Perceptions of Emotional Closeness and Commitment Among African American Couples: Implications for Promoting Relationship Stability

This study investigated how married and cohabiting African Americans define and experience emotional closeness and commitment because these processes have been shown to be directly linked to relationship stability. Thirty married and 30 cohabiting African American couples participated. Couples were between the ages of 21 and 45 years and had been in their relationship between 3 and 15 years. Interviews were conducted with the couples in their homes and were aimed at yielding a co-construction of couples’ views of these constructs. Specifically, this co-construction involved an examination of the ways men and women in married and cohabiting relationships define and experience emotional closeness and commitment. Special attention was devoted to examining the themes elicited from these interviews and illuminate the specific ways in which married and cohabiting African American couples consider emotional closeness and commitment. In general, few differences were apparent in their perceptions of emotional closeness. However, married couples were more likely to report that commitment played a large role in their decision to be together. Conversely, cohabiting couples expressed different views of commitment, often stating that commitment played a minimal role in their relationship or that they experienced commitment in ways that were not linked to the legal affirmation of their relationship. Implications for future research and practice include the importance of pinpointing the individual and cultural deterrents that affect the relationship stability of low income African American couples.     

Matching in sexual experience for married, cohabitating, and dating couples

The present study examined heterosexual romantic partners' number of intercourse partners prior to the initiation of their relationship to determine if a significant positive correlation (matching) occurred between partners, and if this matching was associated with their level of love, satisfaction with, and commitment to the relationship. One hundred and six couples who were dating, cohabitating, or married participated in this study. Results indicated that, with the exception of cohabitating couples, romantic partners showed a significant level of matching in the prior number of intercourse partners. Further, among the married couples, a higher discrepancy between men's and women's number of previous intercourse partners was related to lower levels of love, satisfaction, and commitment in the relationship.     

Matching in Sexual Experience for Married,Cohabitating, and Dating Couples

This study examined heterosexual romantic partners' number of intercourse partners prior to the initiation of their relationship to determine if a significant positive correlation (matching) occurred between partners, and if this matching was associated with their level of love and satisfaction with and commitment to the relationship. One hundred and six couples who were dating, cohabitating, or married participated in this study. Results indicated that, with the exception of cohabitating couples, romantic partners showed a significant level of matching in the prior number of intercourse partners. Further, among the married couples, a higher discrepancy between men's and women's number of previous intercourse partners was related to lower levels of love, satisfaction, and commitment in the relationship.     

Can Stress Build Relationships? Predictors of Increased Marital Commitment Resulting from the 2007–2009 Recession

Although some studies have examined factors that can help married couples maintain their relationship quality during financial stress, few have examined factors that might actually help marriages flourish during financial stress. This study examined participants’ reports of their commitment increasing because of the 2007–2009 Recession using dyadic data from a national sample of married couples. We found that religious marital sanctification, relationship maintenance behaviors, and social and financial support from family and friends were all related to both wives’ and husbands’ reports that their commitment had increased during the Recession. Wives who faced employment- or housing-related problems reported increased commitment. Finally, the more economic pressure participants felt during the Recession, the more their relationship commitment increased.     

Investments in Marriage and Cohabitation: The Role of Legal and Interpersonal Commitment

Cohabiters have been shown to invest less in their relationship than married couples. This study investigated the role of legal and interpersonal commitment by examining heterogeneity within marital and cohabiting unions. Going beyond the dichotomy of cohabitation versus marriage, different union types were distinguished by their level of legal and interpersonal commitment, followed by an assessment of their association with joint investments (specialization, having children together, purchasing a home). Using panel data from The Netherlands (N =2,362), the authors found considerable heterogeneity within marital and cohabiting unions. Joint investments increased as interpersonal commitment increased, with cohabiters without marriage plans investing the least and couples who directly married without prior cohabitation investing the most. The relationship between investments and legal union types was less straightforward and often challenged expectations, prompting the authors to elaborate on alternative explanations for their findings.     

