff between tasks; partners who report specializing more on one task are more likely to report specializing on other tasks as well. Given the important roles couples have in family formation and the labor market, it is important to understand this intrahousehold behavior.

The literature on cohabitation intimates a clear line between marriage and cohabitation where the latter lacks a formal or legal backing. This understanding overlooks contextual issues which complicate definitions of cohabitation. With evidence from historical and contemporary literature on cohabitation among the Asante of Ghana, this chapter argues that traditional social practices coupled with the plurality of legal frameworks governing marriage in Ghana, leads to subjective constructions and interpretations of cohabiting unions. Consequently, there are situations where one form of partnership would qualify as marriage, whilst the same would be considered a cohabiting union in other circumstances. Again, the sense in which cohabitation functions as a prelude, an alternative or equivalent to marriage among the Asante differs significantly from what pertains in other societies. The chapter, therefore, calls into question the oversimplified meanings of cohabitation often based on the assumption of a dualistic relationship between marriage and cohabitation. The chapter concludes that the definition of cohabitation among the Asante and some sections of the Ghanaian public is fluid and not as clearly defined as it is in other parts of the world, especially the Global North. Given this reality, rather than generalized interpretations of cohabitation, researchers need to consider the contextual differences and understandings of cohabitation in their studies.

Past research has established a relationship between the perceptions of fairness in the division of household labor and relationship satisfaction. Varying according to gender and time, this relationship has been found with differing outcomes, including relationship satisfaction, relationship happiness, divorce, and sexual frequency. Although this relationship has been well studied, little research has focused on how this relationship is moderated by relationship status. According to the Second Demographic Transition Theory (SDT), as societies become more “modern,” cohabitation will become more prevalent, eventually becoming socially and culturally equivalent to marriage. As such, it is vital to ask how cohabitation and marriage differ, or if they differ at all. Therefore, this gap is explored by asking, “How do perceptions of the division of household labor affect married and cohabitating heterosexual couples’ relationship happiness and chance of separation?” In order to answer this question, the National Survey of Families and Households (Wave III) is analyzed, with outcomes focusing on relationship happiness and chance of separation. Results indicate that when married and cohabitating individuals experience similar levels of happiness with their partner’s housework, they also experience similar levels of relationship happiness and chance of separation, with relationship status not affecting the impact happiness with partner’s housework has on these relationship outcomes. This suggests that cohabitation and marriage may continue to become more similar overall.

Research has shown that for young adults, marital attitudes (e.g., desire, importance, and expectation) are associated with relationship quality. However, how this association plays out for young adults of color is less known. Additionally, the influence of skin tone perception on the relationship between marital attitudes and relationship quality remains understudied. To explore these associations, the authors examined African American and Latinx young adults (N = 57, M_age = 20.71 years, SD = 1.28; 75.4% female) attending a Midwestern university. Exploratory results indicated that marital expectations were positively associated with relationship quality in that young adults who expected to marry one day, reported greater relationship satisfaction, commitment, and intimacy in their current relationships. Additionally, skin tone perception moderated the association between marital attitudes and relationship quality in two ways (i.e., between expectations and satisfaction and between importance and intimacy). Collectively, findings suggest that differing levels of marital attitudes and skin tone perception contributes to young adults’ perceptions of relationship quality. Considering these psychological factors of attitudes, skin tone perception, and relationship quality, together with systemic racial/ethnic discrimination, the authors discuss future research and practice considerations.

Integrating uses and gratifications theory with social exchange theory, this study examines the antecedents of online brand community commitment and engagement and their impact on offline purchase intention.

Purposive sampling was used to administer an online survey to 205 members of a Facebook brand community of a global retailer.

The results verified the significant influence of online self-congruity on commitment and engagement and confirmed the full mediating role of engagement between commitment and offline purchase intention.

The study focused on a global chain retailer's peer-initiated online brand community as the focal data collection site.

The findings provide several managerial implications that can help retailers understand consumer behaviors in peer-initiated online brand communities.

The study offers insights into the dynamics between individual and group characteristics in online brand communities.

To make individualized men's basic upper garment patterns without sleeves, the authors developed a measuring garment that measures necessary body dimensions and angles all together. Additionally, the authors proposed a method for making individualized basic body block patterns using the obtained dimensions and angles.

The authors decided on the locations of the dimensions of the body required for making the individualized garments. The authors then sewed multiple stretchable capacitance sensors to corresponding locations on a stretchable T-shirt. To obtain the dimensions with sensors of short length, the authors indirectly obtained each length from the relationship between the actual body length and the capacitance of the sensor. Beforehand, the authors obtained linear-approximation equations for the relationship between actual body dimensions and the capacitance of sensors for five participants and a dummy. The authors then used the measuring garment and the equations to obtain the body dimensions of another six participants. The authors compared the obtained and actual body dimensions to verify the equations. The authors made individualized upper-garment patterns without sleeves and garments for the 11 participants with the obtained dimensions and angles. The authors verified the proposed method in wearing tests comparing garments designed using the proposed method with conventionally designed garments.

