Marital Sentiment Override: Does It Influence Couples' Perceptions?

This study investigated the effects of spouses' global sentiments (i.e., their marital bonds) on spouses' perceptions of their partners' specific affects. Ninety‐six newlywed couples participated in the study. Positive or negative sentiment override was indicated when spouse ratings of specific affects differed from the coding of objective coders. For both positive affect and low‐intensity negative affect, wives' marital bond predicted their ratings of their husbands' affect. In addition, there was evidence for positive sentiment override when wives rated husbands' low‐intensity negative affect. As predicted, neither husbands nor wives were influenced by sentiment override when rating their spouses' high‐intensity negative affects. These results suggest that marital bond serves as a perceptual filter through which wives evaluate their husbands' behavior.     

Marital Quality and Spouses' Marriage Work With Close Friends and Each Other

Through in‐home interviews with 142 married couples, we explored how husbands' and wives' marriage work with close friends and one another was linked to their perceptions of marital quality. Results showed that husbands engaged in more marriage work with their wives than with close friends, whereas wives engaged in similar levels of marriage work with their close friends and husbands. For wives, marriage work with their spouses was found to moderate the relationship between marital quality and marriage work with friends. At low levels of marriage work with their spouses, wives' marriage work with friends was negatively related to their reports of marital love and positively related to reports of ineffective arguing. In contrast, at high levels of marriage work with their husbands, no significant relationship was found between wives' marriage work with friends and marital quality for wives. Findings underscore the role of spouses' friendships and suggest that the strength of spouses' ties to one another is linked to the social context they and their close friends create.     

Language Acculturation,Acculturation‐Related Stress,and Marital Quality in Chinese American Couples

The current study examines the longitudinal indirect pathways linking language acculturation to marital quality. Three waves of data were collected from 416 Chinese American couples for 8 years (M_age.wave1 = 48 for husbands, 44 for wives). Actor–partner interdependence model analyses revealed that for both husbands and wives, lower levels of language acculturation were associated with higher levels of stress over being stereotyped as a perpetual foreigner. Individuals' foreigner stress, in turn, was directly related to greater levels of their own and their partners' marital warmth, suggesting that foreigner stress may have some positive relational effects. However, individuals' foreigner stress also was associated with increases in their own depressive symptoms, which predicted higher levels of marital hostility in the partner. Overall, these results underscore the complexity of how language acculturation and foreigner stress relate to marital quality and the importance of considering the interdependence of the marital system.     

Stress Crossover in Newlywed Marriage: A Longitudinal and Dyadic Perspective

Studies of stress and marital quality often assess stress as an intrapersonal phenomenon, examining how spouses’ stress may influence their own relationship well‐being. Yet spouses’ stress also may influence partners’ relationship evaluations, a phenomenon referred to as stress crossover. This study examined stress crossover, and conditions that may facilitate crossover, in a sample of 169 newlywed couples over 3.5 years. A significant crossover effect emerged for husbands, which was moderated by couples’ observed conflict resolution skills. For wives, a significant stress interaction emerged, such that the influence of husbands’ stress on wives’ marital satisfaction depended on wives’ own stress levels. These findings highlight the importance of a dyadic approach when examining the role of stress in marriage.     

Books received as of April 30, 1985

This research focuses on insiders’ views of marital sex and their dyadic patterning. The analyses were conducted based on seventy‐two (72) couples’ assessments of their recent sexual interactions. Non‐genital and genital activities were assessed as a function of the respondents’ and the actors’ gender, and as a function of constructs that were specific to the marital partners as individuals and as a marital dyad. Consistent differences were found between husbands’ and wives’ perceptions of discrepancies within their couple. Regardless of respondents’ gender, couples reported that wives were genitally less active than husbands and that this was in accordance with the wives’ preferences. The results are discussed with respect to the advantages of using a dyadic methodology for measuring dimensions of sex which involve interpersonal behaviors.     

Stress Hormone Changes and Marital Conflict: Spouses’ Relative Power Makes a Difference

We investigated the impact of relative marital power on 72 newlywed couples’ endocrinological responses to marital conflict. Marital power was determined by comparing spouses’ reports of dependent love for one another. Less powerful spouses displayed elevated adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) responses to a conflict discussion. Shared power appeared to have a beneficial effect on wives’ but not husbands’ ACTH responses. Spouses’ cortisol levels declined over time, except for wives who were less powerful and for husbands who shared power with their wives. Conflict behaviors did not differ as a function of this marital power index. These data suggest that relative levels of general emotional power in relationships may play an important role in spouses’ physiological responses to marital conflict.     