Couples Managing the Risk of Financing Long-Term Care

This study examined the complexity of financial long-term care (LTC) decision outcomes among married couples. Supporting the theory of planned behavior, couples reported a range of consensus patterns with their financial LTC intentions and behaviors. Five newly articulated typologies of couples emerged from consensus patterns revealing that couples reported a range of financial LTC intentions and behaviors. More couples reported consensus with their financial LTC behaviors compared to intentions; financial LTC decision outcomes reflected a dynamic and on-going process; and couples were not always in agreement on their financial LTC decision outcomes. Findings reinforce the importance of family practitioners going beyond working with individuals to understanding couple-level planning for financing LTC.     

Cohabitation and Marriage in a Risky World

Different couples are analyzed in presence of income uncertainty and precautionary saving. Married couples have legal restrictions on their relationship that force them to act cooperatively, while cohabitants with limited commitment act non-cooperatively. This makes risk sharing different for different couples; married couples share risk completely, while cohabitants share risk to a lesser extent due to their lack of commitment and cooperation. This makes precautionary savings greater for cohabitants than for married couples. However, cohabitants also tend to undersave to possibly increase assistance from their partner. However, mutual altruism mitigates the inefficiencies and enforces time consistent risk sharing among cohabitants.I am thankful to Jonas Agell, Sophia Grahn-Voorneveld, Peter Kooreman and to Mats Persson for valuable comments on an earlier version. I have also received useful comments from the editor and from two anonymous referees. Generous financial support from the Jan Wallander and Tom Hedelius Foundation and from Knut and Alice Wallenbergs Foundation is gratefully acknowledged.     

Interracial Marriage Trends and Migration Patterns: An Analysis of LAFANS 2000

We hypothesized that interracial married couples will migrate more than intraracial married couples. We focus on three mechanisms (education, social support, and discrimination) that provide explanations for interracial couples to migrate more than interracial couples. The theoretical framework included the “Push-Pull” theory and perspective on social network ties and how they link to couples migration patterns. We used information gathered in a wave of the survey conducted in 2000 for the Los Angeles Family and Neighborhood Study. We used this survey and analyzed in a logistic regression model how the three mechanisms described above affect interracial married couples and migration patterns. The results provide a positive direction but did not provide a statistical significant due to small sample size. In conclusion, we find support from all three mechanisms for interracial marriage couples to have higher possibility for migration. Future implications should examine divorce rate and cohabitation to provide a higher migration pattern with interracial married couples.     

“No Matter What,Good or Bad,Love is Still There”: Motivations for Romantic Commitment Among Black Cohabiting Couples

Given the increasing number of couples that use cohabitation as a pathway or alternative to marriage, few studies to date have examined the factors that facilitate relationship entry and commitment. Recent study findings reveal children born to Black mothers as compared with White mothers have a 72% higher risk of experiencing their parents’ separation by year 3 and Black married parents have 5.33 times the risk of separating within 3 years after their child's birth relative to White married parents. However, few studies to date have examined the factors that increase the likelihood that cohabiting Black couples will enter and remain in a committed relationship. To fill the current void that exists in the literature and through the use of phenomenology as the foundation, I asked 30 low-income cohabiting Black couples the following question: “What do you think motivated your partner to commit to you?” Qualitative analysis of the responses revealed the following six themes: (1) no response/unsure, (2) physical appearance, (3) emotional and tangible support, (4) honesty and friendship, (5) love and commitment, and (6) personality and treatment. Implications for practitioners, policy, and research are also provided.     

Five factors in long-term marriages

The marriage relationship among 210 retired married couples was investigated as a function of sex, retirement status, relationship to children, commitment of the couple, and stage of ego development of the couple. The marriage relationship was assessed by measuring the expression of love between husbands and wives, and measuring their marriage problems. These older couples expressed less love to each other and had fewer marriage problems than younger married couples. Those couples who were committed to each other as persons, had fewer marriage problems. Those at more complex levels of ego development expressed more love to each other. Sex, retirement, and interaction with children were not related to the marriage relationship.This research was supported in part by NIMH Grant No. RO1 MH26933.     

