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.     

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.     

Relationship satisfaction,attachment, and nonverbal accuracy in early marriage

This study explored the relations between nonverbal accuracy, relationship satisfaction, and adult attachment in early marriage. Thirty-three couples were assessed at three points in time across the first two years of marriage. On all three occasions, they engaged in an encoding and decoding task using the standard content paradigm (Kahn, 1970) and completed the Quality Marriage Index (Norton, 1983). At Times 2 and 3 subjects also completed a measure of adult attachment which provided scores on Comfort with closeness and Anxiety over abandonment. Nonverbal accuracy increased over time for all message types and husbands were more accurate than wives at decoding positive messages. Accuracy did not predict later relationship satisfaction, but satisfaction predicted later accuracy, mainly for. husbands. Attachment dimensions also predicted later accuracy, with Anxiety over abandonment being more related to accuracy for husbands, and Comfort with closeness being more related to accuracy for wives. There was evidence of increased communication awareness over time for encoders, particularly in terms of the accuracy with which they predicted their spouses' decoding. In addition, husbands and those high in relationship satisfaction were more likely to expect their partners to decode their communications correctly. With regard to communication awareness for decoders, the main finding was that all groups except wives in unhappy marriages were more confident on correct than incorrect messages.     

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.     

Depression, marital satisfaction, and marital and personality measures of sex roles*

The present study examined the relationship between depression, marital satisfaction, and marital and personality measures of sex roles. Subjects included 50 couples in which the woman was clinically depressed (and of which 26 were maritally distressed), and 24 nondepressed, nondistressed control couples. Results indicated that compared to nondepressed couples, husbands and wives in relationships in which the wife was depressed showed greater inequality in decision making and dissatisfaction with the distribution of decision making and household tasks; wives additionally indicated greater dissatisfaction with distribution of childrearing responsibilities. The relationship between marital roles and depression was largely mediated by the impact of marital distress in the clinic couples. In addition, depressed wives were less masculine than nondepressed wives, and women with high levels of masculinity reported less depression than women with low levels.     

Listening Behaviors of Married Couples: An Exploration of Nonverbal Presentation to a Relational Outsider

This study examined the nonverbal behaviors of spouses as they listened to their partners present an area of disagreement in their marriage to a relational outsider. Ninety-four married couples, representing a range of marital satisfaction levels, engaged in an interview with a researcher about areas of disagreement in their relationships. A rating system was used to capture the nonverbal listening behaviors of spouses from tapes of the interactions. Husbands and wives demonstrated similar composites of listening behaviors overall, but there were some differences in how the particular behaviors were enacted. Specifically, both husbands and wives enacted nonverbal listening behaviors that demonstrated negative emotion and nonverbal involvement. Results also indicated that displays of negative emotion predicted relational dissatisfaction for husbands. Displays of negative emotion did not predict relational dissatisfaction for wives. Nonverbal involvement did not predict relational satisfaction for husbands or wives in this study. These results suggest that it may be important for husbands and wives, regardless of satisfaction level, to demonstrate nonverbal involvement to both their partners and a relational outsider and that the nonverbal expression of negative emotion may be used by dissatisfied husbands as a way to let the relational outsider as well as their wives know that they disagree or are displeased with what their wives are saying.     

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.     

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.     

An investigation of unmet intimacy needs in marital relationships

In this investigation we examined partners' responses to unmet intimacy needs in hopes of better understanding how these responses may affect intimacy satisfaction and overall relationship satisfaction. Eighty-four married couples, plus four additional husbands and 12 additional wives, were recruited from the community and completed measures of relationship satisfaction, intimacy need satisfaction, and attributional and communication responses to unmet intimacy needs. Consistent with the proposed mediational model, less negative attributional and communication responses to unmet intimacy needs were found to be beneficial for overall intimacy satisfaction and relationship satisfaction. In addition, more positive communication responses contributed to greater intimacy satisfaction. Limitations and clinical implications of the current study and directions for future work are discussed.     