The Influence of In‐Laws on Change in Marital Success

This study prospectively examines the association between discord with in‐laws and the long‐term relationship success of husbands and wives who had been married for an average of almost 2 decades. We hypothesized that the quality of spouses' relationships with their parents‐in‐law would predict spouses' marital success. In addition, this study underscores the causal role of in‐laws by examining the influence of marital success on relationships with in‐laws. For wives, discord with mothers‐ and fathers‐in‐law predicted own perceptions of marital success at a later time period. Results were slightly different for husbands' discord with fathers‐in‐law. The reverse (marital success predicting less discord with in‐laws) was only true for husbands. The study also explored the influence of spouses' discord with in‐laws on partners' perceptions of marital success. These are among the first prospective, longitudinal findings demonstrating that, even in long‐term marriages, conflicts in extended family relations will erode marital stability, satisfaction, and commitment over time.     

Longitudinal Changes in Marital Relationships: The Role of Offspring’s Pubertal Development

This study charted the longitudinal trajectories of wives’ and husbands’ reports of marital love, satisfaction, and conflict and explored whether and how first‐ and second‐born offspring’s pubertal development was related to marital changes. Data were drawn from the first 7 years of a longitudinal study of family relationships. Participants included wives, husbands, and first‐ and second‐born children from 188 White, working‐ and middle‐class families. Multilevel models revealed declines over time in wives’ and husbands’ reports of marital love and satisfaction but only small changes in conflict. Offspring’s pubertal development was related to changes in marital qualities; declines in positivity and increases in negativity were most consistently linked to firstborns’ puberty. Overall, the results highlight the interrelatedness of family subsystems.     

Gender Differences in Marital Satisfaction: A Meta‐analysis

The purpose of the present meta‐analysis was to empirically test the widely held assumption that women experience lower marital satisfaction than men. A total of 226 independent samples with a combined sum of 101,110 participants were included in the meta‐analysis. Overall results indicated statistically significant yet very small gender differences in marital satisfaction between wives and husbands, with wives slightly less satisfied than husbands; moderator analyses, however, indicated that this difference was due to the inclusion of clinical samples, with wives in marital therapy 51% less likely to be satisfied with their marital relationship than their husbands. The effect size for nonclinical community‐based samples indicated no significant gender differences among couples in the general population. Additional moderator analyses indicated that there were also no gender differences when the levels of marital satisfaction of husbands and wives in the same relationship (i.e., dyadic data) were compared.     

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.     

Implications of Overwork and Overload for the Quality of Men's Family Relationships

This study examined the implications of men's long work hours and role overload for the quality of their relationships with their wives and their firstborn (M= 15 years) and secondborn adolescent offspring (M= 12.5 years) in a sample of 190 dual‐earner families. Holding constant men's occupational self‐direction and level of education, long hours were related to less time spent with the wife but were unrelated to spouses' love, perspective‐taking, or conflict; high levels of role overload consistently predicted less positive marital relationships. In contrast, the combination of long hours and high overload was consistently associated with less positive father‐adolescent relationships, a pattern that was similar for older and younger adolescents and for sons and daughters.     

Marital Conflict in Older Couples: Positivity,Personality, and Health

The authors examine the implications of health and personality characteristics for late‐life marital conflict using data from the 2010–2011 wave of the National Social Life Health and Aging Project, a nationally representative study with data on both partners in 955 marital and cohabitational dyads. Using these data, they relate characteristics of husbands to characteristics of their wives and vice versa. Wives with husbands in fair or poor physical health were more likely to report high levels of marital conflict, but the reverse was not true. Similarly, wives reported more conflict when their husbands were high on Neuroticism, high on Extraversion, and low on a new measure the authors call Positivity. The findings suggest noteworthy gender differences between men and women in the associations between individual characteristics and levels of marital conflict. The authors point to differences between husbands' and wives' marital roles as a contributor to these differences.     

Implications of work pressure and supervisor support for fathers’, mothers’ and adolescents’ relationships and well-being in dual-earner families

The present study investigates the implications of work pressure and supervisor support for individual psychosocial functioning, marital and parent–adolescent relationships. We examined the effects of work pressure and supervisor support separately for mothers and fathers and their adolescent children (M=17.33 years) in 156 white working- and middle-class, dual-earner families. Results revealed when husbands reported high work pressure and low supervisor support, both parents reported higher levels of depressive symptoms. When wives were in the high pressure/low support group, they reported lower levels of marital love, and both spouses reported less marital satisfaction. When either parent was in the high pressure/low support group, both parents reported higher levels of role overload, and families experienced more conflict and less intimacy in their relationships with their children. Their children also reported higher levels of depressive symptoms. Results associated with parent and child depressive symptoms, however, varied by parent and child sex.     

