menshealthaustralia.net

 The financial cost of divorce for men

What's a marriage worth? To an Aussie male, about $32,000. That's the lump sum Professor Paul Frijters says the man would need to receive out of the blue to make him as happy as his marriage will over his lifetime. An Aussie woman would need much less, about $16,000. But when it comes to divorce, the Aussie male will be so devastated it would be as if he had lost $110,000. An Aussie woman would be less traumatised, feeling as if she had lost only $9000. Recently named this year's Best Australian Economist under 40 by the Economic Society of Australia, the Queensland University of Technology professor knows this because he has been mining a unique set of data that has tracked the happiness and major life events of about 10,000 Australians once a year since 2001.

 Women as keen as men to have group sex

AUSTRALIAN women are as keen as men to take part in consensual group sex, and they initiate it almost as often. These are the key findings of a survey conducted among members of the nation's second biggest online dating site. Almost 40 per cent of respondents report an equal gender split in the group encounter, while a further 30 per cent report a majority of men taking part and 30 per cent a majority of women. Almost as many women as men instigate the idea of group sex - 46 per cent compared with 54 per cent, according to the sizeable RedHotPie.com.au survey, which drew 8763 responses from among its 1.5 million member listings.

 Suicidal ideation and behaviour in the aftermath of marital separation: Gender differences

The limited studies on the consequences of the separation process on suicidal behaviour seem to indicate that separated people are at increased risk of suicide. The current study aims to compare suicidality immediately after the separation among males and females, and to analyse possible differences in predictors of serious suicidal ideation.

Separated males (n=228) were at an increased risk of developing suicidality during the separation process compared to separated females (n=142), even after adjusting for age, education, employment and children with the separated partner. The psycho-social risk factors identified in the development of serious suicidal ideation were mental health problems (during the previous year), history of suicide attempts and internalised shame. For separated males, significant predictors also included lower education, separation-related shame and stress from legal negotiations, especially about property/financial issues.

The findings provide a better understanding of suicidal behaviours in the aftermath of marital or de facto separation. This knowledge could be used in the implementation of future suicide prevention strategies in people who are going through the process of a marital/de facto separation.

 Gender bias evident in parental alienation cases (Canada)

A study of alienated children has found that mothers were significantly more likely to be the parent who emotionally poisoned their children than were fathers. Toronto family lawyer Gene Colman said that alienating fathers were twice as likely to be ordered to undergo counselling as were mothers in alienation cases - a finding that raises serious questions about whether judges are exhibiting gender biases. Fathers who had their alienated children switched from their homes were granted some form of access by the courts in a "much lower" percentage of cases than were mothers.

 Separation as a suicide risk factor

Marital separation (as distinct from divorce) is rarely researched in the suicidological literature. Studies usually report on the statuses of ‘separated’ and ‘divorced’ as a combined category, possibly because demographic registries are not able to identify separation reliably. However, in most countries divorce only happens once the process of separation has settled which, in most cases, occurs a long time after the initial break-up.

The incidence of suicide associated with marital status, age and gender was determined by comparing the Queensland Suicide Register (a large dataset of all suicides in Queensland from 1994 to 2004) with the QLD population through two different census datasets: the Registered Marital Status and the Social Marital Status. These two registries permit the isolation of the variable ‘separated’ with great reliability.

During the examined period, 6062 persons died by suicide in QLD (an average of 551 cases per year), with males outnumbering females by four to one. For both males and females separation created a risk of suicide at least 4 times higher than any other marital status. The risk was particularly high for males aged 15 to 24 (RR 91.62).

This study highlights a great variation in the incidence of suicide by marital status, age and gender, which suggests that these variables should not be studied in isolation. Furthermore, particularly in younger males, separation appears to be strongly associated with the risk of suicide.

 Child custody, access and parental responsibility: the search for a just and equitable standard (Canada)

Edward Kruk, professor of social work at the University of British Columbia, proposes a four-pillar approach to child custody determination in Canada (or elsewhere for that matter). The paper examines the issues, surveys approaches in UK, USA, Sweden and Australia, examines Canadian Child custody legislation at a provincial level, reviews Canadian efforts to make changes, and critiques the traditional sole custody approach as a basis leading up to the universal four-pillar approach for Equal Parenting.