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 Emotional Environment of Families Experiencing Chronic Poverty in India

The emotional environment of families living in chronic poverty in India was explored. We hypothesized that the poor (when compared to the nonpoor) would report more aversive interaction and would report less family and life satisfaction. Results showed partial support for our hypotheses. Poor husbands expressed love to wives in fewer ways than the nonpoor men, and they were more likely to use physical or verbal abuse with wives and children. Poor wives showed anger more frequently to husbands and children than the nonpoor wives. However, there were no differences between the poor and the nonpoor on family and life satisfaction. Thus, income alone was not a sufficient predictor of the family's emotional environment.     

Farm Business-Owning Couples: Interrelationships among Business Tensions,Relationship Conflict Quality,and Spousal Satisfaction

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationships among business tensions, relationship conflict quality, and satisfaction with spouse for 206 farm business-owning couples. The Sustainable Family Business Model and the Family FIRO (Fundamental Interpersonal Relations Orientation) model guided the path analysis. For both husbands and wives, locus of control was negatively related to business tensions; decision involvement discrepancy was positively related to relationship conflict quality; and business tensions were negatively related to relationship conflict quality. For husbands, relationship conflict quality was positively related to satisfaction with spouse; for wives, business tensions were negatively related to satisfaction with business-owning spouse. This material is based on work supported by the Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service, US Department of Agriculture under Agreement No. 95-37401-1820. Any opinion, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the view of the US Department of Agriculture.     

Similarities and Dissimilarities in Spouses’ Narratives of Miscarriage: A Dyadic Analysis of Communicated Narrative Sense-Making and Well-Being

Drawing upon communicated narrative sense-making (CNSM) theory, we explored how husbands and wives narratively make sense of their miscarriage and links to well-being. Specifically, we analyzed how the narrative theme, sequence, and similarity related to spouses’ perceived stress and relational satisfaction. Heterosexual married couples (n = 185; N = 370) who had experienced a miscarriage responded to online questionnaires in which they told the story of their pregnancy loss and completed measures of well-being. Seven miscarriage story themes emerged – hope lost, factual, time heals, helpful support, unhelpful support, cautiously optimistic, and guilt/shame. Findings demonstrated that husbands’ themes accounted for differences in their relational satisfaction, whereas wives’ themes accounted for differences in their perceived stress. Analyses on narrative similarity revealed couples with different themes reported higher relational satisfaction than those with similar themes. Further, those couples with the same narrative sequences (i.e., contaminated, redemptive, or ambivalent) reported less perceived stress than those with different narrative sequences. These findings suggest that storying miscarriage helps both husbands and wives process loss in unique ways.     

Dual Earner Husbands and Wives: Marital Satisfaction and the Workplace Culture of Each Spouse

This article focuses on the relationship between workplace culture and marital satisfaction for dual-earner husbands and wives (N?=?156 couples). We use contagion theory as a framework, and posit that the experiences of both partners contribute to perceptions of marital satisfaction held by individual spouses. Breaking workplace culture into three components (time demands, work pressure, and workplace social support), we find evidence in the full model of both individual (spillover) and spousal (crossover) effects for the marital satisfaction of dual-earner wives, and spousal (crossover) effects for dual-earner husbands. In particular, our analyses highlight the important role played by wives?? workplace social support. Implications of the study are discussed.     

Testosterone,marital quality,and role overload

In a sample of established working‐ and middle‐class families with school‐aged children (N= 307 wives and 307 husbands), neither husbands’ nor wives’ testosterone showed a direct connection with marital quality. In contrast, the association between husbands’ testosterone and positive and negative marital quality (as evaluated by both spouses) was conditional on husbands’ role overload. When perceptions of role overload were elevated, higher testosterone levels were associated with lower levels of marital quality. When perceptions of role overload were low, higher testosterone was linked to greater marital quality. The study supports the biosocial model such that, depending on perceptions of the social context, testosterone enables positive behavior in some instances and negative behavior in others.     