Spirituality,Sacrifice, and Relationship Quality for Expectant Cohabitors

Given negative effects of cohabitation, we examine negative (ambivalence, conflict) and positive (commitment, satisfaction) relationship quality, as explained by perceptions of ease of relational sacrifices and spirituality, for unmarried cohabitors expecting their first child (46 individuals). Controlling for race/ethnicity and education, perceived ease of relational sacrifice was associated with greater satisfaction and lower ambivalence and conflict, whereas spirituality was not associated with any of the relationship quality variables. Examined together, greater ease of relational sacrifice and higher spirituality were associated with greater commitment and satisfaction and lower ambivalence and conflict. Given that many studies of cohabitation focus on demographic factors and that many studies of spirituality focus on married couples, the current study expands knowledge regarding relationship quality for nontraditional couples.     

Understanding the Decision to Marry Versus Cohabit: The Role of Interpersonal Dedication and Constraints and the Impact on Life Satisfaction

The current study explored men's and women's reasons for choosing to marry rather than to cohabit using a national data set (n = 786) of adults who were currently married or had been married previously. Using commitment theory participant's open-ended reasons for choosing to marry were coded into categories of either interpersonal dedication or constraint commitment. A variety of demographic, attitudinal, and relationship history variables were then used to predict commitment type. The influence of commitment type during the decision to marry on life satisfaction was also explored. Results indicate that current marital status (being married vs. being divorced or separated) and cohabiting before marriage were the strongest predictors of interpersonal dedication reasons for marriage for both men and women. Level of conventionality and parents' marital status also emerged as significant predictors of constraint commitment. Finally, marrying for reasons related to interpersonal dedication significantly predicted higher life satisfaction for men but not for women.     

Commitment and Relationship Maintenance Behaviors as Marital Protective Factors during Economic Pressure

Using a contemporary national sample of married couples (N?=?1368 couples) and a dyadic path analysis, the authors examined whether commitment and relationship maintenance behaviors facilitate marital quality resilience for wives and husbands reporting recession-related financial stressors and economic pressure. Relationship maintenance behaviors moderated the association between economic pressure and marital quality for wives. Wives reported higher levels of marital satisfaction and lower levels of divorce proneness during economic pressure when husbands reported higher levels of relationship maintenance behaviors. Unexpectedly, wives reported higher levels of divorce proneness during economic pressure when husbands reported higher levels of marital commitment.     

Editor's Comments

There are two purposes of this marriage education marketing study: (1) to compare the self-reported intra- and interpersonal qualities of 121 married couples (n = 242 individuals) attending a marriage education program with 46 married couples (n = 92 individuals) who were contacted through marketing promotional materials to attend the program but did not participate and (2) to determine if intra- and/or interpersonal qualities would predict the likelihood of marriage education attendance versus nonattendance. Results showed that compared with program nonparticipants, program participants reported lower levels of self-esteem, marital communication quality, marital commitment, marital satisfaction, family strengths, less consensus and intimacy, less fulfillment of marriage expectations, and increased levels of marital conflict. Levels of religiosity and fusion were the same for participants and nonparticipants. Wald logistic regression analysis indicated communication was the only significant predictor of marriage education participation. Implications for marriage education programming and practitioners are outlined.     

Covenant Attachment: A Constructivist Grounded Theory of Christian Couples and God

The purpose of this constructivist grounded theory study was to develop a deeper understanding of the relational system of married couples and God. We interviewed nine marital couples from Christian denominations that reported having a strong relationship with each other and with God together. We used constructivist grounded theory techniques presented by Charmaz (2006) and analyzed emergent categories of behaviors, emotions, and cognitions to construct a theory and model of Christian marital couples and their shared relationship with God. We then compared and contrasted the results and theory to existing literature on attachment theory and theorized a shared attachment to God. We applied the theological concept of kinship covenant to the results in order to organize and situate the theory into a Christian framework. Finally, we discuss clinical, pastoral, and future research implications.     