Intergenerational Support and Marital Satisfaction: Implications of Beliefs About Helping Aging Parents

Everyday support given to aging parents is a salient aspect of married life that may have implications for marital quality. Among 132 middle‐aged couples drawn from Wave 1 of the Family Exchanges Study, the authors examined the moderating effects of each spouse's normative and motivational beliefs about helping parents on associations between the frequency of everyday support that wives and husbands gave to their own parents and marital satisfaction. Husbands' more frequent provision of support was linked to wives' greater marital satisfaction when reports of personal rewards linked to helping parents were high for wives or low for husbands. Conversely, wives' more frequent provision of support was linked to husbands' lower marital satisfaction when reports of filial obligation were low for husbands or high for wives. Findings highlight the interdependence within couples and indicate that both spouses' perceptions are important in understanding linkages between intergenerational support and marital satisfaction.     

Disentangling Value Similarities and Transmissions in Established Marriages: A Cross‐Lagged Longitudinal Study

This study examined spousal value similarity and transmission across a 5‐year period on four value orientations: traditional family values, self‐determination, social criticism, and hedonism. Participants were 685 Dutch couples in established marriages. Structural equation modeling results indicated that spouses were moderately similar on all value orientations. Over time, spousal similarity remained for traditional family values, self‐determination, and social criticism and decreased for hedonism. Direct spousal transmission occurred on social criticism and hedonism with wives influencing their husbands. Multiple group analyses revealed that wives’ value transmission to husbands occurred only within couples with similar social positions (in education and religion) and with higher degrees of marital satisfaction. Findings confirm that experiences in one’s family of destination contribute to midlife value development.     

Perceived Admiration and Transition to Parenthood for Black and White Married Couples

Perceived admiration was examined in this study as a mediator of marital quality and transition to parenthood among Black American and White American couples. Positive and negative dimensions of marital quality were assessed for husbands (n = 148) and wives (n = 155) during their 1st and 3rd years of marriage in a large-scale survey. Findings revealed that transitioning Black American husbands reported lower marital tension than transitioning White American husbands. Perceived admiration mediated the link between transition to parenthood and marital well-being for wives, and between transition to parenthood and marital tension for husbands. Results suggest that perceived admiration plays a critical role in understanding the transition to parenthood, regardless of race. Insights are offered for practitioners who provide relationship or parental counseling and education to couples during the transition to parenthood.     

Love attitude and marital adjustment in the family life cycle

The present study examines husband and wife perceptions of attitude toward love and marital satisfaction through seven family life cycle stages. A significant relationship was determined between husbands’ and wives’ attitude toward love and marital satisfaction for couples in the early years of marriage with no children, and for couples with children in the preschool years. Marital satisfaction and attitude toward love seem to function more independently of one another in the other family life stages. Overall, husbands vary slightly more than wives on marital satisfaction and attitude toward love, but the pattern for both is similar in that each relationship is curvilinear.     

The Persistence of Wives’ Income Advantage

Recent reports using cross‐sectional data indicate an increase in the percentage of wives who outearn their husbands, yet we know little about the persistence of wives’ income advantage. The present analyses utilize the 1990 – 1994 waves of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 (N= 3,481) to examine wives’ long‐term earnings advantage. Although a significant minority of women outearn their husbands in 1 year, considerably fewer do so for 5 consecutive years. The presence and persistence of wives’ income advantage vary by demographic characteristics, economic and human capital measures, and over the individual and marital life course. The findings suggest caution in interpreting women’s relative economic gains as signaling absolute progress toward eliminating gender inequality within marriages.     

No Fun Anymore: Leisure and Marital Quality Across the Transition to Parenthood

This study examines changes in leisure patterns across the transition to parenthood for dual‐earner, working‐class couples, as well as the relationship between leisure and marital quality. To this end, 147 heterosexual couples were interviewed across the transition to parenthood. Findings indicate that during the transition to parenthood, husbands and wives experience an initial decline in leisure, followed by a gradual incline after the wife’s return to work. Overall, wives who reported more shared leisure prenatally also reported more marital love and less conflict 1 year later. Husbands with more independent leisure prenatally reported less love and more conflict 1 year later. Conclusions suggest leisure time is integral to well‐functioning marriages, with effects lasting throughout the first year of parenthood.     

Religious Influences on the Risk of Marital Dissolution

This study examined multiple dimensions of religious involvement and the risk of divorce among a nationwide sample of 2,979 first‐time married couples. Multivariate proportional hazards modeling was used to analyze two waves of the National Survey of Families and Households. Results indicated that although each partner's religious attendance bore a modest relationship to marital dissolution, the risk of divorce was lower if husbands had conservative theological beliefs and when both partners belonged to mainline Protestant denominations. Conversely, the risk of divorce was elevated if husbands attended services more frequently than their wives and if wives were more theologically conservative than their husbands. These patterns withstood controls for sociodemographic covariates, marital duration, and marital quality. Directions for future research are discussed.