Correlates of Marital Duration and Black-White Intermarriage in California

A 10% random sample of all divorce cases in California in 1977 provides the data base for this study of black-white intermarriage. We find that although there are many similarities between same-race and black-white intermarriages, marriages which involve black husbands and white wives differ in several respects from other types. Not only are they shorter in duration of marriage; they have fewer children or none at all; spouses rank relatively higher in education, the black husband higher in education than the black husband of the black wife; they involve relatively few teenage marriages partly because a relatively high percentage of the black husbands have been married previously. In addition, when black husbands are married to white wives, they are less likely than husbands in other marriages to file for divorce, leaving that initiative, wives who tend to have slightly higher education levels than their black husbands. Though there are relatively few marriages of white husbands and black wives, they tend to be very similar to same-race marriages and thus tend toward greater marital stability in terms of the above characteristics.     

Sexual satisfaction, perceived availability of alternative partners, and marital quality in newlywed African American couples

The goal for this project was to examine the manner in which husbands' and wives' sexual satisfaction was related to their perceptions of the availability of alternative partners and overall marital quality. Participants were 470 newlywed African American couples residing in the southern region of the United States. Path analysis was used to simultaneously examine actor (individuals' sexual satisfaction on their own outcomes) and partner (individuals' sexual satisfaction on their partners' outcomes) effects. Wives' and husbands' sexual satisfaction was strongly and positively associated with their own reports of marital quality, although it was not associated with their partners' reports of marital quality. For both wives and husbands, higher sexual satisfaction was associated with lowered perceptions that they would be able to find other acceptable partners should their current relationship end. Perceived availability of alternative partners was, in turn, negatively associated with reports of marital quality.     

Three transvestites under hypnosis 1

Abstract

Interviews with the wives of forcible rapists and incest offenders at Atascadero State Hospital indicated that, among other things, the wives were more highly educated than their husbands. The women appeared to gain considerable satisfaction from the offenses of their husbands, perhaps because it put them in the role of martyrs, a role that may have been originally involved in their marriages to persons “inferior” to themselves. The wives, despite obvious cues, reported being surprised at their husbands' offenses, and not one indicated that her marriage had suffered as a consequence of her husband's behavior. The study concludes that, for this sample, rape and incest by the husbands served as a particular useful lever by which wives can further build positions of moral and social dominance.     

Role Balance Among White Married Couples

We generate models predicting wives' and husbands' feelings of overall balance across roles. Drawing on fine‐grained data about marital lifestyles and time use, we find few predictors that are the same for both partners. Both report greater role balance when their level of parental attachment to children is higher and when their marital satisfaction is greater, but gendered time use gives rise to important differences. Wives report greater balance when they have more paid work hours but have fewer of these hours on weekends. Wives' balance is also greater when they feel less financial strain, have less leisure time alone with their children, more couple leisure alone with their husbands, and more social network involvement. Husbands' contribute to wives' balance when they report more relationship maintenance in the marriage and more leisure with their children at those times when wives are not present. Husbands' own role balance increases as their income rises, but it decreases as their work hours rise. Husbands' balance also rises with more nuclear family leisure, and it lessens as their leisure alone increases. Our discussion highlights the ways that gendered marital roles lead to these different correlates of balance.     

Does similarity breed marital and sexual satisfaction?

This study examined the effect of socioeconomic-cultural homogamy on the marital and sexual satisfaction of Hong Kong Chinese couples. Using a representative, territory-wide sample of 1,083 first-time married heterosexual couples, this study found that wives were generally less satisfied than their husbands with their marital and sexual relationships. Husbands were more likely to be satisfied with their marriages when they were two to four years older than their wives than when they were of similar age to their wives (i.e., within one year of each other), but they were less likely to be satisfied with their marriages when only their wives were employed than when both partners were employed. In addition, they were less likely to be satisfied with both their marital and sexual relationships when their wives were five or more years older. Wives with an older husband were more likely to be sexually satisfied than wives of the same age as their husband, but they were less likely to be satisfied with their marriages when they were better educated than their husbands. The implications of the findings are discussed.