Using the measuring garment, the authors obtained body dimensions close to actual body dimensions. A pattern of the individualized basic upper garment using the obtained dimensions and angles could be drawn. Compared with the conventional patterns, the individualized patterns had notable differences in the locations of the shoulder point and side neck point and directions of the shoulder line, which relate to the shoulder shape (i.e. square, sloping, forward, or backward). In wearing tests, all participants declared that the individualized garment better fitted their shoulders than the conventional garment without tightness around the shoulders, neck, and armpits. The proposed method with the developed measuring garment was thus found to be effective in designing individualized garments.

This paper presents the possibility of not only measuring body dimensions but also designing individualized basic upper garments using the proposed measuring garment. The proposed measuring garment will assist the efficient manufacture of individualized upper garments without a three-dimensional scanner or special skills.

The purpose of the present study was to improve the fit of women’s bifurcated garments by developing an equation that can predict the crotch length accurately by using a few basic body measurements. This equation could provide a simple mass-customization approach to the design of bifurcated garments.

Demographic characteristics and easy-to-record body measurements available in the size USA database were used to predict the crotch length. Different methodologies including best subset regression, lasso regression and principal components regression were experimented with to identify the most important predictor variables and establish a relationship between the significant predictors and crotch length.

The lasso regression model provided the highest accuracy, required only five body dimensions and dealt with multicollinearity. The preliminary pattern preparation and garment fit tests indicated that by utilizing the proposed equation, patterns of customized garments could be successfully altered to match the crotch length of the customer, thereby, improving the precision and efficiency of the pattern making process.

Crotch length is a crucial measurement as it determines bifurcated garment comfort as well as aesthetic fit. The crotch length is usually estimated arbitrarily based on non-scientific methods while drafting patterns, and this increases the likelihood of dissatisfaction with the fit of the lower-body garments. The present study suggested an algorithm that could predict crotch length with 90.53% accuracy using the body dimensions height, hips, waist height, knee height and arm length.

In recent years, counterproductive knowledge behavior (CKB) and its types have received increasing interest in knowledge management as the degree of knowledge sharing and innovation in enterprises continues to increase. A rapidly growing number of studies have shed light on the important antecedents and consequences of employees’ CKB. However, the various labels, conceptualizations and operationalizations of CKB have fragmented this body of research. This study aims to systematically integrate the effects of the six types of organizational characteristics on CKB and further draws more general conclusions based on the results of previous studies.

Based on a survey of 103 effect values responsible for 52 CKB samples, the authors use the ABC theory to explore the effects of the six types of organizational characteristics on CKB. Moderator analysis were performed to resolve inconsistencies in empirical studies and understand the contexts under which CKB has the strongest or weakest effect.

The results showed that task interdependence and a positive organizational atmosphere, in general, negatively affect employees’ CKB in the moderation analysis. In contrast, workplace discomfort, negative organizational atmosphere, internal competition and time pressure positively and partly affect employees’ CKB. The direction and magnitude of these effects were affected by emotional factors, knowledge personnel types and sample sources. Discussing the theoretical, methodological and practical implications of these findings can offer a guiding framework for future research.

Better control of employees’ CKB is not achieved by adjusting organizational characteristics alone but by combining personal characteristics and mood changes with it to balance organizational characteristics and CKB. Furthermore, the large-sample joint study integrated the conceptual definition of CKB. The multivariate data study provided more reliable conclusions and a solid theoretical foundation for CKB research areas.

Drawing on threatened egoism theory, tournament theory and the extended agency model of narcissism, this paper aims to compare the effects of two different forms of grandiose narcissism of employees, namely, narcissistic rivalry (NR) and narcissistic admiration (NA), on knowledge hiding (HIDE), and investigate the potential mediating mechanism and boundary conditions.

Based on a three-wave survey of 296 participants recruited from six high-tech enterprises in China, the paper tests the proposed model by performing partial least squares structural equation modeling and a bias-corrected bootstrapping procedure.

The results indicate that NR facilitates knowledge hiding, while NA inhibits employees’ knowledge-hiding behavior. Emotional exhaustion plays a significant mediating role between NR and HIDE, and interpersonal trust negatively mediates the relationship between NA and HIDE. Moreover, interactional justice perception not only weakens the positive correlation between NR and emotional exhaustion but also weakens the indirect influence of NR on HIDE via emotional exhaustion. On the contrary, interactional justice perception strengthens the impact of NA on interpersonal trust, thus enhancing the mediating effect of NA on HIDE.

The present study expands the literature on knowledge management by addressing the underlying paradoxes of grandiose narcissistic employees’ HIDE behavior based on different connotations of narcissism and revealing the intervening mechanism with interactive justice perception as the moderator.