Emotions and the Self: Depression and Identity Change

Emotions hold a central place in sociological understandings of the self, both as a facet of identity management and as an outcome of self‐processes. We extend identity theory and research on emotions by suggesting that emotion may be another source of identity change and examine this using a longitudinal sample of newly married couples, focusing on person identities and depression. We find that individuals' identities change to become consistent with others' views. We also find that the more depressive symptoms that individuals experience, the more negative their identities. The identity meanings that change, however, are different for men and women.     

Cohabitation and commitment: partnership plans of young men and women

Popular commentators on marriage and the family often interpret the increase in heterosexual couples living together without marrying as reduced willingness to create and honour life‐long partnerships. Survey and in‐depth interviews with samples of 20–29 year olds living in an urban area of Scotland finds little support for the postulated link between growing cohabitation and a weakened sense of commitment to long‐term arrangements. Most of the cohabiting couples strongly stressed their ‘commitment’. Socially acceptable vocabularies of motive undoubtedly influenced answers but interviews helped to explore deeper meanings. Many respondents’ views were consistent with previous research predictions of a weakening sense of any added value of marriage. At the same time, some respondents continued to stress the social significance of the distinction between marriage and cohabitation, consistent with research interpreting cohabitation as a ‘try and see’ strategy part‐way to the perceived full commitment of marriage. The notion that ‘marriage is better for children’ continued to have support among respondents. While, on average, cohabiting couples had lower incomes and poorer employment situations than married couples, only very extreme adverse circumstances were presented as making marriage ‘too risky’. Pregnancy‐provoked cohabitation was not always in this category. Cohabitation was maintained because marriage would ‘make no difference’ or because they ‘had not yet got round to’ marriage. Most respondents were more wary of attempting to schedule or plan in their personal life than in other domains and cohabitees’ attitudes to partnership, including their generally ‘committed’ approach, do not explain the known greater vulnerability of this group to dissolution.     

Does Engagement Matter? Marital Intentions and Relationship Quality Among Cohabiting African Americans

Despite growing cohabitation rates, few studies have examined the relationship between engagement status and relationship quality among cohabiting couples, especially among Black Americans. This study used data from 30 cohabiting Black couples (n = 60) to examine whether perceptions of love, commitment, relationship satisfaction, and intimacy problems differ by whether cohabitors are engaged to be married. Results indicated that engaged Black cohabitors reported higher love scores than non-engaged Black cohabitors. They also had slightly more intimacy problems, but only in bivariate models. There were no significant differences in commitment or satisfaction between engaged and non-engaged Black cohabitors. Additional analyses revealed no variation in effect of engagement on relationship quality by gender. Results suggest that practitioners and policymakers should be careful not to make assumptions about relationship quality according to engagement status or gender in cohabiting Black relationships. The meaning and implications of engagement among cohabiting Black Americans may be changing.     

Synergists and Qualities Salient to Low-Income Parents' Positive Assessment of Marital Health

Researchers sought low-income couples who considered their marriages to be “good or very good” to inform the process of how individuals and their partners establish and maintain a healthy marriage under significant financial limitations. Twenty married parents participated in semistructured interviews that sought their insights into backgrounds and antecedents that impacted their own and their partners' development and current positive marital assessment. Analysis using grounded theory methods generated a model that posits synergists enhancing the development of qualities that contributed to spouses' positive assessments. The four synergists were sensitizing experiences, a partner-as-rescuer mind-set, acute parental influences, and religious influences. The four requisite high-priority qualities associated with these synergists were love, commitment, appreciation, and child-centeredness.